I was reading a blog post on Team Sarah which mentioned Gloria Steinem’s abortion. I did not know she’d had one. So I Googled “steinem abortion”. I was led to this website. The biographer (who I can’t figure out, as the tone of the article is not the usual in regards to how they talk about abortion and other issues) stumped me by this statement:
“In the midst of the Bill Clinton sex scandals of the 1990s, Steinem wrote in the op-ed section of the New York Times that the President could not be accused of having sexually harassed women during his political career, because, Steinem reasoned, he ‘took no for an answer.'”
In my opinion, President Clinton was the epitome of all things feminists should hate. He was the classical “Southern Gentleman” – smooth, suave, and dedicated to his family while he hid his vices. Yet his attitude toward women came out when we found out about all his misdeeds. You would think that feminists would turn their back on him then, but they just found a way around it. Just like they are doing now with Sarah Palin. She should be the epitome of all feminism stands for, but they are attacking her instead!! She didn’t need a man to become Governor of Alaska; unlike Hillary, who rode on President Clinton’s coattails the whole way.
Why is this? I think the author of the blog on Team Sarah hit it on the head –
“Still, it was uber-fem, Gloria Steinem, who placed her finger directly on liberal feminists’ true bone of contention with Palin, writing, ‘She opposes just about every issue that women support. … [She] opposes everything most other women want and need.’ Of course, Madam Steinem’s ‘everything most other women want and need’ can be summed up in a single word: abortion.
Palin blew it, you see. She made an unforgivable ‘choice’. She publicly expressed, through both word and selfless deed, that she values all people during every stage of development, from conception to natural death. Most egregiously, she refused the sacrificial rite of passage into authentic womandom. She declined to slaughter her own unborn child, Trig, to goddess feminism – even after doctors told her he was one of those Down syndrome throwaways.”
Feminism is no longer about what is good for women, about our rights or about protecting us against the male-driven climate that used to exist in America. The founders of the Women’s Rights Movement are rolling over in their graves now. They have to be, since the things they fought against are now the things feminism stands for! Mrs. Stanton & Ms. Anthony wanted women to be able to choose – to be married, to have kids, to own land, to work. In the time when the Women’s Rights movement came about, they were fighting against men causing women to get abortions. They wanted women to be free within their marriage to say “no” to their husbands (in regards to sex), and to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted children. Not to be forced to have sex and then forced to get rid of the unwanted child. Mrs. Stanton & Ms. Anthony thought abortion was one of the most egregious faults against a woman’s choice. They, like me, thought the choice came much sooner than human life – it came when the decision was made to have sex. Feminism has taken the whole cause of Women’s Rights and turned it on its head. Abortion was not a fundamental issue to the early feminists. I would almost say it was a non-issue. Their issues were more on our rights as citizens and humans, much like the Civil Rights movement was. They wanted women to be given the same rights as men – the right to vote, the right to drive, the right to work at any job, the right to own land … these were the issues that concerned them, not abortion.
Now we have a woman running for Vice President of the US. She has achieved her success by being completely woman – she has not played the victim to get where she is; she has not arrived where she is because of some man. Feminists don’t know what to do with her. She’s even a successful wife & mother (notice she isn’t divorced and her husband adores and supports her?! that’s totally against the feminists’ way.) who is kind and loving. She doesn’t have that aura of entitlement that so many women carry. Sarah Palin is who she is and has achieved all she has because (gasp!) America has progressed!! We, as a country, have actually put into practice all the ideas that were fought for in the women’s lib movement and in the Civil Right’s movement.
Maybe that is what is wrong with people. If they believe we’ve arrived, or at least achieved some success, they won’t have a job, or as hard a job to do. Something else to ponder.
The dishes are calling and the kids need some schoolwork guidance … guess I should quit hiding & rambling. thanks for reading, if you read all this!!
