What About The War On Conservative Women?
This week I was reading an article about women’s rights over at the Daily Beast that got me thinking. As a journalist, I pay attention to accuracy and it started off all wrong, perpetuating the myth that no women defended religious liberty in testimony before Congress last month. In fact, two women did. Dr. Allison Dabbs Garrett, the senior vice-president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University, defended religious liberty. So did Dr. Laura Champion, medical director of Calvin College Health Services. But because they don’t believe religious organizations should be forced to provide insurance that pays completely for abortifacients, sterilization and/or contraception over doctrinal objections, they were almost completely ignored by the media.
Various members of Congress, including female members, ignored these women and their testimony (literally ignored them. They walked out before their testimony was given) in order to give a press conference asking “Where are the women?”
Savvy political move and the media ate it hook, line and sinker. We’re now approaching a month of this so-called “War on women,” as one Democratic leader spins it.
Because I’m someone who cares about religious liberty and yet somehow — gasp — am also a woman, I don’t particularly care for the way this story has been told by the media and partisans.
And while everyone is pretending to be completely outraged at the words of one radio host, I notice a certain partisan bias to the outrage. Democrat Kirsten Powers has the goods on it here and here (for which she’s been vilified, of course).
See, if you don’t share the same views as the liberal elite, nobody cares — or nobody cares too much — when people call you the vilest of names and say horrible things.
Take what syndicated radio host Randi Rhodes said about conservative women this week:
”You know, these women, somebody really needs to go repossess their ovaries. Really, truly, they have no right to them. They are fabulous, little organs and they have absolutely no right to be estrogen-bearing beings. Okay? Just cut ”˜em off, let ”˜em go through the hot flashes, let ”˜em just sit there and complain about hormone therapy, okay? Just take the ovaries and get it over with. Because they don’t deserve to have estrogen. They really don’t. It’s a privilege.”
At least she didn’t call anyone a slut, right?
What the selective outrage shows is that “women’s issues” is code for *liberal* women’s issues. So if you identify as pro-choice, you’re good to go. The media’s got your back. If you believe that the taking of human life by abortion is wrong, as about half of all women do, well, then, that’s not a women’s issue. Your annual marches in Washington are ignored and your views are downplayed.
If you think it’s ok to force religious organizations to act against their church teachings, that’s a women’s issue. If you care about religious liberty, you’re not a woman who deserves to keep her ovaries.
If you’re a conservative who calls someone a slut, that becomes the biggest and most important news story for a week. If you’re a liberal who calls someone a slut, you are cheered by the media and the President doesn’t worry about the effect of your rhetoric on young women. He just takes your $1 million check.
It gets very tiresome.
I just came across this ad from a right-of-center women’s group showing the double standards in how some slurs against women are hyped for political gain while others are downplayed and ignored:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ISKQD7ytSk?version=3]
And my husband reminded me of what President Obama’s senior adviser said about Miss California when she articulated the same view on same-sex marriage as the President:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZM-mwXY830?version=3]
I guess I missed the outrage when it happened.
Now, I know that Mommyish readers, liberal though they may be, don’t countenance such attacks on women even if those women have different views than they do.
But it seems that some people adopt double standards when it comes to calling women sluts, dogs, cunts, twats or other vile names. We should adopt the same standard, regardless of our personal political views.
