Michael Coren is a clueless, dickless, worthless fuck

[pecunium]

Now for how I really feel.

He was paid for writing a steaming pile of fetid swill

I lost it before he finished the second sentence, "Last week a young girl dressed up as a soldier... . He doesn't mean she was in costume. No, he is referring to Trooper Karine Blais, an honest to goodness Canadian Soldier.

Not just a run of the mill Canadian soldier, but a member of 2e Régiment blindé du Canada and attached to the Van Doos Which is to say she was in one crack regiment, and assigned to another when she was sent to the sharp end.

She was, almost certainly, no slouch. She was most certainly not playing dress up. With luck I was at least as good a soldier as she was.

So right off the bat I was appalled. Sadly, I continued.

But what on earth was she doing in such a place and in such a job?

Look at the photograph of this beautiful girl. Look at the innocence, the gentleness, the grace. All of them precious aspects to the human character. So when I say that she was "dressed up as a soldier" I mean it as a compliment.

Bullshit.

He was belittling her. He was implying she wasn't a real soldier. He was insulting her, and everyone who thinks she was a soldier.

Don't believe me...? We rightly condemn Islamic extremists in Afghanistan because they treat women so badly. Then we allow one of our own to give her life so that we can congratulate ourselves on how liberal and egalitarian we are, lie about how gender differences don't matter and then encourage our generals and politicians to obscure the truth on television about soldiers and causes.

What hypocrites we have become. Poor, poor Karine -- this is not the way it should have been.

You and your country deserved better.

Words fail me. Deserve better than what? Than allowing her to serve? He's painting a pretty twisted double standard. The Taliban treat women differently from men. Which makes them somehow inhuman. The Canadian Army doesn't treat women differently from men, which makes them somehow inhuman.

He uses the pathetic trope of being, "not-PC" to peddle this twaddle. He, unlike most people, and certainly unlike those deluded souls who think women ought to be free to do what they want, is willing to speak these home truths.

As for his respect for her as a soldier... it's a lie. Just as he lies when he says he meant it as a compliment. Because he thinks she was incapable of being a soldier, again; if you don't believe me, just see what he has to say:

Can we really imagine for a moment that if a group of Taliban tribesmen rushed a trench or an encampment this poor young woman could fight them off, could deal with the thrusts of their long knives and heavy clubs? Do we seriously think that the men in the unit would not risk their own lives to protect a pretty young girl who was inevitably being beaten to the ground by salivating killers?

Got it...? A woman can't do the job. Me, he trusts I can do it, even though she didn't weigh that much less than I do. But I am male. I have balls, ergo I can fight off the nasty people who might attack me. Trooper Blais was a woman, a creature of nurturing virtue, and therefore incapable of defending herself. She needed to be sheltered from the evils of the world.

He goes on:

Yes, yes, yes, I know it's fundamentally anti-Canadian to say this but I'd prefer to articulate the views of the silent majority than hide behind some modernist fetish that places more importance on the myth of absolute equality than the safety of a girl who should be laughing with college friends rather than fighting theocratic madmen.

The Silent Majority... well if they are in the majority, why the fuck aren't they speaking out. Maybe Mr. Coren is just making that part up. I mean maybe there are a majority of Canadians who think women are delicate little flowers who need to be protected from the hard shocks of the male realms. Well if so, the don't deserve to be catered to, not if they can't muster up the gumption to be less silent.

Me. I'd rather serve with someone like Trooper Blais. I suspect she'd have treated me as an equal, weighed me on my merits as a soldier, and taken my flaws and strengths into acount, rather than look at my sex to decide what my nature was like.

Which made her a lot better Canadian than Mr. Coren is ever likely to be. In her service Canada got more than fair value and he got better than he deserved.

Feel free to share your opinions with him michael.coren@sunmedia.ca

Comments

Done

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

was only mildly rude (saying women bear babies, for heaven's sake, that's where the saying "Tougher than c!nt" came from). Women can be way fiercer than men, especially when they are feeling threatened. What an idiot. And....

What a hateful man.

[goshawk.livejournal.com]

I'm just. Speechless. Angry, yes. Disgusted, yes. On a certain level, fighting off laughter - the overwrought over-emotional prose, the "salivating killers", the "thrusts of their long knives and heavy clubs" (nice phallic symbolism there)...I mean, really? Really?

*shakes head* Fuck him and everyone who thinks like him. They'll all be dead in a hundred years, and I'll stake my life Canadian women will still be fighting along with their brothers.

Pissant.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

this (http://forums.army.ca/forums/index.php?topic=85540.0) may take some of the taste away...

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, I know it's fundamentally anti-Canadian to say this

Yes, sir. Yes it is. Please step out of my country this instant.

