There was a righteous rant of a diary earlier today, calling out men with penises on their horrific anti-women attitudes, specifically regarding abortion. Some people had a problem with it, contending the diarist was painting with too broad of a brush, condemning all men. I didn't take it that way, and I have a penis. I think the diarist made it clear who she was blasting. I don't think she meant to say, "All men are anti-choice." I think people were reading that in.
However, there was another tone I read into it--and it's one that's far too common around these parts lately. It's that only men are anti-choice.
It's just not true, and acting as if this is a male vs. female issue does us absolutely no favors.
More over the orange gnocchi.
In the wake of Akin's comments in August, Kos added a few questions about abortion to the weekly poll, for the week from 8/23-26. One of them was, "Would you support or oppose a constitutional amendment banning all abortions without any exceptions, even in case of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is threatened?" The poll numbers were 13% support, 75% oppose, 12% not sure.
That's not what caught my eye, however--what caught my eye were some of the breakdowns. Specifically, this one:
Men 11-77-12
Women 14-73-13
It's just one poll. However, other polls have shown little or no difference in abortion questions once you separate for gender.
I've said this before--the five most virulently anti-choice people I know are female. Furthermore, two of them have had abortions.
So, yeah, men are dicks and we're all beneficiaries of male privilege and we know we can't biologically control childbirth so we try to do it any other way possible and, yes, we're dicks.
But, shit, male sexist dicks almost make sense. I can explain to my completely pro-choice daughter why a certain percentage of males want to restrict her rights. She's 17, she knows enough asshole males by now. She understands all that.
Women who want to restrict her rights? Even some who have availed themselves of those same rights? No, she doesn't get that. It baffles her.
So, you want to blame anti-choice men? Have at it.
Just don't let anti-choice women off the hook, just because they have vaginas. Because there are at least as many asshole women as there are asshole men. We even have polls to illustrate it.