Conservative Women - The Third Sex

"Slutgate has revived the theme of conservative women as a third sex," writes Kay Hymowitz, author of Manning Up.

Just last week, "progressive talk show personality"' Randi Rhodes launched into a tirade on the subject that made Bill Maher look like Pee-wee Herman. "You know, these women, somebody really needs to go repossess their ovaries," she said of conservative women. "Really, truly, they have no right to them. ... Just cut 'em off, let 'em go through the hot flashes, let 'em just sit there and complain about hormone therapy, okay?"

Stop and wonder for a moment at Rhodes’ lunatic hatred, but let’s not ignore the deeper point here. Second- and third-wave feminists have insisted that they speak for women. They know what constitutes “women’s issues.” They define how to achieve women’s progress — more government services, regulations, and laws, legalized abortion, not just equality but parity. The issue here is not whether you think these policies are good or bad; I might agree with some of them myself. It’s why liberal feminists have convinced the media and themselves that they are the ones who know and speak for women. What do we then make of creatures with ovaries who don’t agree with them? Ed Schultz and Bill Maher: take it away.

Slutgate raises a lot of other serious questions about the nature of our political discourse, especially in relation to women. Women’s presence in the political sphere is growing at the same time that the Internet is ridding the public conversation of many of the familiar formal and informal censors. Surely men don’t need to pull their punches when disagreeing with a woman, but are any words taboo? When are comments about physical appearance, of men or women, okay? What is hate speech, anyway? Does calling a woman a slut mean that you hate women? Then is calling George Bush a “prick” evidence that you hate men? Where is the line between entertainer and talk show pundit?

My guess is that even conservative women will have some opinions about these questions — assuming they can stand the blowback from Bill Maher.