My extremely advanced puppy Bert executing the fatally cute rollover-on-command.
Very few people, which is to say nobody, have ever nudged their chum in the ribs with their elbow and said, “Golly, there goes Twisty Faster, Girl Reporter!†That’s because I’m pretty much always the second-to-the-last horse out of the gate when it comes to breaking and blogworthy news of the latest-political-scandal-kind. Like, I only just yesterday found out about Rumsfeld’s unbelievably tasteless 9/11 celebration (well, OK, I’d heard about it a few days earlier, but it was at Norbizness, and I thought he was making it up).
I am happy to say that I have never gotten used to the astonishing uncouthity exhibited by this administration, and I hope I never do.
I’m also a Twisty-Come-Lately when it comes to the latest works on fashionable topics by essayists of national stature, so excuse the heck out of me if you’ve heard this before, but:
If you haven’t read Katha Pollitt’s recent essay on FFL (anti-abortion “feminists.†Isn’t that kind of like uncute puppies?), there’s no time like the present. Pollitt interviews FFL’s “voluble and likable president,†the fetus-fetishist Serrin Foster, with satisfyingly ghastly results.
[Thanks Amelia of overpoliticized]
“Fetalists”. What an appropriate term. The arrogance of these anti-choice types astounds. The fact that they would not make exceptions even to save the life of the mother shows me that they are not for women, and certainly not feminists.
On a lighter note, how do you live with all that yummy puppy cuteness? I’d never be able to leave the house.
Ain’t no party like a Pentagon party cuz a Pentagon party don’t stop. Yep yep. Reality by TKO over satire in the 3rd round, again.
thanks for the nod! i sure do [heart] me some katha pollitt. thing is, i’m not entirely sure that, logically speaking, a pro-life feminist is like an uncute puppy. see, i wrote this thing that says maybe we should take the *idea*, if not the existence, of such things seriously. in any case, FFL sure as shit aren’t living up to the idea.
*oohs and aahs at the puppy picture for a bit*
Thank you, I needed that muchly.
*reads the linked article*
….
I’m thinking about this organization. Not about people who believe abortion is wrong, but about this particular organization. Feminists for Life…. chickens for Perdue… Unions for Wal-Mart…. I could go on, but I’m just going to go back to looking at the puppy pictures before I get really damn depressed.
Twisty, go to http://news.yahoo.com/ and search for an article called ‘Masculinity Challenged, Men Prefer War and SUVs’..the link is kind of long and I thought it might mess up the page.
As much as I hate puppies, thanks for the link to that article! I’ve been reading a bunch on FFL, recently, but that’s definitely the best one yet.
It’s particularly interesting how hard it is to find any real information on FFL’s slick little website. The freaks.
The rollover with the kong toy in his mouth! An extraordinary puppy! Too fucking cute. I can’t stand it.
Hey, did ya hear about this, Twisty?
Traffic reports and studies presented by Saudi universities and local traffic departments reveal that women cause around 50% of traffic accidents, despite not being allowed to drive.
How about that, hey?
I read the FFL website, and there was very little information. In fact, I missed the part where they wanted to make abortion illegal.
I’m reluctanly pro-choice, although I’m not sure reluctant is correct.
As a woman, the idea that someone is in control of my body makes me furious and rightously pro-choice.
But as an adoptive mother, I look at my darling and wish that more women would choose to have their babies and give the wonderful gift of a child to someone who is childless.
But my darling is now 14 and if I know that I would not want her to have to go through an unwanted pregnancy and definitely would not want her to be a teenage mother, so I definitely want the abortion option open to her. And would pay for it, and drive her to where ever we needed to go to get it done.
But that would be my first grandchild! (That’s why when she started dating, I took her to the gyn’s and got her on the pill.) I don’t want to think about that.
The FFL website makes me wish for more options for pregnant women.
Isn’t a woman doesn’t want an abortion, but sees no other choice as trapped as a woman who wants one and can’t get one?
