An Open Letter to Rick Santorum

Dear Mr. Santorum,

Recently, you wrote in to the Wall Street Journal in a letter called “My Fight for Life.” In it, you discussed your feelings on the controversial topic of abortion. I just wanted to take a moment to talk a few of your points through with you.

Firstly, I take issue with the idea that you are fighting for life while, conversely, those of us who support a woman’s right to choose must be fighting for death. In reality, I am fighting for life in a far more meaningful way than you are – the right for women to live life the way that they choose; for children born into this world to always feel wanted and welcome in their own families.

Second, your invoking your “Creator” in the same sentence as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence is counter-intuitive. Our founding fathers felt strongly that citizens should not feel that they have to abide by the rules of any one religion. Americans are a diverse group racially, culturally, and spiritually. Not all feel the same way you do about the rights divined by your “Creator”. If you are campaigning to be the President of the United States of America, please remember that America is a very large country.

Your quote that “40 million babies” have died from Roe v. Wade discounts the importance of women’s lives. Approximately 50% of all maternal deaths resulted from illegal abortion during the first half of the 20th century, and abortion has been going on for centuries – whether or not it was legalized. Roe v. Wade has allowed for women to go to real doctors and clinics to get this procedure done safely.

The 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “life, liberty and property” applies to citizens, not groups of cells that are barely an organism; and President Obama’s recognition of civil rights extends to a woman’s reproductive rights and support of LGBT rights – which is far more than I can say for your sorry butt.

Mr. Santorum,  I believe staunchly in women’s reproductive rights, and I also want children one day. I want my children to grow up in a world where they are wanted, and loved. I don’t want to have them before I’m ready. Effective birth control – which, yes, may have to include abortion – will ensure that I can stick to my own plans. Not that you’re listening to any of this, anyway.

Riley on Marketing

In case you haven’t seen this video yet, it is adorable and amazing. Riley is my 3 year old spirit animal. Also, apparently I’m really into cute, feminist little girls this month. Love it!

If you haven’t seen her interview on CNN, watch it here. I promise you won’t regret it!

I love this.

This adorable little girl is my new favorite internet star. The scene where she’s eating a Smart Ones, drinking wine and watching Sex & The City at the end of a long day? ACCURATE.

The Delicate Politics of Internet Parodies

I’m the first to admit it: I waste far too much time on the internet. But how can I resist, when there is so much fun stuff? Funny memes, articles galore, podcasts, Netflix, Hulu, Tumblr, and – of course – truly hilarious YouTube videos.

Which is why I was pumped when the Twitter Account Shit Girls Say started a webseries:

But then a ton of people on the Feminist interwebs seemed to get worked up about it. So I tried to reexamine the video over and over again, but all I could find were more things to giggle about. And then I realized why: it’s true. I didn’t mind it because it wasn’t saying anything unflattering about girls or women, just noting our speech patterns. If you ask me, the “girl” in the video comes off as respectful, fun, enthusiastic, and independent. She’s not catty or vindictive, she expresses displeasure at the sensation of shopping, and she crams chips in her mouth like the best of them.

Then I decided to take another look at my other favorite girl-parody youtube video, “Boys will be Girls”:

Which is partially one of my favorites because of the response, “Girls will be Boys”:

I love these because they’re also so true. I have done that food math before, had extreme emotional conversations with my friends at the drop of a hat; while my male friends just ignore any emotion or feeling and instead grunt at each other.

Of course, these are blanket generalizations about both genders. Just because I am a girl doesn’t mean that I count EVERY single calorie that goes into my body so obsessively, or that I scream EVERY time I see a friend. And just because you’re a guy doesn’t mean that you express ZERO emotion whatsoever. But I think we could all lighten up a bit and stop making things meant to be endearing mini-love letters to the ladies in the world out to be some huge political agenda.

Thoughts? Am I wrong? Right? So wrong that wrong is too weak of a word to describe it? So right you’re considering erecting a statue in the blogosphere of me standing victoriously?

What happened to Huffington Post Women?

HuffPo Women, you had such potential. The Huffington Post is a liberal-leaning site. Ariana Huffington prides herself in being a supporter of women’s rights and issues. So imagine my surprise when I logged onto Huffington Post and saw this:

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Blugh. I felt like I was reading nothing new – the only article I was even remotely interested in was the one on female stereotypes in “New Year’s Eve”, but that was buried all the way at the bottom of the page. My question is: What Happened?! And how is a news website touting this as newsworthy and important information?

Women and girls need to know that this isn’t news. In fact, it’s the opposite. These are things we DON’T need to know. I don’t need to know that how I speak might be ruining my career, or hear about a woman silently taking a male friend’s statement that “fat” women are unattractive. I don’t want to know that clear communication is considered to be overrated, or my horoscope. I understand the need to combine this “magazine” material in with harder news stories; but the news that HuffPo thinks women are concerned about is downright insulting. It’s all about fitting into a man’s world and shedding aspects of being a woman, such as being a clear communicator; and silently shouldering a comment a man makes with no understanding of the struggle of women to maintain a healthy weight and body image in today’s society.

Hey, Huffington Post Women? Let’s be a little more female-friendly and a true advocate for oh, I don’t know – WOMEN.

THE NEW BRAVE TRAILER IS OUT!

AND IT LOOKS AMAZING.

I love this girl already. Thoughts?

Earlier: Brave: A New Kind of Cartoon Heroine

Disgusting news of the week: Dominique Strauss-Kahn case to be made into a Porno

Apparently, the details of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s sexual assault case are now the inspiration for a film coming soon to an adult video store near you.

This is the most aggravating thing I’ve heard all week. The porn culture in general is overall very degrading to women, but this is a whole new level of gross – the idea that a sexual assault case can be interpreted to become a sexy and desirable thing is offensive, and completely delusional. Sexual assault may have the word “sex” in it, but it is anything but sexy. I can’t believe it, but I think that PORN just hit a whole new level of skeeze.

Sesame Street, You Get Me.

This video is adorable and has such a positive message for little girls everywhere! For those of you in need of some rainy-day pick-me-up/inspiration:

It’s about time, FBI!

The FBI FINALLY recommended the Agency’s definition of Rape be amended yesterday for the first time in 82 YEARS to include, oh, I don’t know, men being raped and anal/oral rape.

All I can say is, what took you guys so long? When a description of a current issue is older than the Empire State Building, it’s time for an update.

Rick Santorum Clearly Can’t take a Joke

Rick Santorum complained he felt “bullied” by the left after seeing SNL’s “Yet Another GOP Debate” sketch on Saturday night, saying:

The left, unfortunately, participates in bullying more than the right does. They say that they’re tolerant, and they’re anything but tolerant of people who disagree with them and support traditional values.”

Then Santorum added “I welcome the criticism, go ahead.”

Get over yourself, Rick Santorum. SNL is a cultural institution that takes digs at all politicians. When Obama had difficulty gaining support for the healthcare bill, SNL did a scathing sketch about the effects this could have on Democrats and whether or not this is something people want them to do:

SNL makes fun of our political process and our politicians. That’s what they do. And they’ve done an astonishingly good job over the years of making fun of both conservative and liberal politicians; and at finding a middle ground between the two extremes – a middle ground, by the way, that includes most of Americans.

Quit being such a whiny baby, Santorum. If you’re going to be so anti-gay marriage and gay rights to the point where you say nothing when the audience boos a gay soldier (and don’t lie – there’s no way you didn’t hear them) then you’re going to be made fun of for it by comedy shows. Period. End of story.