Saturday, January 12, 2008

A Big Ms.- take

























Today (1/11/08) on Spree’s Wake Up America HCDL posted an astonishing little piece about how the famous -- perhaps now infamous -- Ms. women’s magazine refused to run the above ad promoting Israeli women in positions of power. What possible motive, HCDL asks, could they have for refusing to run an advertisement which clearly demonstrates the success of professional women in Israel?
Read on:

From The Volokh Conspiracy:

The message, I take it, is pretty clear — "Feminists should like the way women are treated in Israeli life," coupled with the pretty strong implication of "... and look how favorably it compares on this score to Israel's enemies."
Needless to say, this decision is causing quite a bit of stir, NEGATIVE stir, probably more than RUNNING the ad would have caused.

Yet this is what the American Jewish Congress reports happened when the ad was submitted to Ms. magazine:

When Director of AJCongress’ Commission for Women’s Empowerment Harriet Kurlander tried to place the ad, she was told that publishing the ad “will set off a firestorm” and that “there are very strong opinions” on the subject -− the subject presumably being whether or not one can say anything positive about Israel. Ms. Magazine publisher Eleanor Smeal failed to respond to a signed-for certified letter with a copy of the ad as well as numerous calls by Mr. Gordon over a period of weeks.

A Ms. Magazine representative, Susie Gilligan, whom the Ms. Magazine masthead lists under the publisher’s office, told Ms. Kurlander that the magazine “would love to have an ad from you on women’s empowerment, or reproductive freedom, but not on this.” Ms. Gilligan failed to elaborate what “this” is....
To read the rest of this startling article click here:

http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/01/ms-magazine-doesnt-want-you-to-see-this.html

Crossposted to Chron Watch Forum - January 12, 2008
http://www.chronwatch-america.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=55e8c32a6413c95dd5ce656833293189

Thank you to Planck's Constant for the cross posting
http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2008/01/for_the_love_of_jihad.html
Others blogging on this:
Power Line
Michelle Malkin

Here is Radarsite's Letter to MS.:

Dear Ms. Kort -- Being a 70 year old male, I have not had occasion to read Ms. lately, although I have certainly heard of it. Today, however, I heard about Ms. in a somewhat different and quite disturbing context. I read several reports in well-known and respected conservative blogs about your refusal to run the Israeli ad in question. Your excuses for refusing to publish this pro-Israeli women's ad come off at best as disingenuous, at worst as downright deceptive.
Never before in recent history have women's rights been so blatantly and brutally suppressed and trampled on as they are being right this moment in the Arab/Muslim cultures of the Middle East. The only exception to this pervasive onslaught against women's equality is the tiny brave state of Israel. If ever women's advocates, such as Ms. and other such publications and organizations, who purport to be fighting for the rights of women, were needed in this great civilizational battle the time is now.
But where are you? Where are those powerful voices of protest that were so vocal and pervasive all during the sixties and seventies? Where are all those multitudinous angry demonstrations and those media-savvy bra-burnings now? Where are you now that we, the world, need you most?
The battle rages on and you are AWOL. And your silence is deafening. Now more than ever, when American women need to speak up on behalf of their downtrodden Muslim sisters around the world -- and even here in the United States -- not only do you choose to remain silent on the sidelines, you actually race to support the cause of our enemies. This kind of self-centered pettiness is totally incomprehensible to me -- and to many other rational and disgusted citizens across this country.
Is your political hatred of Bush and his foreign policies so great, so blinding, that it even causes you to turn against those very women for whom you claim to be speaking? How can you justify this cowardly betrayal of your constituents and your country?
If there is any hope at all of bringing about some sea change in that brutal male-dominant culture of the Middle East, it lies with Israel, and with your Muslim sisters and in their ability to stand up and fight against this wicked Islamic oppression. But they need your help. They need the help and support of women's orgs like yours. Yet, for the sake of making some misguided liberal political statements -- or perhaps expressing some not-so-subtle anti-semitism -- you have dishonored your mission and given aid and comfort to our enemies.
Have you no shame?
I intend to publish this email in the form of an article which I will then disseminate to as many websites as possible. If you reply with something other than your previous meaningless obfuscations, I will be happy to publish your response as well.
Sincerely,

Roger W. Gardner

Radarsite

http://radarsite.blogspot.com/

10 comments:

  1. Those rotten b******s.
    Sadly I am not shocked the least little bit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Velvet Hammer for your comment.
    It does not escape me, however, what a significant proportion of my respected fellow warriors in this blogosphere are women -- who, unlike those knee-jerk liberal twits at Ms., are well-informed, strong-minded and courageous, and certainly not afraid to speak out against this worldwide Muslim oppression of their female population.

