{"id":53846,"date":"2014-09-24T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=53846"},"modified":"2014-09-24T21:26:57","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T01:26:57","slug":"why-its-not-ok-for-the-abortion-movement-call-itself-feminist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-its-not-ok-for-the-abortion-movement-call-itself-feminist\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it’s not OK for the abortion movement to call itself feminist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s not just wrong. It’s an affront to women.<\/p>\n

The abortion movement went\u00a0crazy\u00a0<\/em>over comments about feminism made by Emma Watson at the UN over the weekend, gushing in praise of Watson’s comments. Watson is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, and she promoted a pro-feminism “HeforShe” campaign in New York in a speech that abortion advocates are claiming perfectly encapsulates their movement.<\/p>\n

Although the UN\u00a0has a troubling history<\/a> of counting abortion among the “rights” of international women (failing to recognize the<\/em> most fundamental right of women, which is the right to be born), Watson’s speech is a refreshing aside from this UN trend. \u00a0In fact, her speech decisively contradicts the mission of the abortion advocates rallying behind it.<\/p>\n

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Watson said that feminism can no longer be equated with man-hating. She pointed out the necessity of equal pay. She lamented\u00a0the fact that “feminism” has become a bad word, connoting women who are “too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.” She acknowledged that without cooperation from men, a feminist society is an impossible dream. Men, she noted, support gender equality when they refuse to oppress women, and instead use their traits to complement them. She said:<\/p>\n

No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. These rights I consider to be human rights. But I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a shared privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume that I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In short, her speech encapsulated what those of us who are real feminists believe in: equality, harmony, and cooperation between men and women.<\/p>\n