Rebuttal: Feminism 101

I’m sick of this.

My fellow Opinion columnist Alex Carlisle wrote a column titled “Our women vs. theirs” on Sept. 6, about prominent Democrats Sandra Fluke and Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Republican National Convention.

The piece used their appearance at the RNC in Tampa, Fla., to expound on the difference between Republican and Democratic women.

In the process, the column reveals disgusting anti-women sentiment based on perhaps deliberate misunderstandings of feminism, women’s health and
government.

It’s hard not to write this rebuttal in all-caps, but I don’t want to cause my editors the trouble.

No, Fluke and Wasserman Schultz were not “raving,” though I wouldn’t blame them if they were. They plainly criticized the RNC for featuring women who vote for anti-women policies and don’t vote for pro-women policies.

The RNC appealed to women voters with women leaders who do not show any interest in benefiting and protecting women.

No, Republican women who vote for anti-women policies are not “masochists,” they’re caught up in GOP-sponsored false consciousness.

If they were openly masochists, they might help to destabilize the stigmatization of BDSM in dominant American sexual culture.

That was a joke.

It is, however, a good sign you’re pro-women if you support abortion rights and health coverage for birth control.

That’s because women’s bodies and sexuality deserve respect from the state.
To folks who think birth control is easily accessible, please consider women who can’t afford it.

No, the brand of today’s feminist is not, “Treat me differently because I have a vagina.” In fact, some of today’s feminists don’t even have vaginas! And I’m not just talking about cis male feminists.

Today’s feminists ask to be treated differently because American policy doesn’t treat them with dignity.

Today’s feminists come from across the world. They have different economic statuses. They are different colors. They have sex, or don’t, with different kinds of people. They are different sizes. They are differently abled.

Today’s feminists agree on a lot of issues and disagree on more.

No, it is not “silly” for women to care about women’s issues. Why is it silly to care about rights and policies that shape and control your livelihood?

Why is feminism treated like some evil scheme to take money from hard-working GOP men?

Why is it considered radically leftist for women to have control of their bodies?

This is a woefully inadequate rebuttal, but it’d take more than a few pages in print to cover the reasons why women don’t enjoy the same privileges as men and why some women don’t enjoy the same privileges as other women.

I wish I didn’t have to keep writing about this stuff, but if misconceptions and misogyny are printed in the Indiana Daily Student, they demand response.

­— ptbeane@indiana.edu