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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 9892
[Culture]
Date Posted:
5/13/2004
10:17:02 am EDT
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Views: 7,040
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Comments: 12
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Angel And Whore
Author: Dan Kennedy Source: Boston Phoenix (RI )
Title: ANGEL AND WHORE
The inevitable comparisons have been painted with the simplistic broad strokes that are possible only when we’re discussing so-called public people about whom we actually know nothing. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued from her Iraqi captors last spring. Lynndie England, photographed humiliating Iraqi inmates at Saddam Hussein’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Both of them young, white women from West Virginia who joined the Army to escape the meager circumstances of their upbringing. One a hero, one a villain.
Newsweek calls England "the anti–Jessica Lynch." Time describes her as "a Jessica Lynch gone wrong." England’s father, Kenneth, attempted to spin the comparison to his daughter’s advantage, telling the Baltimore Sun, "Just like what happened with that Lynch girl, this is getting blown out of proportion, but in a negative way rather than a positive way." On Saturday, England ranked as the number-one "mover" on the Yahoo Buzz Index, beating out The Bachelor. On Monday, a search of Google News for stories referring to both women yielded 171 hits.
Trying to understand what’s gone wrong in Iraq by looking at these two women, though, is like peering through the wrong end of a telescope: what you wind up focusing on is very small and hard to make out. Because this is not about them. It’s about us.
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Community Thoughts: There are 12 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Angel And Whore | May 14th. at 5:56:30 pm EDT |
by Angel (united states) - wc_xemail
the news never always never tells the whole stories and just because of the type of person that she was (blonde) automatically makes her that way geez, people these days are so predictable!!!
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| My Two Cents Worth | May 14th. at 10:03:06 am EDT |
by Aramor Uggae (Lubbock, TX) - wc_xemail
1) The media has never been able to give an unbiased truth; Fox News is just as slanted as all the rest of the news services.
2) England isn't innocent. As a former member of the military I can honestly say that all Airmen, Marines, Soldiers and Sailors are taught that they can refuse to obey any unlawful orders given by superiors. And if any of the soldiers in the prison in Iraq didn't know what they were doing was illegal and immoral/unethical then they're just plain stupid.
3) Sometimes war is a necessary evil. Bush and his puppet masters did lie about the reasons for the war, but in many ways it is still justified. Saddam Hussein was a cruel megalomaniac who was a danger to his own people as much as he was to neighboring countries.
4) As a moderate I must admit that I will be voting, for John Kerry, and I agree with him; we don't need to pull out of Iraq, we just need to make sure we have the troops, supplies and a good overall plan to get things done RIGHT!
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| Wake Up And Smell The Newsprint... | May 14th. at 1:42:50 am EDT |
by Serendyn (Idaho) - wc_xemail
Time says this...Newsweek says that...beyond yesterday's weather and the ball scores, everything the media pumps out is presented not to reflect reality, but to sell "news." We would all do well to stop coming to conclusions from evidence that is, incomplete, sensationalized, and often so biased as to make meaningful judgements impossible.
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| We Can Do Nothing To Change The Past... | May 13th. at 9:18:01 pm EDT |
by Chris (Manteca, CA) - wc_xemail
but we can act now to alter the future. "Ultimately, it is others who must be held accountable — including ourselves, for not doing more to prevent this misbegotten war being fought in our name." As many petitions as I've signed, as many protest rallies as there have been, as many times as I've written my representative, congresswomen and other national level figureheads, those who are still (unreasonably so) in favor of what we're doing in Iraq laugh at those of us who oppose. They feed each other lies and bolster one anothers' confidence, dodge issues all while accusing the rest of doing exactly the same. We have a chance to make a difference and take responsibility for the ills America causes the world. We can get out there and recruit the moderates and undecideds to the cause and vote out of D.C. what was never voted in in the first place. We can watchdog our representatives' stances and actions on the issues that affect us all.
Don't forget that the United States was forged as a government of, for and above all, BY the people. Don't forget that means final responsibility lies not with the President, Congress or the Supreme Court, but with each of us. Every time we gloss over an issue and do nothing (admittedly, I am guilty of this) we give our consent through our silence. We must vote, we must be relentless in examining our government's business and actions, and we must oust those who serve only themselves. That, not blood, is the price of freedom. Treating others with dignity and respect, not preparing for war, is the way to secure peace. Ask yourself, are you up to the challenge, or are you just complaining to feel better about allowing these things to happen?
Blessings,
Chris
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| SEE! | May 13th. at 8:40:53 pm EDT |
by Shagger (north USA) - wc_xemail
I'm Sorry.
I know this is going to be sexist. I can't help it. Once upon a time, women could not serve in the military, period! We, as a people, decided that was not right. Women were equal in every way, which meant they could serve in any copacity men could. LET ME STOP HERE: If a woman does the same job as a man, she should be paid equal to that man. Here in is the problem! There is NO WAY a woman can do the same job in combat as a man. She is subject to an untold number of differences and lives in a different world as men. There are things a woman has to deal with that men just don't comprehend, especially in battle. No.1, women have periods. Fact of life. Can't deny it, Can't ever escape it. Believe it or not, we are animals, men can SMELL IT! We know when you are weak! And you are then, admit it or not. Also, how many times have you heard of men being RAPED for information. That is just another way of torture.Women have to face this. I think they have. I think women, as a whole have decided they can handle this. YEA FOR THEM!! NOW: is there any MAN out there that can honestly say he would let a woman be raped just to keep a military secret. I SAY NO!!! Let a brave soldier die for country, YES! Let a woman, NO! Sorry thats just the way it is. Maybe one day we will be equal, Today, I just don't think so.
