Edmonton MLA: "Men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff."

31 posts / 0 new

Tue, 2009-06-23 09:31

genstrike

Quote:

Edmonton-Calder Conservative MLA Doug Elniski apologized late Monday afternoon for controversial comments that he posted on his blog, and insisted that he is not sexist.

Elniski posted the text of a speech on June 13 that he said he gives to junior high school students at Grade 9 graduation ceremonies.

Part of the posting included advice to girls saying, "Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get s--t for something and has no idea what."

It continues, "Men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks."

'Men are attracted to smiles,' Alberta MLA advised girls on blog

He's not sexist, he just enjoys saying incredibly sexist things to 14 year olds and teaching young women to be subservient to men's desires. And thinks gender equality has something to do with sugar packets. But no, not sexist at all.

I mean, wow. And he actually thought this was appropriate to say to a class full of fourteen year olds. And then he insists that he's not sexist? It reminds me of every time I hear the phrase "I'm not racist, but..." Just once I would like to see someone own up to it and make an effort to educate themselves, instead of just denying it all the time.

Tue, 2009-06-23 09:46

ennir

What a complete idiot!

He really sums it up with the "Equal" comment, what a deep thinker. LOL

Tue, 2009-06-23 09:52

Maysie

People are really not thinking of the children when they invite him out to speak to Grade 9ers.

He's right, though. Men do expect women to smile. In fact a non-smiling woman (not the same as a scowl) is seen as angry. The issue is getting rid of that expectation, not feeding into it.

What a knob.

Tue, 2009-06-23 10:24

martin dufresne

"Remember the mouth taped, the woman gagged, "Smile, I can get a lot of money for that." The smile is not her expression, it is her silence." D. Kelly Weisberg, summarizing Andrea Dworkin's analysis of women's smiles in pornography, in "Applications of feminist legal theory to women's lives" (1996).

Tue, 2009-06-23 11:21

Michelle

Give me something to smile about, asshole, and I'll smile.

Oh, and that "something" doesn't include walking up to me on the street if you're a stranger and saying, "Smile!"

Tue, 2009-06-23 12:38

Sineed

(Bats her eyes coquettishly at Mr. Elniski.)

"Would you like another piece of pie, SWEETIE?"

Tue, 2009-06-23 12:56

Ghislaine

What a jerk. I feel bad for his wife and daughters - if he has any.

Tue, 2009-06-23 12:59

Maysie

(Not to be outdone by Sineed)

*Leans over flirtatiously, smiling*

"Would you like some 2X4 with that pie?"

Ka-POW!

Tue, 2009-06-23 13:54

remind

I am not surprised by this comment at all. What I am surprised about that there was flack for his giving it. And this suggests hope for AB.

Tue, 2009-06-23 15:08

#10

Noise

Ghislane, of course he has children...his views are the fundamentals behind family values in Alberta afterall, so I'd be quite surprised if he didn't have a wife and children that he thinks he owns.

I saw this on a news hour (er... televised opinion hour?), apparently he was at a pride event and noted 'I'm sorrounded by grinding lesbians, wait 20 and then call the cops'.

Tue, 2009-06-23 15:48

#11

martin dufresne

May I submit that Elniski's wife and children have nothing to do with the issue - let's not make the mistake of privatizing this. He is a politician and his values and decisions affect every woman and man in the province, not just "his" dependents. Indeed, I do not see him as any more sexist than the Grim Harper... just a little less crafty.

Tue, 2009-06-23 16:00

#12

ennir

Michelle wrote:

Give me something to smile about, asshole, and I'll smile.

Oh, and that "something" doesn't include walking up to me on the street if you're a stranger and saying, "Smile!"

It seems it is most often younger women who are subjected to this kind of bullying but even as a young woman I was more apt to take your approach Michelle. LOL

Tue, 2009-06-23 16:56

#13

Noise

Quote:
May I submit that Elniski's wife and children have nothing to do with the issue

You're right, but the way in which he'd treat said possesions has alot to do with the issue...the link between blatant sexism like this and the ability for that male to treat his wife as a possesion is a link I'm trying to prove is at the heart of Albertan Family Values.

Tue, 2009-06-23 22:54

#14

Wilf Day

The silver lining is, it's the first time in quite a while that I've seen Rachel Notley on the national news. She looked great:

Quote:
The "advice" shows Elniski does not believe in women's equality, NDP MLA Rachel Notley said Monday.

"I'm also very concerned that this is the kind of message that may be being given at junior high schools that this particular MLA is visiting," she said. "It's hurtful and it sets the issue of women's equality back."

"What does it say about Alberta when a government MLA is telling young girls that their understanding of equality can be found in a diet sweetener at Starbucks?" Notley asked in a news release. "Equal is a woman's right, not a Starbucks sweetener."

