Just a little background information as we start: I'm a raging feminist, an aging hippie, and a passionate Pragmatic. You've been warned, now let's go........
I've been in the midst of various wars on women since I was born. Women had only been graciously allowed the right to vote 25 years before my birth, and up to the date of my first divorce still had no separate credit rating from The Manly Wage-Earner, even when the MW-E was a college student and wifey was paying the bills. (Several friends experienced this.)
I was denied adequate child support and given no alimony because "You women want your independence so much, why should men be forced to support you." Actual words from an actual judge. The MW-E earner in my life was earning close to $200,000 a year working about 10 hours a week (he was a phenomenally talented actor who could do any kind of voice for any kind of commercial in one take, two at the most. he was hot.) I was earning $12,000 a year. Even in 1979 that wasn't enough to support 2 kids, especially kids who had lived with all the advantages since birth. My son celebrated his 11th birthday in Germany, on a luxury train heading toward Italy. Both kids were in excellent private schools, and were accustomed to living in comfortable houses with the latest of everything. So dad had the big house in a great neighborhood, and mom lived in a basement because it was at least large enough for each to have a private bedroom. The pipes running across the ceiling weren't really our style, but hey, you take what you can get.
I've never really expected to be respected, paid an equal wage, or even to feel safe - those were sweet little fantasies that might get me into trouble if I started to depend on a future where they existed.
Given my experiences I can't say I'm shocked that the anti-woman rhetoric heats up every year. Once you have some history in your brain it becomes crystal clear that all Conservative groups and societies are terrified of women with power, and all are designed to ensure that women are never in the same room with power, much less wielding it. When women entered the corporate workforce in large numbers the conservative movement reacted as I expected.
Strong women were bitches and ball-busters, strong men were great leaders. Women didn't deserve equal pay because they would leave to become mommies anyway, and men needed that extra money to support their families. And women would never be in the top tier because ball-busting bitchy wanna-be mommies would just create havoc in that neat little boy's club. Oh, and sexual harassment was a bogus charge brought by women with penis envy who needed to punish the actual owners of penii.
What it really all comes down to, and this notion is borne out by the mind-twisting arguments of anti-abortion activists, is that all Conservative men are mostly terrified by the idea that women might have sex with enough men to have a body of experience that allows them to judge men's sexual performance and equipment. Given the obvious fact that our corporate culture is largely driven by the male need to prove his dick is larger than anyone's (don't be fooled by the notion that it's simple greed), imagine the horror of having a woman CEO of the largest bank, the largest auto manufacturer, the largest defense contractor - a world in which a mere female has the biggest dick? Empires would topple.
There's no way logic, common sense, or human decency can fight the power of the sexual ego, so we're going to have to confront the problem directly, at the source. I know it's not fair, but since women have carried the entire burden of unwanted or unplanned pregnancy for untold millennia I'm not really concerned with fairness. It's time for men to carry that burden.
Although it's hard to know this, given the fact that men are never mentioned in the pregnancy/abortion wars, it takes a man to get a woman pregnant!!!!! Since women are clearly not capable of making wise decisions about unwanted pregnancies, the only solution is to make sure women can't be impregnated.
This would be fairly simple if no one ever had sex unless they were trying to start a baby, but my experience tells me that men really want to have sex even when they don't long for the joys of fatherhood. If we stop the little swimmers at the source, however, there's nothing to worry about. What we need is a law that requires that every male be sterilized at the onset of puberty, and that the only reason to reverse the procedure is to petition the courts with an affidavit defining the reasons for becoming a father, and proof that the future father can and will adequately support any and all progeny.
It's so simple, I can't understand why no one has brought this up in Congress. I know there are lots of civil rights knots to untangle, and it might be seen as an attack on men, but if there's no fertile egg floating around in there, there's no reason for the morning-after pill, or for any form of birth control at all. There's no reason for abortion clinics to exist at all. Imagine the amount of energy currently wasted on The Right To Life being channeled into something useful!
This idea solves so many problems, surely we can't let small details like personal choice or personal autonomy get in the way.
Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 5:06 PM PT: Thanks to everyone who read this and to all the wonderful people who played so nicely in the comment threads.