In Blais' memory, may your balls shrivel and fall off, Mr Coren. And may all who share your name be spared the shame of having any link with you.

(I used to be ~merditha, in the interests of not coming entirely out of the blue.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. There's been a lot of out of the blue this week, so it wasn't all that odd.

I never got back to you about the photos. They were very good. There were some which were incredible. At some point I ought to sit down and say something more than that about them.

Thank you for sharing them with me.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

I promise to remember her name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kX_3y3u5Uo

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this.

[thera-flu.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I did say I'd expand the sexualisation half of the 'infantalise, sexualise, and therefore trivialise' argument. Should I put a 'sickmaking choice of words' warning on this?

Look at the photograph of this beautiful girl. Look at the innocence, the gentleness, the grace.

Because there is no male beauty, no male innocence, no male grace, here (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/casualties/list.html). Or it's just that Coren thinks Trooper Blais was hot, and you can't go wasting the hot.

Captain Nichola Goddard (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060503/afghanistan_goddard_feature_060517/20060517/) was, apparently, less to Coren's taste. I think she was pretty damned attractive, not that it's relevant, but she doesn't activate Coren's sick little fantasies, so she doesn't get a mention.

But this bit isn't so bad. By comparison. I mean, ok, there's spit running down his chin, but at least he's still typing with both hands at this point.

Can we really imagine for a moment that if a group of Taliban tribesmen rushed a trench or an encampment this poor young woman could fight them off, could deal with the thrusts of their long knives and heavy clubs?

Your id is hanging out, Coren, and it's ugly. Really, really ugly.

She was killed by a bomb, actually. But Coren apparently doesn't want to think about bombs. He never even mentions how she actually died, because bombs don't care if you're 6'4" tall and have muscles on your muscles. Plus, bombs don't get Coren hot, which is about the only saving grace he appears to have.

He want to think about slavering brown men and their long thrusting knives and their heavy clubs and helpless little white women girls. This is sort of where I threw up in my mouth a little.

Do we seriously think that the men in the unit would not risk their own lives to protect a pretty young girl who was inevitably being beaten to the ground by salivating killers?

The only salivating going on here is you, asshole. And I hope they'd risk their lives for anyone in their unit. Some big ugly dude or anyone. I hear that sort of thing is one of the saving graces of the military worldview.

If captured, of course, such a woman would be repeatedly raped. And tortured.

You just sort of know he's typing one-handed at this point. Plus, off the top of my head, I can't think of an instance of it happening. Rape and torture of women, soldiers and not, is on the current evidence, more sort of (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-harman31mar31,0,5399612.story) what we civilised Western types do (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jul/01/iraq.warcrimes). (http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/129646/lavena_johnson:_raped_and_murdered_on_a_military_base_in_iraq/) ()

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I do think, for all the sexualing subtext his real point is more the weakness/incompetence of women as soldiers. Because even with weapons, and training, she 1: can't defend herself, and 2: will so disorder the men (who will forget all their training in the sudden desire to save, "the woman" that they can't stop the horde of unclean monsters who want to rape the female soldier).

But yes, he didn't choose to make this claim when a female officer was killed (which, I think is also part of this. There is a class issue to females in the ranks), and the ways in which he phrases his, for want of a better term, "arguments" is disgusting on this level too.

Where are the MIB, when you need them.

[thirstygirl.livejournal.com]

I am also liking the way he completely negates Tr Blais's decision and judgement. She wasn't drafted- she chose to join up, she had the determination and willpower to get through training, to be deployed- she didn't just somehow wander onto a battlefield and get handed a set of camos by some nice officer.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Also, notice how he can't even bring himself to give her a last name, nevermind her rank?

Yeah, I just loved that bit.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

This is classic "I'm such a Gentleman" Phony Niceguy behavior. Get a couple of drinks down him, and he'll start talking about how much he reveres "ladies". The ugly flipside is that if a woman dares to behave in any way that doesn't fit his definition of "lady", he'll treat her with far less courtesy than he'd grant those "salivating brown killers", who at least have the Magic Dongle on their side.

Death, of course, redeems an uppity bitch -- as long as it can be spun as "she'd still be alive if she'd only behaved herself". I guarantee you that if Trooper Karine Blais had been standing in front of him, alive, he'd have called her a whore and worse. Y'know, counting on the fact that she couldn't pound him into the mud because it would be conduct unbecoming the military.

Oh, and why isn't HE over there protecting our little fragile flowers of femininity? I don't normally care much for the gesture of handing a man a white feather, but in this case someone really ought to.

Filthy coward.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

why isn't HE over there protecting our little fragile flowers of femininity? I don't normally care much for the gesture of handing a man a white feather, but in this case someone really ought to.