MLAs need to be held accountable for the comments they make in public either verbally or on the web, she added.

Notley has asked Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach to make it clear that these kinds of sentiments are not the prevailing opinion of members of his caucus.

But the prize goes to Elniski's "apology:"

Quote:
"If I were sexist, I think I would certainly know about it by now."

Tue, 2009-06-23 23:14

#15

Scott Piatkowski Scott Piatkowski's picture

Quote:
Stelmach's office also announced Tuesday it was sending out reminder notes to members on the pitfalls of blogging and other social-networking sites.

It has nothing to do with the perils of blogging or social networking. It has everything to do with being an idiot and a neandrathal. The internet just makes that more obvious.

I also loved his excuse quoted in [url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/06/22/edmonton-elniski-spee... article[/url]

Quote:
The comment regarding Equal being a package to pick up at Starbucks was paraphrased from a comedian's routine, Elniski said.

Oh, it was from a comedian's routine. Nevermind then :rollingeyesicon:

Tue, 2009-06-23 23:57

#16

West Coast Greeny

It gets better... or worse. Anyways, according to the Globe

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/another-alberta-mla-in-hot-water/article1194230/

Mr Elniski sent "a Twitter message alerting his followers to a bikini car wash "where girls look cold"

Wed, 2009-06-24 00:03

#17

G. Muffin

The guy's a pig. There's no doubt about that.

Wed, 2009-06-24 00:37

#18

Rexdale_Punjabi Rexdale_Punjabi's picture

"Men are attracted to smiles, so smile don't give me that ‘treated equal' stuff, if you want equal it comes in little packages at Starbucks."

wtf is he saying? it doesnt make sense past the men are attracted to smiles part. N even then if a women dont smile she angry? Wtf? I never heard that one b4 still that onez on yall lol

Wed, 2009-06-24 01:26

#19

genstrike

From the Globe and Mail link above:

Quote:
Mr. Elniski said he still plans to communicate by online methods such as Twitter in the future, but he may have his comments vetted, possibly by government officials, before they appear.

"This is a learning curve, and it's a pretty steep one, I got to tell you," he said.

This guy thinks not making ridiculously sexist comments is a steep learning curve. I mean, it shouldn't be that steep of a learning curve if you aren't dumb as a brick.

Move aside Anders, I think we've got a new contender for dumbest politician in Canada

Wed, 2009-06-24 01:55

#20

Rexdale_Punjabi Rexdale_Punjabi's picture

the problem aint that he aint gonna make em no more it just that. He still aint learned from it

Wed, 2009-06-24 08:58

#21

remind

And this is what we get in AB from views like the idiot MLA stated

Quote:
EDMONTON — A teenage boy who desperately tried to save a birthday girl he hardly knew says he only gave up at gunpoint, when an enraged man poked a rifle barrel against his head.

Then he watched helplessly as an abductor forced the girl into a van and drove off with her.

The girl had just turned 16, and was celebrating Friday night with friends at a house party. Later, she and a few friends got a ride in a van with a man they'd met at the party.

As the sun came up Saturday, about 10 tipsy teens wound up at Weinlos Park, near 55th Street and 38B Avenue. That's where the teenage boy met them.

While the group hung out in the park, it became increasingly evident the man was interested sexually in the birthday girl, the boy said. The man started to grab her.

"We decided to tell him that me and (the girl) were dating," the boy said.

The two teens held hands to try to convince the man. He became angry and eventually drove off, and was gone about 10 minutes.

"When he came back he was twice as hostile, and dead-on to the point of what he wanted to do," the boy said.

"He wasn't playing a little game anymore. He was like, 'Get over here right now,' really mad."

White male privilege knows no bounds in AB

Wed, 2009-06-24 09:13

#22

martin dufresne

Don't want to encourage thread drift but that story points out how reluctant the Edmonton police were to send police units and intercept the kidnapper, going as far as to smear the teenagers who called them fr having been "drunk".

(...)The cops took a long time to get the original message out," the boy said. "I was on the phone with the cop and I was telling him, 'Just send as many cop cars as you can to this street and, like, pull over any blue van that you see.' But they didn't. The guy was asking for all these stupid details that just were completely irrelevant at the time."

The boy thinks the police did a good job in the end, but he wonders if things might have turned out differently if they'd been quicker.

An Amber Alert was issued, notifying the public at around 3 p. m., roughly seven hours after the girl was abducted. She was found by police a half-hour later, four blocks from Weinlos Park.(...)

Clearly Mr. Elniski's lack of concern for women's rights is well-shared by Alberta officials, and no one is held accountable for even the most blatant denials of protection and justice.

Wed, 2009-06-24 10:03

#23

remind

"Clearly Mr. Elniski's lack of concern for women's rights is well-shared by Alberta officials, and no one is held accountable for even the most blatant denials of protection and justice."

