I've been threatening to write a political post for several days now...

but this isn't exactly it. It's political, I guess, but it's not the "big one". In other words, it's not the post I planned to do regarding the two presidential candidates. I plan on doing that one soon, but this one is more about sexism, feminism, women's rights, etc. Ever since Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, the so called "feminists" all across America have been up in arms. Why? Because Sarah Palin is totally and completely pro life and does not believe in or advocate for abortion. Therefore, according to these "feminists" in our country, Sarah Palin is not a woman for the masses. She is not a woman that other women should vote for and in fact, she is not a woman worthy of any support from other women. Huh. Interesting.

Anybody know the exact definition of "feminism"? I do. Check it out:

fem·i·nism (fěm'ə-nĭz'əm) n.
1. Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
2. The movement organized around this belief.

Where does it say that one must believe in abortion in order to be a feminist? Not only would I say that Sarah Palin is a classic example of a feminist as explained by that very definition of the word, I actually would classify myself as a feminist, as well. (Although I am in no way comparing myself to Sarah Palin. Love her or hate her, that woman possesses one thing in great quantities that I have never had and probably never will have; Courage!) I happen to think I am the equal to a man, I think all women are. I know this flies in the face of many historical, not to mention some religious, beliefs but I know in my heart of hearts that God made me every bit as smart as a man because I am that man's equal, not his lesser, not his better. His equal. That is not to say that I think I can do anything a man can do. I can't. In balance, a man can't do everything I can do either. Being "equal", in my view, does not mean men and women are equal at every effort across the board. Rather, it means that men and women are equal in their abilities to reason and to exist. Now. Having explained that particular philosophy, let me also say this; One of those things that I can do that a man cannot is have babies. I can give birth. And with the exception of that fella (who was formerly a woman) over in Oregon, no man has been able to match that specific capability. Pregnancy and child birth are the exclusive purview of Woman. (Tragically, not all women can do this, for a great variety of reasons. I do not believe that lessens their "womanhood" in the least. Pregnancy and child birth does not define a woman, rather it is something a woman can do that no man can. Just want to establish my feelings about that before someone lashes out at me for disenfranchising the infertile portion of the female population when that is certainly not my intent.)

Okay. Now that I've stated my belief that I, as a woman, am equal to a man (remember guys, equal yet different!!) let me get about half of you in an uproar by stating that I do not believe in abortion. I deplore the ease of abortion, I deplore it's use as a way of keeping a woman from "screwing up her life". I believe that if a woman voluntarily has sexual relations with a man and becomes pregnant, she should understand that that pregnancy is not an "inconvenience" and it's not just a "bother" to be gotten rid of at the earliest opportunity. It's a baby. I swear I don't get the whole "when does a fetus become a child" argument. Hel-lo!!!! Despite what you may have seen in Hollywood horror films, the results of a human woman's pregnancy is that of a human baby in absolutely 100% of the time. It's not like there's a chance you could give birth to a donkey or a goldfish or a stuffed animal. No, no, no. If left to progress normally, a human child will indeed result from that pregnancy. Even in the case of a miscarriage, what comes out is still human. It's human cells, not monkey cells, not turtle cells, not imploding cells from the 3rd sun of Saturn (if there is such a thing). Therefore, in my mind, any termination at any time during a pregnancy is...well, the only way to say it is, you've terminated a human life. Okay, so now I've gotten some people all tense thinking I'm trying to force my views on the rest of the population. Not so. I don't think Roe vs. Wade should be repealed. I don't see the point in doing that. I'd rather see women being taught personal responsibility for their bodies. I think Roe Vs. Wade merely provided women with a fix for those times when they didn't consider the consequences of sex, unprotected or otherwise. However, having said that, I also have to confess my ambiguity over abortion in the case of rape or incest or even in the case of the pregnancy actually endangering the health of the mother. A huge part of me thinks that a pregnancy should be respected at all costs. But another part of me wonders if, faced with the horrors of those scenarios, would I be strong enough to carry that baby to term or would it destroy me as a person to do so? And listen. I know my views are just that: my views. Not yours or yours or even yours. They're just mine. The bottom line of my view on abortion is that I think it's horrific and plain old wrong to use abortion as a "fix". A woman needs to take responsibility for her body if she ever wants to be considered equal to a man in this world. Part of taking responsibility for her body is to know that having sex can result in pregnancy and pregnancy is not like a boil you should have lanced from your ass just because medically it can be done. Pregnancy is a life. Woman have a great and awesome power in that they can carry another life inside their bodies. Only women can do that! Men cannot! That's huge!! So why do the "feminists" in our country think that the ability to negate and terminate that power is the absolute "cornerstone" of what defines a "true" feminist? That makes no sense. Woman should be treasuring the capability of giving birth, not embracing a method of destroying it. What is wrong with us? Who convinced women that the way to be equal was to become non maternal? My God. Women! Wake up! It's not our differences from men that keeps us from being equals. It's our failure to understand that those differences are what gives us our equality. Men and woman balance each other in this and many other ways. Different strengths, different talents, different capabilities...equal minds, equal hearts, equal destinies. So all you so called "feminists" out there, come out of the dark ages. Don't deny your feminine differences from men. They're there. They're real. They always will be. Cheer for those differences! And for pity's sake, stop denigrating other women who embrace the beauty of being women. Let's join hands and work towards the true definition of "feminism". Standing for abortion doesn't make you enlightened. It just takes away from being a woman. And that, my friends, is an awful thing to do to yourself.

One last thing before I go...I've been watching quite a bit of political tv lately. (And man, don't even get me started on the bias of the networks, particularly Fox and MSNBC! Whatever happened to journalists being neutral?????). Anywho...I noticed that a lot of "pro choice" individuals aren't calling it "abortion" these days. Rather, they've taken to calling it "reproductive health issues". What in the hell does that mean? Can anyone explain that to me? Are they implying that being pregnant is somehow a "health" issue for your uterus? I mean I guess you could say that's sort of accurate. Maybe. But what's with the fancy terminology? The discussion between "pro-life" and "pro-choice" isn't about a woman's "reproductive health". After all, pregnancy is actually a function of a woman's body, not a disease or malady, remember? No, this discussion is about abortion. Let's "keep it real", okay people? I mean, you can put lipstick on that pig...but it's still a pig. Right?