I have this in common with you, Jess: “I know this intimately because I grew up in misogyny…in the church. I internalized it for years.” Fortunately, I’m better now.
My father was a Baptist minister then switched to Church of the Nazarene. Same flavor, different name. My mother’s family is in Missouri. Sedalia, to be exact. Spent many a summer in my youth running around with my cousins, trout fishing, picking tomatoes out of my aunt’s garden, attended Missouri State Fair. The beliefs of your grandfather sound very similar to one of my cousin’s and his wife. I think they live in Springfield now. Some of my family have turned full maga cult, others not so much. I refuse to have contact with the MAGAs or any of them who voted for T this time around. I have no common cause with people who are supporting the oppression of women, including the women who voted for him.
Anyway, I appreciate your insights and reading your posts.
RLT and Jess, I too was raised with religious "rules" crammed down my throat. I thought I had no right to question anything that was told me, over and over.🙈🙉🙊 My mother was Pentecostal Holiness and my father was an atheist. What saved me was my father's advice to live by the Golden Rule, but ask questions.
The people around me who have known me as a people-pleaser are now shocked that I have found my voice.A voice that was silenced for so many years. I honestly didn't think I could have an opinion of my own, and I certainly didn't think anyone would listen.
Hypocrisy is alive in this nightmare in which we're living. May we one day have pleasant dreams and awaken to the nightmare having disappeared.
The entire state is a collection of intellectually lazy proudly ignorant tools urban or rural.
I say this in complete earnest. Every high school graduate in America should be awarded a nice internal frame backpack and the equivalent quality hiking boots. Eight one-way ticket to the capital of their choice, South America, Europe, Asia or Africa. Mandated use within 18 months of receipt.
Pretty hard to go back to a Third World outhouse after you've seen an experience first world existence. We would quickly improve the quality of life in our sovereign.
Another powerful read Jess. But here’s a question: might Biden have enough time left to PUSH THROUGH THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT? Apparently the needed number of states have approved. This could at least block some of the heinous crap in Project 2025. Jess Cravens 11/21 Chop Wood Carry Water has how to’s …
I'm so glad this came up! I sent my request to Biden and hope that women all over the country have sent their requests. It depends on Biden, Congressional action is completed, enough states have ratified it. It's all over except the singing!
The ERA would be an amendment to the US Constitution, which requires votes of all states, in addition to votes in the House and Senate (and maybe other things as well). It is very difficult and tedious to amend the constitution. There's not enough time to do that before January.
“With Virginia becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA in 2020,16 the amendment has met all requirements of Article 5 to become an amendment and is now at a critical juncture in its history. However, legal challenges and partisan opposition have stalled the ERA’s adoption, so the fight continues to get it settled into the Constitution once and for all.”
What does it mean to "publish" the Equal Rights Amendment? It is very difficult and time consuming to amend the Constitution. It requires votes in the House and Senate, and affirmation by the states.
In a lifetime of disgusting lies, when Putin’s Pinocchio came out and said he was a “protector” of women, I about puked. For a serial sexual assaulter like him to say that, was the worst lie I could imagine. And, the people who voted for him can rationalize all they want, but when they voted for him, they voted in favor of sexual assault and the oppression of women in general.
The demographic that voted him is unreachable. If you haven't realized that by now you have contributed into our less than first world status. This is not about Trump and the Republicans winning. This is about the democratic party not offering legitimate candidates, policy or platform losing.the totals of the popular vote explicitly pointed out.
The Democrats received magnitude more corporate money and they're the ones awarding the war profit class for the last four years. You don't have a clue and sit down and shut up
You did not just post that blatant train load of absolute ignorance did you? I mean I can't believe you've left it on there why don't you do a little research on a topic before you just spot off? You would look one hell of a lot smarter if you just sat there and be quiet. The money contributed to Kamala was either four or five times more than Trump.
