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- Social Security,
Medicare and civil rights for ALL Americans regardless of color,
gender, religion or life style have always been championed and protected
by Democrats. LIFE SUPPORT!
- Environmentalists
work to keep us from poisoning our air and water; to maintain a balance
in nature to protect our priceless heritage of plants and animals in a
natural ecosystem. LIFE SUPPORT!
- Women's groups
such as NARAL, NOW and Planned Parenthood have fought the battles
for reproductive rights from the Supreme Court to the terrorists at women's
clinics. They have championed our right to choose what is best for us and
our own bodies. LIFE SUPPORT!
- Gun control laws
that keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals and oppose the
NRA. LIFE SUPPORT!
- School lunch programs, Head Start, Family leave and all the other programs for working families care for and promulgate help for those who are in need of assistance. LIFE SUPPORT!
THE SACRED AND THE MUNDANE
Let's take the sacred first and get that over with. We want to commend Pat Ireland for demonstrating that women are not allowed to make jokes that reflect on the sacred male organ. That has always been verboten but we may tend to forget it. It is doubly forbidden when one uses the words soft or flaccid in conjunction with it, and especially if the ambrosia from god, Viagra, is mentioned. Even the most constant sweet smile is not enough to dispel the anger and disapproval this causes.
Now for the mundane. Nothing has been clearer in this whole business with the Cheney/Bush cabinet nominations than what (or who) is or is not pro-life, but it sure isn't those who claim the title. All you have to do is look at the people opposing those nominations. Call them civil rights groups or call them Liberals or call them Democrats or call them Union members, their guiding principal is LIFE and LIFE SUPPORT!
Those who say they are pro-life are really talking about interfering with a woman's choice. They attempt to mask their intentions by piously pretending to champion fetal life. They care very little for the woman's life, her liberty or pursuit of happiness. Generally, those same people are against gun control, women's reproductive rights, environmental protection, social assistance programs and interracial progress but are usually for the death penalty.
They have turned the language against us and by so doing have won the propaganda war, claiming that they are for life and we are for murder. In the hearings this week, John Ashcroft piously spouted the rhetoric that turns more and more Americans against women's reproductive rights. Over and over he took every opportunity to say unborn children when he answered a question on abortion AND NOT ONE SENATOR TOOK HIM TO TASK FOR IT!
We've heard plenty of spin from the Supreme Court about equal protection under the law. It was used to stop the vote count in Florida. Why then is there not equal protection under the law for women? Does the Constitution not apply to us? It gives the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, yet our bodies are still under government control and subject to legislative whims. It is the most blatant form of sex discrimination. Males are always allowed the privacy of medical treatment of their choice.
We must stop pussyfooting around and claim our equal protection under the law and it must start with each of us preparing to resist further restrictions on, and threats to, our freedom based solely on our gender. We've been coasting but now we must get up to speed, and in the words of an old song, "We've got to change our way of thinking and if that ain't enough, we've got to change the way we strut our stuff."
We know that for eons women have been forced to smile all the time around males or get whacked, so we know smiling has becomes nearly involuntary for some women. It may be that some of our leaders, who smile constantly for the media, just don't seem to realize that they are doing it and that it is not appropriate.
We
are in a struggle for our very lives as this new administration
tightens its power over us. Now is NOT the time for women to temper their
words and actions with a smile that belies their determination and intention.
Please understand. We do not decry smiling in the correct context, but
when you are in the trenches and the guns are going off and are aimed at
you, a constantly smiling face becomes just a big target.
James Bond's boss in Tomorrow Never Dies, is a woman who does NOT smile inappropriately. In one scene, a Brit general and she were in opposition as to the proper course of action to take. The General said to her, "I don't think you have the balls for this job." She replied, "Perhaps, but the advantage is that I don't have to think with them all the time."
2001-003
Copyright
2001 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished
for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that
this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@gendergappers.org.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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