Dissecting feminazi thought can be a draining, thankless job, considering that it entails grappling with some of the darkest aspects of human nature. But nestled among the freakish rationalizations for killing babies can be found occasional sources of entertainment, my favorite of which is when their ideological hang-ups lead them to turn on each other.
Such is the case with Robyn Swirling’s latest post at RH Reality Check, which identifies the War on Women’s latest offender – Barack Obama:
In the last four years, President Obama has done some great things for women: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, expansion of women’s health services under the Affordable Care Act, support for Planned Parenthood. And I was happy last night, in his State of the Union address, to hear him push for Congress to vote on the Violence Against Women Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Live Action regulars are well-versed in the ways ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood aren’t “great things for women” at all, and the Ledbetter Act, VAWA, and paycheck fairness are similar concoctions, meant not as solutions to real injustices but as weapons with which to malign Republicans as sexist – as helpfully demonstrated by Swirling’s condemnation of Republican lawmakers Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Virginia Foxx as “traitors to their sex.”
But I digress. What slight could possibly anger the feminist gods enough to negate such a generous offering?
But I was disheartened by his reasoning for why Congress should do these things: “We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence.” [Emphasis mine.]
My worth as a woman, and as a person, is not imbued by my relationship to someone else. I should not be granted rights and protections because I am somebody’s wife, mother, daughter, or sister. I deserve those rights and protections by virtue of my status as a person and as an American citizen.
Oh, the horror.
After running down a few more examples of Obama calling women, uh, wives, mothers, and daughters, Swirling argues:
Boys and men are frequently implored to think of abstract women in relation to themselves – what if she, the woman you’re harassing or thinking of raping, was your sister, your girlfriend, your mother? How would you feel if someone did that to her?
Well I am someone’s sister, someone’s girlfriend, someone’s daughter. But I don’t think that I should be able to walk down the street without being cat-called or followed or assaulted because someone suddenly realizes that I could be their sister, their girlfriend, their mother. I should have the right and the freedom to walk down the street unmolested because I am a person. Because I am a woman who should have all the same rights and bodily autonomy as that man who yells as I pass that he wants to touch my breasts and then calls me a bitch and follows me home when I have the gall to ignore him or call him out on his misogyny.
Show of hands: how many pro-choicers can say with a straight face that they would honestly read that much into Obama’s phrasing? How many truly believe that Obama (or his speechwriter) intended to convey, or the average listener would conclude, that women have worth only through their relationships to men?
Odds are that most pro-choicers are rolling their eyes at Swirling’s nitpicking, and some might even feel embarrassed. Here’s the thing, though: she’s merely taking the War on Women’s standard demagoguery and applying it more consistently. Lefties who think she’s giving Obama a bad rap have only developed an appreciation for rhetorical common sense and charity because theirs is the ox being gored.
Her twisting of Obama’s words is no worse than what the left subjects pro-lifers to every day (which Obama himself is all too happy to benefit from). Here’s a partial list of the most popular subliminal messages pro-aborts have divined from pro-life speech:
- “Babies have a right to be born” became “women don’t exist” and “women are just incubators.”
- “Sex has consequences” became “women deserve punishment for having sex.”
- “People should exercise personal responsibility” became “women shouldn’t have sex lives.”
- “Life is a gift from God” became “God wants women to get raped.”
- “Abortion is murder” became “let’s throw women in jail.”
- “Pro-life laws should punish abortionists rather than pregnant women” became “we don’t really think abortion is murder.”
- “I disagree with liberal feminists” became “let’s silence women and have men dominate the country.”
It would be nice if the occasional taste of their own medicine instilled in pro-choicers some appreciation of intellectual honesty and willingness to stick to debating the things pro-lifers actually say. But it’ll never happen. So we’ll just have to enjoy the sideshow and hope the inanity of the infighting jars a few of their more moderate followers to their senses.
