Day Late
Yesterday was International Women's Day. I should have posted this then, but as a modern woman, I was busy. I was:
* Working at a job I really and truly enjoy
* Checking on my daughter at school
* Researching images for a new social story for JP
* Printing placecards
* Speaking to Bolduc's about the team hoodies for the basketball teams
* Working on my ceremony
* Prepping cue cards for the wedding
* Knitting a bit
* Cooking dinner
* Cleaning
* Homework
* Trying to brush an unwilling cat
* Picking up bridesmaid dresses
* Walking around my house wearing my wedding ring
* Sleeping
Life is rocking and rolling and honestly, its all good stuff. None of these things involved hospitals or sickness, so its all fine.
In honor of International Women's Day here is a belated post. But first a picture I stole from Reddit:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote a terrific post about this holiday and pointed out that its been around for over a century and yet the world is still largely a place where women are relegated to the status of "property." In Afghanistan women can be legally lit on fire by their husbands for speaking without permission. If a woman is raped, she is imprisoned and shamed and held responsible for the rape. Women cannot hold property or drive a car.
In the United States we are called "sluts" for taking birth control. We are still fighting for equal pay for the same work. We have come pretty far, but this current debate about medical care, insurance and preventative medicine has shone a blaringly bright light on where exactly the nation is at.
The one positive thing that is coming out of this incredibly humiliating, horror show of a Republican nomination process is that we are learning the language of the Religious Right. Make no mistake, these beliefs about women's healthcare are not new. We've just recently gotten the proof we needed to verify that yes, these people exist and the double-speak can be translated with certainty.
The issue though isn't that a group of white dudes could be so blatantly horrible. Its that women are voting for them! We are 51% of the population. Approximately 35% of those women are Republican. Meaning they agree with denying women the right to receive medical care for ALL their parts. Make no mistake, that's exactly what is on the line here. The current debate is about offering birth control through insurances and would likely involve a copay. Free birth control is not the issue here. Insurance coverage for birth control is.
In a year's time, the name Santorum will be relegated to its Dan Savage definition and nothing more. He and the empty suit that is Romney and the piggish Gingrich and the totally un-electable, faux Libertarian Paul will fade into the wrong side of history. One day they will be a by-line in a history book and I'll have to explain to my sons who they were and the kinds of horribleness they believed in. These antiquated, dusty old men who don't even truly understand what birth control is, how it works and the benefits it provides their own wives (Gingrich alone has a harem) and daughters.
All I can say is that American women will not stand for this. We will come together and fight and we will win. If I can do all those things listed up there in a single day, what the hell do you think we can do as a whole? Over the course of say, an election year?
* Working at a job I really and truly enjoy
* Checking on my daughter at school
* Researching images for a new social story for JP
* Printing placecards
* Speaking to Bolduc's about the team hoodies for the basketball teams
* Working on my ceremony
* Prepping cue cards for the wedding
* Knitting a bit
* Cooking dinner
* Cleaning
* Homework
* Trying to brush an unwilling cat
* Picking up bridesmaid dresses
* Walking around my house wearing my wedding ring
* Sleeping
Life is rocking and rolling and honestly, its all good stuff. None of these things involved hospitals or sickness, so its all fine.
In honor of International Women's Day here is a belated post. But first a picture I stole from Reddit:
 | |||||||||
| Rebecca West |
In the United States we are called "sluts" for taking birth control. We are still fighting for equal pay for the same work. We have come pretty far, but this current debate about medical care, insurance and preventative medicine has shone a blaringly bright light on where exactly the nation is at.
The one positive thing that is coming out of this incredibly humiliating, horror show of a Republican nomination process is that we are learning the language of the Religious Right. Make no mistake, these beliefs about women's healthcare are not new. We've just recently gotten the proof we needed to verify that yes, these people exist and the double-speak can be translated with certainty.
The issue though isn't that a group of white dudes could be so blatantly horrible. Its that women are voting for them! We are 51% of the population. Approximately 35% of those women are Republican. Meaning they agree with denying women the right to receive medical care for ALL their parts. Make no mistake, that's exactly what is on the line here. The current debate is about offering birth control through insurances and would likely involve a copay. Free birth control is not the issue here. Insurance coverage for birth control is.
In a year's time, the name Santorum will be relegated to its Dan Savage definition and nothing more. He and the empty suit that is Romney and the piggish Gingrich and the totally un-electable, faux Libertarian Paul will fade into the wrong side of history. One day they will be a by-line in a history book and I'll have to explain to my sons who they were and the kinds of horribleness they believed in. These antiquated, dusty old men who don't even truly understand what birth control is, how it works and the benefits it provides their own wives (Gingrich alone has a harem) and daughters.
All I can say is that American women will not stand for this. We will come together and fight and we will win. If I can do all those things listed up there in a single day, what the hell do you think we can do as a whole? Over the course of say, an election year?
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