While the GOP is declaring a war on women, women are waging a quiet inward revolution all across America. It's as if they are coming out of a deep sleep, awakening to a new truth about being mothers, wives, and workers. Over the past decade, I have met women from every part of this country who are beginning to question, and even reject, the American dream. Their attempts to succeed in our overly accomplishment-focused culture have left them isolated and exhausted. Overworked, stressed, and disconnected, many women are asking, "Is this what life has to offer?" Each of these women, including me, are looking for our own definition of who we are, throwing off religious, political, and cultural ideas that have led us to the land of emptiness.
Deep feelings of shame and confusion about my sensual and sexual nature have led me to this movement, and I'm grateful for the chance to meet hundreds of women who are seeking to understand and accept themselves. New leaders are emerging. Alisa Vitti is teaching us about the connection between our food consumption, biology, and daily lifestyle. Books like The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine are offering us an understanding of our brain chemistry, anatomical facts that influence every aspect of our lives. New Thought leaders like Katherine Woodward Thomas and Hakashamut Kenya Stevens are offering practical and spiritual tools for connecting with our inner heart -- the part of us that is nurturing, receptive, chaotic, and creative. Hundreds of thousands of us are recalibrating our thinking to embody a greater feminine worldview, and we are doing so united in the idea that women are different and equal. We're learning to tap into our creativity and the deep-seated emotions that we've denied. We're being called to nurture and love ourselves. And most importantly, we're discovering empathy, for ourselves, for one another, for men, and for our world. We're learning that we've got it all wrong. Husbands, children, and success mean nothing if our own essential nature is being ignored or denied. Ultimately, this is an attempt to create greater harmony between the sexes.
This brings me to our current political debate on women's reproductive rights. This dialog proves that our male-dominated culture has absolutely no understanding or appreciation of women's needs and the concerns we are faced with daily. Included in this ignorance is the perception that we are not capable or qualified to make decisions for ourselves. Currently several state legislatures are considering laws that further limit a woman's power over her body. In Arizona, conception now occurs two weeks prior to pregnancy. In my view, such laws simply further our disempowerment, and serve as a clear statement of our society's utter failure to support our own definition of who we are.
The political firestorm around women's reproductive rights is being referred to as the "War on Women" -- language that establishes a battle for supremacy. The women I have met while learning about feminine power are tired of fighting and working to fit into this misogynistic culture. Women are ready to present themselves not as property, children, or men in skirts, but as feminine, intelligent, powerful, and capable. We're eager to offer what our culture and politics so desperately need and to bring nurturing, relatedness, meaning, and empathy to our way of life. Each of these qualities opens hearts and reveals our common ground. What if this so-called War on Women is recast -- not as a war at all, but a call to bring us into an experience of self-acceptance and celebration? When women are willing to shamelessly be themselves, both genders might find a peace we'd never expected to discover.
This post was previously published at Blogher.
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Robert S. McElvaine: Striking at the Source of the War on Women
For a different perspective check out the essay by another young woman at the link below:
An excerpt:
"...Many liberal women, meanwhile, have eagerly embraced the role of victim, advancing the idea that women are casualties of a “war on women.” Women are now, as various cultural liberals have put it, “facing sexual McCarthyism” from “conservative cavemen” who want to return to the “Dark Ages.”
But women are not a monolith. And there is a growing group of passionate young women who are transforming what it means to be a woman. Allow me to introduce them to you. We are women who reject both the anti-male feminism of the 1960s and the “girls gone wild” mentality that’s pervasive today...."
Full essay: http://allhands-ondeck.blogspot.com/2012/04/left-does-snot-speak-for-all-women.html
WHY are you so desperate to interfer with and define how women speak for themselves. Why are you here rooting against us?
If any of these women feel strongly about this article, let THEM speak for themselves.
Speak for how YOU feel as a man.
You can NEVER understand how it feels to be woman as much as a woman and for you to come here and try to define womanhood for a woman is the sort of arrogant ignorance that is causing so much female death and suffering.
Today's news story from Reuters: "Women overestimate effectiveness of Pill, condoms."
Story here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/27/us-women-pill-condom-idUSBRE83Q11Q20120427
Given this bad news, here is a very relevant and thought-provoking piece on the subject of women, sexuality, and contraception written by Jennifer Fulwiler.
Here is the link:
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jennifer-fulwiler/the-contraception-trap/#ixzz1sixRqAcS
Myers slices and dices Miss Convert's nonsense quite well:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/07/jennifer_fulwiler_responds.php
That's an unpopular opinion, because it means that women have to accept responsibiltiy. We cannot have children when we don't have jobs, or when we're in high school, or when we have no partner to share the burden (yes, children are a lot of work, and cost a bunch, too!).
