The forefathers of the pro-life movement remind us that the long-standing American tradition of female subordination and treating women as second-class citizens is something that pro-lifers aren’t going to give up so easily.
We start with Feministing’s Ann, who braved the Blogs4Life conference this morning. Among her observations:
* The majority of anti-choice bloggers, judging by the attendance, are 50-year-old men, several of whom brought their young sons along. Nearly every younger woman I noticed there was attending as a reporter.
* They love to equate the anti-abortion movement with the civil rights struggle. There were a lot of power-point slides featuring Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes and fuzzy photos of smiling black people. See, if you ask Sam Brownback, one of the problems with America is that we treat fetuses as second-class citizens, much like African-Americans were treated in the pre-civil rights era. Does this seem more than a little insulting to anyone else? Saying that black people and fetuses (and really, embryos) should be considered “equally human”? Wow.
* Peter Samuelson, of Americans United for Life (which pushes incremental, state-level anti-choice legislation like parental consent laws and waiting periods), said he is confident that Roe will not be overturned — it will be made irrelevant by the type of laws his organization promotes. The group only focuses on legislation that polls with public approval of 50-60% or more. “It’s incremental. It’s step-by-step. It’s very effective.”
* Did you know that abortion providers EAT FETUSES?! No, really! Jill Stanek told me so today.
* Tony Perkins: “There is something innately in us that tells us as one generation we should give birth to the next.” So if you don’t want children, you’re only lying to yourself.
* There was also much talk about how the annual March for Life never receives any coverage from the “secular media.” Quick Nexis and Google News searches reveal this is total bullshit.
Read Ann’s full post. Here’s a photo of the conference speakers:
Nine people. Eight men. Eight white people. Only one person who will ever have the possibility of getting pregnant. In the full day’s line-up, there are a grand total of three women.
Pro-lifers are also celebrating the Roe anniversary by deciding that “It’s time for the pro-life movement to address contraception.” Hell yeah, I thought when I read that headline, it is time for the pro-life movement to start addressing contraception, since it’s the most effective tool against unintended pregnancy. Sadly, I was far too optimistic. By “address contraception,” they mean “support the No Room for Contraception campaign.”
Some anti-choicers are taking their campaign to the streets: Another pharmacist, this time at a Wal-Mart in Ohio, refuses to give a couple emergency contraception.
And then there’s the sex “education” being given to students in Washington, my home state. It has all the usual marks of abstinence-only education, including misrepresentations, ignorance of medicine and science, and flat-out lies. But this program is especially disgusting, as it also includes the strong suggestion that women and girls bring sexual assault upon themselves:
Leighton then asks the class: If you’ve made the decision to be abstinent, at what stage do you think you should draw the line? There’s a brief silence. “Prolonged kissing?” ventures one boy. “Does that seem about right?” she asks the students. She notes that her daughter used to draw the line at French kissing—until she almost got raped after doing so on a date.
SHARE’s written curriculum makes the point more explicitly. It provides an anecdote about a college girl who French kisses on a first date. It then gives two questions to ask: “How might this situation make her vulnerable to date rape?” and “Is it safe for her to participate in preparing his body for intercourse when she does not know him very well?”
In other words, rape is about male desire, and women invite it by tempting men through open-mouth kissing. If you’re raped by someone you know, it’s because you made yourself vulnerable — not because the person who raped you had no regard for your feelings or physical safety, and only cared about exerting his control over you.
This curriculum is also deeply sexist, and relies on the idea that desirable women are those who dedicate their bodies to the patriarchy:
She tells the students about a class of all boys she taught last year in Kent. When asked how many of them wanted to marry virgins, “100 percent of those boys flew their hands up,” says Leighton.
“I thought it was pretty amazing,” says Leighton after class, referring to the preference the Kent boys expressed for virgins.
Lovely.
Happy Roe anniversary. Remember what the other side is actually fighting for. And fight harder.
Inspector Gadget (second row on the right) is anti-choice? I’ll never watch a cartoon of his again, nor accept his spurious Dred Scott comparisons.
I am rarely surprised by anything in the forced-pregnancy crowd, but this left me astounded. She is “preparing his body for intercourse” and therefore has made herself unsafe? That is so unsubtle. I really thought that even the nuts of the right had grasped the concept that you don’t obviously and openly blame rape victims.
That is utterly vile and sickening. I truly pity that woman’s daughter, both for nearly getting raped, and having a mother like that who’s response amounts to “That’ll teach you to lead him on.”
And I can think of things you could say to a roomful of teenagers that would promote rape more, but nothing that wouldn’t get you dragged out by school security, and probably arrested. They just told every boy who attends their curriculum that any girl who puts her tongue in his mouth, or lets him french her is “preparing his body for intercourse,” and if he decides to rape her at that point, she should be blamed for getting him excited. Are they trying to train rapists?
Since it’s both my birthday and Roe’s birthday, I had some candles on my fetus before I ate it.
Wow, and I didn’t think anything could top Liz Funk’s “Women who wear short skirts turn men into serial killers.” And now we see John Goodman and Ben Stiller spoke at an anti-choice rally. This is just great.
Ako, you also have to love the “almost got raped” phrasing. What, the universe at large almost raped her? And what kind of “almost” anyway? I’ve been the victim of an attempted rape, (in addition to the two other rapes I talk about here, so don’t accuse me of having a concocted situation for every story!) and I would never say I “almost got raped.” I would say a man attempted to rape me, and that I had the resources to prevent it.
A great message: tells the gals that the mildest of sexual expression leads to violence which they are responsible for. Telling the guys that they are incapable of making good decisions when it comes to sexuality.
“Alright guys, you have no control over your sexual choices and are totally hard wired to commit acts of violence. If that girl kisses you, you are justified in raping her. Sucks to be a gal, huh?”
