The following is outside of the usual realm of all things DS. For regular readers, or those researching the topic of DS, this is not my typical post and it is not in the spirit of the usual upbeat character of this blog.
Thank God for the feminists, they are our keepers of fundamental rights, freedoms and they have the best interest of all women in mind.
Or do they?
For women, this has been a year of opportunity beyond the wildest dreams of my grandmother and mother. TWO women standing on the brink of the highest office. That is cause for unending celebration. But we don't see any celebrations do we? What we have seen is women's just reward remain a fingertip away. This year has been about the brink of change for all and the sudden push of female opportunity has been disappointingly sideswiped.
A well experienced woman gets pushed aside by a man still in political elementary school. And women took part in that.
A woman is presented as a Vice Presidential running mate, and the belittling starts mere moments later.
A lot of that belittling, coming from women. Feminist women.
Women have had two, at-bats, during this campaign, yet they face the stronger criticism, just like the old days. Women have to prove smarter, stronger, wiser than a man to be considered his equal. Once upon a time feminists fought against that practice, but not anymore, today they participate in the misogyny with enthusiastic tear-downs of a woman's experience and character.
Why? What changed?
What changed was the rise of the church of Planned Parenthood. Feminists are no longer interested in a woman's successes or experiences. They don't care how hard the road to the top is, they only care about our uterus. It's that abortion deal. It's not the job or the childcare or the education that they want to invest in, they want your uterus to have every possible freedom that can be afforded it, to mind your private parts, for if your uterus loses any of it's status, then all is lost.
Feminists can be rich or poor, black or white, Catholic or Protestant, but they all have the same supreme goal, recite the same rote arguments, and otherwise deflect attention away from what has become a tired and unproven solution to the female quandary. Abortion was supposed to be about making opportunity for women and here it is, over three decades later, and we still can't get a woman in the White House. Before it was that productive uterus that supposedly got in the way of a woman's success, and now, ironically, it's that unproductive uterus that stands in the way of women's greatest accomplishments. Women have to start to realize that we are going to never crack that glass ceiling as long as our reproductive organs get precedence over our brains, accomplishments, experiences, education.
It's time for women to stop being defined so narrowly and it's time to be outraged at who is so fervently keeping that definition as the deal breaker that keep women from positions of power. It's time to rethink a presidential nominee with no experience but that of maintaining the cause of the uterus.
It's time to stop listening to the gate keepers of the church of Planned Parenthood and decide our fates as the smart and immensely more complex humans that we are. It's time to heft our bar higher than feminists will allow us. It's time to leave behind the "no you can't" mentality that abortion is for women. It's time to leave the past behind and make a change to see how far we can go and how much we can achieve, if allowed to pick ourselves up beyond our old chains of political uterine obligations and carry on.
8 comments:
That is one of the most intelligent things I've read in some time, written, of course, in a way that I never could've (and never should've).
Hi Kelly, I found your blog @ the gifts website. Thank you so much for this post, I LOVE IT, I agree 100% :)
This is a great post; so much to think about it.
Despite it being 30 years since Roe v Wade, I'm not sure the political uterine chains of obligation are "old" as you say--not when many politicians out there are working to reverse Roe v Wade. I suspect many women still feel that they need to fight for the "right to choose" is being threatened.
Choose Life I say.
Sarah Palin did. I'm glad she had the right to do so, and I'm glad she made the right choice.
I could go on, but I don't want to hijack your post any more than I have already.
Thank you Jeff and Cleo.
Chris, I don't think any reasoned reply can be a hijack, thank you for your post.
I was just wondering out loud if our female obsession with the "right to choose" is causing us the right to some other very important things. Lately I have been thinking that while the men ride off to pursue and reach their goals, we are collectively left back at the ranch bickering about what our rights should be.
I don't know if it will ever change, as both sides are clearly invested in their ideologies, but we seem to be missing out on a lot of great stuff in what has proven to be a stumbling block to our progress. I'd hate to think my daughter is going to have to carry on this business of costly, time-consuming and distracting disagreeing.
Kelly,
I have a little one 11 months old with DS. This is a great post. You are so right.
By the way, do you live in Denver...I noticed the Mile High DS logo. I live in Denver and just wondered?
And what if John McCain chose Palin primarily to assuage the Christian conservatives of his party as this article in the NY Times suggests:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31reconstruct.html?hp
Is that progress for women? Being chosen as a candidate just because you are against the Church of Planned Parenthood?
I think the argument of those women who are prochoice is give women the choice, and then trust women to make the right choice.
I can't help but wonder where women would be if abortion was a non issue in a general election. If politicians focused on governing the nation rather than one women's reproductive organs.
Take Roe v Wade out of the equation completely, where would women be? Would Clinton have made it as far as she did? Would Palin still be the VP candidate?
You've really got me thinking Kelly. I love your blog for all of the upbeat posts about Will, but I also love your insightful and thought provoking posts as well. Thank you for that.
I cannot for a moment fault McCain for his choice or the reason for his choice. If it was for Palin's ideologies, that is as much a part of her as her track record of reform. I won't be the person to cherry pick what attributes of a person's character are important or significant. I would assume that both presidential candidates chose their mate through consideration of what they, themselves lack. Obama was said to have picked Biden to firm up his appeal to older, white males, I'm not going to wonder if Biden is thanking his lucky stars he's a white man or if he's sulking that his voting record wasn't deemed as important. Biden could have said no, the same as Palin could. They're both smart adults. Sarah Palin is a package of great qualities, just the same as Biden is. I hope that Palin won't be scrutinized any differently than her male democratic opponant.
Such an eloquent post. You have a gift in your writing. I agree with you 100%.
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