You don't have a fucking clue about any of this and should never ever be allowed anywhere near a polling booth. Like the legal limit as a child molester near a school.
She doesn’t seem to understand the difference between North and South Korea, for one thing. But that’s pretty typical of a country in which half its citizens read at a 6th-grade level.
Really? If we widened and deepened the channel in the gene pool we would be one hell of a lot better members of the electorate. I mean the only left is one caveat and we can't even fulfill it. "A well-informed and educated electorate."
Not adhering to their instructions has brought us here. A Third World shit hole populated by idiots.
Not offering the possibility of good governance has consequences. You should be talking about the Democratic Party and their platform. They're inability to escape the donor class water carrying demographic. Hold them accountable for good governance and demand best practice policy. All this clap trap gibberish about the GOP and their supporters is pointless. Absolutely a fucking waste of my oxygen. If you're gonna do that shit get off this fucking platform and go back to Twitter orsocial. Wherever the fuck Facebook just leave here. I'm not tolerating any cyber account circle jerks
Preach it, Jess! I was once married to a man who had been raised in that church but thankfully he admired my independence. But family gatherings were a bit strained. Anyway, women are not possessions to be protected. We are individual human beings who can take care of ourselves—so long as our laws reflect the democratic values we fought so hard to attain.
Spot on. Until we acknowledge that religion - the system that is allowed to control women in any iteration it determines - is the core driver of the MAGA world view this will continue as a permission structure. It is vital that women be submissive, be used, be silent, be adjuncts to men - the right kind of men. Men who control the narrative-and control women's bodies, activities, futures, and even permission to speak. As my fundmentalist pastor (also my father) verbally smacked me with one day when I was getting too mouthy*, suggesting women be allowed to serve on the church board; "No. ("Why?' I decided to retort.) "Because", he pontificated, "Women are known to talk too much and not keep confidences!"
Thankfully, it became one of the thousand little cuts that eventually led me out of my deep indoctrination, though it was a journey of decades.
(*And at that time I had my B.Ed. in Education, emphasis in history and political science from our State University. I realized this was nothing to him.)
Wow. I am always amazed and in awe of women like yourself who were strong enough to get out of that. That takes grit and guts. I'm so proud you got a good education as well. Congratulations.
Offer the possibility of legitimate quality governance with a genuine representation of the best interest concerning the people and you'll never have to worry about the demographic you speak. That should be the topic of conversation. What the Democratic Party policy proposals need changed to the entire platform is nothing but the largestsubsidy to corporate entities on the back of the proletariat in our history.
Some men are far more "stimulated" by a woman in a long dress and black stockings or knee socks than they are by women in revealing workout garb. Maybe women should be able to dress how they want and count on men to just behave like adults instead of randy teenagers?
Hegseth has an association with The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches CREC(tins). They support taking away the right to vote from women, barring non-christians from government offices and open warfare against LGBTQ community.
I think this is my favorite piece you've written. You said everything perfectly. I grew up during a time when girls weren't even allowed to wear pants to school. I can still remember taking them off in elementary school upon arrival. We were allowed to wear pants in the winter, but still had to take them off when we got to school. And I lived in MN. It gets very cold there! I think I was in 7th grade or so before pants were allowed and then, we had to wear dressy pants - no jeans. It breaks my heart that we are going backward, and I am worried about what's ahead, especially for women and girls. Thank God for voices like yours. I'm all in as a witness and loudspeaker. Keep writing.
We couldn't wear pants to school until I was a junior in high school. I think they started letting us wear pants because we were wearing our dresses & skirts so short - that they thought pants (slacks) were a more modest choice!!
Me too. When I was in jr high we would “walk the halls” talking and visiting before the bell went off for home room. In my 7th grade year we had a sit down strike and refused to go to class until admin negotiated with class presidents for girls to be allowed to wear pants, slacks not jeans - yet. It was quite the thing, looking down the hall as all the students sat down when the bell rang, the chatter turning to near silent whispers as we took this quite seriously, fearing we could get in trouble but determined to be listened to and taken seriously.
