Kick! Making Politics Fun

The Lewiston Bates College Republicans were hopeful when they invited conservative relic Phylis Schlafly,to speak on the topic,"Conservatism vs Feminism: The Great Debate" They forgot to do their homework first, as they soon found out. Many hopeful girls proudly wore their T-Shirts proclaiming "This is What a Feminist Looks Like!" Enthusiasm waned as Schlafly delineated the ideas she proudly has not changed in over 40 years.

Schlafly has long stated that the feminist movement teaches women to be" victims" and decried intellectual men as "liberal slobs" (compared to anti-intellectual, conservative dandies?) and as always, argued that feminism "is incompatible with
marriage and motherhood." Much more of this to come!

Things grew even more tense when Schlafly asserted a few of her time worn beliefs, one being the title. When marital rape was being tried in court, she came out with a jewel. "By getting married, the woman has consented to sex,
and I don’t think you can call it rape," One of her degrees is in law, be thankful she’s not using it.

Another popular ditty raised the temperature in the room.Women should NOT be permitted to do jobs traditionally held by men such as firefighter, soldier or construction worker. Obviously because "of their inherent physical nferiority."
Speak for yourself Phylis.

Another crowd pleasing moment came when she stated; "Women in combat are a hazard to other people around them," she said. "They aren’t tall enough to see out of the trucks, they’re not strong enough to carry their buddy off the battlefield
if he’s wounded, and they can’t bark out orders loudly enough for everyone to hear." She hasn’t met some of my acquaintances.

Obviously none of this was not popular with the hopeful group, but it was vintage Schlafley for those of us who remember her when she appeared in much larger venues and on television back in the good old, bad old anti-ERA days.

The college educated, St. Louis homemaker portrays herself as "pro-family" and has made a career of denigrating women who aspire to go beyond that role. While Schlafly said she has no problem with women raising a family and pursuing a
professional career, she said they can’t be done at the same time. No one asked her how she managed to maintain that position while campaigning in the 60′s and 70′s against the ERA, which kept her away from hearth, home, and family. Besides being a hypocrite campaigning against women’s rights, she called the ERA a "fraud" pretending to benefit women but not achieving that end. It was just the nuttiness of feminists who were promoting an androgynous society. They didn’t put ‘women’ in the Constitution, they put ‘sex’ in the Constitution."

When asked, (the obvious) she said she has not changed her mind on a single issue in forty years. You’ll find no surprise from this writer, but the young feminists who hoped to find a role model went seriously astray, and had an evening they won’t soon forget.
The admission outraged Tamara Wyzanski, a sophomore women and gender studies major. "I was appalled," said Wyzanski, a co-leader of the Feminist Action Committee, a wing of a national group. "We’re an educational institution and we’re supposed to be teaching people to think critically, with an open mind. Not necessarily to be liberals, but at least to have an open mind.

As first asked when Jurassic Park opened, just because you can reanimate a dinosaur, should you?
Its Not Rape If Youre Married, Young Conservatives Meet Anti Feminist Phylis Schlafly