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boston bean

(36,218 posts)
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:39 AM Sep 2012

Why Does Sandra Fluke Drive Conservatives Bananas?

Let me tell you a story....

There once was a time when women knew their place. Back in those halcyon days, young women accepted that sex was a dirty thing they should go out of their way to avoid, lest the taint of it made them unmarriageable. Girls married young and dreamed of staying at home with children, far away from the dirty worlds of men and power. Of course, slipping up did happen, and girls got pregnant outisde of wedlock but since there was no birth control or abortion, those girls had to get married straightaway, so either way, women ended up where they belonged, in the home, while men went out and did all that working.

Then the birth control pill was invented and abortion was legalized. All of a sudden, women started screwing who they liked without any consequences. They didn’t get married young anymore, instead choosing to do things like have careers and demand power. This meant the end of cherished gender roles, which in turn meant gay marriage, men losing their rightful place as leaders of nuclear families, single motherhood, and anarchy in the streets. Clearly, women’s abortion rights need to be taken away and access to contraception curtailed, and then perhaps we can return to the bliss of “Leave It To Beaver.”

This is a story is one we all know, and it is the singular fable that drives the anti-choice movement. It is a story that is actually not true, of course. In the reality, many mothers worked outside of the home, premarital sex was surprisingly common, men abandoned women they got pregnant routinely, and abortion was common even as it was illegal. And yet this fantasy lives on, a fantasy of returning America---at least middle-class America---to a strong patriarchy where women’s talents and ambitions are all aimed at supporting men and where sex is irrevocably tied to procreation. It’s the fantasy that motivates the anti-choice movement. It’s the fantasy that leads to abortion restrictions, the building of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, the shooting of abortion doctors, usually by men who will never be Ward Cleaver and have grown bitter.


http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/09/09/why-does-sandra-fluke-drive-conservatives-bananas
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southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
1. Because she is a smart woman who makes sense. You see many of the religious right act
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:58 AM
Sep 2012

like their little Susan or Bill and being good little christains who are not having sex. We know that isn't true. Many young women also are taking the pill not because of sex but because of health issues. I have a niece that is in that situation. She is 24 and must have them. She has serious health issues. Ms Fluke puts a face on the issue.

 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
3. my brother now wants me to talk to his 19 yr old daughter about the pill
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 08:10 AM
Sep 2012

in the past i was not suppose to because he felt if i did i was giving permission for sex. and he thinks the right way is to wait for marriage, per bible, though he never spent a moment in church. another part of him know it is not the reality, waiting until marriage, but it is the right thing to do. he didnt want discussion of the pill just abstinence. he thinks that we discuss birth control and all discussion of sex openly without any emotional attachment per se is encouraging my boys.

the facts. we discuss the facts.

we were talking about it the other night cause now he wants discussion of pill cause he thinks she is probably sexually active. he tried explaining the difference in what we think, and i could not really wrap my mind around what he was saying.

of course, i had a conversation with her a couple times over the years already.

but, i never really understood exactly why he has an issue giving the facts on contraceptives.

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
7. No offense I am willing to bet your brother was sleeping around alot. It's ok for him but not
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:45 PM
Sep 2012

his own daughter or his sister. Been there and heard it allot. My brother was raised to have fun, fun, fun. But me and my sisters don't you dare come home with babies. Now don't get me wrong I was a virgin until I got married at 29. But that was me. I am not naive enough to realize that young people don't go out and have sex. My dad died at 50 and left 2 young children 11 yr old girl and a 4 yr old boy. Well my sister and I and my mother sat my sister down when she was 12 yrs old and we talked about the facts of life and sex. We let her know that we really want her to wait to have sex when your married and you meet that special person. However, if you meet that special person and you think your relationship is strong then ask one of us and we will take you to get birth control pills. I'd rather have her have the pill then a baby. The problem alot of religious people are in such denial about their kids. They are having sex no doubt about it but we don't need to encourage get but if they feel they are ready then by god come talk with me and I will get you the pill. I am will to bet his daughter already understands sex and the pill. Girls today aren't stupid. We as mother, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and cousins and friends have to ensure they are able to get contraceptives. By the way many young ladies have to take the pill for health issues. I have a niece that has to take them for health reasons.

