Make Up Your Mind!

My feminist consciousness was awakened in the late sixties, when I was in college.  Unfortunately there was not a Women’s Studies program at my alma mater.  My university was brand, spanking new; located in the boondocks of Orlando.  This was pre-Disney and Orlando was a small, Florida cracker town.  The second wave of feminism was relatively new, and Orlando was about 5 -10 years behind the rest of the country, at that time. 

I devoured Ms. magazine and any books that I could find to further inform myself.  Patriarchy, misogyny, new terms to me, but I recognized them and they made my experience, as a fat, of above average intelligence, left-handed woman, make sense for once.  Stereotypes attributed to women in our society had rarely, if ever, applied to ME. 

I’m reminiscing now because of two, seemingly, unrelated things that I’ve seen in the past few days.  Coincidence?  I think not.  It’s, IMHO, the latest Trend in our political system.  And, what these 2 separate items made me remember was that charming (SNARK!) old adage:

IT’S A WOMAN’S PREROGATIVE TO CHANGE HER MIND.

Remember that?  It always pissed me off.  Women, compared to men, just didn’t know what they wanted.  They were/are inscrutable.  Women simply are too addle-pated to make up their minds.  Women are mindless twits.   Of course, it was men who promoted this ridiculous “Truth” about the (again their description) Opposite sex.  Why did this hit me today?  Well, it starts with The Rachel Maddow Show last Friday night. 

The Great Flabbergasting!  This segment nearly had me standing in front of my television cheering.  Rachel & her staff did an excellent job of research on this post.  As Jon Stewart would say, NAILED IT! In one of the clips, President Obama, says “they keep moving the goal posts.”  That’s something I’ve been saying for months now.  But, I don’t think either of us is correct.  They (the Right Wing) are actually changing the game.  They say, “hey, let’s play basketball.”  So, you say okay and meet up with them,  bringing  your basketball.  Upon arrival, they say “where’s your mitt and baseball bat?” 

As you will have seen in the video segment, it’s about giving Them what they want and They say, that’s stupid and we don’t want that at all.  Why, oh why, can’t you give us what we want?  And then this morning I get a link to this on Facebook:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/another-twist-in-the-crystal-river-manatee-saga-shunning/1187165

Crystal River, Kings Bay on the west coast of Florida is one of the main areas in which the endangered manatee can be found year round.  It has long been an area of contention for a variety of reasons.  Most recently the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) has issued a proposal to make all of Kings Bay a slow speed zone to protect manatees.  As you will read in the article, the FWCC proposal is EXACTLY what the Waterfronts Advisory Board and the City Council told FWCC they wanted to see adopted.  However, once the proposal was presented the Tea Partiers in Citrus County went ballistic and the story went viral on the Internet.  The head of the local Tea Party was quoted as saying that this proposal was against “The Bill of Rights and the Bible.”  Mother Jones, The Huffington Post and many others picked up the story.  Dear Edna, the president of the local Tea Party, is now famous.  I’m just waiting for her to get her own show on FOX. 

So, now – in my always searching for connections brain – was reminded of that repugnant phrase used to describe/understand women, way back when. 

IT’S A WOMAN’S PREROGATIVE TO CHANGE HER MIND.

No, ladies, it’s not us who can’t make up our minds……it’s the Right Wing being pushed even farther and farther to the Right by the Tea Party.  It’s past time for the sane, logical ones among us to point this out.  As long as the leadership within the Republican Party continues to cater to the lunatic fringe, the rational and reasonable among us need to revive this phrase, but update it to reflect our times:

IT’S THE REPUBLICAN PARTY’S PREROGATIVE TO CHANGE ITS MIND.

Derogatory?  Possibly.  It certainly was derogatory when applied to ALL women.  Applied to the entire Republican Party?  Not as long as they continue to walk in lock step, endlessly parroting each other, sticking to their preordained script.  Repitan por favor, as one of my high school Spanish teachers would say.  Repeat it, please.  Repetition improves learning, it doesn’t make it the Truth. 

We The People need to stop negotiating with terrorists.  We need to stop giving into their demands.  If we’ve learned nothing in the past 3 years, it should be that by giving in to their demands, they will only ask for more and More and MORE!  It seems to me that they won’t be happy until They have it all and the rest of us are left with NOTHING!   And at the risk of offending my feminist sensibilities, to really piss Them off, we should tell Them to STOP ACTING LIKE GIRLS and simply MAKE UP THEIR MINDS!