The Bitter Mind of Bernard

[seabeyond]

I imagine women reading this in 1972 exploded with fury. “Male chauvinist pig,” would’ve been the chosen epithet. Gloria Steinem would articulate a fiery response damning the master/slave dynamic, that sadomasochistic orientation which glorifies humiliation and pain and regards females as sexual objects. As a woman reading this 44 years later, I feel disturbing nausea; this bile in the mouth.

These are the ideas of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who presents himself as the bringer-of-revolution. These are thoughts of a fully matured man, a college graduate, during one of the most profoundly revolutionary eras in American society. They represent misogyny at its bleakest; they are exactly the old school, male-dominated ideology that feminists battled in 1972 and still fight today.

After belittling women and establishing his sexual dominance in print, Bernard next encourages women to escape the bonds which he describes. “Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves together,” he tells his readers.

Bernard has no inkling that in giving his blessing to our struggle, he has separated himself from us and from our struggle. Just the phrase, “trying to pull themselves together,” is a diminishing five words that drips of condescension. Women are not falling apart, as he implies. No, society is screwed up. The patriarchal system that has women on their knees – in his essay, in every room, in every city, in every state – is what women are challenging. [Synch the chorus: You missed the point. You missed the point. You really missed the point.]

Mind you, before Bernard jots down his inconsequential thoughts, women have already begun the radical shift in minds with their analyses of patriarchy in Sisterhood Is Powerful; Kate Millet has published Sexual Politics; and females are finally admitting to faked orgasms and to their love for one another.

https://gobling.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/bernard-sanders-and-the-man-woman-thing/

[cantbeserious]

1. Reliably Spreading Establishment FUD - Meme 37

eom

[seabeyond]

2. Women don't much care that you label them "establishment" when discussing white hetero mens behavior

[brer cat]

3. He wrote it; he owns it

and no amount of spin will change it.

[pandr32]

7. Exactly!

[cantbeserious]

17. Desperate Is As Desperate Does

eom

[seabeyond]

18. The sky is green, the pig flew. ?????

[brer cat]

4. He doesn't "get it"

even now. Calling himself a feminist makes the bile rise in my throat.

That is a good analysis. Thanks for posting, sea.

[seabeyond]

5. When men talk in this manner, they do not get it. We try to explain, but they do not want to get it.

Bernard continues his pseudo-intellectual scribbling. After plumbing the depths of his consciousness, he arrives at the-all-too-common shift away from the victim’s issue (sexism) and onto the oppressor.

And Men. Men are in pain too. They are thinking. Wondering. What is it they want from a woman? Are they at fault? Are they perpetuating this man-woman situation? Are they oppressors?

The sheer simplicity of this mind called Bernard is staggering. What thoughts have passed through it to produce such rhetoric? Very little, when it comes to perceiving that males are at the core of sexism. But Bernard goes on, engaging in a conversation which may or may not be imaginary.

The man is bitter.

“You lied to me,” he said. (She did)

“You said that you loved me, that you wanted me, that you needed me. Those are your words.” (They are.)

Bernard opens the door to victimhood, that self-aggrandizing, egocentric trip, and falls into its hole of absurdity.

You hated me – just as you have hated every man in your entire life…

You hated me before you ever saw me, even though I was not your father or your teacher, or your sex friend when you were 13 years old…

And they never again made love together (which they had each liked to do more than anything), or never ever saw each other one more time.

Never EvAH had sex again. Never. Ever. Lol.

Ya... No issues with Feminists here. Like we have not totally heard this forever. Even today> How many times have we argued this with men on DU.

[SunSeeker]

6. K & R

[Hiraeth]

8. 1972 called. Wants it meme back.

evolve, sea. Bernie did.

[seabeyond]

9. No. He did not. He ignored it, dismissed it, patted us on the head and told us to hush.

[Hiraeth]

12. that is a blog by one woman.

pitiful the stuff you bring to DU.

[seabeyond]

13. Lol. Yes, it is one voice. And many other voices agree. Hey... How about going to insults?

[DURHAM D]

15. Perhaps this will help.

We are one woman.

