Slate’s Amanda Marcotte wrapped up some of the Sandra Fluke–you know, the most famous slut in America–hatred that was spewed all over Twitter last night after her speech.
“Femme tool.” Wishing Ted Kennedy would take her “for a drive.” The maligning of this woman is because… why, again? Because she spoke at a hearing on contraception? (What is femme tool, anyway? A vacuous woman with nothing to say? Because if that’s the case, I think she’s already proven more than once that this isn’t the case.)
I’m raising a boy in my feminist household. A boy who is one day going to be a man. And I want that man to respect women. I insist on it. I want him to respect women’s choices. I want him to respect women’s bodies. And respect the choices that women make with and about their bodies.
These are not such outrageous values! But when it comes to someone like Sandra Fluke who eloquently discusses the need for basic concepts like birth control, the GOP wants to stone her. How can the GOP expect me to believe that they value women when women are so consistently degraded on their watch? Is it because sex before marriage is unsanctioned behavior, as Irin Carmon suggested? Is it because religion dominates the culture and allows no other discussion? Is it because women themselves as human beings aren’t a priority?
Let them figure that out. And while they figure out how to get the women’s vote this year, I’ll keep doing the same in raising my children. And if my son asks me about Sandra Fluke one day in the future, I’ll tell him that she was defending women’s rights. And that the only response to her should be respect. Because she’s not just a living American legend, but she’s a woman who taught us all that we have to stand up for our beliefs–even if you’re getting skewered by Congress, or Rush Limbaugh, or by the GOP fanatics on Twitter.
(Twitter screen shots: Slate)
Posted on September 6, 2012 by Hayley Krischer
0