My parents attended a religious college in Dallas, Texas in the early 80’s, I got in trouble at the playground on the campus during the first week after we moved there (from Oregon!) for having a slit in my shorts. I was ten years old, and I remember thinking something was definitely off. The private Christian school I attended until we fled back to Oregon six months later required dresses for the girls as well. I remember the freedom I felt once we returned to our home state. It didn’t take long to be validated that something was most certainly ‘off’ in that whole situation. I was finally able to enjoy the freedom of just being a kid with nobody making suggestions that my innocence might be corrupted by a pair of shorts.
Today’s article was so, so excellent! I have no words for how much I appreciate you and what you have been doing. I’m 75 and remember the time before Roe when there was so much happening as we tried to support reproductive choice. I listened to stories from older women who knew others (or they themselves) who had illegal abortions: the conditions under which those were performed, the callous treatment of the women, the horrible infections and/ or loss of any future possibility of having children, the loss of life. All while wealthy women simply had to take a little vacation out of the country to have a safe abortion elsewhere. I was a member of the Iowa Abortion Rights Action League (IARAL), a branch of NARAL; we wrote letters to the editors, visited lawmakers in Des Moines, held house meetings. And here we are again—-men trying to regulate and legislate our bodies and our lives. I have a 5 year old granddaughter and I shudder to think of the kind of country we have now.
I just want you to know how encouraged I am to have you in this fight. i am now living in Omaha where my daughter and grandkids are; Knoxville is my home town and I lived in Iowa City (Democratic oasis in Iowa!) for over 40 years. Thank you a million times!
Paula — I am 81 and originally from Williamsburg—just a few miles down I-80 from Iowa City— I still have family there that are sooo Red hatters!! My mom also told the story of my dad years ago— going to Cedar Rapids for his friend’s girlfriend to get an abortion. The conditions were horrible- down a dark back ally- a nasty dirty room — an experience Dad never forgot. I also remember the valiant fight for reproductive rights by so many dedicated pro choicers. And how we celebrated the success!! Now, here we are back to ,1970+, fighting the fight again!! And I have 6 granddaughters!!!
Nick Fuentes' taunt, "Your body, my choice," means that he will intervene in your life you when it feels right and rape you when it feels right and deny you an abortion when it feels right. The privilege oozing from the smarmy, hypocritical Republicans including Kennedy Jr, Hegseth and Gaetz is a thumb in the eye of any American woman who feels self-respect and autonomy in our society. Your explanations of how the patriarchy of organized religion muzzles and subjugates women in 2024 are chilling and depressing. And these are the same folks who want a theocracy for us all. In 1980, Reagan united the monied elite, the religious right and the disenfranchised fly-over state whites. In 2025, we gotta figure out how to make an equally big (bigger) tent for all of us incensed by the theocrats, Christian nationalists, misogynists, xenophobes, etc and make it about democracy, not culture wars. Democracy as in the Constitution.
Outstanding article. Should be front and center in our government. Only when women are in charge will there be any chance of preventing these predators from abusing women.
I have this in common with you, Jess: “I know this intimately because I grew up in misogyny…in the church. I internalized it for years.” Fortunately, I’m better now.
My father was a Baptist minister then switched to Church of the Nazarene. Same flavor, different name. My mother’s family is in Missouri. Sedalia, to be exact. Spent many a summer in my youth running around with my cousins, trout fishing, picking tomatoes out of my aunt’s garden, attended Missouri State Fair. The beliefs of your grandfather sound very similar to one of my cousin’s and his wife. I think they live in Springfield now. Some of my family have turned full maga cult, others not so much. I refuse to have contact with the MAGAs or any of them who voted for T this time around. I have no common cause with people who are supporting the oppression of women, including the women who voted for him.
Anyway, I appreciate your insights and reading your posts.
