I'm not political by any means. I find politics kind of boring. However I have been surprised by the attention women have been getting this year so close to the big day and I feel like I have a few things to say about it. I heard someone say to another girl (who was voting for Mitt Romney), "You are a disgrace towards women if you are voting for him and you shouldn't be allowed to vote." Seriously people? You can't really call yourself a "liberal" if you are wanting to take away people's right to vote right?! Haha. I heard another girl (a liberal democrat) put it in terms I loved. She said "I feel like the democratic party is just treating me like I'm a vagina! I'm so much more than that." Amen sister!! All this fuss is pretty much about 3 things: abortion, birth control, and fair wages.
Now i'm going to go ahead and debunk the wages myth right now. All the surveys that have been put out that say that women get paid about 77% of what men do (that are doing their same job) have been proven false because in these studies the women were not working the same amount of hours, therefore, they got paid less. Here is an excerpt from Thomas Sowells article "The Real War on Women" to better explain:
"Since women average fewer hours of work per year, and fewer years of consecutive full-time employment than men, among other differences, comparisons of male and female annual earnings are comparisons of apples and oranges, as various female economists have pointed out. Read Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute or Professor Claudia Goldin of Harvard, for example.
When you compare women and men in the same occupations with the same skills, education, hours of work, and many other factors that go into determining pay, the differences in incomes shrink to the vanishing point — and, in some cases, the women earn more than comparable men."
So if any party tries to tell you otherwise, or some internet bully tells you you must hate women if you are voting for Romney, just know that that information has been fudged (as has many figures given from both parties).
Now as for abortion, I don't have much to say about this issue (although I am against it) but I just ran into an interesting article (same one above) that made me think... Are those who are Pro-choice really ok with everyone's choice? I know that many make the case that some women aren't ready for a baby, or can't afford it, or can't raise it by themselves, or are scared... but what of those who abort their babies because of gender or because they have a birth defect? Although only about 7% of abortions in the US happen after the point of gender specification, in many other countries like China and India women get abortion all the time because the baby is a girl. Are these feminists really in favor or aborting a fetus to lower the numbers of their own gender? Another thing addressed in the article is that some women were having abortions purely because the child wasn't perfect. This ranged from down-syndrome, to things as minor as a clubbed foot. Now I'm not trying to question people's views, but I'm just curious to know how many people in this world are REALLY 100% on board with abortion? Just curious. Bottom line, abortion is legal, some states have different criteria, but it's legal. I think some liberals forget that.
And lastly, those who are telling me I'm against women's rights because of some Republicans (and a few democrats) position on birth control... This is total garbage. First off, I would like to point some things out. I don't like the idea that Obamacare forces religious institutions, and small religious owned businesses to provide birth control to their employees when it's against their religion. I am on birth control, and my religion has never said anything against it, so this is mainly directed towards the catholic church (that's the only one I know where it's against their religion but I'm sure there are others). However I believe this is a gross violation of the catholic churchs first amendment rights. If you want your work insurance to cover birth control I believe you should either:
a) Don't work for anyone whose religion forbids it
or
b) Buy birth control yourself!!! Guess what... I've boughten the pill without insurance... and it was $9!! That's it! So stop your whining and stop telling me that I'm not supporting women and that I'm taking that away from them by disagreeing with this portion of Obamacare. Some versions of the pill are more than that WITH insurance even! So you might have to get a generic brand, or a brand that doesn't have a commercial on TV, but it does the same thing. The only exception I would include, is if you can prove you are allergic to the pill, or can't take it for some reason, then your work should be forced to cover part of your "more expensive" contraception (such as an IUD) no matter their religious preferences.
So there you have it. Like I said I'm not knocking anyone's ideas, and I'm not an extremist either. In fact I am very much in favor of gay marriage (I mean seriously the government gets to say who we marry? That doesn't seem constitutional). I just had read a lot of comments bashing any woman who wants to vote for Mitt Romney (because of women's rights) so I thought I'd express my feeling on the fact that being a woman should have nothing to do with it. Bottomline, just get out and vote no matter who it's for! That's the most important thing!
On a lighter note... here are two youtube videos that I find hilarious that have to do with politics. The first is a spoof on Gangname Style, and the second is the "roast" Mitt Romney did at the annual Al Smith dinner. Who knew this guy had jokes??
