Guest Post By Ebbtide
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. People call me a feminist whenever I express
sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." --Rebecca West
It's interesting that I actually wrote this article, including the above quote, more than a week before the whole Limbaugh/Fluke/prostitute/slut debacle. I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise when it all happened, but it still caught me somewhat offguard that:
1. In 2012, we are re-arguing
the whole topic of women’s rights and human sexuality.
2. The Right Wing has become
so puritanical, the Puritans would have told them to “lighten up already.”
Where was I? Oh, yes, Rebecca
West.
Rebecca West died in 1983, at
the age of 91, and probably went to her death believing that women had won the
major battles in fighting for their rights and equality. She’d probably be
turning over in her grave to see what is going on today. (Of course, she was
British, so her eternal rest might not be quite as disturbed as if she’d been
on the US
The Republicans are waging a war against women.
I’m only going
to touch briefly on the anti-choice noise that is going on with the plethora of
“personhood” and “heartbeat” bills and other nonsense being pushed by
Republicans around the county. Let’s first take a look at the incredible
assault currently being launched by the Right Wing on women’s equality, women’s
health, women’s rights.
Here are just a few of their
anti-women words and actions of the past year or so. Some of these bills have
been defeated, some changed to tone them down before passage—but the mindset of
the Right comes through loud and clear.
Ø November,
2010
Senate Republicans voted unanimously
against a bill that would work to ensure fair
pay for women, the Paycheck Fairness Act. The vote was 58-41.
Ø January, 2011
"No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,"
a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner
(R-Ohio) dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contained a provision that
would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest
in these cases. According to Mother Jones http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion “With this legislation, which was introduced
last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape
exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal
assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory
rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is
impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have
Medicaid pay for an abortion.”
Ah yes, that’s just what we needed on the floor
of the House, a discussion about what constitutes “forcible rape” in the eyes
of a brilliant group of old men.
Ø February, 2011
Not to be outdone by their federal brethren in
their effort to keep women down, Minnesota Republicans decided to take a look
at a more than 25 year old equal pay act. Per Legal Momentum http://legalmomentum.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/minnesota-republicans-introduce-legislation-to-repeal-pay-equity-act.html
“If there was any doubt about whether
discrimination against women in the workforce persists, Minnesota Republicans
have stepped in to clear up the debate. In a shocking attack against working
women, Minnesota Republicans have introduced legislation that would repeal the
1984 Local Government Pay Equity Act (LGPEA), which ensures that women and men
are paid the same.”
Ø February, 2011
State Rep. Bobby Franklin of Georgia
Some of the more ridiculous/insane wording in the
bill include:
“Justice
Blackmun, writing for the majority in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S.
wrote: 'when
those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and
theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in
the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the
answer [to the question of when life begins].
“The General
Assembly knows the answer to that difficult question, and that answer is life
begins at the moment of conception.”
Yes, folks—you read that right—the Georgia
General Assembly knows better than those trained in the respective disciplines
of medicine, philosophy, and theology. So who are we, mere peons, to question
their authority?
Care.2.com
http://www.care2.com/causes/georgia-rep-investigate-miscarriage.html#ixzz1mrvVuQG1
explains it in all of its misogynist glory “Franklin Franklin
Ø April 2011
Sixteen states have introduced legislation
similar to Arizona
The summer of 2011, saw those pesky lunatics
conservatives quite busy advancing their attacks on women’s rights, going after
everyone from a high school cheerleader who had the audacity to refrain from
cheering her accused rapist to teenage mothers of stillborn infants.
Think Progress covered several of these cases in
stunning detail. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/01/256823/pregnant-women-criminal-charges/
Ø May 6, 2011
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court declined to
review the case of a recent Texas
Ø Jul 1, 2011
“In Alabama
“Rennie Gibbs was 15 when she became pregnant and
lost her baby in a stillbirth. Prosecutors charged her with a “depraved heart
murder” after they discovered she had used cocaine, although there was “no
evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby’s death.” She now
faces life in prison in Mississippi
“At least 38 states have introduced fetal
homicide laws that were intended to be used against violent attacks by third
parties like abusive male partners. But in South Carolina
Once the leaves started changing colors and
falling, the Republicans got back to
important issues of national security, or as they
like to call it, protecting life—as
long as it is a life in utero and not, heaven
forbid, that of a breathing, sentient being.
