I’m on GRITtv today, dropping some sarcasm on our anti-choice House of Representatives.
GRITtv: Amanda Marcotte: Sexism Boehner’s Top Priority
The past couple of weeks have been exhausting, which is, of course, by design from anti-choicers. The idea is clearly to declare total war on women’s rights in hopes of wearing us down. Where they fail is in understanding how much feminists are ready for this fight. Most of us are exhausted mainly from the lack of support we get from our liberal brethren, who want reproductive rights to be a third tier issue so badly that they convince themselves that it must be one for the right, even though all evidence points to the fact that Republicans have used abortion more than any other issue for a scorched earth policy in eliminating moderates. We’re also exhausted from trying to convince our liberal brethren that anti-choicers really aren’t just super sentimentalists about fetal life, so much as hysterics that think female sexual liberation is the end of life as we know it. (And in a sense, it is, but only because life as we knew it was so terrible for women.)
These past two weeks have done all our work for us. It’s undeniable now that Republicans think stripping women of basic human rights is, to quote John Boehner, a top priority. Not a third tier issue. A top priority. And, it’s clear that the full court press to cut off federal funding for contraception is about cutting off funding for contraception. The head-in-the-sand strategy isn’t going to work anymore. Sure, the word “abortion” is being flung around a lot, but it’s clear from the Lila Rose videos—-and from the fact that Title X funds just don’t go to abortion, full stop—-that anti-choicers are making a big play to deprive low income and young women of contraception. Which is something pro-choicers have been saying for a long time now. The skepticism about this has been fading for years now, due to the push for abstinence-only education and the way the Bush administration wouldn’t let emergency contraception go over the counter. But this full-blown attack on contraception access is making it really hard to deny that anti-choicers are just that, anti-choice and anti-sex, and that anti-abortion is just the tip of that iceberg.
One idea I’ve been kicking around is starting a hashtag on Twitter this weekend in support of Planned Parenthood. A sort of thank you to the venerable organization for all they’ve done for Americans and American women in particular. I was thinking #thanksplannedparenthood, but that’s a little long, so I’m open to suggestions. But tweets could be stuff like, for instance, “5 years of contraception, 2 cured UTIs, reassurances I don’t have the clap. #thanksplannedparenthood” Which would be mine, obviously, but I think if we could get hundreds or, better yet, thousands of people doing this, we could put a face on the wonderful, wide-reaching, and necessary work Planned Parenthood does. What do you guys think?
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Came here to say what Eric said already. My vote’s on ‘#thanksPP’, though neither that nor ‘#ppThanks’ appear to be in use.
#ThanksPP is plenty good.
And YES about the blowback effect of this antichoice push; especially with the “screw the rape victims, screw the dying pregnant women” items, the Republicans did us the favor of ripping off their masks to show what’s beneath. They want us dead, or in danger of death, and suffering, and without resources. All of us. I’ve never felt such fierce solidarity with other women as I have this week, and every new bill just feeds the flame.
Apathy is much harder to deal with. I almost welcome this fight, except that I know there will be casualties along the way. But if they’re going to attack full out, then let’s fight already.
Could you edit your post here, when you decide what to use, so I can easily find the tag? I’ll try and remember to stop by this weekend, and post something on Twitter.
Great video comment. Not even very sarcastic actually. Just truth. I’ve written my Congressmen and Senators on this bill. Considering working on the Dems 2012 Senatorial campaign in Virginia in the wake of Webb’s announcement he’s not running. It will probably be Tim Kaine against George Allen (yes, the maccaca guy won’t just go away).
Most of us are exhausted mainly from the lack of support we get from our liberal brethren, who want reproductive rights to be a third tier issue so badly that they convince themselves that it must be one for the right, even though all evidence points to the fact that Republicans have used abortion more than any other issue for a scorched earth policy in eliminating moderates.
Should we even consider such people liberals? Is it even possible to be a genuine liberal without being a feminist? Perhaps in theory, but in my experience all the supposed liberals I know who aren’t feminist also tend to be pretty terrible liberals in many other ways.
Two examples come to mind. One justifies the Iraq War on the basis of some incomprehensible “wheel of history”/“might makes right” rhetoric. The other is a big devotee of conspiracy theories that include 9/11 trutherism and North American Union bullshit. Both of them feel like anti-choicers at least have a point about fetuses kind of being people and so maybe it is kind of murder etc. etc. When I told them that anti-choicers care a lot more about oppressing women than they do about fetal rights they acted like it was the craziest thing they’ve ever heard.
Weren’t they at one point in favor of mandatory sterilization of people on welfare? It’s hard to keep track.
