That's me. And probably you, too, if you are a feminist. I was reading this sad and depressing article about Mississippi's last abortion clinic, when I came across some statements by a rabid extremist wingnut preacher type:
Operation Save America has identified a whole host of things they call offensive to God. Their director, Pastor Phillip "Flip" Benham, told his congregation they had three choices with Muslims: kill them, be killed by them, or convert them. "Which is your choice?" he asked. "While not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists are Muslims," he said. "We destroy the Quran, not to desecrate their religion, but to set them free.
Pastor Flip has a special disdain for feminists as well. "Feminism is rebellion against God," he says. "They hate men. Gloria Steinem said, 'A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.' That'll help you to understand what feminists think of men." Pastor Flip believes feminists are angry, ugly white women who, for the most part, have been unable to find a male partner. And as they eschew having children, he says, they condemn themselves to a lonely and unhappy life, striving continually to be something they cannot be: men. "There is not a greater vocation in the world for a woman than to be a mother," says Pastor Flip.
So I'm a man-hating fish. I prefer God's little rebel. Martha Graham once called dancers God's acrobats. That was beautiful and accurate, and some of its beauty might stick to my definition of feminism as God-ordained rebellion against the sadly lacking pharisees.
Did you notice how this man uses extreme soundbites to "inform"? I'm tired of the strategy, from both sides. But there is one soundbite that applies to Pastor Flip exactly: an asshole.
Read the article I linked to on Mississippi's last abortion clinic for some more meaningful concerns.