Does My Vagina Look Lost, Sir?
Does my vagina look lost? Apparently, because I'm a woman, my vagina is in need of direction from men named "Mike" and "Ryan". Without their firm, authoritarian hands on my body parts, how would I ever know what to do with myself?
It started with a Facebook meme, as is often the case:
Then because of course talking about women's reproductive rights is like catnip to a certain kind of man, "Mike" shows up immediately to stake his claim, stating that babies are "murdered out of convenience because some whore couldnt (sic) keep her legs closed."
There it was. The whore comment. It's inevitable, though it usually doesn't come out in the third comment of a thread, and I was in no mood to let it rest and ferment. Before I could even address the whole "whore" issue, "Mike" doubles down with "Its (sic) not their body. It is was "their" body, theyd (sic) be the one that dies." And it was on like the proverbial Donkey Kong:
Now, I know that social conservatives love to spout off about "personal responsibility" about as much as they like to claim they're "true patriotic Christians, who love America", but the thing is that their definition of personal responsibility isn't mine. That may be one of the greatest disconnects between social conservatives and social liberals; cons like to make the personal communal, and liberals like to make the personal private.
This was where I thought "Mike" and I might reach a common ground. I'm not denying personal responsibility. In fact, I'm laying out a strong case for taking actual personal responsibility and actual control over one's decisions in life.
Unfortunately, "Mike" didn't agree, and he thought sarcasm would be the answer. Even more unfortunately for "Mike", I'm far more fluent in sarcasm than he is, though it's hard to rebut being called a "Godless, evil hearted person."
I left it at that. "Mike" got the last word, and I'm sure "Mike" feels vindicated that he's shown the heathen true Christian grace. I'm also sure that "Mike" will never understand why every single word out of his mouth was offensive, but this experiencing this kind of casual misogyny is commonplace for women. It's part and parcel with having two X chromosomes, and it's just another part of patriarchy and rape culture in the Rust Belt (and everywhere else).
(Article by Lessa Leigh)