George Graham

Shaming America’s Women

Now we know why Republicans are so set on making abortion illegal again. It’s to save women from themselves!

Personally, I haven’t met any American women who strike me as sex maniacs.Compared to Jamaican women, in fact, I’ve found them remarkably restrained.

But what do I know? I didn’t come to America until I was in the back forty of my life. Mike Huckabee has lived in America forever, in Arkansas to be precise, and he probably knows the secret side of American women far better than I do.

In a speech at the Republican Party’s winter meeting yesterday, Huckabee suggested American women should be expected to control their libido, not look to the government for protection against the consequences of wanton indulgence.

It’s because of this libido thing that Democrats favor birth control, he argues. But Republican women – who are by nature more disciplined – don’t need government protection from their libidos. They can control themselves and, therefore, don’t need birth control – or abortion.

Where have I heard that argument before?

Of course! It was from Rush Limbaugh, who diagnosed Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” because she came out in favor of health insurance companies providing free birth control pills.

Huckabee puts it less crudely, but it sounds the same to me:

It’s time for Republicans to no longer accept listening to Democrats talk about a war on women, because the fact is, the Republicans don’t have a war on women. They have a war for women. For them to be empowered; to be something other than victims of their gender.

What woman wouldn’t feel reassured by that? Good old Mike, always on the lookout for the weaker sex He knows, as a former pastor, that they need a stern word from a kindly father figure to keep them on the straight and narrow. Control yourselves, gals. That feeling will go away and you’ll be glad you resisted it when it passes. You’ll feel better about yourselves.

Republican women want to be “something more than victims of their gender,” dammit. The former Arkansas governor explains:

Women I know are outraged that Democrats think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have a government provide for them birth control medication.

Republican women know – as billionaire Rick Santorum supporter  Foster Friess told MSNBC’s Andrea Mutchell and took her breath away – when to keep that aspirin pressed tightly between their knees.

Democrats not so much, I guess.

I must confess that’s a perspective on America’s political divide that never occurred to me. But I’m not an American woman, so I wouldn’t know about things like that.

Click for the news report.

Click for more on the aspirin solution.

Click for Limbaugh’s take on Fluke.

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com