Salon: Ending the downward spiral on women’s rights

[maddezmom]

The battle for birth control revives a feminist movement that was dormant and defensive

Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell agrees that the state should not compel a woman seeking abortion to take a probe up her vagina. Polls show that even Republican women flee the specter of Rick (no amnio) Santorum, opening a gap in his improbable march to the nomination. And these are considered feminist victories?

Where once angry feminists flooded the streets of New York with photogenic protest marches and vowed to “take back the night” on campuses across the nation, now they’re grateful that their penetrator is not the government they elected. Where abortion was legalized and protected in every state in the nation, now they fight the government they elected not to empower their employers to deny them birth control insurance. Where once feminists combined support for the Equal Rights Amendment with campaigns to address the scourge of breast cancer, now they fight their own cancer charity, the Komen Foundation, not to victimize Planned Parenthood.

Amid all the celebration of the reversal in Virginia and in the Komen Foundation and the insurance of birth control in the Affordable Care Act, one thing remains true: If that’s where the battle over women’s lives is taking place, you’ve come a long way, baby. A long way down, that is.

For 40 years, women, the majority of the population and the majority of the electorate, have been the Sleeping Beauties of American politics, slumbering obliviously while vigilant and relentless adversaries surround their rights with a thicket of thorn trees.

more; http://www.salon.com/2012/02/24/ending_the_downward_spiral_on_womens_rights/singleton/

While I don't care for a lot of blame game going on in this article, I believe some great points are made. We all need as women/feminists, no matter how we label ourselves to get together and take on the people that are intent in taking us back to the dark ages.

[HockeyMom]

1. We told you so

We older women who fought these battles could see the writing on the wall for decades. We knew that they would not be satisfied with just attacking choice like abortion but the whole kit n kabootle; from contraception to marriage to women in the workplace.

They want to CONTROL women and sent them back to the 13th century. The easiest way to do this is to keep women from becoming pregnant and controlling their own bodies and lives.

[TheMastersNemesis]

3. Younger Women Need To Engage

Younger women need to engage in this fight otherwise they will lose all their rights. It is hard to believe that many of the gains of the 60's, 70',s & 80's, have been lost.

The latest assaults are the GOP's final assault in an effort completely take away women's rights. The battle must be won and the war on women ended forever. That means a war on the GOP and the churches who are pushing this sadistic agenda. These are NOT religions and are fair game.

[dynasaw]

4. This Older Woman Agrees

Having been on the front lines it's been painful to hear many a younger woman say "I am not a feminist, but . . ." as if feminist was a dirty word. As I approach my seventh decade just thinking about having to fight the battles all over again makes me want to cry.

[TheMastersNemesis]

5. Ambracing Feminism

Women should embrace feminism. Making it a bad word was a way to disarm women. I would embrace the term feminist and if I were called a feminazi I would embrace that as well. If I were a woman and someone challenged me with that full I would have said Yes, I am a feminazi. What private parts do you prefer to lose first". Women need to get mad as hell and just go after these evil bastards.

[yardwork]

7. "I'm not a feminist, but...." I was thinking about starting an OP on that topic.

Hope you don't mind.

[dynasaw]

11. Be My Guest

This old feminist has often thought of having a button made that says "left wing atheist feminist." Part of the denial by younger women has to do with how the right wing has hijacked the word and twisted what the word means. It's time to reclaim the word don't you think and make it mean what it was meant to mean.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. The GOP And Their Fundy Church Allies Will Never Give Up As Long As They Exist

The "personhood constortium" has said it will never give up until personhood is the law of the land. That they will put personhood on the ballot in every state in every election until the end of time. Colorado alone faces a third vote in 2012. The fundy Churches have allied themselves with the Catholic Church indicating they will never give up until birth control is completely extinct. And GOP politicians have agreed to pursue this agenda on behalf of these entities indefinitely.

This blitz of new anti women laws is just the very beginning of a long war against womens rights. It will not end unless women and supportive men "castrate" them politically and put an end to their pogrom. Losing is not an option. Only a scorched earth counter attack will end this threat permanently.

[yardwork]

6. I object to the characterization of Susan G. Komen Foundation as OUR cancer charity.

Komen is and always has been a private family foundation. It does not belong to feminists, it is not controlled by feminists, and now a lot of us have learned that it's been right-wing from the very beginning.

Agree with the OP - I don't like the blame game tone of this, but the overall point of the article is good.

[DURHAM D]

8. This is the line that pissed me off -

"Maybe it’s the fault of the ’60s feminists."

I have never shutup about anything relating to women. I have lived in parts of eight decades. I will never be silent. It is just hard to get folks to listen.

[Neoma]

10. I hate them with a passion.

[Neoma]

9. Well, here's some reasons young women haven't.

1. We got comfortable in our rights. It's assumed to be there.

2. We go to college. We work. We have kids. Who has the time?

3. As far as others see, our rights have always have been there. No one has been teaching our history to us.

4. People are afraid of protesting. The media shows the blood, but not the peace.

5. Sometimes, there's just not enough money in the world to hire lawyers. Or hitmen. (Joking on the hitmen part.)

That's all the reasons I can think of.

[dynasaw]

12. Actually, Number 1 ought to be simply

not knowing the history. I've just retired as a college professor and you'd be surprised at how the 60's and 70's may have well been in the middle ages. The whole narrative of where women have been and how we've got to the present is one blank wall I am afraid for a great many younger women. All of your reasons are personal, and so they ought to be, but I think it terribly important that women need to also see themselves in a historical context. We can't see the gains or losses without knowing history. Used to be an old phrase that got a lot of going: "The personal is political."