Solidarity, friend
RLT and Jess, I too was raised with religious "rules" crammed down my throat. I thought I had no right to question anything that was told me, over and over.🙈🙉🙊 My mother was Pentecostal Holiness and my father was an atheist. What saved me was my father's advice to live by the Golden Rule, but ask questions.
The people around me who have known me as a people-pleaser are now shocked that I have found my voice.A voice that was silenced for so many years. I honestly didn't think I could have an opinion of my own, and I certainly didn't think anyone would listen.
Hypocrisy is alive in this nightmare in which we're living. May we one day have pleasant dreams and awaken to the nightmare having disappeared.
Thanks Jess for your insights.❤️
The entire state is a collection of intellectually lazy proudly ignorant tools urban or rural.
I say this in complete earnest. Every high school graduate in America should be awarded a nice internal frame backpack and the equivalent quality hiking boots. Eight one-way ticket to the capital of their choice, South America, Europe, Asia or Africa. Mandated use within 18 months of receipt.
Pretty hard to go back to a Third World outhouse after you've seen an experience first world existence. We would quickly improve the quality of life in our sovereign.
Another powerful read Jess. But here’s a question: might Biden have enough time left to PUSH THROUGH THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT? Apparently the needed number of states have approved. This could at least block some of the heinous crap in Project 2025. Jess Cravens 11/21 Chop Wood Carry Water has how to’s …
That part!
I'm so glad this came up! I sent my request to Biden and hope that women all over the country have sent their requests. It depends on Biden, Congressional action is completed, enough states have ratified it. It's all over except the singing!
The ERA would be an amendment to the US Constitution, which requires votes of all states, in addition to votes in the House and Senate (and maybe other things as well). It is very difficult and tedious to amend the constitution. There's not enough time to do that before January.
https://www.lwv.org/take-action/president-must-immediately-publish-equal-rights-amendment
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/what-comes-next-for-the-equal-rights-amendment/
“With Virginia becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA in 2020,16 the amendment has met all requirements of Article 5 to become an amendment and is now at a critical juncture in its history. However, legal challenges and partisan opposition have stalled the ERA’s adoption, so the fight continues to get it settled into the Constitution once and for all.”
done and shared to FB and Bluesky
done, and reposting to FB and Bluesky
Done; thank you!!
What does it mean to "publish" the Equal Rights Amendment? It is very difficult and time consuming to amend the Constitution. It requires votes in the House and Senate, and affirmation by the states.
I tried to send this, but my submission was flagged as suspicious!
In a lifetime of disgusting lies, when Putin’s Pinocchio came out and said he was a “protector” of women, I about puked. For a serial sexual assaulter like him to say that, was the worst lie I could imagine. And, the people who voted for him can rationalize all they want, but when they voted for him, they voted in favor of sexual assault and the oppression of women in general.
The demographic that voted him is unreachable. If you haven't realized that by now you have contributed into our less than first world status. This is not about Trump and the Republicans winning. This is about the democratic party not offering legitimate candidates, policy or platform losing.the totals of the popular vote explicitly pointed out.
Nope. I disagree with you heartily.
How very 'Murikkkan of you! Your opinion has no relevance or correlation to fact.
Thank you for proving Ayn Rand was right......
The Democrats received magnitude more corporate money and they're the ones awarding the war profit class for the last four years. You don't have a clue and sit down and shut up
You did not just post that blatant train load of absolute ignorance did you? I mean I can't believe you've left it on there why don't you do a little research on a topic before you just spot off? You would look one hell of a lot smarter if you just sat there and be quiet. The money contributed to Kamala was either four or five times more than Trump.
You don't have a fucking clue about any of this and should never ever be allowed anywhere near a polling booth. Like the legal limit as a child molester near a school.
She doesn’t seem to understand the difference between North and South Korea, for one thing. But that’s pretty typical of a country in which half its citizens read at a 6th-grade level.
