The Seattle Cit Council recently voted down a land-use deal that would have allowed for the building of a brand new basketball arena. This essentially bars Seattle from reforming a brand new basketball team, which has made more than a few sports fans angry. As it turns out, the voting came down along gender lines, and considering the fact that the City Council is made up of a majority of women, the response to the vote has been incredibly, well, misogynistic. The backlash that the five female council members had to face has been described by the New York Times as “ugly and swift.”
Many of the tweets and messages asked the women to “end their own lives,” talked about the violent things these women “deserved,” and more. According to the Seattle Times, one e-mail read, “As women, I understand that you spend a lot of your time trying to please others (mostly on your knees) but I can only hope that you each find ways to quickly and painfully end yourselves.” This e-mail comes from Jason Feldman, a lawyer who is currently serving a two-and-a-half year suspension from the bar association stemming from a separate case alleging he had sexual relations with a client. Feldman followed up his comments separately to a reporter for The Stranger, saying, “Make sure that you understand the level of scrutiny that is afforded political speech under the First Amendment.”
I’m sorry, but telling your local government officials to “quickly and painfully end” themselves isn’t political speech. Neither is making gender-based sexually offensive comments. And this guy was actually a lawyer at some point? Geez.
Seattle mayor Ed Murray tweeted about the backlash, writing, “Deeply disappointed to see some supporters of SODO street vacation lash out w/ misogynistic sexist vitriol toward members of @SeattleCouncil.” As well, Murray came out in defense of the council and their decision, denouncing the horrific comments that have continued to stream in from incredibly angry people.
Not everybody is happy about Murray’s decision to come out in defense of the women on the council, including council member Lorena González. She feels that while she appreciated the gesture, she would have liked to have been told or consulted with ahead of time about the decision to make a statement. She said, “When we are dealing with sexism, we have to understand that we need to give women opportunity to lead and to stand on their own two feet because that’s what we do every day, and while I appreciate the intentions to defend us, I would have certainly appreciated some consultation before the statements were made.” She went on to mention her concern over the city’s image, now most assuredly just a bit tarnished, saying, “This particular issue will ultimately calm down, at least for a little bit, but I think the bigger question is: ‘What does it say about us as a city?’”
(image via Shutterstock/file404)
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