When it comes to women’s rights, you have to take out the party rhetoric. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are Republicans FIRST, women’s advocates second. It’s one of the biggest reasons we can’t seem to move the equality ball along in the U.S. I firmly stand by the fact that gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown were equal when it came to platforms – both were pro-choice, both wanted to create jobs, and balance California’s lopsided budget – and yet, the National Organization of Women endorsed Brown (a man). Why? Because Whitman ran as a Republican. California lost a brilliant business woman because people chose party first.
The political rhetoric is furious on both sides and most recently, I am taking issue with writer Michelle Chen for her Huffington Post article, The Republican Attack on Women’s Health Goes Global:
“What does a congressperson from Ohio have in common with a 16 year-old sex worker in Cambodia? They’re both symbols of the perverse political stalemate in Washington, D.C., that threatens to set back the struggle for women’s equality around the world.”
A sex worker in Cambodia is a symbol of the “perverse political stalemate in Washington, D.C.”
Really. She cites a recent meeting at the United Nations that shows a lack of progress in “women’s health, education and political and economic empowerment.” That’s her best resource? The UN, which put Saudi Arabia on its UN Women’s Council, the same country that refuses to allow women to participate in the Olympics (one of only three countries), a country where women are now suggested to give breast milk to unrelated males in order to be able to co-mingle. Seriously. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Chen is so focused on her thesis statement, The Republican Attack on Women’s Health Goes Global, she is blind to the big elephant in the room.
So, please, stop. All the women out there who profess to be for women’s rights and can’t wait to point fingers at political parties are no help to us at all. We will never be empowered if our goal is to be “the better party.” Here’s a secret Ms. Chen: Neither the Democrats or the Republicans care about women first. If you’re aligned with a party. Great. That’s your agenda. Then you are NOT a defender of women’s rights.
Yes, we know there is a legislator in Georgia that is putting forth bills that will affect women including proposing a change from rape “victim” to rape “accuser.” We also know that his bill will never make it out of rules and using him to denounce the Republican Party is useless.
That whole issue about “redefining rape” went viral AND it wasn’t even correct. Lastly, the “cutbacks” on funding abortion was part of Obama’s compromise on the healthcare bill. In fact, most states don’t provide funding at all and “defines” rape as as the GOP proposed already – “forcible.”
So, please, stop trying to take down the GOP and start lifting up your GIRLFRIENDS. Women’s rights and equality have no place in a skirmish between which party dislikes us the most. Neither gives a damn. It’s time we realized that.