@Comment #9: Triplanetary on 02/11 at 06:07 PM
Should we even consider such people liberals? Is it even possible to be a genuine liberal without being a feminist? Perhaps in theory, but in my experience all the supposed liberals I know who aren’t feminist also tend to be pretty terrible liberals in many other ways.
Maybe one should not consider anti-feminists liberals, though the more pertinent question is probably whether one should attempt to make common cause politically with such people. In general I feel like the answer to that one is also no. Of course “your mileage may vary”, as they say.
I know like zero about social media but I am a facebook member, technically because I never use it, and most of my friends are on facebook while like 25% of them are on twitter and less post regularly, as far as I know so maybe a facebook group for planned parenthood is freakin awesome would be a better way to go. Maybe there is one already and I’m profoundly ignorant but if someone sent me a message saying join the planned parenthood is awesome group message and it turned up in gmail I would be way more likely to register and express support than I would for twitter. (also if there is such a group please someone mention what it is)
but seeing that this is #tag thing maybe #womenarehuman or #forthosewhoplan or #choicematters
Planned Parenthood has a regular facebook page, as well as PPNYC, so I’m sure a search will turn up both local and national Planned Parenthood pages, pharmakos @ 12.
And FYI, for those in NYC, there’s a rally for Women’s Health in support of Planned Parenthood scheduled for Feb 26th!
http://www.ppnycaction.org/
http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/
Sorry about the lack of coding!
cool thanks. As I said zero social media awareness. The only thing on my facebook apart from friend’s updates is a picture of jesus on a cross saying “fuck this shit I’m going to mcdonalds” but its too small to read so sometimes people think i’m a christnut. I’ll have a search for the planned parenthood facebook.
I love the idea of a hashtag, but #thanksPP or any version of it might be too easily co-opted by the antis and PP haters, along the lines of “millions of dead fetuses # thanksPP,” or “that rash? it’s syphilis #thanksPP.”
It would be harder to subvert something like #mylifemychoice(s) or #mybodymychoice(s), but would that cover the “thank you” aspect enough if everyone knew it was for PP? #mychoicePP? #screwPPhaters?
#PPhelpedme
And I will finally break down and get a Twitter account just so I can post.
How about http://twitter.com/search?q=#thankspp
There’s already one comment on it.
Anything is easily co-opted, though.
these past couple of weeks have been SO blatantly “fuck women”! that even MY mother - she, the OB nurse practicioner who refuses to work anyplace that performs abortions, because while she doesn’t want them to be illegal, she doesn’t want to DO them - has actually started to understand what i’ve been saying about how losing abortion would lead, in 3 easy steps, to women being back in the kitchen.
before, she flat out told me that i was completely crazy. now, it’s “you have a point”
[sort of amusing rage story: recently, i began the Quest for mental health services because chronic pain = chronic depression. but i have Medicaid, and SO MANY mental health people don’t take it. one of the places i ended up was… not good. the “therapist” i was assigned was VERY CONCERNED that i was 33 [it’s my birthday, i am now 34] and had no kids. i told her pregnancy would kill me. she ACTUALLY TOLD ME that i should do it ANYWAY! as in “better to try and fail than never try at all” is what she SAID. i said “what, exactly, is the point of committing suicide in this manner? i mean, i thought you people were AGAINST suicide and all? and that’s what it would be - an incredibly painful and expensive SUICIDE”
nope. she was totally in the camp of “you learn and grow so much from pregnancy and motherhood, it would CURE YOU”
“yes. by killing me”
and she said - quoting EXACTLY, she said “well, everything has it’s downside”
i asked again what the fuck was up with her advocating suicide? she said i had a “responsibility” to reproduce. when i pointed out that i WOULDN’T be reproducing, because i’d be dead LONG before any such “baby” was viable, she then spend the rest of the session assuring me that my “baby would go to Heaven”
sure enough, it was a counseling center associated with FOTF - a thing that they DON’T advertise, and it took me days to prove it. i now have a MUCH better therapist who agrees with me that pregnancy would be suicide, and it’s HER JOB to try and help me to NOT suicide. and she agrees with me that it would INSANE to have kids, since i can’t even get dressed without help - how the hell am i to take care of kids???]
my insert-rant aside
Jeevmom - at one point, it was advocated by certain people that poor MINORITIES be steralized. but “white” women have some fucked up “responsibility” to reproduce [should i have told that crazy-ass “therapist” that i’m not actually “white”? would it have mattered? sigh]
i CAN’T get steralized - every time i’ve tried, it’s been “you’ll change your mind in a few years” or “we don’t do that until you’ve had X babies” or “we won’t do it without permission from your husband” [“I’m not married” “well, then, you don’t need it, do you? come back when you’re married if you can find a husband who will LET you get steralized. good luck with that”]
i’m REALLY hoping that, since i’m now 34, they’ll give over already!!!
i would contribute to that hashtag, once everyone decides what it is.