[Hiraeth]

16. we are ONE PLANET. but, never mind. I have put the OP on ignore, dropped HOF from my

subscriptions and now, You can join them.

tired of the dumb.

[seabeyond]

19. "tired of the dumb." Really? Lol.

[seabeyond]

10. Oh. And then called us "the establishment". Lol.

[Hiraeth]

11. you are.

you are so establishment you can't even buy a clue.

[seabeyond]

14. Hmmmm, Now we take it to personal?

[mercuryblues]

20. odd

that Bernie's supporters use his activism in the 60's to prove how equal rights he is, yet want women to skip over the 70's as Bernie's lost decade.

[seabeyond]

21. Instead of telling women we are not allowed the conversation, like they tell AA they are not

allowed the conversation, they ought to listen. Because it just means that we have literally thrown this man to the curb. We have dealt with this male a life time, and we do not have to deal with this man, at this time. Reality.

I do find it interesting from an academic feminist perspective.

[seabeyond]

23. Oh and btw.... Mercury, it is so good to see you on Du and in this group.

Big hugs.

[BlueMTexpat]

26. + a million! eom

[Rebkeh]

22. Bernie has 100% rating from NARAL

And more. Lots more ...

http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-womens-rights/

Don't believe the hype. Bernie is excellent on women's issues.

[seabeyond]

24. You can keep saying that, as does Sanders, and all his supporters, until you are blue in the face.

Regardless, you are ignoring the conversation we are having and that simply is not good enough.

[farleftlib]

40. I don't believe the hype! This is nonsense

It's quite badly written in addition to being patently false.

[seabeyond]

41. Nu uh.

[farleftlib]

42. wow

Good one.

Comparing Bernie to Rush Limbaugh. What a steaming pile.

[jillan]

47. Don't bother - this is a link to someone's blog. Someone on the computer wrote it.

[JustAnotherGen]

25. Watch me get in trouble for this

He comes off as a tortured egomaniac that you'd want to chew your own foot off to get away from. Sorry - I was single in my 30's and this is Angst Guy. Angst Guy is one down on the dating chain from Angry For No Reason Guy. His angst rolls over from his teenage years. One up from him is Angry for No Reason Guy. This guy you want to jump out of a car moving at 65 mph on 390 in Rochester NY at 10:30 at night.


Angst guy - you just want to shove a hot poker in and out of your ears to get the nonsense out. Chew off your foot. Tell him your Grandmother died and you have to go to her funeral this weekend (when the younger one died in 1982 and it's 2004 where you are at) and then you just ghost him because of . . .


Nonsense!

Where did he get this absolute utter nonsense from!

[BlueMTexpat]

27. Not from me ...

[BlueMTexpat]

28. ... get in trouble, I mean!

Like you, I have no idea where it all came from.

[JustAnotherGen]

29. I read it (at the link) and was like:

[BlueMTexpat]

30. My expression too!

[seabeyond]

32. THAT face. Yes. Lol. I didnt read it for a couple days, having already processed this.

AND letting it go. But, the article was so good and yes.... That face while reading it.

[JustAnotherGen]

36. You really have to go to the article

To read the full article - to go full on - Yuck!

[seabeyond]

39. Lol... Oh, I did. Hence, bringing it here. You are right. This is not a "excerpt" read.

This is a full on read to get the gist of it all. I agree.

[seabeyond]

31. Kinda how a lot of us women are seeing it, having experienced this guy. Yup. Too funny.

Thanks for the laugh

and ALWAYS wonderful to see you.

[JustAnotherGen]

43. Even more wonderful to see you!

You get me!

For example - YoungDemCA or BainsBane - you get powerhouse intellect.

From me? Welcome to the Ladies Locker room!

We all have our place in Women's World - I know mine and I own it!

[seabeyond]

44. I can hang in the locker room for sure....

And ya, I go to those two for just that. Me? Not where I excel and am good with it.

That was what was such a blast on our gathering in Colorado Springs. Watching her brain work. It was totally awesome, truly, and had us in stitches, which she had to process also. Lol.