Wow....she sure is harsh. A friend I blocked said, they aren't horrible. UM.....
Really? If we widened and deepened the channel in the gene pool we would be one hell of a lot better members of the electorate. I mean the only left is one caveat and we can't even fulfill it. "A well-informed and educated electorate."
Not adhering to their instructions has brought us here. A Third World shit hole populated by idiots.
I would ask, Are you still around you Russian Troll? 👿
Not offering the possibility of good governance has consequences. You should be talking about the Democratic Party and their platform. They're inability to escape the donor class water carrying demographic. Hold them accountable for good governance and demand best practice policy. All this clap trap gibberish about the GOP and their supporters is pointless. Absolutely a fucking waste of my oxygen. If you're gonna do that shit get off this fucking platform and go back to Twitter orsocial. Wherever the fuck Facebook just leave here. I'm not tolerating any cyber account circle jerks
Terrific read today, miss Jess, and your audio helped get your message across. Thank You and will reStack ASAP 💯👍🤗
Preach it, Jess! I was once married to a man who had been raised in that church but thankfully he admired my independence. But family gatherings were a bit strained. Anyway, women are not possessions to be protected. We are individual human beings who can take care of ourselves—so long as our laws reflect the democratic values we fought so hard to attain.
Spot on. Until we acknowledge that religion - the system that is allowed to control women in any iteration it determines - is the core driver of the MAGA world view this will continue as a permission structure. It is vital that women be submissive, be used, be silent, be adjuncts to men - the right kind of men. Men who control the narrative-and control women's bodies, activities, futures, and even permission to speak. As my fundmentalist pastor (also my father) verbally smacked me with one day when I was getting too mouthy*, suggesting women be allowed to serve on the church board; "No. ("Why?' I decided to retort.) "Because", he pontificated, "Women are known to talk too much and not keep confidences!"
Thankfully, it became one of the thousand little cuts that eventually led me out of my deep indoctrination, though it was a journey of decades.
(*And at that time I had my B.Ed. in Education, emphasis in history and political science from our State University. I realized this was nothing to him.)
Wow. I am always amazed and in awe of women like yourself who were strong enough to get out of that. That takes grit and guts. I'm so proud you got a good education as well. Congratulations.
Offer the possibility of legitimate quality governance with a genuine representation of the best interest concerning the people and you'll never have to worry about the demographic you speak. That should be the topic of conversation. What the Democratic Party policy proposals need changed to the entire platform is nothing but the largestsubsidy to corporate entities on the back of the proletariat in our history.
Wow this is so point on...thanks for saying what needs to be said.
Some men are far more "stimulated" by a woman in a long dress and black stockings or knee socks than they are by women in revealing workout garb. Maybe women should be able to dress how they want and count on men to just behave like adults instead of randy teenagers?
I’m a witness & an ally. Keep speaking & writing, truth-telling.
Thank you!
Hegseth has an association with The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches CREC(tins). They support taking away the right to vote from women, barring non-christians from government offices and open warfare against LGBTQ community.
Hegseth sounds like a monster. I wish someone would explain to me why so many women voted for a known abuser.
That's what I'd like to know: Why did something like 53% of White women vote for Trump THIS TIME.? We've had nine years to get to know him.
Hi Jess,
I think this is my favorite piece you've written. You said everything perfectly. I grew up during a time when girls weren't even allowed to wear pants to school. I can still remember taking them off in elementary school upon arrival. We were allowed to wear pants in the winter, but still had to take them off when we got to school. And I lived in MN. It gets very cold there! I think I was in 7th grade or so before pants were allowed and then, we had to wear dressy pants - no jeans. It breaks my heart that we are going backward, and I am worried about what's ahead, especially for women and girls. Thank God for voices like yours. I'm all in as a witness and loudspeaker. Keep writing.
We couldn't wear pants to school until I was a junior in high school. I think they started letting us wear pants because we were wearing our dresses & skirts so short - that they thought pants (slacks) were a more modest choice!!
