Friedersdorf's Post on Men and Abortion Rights Elicits, Unsuprisingly, Vitriol From a Self-Righteous Pop Feminist Warrior

Friedersdorf's post responds to his respondents. Harrogate doesn't have much to say beyond what he already said. Except one thing. "Anna N." at Jezebel is exactly the type of persona that makes Harrogate feel, as he occasionally does, embarrassed to be in any way associated with progressive American politics in general, and with pop feminism in particular--both of which movements are so freaking up to their eyeballs in identity politics one wonders sometimes at the rank ridiculousness of it all.

Award-Winning Snippet:

I don't believe that all anti-abortion advocates are acting in bad faith, or that they all want to control women. I do believe that many of them have genuine religious objections to abortion, and that these objections don't necessarily make them misogynists. But I also believe that on both sides of the debate are men who don't really get what it's like when something is not their decision to make. It's time for them to learn.

Oh, please. Do "teach" us blinded, oppressive, piggish men, Anna N.

Nothing in the abortion rights saga has been more stunning to Harrogate over the last decade--and this is including the murder of George Tiller, which was more heartbreaking than it was surprising for Harrogate--than the persistent presence on the blogosphere of women writers lashing out at male supporters of abortion rights, for having the audacity to enter the conversation in the first place. There are so many things wrong with such "logic," one hardly knows where to begin.

Anna N. asserts that Friedersdorf's post amounted to a threat by men, to withdraw financial and emotional investment in their offspring in response to the rhetoric of people like Anna N. But of course this is not at all what Friedersdorf's post said. But then, truth is not really a primary concern for those who worship at such poisonous wells.

For that is what identity politics has become, in the popular culture, in the political sphere, and increasingly, in the academic humanities as well. One wishes this were a straw man argument, but then one wishes a lot of things.

The illusion that women in the United States suffer greatly, that a vast patriarchy oppresses Anna N. and her sisters, must be maintained at all costs by any good progressive.

Blech on the race baiters and blech on the ovary peddlers too.

Men and the Abortion Issue

Today, a guest blogger on Andrew Sullivan's site, named Conor Friedersdorf, posted what Harrogate considers an extremely well-written engagement with the role of men in the abortion rights discourse. Friedersdorf's post responds to the firestorm provoked by a recent piece published by Alternet and entitled "My First Abortion Party.

Friedersdorf (and, to a lesser extent, "My First Abortion Party") attempts to negotiate the abortion issue's intersect between women's rights and the misandry that often impels pop (and academic) feminist discourse.

From "My First Abortion Party"

I saw Maggie’s boyfriend, sitting near the kitchen, wearing rainbow suspenders and looking uncomfortably alone. As it turns out, he had been the object of a lot of vitriol from Maggie’s friends -- women who thought that he should not have had anything to do with the abortion

and

A few days beforehand, one of her friends had asked her to have the abortion in Ohio. When Maggie insisted on bringing her boyfriend along, the friend told her not to bother coming. Maggie was being shown a great deal of respect, certainly. But she told me she couldn’t help but feel as though her pregnancy had been "hijacked" by women who felt like her inclusion of a man in the decision was weak or wrong.

And then from Friedersdorf:

Without taking any position on abortion itself, I want to interrogate the appropriate role of males, and suggest that progressives especially face some thorny questions. As I understand it, the most common position on the left is that how a woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy is a choice to be made by her alone. At the same time, the progressives I know subscribe to a partnership ideal in relationships, wherein major life decisions between couples are made via a process of mutually supportive dialogue, stripped of archaic gender norms whenever possible.

Heh.

Immediately followed by:

The woman gets pregnant: "I'm late," she tells her boyfriend. The man, if he wants to keep the sympathy of the audience, says, "What are we going to do?" The "we" signals his mutual responsibility for the circumstance and investment in the process -- and the question mark signifies that he'll pretty much support whatever she decides.

That shit's pretty funny, actually. No stand up comic could have done it better.

And finally:

Given that progressives and feminists are especially invested in pushing back against the notion and reality that rearing children is the province of women, I'd be curious to hear whether they agree with my diagnosis, and how they think these questions ought to be navigated. Is there an inherent tension between the social norms that advance your agenda on reproductive rights, and the ones that better bring about the world you'd like to see more generally?

Fashionable protest: T-Shirt Rhetoric 3000

I agree with your politics but not your grammar.

Tiller's Clinic Closed

Linking to this AP piece, Charles at Little Green Footballs asks:

Does anti-abortion terrorism actually work in America?

A chilling question, yes?

From the AP piece:

Dr. Warren Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the country who performs late-term abortions, said the closure of the clinic was an "outrage" and he feels the loss for Dr. Tiller's family and the patients he served.

"How tragic, how tragic," Hern said when contacted by phone at his Boulder, Colo., clinic. "This is what they want, they've been wanting this for 35 years."

Asked whether he felt efforts should be made to keep the clinic open, he said: "This was Dr. Tiller's clinic. How much can you resist this kind of violence? What doctor, what reasonable doctor would work there? Where does it stop?"

A bit further down:

Hern blamed comments from anti-abortion groups for Tiller's death.

"The anti-abortion fanatics have to shut up and go home. They have to back off and they have to respect other people's point of view. This is an outrage, this is a national outrage

Meanwhile, back in crazy-fucktard-town:

Randall Terry, the founder of the original Operation Rescue group, responded to news that Tiller's clinic would remain closed with, "Good riddance." He said history would remember Tiller's clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

"What set him apart is that he killed late-term babies," Terry said. "If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue."

And so here we are.

Roe Roe Roe Your Boat

Again, it is important that Americans not allow Abortion Rights to be a sleeper issue in this election. This election is likely the Climax, so far as Roe v Wade is concerned. This is what the Palin pick was about. McCain sent his signal loud and clear that Abortion Rights would be kneecapped under his administration.

If this is what Americans are ready to do, then that is one thing. Harrogate will still be horrified at it, as he hates the idea of civil liberties being put to a vote in individual states. He thought that was what the Bill of Rights was for.

But then again, not everyone sees Abortion as a civil liberties or as a womens' rights issue. Some see it as a murder issue.

And so back to the point. If Americans are ready to see Roe overturned, and to see this issue thrown to the States. We are talking State-By-State Warfare here. Violence highly likely. But if the country is ready for it, then that is one thing.

But if the Plurality is not ready for it. If instead the Plurality is Pro-Choice, but not single-issue zealots in the ballot box. Then we have a real Breakdown in our System coming.

See Pat Buchanan's recent article. This sums it up. Ole Pat wants Roe overturned and all Abortion criminalized. Despite, or perhaps even because of this bias, his description of what this election means for Abortion Rights, is clear and true.

A final word on this. Oh the irony, Sarah Palin is attracting Independent Women voters in droves, according to every poll out there. And most of the Women polled in those Polls, say they are Pro-Choice but do not care, because they just admire Sarah Palin so damned much. And so. A charming woman, Palin. Pretty, and indeed "likeable enough," as the saying goes. In other words the Perfect Weapon against womens' rights.

Someone explain to Harrogate again how Sarah Palin is not the most Just Punishment Imaginable, for Liberal America and It's Fetish for Identity Politics.

God exists, has a twisted sense of humor, and sometimes pays attention to American politics. Sarah Palin and her impact on this election proves it.