Most women never heard of Feminists for Life (FFL). I did. Back in the 1990s when I taught a class on the history of abortion and its criminalization, I used some of their “empowerment” language to help construct anti-choice arguments. I wanted to better understand the vehemence of their opposition to abortion. I met my first “feminists for life” several years ago while serving on a local commission to study ways our county might reduce unwanted pregnancies.
These are serious, devoted, and often messianic women who believe deeply in their cause. Like the first wave feminists whose company they like to keep--Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton--FFL see the women’s movement as rooted in morality, and understand women as the keepers of morality, especially sexual morality.
In their world view, birth control and abortion, of course, as well as divorce laws, weaken women’s hold over men’s sexuality. Consequently, the sexual revolution of the 1960s degraded women because we gave up our protection against men’s beastly drives.
There’s a problem here. The underlying premise is that women have a more tightly controlled sexual drive and that all sexuality outside of marriage is inherently exploitative of women.
It’s the messianic part of their devotion that worries me. Those feminists for life on the county commission were dour and unyielding. Those qualities don’t make for real civil discourse and engagement. And their rigidity was wholeheartedly founded on the desire to take my and my daughter's choices away from me.
Their determination is a force that we cannot ignore. Like much of the right wing it has a self-righteous, authoritarian vein running throughout like the fat marbling Kobe beef.
George Lakoff has an interesting slant on the Sarah Palin nomination on Commondreams.org. Take a moment to read it.
Slate.com published an article by William Saleton today that explains Sarah Palin's anti-abortion work in Alaska, including stacking the Alaska Supreme Court to get her way on parental notification.
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I find it offensive and certainly not palatable when women use the option of choice to promote pro-life legislation. It is an undeniable truth that Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol made a decision (choice) to keep their pregnancies. That is a right that all women in this country should have. It is a personal decision not a government decision. One that I vigorously support. For Sarah Palin to not recognize that all women need to examine their own circumstances and make a decision that is best for them, even in the case of rape and incest, in the end is disturbing. Can we not as women see that her decision to accept this nomination is based on an evaluation of her personal circumstances? She like any working mother has resources and support from family. Notice how resources are omitted from any discussion or comment from Republicans. Can we not see as women that some of us have resources with a capital R.? I ask this, why are we here having this dialogue? I thought for months this election would be based on the war(s) and the economy. And here we go again. You are right we must think before we vote. Are the American people going to actually have a lengthy debate about working mothers? Are we actually going to vote from a vantage point of who is pro-choice and who is pro-life? In the end, I do not believe this will help me pay my mortgage, have access to the Resources I currently enjoy, heat my home in the winter, or prepare for my children's college education. Let us not forget the preservation of our environment, the safety of our nation, and the forgotten goal to strive for world peace. These are the issues that will determine the health and welfare of Americans and people in the next decade. Please do not vote on distractions but issues that will affect your household now as well as in the future. My vote centers on that principle alone. In the next four years my oldest son will be old enough to enlist. What about the health care crisis? There are far too many platform issues that will impact each and every one of us too waste our votes on the image of strong female candidates, war heroes, or historical candidates.
Think, analyze, look in the faces of your children and then vote.
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