Ainsley Hayes (from the West Wing) on why she opposes the Equal Rights Amendment:Because it's humiliating. A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man? I'm mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before. I am a citizen of this country. I am not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white men. The same Article 14 that protects you protects me, and I went to law school just to make sure.
Jo March (from Little Women) on why women should vote:
I find it poor logic to say that women should vote because they are good. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.
1 comment:
You ask in your previous post, "Is Feminism dead?" I want to postulate that perhaps it should be.
Feminism has served its purpose. Its work is done. No.. Please put down the stones and let me explain.
Feminism has become such a loaded word. There are so many people who have twisted what it has come to mean, that it is no longer providing more benefit than harm. I think Ainsley's quote here is one of the best examples of exactly what I'm trying to say.
We don't need more womens rights. We need equal rights. (Equal but different. I don't need the right to have a baby, no matter how equal you want to make the rights, you can keep that one.)
What's my point. I think feminism has become too much. It has been associated with so many diferent points of view, it has become an umbrella for everything from the obvious (give women the vote) to the extreme (Women should subdugate men). We need to step away from this baggage, and express what is really needed without the preconceptions, the knee-jerk reactions that many people will have to "feminism"
Maybe then people will be more willing to say yes, there is more work to do.
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