In 2008, feminism is still an f-word
Listening to: someone shovelling snow...
Reposted from: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/555539
by Antonia Zerbisias, Dec 19, 2008 04:30 AM
Exactly 40 years after the women's demonstrations that spawned the derisive label "bra-burners" - although no undergarments were set afire - we've come a long way, baby.
Trouble is, our shoes are higher-heeled than ever - and our feet are killing us.
Sure it's been an exciting political year, filled with promise. We witnessed two women, Hillary (sometimes Rodham) Clinton and Sarah Palin, come this close to the Oval Office. In the Great Pink North, the "socialists and the separatists" nearly took over because, among other things, Stephen Harper's Conservatives tried to kill pay equity.
Today, women have reproductive freedom. More women are independent, thanks to affirmative action hiring that gave them access to better-paying jobs. More women with more money helps them escape abusive relationships, as evidenced by the drop in reported femicides.
And the future looks bright.
Women outnumber men in most university faculties and, reports BusinessWeek, are better suited to the knowledge economy, "which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate. "
This while traditionally male jobs, in construction and manufacturing, are disappearing.
Could this explain the backlash women felt this year when, for example, media commentators resorted to misogyny when discussing Clinton and Palin? Are they and their legions of keep-the-little-woman-down fans actually afraid of girls gone wild with power?
Here in Canada, the year started off with feminists marking the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision R. v. Morgentaler that gave women the right to choose. But, for the rest of the year, the pro-forced-pregnancy faction, which prefers to be called pro-life although it cares not about the life of the female baby incubator, fought against choice.
First they - most Conservatives and many Liberals - voted to pass Bill C-484, which, according to legal and medical experts, could have conferred legal personhood on zygotes. Then they protested the appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada. Finally, after the Harper government backed down on its own bill because it did not want to "re-open the abortion debate," the party's convention put it right back on the agenda.
Things could be worse.
In the United States, it looks as if health-care workers at federally subsidized institutions - from physicians to pharmacists and even to the orderly mopping the hospital room floor - will get their "Conscience Rule," courtesy of lame duck President George W. Bush. This would give them the right to refuse to provide any procedure or medication based on their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.
This means emergency contraception could be denied to rape and incest victims if a druggist is pro-forced-pregnancy. It also means counsellors can withhold information about contraception. As well, it means that doctors can refuse to perform artificial insemination.
Anything to keep women hostages to biology, which is where God reportedly decreed they should be.
This would not be so annoying if it weren't for the mentally colonized women who have benefited from feminism while rejecting the label. (Sarah Palin had a love-hate thing with the word.) They say unbelievably stupid things such as - and I quote - "I believe in equality for everyone, not just women. Also, I believe in equal rights, not one group getting more than others."
Statements like that betray not only ignorance, but also the women who fought for our hard-won rights to speak out and make ignorant statements.
It wasn't so long ago that women, like children, were supposed to be seen and not heard.
So here we are, at the end of 2008, and "feminism" is still not only misunderstood and deliberately misinterpreted, it's still an f-word.
Count on me in 2009 to keep flipping the misogynists the bird.
Reposted from: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/555539
by Antonia Zerbisias, Dec 19, 2008 04:30 AM
Exactly 40 years after the women's demonstrations that spawned the derisive label "bra-burners" - although no undergarments were set afire - we've come a long way, baby.
Trouble is, our shoes are higher-heeled than ever - and our feet are killing us.
Sure it's been an exciting political year, filled with promise. We witnessed two women, Hillary (sometimes Rodham) Clinton and Sarah Palin, come this close to the Oval Office. In the Great Pink North, the "socialists and the separatists" nearly took over because, among other things, Stephen Harper's Conservatives tried to kill pay equity.
Today, women have reproductive freedom. More women are independent, thanks to affirmative action hiring that gave them access to better-paying jobs. More women with more money helps them escape abusive relationships, as evidenced by the drop in reported femicides.
And the future looks bright.
Women outnumber men in most university faculties and, reports BusinessWeek, are better suited to the knowledge economy, "which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate. "
This while traditionally male jobs, in construction and manufacturing, are disappearing.
Could this explain the backlash women felt this year when, for example, media commentators resorted to misogyny when discussing Clinton and Palin? Are they and their legions of keep-the-little-woman-down fans actually afraid of girls gone wild with power?
Here in Canada, the year started off with feminists marking the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision R. v. Morgentaler that gave women the right to choose. But, for the rest of the year, the pro-forced-pregnancy faction, which prefers to be called pro-life although it cares not about the life of the female baby incubator, fought against choice.
First they - most Conservatives and many Liberals - voted to pass Bill C-484, which, according to legal and medical experts, could have conferred legal personhood on zygotes. Then they protested the appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada. Finally, after the Harper government backed down on its own bill because it did not want to "re-open the abortion debate," the party's convention put it right back on the agenda.
Things could be worse.
In the United States, it looks as if health-care workers at federally subsidized institutions - from physicians to pharmacists and even to the orderly mopping the hospital room floor - will get their "Conscience Rule," courtesy of lame duck President George W. Bush. This would give them the right to refuse to provide any procedure or medication based on their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.
This means emergency contraception could be denied to rape and incest victims if a druggist is pro-forced-pregnancy. It also means counsellors can withhold information about contraception. As well, it means that doctors can refuse to perform artificial insemination.
Anything to keep women hostages to biology, which is where God reportedly decreed they should be.
This would not be so annoying if it weren't for the mentally colonized women who have benefited from feminism while rejecting the label. (Sarah Palin had a love-hate thing with the word.) They say unbelievably stupid things such as - and I quote - "I believe in equality for everyone, not just women. Also, I believe in equal rights, not one group getting more than others."
Statements like that betray not only ignorance, but also the women who fought for our hard-won rights to speak out and make ignorant statements.
It wasn't so long ago that women, like children, were supposed to be seen and not heard.
So here we are, at the end of 2008, and "feminism" is still not only misunderstood and deliberately misinterpreted, it's still an f-word.
Count on me in 2009 to keep flipping the misogynists the bird.