Julia raises the point that continues to sting me in the back of the neck, which is that the biology of the human species is fundamentally disadvantageous to females, no matter which of its aspects patriarchy decides to criminalize.
The way I see it, women have but one move: invent better birth control, something that doesn’t require you to trade your health for the same personal sovereignty that males expect and enjoy. Because it’s gonna be a long wait, sitting around until humans evolve a more equitable method of reproduction.
By the way, Julia, I couldn’t tell if you were unsure about this or not but there is no question that FFL wants to criminalize abortion.
I would love to comment on the more patriarchy-blaming aspects of this post, but dodgam! That Bertie is too cute for words! Melting over here…
We get our new pound puppy today! Yaay!
I have no problem with someone calling herself a feminist and wanting to reduce the need for abortions. But people who want to criminalize or restrict abortions are not feminists, no matter what other positions they may take. Period.
[AE, the solution to Bertie-induced blame failure is to scroll down so you can’t see the image.]
Twisty…check this out! I wonder why Congress and the FDA aren’t asking the same questions about Viagra??
http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050815/ts_latimes/abortionpillinvestigatedinfourcaliforniadeaths
Hey Kelley, the link isn’t showing up right in my browser.
I think that something really horrible happened to younger women ; they don’t know or have decided to ignore what it was like in the days before second-wave feminism (women didn’t get credit cards, girls, or open their own businesses without a man’s permission or freaking well just about anything else) and they tend to forget that reproductive freedom was absolutely integral to it. The so called FFL is riding on the backs of women who fought a lot of garbage to give them the freedom to have their little website.
About adoption, as a doctor I feel obligated to remind people (educated guess here, since Guttenburg’s stats are off - about 25%) that many D&Cs are not about choosing between abortion and adoption, but about a medical problem of some kind (often after the fetus is dying).
Okay, how did I get on this? I just wanted to say that I think your puppy is absolutely the cutest thing in the darned universe and now I want one :-)
Twisty,
I believe you that FFL are for criminalizing abortion, I just couldn’t find that on their web site.
But the other thing that gets me going is the adoption info. I am so sick of hearing about “no unwanted children!” And how families are waiting to adopt. They are waiting to adopt a white, healthy infant. There are so many older kids out there waiting to be adopted, but they come with baggage.
Check out these kids: http://www.adoptpakids.org/paephotoDisplay2.asp?Task=Browse&pageno=1
And that is only Pennsylvania.
BTW–My darling was 6 when she came to me.
Twisty, sorry about the link. It was a link to a story out of the LA Times about four deaths that were “linked” to RU-486. The patriarchy and it’s co-opted “scientific” minions have rushed to judgment because four California women, who engaged in an off-label use of the drug, died of an infection. Never mind that Tylenol kills 150 people per year, or that 10 out of every 100,000 prescriptions for Viagra results in a man’s death (compared to 5 out of every 100,000 prescriptions for RU-486). Never mind that its been used safely in Europe for years. Oh no, pay no attention to the facts. Now the morality police are up in arms, trying to get the drug banned, claiming its “dangerous” to women. Funny, I don’t hear any groups banding together to protest how “dangerous” Viagra is to men.
Anyway, that was my rant and had absolutely nothing to do with your original article. I was just monumentally pissed about the whole thing!!
We call them “fetal fetishists” around here but I don’t think the phrase is original with us. I really liked Ms. Pollitt’s piece and quoted it a bit in my post A Fanatical Fetish for Fetuses. And, of course, I hattipped you for turning me on to it.
Your pup is an endless well of cuteness and amusement. Keep posting the pics, love ‘em! (Oh, no, I can’t help it…) Is that a Kong in your mouth or are you just glad to see me? (Both! says the dog.) (Please tell me that’s a Kong toy in his mouth and you understand the joke or I will be quite embarrassed.)
Thanks to everyone for humoring me about the puppy pictures.
Kelley, RU-486 is always on-topic at I Blame The Patriarchy.
Word, it is most definitely a kong. A teensy puppy mini-kong. Yipes.