This past week, women, whether we want to admit it or not, got our asses beat in Texas.
I realize that we have so many single-issue voters with their single issue being abortion, but that’s simply one more way the men in power have of dividing and conquering us. Because women outnumber the men here, and if we would start to have a relationship with each other, then we could vote them out and seize the day, and we all know they’ll fight like hell to keep that from happening.
You see, women have historically been treated as “less than.” It’s been reported that when welfare started for the war widows, white-glove checks and random house searches were performed to prove her worthiness for assistance. It didn’t matter that it was the death of her husband that made the assistance necessary. It didn’t matter that she was mourning, dealing with grief, raising kids alone, struggling to pay the bills … all that mattered was that there wasn’t any sign of dust or a man to receive help at that moment. Women have to be desperate to receive help and be policed to be kept honest, right?
Women are always taking the punishment and all the responsibility. Single moms are blamed for having kids they can’t afford. No one mentions the deadbeat dads who help create the babies. We don’t see any huge legislative reforms about child support. But let a single mom swipe her EBT card at the cash register with a bag of potato chips in the order and the claws come out.
My daughter had a crush on a boy. He told her the other day that he couldn’t sit with her because he has “a lot of hos” and they couldn’t see him with her and think he was “locked down.” As if that wasn’t devastating enough, another guy called her a bitch later on for not throwing his trash away while yet another one threatened to slap her if she kept making his girlfriend mad. It was a banner day.
All of this as Texas decided that women weren’t allowed to make decisions about their bodies and seek abortion as health care, even as a result of rape or incest. An attorney told a story about a 10-year-old girl who was raped and became pregnant by her father. As a woman and mother of girls, I feel very confident in saying that no 10-year-old girl in the world is capable of being a great mom. I was 32 years old the first time I became pregnant, and the stress and worry about what kind of mom I would be was high. Imagine being a 10-year-old and trying to process rape, incest, pregnancy, and your new life.
Anti-abortion folks will scream “adoption,” not caring that the last number I saw said West Virginia had nearly 7,000 kids in foster care. The rapist will go to prison. He won’t have to deal with the pregnancy, financial responsibilities, and, because we don’t punish men’s reproductive organs, will be able to father as many children as he wants when released.
It’s time for women to start pushing back. First of all, start running for office. Then start writing legislation that holds males responsible for the same things women are responsible for. Write a bill asking for vasectomies of all males by the age of 13 because vasectomies can be reversed. Put some rules in place for having it reversed. We could add things like reaching a certain age and a requirement for a trade or college degree, or a 10-year solid work history, or some sort of procreation prenup.
I’m laughing as I write this because I can only imagine the red-faced, neck-vein-poppin’, desk-pounding anger that would show itself in our capitol buildings. But if we had laws like this then our girls would be allowed to wear shorts to school that didn’t have to go to their damn kneecaps. Imagine the trickling down of female freedoms!
The one thing that’s ALWAYS missing from the abortion debate is the sperm’s role in it! ALWAYS! I know some women who would vote for my dog for president if he could learn to speak and say “anti-abortion.” But there’s far more to it than the abortion, ladies. It’s the void of not being able, as men, to govern our decisions for health care. Men have the ability to choose to be a father or not, and so should women.
Demand that men be held responsible for their reproduction. Push for child support and deadbeat parent legislation. Women, boot up. Because when the revolution starts, we will ride at dawn.
Onward,
Amy Jo
