Here's a post from my favorite feminist blog, explaining why guys who are anti-choice are such pathetic lonely, woman-hating losers. And she also does a great job of explaining misogynist women, and she's dead-on. I put this up as a public service to my fellow jpp posters who have struggled to understand the male anti-choice ranter (cough, superfreak, cough) and the conservative anti-choice woman, who is in it for male approval, absolutely.
"When I started blogging almost 5 years ago, I didn’t really comprehend the extent that misogyny was the main, probably sole engine of the anti-choice movement. In part, it’s because misogyny is so baffling to me. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to hate women, and yet in the years I’ve been doing this and therefore studying and interacting with anti-choicers, I have to conclude that’s what motivates them. Watch this video PZ posted, for instance, and the one thing that really strikes you is that everyone in this video radiates contempt for women, who appear to be, in their estimation, stupid, weak, and just begging to be raped if they get out of line.
The other thing that will strike you is that everyone in the video is, despite their hatred for women, actually a woman. There’s no doubt that this is 100% calculated in order to give a misogynist movement cover, though of course female misogyny is far from an unknown phenomenon. And being a woman, I have a pretty good grasp on what makes being a female misogynist appealing. You’re emotionally rewarded by men for it (and rarely challenged, because your womanhood gives you cover), you get to feel like you’re superior to your entire gender, and sometimes you’re financially rewarded for it. Believing rape myths allows you to believe that you’ll never be raped, and being anti-choice allows you to feel that you’re a moral person because you’re not a slut. I get it.
But what I’ve found in the past 5 years is that the female face that the anti-choice movement puts forward is misleading. The majority of anti-choice wackaloons I’ve encountered are straight men, and to the last one, they have Major Issues with women. (Of course, this is a self-selecting group, as men with Major Issues regarding women are attracted to fucking with me like nobody’s business.) I think that the experience, however tedious, has given me some insight into why so many straight men are just plain old misogynists, even though they presumably like women enough to want to be with us. Women are socially constructed as men’s inferiors and often in a servile role. But at the same time, sexual attraction makes men feel especially vulnerable to women, which hurts the ego. After all, if women are supposed to be in a servile role, but still have a right to reject you, that’s got to be maddening. Much of our society is organized around putting women in their place to rectify this situation for insecure men. Think of a place like Hooters where scantily clad women are literally serving you, and you’ll see what I mean. The reproductive rights wars are fueled by this issue. My experience has been that relatively secure men either are passionately pro-choice or tend to think that it’s not their issue because it’s women’s bodies and therefore women’s problem.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/blog_for_choice_day_why_misogyny/
"When I started blogging almost 5 years ago, I didn’t really comprehend the extent that misogyny was the main, probably sole engine of the anti-choice movement. In part, it’s because misogyny is so baffling to me. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to hate women, and yet in the years I’ve been doing this and therefore studying and interacting with anti-choicers, I have to conclude that’s what motivates them. Watch this video PZ posted, for instance, and the one thing that really strikes you is that everyone in this video radiates contempt for women, who appear to be, in their estimation, stupid, weak, and just begging to be raped if they get out of line.
The other thing that will strike you is that everyone in the video is, despite their hatred for women, actually a woman. There’s no doubt that this is 100% calculated in order to give a misogynist movement cover, though of course female misogyny is far from an unknown phenomenon. And being a woman, I have a pretty good grasp on what makes being a female misogynist appealing. You’re emotionally rewarded by men for it (and rarely challenged, because your womanhood gives you cover), you get to feel like you’re superior to your entire gender, and sometimes you’re financially rewarded for it. Believing rape myths allows you to believe that you’ll never be raped, and being anti-choice allows you to feel that you’re a moral person because you’re not a slut. I get it.
But what I’ve found in the past 5 years is that the female face that the anti-choice movement puts forward is misleading. The majority of anti-choice wackaloons I’ve encountered are straight men, and to the last one, they have Major Issues with women. (Of course, this is a self-selecting group, as men with Major Issues regarding women are attracted to fucking with me like nobody’s business.) I think that the experience, however tedious, has given me some insight into why so many straight men are just plain old misogynists, even though they presumably like women enough to want to be with us. Women are socially constructed as men’s inferiors and often in a servile role. But at the same time, sexual attraction makes men feel especially vulnerable to women, which hurts the ego. After all, if women are supposed to be in a servile role, but still have a right to reject you, that’s got to be maddening. Much of our society is organized around putting women in their place to rectify this situation for insecure men. Think of a place like Hooters where scantily clad women are literally serving you, and you’ll see what I mean. The reproductive rights wars are fueled by this issue. My experience has been that relatively secure men either are passionately pro-choice or tend to think that it’s not their issue because it’s women’s bodies and therefore women’s problem.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/blog_for_choice_day_why_misogyny/