@denelian
The woman at that link asked her local PlannedParentHood for a list of doctors that offered steralization. The first doctor she talked to had no problem doing the procedure on a young woman with no kids.
I forgot to say, there’s pictures from her surgery at that link, if you’re squemish.
@denelian - true, but conservatives have long used “on welfare” as a code for “non-white.” I don’t think anyone ever thought Ronald Reagan’s welfare queen in the Cadillac was white. Conservatives are obsessed with the “problem” that non-white people have children - witness the whole “anchor babies” controversy. Their dedication to the sanctity of life has a distinct border when it comes to color.
Holy shit, denelian, that is horrible. It must have been hella traumatizing. I’m so sorry. I agree with #25 that PP might have some resources for you. You could also check clinics that serve trans people. IME, trans friendly doctors tend to be more on-board with “your body, your choice.”
denelian—a quick note to the local medical board pointing out that the so-called therapist suggested that suicidal behavior would be a cure for your issues might be, well, therapeutic for you! (And get the license removed from someone who shouldn’t be providing therapy to humans.)
Thank you, Amanda! This is so very important. Shortly after I moved to Oklahoma, I donated my very first car to Planned Parenthood OK. In a state like this, Planned Parenthood is absolutely critical. And while I’ve had many friends and loved ones who’ve benefitted over the years, it’s people outside my immediate, very middle-class social circle who benefit most of all.
@#9 Triplanetary:
Should we even consider such people liberals? Is it even possible to be a genuine liberal without being a feminist?
Well, they’re very much liberals in the Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal” sense.
I forgot to add: there’s a secondary reason that this effort is so important. The sorry endgame of ACORN has convinced the right that they can pick off progressive institutions—and enlist Congressional Democrats in doing so.
Planned Parenthood is the next target. It was a tragedy—and, frankly, an embarrassment—that we were unable or even unwilling to defend ACORN. We need to stop this long march through the progressive institutions _now_.
Even so-called progressives who don’t give a hoot about women’s basic rights should be worried about the attacks on Planned Parenthood in a “first they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist” sense.
#PPhelpedme
These are starting to sound more and more like hashtags for urine therapy…
If the idea is “i support Planned Parenthood because they support me (and over 100 million women like me”), the how about one of these:
#isupportPP
#supportPP
#isuPPort
#suPPort
Triplanetary:
Should we even consider such people liberals? Is it even possible to be a genuine liberal without being a feminist? Perhaps in theory, but in my experience all the supposed liberals I know who aren’t feminist also tend to be pretty terrible liberals in many other ways.
“Fauxgressives.”
Completely O/T: Atlas Shrugged, The Movie Trailer. Most of the comments are unintentionally hilarious.
Amanda- you are brilliant! Your comment regarding a lack of worries about where men put their penises & lack of impact or relationship to their medical care made me think of a lovely analogy, or maybe it something that should be written into a bill? What if, for every man who presents to a doctor with an STD, he had to prove he was forced to put his penis into whatever place he contracted the STD BEFORE he could get care? And he would also have to prove that he was forced to not use a condom? And that if he couldn’t, or if the event wasn’t deemed “bad enough” coverage would be denied? Coverage could also be denied if the doc thought that whatver the man had done was immoral or somehow rankled the doc’s religious beliefs. How about that? Makes me want to collect some gonorrhea cultures and visit Washington…
I cannot tell you how many times in my life some privileged white liberal dood has told me that abortion is a silly wedge issue and the Democrats should really let it go in favor of More Important Things like the economy and war. I’m with you, Amanda. I’ve had it with the condescending dismissive attitude shown toward my human rights by people who are supposedly on my side. And really, access to contraception, STI prevention and treatment, and abortion are massive economic issues. Have any of these genius male Dem strategists thought about what a hit the economy would take if women lost access to all of these things overnight?
i have tried the local planned parenthood - i asked for steralization, the offered me an IUD. i said i wanted a permanent solution, and they said that their local doctors don’t give steralization except after 3 kids or there’s a physical problem.
apparantly, genetic disease isn’t a “physical problem”
i have a new family doc who seems much more sympathetic, she’s working on finding someone to do it for me. so everyone please keep fingers crossed for me 
Amanda,
All I can say is a heartfelt “Thank You.” I read your posts every day, though, for whatever reason I cannot post from work. I am home sick today (feverish and all that).
Having been raised by a feminist and having two teenage daughters, I am glad to know that there are people like out there who are watching out for their interests in some ways better than I can. I have forwarded several of your posts to my older daughter to try to get her interest in politics, but so far no go.
Well done and Happy Valentines Day.
As someone who supports Planned Parenthood, I like the idea. Would #thanksPP be enough? Many of the regional Planned Parenthoods are of the form PP…