Well, he's 50. So he probably feels safe. But I'm tempted to mail him one myself, and I'm a goddamned PACIFIST.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Really? 'Oh look, they shouldn't have let her choose to be a soldier because she was purty?' That's his idea of a relevant contribution to a story that is tragic loss to Trooper Blais' family and nation?

Well, that and an unsavory glimpse into his fantasy life. How do you even connect those dots- no, wait, I do not want to know. Forget I asked.

I'd like to lock this guy in a room with my daughter who served in the USMC and my friend the Vietnam veteran nurse.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Sell tickets.

[georgiamagnolia.livejournal.com]

for some reason I have the urge to point out to this idiot that in the natural world it is the female that often does the most fierce protection detail, he has obviously never gotten between a mother grizzly and her cubs, or a mother mountain cat and her kit or even a mother skunk and her offspring, but boy howdy I would like to see him there...

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Kipling would be so obvious.

Maybe a bit of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/rtt.html)?

[mycroftw.livejournal.com]

Argh, it's in my city's rag, too. There's a reason I only read the sports section of that tabloid (and never, ever, pay for it).

When I was 21, I weighed "a little over 100 pounds" too. I certainly couldn't hold my own in a close-quarters fight. But I was 6' and male, so that's okay? Well, no. I would have washed out of Basic. Trooper Blais would most likely have been rescuing *me* - note, not trying, rescuing.

I only know secondhand, and in times of (relative, after all we were blue-bereting in Bosnia at the time) peace, the life of a soldier. My (then-)girlfriend, my friend's girlfriend, and my good (and female) schoolfriend's stories - even then they weren't all fun and games. And yes, they were all beautiful and graceful and all those other traits Mr. Coren likes. I wouldn't refer to any of them that way, discussing their professional lives, though.

"We rightly condemn Islamic extremists in Afghanistan because they treat women so badly. Then we allow one of our own..." Wait, what? Who is this "we"? You? Who are *you* to "allow" (or, one assumes, forbid) those of a half of our population that both can and choose to do a powerful, terrible, evil, wonderful, and necessary job to do it? What is this "treat women so badly" that we condemn? It wouldn't be "this is what you're 'allowed' to do, don't try to go past the boundaries", would it?

Or are you all right, Mr. Coren, with the restrictions as long as violators don't get stoned or beaten or raped or killed? As long as it's just "that's nice, dear. Now go back into the kitchen like the good girl you are"?

I notice in passing the repeated use of the given name, and the non-use of Trooper Blais', earned, title. Such a subtle way of sayiing "Don't worry your pretty head about world affairs, little Karine. Leave that to The Boys."

[soul-diaspora.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I have a relatively thick skin for at least certain kinds of sexism, but the "fragile flower" thing is guaranteed to make me froth at the mouth.

Also, your title and first line cracked me up.

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Great post and comments. I took your advice and e-mailed the author. While I acknowledged that his parody was funny and his prose purple, it was tasteless and hurtful to her family. For good measure, I also complained to the paper. I wish I'd read these comments beforehand; I missed several important points.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Well of course no woman could ever be Mr Coren's equal. He's nowhere near being the equal of any woman, anyhere. And stop paying him compliments in your title!

[benet.livejournal.com]

I mean, I've long known Michael Coren for a pompous and hateful ass, but this is really unspeakably vile.

[lorebubeck.livejournal.com]

I may be a woman, but I sure as hell know how to pull a trigger! Dumb ass!

[kodi]

"Ugly, coarse girls! Your time is now! Join the armed forces, protect our national hotness from the Taliban!"

Disgusting.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

Wow. Useless fuck indeed.

I think I may have overloaded on misogyny on the internets this week, because I have no snark, and that's seriously triggering for me this morning, when it otherwise would not be as, you know, Mr. Coren? Not remarkable. Run of the mill misogynist. The "fragile little flower" detail mixed in with the simultaneous infantilizing and sexualizing, and the clear rape fetish in his revision of how Karine Blais died, just a reminder, really, as to how much they hate us.

But for some reason this morning it kicked my ass, and I feel a little sick.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Michael Coren seems to believe that if beautiful women are kept out of the military, they'll be safe.

Warning: stored rant ahead.

Admittedly, Canada doesn't seem likely to get invaded any time soon, but wars happen where people live. Not being in the military doesn't mean you'll be safe, it just means that if you're on a battlefield, you're more likely to be unarmed, unsupplied, unorganized, and not paid for it.

[mycroftw.livejournal.com]

...unarmed, unsupplied, untrained,...

