The War On Men

[DoktorZ]

... that one lone guy (I forget his name) typing on his keyboard in a basement makes that Catholic Defense coalition or whatever that shit is.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic Defense League?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZhiPsoIZw

He's the one that suggested abused children were probably just after the church's money. Class act.

[thesummerqueen]

That sounds familiar. I just know that it was this one guy trying to make it sound like he was a fucking committee.

[CapnAwesome]

It's amazing how easily the more liberal members of this board quickly dismiss a war on men as absurd and at the same time jump on the idea that it is equally absurd that a war on women is not going on.

Equally absurd is the frequently bandied about notion that 'republicans' are doing so and so evil thing, or said so and so ridiculous thing, when normally it was just one guy. Get a grip people.

Also anyone who thinks that the U.S. is a chauvinist country has probably never traveled anywhere else in the western hemisphere (except maybe Canada.) Also remember that some people thinking abortion is bad is not the same as abortion actually being illegal. Stop acting like it. The US had total access to abortion everywhere. Does this fact bounce off your liberal skulls? Or are you all just upset that not every person in the country has the same opinion as you?

[thesummerqueen]

It isn't a war. There is a concerted effort by certain individuals in power to fuck things up. And those individuals are fed by underlings who vote and pay for them.

[festive1]

Also remember that some people thinking abortion is bad is not the same as abortion actually being illegal. Stop acting like it. The US had total access to abortion everywhere. Does this fact bounce off your liberal skulls?

It's true that abortion is technically legal in all 50 states. However, this does not equate to all women in those states having access to abortion providers.
Wyoming has only 3 abortion providers for the entire state (granted it's a low population, but it's quite a large area), and in that state, 96% of women do not have an abortion provider in their county. In Mississippi, 91% of women do not have an abortion provider in their county. If you're poor and don't live near a provider, good luck finding the money to get to one, assuming that you can pay for the procedure itself (some states don't have Medicaid funding for abortions). Here's a link: http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparem...p=8&cat=15
It's not making abortion illegal, but it's the next best thing, de facto.

[Minimalist]

Equally absurd is the frequently bandied about notion that 'republicans' are doing so and so evil thing, or said so and so ridiculous thing, when normally it was just one guy

But all those "guys" are republicunt motherfuckers. Just because they are trying to one-up each other doesn't mean that they all do not agree on the same goal.

What planet have you been living on?

[Gilgamesh]

This is how I saw the OP:

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[Faith No More]

It's amazing how easily the more liberal members of this board quickly dismiss a war on men as absurd and at the same time jump on the idea that it is equally absurd that a war on women is not going on.

Did you read the article? It is absurd to claim there is a war on men siimply because gender roles are being redefined. The author then goes on, by mere assertion I might add, to paint all women as angry man-haters that are destroying men's natural desires to play the role of provider and protector. Then she has the nerve to claim that women need a man in their life to "balance" it, another mere assertion, as if somehow life is a "one size fits all" endeavor. It should be clear to all that this should be easily dismissed as absurd.

As for the absurdity of claiming at a war on women is not going on, no, there is no "war." We are, however, a long ways from having equality between the sexes. And can you not understand how women might feel under attack when men are doing such things as trying to deny them the right to have their insurance company provide them with contraception, yet they have no problem with insurance companies floating the bill for a drug that will ensure they can pop a boner well into their golden years?

[Cato]

I just want to jump in and add additional perspective, adding to what The_Germans_Are_Coming contributed in his first post of this thread.

Suzanne Venker is the niece of Phyllis Schlafly. I'm linking Schlafly's Wiki entry for the uninitiated:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly
Schlafly's son Andrew is the founder of Conservapedia.

The relation doesn't necessarily implicate Venker sharing Schlafly's ideology, but co-authoring the book The Flipside of Feminism does. From the book:

The truth is that feminism has been the single worst thing that has happened to American women. It did not liberate women at all – it confused them. It made their lives harder. Women today are caught between man and nature. … Their female nature tells them sex requires love; marriage is important; children are a blessing; and men are necessary. The culture, meanwhile, tells them to sleep around and postpone family life because that will cost them their identity.

[DoktorZ]

It's amazing how easily the more liberal members of this board quickly dismiss a war on men as absurd and at the same time jump on the idea that it is equally absurd that a war on women is not going on.

I'm willing to admit that both sexes / genders use gender-specific language to exercise power over the other. Still, if you can't admit that men are, for example, paid more for the same work, then you're living in a fantasy world. If women are unwilling to admit that they, ultimately, have the most power over reproductive issues, they are also living in a fantasy world. If men can't admit that sticking their dicks into women is automatically running the risk of pregnancy, no matter what, they're living in a fantasy world. In my view, there are lots of irrational people insisting on self-centered expectations for "how the world should work."

Equally absurd is the frequently bandied about notion that 'republicans' are doing so and so evil thing, or said so and so ridiculous thing, when normally it was just one guy. Get a grip people.

I totally agree. Rather than railing on the GOP as a whole, it's better to focus on the comments of specific candidates. That being said, do you really think that the Democrats, on the whole, have an equally problematic track record when it comes to women's reproductive rights when compared to the GOP, on the whole? Let's not create false equivalencies. In my view, the saddest development on the right is the completely cynical manipulation of the libertarians by other factions of the GOP. Libertarians must acknowledge that the GOP doesn't really work in their favor, just as trade unionists have to abandon the Clintons.

Also anyone who thinks that the U.S. is a chauvinist country has probably never traveled anywhere else in the western hemisphere (except maybe Canada.)

The US is a chauvinist country, even if France or Britain is as well. As an American who lives in Europe, I have no illusions regarding the European extreme right, or the many abuses committed by European state-supported churches. Still, let's not make the mistake of excusing our own problems by pointing to the specific issues in Europe.

Also remember that some people thinking abortion is bad is not the same as abortion actually being illegal.

Again, I agree. I have moral reservations about abortion, but I do not see viable legal alternatives to legalization. Still, attacks on women's right to choose, under the current circumstances, are unsustainable, and usually a reprehensible example of totalitarianism.

Does this fact bounce off your liberal skulls?

Stop indulging in demagoguery.

Or are you all just upset that not every person in the country has the same opinion as you?

You're in danger of being the pot who attacks the kettle.

I'm not even going to comment on the absurd opinions of Phyllis Schafly. She's been lampooned for over two decades for a reason.

Z