If you haven't been following the news, Michigan is in the midst of a right wing legislative man-gasm. They have passed a series of laws, many of which immediately became law illegally (thanks Rachel Maddow for being the only person to realize this), which have taken power away from voters as well as infringing on citizens rights, especially if those citizens happened to be women.
The most recent in these series of laws would outlaw all abortions past 20 weeks without any exception. You were raped? Sorry. Your baby has a severe birth defect which renders it incapable of surviving outside the womb? Tough. You may die if your pregnancy continues to term? Well, that's just a chance you're going to half to take, because the men of the Michigan legislature say so.
Needless to say there were a few members of the fairer (and saner) sex that also happened to be members of the legislature who were more than a little upset about this legislation. One of these, Barbara Byrum proposed an amendment which would apply a requirement that men prove to a doctor that the procedure was necessary to save the man's life in order to have a vasectomy performed. A vote was taken denying the amendment without any debate. When Rep. Byrum attempted to address the amendment and speak, she was ruled out of order. I guess turn about is fair play everywhere but the Michigan legislature.
Later, Rep. Lisa Brown gave an impassioned speech about the law on the chamber floor. In part of the speech, in response to those members who had argued that this was a matter of religious liberty for them as devout Christians, that she was Jewish and that her faith dictates that when there was a conflict between the health of the fetus and the health of mother, the health of the mother wins, and that the abortion would not be recommended, but would be required. She further stated that since she was not forcing her religious beliefs on the Christian members, why were they forcing their beliefs on her. She ended her speech by saying "I'm flattered you're all so interested in my vagina. But no means no."
The next day both Brown and Byrum were informed that they would not be allowed to speak on the floor of the legislature because they "failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives." Huh?
Apparently the dispositions of the male members of the Michigan House of Representatives are so sensitive that they simply can't be subjected to words like vagina or attempts by women to actually speak on their amendments to a bill that actually affects their health and lives.
It was pointed out by Brown that her male counterparts had actually engaged in fisticuffs on the House floor recently and had suffered no such similar action.
Has "vagina" somehow become verboten? Should Representative Brown said hoo-ha? Or coochie? Or blossoming flower? Or are the bastions of male dominated Michigan law dudes so sensitive that they would prefer "private part" or "area" or better yet "down there?"
Perhaps they are threatened by powerful women who aren't afraid to use medically correct anatomical terminology when talking about their feminine parts. I did notice that each of the women was loudly gaveled down by the presiding male of the chamber and that gavel he was hammering was awfully big. Maybe there are some shortcomings amongst the male members of the male members of the House.
What else would explain such action for saying "vagina?" I guess not only are the men of the Michigan House of Representatives operating on a third-grade level of intelligence, but also a third-grade level of maturity. I guess next we are going to ban women from serving in the legislature altogether because, as we all know, girls have cooties.
What it all really comes down to is that the men running the Michigan legislature simply can't handle women who speak loudly, proudly, and angrily in defense of their rights, especially when those rights are under constant assault by those same men. The Michigan men would prefer that their women be demure and compliant, laying back and accepting the daily volleys lobbed against them.
However, I have one last thing to say to those that are trying to silence Michigan women figuratively through their laws and literally through their punishments against female members of the House. If you can't talk about vaginas on the House floor, should you really be passing laws that affect them so much?
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