That is the whole point to why I posted the article, in this thread, and to address Noise's point of at the heart of AB family values crowd.

All this, when taken in context to the fact that AB has the highest rates of spousal assault, one can not avoid the brutal reality that Albertan women and girls face, and will continue to face for a good long while. After all, we have a MLA who just told a bunch of 14 year olds that girls have no rights and boys have every right, and apparently some will think this is so, right down to the point of seeing a girl and deciding you can "have" her, just because you want to.

Does anyone really think those boys are going to forget that messaging and that girls are not somehow going to internalize it as being so?

Look at the mother of the abducted girl's response to the police delay of 7 hrs before issuing the amber alert, she just scapegoated the police's lack of response, by stating they did find her right after the amber alert was issued so they did good in the end. Her place in society is so ingrained that she is not outraged for her daughter that they found her 30 minutes after the amber alert was finally raised, and so had they responded immediately, they would have found her almost immediately too, well before she had been raped and brutalized for 7 hrs.

So no, contrary to the mother they did not do good, they could have found her immediately after they were contacted and she would not have been raped for hours. Moreover, that they would not take a girl being abducted seriously just because she had been drinking is disgusting, it implies several things, misogyny being one of the biggest. There needs to be a public inquiry about this, not a low balling of the police by the mother at her daughter's expense.

What I would like to see happen in this case of the MLA's misogynist batherings, is that the whole class should receive immediate counselling about why the MLA was wrong, and about human rights overall.

In fact, I think there should be public pressure to make it so, in both cases. Letting these go, is not an option, as far as I can see. Girls and women's lives and personal integrity are at stake here, both now and in the future.

Wed, 2009-06-24 10:09

#24

martin dufresne

Right on, remind! I hope you will try to get these thoughts published or aired in Alberta media!

Wed, 2009-06-24 10:33

#25

remind

Had not thought about it. Perhaps I might.

Wed, 2009-06-24 16:08

#26

West Coast Greeny

martin dufresne wrote:

Right on, remind! I hope you will try to get these thoughts published or aired in Alberta media!

Seconded.

Wed, 2009-06-24 17:00

#27

Green Grouch

Mr Elniski's site is down-- how convenient! dougelniski.com

And for more stupidity-loaded "commentary" check out his incoherent Twitter page.www.twitter.com/ElniskiMLA.com Iran has activists twittering (tweeting or whatevah) a revolution and we got Mr Elniski, right here in this beacon o human rights and relevance...

Thing is, there are plenty of great activists of all stripes in AB. This mindless, sexist, homophobic loser gives the West a bad name; and all of us pay the price for "elect a Reformatory" at any price politics. Any way ya cut it, anyone who cast a vote for this waste of space is accountable.

Wed, 2009-06-24 17:06

#28

Scott Piatkowski Scott Piatkowski's picture

His seat was NDP until the last election. Hopefully, it will be again after the next election.

Wed, 2009-06-24 17:15

#29

Refuge

genstrike wrote:

Quote:

Part of the posting included advice to girls saying, "Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get s--t for something and has no idea what."

Well I think that I know what he is getting in s--t about from all these women in his life, as does everyone with half a brain. But nice to know he is willing to openly admit his own stupidity so publicly.

Thu, 2009-06-25 04:16

#30

al-Qa'bong

Maybe it's springtime, when a politician's thoughts turn to...?

Quote:
Shas Knesset Member Nissim Zeev stirred a row at the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women Tuesday after making some controversial comments in respect to female soldiers.

During a discussion on sexual harassment in the army, MK Zeev said female troops must be instructed so they know "how to behave." Later he said that while some female soldiers would interpret certain acts as sexual harassment, others would view them as a compliment.

Shas MK: Female troops must behave

Thu, 2009-06-25 06:26

#31

Rexdale_Punjabi Rexdale_Punjabi's picture

Idk why they even need to do a study on if women are sexually harassed in the military they obv are. Any culture or group that more warlike is always more male oriented, and all that comes with it. There exceptions where it way more female but I mean any warrior or war tip is usually guys and yall know what happens. Itz how it is right now and has to be changed. Ima go as far as to say all if not almost all women in the military have faced sexual harasment at one time or another in one form or another. Esp in mixed units.

But, u cant expect the military to take a leading role in this cuz while the military has allowed for example minorities to fight way b4 de-segregation, any army would drool over more cannon fodder so that aint on point. The whole society set up like this because shit from fuccin has gone and shaped the society. Wit that like in primates for example the male dominant but there a difference between being in control or controlling and dominant or abusive. Sometimes older women will be in the lead wit a younger guy but for the most part u know. The problem bein that the whole dominant shit taken everywhere and putz everyone who aint part of the dominant group in the bacc.