I’m with MzNicky: There is a War on Women, and we will fight back. But what if fighting back means not fucking?
We’re at war here, ladies. One might call it a new kind of war. There won’t be much need for reproductive choice if there’s no reproducing, or anything else, goin’ on. Think of it as boycotting a corporation—which, really, it is not unlike— and hit ‘em where it hurts.
Of course, the bad thing about this war is that it hits us where it hurts, too. It probably won’t have much of an effect on wingnut super-religious conservative guys who either (a) aren’t getting any to begin with, (b) are getting some, but feel so guilty about it that they torment themselves enough already, or (c) have “bought the cow” and are getting some occassionally in the dark with their eyes closed for the purposes of procreation and who think the female orgasm is a myth. So, you know, they’re probably a lost cause.
It’s those fair-weather liberal men we need to concentrate on. You know the type: The ones who will swear their allegiance to women’s rights, until it comes to actually doing something about it, or until someone suggests that that perhaps supporting equal rights means losing a few votes in the heartland. Then they’ll argue that, really, it wouldn’t be so bad if Roe were overturned — it would leave our basic bodily autonomy and fundamental human rights in the hands of a majority vote, sure, but it would probably win the Dems a few elections. Or maybe they’re all about other liberal causes — anti-war, anti-racist, environmentally conscious — but when women’s rights come up, they just kind of shrug their shoulders, say it’s not really an issue, and go back to talking about sluts and bitches.
Will the Lysistrata campaign ever work? If not, it’ll mostly be because we just like sex too much. Abstinence blows. (And I speak from a fairly authoritative position on that one). I’m also reluctant to offer pussy as a prize for being a good boy and voting the right way, which is basically what withholding it amounts to. I’m of the mindset that if someone doesn’t think you deserve basic human rights, it’s probably not a great idea to sleep with them in the first place.
However, if we focus on refusing to share our bodies with people who don’t think those bodies are worthy of respect, I’d say we could have a pretty decent campaign underway. Don’t do it with anti-choice men. Don’t do it with men who claim to be pro-choice, but who think that reproductive freedoms should be political bargaining pieces and basic rights should be left up to the tyrrany of the majority. Put women’s rights on the same level as civil rights. We all agree that being a racist bigot makes you a complete fuckwit, and I’d venture to guess that most of us wouldn’t be so quick to brush aside our friends’ use of the n-word, their support of “state’s rights” when it comes to slavery and segregation, or their assertion that whites are naturally “different” from other races, and those differences just happen to be superior and explain why white people pretty much control everything in this country. That, I imagine, would tick us off to the point where we probably wouldn’t want to be in the same room with that person, let alone in the same bed. We need to hold sexism to the same standard. Don’t waste time justifying why some liberal men will call women “bitches” any more than you would justify using the n-word. Don’t waste time justifying why some liberal men think it’s ok to turn women’s rights to our own bodies over to the states, when you wouldn’t try to justify the argument that we should turn slavery or segregation over to the states. Don’t justify the argument that men are naturally superior — or a veiled form of that same argument — when you wouldn’t try and justify an argument of racial superiority.
Women’s rights are human rights, and anyone who has the audacity to argue against those rights is a sexist fuckwit who doesn’t deserve your attention or access to your vagina, even if he is a “liberal.” It’s that simple. If he doesn’t support your rights, he doesn’t support you. I’ve done the shitty mental gymnastics of trying to get out of this one, but misogyny is misogyny. Even if he does read the news paper, has great lips, listens to cool music and votes like a lefty.
Disclaimer: I’m not trying to prescribe anyone else’s sexual choices for them, even though that’s what this post sounds like. I’ll leave that up to the religious right. Fuck who you want to fuck. You aren’t a bad feminist if you do, or a good feminist if you don’t. These are just some long, rambling thoughts.