[seabeyond]

34. You are about a decade younger than me. Sanders a couple decades older. I was at the tail end of

this bullshit. It was about the time we even came up with a word.... date raped and was allowed to see rape, as .... actual rape and not just an overly enthused good guy just wanting some sex.

Actually, Sanders being in it in his 30's is what brings him to my decade.

Throw in the.... girls give it up to the BF so you do not get cervical cancer, pretty much tells the story of that guy.

It wasn't like I was not hearing this from.... 30 yr old men, when I was still in my teens.

[DURHAM D]

35. This is what a wrote elsewhere in regard

to the article -

I am just a few years younger than BS and this article brings back all the awful memories of my 20s when I was a raging feminists and guys… and guys… and guys expected you to iron their shirts by the third date and clean their apartment by the 5th date.

I made the choice to stop dating men.

Don't know what took me so long.

After the women's movement first started I was home visiting my parents. My Dad took me aside to ask if I was a women's libber, a feminist. I answered yes. He chuckled and responded - I am so glad we finally know what to call you. He gave me a hug and reminded me that his Mother, my grandmother who died right after I was born, was a suffragist and she would be very pleased. Then he advised me not to tell my Mother because she is way too traditional.

[JustAnotherGen]

37. That so isn't like - smooth

guys expected you to iron their shirts by the third date and clean their apartment by the 5th date


What does he want a mother or a romantic partner?

Good for you for just being like - bye felicia!

[seabeyond]

38. OMG... and AHHHHhhhh. To the story about your father.

OMG... to, don't tell your mother, lol. What a switch in roles.

Ya... I would be good with being gay, I am just not, Lol.

My dad gasped and said... I didn't call you a feminist. I told him, no, you didn't. I called me a feminist and I am good with that.

Too funny.

[ismnotwasm]

45. This was typical of the time

In a lot of feminist retrospect, as well as writings of the time "Free love" never empowered women, nor was it meant too. It was a reflection of patriarchy and rigid gender roles. Sanders no different than many, and certainly not the most enlightened. I never did get why he's considered a iconic feminist, although he fairly recently self-identified as one for his campaign. He does understand the need for equal pay and paid maternity leave (which should be paid maternity AND paternity leave--like California has) He's got a great voting record. I mean, There is that. He's got a great voting record in a lot of areas.

[mercuryblues]

46. like so many from his generation

they went both ways. [pun intended] Say they are for something, yet the views they had ingrained in them as a child remain. Both views will seep through at various times.

[AuntPatsy]

48. I need to read the whole story....I'll comment on it after that but for the record, staying with

someone who obviously cheated on you multiple times and standing by that mans side puts both at a disadvantage to be taken as serious as so many are wasting time doing....

Like it or not, sometimes our choices end up always seeming to be if they are not the best, at least they are not the worse, either way someone gets harmed by the inconsistencies of human failings....

[AuntPatsy]

49. Strange but the most I could find were incerpts and opinion pieces, regardless Snopes

Ended my search for now, in my opinion he was no youthful adolescent young male with racing hormone issues, I found it demeaning and insulting, and the excuses do not fly, I hope this man has altered his way of thinking.....

I still believe both of our candidates rise way above the limited mind sets of true ignorance being displayed by the GOP but I in no way elevate either to adoration status....

[Francis Booth]

50. I think a reasonable person could read Sanders' writing and understand that he is

writing in third person narrative; that is, the man in the story is not Sanders, but a typical male, and that his relationship with women is problematic.

An author can write a narrative from the perspective of a serial killer; it does not make him or her a serial killer. The key here is understanding that the passage is from the perspective of a third person (he/she likes ice cream); the first two being the author (I like ice cream) and the reader (you like ice cream).

I think the blogger in the OP is overreaching quite a bit in her zeal to paint Sanders as a misogynist.

[elleng]

52. I tend to agree with you, but don't want to get into an argument with anyone.

He did have relationships before Jane, including children, prior marriages/partners with whom he has good relations now, as I recall.

