NEWS: The War on Women: A Father’s Perspective

CULTURE: The War on Women: A Father’s Perspective

by Steven Whitney



As if the illegal Iraq War and the botched Afghan War were not enough, it seems as if Republicans are going to war against damn near everybody but old, rich white guys.

First up is their War on Facts – their avalanche of misstatements has set a new record (and a new low) in both congressional and campaign practices. The GOP lies about Obama’s record and Romney assiduously avoids any concrete facts about his own plans.

There’s a closely related War on Science – it contains too many perplexing facts and, after all, faith provides all the answers we need.

There‘s a covert War on Voting Rights, particularly VWB (Voting While Black) and VWP (Voting While Poor) - and then the very visible War on GLBTs, especially those who want to hold their weddings at Chick-fil-A.

There’s an open War on Immigrants – in Arizona, and despite being sued by the Department of Justice for racial profiling, the self-aggrandizing Sheriff Joe rounds up Hispanics, detains them in dehumanizing tent city corrals, verbally taunts them, and heads them back over the border. In Missouri, Republican Steve King also views them as animals, recently doubling down on his statement last May that “comparing immigrants to dogs is a compliment.”

There’s a War on Education and the snobs who attend college. And a War on Healthcare – Romney wants to repeal Obamacare on Day One and turn Medicare into a voucher system benefitting insurance companies. (If you have a serious pre-existing condition, do you really think a voucher is going to help you get coverage?)

Then there’s the War on Labor – particularly those nefarious teachers, firemen, postal workers, and policemen who are getting obscenely rich lapping up money from the public trough.

And Romney himself apparently wants to go to war with Big Bird and Iran.

To a degree, I understand their warmongering on these issues – racism, xenophobia, selfishness, skullduggery, and outright stupidity have always found a place in our politics, although never to the extent bandied about by Republicans in this election cycle.

But what I cannot comprehend is the Republican War on Women. While the GOP denies any such crusade, a mere summary of their actions suggests otherwise.

The Republican platform calls for a Constitutional ban and criminalization of abortion without exception – not rape, not incest, not even if the mother’s life is severely endangered by her pregnancy.

It denounces contraceptive education in schools while encouraging teenagers and young adults to abstain from sex until marriage.

Virginia Republicans passed a bill requiring women to undergo invasive trans-vaginal ultrasounds at least 24 hours before having an abortion. Other state legislatures in GOP control quickly followed suit, proposing bills with identical or more severe mandates.

In Michigan, GOP representatives banned Rep. Lisa Brown from speaking “for violating the decorum of the House” after she mentioned the word “vagina” during a debate on women’s healthcare. In defending their action, Republicans characterized the word vagina as “offensive, disgusting, and vile.”

In Congress, Darrell Issa (R, CA) created an Oversight Committee panel to shape policy on Women’s Reproductive Rights without a single woman invited to contribute, either as a panelist or speaker.

For the last several years, House Republicans have vociferously attacked and attempted to defund Planned Parenthood, a non-profit that serves 1 in every 5 women sometime during their lives. The GOP also wants to repeal Title X, which provides breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and testing for all STDs to low-income women. Without Title X’s preventive care, thousands of American women will needlessly die before their time.

If their positions on healthcare weren’t enough to reveal the GOP’s stunning misogyny, consider the sexist invective they employ to put women in their rightful place.

It’s no fluke that drug felon Rush Limbaugh – considered by many to be the ex-officio head of the Republican Party – labeled a female law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” for speaking to House Democrats about the importance of requiring insurance companies to cover birth control. And it’s no surprise that Rush – who takes Viagra-fueled holidays in the Dominican Republic, famous for its teenage sex trade – encouraged her to send him video tapes of her own sexual activities. Rush, of course, originated the term “Feminazis” for women seeking equal rights and protections under the law, so is it any wonder he likes to watch?

In her book, What I Saw at the Revolution, Peggy Noonan – Reagan speech writer and chronicler/pundit of all things GOP – likened women who have abortions to Germans exterminating Jews during World War II.

