The liberal Senator herself.
Posted on 01/25/2005 12:25:41 PM PST by Dan Middleton
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Go ahead — call state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles a scurvy wench, a wanton strumpet, a shameless hussy.
She probably won’t like it, but she doesn’t want you to be prosecuted for it.
The Seattle Democrat is sponsoring a bill to repeal a 1909 state law that makes "slander of a woman" a crime.
Kohl-Welles, a women’s studies lecturer at the University of Washington, says the law is a relic of a time when men put women on a pedestal and denied them basic rights.
Kohl-Welles said the law almost surely violates the state and federal constitutions.
The statute prohibits "false or defamatory words or language which shall injure or impair" the virtuous and chaste reputation of any female older than 12. The law does say it is OK to slander a "common prostitute."
The law has not been used for decades. The state Supreme Court upheld it in 1914, affirming the conviction of Mattie T. Paysse, who had been fined $50 for slandering another woman. The offending words did not make it into the historical record.
Kohl-Welles first introduced the bill two years ago, but it never got a vote in the GOP-controlled state Senate. With Democrats controlling both chambers this year, she thinks the bill has a strong chance of passing.
Other states have dislodged similar archaic laws from their criminal codes, though some do not go easily.
In Michigan, a man who cursed after falling out of a canoe was found guilty in 1999 of violating a century-old state law against cursing in front of women and children.
An appeals court struck down the law and threw out the conviction.
I remember that and I found it incredibly disturbing. My complexion just isn't suited by prison gray.
Indeed. It is every woman's constitutional right to be slandered.
Too bad, I rather like the notion.
It really opens a window into just how demented radical feminists can be, in my opinion.
Call me crazy, but I'm not sure I disagree with everything she is saying. For once this is a feminist not wanting simply the positive side of "equal rights". If "equal rights" exist, that means taking some of the bad with the good.
Me too, I like being a feminine female and I love being married to a masculine male.
Ah yes, but are you a scurvy wench or a wanton strumpet?
-Eric
Sen. Kohl-Welles is neither a strumpet, hussy, or wench. Just your average, run-of-the-mill liberal D who is wrong about almost everything.
The liberal Senator herself.
I can't believe that this Washington law would be invoked today. If it were it would certainly be shot down as some form of gender discrimination. Repeal it or forget about it. Doesn't seem to make much difference.
That said, I hope Jeanne succeeds with this because I've called many a woman a wanton strumpet, and some were and some might not have been.
I love being a masculine man (is that redundant?), and I love being married to a feminine woman.
(Needless to say, femininity and masculinity are equally strong.)
(I particularly detested the Democrats propaganda charge of a few years ago that "men are afraid of a strong woman".
Of course, that was a spurious and stupid as the rest of their catch-phrases.
Strong women built America. My wife, my daughter, my mother--all strong women.)
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