When we accept that responsibility, then we can go forward and accept other responsibilities. Getting an education/higher training, going to work, paying our bills on time - all of these things require acceptance of what it means to be an adult. If women do these things, they will find themselves amazingly successful in life.
Woman are FIGHTING for reproductive responsibity, while right wing men FIGHT to take that responsibility away, FIGHT to remove women's choices and freedom.
Fight to remove women's health and lives.
WRONG! Eliminate all the discriminators (WHO? in the "male dominated society") and you have a root cause so general that any solution will be worthless. This dialog ONLY proves the power of the Evangelist and Religious campaign contributors. It says nothing of what our culture understands about women's needs....because our culture is much, much more and more diverse than simply Evangelism or any other religious fundamentalism. Attack ANYTHING more general than that and you have become a farce. Identify the wrong solution and prepare for another backlash.
I DO prefer Strong women.. I really do not want to have to be the Saviour, and creator of all. What a rotten responsibility..! A Feminist raised me, and I thank Dog for that all the time..!
It is Friendliness that I see lacking, these days.. The battle between the sexes become the norm.. My belief is that it is the Media, primarily.. And a backlash toward Men being well, typically Macho. I totally understand that sentiment., as I can do without it too..! But, the divisiveness sort of ruins the relations between the sexes..
Like you did to me, a complete stranger unknown to you on any level, I do not want to psychoanalyze anyone. No one likes that...
But, Truth be told, you are showing your sensitivities.. I am asking Women NOT to feel compelled to imitate Men in their search for equality.. Why utilize the same seeming emotional numbness and sometimes immaturity that DID NOT WORK for Men....?
But, imploring Women to be their own hybrid of male and female attributes, as I believe Men should be, as well..
My contention is that we are more alike (M and F's) than most believe..
I might be able to fall in love with you, but you are happily married.. Thanks for the invitation though..!
It's the idea that women can only change as long as it doesn't inconvenience men that is keeping women underfoot, harming and endangering us.
Men don't consider whether women will find their behaviour appealing when they act aggressive, instead the tell women that aggression is attractive and expect us to accept that.
Why should a women consider how men feel about her behaviour when men don't do the same?
Most women don't like pornography OR violent sports, but both are still HUGELY popular and EVERYWHERE.
A sweet woman should BE SWEET, and a tough women should BE TOUGH.
Period.
As long as women practice politics the way men do, men will practice their opinions of women on a political level.
I don't see how even the Democratic Party is capable of supporting women the way women can...Especially since the DNC so busy trying to one-up the GOP.
Start a platform based completely on women's view of the world, cause honestly, even as a heterosexual male the two parties are useless given their desire to "mark" everything as either left or right.
Maybe it's the artist in me, or the fact my late wife was notably more intelligent, but I have no problem whatsoever with intelligent, strong, tough, intense, passionate, and yes, caring women getting into the mix.
We sure as hell know finding all six of those qualities in a male politician is difficult.
We're just not built that way, I guess.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go out to the garage and use some power tools...
It's a DISASTROUS idea.
What women need to do is establish themselves in the democratic party the way social conservatives have in the Republican party.
By RUNNING FOR OFFICE, and by VOTING.
And the insurance companies are for it, because this is what we call preventative care -- costs for everyone would actually go down, because the amount of money spent on birth control is far less than the amount currently spent (by everyone through their premiums and tax dollars) for nine months of pregnancy, expensive births, and eighteen-plus years of raising each child, especially for those who do not have the money to do so on their own. Everyone saves money when more people have access to sex education and birth control. The fact of the matter is that certain politicians would rather use this as a political tool, and certain others would rather try to control women's choices and sex lives, than actually save people -- including you -- money.
Please stop buying into their "free stuff" rhetoric.
"Everyone saves money when more people have access to sex education and birth control. "
Everyone loses money when the state starts mandating and subsidizing. Today it's the pill, tomorrow it's a nine thousand dollar sex doll for some old guy who can't get it up.
Don't misunderstand what I am saying though. You absurdly accuse some politicians, and even me, of trying to control women and their sex lives. How does not giving them free birth control do that? I pay a deductible on every prescription that I fill. If my kids, wife, or myself are sick we pay a deductible for the medicine to help make us better. Why should everyone who desires birth control not even have to pay a deductible to get it? Republicans ask that and your side responds with what? Accusations that they want to control women. Its absurd and insulting to the intelligence of any rational person who hears it yet you mindlessly repeat it.