Conservatives and Birth Control

The focus of Conservatives on birth control lately may surprise some people out there, but it's actually not all that surprising to me.

Conservatives for years have been focused on issues that make it pretty obvious that they miss the days of women being subservient to men.

Things like:

*Trying to cut down on the availability of abortion - because you women should have to suffer from whatever happens when you sluts decide to have sex with someone.

*Trying to prevent women from having affordable access to birth control - because birth control is only for slutty sluts, while Viagra is an important and valuable medication that usually is (and should be) gladly paid for by health insurance companies. What? You men can't get an erection? That is terrible! Let us go right ahead and fix that for you at no charge to you.

*Voting against things like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - because how dare you require that companies pay men and women with equivalent education and experience similar wages? You ladies are just lucky that we let you work at all!

*Voting against reauthorizing the the Violence Against Women Act, which has reduced domestic violence rates by 58% since it was first passed in 1994 - because if women are being beaten by their husbands, it's probably because they did something to deserve it! 

We women have been getting pretty uppity over the last 100 years or so, and it seems that these conservative men merely want to set things right. First women campaigned for the right to vote (Nineteenth Amendment - passed August 26, 1920). Then they wanted to also be educated like men are (compulsory schooling for women - passed by states in different years of the 1800's and 1900's). Women then wanted the right to be able to go to college to get a higher education. Then we wanted the right to go to work and earn a living, in order to not be totally dependent upon our husbands. Then women started reaching for the stars. We wanted to be able to hold office. We wanted to be able to legislate all types of issues, including the ones that directly affect us.

Women want. They want. We want. Want, want, want.

Conservative men seem to long to go back to the days when women were seen and not heard. Women were merely spouses, helpmates, the people who took care of the children and the home and we did not make demands or ask for anything. If you kept a roof over their heads, did not beat them too severely and occasionally bought them pretty things, they were happy. THAT is what Conservative men miss the most about how things work in the current day.     

The very bottom line to some of these issues is this: Conservative men want to believe that women have no sexuality or sex drive of their own. Sexuality should be dependent on their husbands. The only time they should want sex is when their husbands initiate it and they should be content with whatever happens. ("Oh, honey, you didn't get to finish? Oh well! Better luck next time!") That way they don't have to actually be concerned about anyone but themselves, which is really what they want.

Conservatives also think any repercussions caused by this sex should also be decided by men. Men should decide if you actually were raped. Men should get to have the final say as to whether or not you get to have an abortion. Men should be able to choose whether or not you're going to have that baby you're carrying. Men should get to decide if you have access to prenatal health care and food and nutrition programs.  

Unfortunately for Conservative men, a woman is more than a walking uterus. We are much more than the sum of our parts. We are whole, fully-formed human beings with wants and needs, desires and passions, intellect and caring and - that thing that makes us very dangerous to the Conservative agenda - determination. Perseverance. We will work as long as it takes to finally make sure we get as many rights and opportunities as men have, even if we have to earn them slowly, one at a time, instead of all at once like men have. We will fight as long as we have to in order to assure that we get full autonomy over our own bodies and what happens to them. Eventually we women will win, and we will come out of this all the more strong for having had to work so hard for it.

Mitt Romney - Living Mirror

The Presidential race at this point is less of a race and more of a case of one person running full out and one person figuring he'll get to the finish line eventually, if he can spend enough time without one or both of his feet in his mouth. 

After the release of the secretly-recorded video of Mitt Romney speaking to campaign contributors who donated $50,000 a plate by Mother Jones this week, I believe the real Mitt Romney is finally being shown to the world. After weeks and months of changing his story based on the demographics of the group sitting in front of him, I think this is finally how he actually feels. 

A politician who changes his mind is in no way a bad thing. Every single person goes through life thinking one way as they grow up, and their opinion often changes throughout their life (or even every few years) based on the experiences they have and the information they learn. I have no problem with someone who does this. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has different values and varying plans for the country within the same day, speaking in front of two different audiences. The benefit to this is that the group who is sitting in front of him, listening to his ideas and promises, think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread because he just totally gets us. The downside to this is that you are left with a candidate, and more basically a man, who has no actual values or beliefs or ideas of his own.

If the only thing a person can do is mirror back feelings, values, beliefs and ideals to their audience, what happens when that person is alone in a room? Or, in a highly unlikely scenario, in front of a group of jihadists who believe America is the devil and the American people should be punished with death for not believing as they do? What would he promise or tell those people?

If the only thing a candidate can do is be a living mirror and disparage the current President for the way he's handling things, what then does he really have to offer as a leader? I would be hard-pressed to come up with an answer to this question. Maybe in the coming days, the Romney campaign will attempt to provide us with one.