Thank goodness Women’s History Month has ended. It functions as a reminder to all members of the female sex that we are victims of an oppressive, patriarchal society.
During the month of March, we learn a tiny bit of history and absorb a whole lot of nonsense. Today’s feminist movement represents a few whiny women who get together and complain about the evil white male and the euphemistically coined issue of “choice.”
Admittedly, there were strong women in our nation’s past that stood up for suffrage, and they deserve our recognition. However, today’s movement emphasizes abortion and demeans those who choose to work as housewives. Mothers who nurture and raise the next generation at home are subjected to ridicule and nasty looks. Feminist organizations tend to say they speak for all women, yet their stances are decidedly those of only some women.
On its website, the National Organization of Women asks for financial support in order to “provide the funding we need to go up against the likes of the so-called Christian Coalition.” Perhaps I am going out on a limb on this one, but I think women are well represented within the Coalition. NOW lists other sites that feature abortion providers and boasts of its “35 year tradition of standing up for women.”
Let’s get something straight. The organization should more appropriately be called NOSW–National Organization for Some Women. They believe all of us should take their position because it is in our best interest. Writer Laura Demarco says feminists “buy into the idea that all women must think the same to belong to the girl’s club.”
Politically loaded approaches to “women’s issues” are everywhere. Ken Burns completed a documentary on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Both of these ladies’ names are common when we study women in history, but their adamantly pro-life stances are neglected. According to Washington Times columnist Nat Hentoff, Burns said he did not want to bring “choice” into the documentary because it was not pertinent.
“Were [Stanton and Anthony] still here, I think they would have picketed the documentary,” Hentoff wrote. The two had strong views on the subject, but their ideology was evidently an inconvenient nuisance for Burns.
The very essence of so-called women’s issues seems to revolve around abortion, promiscuity without consequences and the end of the traditional family. Liberation entails affairs without commitments and thus the cheapening of women. After all, why buy the tree if you can get the peaches for free? The incentives for marriage dwindle as the pursuit of hedonistic pleasures drives our lives.
Before the Clinton era, the feminist line was basically that women were worthy of decent treatment. After Billy C., though, things changed. So long as their guy was protecting abortion on demand, an old man sleeping around with the help was deemed acceptable. Their silence on the Lewinsky scandal was amazing. It proved that some issues are more important than the dignity of women.
“What ultimately matters to feminists is the letter on your sweater. And if you’re wearing the wrong letter, sisterhood isn’t just powerful. Honey, it’s mean,” writes Danielle Crittenden of the Wall Street Journal. This explains why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas endured endless attacks in the media for specious sexual allegations leveled by Anita Hill.
Similarly, Newt Gingrich was rightly raked across the coals for his conduct toward women. But Billy C. received a nod of approval when the women’s groups obediently held their tongues on his long history of womanizing.
If you are a conservative woman, you are not a member of the “movement.” Rather, you are an enemy of their sacred right to kill the unborn and a fool for men like our former president who exploit women.
At the Lilith Fair, a women’s musical festival, several pro-abortion groups had information tables set up in order to reach the concert’s attendees. At the same time, the group Feminists for Life was not allowed to present its side because the festival’s sponsors considered pro-life people “tyrannical,” among other things. This consortium of women evidently decided females could not possibly hear both sides and make a rational decision. That is, they might make an incorrect decision and decide that the rights of unborn women are important too.
Kate O’Beirne, a no-nonsense writer for National Review, said, “In the end, our girls are going to have to fight their girls.” I could not agree more. Neglecting the future of the family or the rights of the unborn to feminists who claim to represent all of us is unwise. For conservative women, participating in the battle is not only a desire–it is a duty.
Anna Gould ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science
