Abortion Is Murder, According To The New (Faux?) Feminists
June 30, 2010 1 Comment
What does it mean to be a feminist?
Does she have to be a woman? Does she have to have hairy legs? Does she have to be pro choice?
Conservative women are finally embracing the f-word but their pro life stance leads many to believe their are more faux than feminist.
In May Sarah Palin called herself a feminist. This lead commentators to wonder whether she can be. There is no gatekeeper to the gates of feminism, and my view is probably a little different than yours.
We all know what a feminist isn’t: A feminist doesn’t believe that women are lesser beings than men. A feminist doesn’t believe that a husband should physically correct his wife. A feminist believes that men can do housework.
And I used to think that Sarah Palin fit pretty nicely into my definition of what a feminist isn’t. Then I began to wonder who the hell I was to make that sort of judgment.
My definition of feminism has always been: The radical notion that women are people too. This is a statement Palin likely agrees with.
Kathleen Parker is another woman who makes me uncomfortable by calling herself a feminist. She asked recently whether a feminist can be pro life.
In fact, this is the crux of the crux in the arena of so-called women’s issues. Can one be a pro-life feminist, or is the question an oxymoron?
As a matter of orthodoxy, yes, but as a matter of reality, not really.
So what do you think? Is the definition of feminism wide enough to accept the pro life position, or is the question akin to asking whether PETA members can eat meat?
I think feminists can be pro-life privately – as in, their body, their choice. One of my tenets of feminist is a woman who has control over her life, financially, personally, professionally. A woman who isn’t afraid to challenge injustice. But that doesn’t mean a woman who makes choices for other women. You can be against abortion by supporting causes that help underprivileged single mothers. You can also take it all the way and say that this was my pregnancy, intended or not (this is of course exempting rape/incest/etc) and I choose to give my body over to keeping this child. As long as the decision is ultimately made by the woman, I think a pro-life feminist is just as pro-woman as any of her sisters.