Conservative propagandist and radio host Rush Limbaugh donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a women's group that has continually defended his sexist tirades and misogynist diatribes. No matter how far his hatred of women is hurled across the airwaves, The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) has come to his defense. More below the feminist fleur.
In March of 2012, former IWF CEO Michele Bernard told Chris Hayes that Limbaugh paid “several hundred thousand dollars out of his own pocket" to host dinners for Nancy Brinker of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Condeleezza Rice. Since his $273,000.00 contribution, the IWF has loyally defended him on a range of issues.
Limbaugh’s biggest controversy since 2007 came following his February 29, 2012, characterization of Georgetown University Law Center student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” and a “prostitute.” Fluke, earlier that week, had spoken in support of the government mandating insurance coverage for contraceptives.
While Limbaugh was largely condemned for these remarks and offered an
"apology" to Ms. Fluke, the IWF published nine posts criticizing her and even normalized his remarks.
“He wanted to highlight the absurdity of women, under the banner of feminism, who want to be seen as independent as they try to force other people to pay for their choices and lifestyle. Painting yourself as a victim for having to figure out how to buy your own contraception, especially when you are enrolled at one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools, is pretty difficult to mesh with the idea of true independence.”
Here is Limbaugh's narcissistic ode to the IWF:
“Members of this group have often referred to me as Braveheart in a political sense…. They sorta created themselves as the alter ego of the feminazis. They appreciate strong men. They want strong men. They desire a role for strong men in relationships and in the world, in politics and all of this. They’re a good bunch of people.”
To clarify who the women of the IWF are, the group grew out of “Women for Judge [Clarence] Thomas,” to support him against Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment.
The Independent Women's Forum aims “to expand the conservative coalition, both by increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and by countering those who seek to ever-expand government in the name of protecting women."
To whom did the women of the IWF sell their soul?
Contrary to the IWF mission, which does nothing to connect public policy to women's lives or protect them in any detectable way, Rev. Emma Akpan, an advocate for reproductive justice links policy to real life. Rev. Akpan, from Raleigh, North Carolina, has been participating in the Moral Mondays protests. She's a grassroots activist with Blueprint North Carolina, where she builds coalitions of charitable organizations and works to influence state policy. Last year she offered a closing prayer on Reproductive Rights Advocacy Day. But when North Carolina decided that not expanding Medicaid was more important, they not only said they didn't care about women, they also said they didn't trust them. The reproductive justice movement supports putting the responsibility on women to make decisions for their health, spirituality, finances, and families, by developing policy that actually supports women in ways women need. Real freedom and independence is about having access to health care and services that allow women to live a healthy life, and parents to raise their children in a healthy manner.
Rev. Akpan helped to bring the issue of reproductive justice into the Moral Mondays protests because of the Motorcycle Vagina bill, or Senate Bill 353. Motorcycle safety-helmet regulations go hand in hand with abortion clinic regulations reproductive health care services. Apparently. When the bill passed in the beginning of last July, clinics that provided abortion services closed down throughout the state. According to a Huffington Post article from August, 2013, there were 16 clinics that provided abortion services before the TRAP laws were passed. A google search for clinics in North Carolina shows FemCare, a women's clinic in Asheville, N.C. was the only surviving clinic following Governor McCrory's restrictive bill, but it was closed after being cited for 23 health and safety violations and labeled an “imminent threat to the health and safety of patients.”
Rev. Akpan talks about the importance of having the reproductive justice movement be inclusive.
I work in [the policy sphere] and it’s difficult to remember women in rural areas. We are very aware that we are not the only people at the center of the movement, but we talk like we are. So, at the beginning of January, [a few of] the largest women’s coalitions attended an antiracism workshop. We are dedicated to being more inclusive in our activism. That includes focusing on relationship building with women across the state and making sure we are collaborating with and learning about what issues are important to them instead of staying in our own bubble and deciding for ourselves what issues are important to women.
Next month they'll be taking a bus trip to Florida to stand in solidarity with Marissa Alexander when her case is retried.
Marissa Alexandra's case is a reproductive justice issue because she has been away from her three children since she attempted to
stand her ground. Reproductive justice is more than race, class and gender, it is about the racial and economic disparities deep rooted in the justice system.
And like the health care debate, women's voices are limited in economic debates, minimized because their is no true understanding of the economic context inherent in abortion access and Domestic Violence. Pay gap and workplace discrimination are often discussed superficially and based on small samples of women. Spiraling inequality leaves women to make up large proportions of the long term unemployed and head up single parent households. Middle income women often have limited social support while higher income women only slowly advance into executive suites.
A new feature at The Nation, called, The Curve, gives a space for feminists to talk about feminist issues from an economic perspective. For example, how can we prevent a collision of feminism and capitalism when the barriers to women's progress are structural, built in to the foundations of our capitalist culture?
Notable articles of the week
The COURAGE to be Sexy
“Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?”
Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
"We're All Black" Is Not the End of the Conversation! from "Danielle's collection of thoughts on race, gender, popular culture, and Black feminist criticism."
Billionaire Gets Four Months for Sexual Assault of a 12-Year-Old Girl “Affluenza” has struck again."
Pin-Ups for Vets (Facebook)
Colonel Ruby Bradley, one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history.
A survivor of two wars, a prison camp and near starvation, Colonel Ruby Bradley, was one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history. Bradley entered the United States Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934. She was serving at Camp John Hay in the Philippines when she was captured by Japanese forces three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
In 1943, she was moved to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. It was there that she and several other imprisoned nurses earned the title "Angels in Fatigues" from fellow captives. For the next several months, she provided medical help to the prisoners and sought to feed starving children by shoving food into her pockets whenever she could, often going hungry herself. As she lost weight, she used the room in her uniform for smuggling surgical equipment into the prisoner-of-war camp. At the camp she assisted in 230 operations and helped to deliver 13 children.
When U.S. troops liberated the camp on February 3, 1945, Bradley weighed only 86 pounds (39 kg). She was then returned to the United States where she continued her career in the Army. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California in 1949.
Bradley served in the Korean War as Chief Nurse for the 171st Evacuation Hospital. In November 1950, during the Chinese counter-offensive, she refused to leave until she had loaded the sick and wounded onto a plane in Pyongyang while surrounded by 100,000 advancing Chinese soldiers. She was able to jump aboard the plane just as her ambulance exploded from an enemy shell. In 1951, she was named Chief Nurse for the Eighth Army, where she supervised over 500 Army nurses throughout Korea.
She was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1958 and retired from the Army in 1963.