Opt Out of the 'War on Women'

April 13, 2012

Why We Can All Opt Out of the 'War on Women'

We can all stop using such violent imagery to describe what women face.

Rachel Held Evans, guest blogger

“She’s never worked a day in her life.”
“At least I don’t just drop my kids off at daycare.”
“She’s one of those annoying Attachment Parenting moms.”
“She’s one of those annoying Babywise moms.”

“No kids? And that’s on purpose?”
“I’ll be praying that God brings a man into your life soon.”

Let’s face it. We’ve all been on the giving and receiving end of jabs like these. Most of us just don’t have tens of thousands of twitter followers and a national TV audience to catch us in the act.

Though Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen has twice apologized to Ann Romney for saying that the stay-at-home mother of five boys had “never worked a day in her life,” her remarks have triggered yet another round of women-at-war stories as reporters, pundits, and bloggers continue to tout the importance of women voters in the 2012 election.

While strategists from the Left have been using the “war on women” narrative surrounding the birth control debate to rally women to their cause, strategists from the Right are hoping this latest spar in the so-called “mommy wars” will draw sympathetic moms to the Romney family and the Republican party.

Frankly, I’m tired of both sides using violent imagery to describe the difficult decisions that I, and my sisters, make every day, and I’m tired of seeing those decisions reduced to bumper sticker ideologies that can be exploited for political gain.   Read the whole story here…..