    I would be afraid to try to list them all for fear of leaving someone out, but you would most certainly be on that list -- and I'm sure you know most of the others I'm referring to.

    Intelligent and brave women -- just one more thing we share with our noble little ally, Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Earlier I meant to say how brilliant I think your e-mail is. You write very well. I think you got your point across and then some. Good on you! Bravo!
    They should be ashamed of themselves.
    Leftist twits!

    Thank you so very much for placing my image on your sidebar. :) I have added you to my blogroll. If you have an image that would either represent you and/or your blog let me know. I will place it on my sidebar. As I am most grateful for your support.
    Take care Roger and have a great weekend!
    - VH

    ReplyDelete
  4. Roger, you are an excellent writer. I appreciate your letter and article. Many of us female bloggers, have been asking the same questions about the women's libbers. Where are they? Why will they not speak out for the Muslim women around the world AND here in the United States. We had honor killings this month in Dallas Texas of all places. Where was the outrage?

    I look forward to reading their response, but don't be surprised if it is limp and weak, watered down to the point it has no taste, no value, ... useless.

    It is truly wonderful to have a man write a letter like yours. Thank you so much and thank you for sharing this.

    Debbie Hamilton
    Right Truth

    ReplyDelete
  5. MS magazine's executive editor, Kat Spillar, offered a different reason. 2 of the women photographed belong to the same political party, the advertisement showed favoritism. She added that an upcoming issue would feature a two-page profile of FM Tzipi.
    From today's NY Sun.

    http://www.nysun.com/article/69338?page_no=1


    This is exactly why there will be a revolution in feminism in the next 7 - 10 years. Naomi Wolfe's latest book is another.

    Thank you for sharing this Roger - you are the new millwnium's wordsmith.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you GSG for your nice words. (Check out the new addition to my sidebar).

    I certainly hope there will be a "revolution in feminism", and if there is, I'm certain that you'll be one of the leaders.

    As for Ms. Spillar's "reason", this is exactly the kind of moral acrobatics that I was referring to. I doubt if many -- in fact, if any -- American reader's would have seen that ad as a political statement supporting one Israeli party over another. I am reasonably certain that most reader's would have viewed this ad precisely as it was intended: to demonstrate the important role women play in Israel.

    For whatever reasons, the editors at Ms. just did not want to run an ad promoting something positive about the state of Israel, even if that positive statement was honoring their successful women.

    One can only guess at their reasoning behind this stupid decision; but I for one find Ms. Spillar's stated excuse lame and implausible.

    If they do indeed respond to my email I will, as promised, post their response as an update to this article.

    Thanks again for jumping in GSG.
    I love your site.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great look to your blog Roger. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Superb letter, I posted and linked it from my article For the Love of Jihad

    ReplyDelete
  9. No response from Ms. to date.
    Here is a copy of the email I sent them today:

    Dear Ms. Kort --
    You have chosen to ignore me, but I have kept my word.
    Roger G.
    http://radarsite.blogspot.com/

    http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2008/01/for_the_love_of_jihad.html

    http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/01/ms-magazine-doesnt-want-you-to-see-this.html

    http://faultlineusa.blogspot.com/2008/01/crossposted-from-radarsite-today-11108.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks again for all of your great comments. For anyone interested in learning more about the political climate at Ms. I strongly recommend Phyllis Chesler's insightful and authoritative article at Pajamas Media:
    http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/2008/01/10/ms_magazine_blocks_ad_on_israe.php

    ReplyDelete