So-called “conservative women” need to reject the 170 years of women asking for autonomy, from the Seneca Falls convention, until today.
Because the women who organized Seneca Falls were not “conservative”. Because the women who attended Seneca Falls were not conservative. Because Lucretia Mott, a Quaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, social reformer and brilliant orator was not a “conservative”. Because the suffragettes were not conservative
Not voting, not getting involved in anything outside of their home, only doing what their husbands told them to do, is what conservative women did. Voting, organizing, protesting, having a job and not handing your paycheck over to your husband, being able to get a credit card without your husband’s approval, those are all liberal/feminist plots that radically changed what is defined as acceptable. If you truly want to be conservative, please reject the last 170 of years of feminism.
Stop voting, stop caring about your gynecologic health, stop having a life outside of your husband and family, and please quit talking about how you are conservative. You are not. You are opportunistic, taking advantage of the work of liberals/feminists for your personal gain
FACT: Feminists are pro-choice. Whether or not for themselves — they do not tell other women what to do with their bodies. Feminists are smart! They understand that abortions happen whether they’re legal or not. And the causal effect of illegalizing abortion is rich women traveling somewhere it’s legal and having it done safely, and poor women turning to less safe measures. Personally, I don’t believe you can be a feminist if you support something in effect being legal for rich women and illegal for poor women. If you sincerely want to reduce the incidence of abortion, try advocating for things that actually help with that, like making sure all women have access to birth control. Isn’t it better to do what actually works? Conservative women do not think so!
ALSO FACT: It’s not anti-male to discuss the ways men kind of have it easier in our society. Acknowledging that makes you a person who pays attention to things, not a person who doesn’t like men! When I was 9, we moved to a new house in a new neighborhood. My brother and I were offered to tag along with the neighborhood boys down in the woods where there was a cool tire swing that swung over a little creek. When it was my turn, I was passed over. When I grabbed the rope one of the boys said “Oh, are you one of those feminists?” Confused, I later asked my dad what a feminist was and if I was one? He told me to think about how I walk into situations expecting to be treated the same as everyone else. And that that made me a feminist. So naturally I was very confused when the media – this was the 1970’s – kept trying to paint feminists out to be strange, man-hating psychopaths. We just wanted to be treated the same!
Declaring oneself not-a-feminist means assuming the rights and privileges thereto while simultaneously pandering to the forces that would deny those same rights and privileges.
Conservative women I know love to talk about how they look at themselves as products of their choices, not victims of their circumstances. And who gave these righteous ladies the opportunity to make those choices? They act as if the choices they had have always been there and were always accessible to women when the truth is that many, many, many women who came before them fought and struggled hard to make those opportunities exist. Assuming that choices are part of nature’s abundance, like low-hanging fruit. (Okay, not a very succinct analogy, but I’m a woman and therefore mentally limited.)
I hate this choices/circumstances thing so very much. First, because it takes for granted that the particular choices are available to all women, when we know they aren’t – and one doesn’t even have to be all worked up about “identity politics” to know that. And second, because it so totally demeans any analysis of any of the barriers to having those choices, sexism among them. And racism doesn’t exist, either. STOP COMPLAINING LADY LIBTARDS!!!
