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First let me post a link to this article in the Guardian by Jill Filipovic called, “A new poll shows what really interests ‘pro-lifers’: controlling women.” It’s a very flawed article, basically click bait that attempts to inform us that prolifers are all motivated by sexism and misogyny. Also, people who support President Trump are all uneducated racists haters of all that is good and golden. Jill obviously had some trouble staying on task, hence the frequent mentions of Trump.
I wanted to post this article because Christianity, religion, faith often gets a lot of heat for it’s inherent misogyny and sexism, and some of that heat is good and justified. However, the other side of the equation, the so called prowomen, progressive, prochoice, pro something or other, can be just astounding sexist, racist, misogynists, themselves.
All in good humor here, because I’m really not offended by it all! I’m just making some observations and I do find some rather comical. I’ve spent a couple of days trying to chat with various people about this article, especially the answers to this survey and what might have motivated those answers. To no avail! To no avail because I am obviously just an Eve deceived, a foolish woman under an eternal curse of perpetual stupidity who needs have the very nature of reality mansplained to me.
Also, I know absolutely nothing of sexism and misogyny, because the weight of my lived female experiences carries no authority at all, especially when it’s up against the powerful privilege of a white male progressive narrative.
That one will really mess with your head! You really haven’t lived until you’ve tried to politely articulate your objections to some aspects of critical race theory and intersectionality, only to have a bunch of privileged white men, mansplain the entire female experience to you.
Dang dude, I had no idea I’d been doing it wrong all these years…..
Basically, Woman you have no idea what you’re talking about because you’ve been indoctrinated by internalized sexism and misogyny and you lack the ability to possess any self awareness and walk your own self through these issues. I call that “Eve deceived,” basically just this misogynistic, sexist, internalized thing that goes, this woman is contradicting my desired narrative, pfftttt, well obviously she has no authority. Also, she must be totally mad…..
Which is probably quite true, I must be totally mad, because I am forever trying to engage in civil discourse with random strangers on the internet. Or to put it more eloquently, you do realize you’re attempting to communicate with a bunch of hairless apes using strange symbols sent across space via an invisible wi/fi signal?
Like that alone isn’t evidence that we ‘re all quite mad….
So, here is a snapshot of a piece of the survey.
So, I happen to agree, “most women are too easily offended.” Most men too, for that matter. I also agree that “most women interpret innocent acts or remarks as sexist.” That’s partially because we’ve been inundated with consumeristic culture in which women’s worth is directly connected to our sexuality, and inundated by a political narrative that tells us we must be hyper vigilant, on guard and afraid, least any rapey red flags appear.
As to “equal numbers of men and women in positions of political power in our country,” that really depends. Women do not necessarily always represent the best interests of women. I’ve worked in women dominated workplaces my entire life, which has resulted in a kinder, gentler, more respectful work environment……
Bahahaha! Let’s totally scratch that last one. Shout out to Cruella De Ville and Snow White’s Stepmother. We’ve met, we’re well acquainted. Women do not always have the best interests of other women in mind.
Do I think “the way women are treated in society is an important issue for 2020?” Only incidentally. Like, I think the opioid epidemic is bad for women. Immigration, jobs, the economy, housing, civil stability, these things are all related to how women are treated in society.
Also, a whole lot of women having to deal with the reality of an unwanted pregnancy is an act of misogyny and sexism. Yes, causing an unwanted pregnancy is an act of misogyny, especially in 2019, where birth control is readily available. So call me a feminist if you want, but for a man to create an unwanted pregnancy is an assault, it is to violate a women’s body, to demean, disrespect, and attempt to reduce her life giving power. The sanctity of life begins with the amount of respect you show towards women. You cannot separate the sanctity of life from the sanctity of women.
I won’t bore you with the rest of it, but I do want to address one last question, “are you favorable towards the #MeToo movement. ” Am I favorable towards a vague, undefined, unstructured, twitter hashtag that anybody can use? That’s what #Metoo is, a twitter hashtag! I can’t look at their objectives, their mission statement, their bylaws. So my answer would have to be more like, “I’m cautiously optimistic.” I’m cautiously optimistic that #MeToo is going to bring some awareness and some solutions to the problems of sexual abuse.
So, as to the gaslighting and suggestions that the women who think like I do in answering this survey are all suffering from internalized sexism, misogyny, and self loathing, nope, mostly we’re just all way smarter than you even realize.
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BRAVO!
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I have given up on polls. The darn things are generally set up to push an agenda.
We too often get in this debate mode where instead of discussing issues we discuss what is wrong with the people who disagree with us. The assumption inherent in such a strategy is that “I” am superior. So if you disagree there must be something wrong with you. Polls are an easy way to “prove” the other side has something wrong with them. Since aborting an inconvenient baby is so wrong and all about “ME”, the prochoice crowd must inevitably adopt this form of “debate”.
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I want to commend this most excellent post to your readers. https://theweeflea.com/2019/08/27/whats-wrong-with-the-world/
Pastor David Robertson calls himself the “WeeFlea” because Richard Dawkins, the militant atheist, got so angry during a debate he yelled “you’re just a flea on my ass.”
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Thanks for the link. 🙂
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Love David, write about him and his posts often!!
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this kind of ignorance makes me nuts—
I did not have a controlling father, I was never belittled by boyfriends…if anything I was the trailblazer and the independent thinker…my husband will most likely tell you the same thing…yet, I learned a long time ago that there are important roles for both men and women…and yes…the man is to be the head of the household…to love and adore his wife, to be her helpmate not the commander in chief of the house….
