Images of Women: How Do We Continue to Tolerate?

In this morning’s paper, there is a syndicated cartoon of the Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor on a rope suspended, a caricature of Obama with a bat outstretched to the GOP saying ”Who Wants To Be First?” The T.V. cameras drawn in the cartoon are poised to capture the spectator sport of misogyny. The caption on the cartoon reads “Fiesta Time at the Confirmation Hearing.” There is an Adrienne Rich poem in which she talks about the billboard-like images of women in the media, and she writes, “These images are so powerful and pure, we fail to ask, are they true for us?”
Anytime a woman is chosen for a position most often filled by men it seems that all of the images expose for me once again the underlying inability of us as a society to see woman as fully human, fully capable. After the last election, GSUSA Research Institute did focus groups with girls and boys around leadership and found that both groups, girls at a higher rate, believe it is harder for a woman to attain a leadership position than it is a man.
But what is even more disconcerting, more painful to see, with all of the violence against women in our society, is the image of the captive Sotomayor, about to be hit with a bat. I wonder if girls, little girls, will have the extra sense they will need to see the picture differently, to call out what is wrong, what is hateful. Images of a woman on a rope and men taking turns hitting her with a bat are too real, too every day to be played as a cartoon.
When did we, as a society, lose our ability to disagree honestly based on real merits of argument without resorting to out and out dehumanizing women? When will the collective civility of men and women say “enough!” When will fathers and brothers, husbands, grandfathers and uncles say “Stop. These images are insulting to me and my daughter, sister, wife, granddaughter and niece.” When?