I stopped creating these almost a year ago. After compiling not one, not two, but seven full volumes of Republican elected officials, party officials and media pundits saying various disgusting, offensive and flat-out idiotic things about the subject of rape (often but not always in conjunction with abortion or other reproductive issues), I was starting to feel unclean myself.
Frankly, while I was told that these charts were helpful to people and organizations working to help women's rights, I was also starting to feel like I needed a shower every time I posted one. Wallowing through so much filth and evil was starting to take it's toll on me.
Besides, while it might have been meant in a positive way, I wasn't thrilled about being best-known as "the Rape Chart Guy".
Last fall I started the ACA Signups project, and needless to say, that kind of kept me busy for the past 7 months (and counting).
However, a few recent developments made me decide to reluctantly wade back into the nasty landscape which is the Republican mindset towards women.
First there was the 72-hour waiting period abortion restriction passed in Missouri, which has no exception for rape victims.
Then there was the revelation that the "rape insurance" law passed here in Michigan actually doesn't allow for any individual insurance market policy to cover abortion procedures--even as a separate rider and, again, even in cases of rape or incest--due to (sick irony alert) a conflicting restriction in the Affordable Care Act.
The final impetus was, of course, the horrific mass murder in Santa Barbara a few days ago, which was 100% fueled by misogyny. While I doubt that the little shit who massacred a bunch of fellow students was officially involved in any political party (at 22, the odds are high that he didn't have any specific political leanings), the fact remains that we know damned well which party is a) insanely gun crazy and b) insanely hateful towards women, and it sure as hell doesn't start with a "D".
Anyway, with that in mind, here's Volume VIII. Sadly, there's enough material for a good half-dozen more volumes to come.
You can view all 8 volumes here, including the first one which went viral almost 2 years ago.
UPDATE: I'd like to pose an open question to the women of dKos regarding the #YesAllWomen Twitter campaign. Do you think it would be appropriate for me to post the charts (or some version of them...perhaps a single quote per tweet or whatever) as part of that campaign? Or would that be presumptuous/intrusive on my part (both due to my being male as well as making it a partisan thing)?
If you think it would be helpful, great, but I don't want to be seen as trying to hijack a meme which it isn't my place to contribute to.