The War on Women

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One tactic that defenders of abortion or planned parenthood like to use to deter opponents is by asserting that you are engaging in a “war on women”. You seek to remove their rights, limit their access to health care, etc. For those struggling with this tactic and find yourself becoming defensive, here is the way that I thought it through.

I can go with the struggle as being a “war”.
There are women who support the opposition. But also men.
The war is not about gender. It is about truth.

Assertion: “You are waging a war on women” (lie)
Response: “I am waging a war against lies.” (truth)
Motivation: I seek to change your sense of the truth.
Understanding of most supporters of abortion: decieved
 
I agree that focusing on the truth is important.

I also point out that abortion is frequently pushed on women (or girls) by men who wish to hide their crimes and/or skip out on the responsibility of fatherhood. To me, that seems like worse evidence of a “war on women.”
 
pensmama87 said:
I agree that focusing on the truth is important.

I also point out that abortion is frequently pushed on women (or girls) by men who wish to hide their crimes and/or skip out on the responsibility of fatherhood. To me, that seems like worse evidence of a “war on women.”
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True. Our efforts are “A War for Women and Men” against the lies that deceive them.
 
James_Tyler said:
One tactic that defenders of abortion or planned parenthood like to use to deter opponents is by asserting that you are engaging in a “war on women”. You seek to remove their rights, limit their access to health care, etc. For those struggling with this tactic and find yourself becoming defensive, here is the way that I thought it through.

I can go with the struggle as being a “war”.
There are women who support the opposition. But also men.
The war is not about gender. It is about truth.

Assertion: “You are waging a war on women” (lie)
Response: “I am waging a war against lies.” (truth)
Motivation: I seek to change your sense of the truth.
Understanding of most supporters of abortion: decieved
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It shouldn’t need an abortion proponent to point out, however, that men don’t ever need (at least in their own minds) to access abortion. Women do. So while it’s correct to say the pro-life campaign isn’t a ‘war on women’, it is primarily experienced by women. It is perceived as being a ‘war on women’ because the right of women to access their own healthcare is perceived as being infringed by those who seek to curtail abortions. (The issue perhaps being what counts as healthcare one has a right to access).

Also maybe not helpful to get into a “truth” vs “lies” scenario. When we start using language like that we tend to forego reasonable approaches towards our fellow human beings, and regardless of one’s position on abortion that is never healthy.
MarcoPolo said:
Remember also that some people are impervious to reason.
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👍
 
The “War on Women” is a propagandist ploy, here are a few recent examples…

If you don’t support the troops, you don’t support the war.
If you don’t support contraception and/or abortion, you’re making a War on Women.
If you don’t support equality in marriage, you’re a bigot, homophobe, hateful, etc.

Its as simple as taking a political position and crafting negative connotations to associate and repeat with falsehoods to advocate for said position. All of these political “wars” in society such as the “War on Poverty” have actually caused the issue of poverty to become far worse. Most often they have nothing to do with the people they claim to help but rather seek to enshrine more power within the government while leading to abject moral decay.
 
I think that people named James and Kenny are going to have a hard time convincing women that they know the truth and women don’t.
 
Murmurs said:
… It is perceived as being a ‘war on women’ because the right of women to access their own healthcare is perceived as being infringed by those who seek to curtail abortions. (The issue perhaps being what counts as healthcare one has a right to access).
…
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My perception has been that those of the more liberal bent are what I call “ThOppers” – to get the truth, Think Opposite of what they say. It is hard for me to understand some woman’s feeling of persecution over the government not supplying for free what amounts to $10/month over the counter at the local pharmacy. Is the decision of the government not to provide federal funding for free sandals for gay ex-nuns with a foot fetish considered part of that “war”? If it can be couched as some sort of “right”, why not include it as well?
 
Today on a blog post about contraception and abortion I posted comments about the effectiveness of NFP. One young woman decided to call me out as blaming women because I was encouraging them to not use contraception.

My response to her was that I was in fact empowering women. That I was letting her make an informed decision about her life and accept the consequences of that decision. I pointed out that is the exact argument used by feminists in their war for women.

I left the forum later because I couldn’t handle the idiocy and rudeness of the leftists.
 
CatholicHockey7 said:
Today on a blog post about contraception and abortion I posted comments about the effectiveness of NFP. One young woman decided to call me out as blaming women because I was encouraging them to not use contraception.

My response to her was that I was in fact empowering women. That I was letting her make an informed decision about her life and accept the consequences of that decision. I pointed out that is the exact argument used by feminists in their war for women.

I left the forum later because I couldn’t handle the idiocy and rudeness of the leftists.
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Can’t say I blame you. I do agree with you on contraception.

