"I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves."--Mary Shelley When we think of war, what do we normally think of? Troops marching down the main street? Or is it the body count that would make the Bubonic plague blush? Or is the devastation and collateral damage that war brings with it? We jump to the scenes of "Gettysburg" or "Apocalypse Now" that both shock and mortify us at our very cores, while trying to the process of comprehending the images of what war actually looks like. But what does war look like when it's unspoken? When there are no tanks rolling down the street, no warning sirens going off, or buildings being reduced to rubble. What would it look like? Can we call it a war, when the state legislators start turning on their own constituents? According to Fred Wellman -High decorated army combat vet and now one of the biggest and loudest advocates for democracy, says we can, and should. Of course, he was talking about the war the GOP declared on the Trans kids and the entire LGBTQ community, and he's not wrong, because when laws start killing folks that's a state-sponsored war on the population. But that's not the invisible war I'm talking about. I'm talking about the more hidden one that nobody talks about and wants to leave in the dark--It's the actual unspoken war that Conservatives declared on women since 1974 when women finally had again complete independence through the law. Last year, Missouri witnessed one of the strictest abortion bans in the entire nation. This Trigger ban has zero tolerance for abortion which includes no exceptions for incest or rape. The only exception is "if the mother's life is endangered" and she has to be on death's door before one can be performed. And our way "too eager" former demagogue of Attorney General Eric Schmitt signed it in without clarification of what is considered a "life-threatening" condition that would qualify as legal. I mean our lawmakers even voted against providing health care for pregnant women despite the ban. And the Trigger Ban is putting women's lives at risk and eventually is going to start killing. If that doesn't scream how much they don't value women I don't know what will.
But in the midst of all political grandstanding and posturing the culture wars that are aimed directly at women at the end of the day--Even worse abuse goes on behind the closed doors of the courthouse. You probably haven't heard of Dan Purdy, a lawyer out of St.Clair County. His story didn't get much media attention, other than a dishonorable mention in the Kansas City Star back in 2020. Granted, we did have a lot going on, but it should have made bigger headlines considering that he sexually assaulted 6 of his clients that were sitting in Vernon County jail. There's even a video of the assaults taking place. There's an old saying "Don't trust backwoods southern lawyer" that is perfectly suited for Mr. Purdy's story, and highlights how little our state cares for women. So let's jump into it. The ruling from the Supreme Court on ethics came down in March, and it's appalling. With a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court with its infallible wisdom, and despite the recommendation Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, decided that only a year-long suspension was all that was needed to be placed on an 86-year-old lawyer, who sexually assaulted six of his clients on multiple occasions. The craziest part of this ruling is there was a video of the assaults! Yes, you read that right, along with testimonies from the victims only got a 1-year suspension on his license to practice law. So, let that sink for a minute. Our State Supreme Court decided to just suspend his license for a short time instead of completely revoking them and referring Mr. Purdy to the county prosecutor. And Mr. Purdy's defense was "these women were enticing him" from the start of the Ethics hearing to his appeal in front of the Mo Supreme Court. And while that should disgust all of us because it's victim blaming and shaming. The more disgusting part is that the court accepted it and gave leniency while they cried they had to protect the integrity of the "Court System and Lawyers everywhere". But if you look at county court houses like Cedar County (which was involved in all kinds of scandals with Agape-Now renamed "The Stone of Hope") that is par for the course in Missouri. Neither one of these are shining example of why we should trust or give us a piece of mind about the system. However, it does highlight the more and less talked about "Silent war" on women that the GOP has declared and how it infiltrated one of our most prestigious institutions. I mean we see this war all the time. From how men talk to women on social media to how quickly women are dismissed in our legal system. And it comes from a very puritanical culture that has been busy finding its way into the homes of millions of Americans since the 1980s. Be it through TBN, CBN (Christian networks), and early morning evangelist programs on local stations to even local radio stations. I can remember growing up with Kenneth Copeland being on before morning cartoons and Sunday morning church services on before regular programming. I also remember listening to the gospel hour with my grandpa while we would be clearing out fence rows. So, this stuff wasn't just in our churches, but in our homes being reinforced on a daily basis. And as time went on, the more extreme it got especially with groups like ISLB ( Institute for Basic Life Principles) doing outreach and pushing their materials in every evangelical church known to man. Their "biblical" material completely demeaned the role of women play in the world.
