Posted on 11/27/2009 6:26:31 AM PST by GonzoII
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Susan B. Anthony
1820-1906 |
Some equate feminism with a virulent leftist political philosophy that advocates abortion, lesbianism, pornography, witchcraft, and goddess worship. In fact, however, this "neofeminism" is far removed from the ideals and goals of the 19th-century feminists, who were strongly rooted in the Judeo-Christian concepts of morality and justice.
For most early feminists, Christian idealism was the motivating force behind their demands for the reform of attitudes and laws that allowed the suppression of the weak.
Besides pleading the cause of women, they were active in the abolition of slavery, in establishing the rights of Native Americans, in reform homes for prostitutes, in protection of children's rights, and in the temperance movement. The rights they demanded for women and minorities included the right to own property; the right to participate in government; opportunities for advanced education; equal employment opportunities; equitable wages; and, above all, the right of all people to be treated with respect.
These goals were, and are, very much in keeping with the Christian's call to reform the world, and they continue to be a part of the modern feminist movement.
Early feminists and sexual reform
One of the chief goals of the early feminists was reform of sexual abuses. They emphasized two basic Christian concepts: mutual fidelity and mutual respect.
They condemned male promiscuity, and denounced the social injustices that induced their sisters to degrade themselves in lives of prostitution. They demanded that husbands honor their commitments to their wives, and that sons learn to honor the integrity of all women. Equal rights, they believed, could be achieved only by fidelity, mutual sacrifice and commitment. Self-control, not self-indulgence, was their solution to marital unhappiness.
Wives, they insisted, cannot be treated like prostitutes, available on demand without regard to their feelings, desires or health. Love for and from the husband is necessary. Feminists opposed "enforced motherhood," a euphemism for unwanted sexual intercourse. To achieve both practical reform and the elevation of wives' dignity, feminists demanded "voluntary motherhood," the wife's freedom accept or refuse intercourse.
"Voluntary motherhood" was revolutionary. At that time, both religious and civil law emphasized the "conjugal rights" of the husband. The concept of marital rape was scarcely understood. A wife was expected to submit to every sexual advance of her husband no matter how he might treat her.
Condemnation of birth control and abortion
The twin demands for marital fidelity and marital respect led 19th-century feminists to take a strict view of the means by which procreation could be regulated.
 Feminists also condemned abortion. They insisted it was immoral to kill an unborn child. Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhill, and virtually every other noted feminist leader of the last century described abortion as "infanticide" and "child- murder." |
They condemned artificial contraception as "unnatural, injurious, and offensive" to women. They believed that contraceptives in the home would further entrench women in the role of sexual objects for their mates. Contraceptives would deny women their rightful fertility, turning wives into little more than prostitutes, always "safe" for husbands to exploit to satisfy their passions. Contraceptives would also free men from the fear of an untimely pregnancy and so remove the one emotion to which women could appeal when faced with unwanted sexual advances.
Widespread contraceptive use, feminists argued, would encourage promiscuity, undermine chastity, lure their husbands and sons into illicit sexual exploits, and expose more women to seduction, abuse and abandonment.
Feminists also condemned abortion. They insisted it was immoral to kill an unborn child. Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhill, and virtually every other noted feminist leader of the last century described abortion as "infanticide" and "child- murder."
They also asserted that abortion was just another tool by which women were exploited. While they did not exonerate women from the crime, leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Gage charged that abortion was a "degradation of women" and that "most of the responsibility for this crime lies at the door of the male sex," who beg, cajole and even force women to have abortions. Alice Paul, author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923), stated that "abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women," the escape route men use to avoid responsibility for their own sexual acts. These visionaries would not have been shocked by the results of a 1984 study that found that 60% of women seeking abortions felt "forced" to do so by others.
The early feminists' complaints about "enforced motherhood" and their demands for "voluntary motherhood" did not imply a right to abort "unwanted" children, or even a right to use contraceptives. They merely wanted respectful, sensitive husbands who could control their desires in accordance with their wives' desires or health needs.