Leftists aside, I do have some problems with conservatives when they claim that giving women the right to vote or get educated or get good jobs contributes to the destruction of society.
 
Sarcelle said:
Can’t say I blame you. I do agree with you on contraception.

Leftists aside, I do have some problems with conservatives when they claim that giving women the right to vote or get educated or get good jobs contributes to the destruction of society.
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I have a problem with both of them. Especially when they also claim to be Catholic. You cannot be 100% liberal or conservative and be 100% Catholic. Something has to give, and in America it’s usually the faith rather than the politics.
 
unstoppable_II said:
My perception has been that those of the more liberal bent are what I call “ThOppers” – to get the truth, Think Opposite of what they say. It is hard for me to understand some woman’s feeling of persecution over the government not supplying for free what amounts to $10/month over the counter at the local pharmacy. Is the decision of the government not to provide federal funding for free sandals for gay ex-nuns with a foot fetish considered part of that “war”? If it can be couched as some sort of “right”, why not include it as well?
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Well it is true $10/month (is it that little? I’ve no idea what medical stuff costs in the US) isn’t beyond the ability of many women to afford. However for those women who either as part of a family or on their own are living paycheck-to-paycheck and hand-to-mouth, this kind of thing becomes extremely important. And thus taking that aware IS tantamount to an attack on women, and an attack on poor women in particular, ie those who can least sustain it. I’m not saying that such ‘attacks’ are always intentional, but the fact that they can arise because of a lack of thinking says just as much as if they were genuine.

The phrase might be misleading, but it is just a label that has come to be attached to certain policy decisions (primarily of Republican legislators) which aim in effect (if not in intent, though unwittingly doing this is at least as bad as doing it deliberately) to enforce particular conservative social policies on women, or at any rate implying that issues that primarily effect women, don’t matter very much to the cadre of primarily white men, either legislators or primary voters. So one example would be the inane kerfuffle over the 2012-13 reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act. More broadly, reproductive rights are extraordinarily important for women and active politicking against them (viz contraception in health insurance provision) is manifestly detrimental to women.

The ‘war on women’ (let’s just say it exists for the sake of argument), like various other wars (terror, drugs, etc), can’t ever be won by either side. Perhaps this ‘war’ even more so, considering one side isn’t even aware it’s fighting it. No I don’t think there is a “war” but it is a matter of perception.
 
Oh if you want an immediate example, this kind of victim-blaming nonsense is the unwitting war on women being waged right now.

In this case, that the remedy to sexual harassment of interns in the Missouri House of Representatives, is for the interns to dress differently. (If dress code was an answer, then why wasn’t it equally suggested that the lawmakers’ dress code should involve a sturdy chastity belt and horse blinders?). The implication of these kind of suggestions (and yes they were not enacted but that’s not the point - the attitude behind the suggestion is key here) is basically "Darn it, all you young women…stop tempting me with your flirtatious memoranda on Bill 2213: A Bill to Reclassify Fish-Waste Processing Facilities as Nonpolluting Entities! " If one is so distracted by female interns that one can’t keep focussed on one’s job, one ought to not be representing the people of one’s state.

Why does this link back to contraception (etc) coverage? Because both represent a myopic patriarchal view that women don’t matter. It might not always be intended to imply that women don’t matter, but that is the effect. And that’s a big problem.
 
MarcoPolo said:
Right, but I was asking the poster to explain why he/she made that statement.
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I was thinking that it means women do not think men understand their problems very well so any advice from a man is not very useful. If that is true, then the task falls to women. However, if men understand in an inferior way, then women are on equal footing with one another. So it would not be very hard to override another woman either. I think the poster thinks that it must be a women’s movement to curtail abortion. Can anyone say this is true? Is it something women have to figure out for themselves? Can I, as a man, just step away from the issue and say, “i don’t think it is right but it’s a woman’s issue.” With a clear conscience? I am not an especially gifted man anyways when it comes to persuasion. To be clear, can I be excused from the issue, before the Almighty?
 
Murmurs said:
… The implication of these kind of suggestions (and yes they were not enacted but that’s not the point - the attitude behind the suggestion is key here) is basically "Darn it, all you young women…stop tempting me with your flirtatious memoranda on Bill 2213: …
Why does this link back to contraception (etc) coverage? Because both represent a myopic patriarchal view that women don’t matter. It might not always be intended to imply that women don’t matter, but that is the effect. And that’s a big problem.
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So women should be able to run around naked and expect no man to notice?
 
unstoppable_II said:
So women should be able to run around naked and expect no man to notice?
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I don’t believe the interns were naked. In fact I find it hard to believe they were dressed remotely inappropriately, given their position (although obviously none of us know either way on that front)…
 
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