My lady parts, what\u2019s left of \u2019em, are feeling mighty marginalized this morning, after waking up to the news that they did not get invited to the Grrrrrl Power party that reelected President Obama. Being respectable card-carrying feminist lady parts, activated in the 1960s, they are astonished to learn how far the mighty have fallen. \u201cWTF?\u201d they are asking. \u201cDidn\u2019t we already fight this battle? Didn\u2019t they hear us roar in numbers too big to ignore that women are more than the sum of their lady parts? That we resist objectification with every fiber of our being?\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently not. Because here<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s the HuffPost giving credit for the Obama win to a bunch of voting vaginas. And the vaginas (along with some uteri sistahs) are gleefully applauding themselves. Just a sample (all sic) from the, pardon the pun, combox:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t mess with people with vaginas.<\/p>\n As a woman, I don\u2019t care to have OLD WHITE GUY\u2019s on Viagra telling me what to do with my Vajaja!!<\/p>\n I woke up this morning and didn\u2019t find a republican in my vagina.<\/p>\n For the bible thumpin\u2019 political holier than thou\u2019s\u2026when we collectively said \u201cget your mitts off my uterus\u201d we MEANT it!<\/p>\n WOOT WOOT! Ladies, show \u2019em your uterus! And slap their head for even looking!<\/p>\n Yes, I voted with my lady parts. I don\u2019t really agree with much of what Obama has done\u2014drones in war, no public option in health care, etc. etc. But no way were the outspoken misogynists getting my vote.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s time to stop using the sexist gender \u201cgap\u201d. It\u2019s a vagina, ok? Do you hear us talking about the gender woodie, or gender Dick, when we are talking about you?<\/p>\n VAGINAS WIN! VAGINAS WIN!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019d give you more, but I don\u2019t like morning sickness unless there\u2019s going to be a baby at the end of it.<\/p>\n And speaking of babies, the vagina vote not only returned the president to the White House but also made it very clear that America don\u2019t need no stinkin\u2019 babies. Poor Helen Reddy, in \u2018I Am Woman,\u2019 sang about being \u2018still an embryo with a long, long way to go,\u2019 \u00a0but the vagina vote is delighted to abort her and save her the journey.<\/p>\n THE WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES WILL NOT STAND FOR FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN THEIR SELF GOVERNMENT. THE RIGHTS OF A HANDFUL OF DIVIDING CELLS WILL NEVER TROUNCE THE RIGHTS OF THE WOMAN WHOSE BODY SUSTAINS THEM.<\/p>\n Family planning is essential to keep them from having more kids, 3 is enough economically and emotionally. This is lost on the GOPs at least the men. They see every child as a blessing, that\u2019s fine , but most women and their mates do not want to be \u201cblessed\u201d more than a few times . . .<\/p>\n Women want to be able to CHOOSE when they have another person feeding off them, risking their lives<\/p>\n So, you are on the side of the forced birthers, who only want to take away birth control and force girls and women to give birth, for their own sadistic reasons?<\/p>\n that\u2019s what happens when you treat women as baby-making machines, republicans.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s pretty important when women are being sentenced TO DEATH for someone\u2019s religious beliefs. The economy will right itself or not. It doesn\u2019t matter who is in the White House, but for the women that are even NOW facing the death penalty for miscarriages, the women that are being denied medical care because law makers have some religious hang ups? THEY NEED TO BE TAKEN CARE OF NOW. When YOUR representatives state that a woman can carry a dead fetus inside her until she gives birth to it naturally because cows and pigs do it all the time? Then YES, I have a HUGE problem with the Republican party. In case you didn\u2019t know, a dead fetus can rot inside a woman, turning her very body toxic and it can kill her, not to mention the emotional horror of something like that. So what if they turn women into parts machines and comatose \u201cwombs\u201d, because you have money issues YOU want taken care of. Your kind is WHY you lost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That last one, especially, makes my lady parts scared and sad. \u2018Not to mention the emotional horror\u2019 of knowing there are so many women who have bought the line that pregnancy is a misogynist conspiracy and a terminal disease, that a new life is nothing more than a handful of dividing cells, and parasitic ones at that. It\u2019s that mindset\u2014the lowered consciousness Planned Parenthood has been feeding the media and paying the president to promote\u2014that actually reduces women to baby making machines to be quickly and permanently unplugged, and my friends, we are in for its consequences.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not without hope, though, because I\u2019m not\u2014we\u2019re not\u2014without God, we loser lady parts. I took comfort from these lines in the Canticle of Zechariah as I prayed them at Morning Prayer:<\/p>\n Through his holy prophets he promised of old This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: I am remembering that as he sang these lines of rejoicing in the miraculous birth of a handful of dividing cells who would \u2018go before the Lord to prepare his way,\u2019 Zechariah\u2019s dark and oppressed world gave him no other proof that God\u2019s promises had been fulfilled than the sight of a baby\u2019s face, a baby born from the withered lady parts of a woman liberated by God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n In spite of everything, me and my withered lady parts know that we have more reason than ever to roar, to be living leaven in a mass of death-enthralled dough, to be cells of God\u2019s kingdom dividing and multiplying joyfully in this midst, to show to a blind and hopeless world the saving sight of the Child\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Woot woot! WE WIN! WE WIN!<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n For other good news and grace-filled reflection this morning, please read:<\/p>\n Tom McDonald<\/strong><\/a>, on trust<\/p>\n Frank Weathers<\/strong><\/a>, on what really matters<\/p>\n Mark Shea<\/strong><\/a>, on why this isn\u2019t his (or my) fault<\/p>\n Cardinal Dolan to the President, courtesy Deacon Greg Kandra<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n An after-election prayer from the bishops, courtesy pro-life Democratic representative (yes, possible!) Rebecca Hamilton<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Happy Catholic<\/em>\u2018s Julie Davis<\/strong><\/a>, on trying not to swear<\/p>\n
\nthat he would save us from our enemies,
\nfrom the hands of all who hate us.
\nHe promised to show mercy to our fathers
\nand to remember his holy covenant.<\/p>\n
\nto set us free from the hands of our enemies,
\nfree to worship him without fear,
\nholy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n