More Right-Wingnuttery: Women Should Plan Ahead For Rape?
When a man tells women they should “plan ahead for rape”, you’d like to think it was a joke. Only, it’s not a joke and the man who said it is a state lawmaker in Kansas . During the House’s debate, Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told her: “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?” Bollier asked him, “And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?” DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, “I have spare tire on my car.” “I also have life insurance,” he added. “I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.” Ummm. Ok. I really have no snappy comeback to this. As a woman, it deeply offends and infuriates me that any official would suggest that rape and incest are preventable, and that women should take steps to prevent it. It’s reflective of a weirdly ancient man-attitude (largely extinct) that says women are responsible when men can’t control their impulses. It’s amazingly stupid and out of touch. These women (girls) are victims . There is no prevention for this. None. And for a man to stand up and say such an thing in public is, well, hateful. Jezebel.com : Yeah ladies, it’s your responsibility to plan for the possibility of rape. You chose to own a vagina, so you should have all the necessary tools for its upkeep. Being raped is definitely comparable to the brief annoyance of having a flat tire, so let’s keep this up: The state isn’t AAA, so don’t expect it to help you out when you’re breaking down over a devastating accident . Tire slashing? Hmm … maybe this metaphor is actually terrible. But DeGraaf is definitely on target with the rest of his remarks. Rape insurance is just like having life insurance: You’re definitely going to die some day, and DeGraaf thinks you’re definitely going to get raped. Don’t come crying to him if you didn’t prepare to be the victim of a horrific crime! I mean, you can try by contacting his office, but he’s not the first guy I’d look to for help. What’s disturbing about this is how common it’s becoming in debates over abortion. ThinkProgress : Unfortunately, this Boy Scout dismissal of rape and incest victims is as galling as it is common among the GOP. More and more Republican lawmakers are adopting the Sharron Angle “ make lemonade ” attitude towards pregnancies resulting from rape. This year, one Indiana lawmaker even suggested that women would fake their own rapes to secure an abortion procedure. Got that, ladies? We’re second-class citizens who fail to take preventive steps to protect ourselves from men being men. And that’s how we’re represented by right-wingers in Congress. Second-class, subject to the whim of our masters.
More Right-Wingnuttery: Women Should Plan Ahead For Rape?
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on May 24, 2011. Filed under