Well it has been a while…

I had a lovely vacation in a magical place called Cleveland, where everything is a shade of gray, but not in the sexy way. Then I came back and had a lot to do (none of which is done, self-high-five). Clearly, I’m living like a boss. Regardless, I was reading about this whole Cosby and Phylicia Rashad thing. I know she is now claiming she was misquoted, but essentially she said,

“Forget these women. What you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it’s orchestrated. I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy. And it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture…Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby of TV. And it’s worked. All this contracts have been cancelled.”

So here’s the thing. No, that isn’t happening. Secondly, Rashad has a long history with the man, and like his immediate family is defending him because who can believe someone they know has raped more than 20 women (and counting). I honestly don’t have the most recent count. I get it; I do. You can’t possibly imagine someone you care about is capable of evil acts, well serial killers have moms. Just saying.

I give exactly zero fucks about Cosby’s legacy. You don’t get a legacy. I mean what is he known for really? Raping women, a TV show, and black respectability politics. What is the legacy we should all be running to protect here? Yeah, maybe some perspective.

Moreover, the most disturbing thing about Rashad’s statements isn’t about Cosby’s legacy, which she has a vested monetary interest in being a costar, but about the women. I can get Rashad protecting a friend and her own assets, but she has dismissed the lived experiences of survivors. That I can’t ignore. “Forget these women.” I just can’t even. What the hell lady? “Forget these women”? I’m pretty sure people have. I’m pretty sure that is why it took several decades for anyone to care. We have a lot of problems in society, but “[f]orget these women” isn’t one of them. “Forget these women” is going to be the new “what about those poor boys’ futures?” from CNN. Candy, you mean the rapists, right? Yes, their lives were possible ruined (though playing football again) while the victim should walk it off.

I put some thought into when we “[f]orget these women” for you (and none of these are mutually exclusive):

• Sanctity of life legislation (which was one of the first things our new Congress has taken up with Roe’s anniversary just a few weeks away)
• Welfare mothers
• Rape survivors
• Inmates
• Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
• Workplace pay gap/discrimination/sexual harassment
• Women in poverty (more likely to be women, most likely to be women of color to get real specific)
• Transwomen (who are victims of violence and suicide)
• Etc., etc., etc.

We do a lot of things, and forgetting the women is one of them. We have no trouble forgetting the women. So I give you CJ Craig, yelling about the murder of women. I like this clip because while it about a foreign county I think we should look at own won house. This would be considered Third Wave feminism where the West wanted to save brown women from brown men, which is very problematic. Though arguably part of the problem in this particular episode is us selling weapons to men who are going to use them against the women. But to watch it now, thinking about how we let a US soldier kill a Transwoman abroad or how we allow police in Cleveland to kill a mentally ill woman, well I’m wondering why we spent so much time trying to save other women when we have a lot at home getting screwed too. 

Happy New Year guys, everything is exactly the same.