Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Feminism and irrational thought

It just amazes me how much irrational thought passes for mainstream feminism these days.

There was a time (long ago) when feminism seemed to based on ideas of fundemental fairness and rationality. I'm not sure when the concept of rational thought left the fold, maybe it has something to do with the growth of Gender Studies programs in universities.

Anyway, this post at feministing is an example of the lack of ability to form rational thought in what passes for feminism today. It's a sarcastic post about Brownback's idea that there should not be a rape exception for rape.

The problem that feministing appears to have with his thought is that it's just not politically acceptable to them. The irrational part is the failure to understand that rape exceptions are actually very irrational, and that Brownbacks position on them might isn't the problem. Restrictions on abortions is the problem, the problem is not a failure to have a long list of exceptions to the restrictions.

At least one of the commenters gets it. There's hope for rational thought in feminism.
I think Brownback is wrong, period, in his stand that abortion should be illegal. But I'm not sure that I think his stand is made more (or less) reprehensible because he thinks that a fetus resulting from rape is of equal value to a fetus resulting from consensual sexual activity.

In a sense, I actually agree with him (horrors!). I think women who have been raped, and women who become pregnant from consensual sexual activity, should have equal access to abortion and all other aspects of reproductive health. Abortion policy should be about what we believe about the nature of pregnancy, not what we believe about the nature or morality of a woman's sexuality and sexual history.


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