Supporters of legal abortion and the federal contraceptive mandate demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington June 30. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
Posted on 07/14/2014 3:47:00 PM PDT by NYer
The Hobby Lobby case pass set off an unabating, shrill firestorm. Late last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued this warning about the Supreme Court: “We should be afraid about this court … five men can decide if a woman can use a diaphragm.” Somehow, poor Nancy misread the case.
Among the publishable screeds – many others are too crass to even quote – there is an odd, recurring pattern: like Pelosi, very few actually address the real issues of the case. Hillary Clinton, a lawyer whom one would hope had actually read and understood the Supreme Court ruling, contributed this dire warning to the debate: “It’s very troubling that a salesclerk at Hobby Lobby who needs contraception, which is pretty expensive, is not going to get that service through her employer’s health-care plan because her employer doesn’t think she should be using contraception.” Even the Washington Post, recognizing the unbelievable misfire on the topic, gave Clinton “two pinocchios” for this comment, stating that “Clinton was leaping to an assumption about the impact on employees.”
A Slate article, adding to the sensational rhetoric, resorted to an ominous tone: “The Supreme Court term wrapped up nice and neat last week. Unless you are a woman.” The decision, the author claimed, still has women reeling over its implications. Reeling? Really? Because a few very select bosses in the country aren’t required to pay for your abortifacients?
One often hears about the “fog of war” that comes about in battles, in which the truth is difficult to discern, only clarified later by time and distance. Somehow, however, the fog around the so-called “war on women” seems to be self-imposed and self-perpetuating.
Ours is an age of tyrannical feminists. Using shrill voices, dialed up to the highest pitch possible, these women warn of impending catastrophe from anything that might not align with their current allegiances, while actively drowning out dissent. Think Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood. Even issues that may actually be harmful to women—such as the links between cancer, heart disease and strokes and the pill, or the connection between breast cancer and abortion—are tactfully hidden as non-issues. Wendy Davis’ rise to fame in Texas came on the heels of filibustering a law that would put the most basic restrictions upon abortion clinics required by every other sort of medical facility in the state of Texas. Why should abortion clinics have lower medical standards than even most nail salons?
The concocted “war on women” is sheer marketing genius, epitomizing these feminist tyrants. It offers the perfect blend of baseless outrage, lies, and bullying. And it is vague enough that it can be molded, with some fancy fabrications, to almost anything. Which means that every woman can become a victim. Think of poor Sandra Fluke who might have to pay the $9 a month for her own birth control while studying at Georgetown Law.
Meanwhile, those who dare to object to this war must really either be sexist—think of those five evil males on the Supreme Court Bench—or stupid, or a religious fanatic, or—in most cases of dissent—all of the above.
Nowhere is there actually room for authentic discussion or debate. If one foolishly tries to engage in the like, the feminine tyrants’ playbook dictates that they simply turn up the shrill comments, boycotts, scary threats, lawsuits, whatever. Who can be bothered with truth? Ironically, this form of feminism, which is supposed to showcase women’s mental alacrity, engages very little of it.
The feminine tyrants’ rhetoric, while exemplified in the reactions to the Hobby Lobby suit, is masterfully used on a regular basis. Like the little girl who has learned the power of her tears and tantrums to get what she wants, these big girls are getting their way with more sophisticated and meaner tools. And it is not just limited to Washington. Gloria Allred and most of the hosts on “The View” might have advanced degrees in the subject.
Beyond the piercing rhetoric, bigger questions remain. What has happened to women? Is this the kind of women we want to be? The kind of women we want our daughters to become? Or that we want our sons to marry? Angry, irrational, confrontational, dishonest, and, when necessary, self-made victims?
Feminine tyrants are nothing new, but having a gag upon the media, Hollywood, and politics leaves those of us who want to live a more authentic form of femininity with little room. True femininity has been brushed aside in the power struggle, depriving us of even a few cultural role models. Most of us can only point to examples we encounter in our daily lives: mothers, sisters, friends, nuns, teachers, doctors, grandmothers, and so forth, to articulate what it means to truly be a beautiful woman.