“Ladies, you consent to sex when you kiss a guy.”
“Guys, women doesn’t deserve your respect anyways. Besides, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Sorry if you and your significent other want to abstain until marriage, it’s just not an option … unless you can abstain from spooning until the engagement.”
And now we see John Goodman and Ben Stiller spoke at an anti-choice rally. This is just great.
Awwwww not Ben Stiller…..I soooooo loved Zoolander :(
Heraclitus,
I know very little about John Goodman, but i have a hard time believing Ben Stiller would speak at a pro-life rally. As far as i know, he’s a non-practicing Jew, and he contributes quite a bit to the Democratic Party. Where did you get your information from?
Or are you just making a funny comment about how a couple of those dudes look like Stiller and Goodman (if so, the Goodman i see, but not the Stiller)…?
I really thought that even the nuts of the right had grasped the concept that you don’t obviously and openly blame rape victims.
But see, if they help prepare his body for intercourse, they’re not actually rape victims.
And yes, these people are dumber than a bag of lichen.
They sure do bring the crazy with them to Washington DC. And why the heck can’t they ride the subway without acting like assholes?
Heh, yeah, I was just cracking wise based on the photos. Goodman is the Jack Abramoff/The Shadow dude on the right, middle row. Stiller is, I admit, a bit of a stretch, but I was thinking the guy in the middle of the bottom row (although he’s really a little too mousy).
I ask myself this same question every single day. Except about tourists in general.
In my mind, I chanted “get the fuck out of the doorway. get the fuck out of the doorway. get the fuck out of the doorway…”
In my mind, I chanted “get the fuck out of the doorway. get the fuck out of the doorway. get the fuck out of the doorway…”
Why not out loud? It’s been a while since I’ve been in DC, but if I recall correctly, the doors tell you to step away from the doors politely. If they didn’t listen to the nice doors, then they deserve a little swearing.
Oh wow, memories! I had completely forgotten.
I (non-Catholic) used to attend The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. That’s where they all park. Busloads and busloads and busloads and good luck finding a parking spot. Every fucking year. Endless streams of them marching across the campus with their bloody fetus signs on the way to the Metro.
Maybe they think rape just pops out of the sky like lightning. It’s no good trying to blame lightning for existing. The only thing to do is avoid attracting it.
That takes a special kind of crazy, but if you’re talking about a woman whose approach to some guy trying to rape her daughter (unlike my crazy liberal parents who’d probably try to kill the guy and get the corpse thrown in jail), is to go “Look what she did in French-kissing him.”
I hope this is some insane lie she’s telling to make that anecdote seem more immediate. Because if some guy tried to rape her daughter, and she’s running around telling strangers about how she thinks her daughter caused it, that poor girl’s life must be miserable.
And “almost got raped” is the only way I can think of describing something like that that neither suggests that the attacker did something, nor points out how the girl had something happen to her which she didn’t cause.
I… ::brain pops::
Asking boys if they want to marry virgins? Chix0r don’t get aroused at kissing, but men can’t help but stick it in? Man, this is the Mars Hill thing all over again — I really honestly don’t believe these crazies are in the same state as me.
or, more explicitly:
does a girl intend to communicate something when she French kisses a boy? Or is it just some meaningless post-adolescent rite of passage.
You know, I know males, especially teenage boys, can get hard from making out… but they also get hard when they’re sleeping. Is sleeping preparing their bodies for intercourse?
Adolescent males can get hard at anything. My first boyfriend used to have a problem when called up to do math at the board. So by these lights, wasn’t I asking for it when I took a math class with him?
Adolescent males can get hard at anything. My first boyfriend used to have a problem when called up to do math at the board. So by these lights, wasn’t I asking for it when I took a math class with him?
All I can say is: Lady, speak for *yourself* when you say “women don’t get aroused by French kissing”!! :d
And: good GRIEF is she thick if she really, truly thinks her daughter “almost got raped” *just* because she was french kissing some boy. Like he had no culpability at all? Were she my daughter, that *boy* would have his ears laid back, and so would his parents. At volume. Preferably on their front lawn. Yeeeesh!
I’m impressed that Ann could stand being in the same room with those people. By the way, the man who Heraclitus refers to as “John Goodman/Jack Abramoff/The Shadow dude on the right, middle row” is Joe Scheidler from Pro-Choice Action League – who I had the dishonor of meeting at their “Contraception is Not the Answer” conference last fall (check out my series of posts on CINTA at RH Reality Check).
And your points on rape and sexual assault are right on. Amie Newman links to your post on the Martin aricle:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/node/2132
whoa – big mistake! I meant Pro-Life Action League (see how hard it is for me to call them “pro-life”?)… apologies.
Of course she intends to communicate something. What she’s communicating is “I want to French kiss.”
I am surprised that Jim Bob Duggar wasn’t a speaker…
Not that I follow his career or anything, but I think I’ve heard somewhere that John Goodman, like Ben stiller, is a Democrat.
hanna, just curious, but were the protestors carrying placards on the Metro recently? In ’04 I went to the Million Workers March and I remember seeing the police blocking off the street and wondering what the hell was going on, apparently they were diverting buses coming to the march to some location pretty far away and not letting anybody off. Also, we were threatened with arrest for being on the Mall with protest signs too close to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, even though there was a family running around inside the Memorial with “Bush is My Hero” signs, and when we went to the VVM Information kiosk to ask why the march organizers weren’t legally permitted to sell t-shirts on the Mall when there were permanent kiosks sent up selling stuff and displaying political material, the park rangers wouldn’t answer and flagged down a cop (with gun). Then later we were refused entrance to the Old Post Office Food Court because we still had signs we’d taken off the sticks and rolled up. I really doubt we would have been allowed on the Metro with any type of sign.