I'd rather play at hug o'war

...or How the Republican Party is Seriously Doing Women Wrong

I know people want to just chuck everyone in Congress out on their asses, but Delaware Republicans seriously think Christine O'Donnell is a VIABLE senatorial candidate?



NO, SERIOUSLY?! She's a fucking moron. She doesn't even get that the audience is NOT laughing because she PWN'D Coons, but rather they're laughing at her stunning idiocy.

Also, I find it very telling that an ad was produced, aired, and then quickly yanked from the airwaves in Nevada urging Latino voters to stay home from voting rather than go Democrat after Angle once again stuck her foot so far in her mouth, the search team still hasn't recovered it. On Friday, she actually told a group of Hispanic high school students she thought they "looked more Asian" and that she was the first Asian state legislator in Nevada.

First, she mistakenly says that she has to pay (via her insurance) for other women's maternity leave (uh, no, dumbass) and suggests that since she's done having babies, let's get rid of it, amirite? She then used air quotes to talk autism. In another recent gem, she repeated the long-since debunked urban legend that the 9/11 hijackers entered the US via Canada (NEWSFLASH: THEY DID NOT. Each of them was granted a visa by the US).

I guess it's nice of them to be so fucking into their own ignorance that they do all of this with cameras rolling, but that the race is still so very close in Nevada because as a Nevadan noted on ontd_political most folks aren't supporting Angle, but rather voting for anyone that isn't Reid. If she actually makes it to Congress, Nevada, you let me know how that whole cutting off your nose to spite your face worked out for you, 'kay?

When novels like Speak and Living Dead Girl aren't so immediately devastating because there are too many baby girls who have had the agency over what happens to their bodies taken away violently, then I will submit to you.

When books like The Natashas or videos like A Teenage Girls Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery no longer apply to the daily realities of girls and women around the world, then I will submit to you.

When a court in the UNITED STATES doesn't decide that once sex has started, I lose the right to say no, when such laughably offensive language as "re-flowered" isn't actually used in the LEGAL OPINION, then I will submit to you.

When my daughters and granddaughters are not taught from birth that what lays between their legs is something that others will try to take by force if they aren't careful; when I'm not linked to cereta's post and find myself nodding my head, or getting a knot in my stomach when inlovewithnight says by way of linking: "The idea of all the things I haven't done, the experiences I passed on, because nobody wanted to go with me and it just wasn't the smart/good/safe thing to do by myself," * because I KNOW that feeling, then I will submit to you.

When my reproductive rights are no longer a topic of debate in the political discourse; when doctors are not gunned down for giving me the opportunity to exercise my right; when you can read personal testimonials like Gretchen Voss' or Lynda Waddington's and understand that abortion is never an easy choice but it MUST remain A CHOICE at every stage of pregnancy, then I will submit to you.

Are you seeing a theme here? So until then feel free to be offended every time I openly laugh in your face when you grumble about us "independent women" and our inability to "submit to our men as the bible says" because let's not get it twisted: I totally mean to offend the fuck outta you.

*This is actually directed at one man in particular, but I thought I'd just make it an open letter to all of the mens.

THANK YOU. I just love it when the menfolk, who, you know, DO NOT HAVE A UTERUS, think they need to have a say in what we womenfolk do with ours. Or protect us from ourselves and pesky little things like DECISIONS.

GET IT, PAM KARLAN.

Beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Oh, Jordin Sparks. I couldn't stand you before when you came out in favor of the anti-choice stance and in such an obnoxiously pretentious way, but then you go and do this? WHAT THE FUCKING WHAT? I know you're young. I know it is the right of the young to be pathetically know-it-all when it comes to their beliefs; HOWEVER, when you go throwing the SLUT word around like that? That's when we're going to have a problem. We females have enough of a problem handling that kind of shit from the male sector. We don't need our fellow sister-in-arms helping out the other side's cause.

So, STFD and STFU.

On a side note, thank you, John Legend, for the very pointed way you held up your hands. ILU, BB.

