Tags: abortion, culture arts, Feminism, politics, Susan B. Anthony, women, Women's Studies
Yesterday was Susan B. Anthony’s birthday. My Women’s Studies class celebrated her birthday, and to my surprise, it appeared that others were celebrating on campus too. Walking out of a later class, I saw fliers plastered in the Dennison stairwells with Susan B. Anthony’s quaint photo tag-lined with the message “another anti-choice fanatic: The woman who fought for the right to vote also fought for the right to life. We proudly continue her legacy.”
Who’s “we?” The flier was created by an organization called Feminists for Life. Their slogan – “Refuse to Choose. Women Deserve Better” – caught me off guard. Despite my radical feminist tendencies, I don’t harbor a lot of hostility towards people with pro-life beliefs, but this flier evoked something.
I had never heard or seen people– feminists for that matter– who actively promote denying womyn the right to choose (anything). Moreover, I’d never heard or seen any pro-lifers self-identifying as “anti-choice.”
Even if by some stretch of the imagination, Susan B. Anthony would fall in the pro-life camp (see this article), her position (1) needs to be historically contextualized – the medical practice and political implications were very different, and (2) we must recognize her politics as fundamentally advocating for womyn to be able to make choices (i.e., womyn should be able to vote).
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3 Comments
Thanks Rob – really interesting analysis and critiques of conservative feminism. Where I do agree with your disparagement of what Malkin tells men to help the feminist cause, I do foresee a possibility for conservative feminism. (I’m just not sure what it would look like.) I totally agree that they need to pick different role models and a strict reliance on historical figures is damning to any type of social flexibility.
Check out what my friend Aaron has to say about conservatism: http://consideronline.org/2011/03/24/liberalism-and-conservatism/
I think it’s relevant.
That reminds me of a time I was watching CSPAN and Michelle Malkin was talking to a “Conservative Feminist” group on a college campus. A male posed the question to Ms. Malkin, “How can young men help the conservative feminist cause?”. Malkin responded, “Whenever you see a female dressed inappropriately just tap them on the shoulder and tell them that’s not ok.” I’m sure men telling women how to dress is very liberating to the feminist cause.
Using the same argument as the poster author, we could quote the founding father’s and make a case we could go back to having slavery legal. The poster falls flat. I think Michelle Malkin hates modern feminists because she believes they have moved away from Susan B. Anthony’s supposed stances on issues like abortion and women’s sexuality.