If we were living lives as God had intended,…we wouldn’t be dealing with the crap from the woman’s movement of the ’60s—
The absolute worst thing to happen to the family…birth control, ‘I am woman hear me roar’, burn the bra and —it was the start of the demasculinization of men, latch key kids, kids raising kids…yadda, yadda yadda—on and on it goes…
I told you, don’t get me started…
A great post as always IB
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I take polls a lot, but not because I think my opinion is important to those that write the polls. I believe the way they ask the questions makes it impossible to answer with any intelligence. These are not yes/no questions or agree/disagree questions. These are essays reduced to a single number that cannot reflect your opinion. So though I TAKE lots of polls, I do not submit my answers. I understand how people who disagree with something so obvious as pro women’s rights could be labeled misogynist. Take abortion for one. Women have been practicing abortion for millennia. Legal and illegal has nothing to do with it. Safe and Unsafe has everything to do with it. As Christians, we know that the fetus isn’t just a mass of cells up until some event happens…brain activity, a heartbeat, whatever. So this is a moral issue, not a legal one. Murder is wrong! Unless it is in self-defense, unless it is accidental, unless it is sanctioned by your government, unless… you get the picture. You cannot legislate morality. I lived through the feminist movement of the 60s. Comparing the vag hats and the #MeToo movements to the demonstrations of the 1960s, these attacks on misogyny and male privilege are shallow and meaningless.
You’d have to go back to the 40s when women WERE doing the men’s work–factory work, teaching, raising the kids on their own because husbands and fathers were in the war, and some didn’t come back. When the survivors came back, they said, in effect, “We’re home now, so you can go back to wearing the pearls and heels to clean the house.” Some of the men didn’t come home. These women that had supported their families on their own were told they were no longer needed. But now these women had been empowered and knew that they were a vital part of the society. You can’t just decide women are ONLY a support structure and take away the power they’d earned. You cannot take away a woman’s job and leave her with nothing because some man, not her husband, comes home and demands it. Most of the child-raising and home management had been delegated to women, and men didn’t have a clue!
We, as now-liberated women, understood that men were never supposed to be the sole support and the cashbox for the family. They were to teach their children, care for them, care for their wives, become the head of the unit…the representative of the family. This was a much bigger job. Until then, men had the power, but none of the responsibility. Women had the responsibility and none of the power. I keep reading Proverbs 31.
Some people think Proverbs 31 is describing a single woman, but when I look at it and use a Jewish accent, the passages are connected by an “or.” That’s another blog. What I’m trying to say is that men cannot handle being just the money-maker, decision-maker, Lord of all he sees because the job is really too big for one person. I don’t see the feminism movement as emasculating. I see it as emancipating–allowing women to have a say, to work as needed, to be the supporting mom and wife and still not a maid or a slave. Emancipating men from the idea that if they couldn’t support the family by themselves they weren’t failures, and they could be more involved in raising children of character. What I blame for the latch key kids, kids raising kids is the economy and the belief that to be successful, you must have a 52″ plasma TV in your house…
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Great comment. You and I share some similar perspectives.
Proverbs 31 is sometimes sung by Jewish men to honor the women of their household. It is kind of an over the top, currying favor, flirtatious kind of song. It’s like an “Ode to Mom,” mom being larger then life and kind of idealized.
I like how you said, “men cannot handle being just the money-maker, decision-maker, Lord of all he sees because the job is really too big for one person.” I think that’s a truth found all throughout the Bible.
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Having just come back from spending a long weekend with a very dear but very politically liberal group of friends, I can definitely relate to being thought of as nuts and/or under some sort of spell because I happen to think Donald Trump has been good for minorities and women. When I said I didn’t believe he was racist-well sheesh-you never saw mouths drop so quick.
Our culture of outrage can be extremely funny at a times, something you are particularly good at pointing out, such as this post on the empty headedness behind writers like Jill Filipovi and her like minded “woke” cohorts in on line comment sections.
The disturbing aspect though, as was strongly shown to me during my recent encounter with liberal friends, is the amount outright untruths that have been spun to them as fact through the usual media suspects. There used to be openings where rational conversation and mutual learning could be had, but this is all but impossible now. We truly live in different realities which does not bode well for the future.
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I agree. “You either agree with me or you’re completely wrong and I unfriend you and call you out to everyone so they can see how righteous I am.” There is either rhetoric, quotes from unnamed sources, memes of unclear origin, or name-calling and verbal attacks, but no discussion! How can you make an informed comment if you cannot discuss your thoughts? Must they be full-blown from the beginning? Is there no room for development and an exchange of ideas and experience? How absurd! You cannot cement an Idea or an Ideology without discussion and research. No one can depend on the OPINIONS of another no matter what their status, education, notoriety, or background is. You cannot personally know where their thoughts originate. People must form their own conclusions and ideology!
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Exactly Rebecca and it happens on both sides of the political aisle. We are becoming a nation of uninformed zealots.
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Love your take on the article, and the spirited nuance you display…
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I want to know what is defined as “most cases”. I’ve never seen such lop-sided numbers in favor of abortion in “most cases” as these. Is it being defined as “consensual, incest, rape”? That would seem to drive the number up as even many Evangelicals, unfortunately, have succumbed to the position that a wrong makes right a previous wrong. Or are they talking first trimester, second trimester, third trimester?
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Reblogged this on Free Matt Podcasts and commented:
***It is the weekend and I am that lazy. I thought that this was an interesting article. I am too busy looking up statistics and preparing for various events in the upcoming week. Enjoy***
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