Of course, I also feel that big networks are partially to blame for this war, as they invited the culture in by creating shows like The 700 Club, and The Duggars- making it a wildly more popular idea to subjugate and control what a woman does to fight some kind of archaic stereotype that based on the Ancient Roman's social rules for women or the 1950 Nuclear family setting. Sure, we're still battling with unequal pay (women still get paid less than a dude for doing the same job), sexual harassment, or discriminated against simply being a woman, but that's the least of our concerns -when we don't have full body autonomy. That front of the war has been going on for almost 40 years, but we're hitting a point where our lawmakers are starting to legislate with their religious beliefs that are escalating the battlefront, and really pushing the idea of actual enslavement.
Remember how I brought up that our Attorney General Andrew Bailey was using a pro-slavery argument to justify his anti-abortion stance? He was talking about economics and how if a woman was allowed to have an abortion, it would crash the economy and deplete the workforce. The exact same argument was used to keep folks enslaved and oppose the 13th Amendment in the 1850s.
That should tell you everything about what these jokers think of women in general. You might be wondering how exactly they're getting away with this. That's easy enough to answer. Through Culture wars. All the anti-trans and LGBTQ nonsense that's been pushed lately, by what seems like everyone. It's all geared to desensitize folks to the oppression and the "unspoken war" of women. I say that because most women understand that trans folks aren't taking away from their femininity or their personal identity. They're simply trying to live their best lives but this culture war has completely taken over everything and has women freaked out. I mean even some liberal-leaning folks are getting in on these talking points and go so far left that they make a hard far-right turn.
Now, whether or not, they realize it - they're actually hurting women by trying to define them by their reproductive organs and stressing that's the only real value a woman has in the world. The very thing they are not understanding is that they're allowing the patriarchal side of the discussion to define them as a woman. They just perpetuate the ongoing war and abuse of all women (trans included). I mean look at how hard it is for a rape victim or domestic assault victim to be taken seriously- even now in 2023. And there are statistics to back up that claim. In fact, marital rape was legal until 1975 and wasn't codified into federal law until 1993.
These folks that go on with these talking points also don't seem to grasp that the culture they're trying to support views them as "livestock" rather than human beings. Because once the trans folks and LGBTQ are gone-They are going to come even harder at women, and will we see more violence and maltreatment of women like Mr. Purdy's victims. It won't be the poor or women of color they will come after either. It will be every woman from all walks of life. But instead of behind closed doors and or in the dark alleys. It will be in broad daylight and through legislation.
So, let's try and work on letting all women be in power over themselves, and stop letting the crazies define what a woman should be, or what rights a woman should have. When the crazies are calling for all of us to lose our right to vote, and that we can't get out of a bad relationship. It's time to start working on coming together as a collective whole and start fighting back. Before we all end up wearing funny hats, and dresses, marked with "scarlet letters" across our chests. As always, Take care and Take care of one another, Much Love, Jojo P.S. Here's the link to my friend's blog who keeps an eye on ethics in the court system. He's also trying to work on the ballot initiatives to get an abortion on the ballot with the ACLU. You can follow him on Twitter
And his blog on substack
Absolutely. I only found a few articles about it from 2020. And oddly enough the major dissents on this opinion were written by 2 men that called Purdy a public menace and wanted him disbarred. Its completely insane.
There should be more headlines about this. What hypocricy, conservatives get all foaming at the mouth over drag reading hour, but let a real predator get a slap on the wrist. Just shows you their priorities.