THANK CHRIST SOMEBODY FINALLY SAID IT.

benita_butrell wrote this comment in response to Kira Cochrane's excellent article Now, The Backlash, which discusses the anti-feminist rhetoric (and blatant misogyny) abounding these days, freely and proudly (in most cases).

"It's coming. You don't feel the earth under your feet? I do, and you couldn't pay me to call myself a feminist.

This election has drawn a pretty deep line in the feminism sand (usually found in numerous vaginas). You have HillBillies, who want success for all women as long as they're named Hillary Clinton and consider her failures to represent the failures of all women, and you have the sane feminists who realize there's no law against Hillary running again in four years, who appreciate Barack's voting record even though they may not like him, and who are just as geeked at the thought of a woman vice-president as they are of a woman president. Those feminists are asking some hard questions: why, if this election was about breaking the glass ceiling, is Obama being warned against bringing Sebelius on the ticket? Why aren't feminists rallying behind Cynthia McKinney? Why haven't they embraced Obama on his pristine record involving women's rights, and what kind of feminists (or Democrats, for that matter) would vote for a man like John McCain? And why aren't you getting any answers to any of these questions?

It's never easy to watch the group you identify with and have worked so hard for become a gigantic, self-destructing ball of fuckery, burning out every ounce of respect and pride your group could once say it had. (I'm ex-Army JAG Corps. The knife in my heart STAYS twisted.) But as much as you love your heroes of feminism past and can barely believe whatthebluefuck is happening or why it's happening, there comes a time when you have to move on or risk inertia. HillBillies are too busy enjoying their newfound victim status. They'll lick their wounds and whine about how we're all second-class citizens because some rich white senator ran a shitty campaign and didn't get what she wanted, ignoring the fact that she didn't deserve it, didn't work hard enough for it and took the entire freaking election for granted. Those "feminists" are too tired or too lazy or too stupid to keep going, preferring to end the race under the tree of BAWWWWWWWWW!!!! But the rest of you will move on, muttering, "FUCK that, we've got work to do," and thanking the Great Goddess of Feminism that they're smart enough to 1) learn from the mistakes of others and 2) cut dead weight while bringing new blood along. Feminism isn't trendy (3rd wave), nor is it a burden (2nd wave). Like water, it's ever shifting, changing and powerful and - as evidenced by the Great Wall of Silence between white women and women of color - destructive. I think we'll be looking at a fourth wave in the next decade or so, and I think it'll be the strongest, move diverse wave this country's ever seen. But until more feminists call out their sisters on their shitty, petulant, childlike behavior, this wave is going to stick around for a long time."

This comes on the heels of yesterday's post concerning Pfc. LaVena Johnson and the atrocious handling of her murder at the hands of - most likely - her fellow soldier(s) while serving over in Iraq. She is, sickeningly, only one of 10 similar cases, wherein female soldiers, all sharing the common thread of rape immediately preceding their demise, are determined by the military to be suicides.

art_house_queen and ladypolitik are discussing ways to get her story out there on a national scale and force those in charge to give her family the answers they deserve. At the very least visit the blog linked above (via her name) for contact info for all of the senators and representatives on the Senate and House Armed Forces Committees and call and/or write any of those in your state/district.

Excellent piece from The Nation (link provided by hana_ginakawa) Race to the Bottom, in which Betsy Reed discusses the longer reaching implications of HRC's tactics in this primary race, i.e., playing the race card. Personally, I think she's royally screwed any female from running for the next several years, if not decades, and it really grates my cheese how she's successfully divided the feminist movement. Yes, it IS horrible the misogyny she has faced in this election, but her win-at-all-costs, fuck-the-party ideals are just beyond the pale.

And war4l posted Tim Wise's EXCELLENT Of National Lies and Racial Amnesia: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the Audacity of Truth on ontd_political. I can't even fully articulate how amazing this is, only tell any and everyone to read it.

Alice Walker endorses Obama. It's a long but wonderful read. My God, I am speechless.

Link from ap_racism