'In 1963, Sanders and Deborah Shiling, whom he met in college, volunteered for several months on the Israeli kibbutz Sha'ar HaAmakim. They married in 1964 and bought a summer home in Vermont; they had no children and divorced in 1966.[32][242][243] Sanders's son, Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to girlfriend Susan Campbell Mott.[30] In 1988, Sanders married Jane O’Meara Driscoll (née Mary Jane O'Meara), who later became president of Burlington College, in Burlington, Vermont.[244] With her he has three stepchildren—Dave Driscoll, Carina Driscoll, and Heather Titus (née Driscoll)—whom he considers to be his own children.[32][245] He also has seven grandchildren.[246]'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

Incidentally, above is the name of the Israeli kibbutz where he volunteered. I've read somewhere on DU criticism that he hadn't named the kibbutz. I guess he has.

[seabeyond]

57. There "summer home was a shack with a dirt floor. Or that was the one when a woman had his

baby, I can't remember. I believe he had a baby, didn't marry the woman. moved to a shack in Vermont and she didn't want to live that way.... I would have to find it.

But that doesn't tell the story of him not working for two decades after graduating from university, not being a productive adult. Just the story we tell about Sanders. He wrote that stuff to get like $25 or $50 bucks to eat.

What is this.

[elleng]

59. 'After graduating from college, Sanders returned to New York City, where he initially worked

in a variety of jobs, including Head Start teacher, psychiatric aide, and carpenter.[30] In 1968, Sanders moved to Vermont because he had been "captivated by rural life." After his arrival there he worked as a carpenter, filmmaker, and writer[44] who created and sold "radical film strips" and other educational materials to schools.[45]

Sanders began his electoral political career in 1971 as a member of the Liberty Union Party, which originated in the anti-war movement and the People's Party. He ran as the Liberty Union candidate for governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976 and as a candidate for U.S. senator in 1972 and 1974.[46] In the 1974 senatorial race, Sanders finished third (5,901 votes; 4.1%), behind 33-year-old Chittenden County State's Attorney Patrick Leahy (D, VI; 70,629 votes; 49.4%) and two-term incumbent U.S. Representative Dick Mallary (R; 66,223 votes; 46.3%).[47][48]'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

[seabeyond]

60. I do not buy that one either. I know the ones that sleep on the couch, has job after

job, make a little money and quit and move on.

Not impressed with that for two decades. You can be. But not me. They are always taking from those working, like hooking up to the landlords electricity because his electricity kept being shut off.

[seabeyond]

56. I disagree with you. I think if you listen to a lot of his rambling, the obvious is not that it is

a great piece of feminist work in comparison to our feminist greats.

I think it is male porn, and I am damn tired of being male porn.

And I do not want to look at my 72 yr old might be president and to know what gets him off.

Especially if he has my voice, he says I can't speak, that he will speak for me. He had better make himself damn clear that he is on my side and I do not think he has proven that out over the last 8 months. If I wanted to waste my time, I could list them out, but it doesn't matter. We have already been told women issues are to be put aside.

[Warpy]

51. I'd hate to have someone dig up anything I wrote in the late 60s

It would all be suitable for blackmail.

He hasn't said anything this stupid in many years. I have to think some of the women in his life finally got through to him.

Digging up something he wrote 44 years ago is just about as dumb as trying to link Hillary Clinton to Mossack Fonseca when absolutely no information has come out doing so.

[elleng]

53. Ditto.

[Skittles]

54. I agree with you regarding digging up ancient history

but that was indeed f***ing nauseating

[Warpy]

55. The male "new left" consistently sounded like that

and I was always sorely tempted to educate them with a baseball bat. Many of them ended up with new left feminist women and mellowed a lot over the years and I doubt it took more than the threat of saltpeter in their soup to do it.

[seabeyond]

58. The man was an adult. He was in his 30's. It isn't a big deal. It does tell us something.

Just as saying PP is establishment, or not bothering to listen to the issue with PP being attacked this summer because he had his priorities. Of course the man is going to allow us to get abortions and equal pay. Those both also benefit men. But we have had no other conversation. He has almost exclusively male staff.

I am not impressed.