Kat with a K: I... can't even... gah.

July 01, 2006

I... can't even... gah.

Feminist , I cannot believe this is happening. , Meanwhile, in the outside world... , Warning: Liberal

It is way too early in the morning to wrap my brain around this, but I had to share. A new anti-abortion movement has a bold new plan: get pro-life men to marry single pregnant women so they don't have abortions. Um. Right. Do you see why I'm having trouble even finding the words?

Two favorite lines from the article:

"The motif of a man proposing marriage to a woman pregnant with another man�s child is a common one on soap operas that are a fairly good gauge of female fantasy. These stories represent the truth that many pregnant women don�t really want to abort, and would not, if marriage and commitment were offered to them."

and

"Most women are quite rational people."

Yes, the first quote clearly shows how rational the author thinks women are. (Women? People? What? Dorothy Sayers review coming soon.) I'm not sure I want soap operas to be taken as an accurate gauge of "women's fantasies." Maybe some women, sure, but, um, no thanks. If you must have an accurate gauge of my fantasies, please use Jane Austen.

It seems like this would be setting up a really bad dynamic for a marriage: "I saved your baby's life. Without me, you'd be going to hell." Umm, Godlike husband much? Of course, that's probably the point.

(Thanks to Feministing for the link.)

Posted by Kat at July 1, 2006 07:55 AM

Comments

I'm with you there, soap operas certainly DO NOT represent any bit of any fantasty of mine. Ugh!

Posted by: Julie at July 1, 2006 08:10 AM

I thought most men were NOT interested in raising other men's children?

Posted by: Ali at July 1, 2006 03:00 PM

*sputter* I've lost my words. Eeeeeeek.

Posted by: Chris at July 1, 2006 03:40 PM

Fuhwahbuhdah?

::Twitching convulsively::

Posted by: sprite at July 1, 2006 05:45 PM

That's quite frankly one of the most laughable things I've ever seen...

Oooh! Let's distract them with shiney sparkley diamonds so she won't get an abortion!

What happens 3 years down the road when they get a divorce? As I recall, divorce is explictly listed as a sin in the Bible... We're only guessing that abortion is. :P

Posted by: nikkiana at July 1, 2006 05:59 PM

What? That's [sputters], I don't know, incredible? Stupid? Misguided on about a million levels?

And hello. Do they watch soap operas? There's a lot of rampant amnesia. Does that mean that given half a chance, we'd all decamp our lives?

Idiots.

Posted by: Carrie K at July 1, 2006 07:09 PM

I'd like to wade in on the soap opera hypothesis. The premise of which seems to be(from the quotation) that soap operas are based on real life. Soap operas are product pushers: "soap" operas, hence the name. A man marrying a pregant woman, whenhe is not the father of said pregnancy, leads to lots of juicy, tremendoulsy episodic, situations about mysterious parentages,jealousies,healt concerns, strife, torment, lots and lots of sponserec product placement. Please. Soap operas are capitalistic not moralistic***CV

Posted by: chittavrtti at July 1, 2006 09:35 PM

Um, the fuck? Yes, I agree, most women *don't* want to abort, in fact, I'd say the vast, vast majority, and yes, most women are making a rational choice when they choose abortion, but wow, let's figure out how to address that:

a) create a social infrastructure that supports parenting of young children throughout society by providing extensive government-sponsored paid leave, universal health care, high-quality affordable subsidized child care, and educational options that do not depend on parental wealth, or

b)get crazy-ass born-again christians to freakin' marry women who are choosing to abort in order to retain control over their own lives.

A little unclear on the concept, are we? Nobody ever said the born-again xtians were smart. Persistent, yes. Smart, well...

Posted by: mamacate at July 1, 2006 11:12 PM

Pardon my french - but, that's about the most stupid fucking thing I ever heard of...where are these people's brains...

Just what every single, pregnant female wants - some over zealous man thinking he's going to make it all better...What a joke...

I just don't understand why people don't let other people live their own lives...if some of us tried to push our life styles down the supposed "Christians" - they would have a fit...

Furthermore, there has never been one day in my life that resembled any Soap Opera that I've ever seen...WTF are they all thinking...

Posted by: Sara at July 2, 2006 05:21 PM

Well, hell, Kat, I'm just a empty headed walking womb on combat boots. And like all women, I can only dream that should I ever get knocked up again, I could whore myself to a nice christian pro-lifer. Yeah. Gonna go smack my head into the wall a few times now.

Posted by: Erica at July 3, 2006 01:11 AM

Oh. My. That is misguided on so many levels, I wouldn't even know where to start.

Posted by: Alison at July 3, 2006 02:09 AM