Hi Cyndy,
Oh gosh, you might be right about that!
Me too. When I was in jr high we would “walk the halls” talking and visiting before the bell went off for home room. In my 7th grade year we had a sit down strike and refused to go to class until admin negotiated with class presidents for girls to be allowed to wear pants, slacks not jeans - yet. It was quite the thing, looking down the hall as all the students sat down when the bell rang, the chatter turning to near silent whispers as we took this quite seriously, fearing we could get in trouble but determined to be listened to and taken seriously.
My parents attended a religious college in Dallas, Texas in the early 80’s, I got in trouble at the playground on the campus during the first week after we moved there (from Oregon!) for having a slit in my shorts. I was ten years old, and I remember thinking something was definitely off. The private Christian school I attended until we fled back to Oregon six months later required dresses for the girls as well. I remember the freedom I felt once we returned to our home state. It didn’t take long to be validated that something was most certainly ‘off’ in that whole situation. I was finally able to enjoy the freedom of just being a kid with nobody making suggestions that my innocence might be corrupted by a pair of shorts.
I had to wear pants under dresses to be taken off at school im cold Missouri weather too.
PREACH!!!!
Today’s article was so, so excellent! I have no words for how much I appreciate you and what you have been doing. I’m 75 and remember the time before Roe when there was so much happening as we tried to support reproductive choice. I listened to stories from older women who knew others (or they themselves) who had illegal abortions: the conditions under which those were performed, the callous treatment of the women, the horrible infections and/ or loss of any future possibility of having children, the loss of life. All while wealthy women simply had to take a little vacation out of the country to have a safe abortion elsewhere. I was a member of the Iowa Abortion Rights Action League (IARAL), a branch of NARAL; we wrote letters to the editors, visited lawmakers in Des Moines, held house meetings. And here we are again—-men trying to regulate and legislate our bodies and our lives. I have a 5 year old granddaughter and I shudder to think of the kind of country we have now.
I just want you to know how encouraged I am to have you in this fight. i am now living in Omaha where my daughter and grandkids are; Knoxville is my home town and I lived in Iowa City (Democratic oasis in Iowa!) for over 40 years. Thank you a million times!
Paula Eifler
Solidarity, Paula
Thank you for the perspective, Paula. I fear that sometimes younger people have no real idea how bad it can be / has been.
Paula — I am 81 and originally from Williamsburg—just a few miles down I-80 from Iowa City— I still have family there that are sooo Red hatters!! My mom also told the story of my dad years ago— going to Cedar Rapids for his friend’s girlfriend to get an abortion. The conditions were horrible- down a dark back ally- a nasty dirty room — an experience Dad never forgot. I also remember the valiant fight for reproductive rights by so many dedicated pro choicers. And how we celebrated the success!! Now, here we are back to ,1970+, fighting the fight again!! And I have 6 granddaughters!!!
As a former southern Baptist I am here for this post!!
Me too! Former Southern Baptist, now a proud atheist!
Nick Fuentes' taunt, "Your body, my choice," means that he will intervene in your life you when it feels right and rape you when it feels right and deny you an abortion when it feels right. The privilege oozing from the smarmy, hypocritical Republicans including Kennedy Jr, Hegseth and Gaetz is a thumb in the eye of any American woman who feels self-respect and autonomy in our society. Your explanations of how the patriarchy of organized religion muzzles and subjugates women in 2024 are chilling and depressing. And these are the same folks who want a theocracy for us all. In 1980, Reagan united the monied elite, the religious right and the disenfranchised fly-over state whites. In 2025, we gotta figure out how to make an equally big (bigger) tent for all of us incensed by the theocrats, Christian nationalists, misogynists, xenophobes, etc and make it about democracy, not culture wars. Democracy as in the Constitution.
Outstanding article. Should be front and center in our government. Only when women are in charge will there be any chance of preventing these predators from abusing women.