Following his widely disseminated remark about “illegitimate rape,” Republican Todd Akin called Claire McCaskill – his opponent in the Missouri Senate race – “one of those dogs.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A Google search for “republican sexist comments” returns thousands of examples. Just this week GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said he came to realize that pregnancy as a result of rape was “something that God intended to happen” and a “gift from God.”

Is it any wonder that Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill mandating equal pay for equal work? Or that the GOP views women as less than equal citizens?

One has to ask: Do Republicans still blame Eve for biting into the apple? Were all their mothers Mommie Dearests? Do they feel emasculated by women? Are they threatened by empowerment?

What is it with these guys? Don’t any of them have daughters?

This isn’t political, it’s neither right nor left, it’s just a human truth – if any father seeks to deny his daughter(s) the same rights, opportunities, and benefits that boys (or men) possess, then he must relinquish his “Best Dad in the World” coffee cup for one that designates him a "Bozo Dad."

What father wants his daughter to be coerced by law to birth a child sired by a serial and violent rapist – or to be forced to carry a child at the risk of her own life?

What father wants decisions about his daughter’s medical care left in the hands of an all-male House Oversight Committee task force, or by a squeamish male legislature that can’t even say the word vagina?

What father wants his daughter to die prematurely because she couldn’t afford breast and cervical examinations that are now covered by Title X, Planned Parenthood, and Obamacare?

What father deems his daughter less capable than a man to make choices about her own life?

What father adheres to a religious group that values his daughter less than any other person. Or a political party that demeans her through legislation and verbal sexist abuse?

What father doesn’t want his daughter to be all she can be? Or to have the opportunity to achieve everything she wants while pursuing her personal goals And how can she do that without equal rights and equal protection under the law?

What kind of father envisions his daughter as a second-class citizen?

Having a daughter is the greatest gift any man can receive, for through them we finally learn the meaning of and experience a love that is completely unselfish. Wives and lovers bring us much pleasure and happiness, but they are equal partners in our lives, with the expectation of equal “give and take.” But because daughters light up our lives in countless ways, fathers want nothing back from them, except perhaps that they find their own particular brand of happiness.

Those who most severely criticize this new brand of far-right Republicans often accuse them of putting their party before the country they were elected to serve. But for me, their most repugnant betrayal is putting the GOP agenda before their own daughters.

These days our daughters are brought up to think for themselves in all things. Are they now expected to willingly turn over their rights and decisions to an out of touch Republican agenda? If anything qualifies as an “illegitimate rape” that does.

And as a father, my response is simple: I value my daughter more than anyone else on earth and I will fight to my last breath anyone who makes any kind of war on her. And I think every father, deep down, must feel the same.

This November, every father in America is faced with a clear choice. And I suggest each of them votes for the platform that will most benefit and honor his daughter(s).

It’s the least we owe our daughters for bringing both joy and true meaning to our lives…and for shining the light of unconditional love into our hearts.


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Gotcha!

Well said.
I kind of think men who do love their daughters, yet agree with these misogynist politics, see their daughters as darling little pure things who must be protected, who would never have the inclination to have sex before marriage, and who don't need to worry about education, rape, or cancer because they will be married to similar-thinking white knights who will protect them from all the evils of the world and provide for them forever.

Sad.

This comment is entirely my opinion:

Also I am only commenting on the issue of abortion and birth control.


It seems that since the dawn of this country's government more often then not religious issues or moral issues get confused with political issues.

It's impossible to discuss politics without being bias. Everyone has their own beliefs and emotions behind their words; otherwise they wouldn't be talking.

Do I think those who are Pro-Life are trying to wage war against women? No not at all. However inadvertently I think they are; yes. It's an issue of control. The thought process is this:

Women are not doing what is righteous. So the law must be righteous. If birth control and abortion is illegal and harsh punishments set in place for violators then women will learn to obey and thank us later. The world will be a better place. We are protecting them from their bad decisions. They must learn that sex is a responsibility and has consequences. Life is precious and must be protected.

I grew up in a very pentecostal republican home. In my opinion having heard this argument in my own home and from my own friends, I know they are only trying to do what they feel is best. That's why all political, religious, and gender issues are always such heated debates. Everyone feels their opinion is the most healthy.

