Late note: I’ve added some new stuff to the end of this diary. See below (after the jump).
The Republican Party has rightly been getting tarred and feathered for the national and state-by-state attacks on reproductive rights. Some Republicans have gotten their share of heat (Rush Limbaugh, Bob McDonnell, Rick Santorum), others haven’t (Rick Perry, Mary Fallin*, Mitt Romney).
*Governor of Oklahoma, another state with punitive anti-abortion legislation.
It’s all over the news. If you Google “Republican War on Women,” you get approximately 74,300,000 hits. (Presumably Google is estimating the number because it keeps increasing so rapidly.)
That’s great. Wonderful. The more attention is paid to this, the more likely it is that their agenda will be derailed and they will lose more elections. But there’s one thing that should bother us all.
It’s not a war on women. It’s a war on anyone who cares about women or is involved in procreating or possibly procreating with a woman.
So really, it’s a Republican War on People. With the partial exception of gay men.
To call it a “war on women” is to…
(a) minimize its impact on, as I said, anyone who cares about women or whose life involves women.
(b) ignore mens’ role in family planning and reproductive health. Hey, that’s a woman’s job! Just like in the Fifties!
(c) place the onus for political action on the shoulders of women.
Yes, it’s heartening to see empowered women taking action: crowds of women demonstrating outside of state capitols and organizing online campaigns to take political action and (among many other brilliant things) post embarrassing questions on the Facebook pages of certain Governors.
But this isn’t just a war on women; it’s a war against humanity and our personal freedoms. It’s a war against health. And really, at its base, it’s a war against sex. And men should be fully as engaged in this struggle as women.
To call it a “war on women” diminishes its impact and lets us men off the hook too easily. Let’s find it a more accurate and inclusive name. “Republican War on Reproductive Freedom” isn’t catchy enough. Maybe we should just call it the Republican War on Sex.
Addendum: Some Commenters have taken this diary in an unfortunate way. They’ve interpreted it as an attempt to shift the spotlight off women’s issues by claiming that men are equal sufferers. This was not my intent, not at all. The point I was trying to make, and maybe I didn’t make it clearly enough, is that men need to fight alongside women on this issue. Because (a) it’s only fair and just, and (b) it’s our war, too.
Not “it’s our war just as much as it is women’s.” But “it’s our war, too.”
For the sake of chronological clarity: This was added on Saturday 3/17 at 9:00 pm. There were 25 comments below this diary at the time.
Given that it’s an assault on women’s rights and bodies, I don’t think it’s a misnomer. That said, you are spot on that this effects pretty much all of us. I don’t think the two things are mutually exclusive.
Going a bit further, it’s clear there is a War on People, and the War on Women is but a front in the larger conflict: War on Workers, War on Education, War on the Poor, War on Voters, etc.
Did the log cabin boys collect the 200 dollars and the get out of jail free card? I honestly don’t think any group that doesn’t have a flag on their jacket or a cross on their ass.
This is a bunch that is playing to the lowest denominator- true, but due to the low number of regular republicans turning up the enthusiasm knob, I am not sure they can all be lumped into the same bucket.
I just wish there were a few more willing to act like human beings in the face of the idiots campaigning and their puppet masters. Does anyone think Rick or Newt have a prayer in Hell in the general? Or that our boy Mitt will not run like mad to the socker dads after the primary/convention season?
If only Ross Perot would pop back up for a curtain call.
it’s a war on women. Just because men who care about women are impacted by it doesn’t change who its real targets are.
I want to be clear about something because I’m about to say something harsh, but before I do, I want to say that your work here has been fantastic and I’m very pleased to have you be part of this blog’s writing group.
There are times when I’ve written a lot of excellent stuff here, but every once in awhile, it’s a major swing and a miss. It happens.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but there’s a point in the story where they outlaw the right of women to own or control money. Men in their lives say it will be okay, we’ll handle the money for you. We’ll make sure you still have your rights. This, of course, doesn’t work, because any time you set things up with men in power over women, men, no matter how well intentioned, will do it wrong. That’s not a dig on men. I think it would be the case the other way around as well. I just don’t often get to see situations with women in power over men, so I have little experience with it.
But… your post comes across a little like those men. Yes, this war on women comes with collateral damage and I’m sure you’re hurt by it. But make no mistake about who the target is here. It’s not the same thing.
I think we can – and should – lump this into the conservative schtick about shutting free condom programs down. That was never presented as a “war on men” per se, and its because of what you suggest: “family” planning is still considered the responsibility of women (e.g. “Boys will be boys” + “I thought she was on the pill” = “a lot of what’s wrong with the world.”)
In the immediate term,, though, NTodd is right – the target at this point is women, so the immediate gendered nature of it in the here and now does matter.
I think the conservative desire to belittle and control women is a close relative to, but not quite the same thing, as the “enlightened ones” tendency to lazily drop into repressive gender roles because of convenience (something groovy men and women do… drives me nuts).
…this diary was inspired by my wife, who thinks men are getting off too easy on this issue. She sees the “war on women” tag as minimizing mens’ role and responsibility in the fight.
If some of you think I swung and missed on this one, that’s your prerogative. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Women are being attacked. NOT men. The ‘gender’ of the attack is male. I think if we call it an attack on people (all of us), we are watering down the true nature of this war. It will be lumped in with all the other atrocities of the Right Wing/Rich/Corporate bastards.
This attack is SPECIFIC. And should be regarded and treated accordingly. You can’t adopt an ‘I feel your pain’ attitude, because that’s probably one of the things the bastards have in mind. Like saying: “Hey, lady, I’m hurtin’ too.”
I don’t know. The war on the poor, the war on the workers, the teachers, the immigrants, the children. Are we going to have a poll on this next?
War is a general dynamic of our sorry state as a supposed ‘intelligent life form’ in the universe. But wars are SPECIFIC in feeding the larger monster. Afghanistan is about the larger issue of World Corporate Rule and Order. That is why it is an UNJUST war.
I’m wondering when we all going to say: “STOP! This is taking us over the edge! You can not go any further! It’s time to turn things around!”
Just one more thing. This assault on women is like the male engine of rape, battering, MURDER, economic, emotional ABUSE. We like to think we’ve put all the rapists, murderers, and batterers away. But that is clearly not the case. And this War On Women will create more of them. That gives this War on Women a very insidious CRIMINAL nature. If I say something that encourages another person to engage in criminal activity, am I not also a Criminal? Perhaps we should view the matter that way in our response.
The Republican War on the Poor has come to include everyone not in the one percent. Absolutely–people with the least have suffered the most. But union workers, public servants, and white collar employees have been pulled into this malignant process, and have played important roles in starting to turn it around. The War on Women is also a war on the rights of couples and families. Absolutely–women are bearing the brunt of this condescending, abusive, unjust effort to return society to the 1950s, or maybe the 1850s. But men, particularly men in relationships with women, are in this too, and should act accordingly.