Why am I happy about the current focus on social issues? Doesn't this kind of thing usually send me over the edge trailing a stream of curse words behind me?
I've been thinking about what happened last week with the all male testimony to the Congressional committee and the GOP's reaction to the contraception provisions in the Health Care Reform Bill and how that, combined with the Komen debacle and the rise of Rick Santorum as a serious potential Republican nominee. It's interesting how all of these things coming together have shed a bright light on something that hasn't received nearly as much scrutiny as it should have.
Republicans have been running a systematic campaign to repeal, reduce and revise reproductive rights, particularly in regard to women. Yikes! Like many of our state legislatures, that's R overload.
It's not just one thing, it's many things. We'd be wrong to ignore a trend, a death by a thousand cuts.
Geoffrey has some marvelous ideas to help protect the Y contributor. Includes Oedipal Balls and the Sack of the Future.
Averil illustrates what it feels like to be a woman in this unhinged world.
Jim H. puts President Santorum on the psychotherapist's couch.
How far will they go?
It starts with a v and ends with an a. I mean, what's the big deal anyway?
Thankfully, women are learning to fight back.
And finally, "If Rod Serling were alive today, he'd write a Twilight Zone episode in which all the Religious Right zealots wake up pregnant in a world run by fundamentalist women." - Dan, a Facebook friend of Jayne, a fabulous writer (she's got TV credits and is published!)
What has your attention? And where do you plan to put that?
Chicks, always bitching. They just wanna make doctor time sexy time, they're doing it for you.
ReplyDeleteAnswers: the usual, which that does that refer to?
Always bitching. Frankly, I like my doctor. The last time I saw him, he told me I make him nervous. I'm not sure how to take that, but I'm really glad he was peering into my vagina when he said it.
DeleteThat! You decide which one.
Wasn't peering.... good lord, that changes the entire sentiment. He was standing next to me listening to my heartbeat, NOT making sexy time.
DeleteDeath by a thousand cuts began a long time ago. And not just at the hands of Repug men ...For decades, It seems the Repug Party has deliberately fronted anti-feminist women for various appointments and elected offices. Being anti-woman and rejecting modern trends and thoughts has been within their core values just as long as they've hatred the Federal government.
ReplyDeleteAll so very true. That doesn't mean we shouldn't fight it. Maybe this is the wake up call young women need to understand how fragile their rights, our rights are.
DeleteThanks for the link-love, Lisa. Keep getting the word out to all the benighted Georgia sisters. As a guy, I can say what I want, but it's always gonna' look like that Issa hearing sausage-fest: paternalistic at best, patronizing otherwise.
ReplyDeleteIs this a new design? Looks great!
You're welcome, Jim. It worries me that people want to dismiss Santorum as an extremist, a fluke. Hell, I just heard Rev. Al Sharpton read excerpts from VA Gov. Bob McDonnell's masters' thesis. That dude has issues with sex. Santorum is extreme, but he's not alone.
DeleteI'm going to keep talking about this. I'm also going to keep working on the activities surrounding getting the money out politics. Until we fix that critical issue, very little changes and we'll keep seeing those false equivalencies that have become so popular among the Left and the Right. It's like domestic abuse - I can assume the Dem's will knock me around once in a while, but I KNOW that the Repubs are going to kill me. Those two things, while both bad, are not equally bad.
Gentlelady!
ReplyDeleteDidist thou really believe the Patriarchy was going to cede an iota of power to women! Scoff Scoff Scoff!!!
The Patriarchy brings in women a select few women to act as guardians and gatekeepers strangling women's rights and using their powers as Alpha Females to quash any threat to the Patriarchy.
Control over sex and power over Women has been the key to dominating the Western world for millennia.
Oh, indeed. And one of their favorite tools for doing this has been religion. Funny how that's back again.
DeleteFirst, thanks for the link. I like the whole Reverse-Handmaid's Tale thing. Pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. It's great satire, how could I not link to it?
DeleteThanks for the shout-out, my friend. Dan just appeared out of nowhere to friend my on Facebook, and I've really enjoyed his posts. A very smart, progressive guy, as you can see. You make some very good points here. It's easy to dismiss these people because they're such freakin' crackpots, but we do so at our own peril. Younger women have no clue as to how the rights they've grown up with can be taken away because they don't remember a world without them. We all just have to keep speaking out. I know I can count on you.
ReplyDeleteThis can serve as a wake-up call for all the younger women that think women's rights were a settled issue a long time ago. Because they weren't around in the "bad old days", they don't realize how easy it would be to go back to the way things were just several decades ago!! How many realize the saying "No more wire hangers" isn't just a reference to "Mommy Dearest"??
ReplyDeleteI just can't believe how far the religious right has gone to limit women's reproductive rights. This was unimaginable only a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteImagine this horror show when seeking an abortion. I would personally jump through the hoops I needed to terminate an unwanted pregnancy but at as a younger woman, it would have made it emotionally devastating, as if the unwanted pregnancy wasn't enough hell and paying for it breaks the bank. And the blatant lies about abortion being connected to cancer!
I wish Massachusetts and Vermont could create our own little territory.