Obama, Not the GOP, Started the 'War on Women'

If these "silent majority: the conservative women who are too busy raising families, paying bills, and making a living." women would rather listen to Rush Limbaugh, then I feel sorry for them. If Rush was so good then why doesn't he run for president instead of playing arm chair quarterback? All Rush is interested in is speaking loud, hurtling insults and getting paid. What has Rush done for any woman lately aside from getting a divore and paying through the nose for it? In fact Ms. Schlapp and Ms. Day what has the likes of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorium or Newt Gingrich have in common with you? That is the main question that you need to be asking. Remember too that your very right to vote was made an amendment under a Democrat

The Woof of AR 4:41PM April 12, 2012

"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain..."

I feel like this is an aptly chosen quote given the atmosphere in which a woman today might find herself, but I would argue no "man" wages war alone. Sole accountability for war does not fall to the individual who helps to wage it. Rather, war is collective, strategic, and systematized.

This is important to consider as, at this very moment, women are being systematically deprived of their freedom of reproductive choice, of their right to regulate their own biophysiological states, and of their right to refuse gratuitous medical treatments (in order to exercise their right to access other, more necessary and relevant ones). Moreover, in some states, a woman's fair and equal access to necessary medical treatment has been impeded and institutionally undermined through newly made law.

Women are being unequivocally disempowered as overzealous policy makers spin legislative webs around them and force distastefully crude policies upon them, without giving pause even to consult them. And as Mr. Limbaugh's recent fantastically misogynistic behavior shows, there is no longer space in this sort of fetid atmosphere for civil discourse. Though you say it is President Obama who has contrived this "War on Women," I can't help but notice that after Ms. Fluke was subjected to injurious political crossfire, it was he who reached out to her personally to make amends. In terms of warlike rhetoric, it is plain to see that President Obama is not the warmonger...

In the wake of these conservative legislative instantiations, as I lose my power of choice over my own future and that of my family, I can't help but notice who in this fray remains unscathed. Men can pontificate and legislate on issues that will never ever directly affect them. Consequently, in their power of choice, in the power of their voice, and in the power of their decisions, they remain perfectly autonomous. What else can I conclude, but that in this social environment, someone else's sustained benefit comes at my expense? That in this world of cost and benefit, someone with legislating power has decided that my sovereign autonomy is a necessary and expendable cost? Certainly someone stands to gain, and if it is not women, then who else is left?

Luckily, sociological principles supplant untenable beliefs that reverse sexism exists, and I do not believe that this is an "it's-me-or-them" scenario. Thus I do not plan on making war on men in return. However, though I never expected to confront these issues in my lifetime, I am prepared to do so. (I am only 25 years old, and I naively thought my autonomy as a woman had been vouchsafed for me by my feminist ancestors.) Indeed, in reflecting on your post, I can see that someone else has waged this war and brought it to my doorstep.

Also, finally, I feel compelled to say: If your post accurately represents your thoughts surrounding these issues, then you are unquestionably delusional.

Liza Ankudov of FL 10:39PM April 10, 2012

If Obama was, as you claim, trying to regain his advantage with women voters, can you really blame him? The loss of jobs that has happened under his administration wasn't an attack on women, whereas the GOP mandated changes to women's reproductive rights were. The attention of women and men alike *should* be drawn to these attacks on reproductive rights. After all, job losses and the economic situation are not direct effects of Obama's policy decisions-- anyone with a clue could tell you that a number of different factors give rise to the economic situation at any given time. One cannot say that same of personhood amendments and transvaginal ultrasound legislation-- these are direct consequences of policy decisions. The attention of the nation should be drawn to these changes that will have serious consequences for many individuals.

However, perhaps I'm expecting too much an individual who chooses to listen to a man who called a woman trying to access contraception a "prostitute".

Alex of OR 5:27PM April 10, 2012