Motley Moose – Archive

Jubilation!! The War on Women is Over!!! Woo hoo!!!! Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the muu-sic!!!!!

Fresh from the shores of Nonsensia:

– “Debunking the “War on Women” – Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

– “If There Was A War on Women, I Think They Won” – Rand Paul, Meet the Press

– “Women don’t want equal pay, they already get ‘exactly what they’re worth'” – Martha MacCallum, Fox News

– “Women are better off barefoot and pregnant” – Mike Huckabee, Anywhere That Would Have Him

– “I support pay equity except the part about ‘voting for it'” – Cathy McMorris Rodgers, SOTU Rebuttal

Wait a minute. :::consults notes:::

Much like how the White Privileged Males on the Supreme Court declared that there is no longer a need for that pesky Voting Rights Act because there is no racism in America, the right-wing pundits and politicians have declared that there is no longer a War on Women. So don’t worry your pretty little heads … just become a Stepford Woman vote for Republicans who only have our best interests at heart.

Despite not being constitutionally eligible to seek the office of President of the United States, Alexander Arefyev, the coach of the Russian men’s ski jumping team, staked out a position that would certainly give him a claim on the nomination.  Explaining his opposition to women’s ski jumping, an event being added to the Olympic program for the first time this year, Arefyev said:

“I admit, I do not advocate women’s ski jumping,” he said in Russian. “It is quite heavy and traumatic sport. If a man were seriously injured, it is not fatal, but for all women may end up far worse. If I had a daughter, never would give in jumping – it’s too hard work. Women have a different purpose – to have children, do housework, to create a family home. (emphasis my own)“

I guess that means women should be off to pop out the babies, cook dinner, wash the dishes and clean the floor?  Given the high level of social conservatism in Russia, is it any surprise that he would feel so free to make this statement about women’s “different purpose,” by which it’s really meant that women shouldn’t stray from their “proper place?”

I don’t know about what other people might think, but that sounds a lot like what many Republicans would like given the degree to which they want to regulate women’s bodies.  The only difference is that very few of them are that explicit about it.  And if a Republican candidate was explicit about it, I sadly have no doubt that he would immediately shoot to the top of the polls for saying what so many were already thinking.

They’re all wrong about the fact that a woman’s place is in the house.  Nope, a woman’s place is in the House (and, hopefully come 2016, the White House too).

Sondra Haltom, founder of Empower the Vote Texas, is correct when she reminds us that we simply cannot afford to freak out or to freak others out when dealing with the Republicans’ new voter suppression law requiring photo identification to vote. As Texas Democrats help voters deal with the confusion and obstacles created by this unnecessary law that is being challenged in court, we need to try to focus on voter protection. What that means in practice is to not just get angry, but to get informed and to get active.

I went to the rally at the Texas Capitol today. Wow. It was just amazing. People came from all over the state. We filled the whole south lawn — all the way down to the street, and it’s a big lawn. And it was noon on a Monday in Texas. I’ve got lots of pictures

Anyone who doubts that Texas is now a battleground state should take a second look at the hard-fought battles-including Thursday’s “people’s filibuster”-during the past week after Republican Gov. Rick Perry, at the urging of Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, added onerous abortion restrictions to the special session, restrictions that would close all but 5 abortion clinics in Texas even though the GOP-controlled legislature had failed to pass any anti-abortion bills during the regular session.

Please Stand With Texas Women today as our Democratic Senators filibuster Senate Bill 5 while other Democratic politicians, women’s health advocates, activists, and ordinary Texans support this battle to prevent Republican Senators from passing their anti-woman, anti-abortion omnibus bill in the final hours of this special session, which ends at midnight.

Dems Approach Abortion Victory as Special Session Wanes

Texas Democrats, far outnumbered by Republicans in both the House and the Senate, are nonetheless on the verge of killing one of the most restrictive abortion proposals in the nation – at least for now.

Using delaying tactics and parliamentary rules, the minority party argued into the wee hours in the state House on Monday morning and then stuck together to keep the GOP from jamming Senate Bill 5 through the Senate in the afternoon and evening. Republicans vowed to try to muster enough support to push the bill through Monday night, but that effort failed. […]

Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat and rising star in the party, has vowed to launch a filibuster. Unless Republicans can change some votes, the abortion measure can’t be brought up for debate until Tuesday morning at about 11 a.m. Since the session ends at midnight Tuesday, that means she could kill the legislation by talking nonstop for about 13 hours.

As Democratic Senator Wendy Davis leads the filibuster, she needs Texas women to share your stories:

Stand with me tomorrow, and share your story with me so I can tell it from the Senate floor. http://t.co/svlU3seE6z #SB5 #txlege

– Wendy Davis (@WendyDavisTexas) June 25, 2013

Filibuster: 2 hours @WendyDavisTexas going strong with less that 11 hrs to go. Stand with Texas women. #txlege #SB5 pic.twitter.com/278MDqjgWN

– Sylvia R. Garcia (@SenatorSylvia) June 25, 2013

To start with, let me be clear: The oppression and general subjugation of women is not an exclusively Republican issue. Measures proposed, adopted, or supported by some Democrats, such as the Stupak-Pitts amendment and the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, make that clear. Nor is the oppression and subjugation of women even an exclusively male issue. The fact is, a lot of conservative women adhere and/or contribute to the doctrine of male domination, perhaps because it is politically useful (see Palin, who is no feminist), or perhaps because they have simply been indoctrinated to do so. Despite all the calls for equality and the efforts of feminists throughout the country and around the world, everyone who has grown up in the United States has been influenced, in one way or another, by the pervasive and prevailing mindset of masculine domination. Some of us are more resistant to indoctrination than others, but few are entirely immune. We are all subject to the influences of gender stereotyping, no matter how careful our parents may have been to prevent it. Every day, we are inundated with indoctrinating images and ideas, through television, literature, music, and innumerable other mediums.

What is most important isn’t that we are completely free of assumptions about the opposite sex, or even our own, but that we strive to understand the causes and effects of sexism and rail against it when we perceive it.

Note: This is an update to a diary I did a loooooooong time ago. It’s got plenty of new articles, new stats, new pics, etc, so hopefully the updates will be of interest to some. Cross-posted at GOS.