Ms.Magazine founder and feminist icon Gloria Steinem
has sharply criticized the US media for "missing the
point" about the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in
Iraq.
Abu Ghraib, a former centre of torture used by
the regime of Saddam Hussein, came into focus this
month when pictures of American soldiers sexually
abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees there made the
front pages. "The media has been obsessing over 'responsibility' and 'firing Rummy' and so forth," said Steinem, rolling her eyes as she spoke to reporters this morning.
"Why are we focusing on a man, Rumsfeld? We should be talking about what these pictures prove: That women, in the same environment and under the same set of circumstances as a man, will act every bit as deplorably and sadisitically towards another human being as their male counterparts! You see? We really are the same! And it just shows the sexist bias of the media that no one is praising the female soldier seen in these photos degrading and mocking naked male prisoners. She's proven that women can also lose all humanity in the right situation. She's proven that where we used to love and nurture others, if you just force us into male-dominated professions enough, professions that we aren't -- let's face it -- naturally inclined towards, we too can become barbarians. This has been the goal of my
life's work."
