Why Do They Fear the Uterus?

Because the previously used video was yanked by YouTube, I've replaced it with something just as appropriate that contains the same scenes.

FUCKING OY: No woman in the history of politics has used her womb like Nancy Pelosi.

Comments

[Lesley]

It's like a triple bind.

A female politician who doesn't have kids = shrew who puts her career ahead of her womanly duties.

A female politician who has kids but doesn't speak of them = bad, unnatural mother

A female politician who has kids, speaks of them regularly, and emphasizes that she's a mother and grandmother = using her family to promote her career.

A male politician who doesn't have kids = Meh?

A male politician who has kids but doesn't speak of them = trying to protect his family's privacy.

A male politician who has kids, speaks of them regularly, and emphasizes that he's a father and grandfather = good family man with whom we can all relate.

In other words, Ben Shapiro is a sexist schmuck.

[The Commissar]

"A female politician who doesn't have kids = shrew who puts her career ahead of her womanly duties."

Channeling Barbara Boxer, eh, Lesley?

[Lesley]

Oh please. You know I wasn't claiming I believed that myself. If it makes you feel better, I think Boxer was wrong to say what she said to Rice.

Do you have a substantive response to the double standard I outlined? Do you deny it's existence? What was your point, other than an incorrect "Ooh, hypocrisy!

[Lesley]

Actually, just for the additional laughs on this one, I myself am a 42-year-old woman who happens to have never had children and does have a successful career. Oddly, I'm of the opinion that I, too, am still entitled to have a viewpoint on the war in Iraq, even if it didn't happen to be the "right" one. So, yeah, Boxer's remark pissed me off.

[Hubris]

"A female politician who doesn't have kids = shrew who puts her career ahead of her womanly duties."

Actually, I didn't take Boxer's remarks that way at all. She noted that she herself didn't have anything personally at risk in Iraq, even though she's a mother/grandmother.

She noted that Rice didn't have an immediate family member at risk. That goes for a sister, brother, etc. It wasn't about motherhood.

She also wasn't saying you had to have a family member at risk to have a viewpoint. She was just saying it might make it different in terms of perspective when you don't have a loved one who might die in the conflict. Which I suppose has more than a grain of truth in it.

Interesting to see Tony Snow newly concerned with the progress of feminism.

[Roxanne]

I'm with Hubris.

[julia]

and of course, if you're Rick Santorum, you can build an entire career on your wife's uterus and get your state's taxpayers to pay the bills for them and it's all holy and stuff.

I don't quite get the reaction to the Boxer/Rice exchange. We're not supposed to mention that the people making the decisions in this administration who do have children aren't sending them, it's OK for Rice to point out that Boxer's doesn't have anyone over there and it's a slap at Rice's lack of children if Boxer points out that she doesn't either?

This is blatant civility trolling on behalf of someone who got back exactly what she served out, excepting of course that no-one's sending her kids off to die to provide political cover for their boss.

Really, enough.