The seduction of feminism
Abortion was the antithesis of feminism's egalitarian principles until the mid-1960's. Then population-control zealot Lawrence Lader persuaded a reluctant Betty Friedan, founder of the National Organization for Women, to adopt abortion as a central element of neofeminism. Lader was a founder of NARAL (then the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws), and has repeatedly supported the State's right to force women into unwanted abortions for population control and eugenics reasons.
According to Lader, "It was the surge and fervor of neofeminism that paved the way for the abortion movement. Each was essential to the other." He gave Friedan singular credit for "pushing an abortion plank" into NOW's agenda at its 1967 convention even though "a lot of delegates resigned" because of it.
In return for accepting a leadership role in the stalled abortion movement, "neofeminism" gained the support of population controllers and leaders of the sexual revolution, who in turn provided financial and political muscle to aid the budding feminist movement.
The right of women to "control their own bodies" also provided an essential focus for the movement's ideology. Since that time, young feminists have been taught to see abortion rights as the overarching symbol of bodily and social independence. Without this freedom, they are told, women are enslaved by their biology.
The symbolic importance of "choice"
Neofeminists treasure this "right to choose" above all else. Justice, morality and health are less important. Feminists can truly see themselves as pro-choice, not pro- abortion. A woman may choose against abortion for moral or health reasons, but it is her choice; even if all abortions are immoral or dangerous, she must be free to choose.
This is why so many feminists resist talking about the morality or safety of abortion, whether the child is a person, or how abortion affects women.
Pro-life feminists, like all truly Christian reformers, defy categorization as "liberals" or "conservatives." They have remained a voice for the authentic rights and dignity of women, without sinking into amoral sexual ethics and revolutionary theologies. |
But not all feminists defend "choice" without examining what it really means, and those who have taken a closer look have found it to be a betrayal of women's rights and of children, and an abandonment of their daughters and sisters to the exploitation of irresponsible men and an unloving society. One such feminist is Pat Goltz, who was called before a tribunal of her state NOW chapter, tried and "excommunicated" for her vocal pro-life views. A Return to Pro-Life Feminism With Cathy Callahan, Pat Goltz founded Feminists for Life of America (FFLA) in 1972. FFLA has grown steadily since then; their newsletter, "SisterLife," contains articulate and logically consistent articles defending the rights of women and children. These are the true heirs of 19th-century feminism, continuing the tradition of respect for all persons. FFLA emphasizes the destruction that abortion inflicts on a child, mother and society as a whole. They argue that abortion rights have negated the gains of feminism by reducing the status of women and covering up the need for authentic help for women in problem pregnancies.
"Abortion, by encouraging society to consider a woman's child as a disposable piece of property, reinforces the image of the woman herself as disposable property and a reusable sex object," states an FFLA membership flyer. If an unborn child can be treated without respect, how can neofeminists hope to secure respect for women? Besides condemning abortion, FFLA has denounced the spread of ineffective and dangerous contraceptives foisted on American women. Instead, they encourage natural family planning as superior, effective and enhancing respect and mutual responsibility.
Pro-life feminists, like all truly Christian reformers, defy categorization as "liberals" or "conservatives." They have remained a voice for the authentic rights and dignity of women, without sinking into amoral sexual ethics and revolutionary theologies. They have maintained a truly feminine vision of their rights and duties as sisters, mothers, and co-workers with God. Their slogan is "We are homemakers-and the world is our home."
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
David Reardon. "The Changing Faces of Feminism." Celebrate Life Magazine (1994).
Reprinted with permission of Celebrate Life Magazine and David Reardon.
THE AUTHOR
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David C. Reardon, Ph.D., director of the Elliot Institute, is a biomedical ethicist and a leading expert on the aftereffects of abortion on women, a field in which he has specialized since 1983. He is the author of numerous books and popular and scholarly articles on this topic. Dr. Reardon's first book Aborted Women, Silent No More, published in 1987, became the best-selling book on abortion's impact on women over the course of the next fifteen years. It has been called "the most powerful book ever written on abortion." He is also the author of Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion, and Making Abortion Rare: A Healing Strategy for a Divided Nation.
Copyright © 2009 Celebrate Life Magazine
BUMP for tonight.