Thank you. I hadn't thought of it that way.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Been there, heard that- to my face. Yep- I had a first sergeant whose reaction to my being assaulted by my civilian next door neighbor was to infer that I was a delicate little flower who was out of her league, and who should have a strong man- preferably a husband- to protect her (no matter that I practically threw the attacker down the stairs and nearly gutted him with my boning knife). Then he gave me a 'come to Jesus' speech, and when I refused to pray with him (I was expecting him to take out a report form, not a Bible), got angry and called me a fallen woman and told me that I 'deserved' what happened to me. I almost turned his desk over on him. The commander was no help, either- he was as big a sky pilot as the shirt.

I finally got a German speaking colleague to go tell the neighbor in no uncertain terms that I would have the police over if he ever came by again.

Men like Coren are useless wastes of skin and breath.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I can't decide which is worse: that he thinks young women shouldn't be soldiers, or that he (apparently) thinks that young men don't possess innocence, gentleness, and grace. As the mother of both sons and daughters, I am always perplexed by people who think it's our patriotic duty to send our sons into the jaws of danger whether they want to go or not, but we must keep our daughters from serving their country in the way they choose. I treasure my daughters, but not one iota more than I treasure my sons. Why would anyone wish for young women, but not for young men, that they could be "laughing with college friends rather than fighting theocratic madmen"?

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

rather than fighting theocratic madmen

The irony being that, by my lights, Coren is one of those theocratic madmen Tr Blais should've been fighting. I've had to endure his columns in the Local Fishwrap, and even see him on his self-congratulatory TV "panel" show on *spit* CTS, and my conclusion is that he's more a Christian mullah than an observer of domestic or international affairs. I wish he'd just slide back into obscurity, but there's small chance of that.

-- Steve thinks that there's Talibanisation closer to home than Kandahar and the Swat Valley... but since it's Christian instead of Islamic it's slipping under the radar.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a Nice Guy(tm)!

Nuf sed about him.

Y'know, I can get behind the whole idea of "a girl who should be laughing with college friends rather than fighting theocratic madmen." I can get behind that exactly as well as I can get behind the idea of a boy who should be laughing with college friends rather than fighting theocratic madmen. That'll happen about when we run out of theocratic madmen (and others) who should be fought, which can't come soon enough for me. In the meantime, though, we'll all get on with what needs doing, and lament the loss of innocence--female and male alike--as we've done for millennia. This guy, though, seems to have the idea that Men Should Glory In War. Dulce et decorum est, indeed.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Precisely my opinion. The one bit in that guy's comments towards which I felt sympathetic was "should be laughing with college friends rather than fighting theocratic madmen" -- and I apply that not only to "a girl", but to all the people killed in (this or any other) war.

(Meanwhile, I'll reserve the right to quibble that -- despite theological trappings -- the majority of the enemy in this war are probably more motivated by political ideology (as in "We don't want foreigners messing around in our country", and that -- increasingly -- young people in the U. S. don't have "college friends", because they can't afford to attend college.)

There are a lot of things in this world that should be, or should not be, and I can't help wishing that Mr. Coren would turn his attention to the most important of them, while simply honoring Trooper Blais for serving her country.

My response

[soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com]

Sir,

I am writing to you in response to your "Caring for Karine" commentary.

"Last week a young girl dressed up as a soldier died in the increasingly futile and pointless war in Afghanistan. She was 21 years old, had been in the country for two weeks on her first tour of duty and probably weighed a little over 100 pounds.

Please know that I mean no disrespect to Karine Blais or to her family and I grieve for her and them. But what on earth was she doing in such a place and in such a job?"

With this, you show that not only do you mean disrespect to Trooper Blais, you also libel every single women who has ever worn a military uniform in service to her country.

You, sir, are the vilest type of man, one who would deny women the same honor of serving their country in the military,under the neolithic guise of "protecting" them. I, like Trooper Blais, am a soldier. I am not "dressed up" as one, I *am* one, and I am not only proud of my service, I am humbled to know that women like Karine would stand next to me to defend our countries, different though they may be.

With this moronic twaddle, you show that you have no respect for those women who do not fit into your narrow little view, who have the courage to go out and do things that might brand them as "unfeminine" or "unwomanly" and by doing so, you also show yourself for the pathetic, mewling coward that you are, hiding your disgusting views behind the guise of "not being PC."

No, sir, you are not "not PC." You are, at heart, a chauvinist and a pitiful, sorry, wretched excuse for a man and a human being.

In closing, I would like to thank whatever deity you prefer that my husband, who is also a soldier, and my family, who has served, recognizes the value, integrity and honor female soldiers display both in combat and out of it.

Sincerely,
Sgt. J. Atkinson
Combat veteran-Operation Iraqi Freedom

****EDITED way too many times for niggling little errors******

Re: My response

[waterlilly.livejournal.com]

Wild applause. We can all tell him (although I suspect we can't tell him much) what we think of him, but I think your opinion on this guy and his ilk counts more than once.