I myself am a sort of mixture between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. It's hard to say since I have never wanted or felt I needed an abortion before. I'd like to believe that if by some horrible turn of events I was raped or became a high risk pregnancy that I would carry my child even if it meant a life of embarrassment for my baby or my own death during delivery. However...

I feel it is necessary for our world to be Pro-Choice.

If we are not free to choose then how will we grow?

The issue is not: Will limiting women's rights bring righteousness or evil? The issue is: What are the consequences?

Women of 2012 are not the women of the past. If abortion was illegal women would still be aborting children. Babies and mothers will die while doctors lose their licenses to practice. Young girls will become dependent on drugs or commit suicide at a hugely increased rate. Already over filled orphanages will become even more crowded. Ghettos will fill up as children are raised with absent or negligent parents. Crime rates rise and the world becomes a more uneducated, stagnant, and less righteous place.

Not because there are more babies in the world but because there are less choices.

We can not eliminate sadness or evil or misfortune in this world. We can not force people to be righteous. We can not force people to choose what we want them to chose.

Humanity must be allowed a choice. Our experiences and choices and consequences due to those experiences and choices shape who we are. They allow us to learn and to grow and to change.

Force will always be a greater evil then Choice.

In my opinion this issue is not about religion or morals, it's about choosing the lesser of the two evils. Because if you don't make the choice now. You may not be allowed the choice in the future.

My apologies to any offended.

Hey Suicide Girls, stick to nude photographs.

"it seems as if Republicans are going to war against damn near everybody but old, rich white guys."

Are we forgetting that the current president, a democrat, not only has continued our wars which Bush started but started new ones by ordering military intervention in Libya, Yemen and drone strikes in a couple other countries that we weren't bombing before? Give me a break.

Honestly the hypocrisy here is too thick to even cut with a knife..... like I said, stick to nude photographs. You're clearly not doing much thinking otherwise.

And you completely missed the point of the article. Good job.

I think some commenters here may have somehow, inexplicably, missed many key points brought up in this article. I;m not sure how someone, man or woman, would find it excusable to call rape "a gift from God". Really? REALLY? This is beyond right-wing...it is just flat out disgusting. And indefensible. Sorry, no amount of justification can even begin to make that statement acceptable. I agree with Morgan 100%... a woman's body is her own, she alone should be making decisions about herself. And to say that calling these Republican jackasses out is "insulting"? I find it even more insulting that anyone with a conquense can abide this, and many other statements brought up in this informative (and frankly shockingly disconcerting..this is 2012 America we are talking about, isn't it?) article.

Yeah, god forbid that anyone on this site be allowed to actually express an opinion. Tits or STFU!

So...neither of you read the article?

And, while I have not seen an SG modeling contract, I'm fairly certain it does NOT state "model is unable to state, or even have, personal opinions."

As a proud father of 2 girls and Marine Veteran, i 100% Agree with you both. I'm not going to beat a dead horse so i will only say there needs to be a healthy balance of church and state because as history has shown us: an improper balance of either or can bring down entire nations. It's already brought down empires, kingdoms you name it. My point being: Live your life, these kind of debates always happen, but in the end we are all still here. Just my 2 cents.

You're saying there shouldn't BE political articles.

Also, mingol was simply restating the whole "stick to nude photography" comment made above, but in a sarcastic manner.

Now that that is cleared up, do you have an opinion on the topic at hand, of the right wing attempts to limit access to contraception, to make abortion illegal, and basically try to force women into a 1960's sitcom role?

Well, maybe when the right does something to EARN respect, they will get it.

I'll try one more time:

<sarcasm> Yeah, god forbid that anyone on this site be allowed to actually express an opinion. Tits or STFU! </sarcasm>
<--- "whatever" smiley face intended to denote sarcasm

Yes, I defend the comment from someone I know to be feminist, because I know he was using the comment ironically to point out how stupid the idea of "stick to nude photography," a statement you supported, really is.

As to what you said, let me quote you:

The implication is that SG shouldn't be in the political commentary business.

Here: I have a suggestion for you. Several, actually.

1: Reading comprehension. Try it, you might like it.
2: If you don't like an article, write your own
3: Don't complain about "how badly an article is written" when using words like "red" for "read" and "sying" for "saying."