USED: Women and Conservative Politics
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To conservatives, women, are objects, Things to be toyed around with and used at leisure. For personal gain, with no care or regard to how their actions affect women.
In the eyes of conservative people, women don’t deserve equal pay, equal rights in divorce, an equal right to safety, but when it becomes convenient for them, women's rights become a top priority.
Women and their safety and equality is akin to a light switch for the republican party it can be turned on and off, as malleable as play-doh as dispensable as trash.
When it comes to transgender rights in sports, the conservative party uses women's rights and equality in an attempt to push trans women out of sports. This false fight for women is a ploy to cover up transphobia. Conservatives simply don’t want people that are trans, women specifically, to be allowed to participate in the sports league of their correct gender. But instead of blatantly stating such, these transphobic views are covered up and concealed with false ‘feminist’ pleas, saying it is unfair to cisgender women.
On the topic of banning trans people from competing in a sporting group that accurately represents their gender, Arkansas' Governor Asa Hutchinson has said, “This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition, This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events." However, when it comes to abortion rights, this care for women is absent. Arkansas has strict restrictions and has even come close to banning abortions in the past.
Studies have shown that having access to safe and legal abortions correlates to women achieving life goals.
So: access to abortion assists women in equality and success. Banning trans-women from competing in sports, however, does not, according to the ACLU.
Furthermore, these seemingly ‘protective’ laws further negative views that describe women as weak and helpless. In ‘coming to the rescue’ and blocking trans people from being able to go to the correct bathroom or compete in the correct sporting league, stereotypes that hurt women are being furthered, and anything that women actually desire, is being ignored.
Bipartisanship is vital to the health of this country, it is unproductive to tear down those of an opposing group simply because of their party alignment. But Republicans have done significant damage to women, they have blocked bills like the Equal Rights Amendment and continue to attack life-saving rights such as safe and legal abortions. I’m not asking for perfection, I’m just asking for consistency.
Women's rights are not a toy, and they should never be treated as such.