Gratefully, as Catholics, we aren’t simply left to this loud crowd to shape our own understanding of what it means to be a woman. Two thousand years of Church history, the examples of the saints, and the wealth of the Old and New Testaments, offer countless examples of true femininity. Pope John Paul II’s “Letter to Women”, discussing what he called “the Feminine Genius,” can also guide our thoughts.
Scripture makes clear right from the start that if we get to the women, we get to everyone around them(thanks, Eve). But this cuts both ways, for ill or for good. Throughout the New Testament, most of the major events of Christ’s life start with women: Mary’s fiat, Elizabeth speaking for Zachariah, Mary at the Wedding Feast of Cana, Mary Magdalene being the first to see the resurrected Christ. It is almost humorous to imagine any of these three women engaging in feminist warfare about anything (and certainly, if anyone was entitled, it was Mary, the Mother of God), but their quiet examples offer hope to those of us who don’t want to buy power with our pitch, prevarications, or legal punches.
Today, the feminine tyrants’ whine is about abortifacients purchased by employers (or whatever else one wants to spin out of the case). Who knows what it will be tomorrow, but whatever it is, expect more shrillness, lies, bullying, and self-made victims. The best way to disarm these big girls is to identify and expose their tactics and then simply ignore their tired old tricks.
Upset at the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, last Thursday 29-year-old feminist New Yorker Jasmine Shea decided it would be a great idea to leave condoms randomly around a Latham, New York, Hobby Lobby store and spell out the phrase “Pro-Choice” with block letters in various places. Of course she took lots of selfies posing next to her artwork to post to Instagram and Twitter. For that she made a national story in The Washington Post July 9.
Hobby Lobby Vandalism Activism Hyped by WaPo, Feminist Sites
Another testimony to ignorance. Hobby Lobby pays for 16 different forms of birth control, just not the abortafacients.
I am not sure if even Laz would “hit it.”
I made the mistake of looking up the word Misandry (man hating) the other day. If you want a wake up to what radical feminists believe go have a look. BTW most believe Misandry can’t exist because men are in power and Misogyny is supposedly all about power. You should see the mental gymnastics they do to excuse themselves from any sort of bad behavior and to accuse men of everything bad and then say they do not hate men. Know thy enemy!
A bunch of harpies should not get to speak for all women.
That's the essence of feminism - non-responsibility. These collective, shrieking cowards have no problems destroying lives as long as they stay anonymous and part of the "group." But make them personally answer for themselves, like they use the group's power to personally destroy people? What, are you kidding? Try their own methods against them and they're grabbing their gold star badges, white wine, antidepressants and smartphones and they are OUT of here.
Lowlife, scheming, sadistic scum, the likes of which have crawled around the baseboards and dark corners of the world for thousands of years, rising into light at last like the uruk-hai. They mass together like clouds of buzzing locusts, eating and eating and eating and destroying everything and everyone in their paths. Gloating and laughing over the destruction, claiming all life and all good, while empowering nothing but collectivist evil and death, utterly shameless and proud of it. Monsters from hell, nothing less.
bump!
Don’t hold back brother LOL. I wonder if those people ever wonder why they are never happy and live miserable lives despite their circumstances.
They're fighting tooth and nail, lol!
100%
Feminism is a self-selected group mental illness. It asserts that women are strong and capable, yet weak and vulnerable all at once. They’re survivors/victims.
It’s nuts and it sends the wrong message to girls and young women. At its heart are a group of wealthy women who wish they were the men they hate.
How mature. I’m sure that was so very effective and changed a lot of minds with its carefully thought-out appeal to logic.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.
Hey NYER AND They got best health coverage for female employees in any public company HELLO LOL!
She’s making the point that free abortion is what they want. The “contraceptives” are just a smokescreen.
#toomuchtimeonyourhands
I find it rather funny in a way. They are throwing a fit because they are saying, in effect, they are to silly to stop having unprotected random sex and their employers (owners?) have to foot the bill.
They are screaming in order to be placed back into the chains of the old pagan world, where women were property. They are literally begging to be less free, for what the employer has to pay for, he gets some control over.
What is the most womanly thing a woman can do? Have a baby. She is not "pro-choice", she is anti-procreation.
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