Assault on Women

Todd Akin is the straw that broke the back of what I can tolerate.  On Sunday he said, and I quote,
"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist."  Forget that at least 5% of rapes result in pregnancy, which is not what I would call rare (in fact, conception after rape may be higher than with consensual sex), which translates to 32,000 pregnancies a year.  Forget that we aren't talking about the legal consequences of sexual violence for men, we are talkiing about the recourse of women who have been victimized.  Forget that women legally have choices.  Forget that the man clearly has no grasp of even the most basic elements of biology and he is running for the U.S.Senate.  What angers me most about this statement is the clear implication that women are stating that they are raped when they are actually having consensual sex.  Is he questioning the existence of sexual violence?  It is flat out insulting.  Would he go on to say that women often say no when they mean yes?  That women ask for it?  What about women who have been drugged?  It is terrifying that he is where he is.

Equally scary is just how quickly social progress can be thrown back half a century.  This, combined with the GOP's attack on women's health care issues this spring and their blockage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, demonstrates a consistent lack of vision in the Republican Party when it comes to women in the 21st century. 

I get it, I do.  Men feel under attack.  More women go to college than men, and their applications, based on merit, are stronger.  They get better grades than their male counterparts, and if gender were not valued, women would take up 70% of spots at top tier schools.  Women are getting better jobs than men, and despite the lack of pay equality,  they are increasingly bringing home the bigger paycheck.  But the answer is not to put women down, it is to figure out how to make men more educated and more successful.  And the answer is defintiely not to saddle women with unwanted pregnancies and poor health care.  Been there, done that.  On the plus side, we  know that nations that educate women have economic prospertity and it is much more successful than any other intervention.  It is a proven pathway to success, let's not muck that up.  Sadly, the party that adamently avows themselves to be pro-America is the one that espouses policies that will keep us behind the rest of the world.

So in the end, it just goes to show that you cannot take social justice for granted.  The progress of the last 50 years can be wiped out in the blink of an eye.  I find the 'Hey Girl' campaign to be a little bit too much about passive aggression and not enough about what to do about these trends, but I really identify with the poster of Paul Ryan that says "Hey girl--Vote for me--It will be the last choice you are allowed to make".  It is darkly prescient of what the stakes are for women this November.