Shagger
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| Note | May 13th. at 8:04:26 pm EDT |
by tonayallicue xanthe (midwest usa) - wc_xemail
ms. england does not have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a cute little dolly face.
call me nuts, but as a woman with blonde hair, blue/green eyes, and slightly pale skin, people automatically assume that:
1. i'm a virgin (WRONG!)
2. i'm really nice (guess what? not always)
3. i'm naive (everyone is at something, tho)
4. hmmmmm.....it seems to me that our anglo-saxonized culture has adopted the symbol of the blonde hair blue eyed individual as some kind of national identity that must be protected at all costs....and that all these idealisms are imposed on it. this same thing can be applied to shoshanna johonson, the african-american POW that no one seemed to know who she was.
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| Gender Stereotypes | May 13th. at 6:48:38 pm EDT |
by Christin (Laramie, WY) - wc_xemail
I totally agree with the post below about gender stereotypes and the deification of Lynch/demonization of England.
It's also interesting to note that we hear so much about the horrible things England did to those Iraqi people, but not as much about what her male colleagues did. We also haven't been hearing about what our male servicemen have been doing to their fellow female soldiers. Last time I checked (in February) there were 88 rapes of US servicewomen by fellow US soldiers. No one has been prosecuted or court martialed. War is sick. I've got family in the military and I worry about them endlessly.
The thing I can't get over, though, is how the parents of the people who were caught torturing the prisoners keep blaming the Army, saying they didn't give enough training and they shouldn't be sending such young people over there anyway. I understand that nobody wants to think their kid is a monster, but they could at least try to encourage personal responsibility. There is no draft (yet) , so it's not like the Army forced their kids to sign up and last time I checked, you don't really need training to tell you that, hey, maybe torturing people is a bad idea because it is mean and will get you in trouble.
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| Figureheads | May 13th. at 6:02:16 pm EDT |
by ysalla (northern California) - wc_xemail
Both these women, the "angel" and the 'whore", are being placed by the media into the role of figurehead. Token women on a sinking dream-ship. Not really representative of women in the military. It seems that we do still tend to regard prominent women as one or the other. We're so busy worrying about why a woman (why not a human being?) would do such a thing we don't notice the rankest pimpdaddy of 'em all, slithering away before soiling his coattails, made from the fur off the American Worker's Ass.
While we're busy thinking about the polarization of the media Female, you can bet that in any given prison here in the US, prison guards are underpaid, overworked, subjected to the worst brutality from society's worst-- slowly turning into the very creatures they fear the most: Heartless criminals. Man or woman-- in hell, one tends to become a demon! I just shudder to think that if this is widespread, what is happening to the prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay, without any recourse to legal process because it's a military prison.
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| Differences In Sexes. | May 13th. at 5:45:39 pm EDT |
by Breed BearWolf (Misery) - wc_xemail
The problem here is the perceived images that man and woman is different.
Wanting to still see woman as the weaker sex, we need a damsel in distress story to make us feel better. This is what happened to Lynch, she was made in the “Princess” and the Rangers who saved her as a “Knight in Came Armor”. Taking on the Dragon “Iraq”. Even when we hear she fought off the, “Dragon”, which wee know now did not happened, she did it while hurt, to make it look like she was weak.
People is used to men being hurt in war, it happens all the time and it will continue to happen. Men are expected to fight, woman are not, so when women gets hurt they are made into a martyr.
But then again. Wanting to see women and the weaker sex, we are not ready to see them being dominate, or abusive. The sight of a woman that is mean and cruel is not a sight that we are used to. Women for the most part are the one that take care of the kids and the men, it is alien to see them having sex in front of other and call it “Interrogation” . So when this happens, all of the fingers is pointed at the woman, this is what happened to England.
I would like to say that in the pen there was other people, England’s boy friend included, that was witness and participants in the acts of cruelty. And when Lynch was captured she was with a convoy that all but her and one other was killed. They was not alone in ether case.
For good or bane they was not alone. But they are made to look alone to make a better story.
I just got one other Question to ask about when Lynch was captured. What happened to the other person that was captured? Well this person was subjected to the same treatment as Lynch. As well as saved .This person was named Shoshana Johnson, and this is one of the few article that mentioned her and why was she not talked about as much as Lynch. Is it because she is of African Blood?
Just some thoughts
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| Couple Things | May 13th. at 2:32:13 pm EDT |
by Jedimage joe (Hammond, indiana) - wc_xemail
contrary to popular belief jessica lych is no angel either. the armed forces use her plight as propganda, she was not raped nor brutalized her nothing like that . actualy the iraqis accord to my info took care of her. as an american i find the war to be inverted and preverted thing. i have to ask the con xtians WHERE ARE YOUR VAULTED MORALS NOW, WHERE IS YOUR RESPECT OF LIFE. as for the england girl she is without honor she sounds like a nazi soldier yes. i was just following orders. i knowing war as i do it's an necessary evil but you have to go into it with eyes wide open alexi da. besides this so called war (police action) is the downfall of america i tell you now don't be sheep think about america is doing to world and ask this is what you all wanted. ask not what you can do for america, ask what america did to you.
911 was a ruse
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| Re | May 13th. at 2:20:37 pm EDT |
by Allison (USA) - wc_xemail
Since when is jessica Lynch a hero? She did *** all except screw up at a cruicial moment. She's no hero. Just another POW. After all, that's how they treated the Iraqui POW's, right? so what makes her more important than any other POW? Nothing. That Lynndie bitch is a perverse whore and Lynch is a media whore. So they are both whores just on 2 different sides of the prison system. And to hell with them both.
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| Great Article | May 13th. at 2:05:25 pm EDT |
by Lady Olwen Moondancer (York Region, Ontario Canada) - wc_xemail
Great article! Slowly, but surely the media is beginning to understand the stereotypes they perpetuate of women as being defined as one extreme or the other.
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