White Supremacy’s BFF is Misogyny & It’s Coming for Your Reproductive Rights
The war against women still rages and is escalating.
The recent laws denying a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body are dripping with the desperation of white supremacists.
Seeing the coming reality that white men would likely not maintain their complete power hold in their state, and the permission from the 45th president’s administration (by way of behavior and dog whistles), white supremacists went into a panic and didn’t waste any time passing laws that they believe will help them maintain power.
These laws are likely intended to get abortion rights in front of the Supreme Court, hoping the right-wing majority justices will strike down Roe v Wade after 49 years of being the law of the land.
Or these laws might simply be a desperate attempt to maintain white male control in the state legislature. Either way, they crush the rights and autonomy of women, especially transgender and women of color.
Attacking reproductive rights is the perfect path to power for these men…and conveniently also the perfect tool, not only for oppressing us but for inflicting trauma and pain.
Some of the laws passed include the unimaginable cruelty of forcing a pregnant pre-teen (and any other child or woman) who’s been raped by a stranger or incested by her father or other family member, to carry the pregnancy to term. Oh, yeah and the rapist will have the right to joint custody. If that doesn’t spell MISOGYNY, nothing does.
The degree of male supremacy and hatred of women required to even consider these details of the law is beyond comprehension and one of the clearest dog whistle messages ever.
Proposed laws include a sadistic level of risk to the life of a woman and some even include the death penalty.
Make no mistake. Hatred of women is one of the deep-running undercurrents that fuels white supremacy in the United States.
Blatant misogyny is far more acceptable than blatant racism.
For some men, their misogyny (or in the very least “sexism”) is more unconscious, but as their fear of losing power and white male privilege rises, they may resort to whatever they can to maintain political and economic power.
These men insist that the laws they are passing (while they still have the majority vote to do so) are about their moral concern for “the unborn.”
Perhaps they’ve convinced themselves of that but their denial of the right to an abortion is only for those they wish to oppress. When their own mistress gets pregnant they can send her off for a “D & C procedure.” Women of means will always have the option of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. A D&C is a medical procedure used for a number of conditions, and is sometimes a euphemism for abortion. Euphemism or not, those who have the means can fly to wherever they need to go to find a clinic or a private doctor who will terminate their pregnancy.
Many “Pro-Life” people are truly concerned about what they believe to be a human being, except that in the case of these new laws they are wrong — There is no “heartbeat” at six weeks…because the fetal clump of cells has no organs.
From the article above:
“…the rhythm a doctor can pick up on an ultrasound at that time isn’t a heartbeat, because the embryo has no heart. The embryo is just 3 or 4 millimeters long with no developed organs. Thanks to the modern-day sensitivity of ultrasound technology, doctors can catch the electrical activity — a rhythmic pulsing — of these cells. But there is no beating heart or even a guarantee that one will develop. Miscarriages up to the eighth week of pregnancy are usually indistinguishable from a heavy period.”
This is the misinformation and brilliant con job perpetrated with the naming of these bills. The anti-choice folks eat it up and never question the scientific validity.
Ironically, these are the same people who oppose other laws and programs that would actually help children AFTER they are born.
There’s far more to this issue and for those in power, their agenda is clear — to put women (back) in their place.
The article below explains how the alt-right “movement’s many online communities prey on male insecurity to advance a racist political agenda.” Translation — hatred of women is being used to build the white supremacy movement.
When you build the white supremacy movement, you automatically increase misogyny. Violence against women and sexual assault rise at essentially the same rate.
A recent report stated that sexual assault in the military increased another 13% in 2018…and that’s after a dramatic rise in 2016 after which the Pentagon supposedly committed to addressing the problem. #Fail
You may have read the articles below as many were published over a year ago. I’m including them here as resources and to express the chilling reality of the connection between white supremacy and misogyny.
Originally published in July 2018, this Teen Vogue article is making the rounds again on Facebook:
The stark realities…
White Supremacy is on the rise.
Misogyny is on the rise.
Women suffer…Women of color and trans women suffer the most.
Abortions Will Continue — As They Always Have.
If Criminalized, Women Will Die…as We Always Have.
Here’s what women have done in the past:
Today’s Truth
Those of us who are Pro-Choice are NOT Pro-Abortion. We never make this choice lightly. It’s a difficult, painful decision.
Keeping abortion legal, safe and accessible is essential for women to maintain control over our bodies and our lives.
With fewer unwanted pregnancies the abortion rate drops dramatically. What’s needed for fewer unwanted pregnancies?
Free, accessible birth control.
Other things that make a big difference are quality honest sex education, and access to affordable quality healthcare.
Funny, though…those who are so concerned and oppose abortion, are almost never in favor of the preventative measures list above.
What could be LESS pro-life than to deny the medical care and medications that are proven to decrease the number of abortions?
I rest my case.
What’s Next?
It’s a new world. A pretty awful world right now, especially for those targeted by hatred…hatred from many sources enabled by the policies and attitude that “there are good people on both sides” expressed by the 45th president.
In may of 2019 the War Against Women stepped up immensely.
However, women are a force to be reckoned with. We won’t go back to the dark ages and we won’t back down. We will fight this battle fiercely.
The extreme and sadistic laws put in place by conservatives will backfire. Their desperate attempt to keep women under control may be the greatest gift to the progressive movement. Sadly, too few were aware of the state laws that have been put in place over the last few years.
Our goals include ending corruption, ending corporate atrocities (like the opioid epidemic, the new nicotine addiction impacting kids, unregulated cancer-causing agents, harmful pollution and practices that have led to the climate crisis), restoring the rights of marginalized people, addressing human rights violations, and assuring equality and opportunity for all.
Going after reproductive rights might be the most self-sabotaging decision the Republican party has ever made.
They underestimate the power of women.
They always underestimate the power of Black women — the most powerful voting block for the 2018 and 2020 elections.
Because you know….Guess who DIDN’T vote for Donald Trump in 2016? Black women — only 4% of Black women gave him their vote.
In 2020, while still minuscule, the Black woman vote for Trump doubled to 8%.
On the other hand, in 2016, 53% of white women voted for Trump and in 2020 it was 55%. Yeah…WTF?
Black women ran the most effective ground game in the midterms and in the 2020 election. Black women were organized to the max, registered voters like there was no tomorrow, and got out the vote!
Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky…these states had passed strict abortion laws when this was first written in May 2019.
Black women came through again and put Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House. We squeaked by keeping control of the House and a razor-thin majority in the Senate.
Since then the Handmaid’s Tale law came to Texas that put a $10,000 bounty in place for vigilante’s to keep people from having abortions in the state.
This was originally published on May 18, 2019 on another platform. It's been updated but the war against women has gotten worse.