In a recent article, NOW asks a question and makes a request:
Obama Administration: Feminist or Sexist? Is Barack Obama the new “feminist in chief?” Our jury is still out.
Let Obama know you’re paying attention. Contact his transition team to tell them that the focus on women is great, but can’t be half-hearted. A rebuke of Favreau is one way to show that the President-elect will put women’s issues at the front in practice, not just in words. You can also call them at 202-54… (Press option #2 for a live person).
I appreciate your article, however, I think it’s too little, too late.Many of us who flew the Puma Flag during the election did so because we recognized the blatant sexism coming from not only the MSM but also from the Obama Camp against Hillary Clinton and also Sarah Palin.
Favreau’s actions and the silence from Obama is appalling and an indication that the President-Elect only voted for women’s issues because it was politically expedient. He hires people on his staff who harbor a backwoods attitude about women and he pays his women staffers less than the men. His recent administration appointments indicate that he will have a male-dominated team. I’ll never forget how he smiled in the debate when John McCain brought up the T-shirts with the “C” word on them that his supporters were wearing or that he made the “Lipstick on a Pig” remark.
I want to take a moment to talk about Sarah Palin. While you could hardly classify me as a “conservative”, I think its an outrage that organizations like NOW will not stand up for every woman regardless on her views on abortion.
There are women who are Democrats who are also Catholic or Baptists who struggle with the Party’s platform on abortion. And to these women, “the right to choose” is not the same thing as the right to an abortion. There are many women who have had abortions in the past who are now advocates against abortion because they know what it did to their own lives. Women are not all of one collective mindset.
Women of all views are entitled to a voice and a seat at the table. They need to have the power and opportunity to sit down and work out viable solutions. We need to realize, in this day in age, young women who are out there having unprotected sex face bigger problems than just an unwanted pregnancy. This isn’t the 1970s.
What about the blatant sexism in media? What about the women who think being a woman means parading around in a bikini contest, or gyrating on top of some rap singer? Why would any women tolerate another women questioning a woman’s ability to hold high office just because she has a family.
NOW and other women’s organizations need to realize what many PUMAS realized months ago: its no longer about Party or about one issue, its about respecting women as equals and recognizing that diversity is good. Aren’t liberals supposed to be tolerant of other people and their views?
My challenge to NOW and to my other sisters is to hold President-elect Obama to task; otherwise his rhetoric will indeed be “just words”. Yes, Favreau needs to be fired. He needs to be sent to a sexual harassment class. Would you put up with a male employee in NOW’s offices groping an image NOW’s CEO?
Meanwhile, we need to find real solutions for women with unwanted pregnancies and educate young women to respect their bodies and themselves and to not feel pressured to have sex just because they think it makes them more attractive to some man. We need to work with our young sisters to help them set goals for their lives. We need to work with pro-life women to establish these alternatives while at the same time limit the government’s involvement in our lives and in our choices and over our bodies.
As a woman, my biggest concern during this election is that while we took two very important steps forward this year we took about ten steps back. I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to walk ten paces behind any man.
MaryKay ©
Source:
The Hillary's Village Blog
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