Ø Oct 12, 2011
Think Progress http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/10/12/341070/house-gop-proposes-so-called-let-women-die-bill-that-lets-hospitals-deny-life-saving-care/
reported on the ironically titled Protect Life
Act, which could be more aptly described as the Let Women Die Act. “Under H.R.
358, dubbed the “Protect Life Act” and sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.),
hospitals that don’t want to provide abortions could refuse to do so, even for
a pregnant woman with a life-threatening complication that requires a doctor
terminate her pregnancy.”
Things slowed down during the holiday season
(hey, those on the Right were VERY busy dealing with the War on Christmas,
don’t you know.) But apparently their New Year’s resolutions included—Make sure
those loud-mouthed hussies who were asking for it abused women know their place.
Ø February 2012
Every Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee voted against the
reauthorization of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
It will probably come as no surprise
to anyone that the Republicans on the Senate
Judiciary
Committee are well known bastions of support and fairness for women:
Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member,
R-Iowa
Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah
Jon Kyl, R-Arizona
Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama
Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
John Cornyn, R-Texas
Michael S. Lee, R-Utah
Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma
And just last
month, things really heated up, when the Virginia
An amendment
by Del. David Englin, D-Alexandria, would have allowed medical professionals to
determine whether images can be obtained without being penetrated by equipment
used in the ultrasound.
Women would
have to give written consent to such a probe under Englin’s amendments, but not
to sonograms that are not invasive. The amendment failed on 64-34 vote, setting
the bill up for final House passage.
So doctors in
Virginia would be required to perform an unnecessary, invasive procedure
without the consent of their patient, but with a nod and a wink from that
venerable body of old Republican men, the Virginia legislature.
And, it was
A-OK with right-wing mouthpieces like Dana Loesch who said:
“uh, there
were individuals saying, “Oh what about the Virginia
Yep, old Dana was
proffering the argument that if you’ve ever had consensual sex, then from that
moment on, anyone is allowed to insert whatever into your vagina and it’s the
same thing.
When Charles
Johnson of Little Green Footballs called her on it, quoting her verbatim, she
responded by saying that wasn’t what she said and calling him a pervert.
Once that brilliant bit of legislation
passed both houses and crazy Right Wing zealot Vice-Presidential hopeful
Governor McDonnell saw that the concept of basically forcible rape by virtue of
the Virginia legislature was NOT being welcomed with open arms around his state
or across the country, he used his big man-hands to revise the bill to give
women a choice of what type of ultrasound they would prefer to be subjected to.
(Would you prefer arsenic or hemlock?) Of course, he acted completely surprised
at what was in the bill until it had been discussed for weeks, and until
protests outside his office “opened his eyes” to what was going on. Sure, Bob.
Arguing Contraception in
2012? Really? Really?
I won’t even
go into the absurd Issa investigation that took place, wherein a contingent of
old men shared their innate wisdom about women’s health. And then came Sandra
Fluke, who testified at the second go-round (where someone with a D after their
name decided that perhaps a WOMAN might be able to offer some insight into a
WOMAN’S issue.)
In brief, she
testified about uses of birth control pills for medical issues beyond
contraception, which of course, the Right Wing heard as “she’s a slut and a
prostitute who just wants to have sex with anything that walks, 24 hours a day,
and she wants to government to subsidize her wanton behavior.”
Are these
people really that stupid? I think not. I think it is just the latest salvo in
the ongoing War Against Women. But this time, the women (and sane men) fought
back, particularly after that paragon of manly virtue, Rush Limbaugh, spent
three days maligning Ms. Fluke and proving that he has no clue as to how
contraception even works—positing (his word in his non-apologetic apology) that
the more sex you have, the more pills you have to take. Rush, get a clue. Or
better yet, SHUT UP, you ignorant blowhard!
A concerted effort to call Limbaugh out on his hideous comments, saw seven
of his sponsors drop their advertising from his show within a few days. (this
is an ongoing effort, so things may have changed by now.) This appeared on
Proflowers Facebook shortly before they announced that they were suspending advertising
on Limbaugh’s show.
Of course, the
usual suspects like Hannity and O’Reilly rushed to defend Limbaugh, but
amazingly,
like Dana Loesch’s reaction to the Virginia
The
ever-lovely Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugged infamy, shared these delightful
words, “By all accounts she is banging it five times a day. She sounds more
like a prostitute to me. She must have an gyno bill to choke a horse (pun
intended). Slut was a softball.”
