bumper sticker madness

I saw a bumper sticker today that read "Real Men Love Jesus".

I'd like to design one that says "Real Men Love Consent". Because seriously--we women can march the streets day and night crying out to stop sexual assaults, but it is the men (who commit the majority of sexual assaults) who need to be taking more action.

Men--stop laughing at rape jokes*. Stop implying women are 'asking for it'. Start treating all females the way you would want any and all men to treat your girlfriend/wife/mother/sister/daughter (and if you're okay with any of these women in your life being attacked, you are in need of serious help).

Or let's broaden things more: "Real Men Are Respectful". There are plenty of ways to be disrespectful without being a sexual predator. You don't even need to be a feminist/egalitarian. I find nothing inherently disrespectful in complementarianism if it's entered into of one's own accord. Not my thing, but whatever.

Just be respectful of your fellow human beings. I don't need to be put on a pedestal for being female, but don't try to knock me off my feet either.




*unless, and I find it highly unlikely, you're using humor as a way of dealing with your own experiences as a rape victim. People use humor to deal with all sorts of trauma.

Stupak and health care

I stand with Stupak. Do you?

Words cannot describe how pleased I am that a Democrat is taking such a strong stance for the unborn. I identify as liberal in *most* other ways, but I cannot stand with my liberal brethren when they take a stand against the unborn.

Cecilia Brown of PLAGAL (Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians) wrote an excellent post on the topic here.

From the article: It is my belief that we should focus on making abortion unthinkable by finding the root causes of abortion and dealing with those issues. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the most common causes are either financial reasons, or that another child would interfere with their work, education, or ability to care for other dependents.

This is why I like groups like Feminists for Life. They believe in eliminating abortion by removing the social and economic inequities that cause women to feel like they have no choice but to kill their children.

Does that make me a socialist? If so I'm not the only one. In 1911, Emma Goldman wrote in Mother Earth: ""The custom of procuring abortions has reached such appalling proportions in America as to be beyond belief...So great is the misery of the working classes that seventeen abortions are committed in every one hundred pregnancies."

Women Deserve Better.

Voices from our feminist foremothers

Found at Feminists for Life:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
She classified abortion as a form of "infanticide." The Revolution, 1(5):1, February 5, 1868

"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library

"There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this. But where shall it be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?"
The Revolution, 1(10):146-7 March 12, 1868

Victoria Woodhull

The first female presidential candidate was a strong opponent of abortion.

"The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus."
Woodhull's and Claflin's Weekly 2(6):4 December 24, 1870

"Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth."
Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard, November 17, 1875