 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
9. we talk about the hypocrisy. he is interesting. he recognizes
Tue Sep 11, 2012, 10:15 AM
Sep 2012

and admits that the choices he makes is not so good, and doesnt want daughter to do the same. i dont know if it is so much a sexism, as wanting better and recognizing, but not living it. he wouldnt argue anything you say. he doesnt give men an out.

he is interesting. and very very frustrating.

kinda a mountain man, love of nature kinda dude.

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
10. He is saying Do as I say, not as I do. One thing I learned that sex talk needs to be
Tue Sep 11, 2012, 03:15 PM
Sep 2012

given to both sexes. The young man must realize if your going to dance around the bed you gotta pay the fiddler. (If you know what I mean). He is just as responsible as a girl. He must take full responsibility. We taught that to our son. He knew we didn't want it to happen to him. We had that talk. Yet it did happen. He and his wife now had a baby out of wedlock. I have to say he step up to the plate and is such a good father. His little girl is closer to him then to her mother. They divorced once and remarried last year. I think it was a mistake. I love my daughter-in-law but she is into her self alot.

 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
2. some parallels i found interesting. this happens so often in conversation on du, just to get
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 08:03 AM
Sep 2012

someone to address what we are saying, not the name calling or way out there bullshit. repugs do the same. i would haev to say this style of argument is used when the side that has no reasonable explanation for a position uses it to demean and dismiss to silence, because they have nothing else.

but i found this interesting.

But why Fluke? Why does a modest, ordinary law student draw so much vicious, over-the-top, sex-phobic and misogynist reactions? Well, it goes back to the narrative that I laid out above. Women like Fluke--white, middle class, intelligent--are the women that get married young and devote their lives to housekeeping in the fantasy “Leave It to Beaver” world for which conservatives long. When they imagine how contraception and abortion freed women to delay marriage and have careers, they aren’t imagining the whole of womanhood, but specifically the Sandra Flukes of the world. When they imagine that these rights sexually liberated women, and allowed them to define their sexuality for themselves, instead of as an extension of men’s, these are the women that come to mind. Fluke is the living embodiment of the woman that’s imagined “getting back to the kitchen.”


they want the white middle class woman in the kitchen, lessening competition and kicking women out of their world. that is a simple on for us. use degradation to slut her into the kitchen.

what is it men are doing with MILF? are they not doing exactly the same, only in an alternate universe way. the role of a mom and they are taking her out of that role with degradation to slut her out.

it is simply one way or another, man wants control and power of womans sexuality.

where are the women even kinda putting all this time and effort into dictating mens sexuality???

i listened to the video of Katherine Turner. that woman is kick ass. so this is twisting a little to what she got me thinking about.

of course, there was one poster that dismissed her and what she was saying (which would be challenging to SOME men) because she is no longer "hot". since she does not turn him on, what she says does not matter.

BeyondGeography

(39,345 posts)
4. Because she's attractive
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:47 AM
Sep 2012

She'd bother them anyway, but the fact that they can't stop looking at her pushes them over the edge.

BellaKos

(318 posts)
6. These fanatics
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 03:00 PM
Sep 2012

have the same fantasy about their teenage children. They truly believe that their children are innocent and should be kept that way until marriage. And that's why they object to sex education in the high schools. But if they ever spent time getting to know their children (instead of using them as showpieces), they would realize that no teenager in modern America is innocent -- and therefore, should definitely be taught about sex, birth control, and STDs and preferably by a teacher who knows something about biology (instead of a man like Todd Akin).

Oh, and another thing. Conservative men seem threatened by female sexuality, so that might be another reason Sandra Fluke drives them nuts.

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