A Foreverdyingbrightly Venture

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

With the whole kerfuffle about the “War on Moms”, you could conceivably be led down the garden path to believe that the conservatives actually meant ALL moms. Of course they didn’t, and it didn’t take all that long for the true colours to show. Like so much from the right wing when it comes to women, only the right kind of women are included. Only the right kind of women are “good” women, and even those can get tossed aside the minute the winds change.

Ann Romney is white, christian, popped out a bunch of kids that are all her own, from money, married to money. Does this mean that she’s somehow important? Special? No, not really. She is after all still a woman, and can be put back away when political expediency dictates. In this latest bout of “Mommy wars”, she was dragged out so that Mitt could take swipes at the other side from behind her skirts. She took the punch Mitt should have – it’s Mitt, and the policies of right wing politicians, that are responsible for the dearth of women that would vote Republican.

When Mitt claims that pushing poor women back into the workforce from day one after having a child, he claims to do it for the sake of “dignity”. His wife, a stay at home mother, has never worked outside the home. Does this mean she has no dignity? No importance? Is she valued? The work of a mother isn’t valued because the right wing doesn’t see it as work at all, at least not valuable work.

If it all sounds contradictory, remember that there are levels of value, at least in the conservative mind. Ann Romney may not be terribly important. She is still a woman and that automatically puts her beneath any man, in the eyes of the right. But, in being defined in that narrow band of the “right sort” of woman, she’s certainly listed higher than the vast majority of women in the US. And those “other” women therefore receive a vastly different treatment according to the right wing.

I believe it’s this “not created equal” image that the conservatives are trying their damnedest to hide. Everybody knows it’s how they operate but they don’t want to admit that it’s how they operate. This is just another glaring example.

The Walking Dead: Season three Rick no more Mr. Nice Guy: In a telling panel interview with his fellow The Walking Dead cast members, actor Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes revealed his character, will definitely be a different person when season three resumes in the fall of 2012. In season one and two, Grimes was often as a nice guy, considering everyone’s opinion, despite the dangers posed during his post-apocalyptic circumstances. With zombies around him at every corner, Rick was able to keep his cool. Things turned however at the end of season two when he killed his best friend Shane, played by Jon Bernthal; violence and killing were not originally in his nature. When his family was threatened, something seemed to click in him. Season three will dawn a new Rick Grimes, one not afraid to make a decision without asking his entire zombie-survivors family. [examiner/Belky Perez Schwartz/15 Apr 2012]

Mitt Romney’s doubletalk on motherhood – His wife’s “job” is “more important” than his, but he’d make welfare moms work “from day one if we could”: Romney said in 1994, “we will do everything in our power to make sure that people who are on welfare have an opportunity and an obligation to go to work, not after two years but from day one if we could.”
From Day One. Maybe a brief stop at a hospital to deliver the baby, and then back to work? The conservative Concerned Women for America said this week that motherhood is “the most important job there is.” I wonder if they’ll be chastising Romney for his anti-motherhood approach to poverty. Of course not. [salon/Joan Walsh/15 Apr 2012/“Up with Chris” segment.]

Gillibrand: Romney’s ‘Hero’ Scott Walker Got Rid Of Equal Pay For Women Laws: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) chimed in Sunday on the battle for female voters, making an impassioned case that President Obama’s policies are far better for women than those of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “It’s Barack Obama whose first bill he ever signed was the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act,” she said on NBC’s Meet The Press. “Mitt Romney? His hero is a governor from Wisconsin who just got rid of the equal pay laws there.” [talkingpointsmemo/15 Apr 2012]

Mitt Romney thinks his wife lacks “dignity”?: Mitt Romney said this past January that he thinks stay at home moms taking care of small children are lacking in dignity since they’re not working real jobs. Romney was talking about moms on welfare, but he might as well been talking about Martians, it doesn’t matter – his point was that stay at home moms don’t have real jobs, or at the very least their jobs aren’t as good as the jobs of women working paid jobs in the workplace, and that stay at home moms don’t have the same level of dignity of women who with paying jobs in the workplace. Ouch. What Mitt Romney said this past January is far worse than even the worst interpretation of what Hilary Rosen said this past week. [Americablog/John Aravosis/16 Apr 2012]

Romney to Welfare Mothers: ‘You Need to Go to Work’: “I wanted to increase the work requirement,” Romney told an audience in New Hampshire in January. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’” [David/crooksandliars/15 Apr 2012]

Romney Flashback: Poor Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside The Home Or Lose Welfare: Romney and allies cried that Democrats had declared “war on moms” after a Democratic strategist said Romney’s wife hadn’t worked a day in her life. Romney’s camp said this meant Democrats don’t value stay at home moms and motherhood, while they believe that women who stay home are doing real work. But for every Romney action, there is an equal and opposite Romney reaction, and this morning, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes dug up a video of Romney from just January in which the Republican presidential candidate said he wanted to require women who receive welfare to work outside the home, even if their children are very young. [thinkprogress/15 Apr 2012]

Conservatives’ Losing Bet on Birth Control: History Suggests They Might’ve Woken a Sleeping Giant: The Republicans seem to think they can erase the past four months and their “war on women,” but if history is any guide, this is wishful thinking. In fact, the historical record suggests we may be witnessing a re-awakening of the reproductive rights movement, especially among groups where concern about access to contraception and abortion has languished: young women and independent women. There is an eerie parallel between the awakening that is currently happening and the beginning of the reproductive rights revolution that resulted in the legalization of abortion in the early 1970s. [RH Reality Check/Patti Miller/15 Apr 2012]

Poor Women Get No Choice: Mitt Romney would like to be clear about something: being a stay-at-home mom is a choice that demands respect when a rich woman chooses it. Other mothers need to know the “dignity of work” that comes from working a job outside the home and raising children by themselves. Not surprisingly, Romney offered a pretty lame clarification for believing only poor single mothers shouldn’t have the option of staying home with their children. [care2/Jessica Pieklo/15 Apr 2012]

Mitt Romney: Poor Single Moms Need “Dignity of Work”: Poor women should be given federal assistance for child care so they can “have the dignity of work” said Mitt Romney, belying the outrage his campaign spent the last part of the week generating and showing, clearly, that for Republicans there is really only one acceptable stay-at-home mom: the kind supported by a wealthy husband. …Romney’s comments simply illustrate the fundamental narrative driving this latest iteration of the mommy wars: motherhood and parenting are not truly valued by the right unless they fit into the very narrow confines of christian domesticity. And poor single mothers, are by this logic, inherently unchristian and non-domestic, not to be trusted absent the close oversight of a husband or lawmakers. [care2/Jessica Pieklo/15 Apr 2012]