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| Wed, 09-24-2008 - 6:43pm |
http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_266231148.html
>>My View: This feminist won't be voting for McCain/Palin
by Kathy L. Abbott, Salem Evening News, September 23, 2008
It's hard these days to figure out what a feminist looks like.
A hundred years ago any woman asking for the right to vote was deemed a feminist. Today it's not just going to the voting booth that makes you a feminist, but who you vote for once you're inside.
Fifty years ago demanding the right to work made you a feminist. (Even I remember the pain of hearing my high-school English teacher tell us that it made no sense to hire women. They were just going to get married, get pregnant, and quit anyway, so why not give the job to a man in the first place.) Today women are not only expected to work, they are also expected to pull double duty and raise their children at the same time.
Forty years ago asking for the right to choose an abortion automatically made you a feminist. Today abortion is often seen as a religious decision rather than a woman's issue.
Thirty years ago a woman had to fight to keep her maiden name. Today my lesbian niece fights to have the same last name as her legally married partner.
What does a feminist look like today? All my life I've been an active feminist. But these days when I advise women to breast-feed their babies for at least two years, people often think that my advice implies that I don't value a woman's right to work. (I'm a professional lactation consultant. Two years is the recommendation from the World Health Organization.)
When I was young I worked hard for a woman's right to work and to push through all those glass ceilings. Now that I've been a mother for 11 years, I find myself working equally hard for the right to stay home and do what only a woman can do — mother her own babies.
I find it scandalous that the United States is one of only three countries in the world that does not legally guarantee a woman's right to maternity leave (paid or unpaid).
For me, becoming a mother radically changed my outlook on what a feminist should look like. Because only women can get pregnant, give birth, or breast-feed, I now see the issues surrounding these events as not only women's issues, but as feminist issues. When women are discriminated against for choosing the "mommy track" or for demanding a decent six months off for maternity leave, or fighting for the right to pump their breasts at work (nurses and teachers have to fight the hardest for this one!), I feel compelled to raise my voice in solidarity. For me, accommodating the realities of motherhood is the greatest feminist issue we face today!
As for abortion, getting pregnant made me rethink that as well. Because I was 38 when I got pregnant I was at a high risk for Down syndrome. Before conceiving, my husband and I talked about terminating if tests showed a high probability of risk.
But then I actually got pregnant. Despite my husband's wishes I refused to even take the test. I was ready and wanted this baby, normal or not.
It shocked me that I would feel so strongly about this. But the bottom line was it was my choice, not my husband's, not my government's, but mine alone. It was a choice only I could make. I intend to fight for my daughter's right to choose as well.
So what does a feminist look like today?
On the surface Sarah Palin does look like a feminist. She's a working mom who not only votes but who has risen high in political office. But what I see is a politician who has taken a very strong stand against a woman's right to choose an abortion. What I see is the mother of a 4-month-old baby with Down syndrome who is not only working as the governor of a large state, but is now running for vice president.
Here I am fighting to give women the right to stay at home with their newborns for at least six months, and Palin is out there using her 4-month-old infant for photo-ops in a run for the White House.
Today a feminist looks very different to me than when I was in my 20s. Today, in my mind at least, a feminist is a person, male or female, who fights for equal rights for women, who fights for a woman's right to determine what happens to her body, and who fights for her right to actively mother her own children.
Times change, the things we fight for change, the face of feminism changes. Thirty years ago I would have been overjoyed to see a woman on the GOP ticket. I would have automatically assumed that she was a feminist and that we shared the same values.
But today it is clear that Palin and I do not share the same values. For 30 years I have let my feminist values determine which lever I will pull when I step into the voting booth, and this year will be no different.
So please tell Sen. McCain that even though I think it was a gutsy move to put a woman on his ticket, the woman he chose does not in my mind represent today's feminists. And because he chose Sarah Palin, Sen. McCain will not be getting my vote this year. <<



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I don't really want to get into the whole debate but I did want to add one thing - has anyone noticed that NOW (the National Organization for Women) is supporting Obama/Biden not McCain/Palin?
Btw, sorry if someone already mentioned this and I'm just rehashing old information. I can't remember everything said in every post. :-)
Chrissy
mom to Aidan 8/21/03
Grayson Blaine 12/30/07
of course they are ... b/c the McCain camp is pro-life and the Obama camp is pro-choice ...
just b/c she's a woman doesn't and shouldn't automatically = support of women's groups everywhere.
Sandy's right--it's a one-issue endorsement. I believe NO woman will EVER get the NOW's endorsement unless she is pro-choice.
They should call themselves something else--the National Association for Women refuses to associate with so many women, the name's become pretty much an oxymoron.
They do call it something else - It's the National
Whoah...just got up from a 2 hour nap...and I'm pregnant...makes me a little...uh....off!
Thanks, and I restate my prior contention that the National ORGANIZATION for Women still ought to call themselves something different as they seem to be rather AGAINST so many women it's still an oxymoron.
Thanks for gettin' my back!
{{{yawn}}}
More like the Nation Organization for Liberal Women in Western Civilizations.
They don't seem to care about the rights of those that don't toe there line. I always wonder where the outrage is when a women in Iran or Pakistan is stoned to death for looking at a man the wrong way.
Amen, sister!
Your girls are DARLING!
Now wait a minute, isn't it a little hypocritical to call yourselves "pro-women" and "pro-life"? The pro-life position is the ultimate in telling other people what to do wouldn't you say?
Then again, I guess that dichotomous thinking just becomes a way of life after a while. And frankly, where are all those "liberals" and "feminists" that you guys think gang up on you on iVillage?
First of all, pro-life is pro WOMAN in that it is, first and foremost, pro HUMAN. The fundamental human right to not have your life cut short by another person, to me is a more fundamental right than any issue that pertains only to women.
Second, pro-life IS pro women--certainly many babies that would be born would grow up to be women.
Finally, pro life is as much about telling people what to do any more than homicide laws ofr traffic laws are about telling people what to do. We are not free to live our lives with no restrictions, and the government tells us what we can and cannot do with our bodies all the time. We cant's shoot heroine, we can't hijack planes, and we can't kidnap another child to keep for ourselves. Homicide laws are not "anti-women" just because women can't legally plot the murder of an abusive husband 5 years after the divorce just because they finally understand what happened to them. It's still a crime, and it should be. I can be pro-life and respect ALL life, born and unborn, and still be pro-women. It is about prioritizing the rights of certain human beings to live, and prioritizing that protection above the rights of others to be free from from the discomfort and inconvenience of 9 months of pregnancy.
We are told what to do and what not to do all the time by our government. I still have the right to believe what I wish. And my beliefs about human rights are perfectly consistent with my belief about women's rights. Perhaps the desire of one person to choose to end the life of another is properly subordinated to the right of another to live. And perhaps that's not about women at all, but about human beings.
In the reverse, isn't it anti-human life to call yourself pro-choice? Isn't the pro-choice position the ultimate in telling others what to THINK and BELIEVE?
>>Isn't the pro-choice position the ultimate in telling others what to THINK and BELIEVE?<<
No, by definition, pro-choice allows every woman to decide for herself how much of herself and at what point in her life she is willing to sacrifice for another life. Pro-choice allows for those who would terminate a pregnancy and it allows for those who would choose to continue. Only the pro-life side dictates to others what to think and believe. The pro-life position is that every woman's fate is sealed once she is pregnant. She must carry the baby to term and she must birth the baby, regardless of her thoughts and beliefs.
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