And the
ever-thoughtful Michelle Malkin clarified the issue with, “I’ll tell you why Rush was
wrong. Young Sandra Fluke of Georgetown Law is not a "slut." She’s a
moocher and a tool of the Nanny
State
Patricia Heaton (she played Raymond’s wife
on “Everybody Loves Raymond”) had a field day on Twitter entertaining all her
“Tweatons” with hateful comments about Fluke, before shutting down her Twitter
account (or, in RWNJ terminology, “Driven off Twitter by liberal haters.”
And, of course, Michele (one l) Bachmann
hilariously said just a week or so ago, “The Republican Party is extremely
pro-women.”
Who ARE These People?
Just to touch
briefly on these personhood bills and ballot initiatives that are popping up
all over the place. (although, even the most conservative state in the country,
Mississippi Mississippi
Alabama,
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
An excellent
site to review the language of these bills and keep up to date on their
progress is http://www.resolve.org/get-involved/personhood-bills-and-ballot-initiatives.html.
And finally, what sayeth the GOP candidates?
 |
| Graphic courtesy of our friend Azure Ghost |
Now let’s take
a look at some of the positions/comments made by the current crop of would-be
Republican Presidential candidates, shall we? Romney doesn’t have much to say
that directly relates to women’s rights, although everything he does say, he
then recants a few hours later and recalibrates his position, so there’s not
much point in any of his quotes.
Newt, with his
sordid history with women who are and are not his wife, doesn’t have much to
say directly about women’s rights, preferring to couch his anti-woman rhetoric
in a more “anything that relates to women’s health options is a direct,
blasphemous attack on the Catholic Church, of which I have, after screwing
anything that walks for the past 40 or so years, become a de-facto
spokesperson” kind of way.
But Santorum,
oh dear Rick, who is currently a FRONTRUNNER (I know, it’s hard for me to
fathom as well) has plenty to say, and Ron Paul gets in a few digs of his own.
Ø Santorum
and Gingrich would like to zero out funds for programs including Title X, the nation's only program dedicated
solely to providing family planning services and contraception to low-income
women.
Ø From
the NY Times Editorial Board before the Iowa primary: “But the message from
Iowa was crystal clear: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman Jr.,
Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry all stand ready to restrict a woman's right to
make her own childbearing decisions and deny essential health care to millions
of women. The Republican field is united in its determination to overturn Roe
v. Wade; to appoint Supreme Court justices supportive of that goal; and to end
government payments to Planned Parenthood for family planning services, cancer
screening and other vital health services provided to low-income women. The
candidates also want to reinstate the global gag rule that barred family
planning groups abroad receiving federal money from even talking about
abortion.”
Ø Santorum, elaborating on why he opposed the
revised version of the Obama contraception rule, he explained that he didn't
believe insurance companies should cover contraception at all. "This has
nothing to do with access," he said. "This is having someone pay for
it, pay for something that shouldn't even be in an insurance plan anyway
because it is not, really an insurable item. This is something that is
affordable, available. You don't need insurance for these types of relatively
small expenditures.”
Ø Santorum on contraception “One of the things I
will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the
dangers of contraception in this country.” Santorum has also said, “Many of the
Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not
okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how
things are supposed to be.”
Ø Santorum on women: “The notion that college
education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers
with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong.”…“Radical
feminists have been making the pitch that justice demands that men and women be
given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace.”
Ø Ron Paul on equal pay for women: “The idea that
the social do-gooder can legislate a system which forces industry to pay men
and women by comparable worth standards boggles the mind...The concept of equal
pay for equal work is...an impossible task.... By what right does the
government assume the power to tell an airline it must hire unattractive women
if it does not want to?”
Santorum went
even further down the rabbit-hole a week or so ago, coming out against
pre-natal testing, saying it leads to abortion. (In Santorum’s mind, everything
a woman does, other than submit to marital sex for purposes of procreation leads
either to abortion or a total decline of civilization as we know it—or more to
the point, civilization as Pope Ricky would decree.)
To recap—in
the words of that bald, lollipop sucking he-man (NO, not Paul, the Sweet Babeu),
Telly Savalas:
“Who loves ya,
baby?”
You can bet
your bottom dollar, it isn’t the Republicans. So what say we spread the word to
every woman (and every man who truly cares about women) we know?