And BTW, I already own half of the property and all of the (you know what) so there, LOL!
Ardent feminist Joy Behar has criticized Sarah Palin for having a career even though Trig has special needs. Behar has also called Todd Palin a "bum" for staying home with the kids while his wife earns the money.
Feminists saluted Bill Clinton for sexually harassing the young girls who worked for him and for demanding sexual favors. Way to go Bill!
Yeah, feminism isn't so pretty these days. Better put some ice on it.
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I thought Mr. Palin did have an outside occuaption. Didn't he work on oil wells and/or as engineer? Perhaps he works from home ...my brother does that now. He retired from his job with the local electric company, but he acts as a consultant for them and does a lot of work over the internet. Anyway, what does Behar know?
Behar is a stupid witch of a woman. If she represents women's liberation, that's ok — I'll stay “unliberated.”
I have always maintained that I was a TRUE feminist. When I explain my position to a neofeminist, they blanch. Tough, you are not a feminist if you do not stick to the ideologies of feminism. That hijacked crap about pro choice,abortion as a choice, contraception and the like, has done exactly WHAT to promote the treatment of women as equal to men?
It has in fact gone so far as to lessen the men instead of raising the women, same as any marxist endeavor. Men have no say over their own child, whether it lives or dies. If a woman chooses to have the child, he is on the hook for child support even if he didn’t want to have the child. Abortion is 100 percent for one party of a 50/50 deal. Women want to be treated as equals, yet balk when a man doesn’t treat her like a lady. If she is EQUAL to a man, why should he open a door for her, pay the check, buy her flowers or any other sign of trying to woo her? Neo feminists are so dumb, they failed to realize the facts. Men are put over women as the stronger sex in order to PROTECT and care for them. Real men raise up real women on a pedestal. A man is the head, but the woman is the neck; with love, the neck turns the head.
Women should submit to their husbands, but that does not mean be at their beck and call no matter what, otherwise, the other half of that scripture makes no sense; Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her. A husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the Church including and up to giving his life for her, protecting her, defending her, and loving her above everything else. Too bad todays men are mostly castrated by the system and are not worthy for my submission to them. Many would hide behind me for protection instead of laying down their lives. We see evidence of this all over the conservative movement- women doing the job that men can’t do (Palin, Bachmann) while the men hide in the senate and house waiting for someone to save them.
Stand up men! There are loads and loads of real feminists out here that have your back. We are tired of being kicked around by the neofeminists and are awaiting our pedestals. We are sick of hearing that we actually set the cause back by choosing real men, staying home to care for them and our children, and then if we do venture out for a career, being verbally assaulted by the likes of the red headed twit on the view.
I am very thankful that on FR, there are scores of real men who are not afraid to embrace both their station in life and the defense of mine! Thank you to all the real men on this forum for being the men God intended you to be, and mostly, I thank God for bringing me my husband, a Godly real man, who gave me 3 beautiful, sons, and for being the example of a real man to them, and for them following his example to become the men they are today! I am truly blessed!!
BTW contraception helps turn men into effeminate wimps.
You are a courageous, articulate woman and your husband is one lucky man.
You summed it up nicely. The purpose of the feminazi movement is not to elevate women but to reduce men. And to share with women the weakest features of men — promiscuity, superficiality, and irresponsibility — by defining those flaws as virtues, and their practice as “liberation.”
Early feminists were just as bad as the modern ones. They wanted control. For example, they were behind the temperance movement that brought about Prohibition.
It's incredibly sad, but I find myself walking through life noticing how women and girls now dress to display what they are rather than who they are. To get a man's attention, I have to dress like a whore? I don't think so.
Overall, in the end, feminism has brought more misery to women than not. Like so many other things, it started with good intentions. Nevermind that men not wanting to act like good, sensitive, God-fearing men is what prompted the early feminists to organize.
Thanks for this post. Dr. Reardon has been a favorite of mine for many years. He truly has a heart for women who have been through abortion and seek healing and he is a stalwart pro-life man. God bless him and his wonderful work towards the goal of making abortion unthinkable in our world.
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