CORRECTION: In a previous version of this column, Rupert Murdoch’s name was misspelled. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a feminist.

The inspiration for this particular column came from a good friend of mine. Thus, I’m taking this opportunity to discuss something that may be somewhat more controversial that what I’ve addressed previously.

As briefly as possible, a feminist is someone who believes women ought to have the same moral standing as men in our society. It’s really that simple — if you think women should be treated with the same level of dignity, you are a feminist.

Strangely, a lot of people tend to confuse this basic precept with what they conceive as radical feminism. They tend to relate the idea with terms like man-hating, anti-sex, and feminazi — a personal favorite of mine, coined by our beloved Rush Limbough. I can assure you, I am none of these things.

Even I, as a man, am no stranger to the anti-feminist forces in our society. I’ve tried in the past to stand up for feminism or to simply make the feminist argument more clear. Both have been met with resistance.

The word itself has become pejorative to many people. People actively supporting the increased rights of women in our society are put down for holding that view.

Of course, there are a great many abstract and academic discussions we can have regarding what form feminism should take and the specific ideas that are justifiable. Given this is a political column and not a journal article, I’ll leave that to others, but it’s worthwhile to mention that such discussion exists.

More relevant to this is how the conservative movement in America has taken their age-old attack on women to new heights is recent election cycles.

They seem to want to repeal decades, centuries even, of work by progressives to close the gender gap. In case you don’t think this is a problem, allow me to point to prominent conservative activist Ann Coulter.

She has been quoted as saying, “I think (women) should be armed, but should not vote. … Women have no capacity to understand how money is earned.”

Of course, Coulter is not representative of all conservatives, but she does represent a certain fringe element that has gained power in recent years. It’s not unbelievable to think there are others who would support such an idea if given the chance.

More mainstream Republicans have taken up the anti-woman mantle as well. If you’ve been paying attention to political news recently, you’ll have heard of Todd Akin’s infamous comments. The shocking thing about Akin is that his view is more common than not.

Since Akin’s comments, we’ve seen other Senate candidates across the country say similarly shocking comments about rape.

Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock — not to be confused with Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch — recently said, “I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

It should be mentioned that Mitt Romney has endorsed Mourdock, and he has yet to withdraw his endorsement.

In total, a full 13 Republican Senate candidates have endorsed making abortion illegal, even when the woman in question was raped.

So, for those of you voting this year, consider your mother, your sisters and your female friends. There is one party who wants to stand up for their rights and one that does not.

Colin Crowley is a senior political science and philosophy major. His column appears online weekly. He can be reached at cocrowle@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @colincrowley.

 

Murdoch

Published on October 28, 2012 at 10:48 am