Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Ross Douthat's Hatred of Women

On the pages of the New York Times, a newspaper that some people mysteriously claim is liberal, Ross Douthat continues to regale us with the sputum he produced as a result of his latest anti-women fit of hysteria. This time, Douthat uses the murder of Dr.Tiller, an incredibly tragic event for any decent human being, in order to bring to light his contempt of women. Of course, he tries to hide his chauvinism behind a tide of empty verbiage but this kind of hatred is too noticeable to be concealed.

Unlike reasonable, enlightened, healthy men with satisfying personal lives (such as President Obama obviously is), Douthat can't concede that women are capable of deciding what happens within their bodies for themselves. He feels that, in spite of not being likely to get pregnant any time soon, he needs to have an opinion on pregnancies. He speaks at length of the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy pregnancy in an attempt to convince his readers that he, Douthat, and not the actual pregnant women and their doctors are better qualified to make that distinction.

He also joins the group of those who try to justify Dr. Tiller's assassination by suggesting that Dr. Tiller performed abortions "on healthy mothers and healthy fetuses." Yet again, I highly doubt thaat Douthat saw these women or these fetuses. He does, however, consider himself qualified to diagnose a group of people he has never seen. And all this just in order to suggest that Dr. Tiller has actually deserved being murdered.

The goal of this piece is to suggest that abortion be "returned to the democratic process." What that means for a virulent chauvinist like Douthat is that we should stop the discussion of third-trimester medical exemptions and move on to the attempt to prohibit second-trimester abortions. Can anybody guess what the next step would be?

Of course, a possibility of stopping any discussion of third, second or first term abortions in order to leave this decision to women and their doctors is too painful for Douthat to contemplate. Women, deciding what to do with their bodies??? Never! Mr. Douthat can make that decision so much better.

Why is Douthat incapable of accepting that women can make reasonable, intelligent, well-informed decisions about their own bodies? I can't help suspecting that the reason lies in this individual's personal history with women. If he accepts this, he will also have to accept that all the women who denied access to their bodies to him (many, many women, judging from his level of hatred) did this because they are unreasonable, stupid, and don't know what's best for them.

P.S. Here is a link to an article by the talented Jodi Jacobson exposing Douthat's lies and distorions.

4 comments:

NancyP said...

And why can't Douthat stop pretending to have any medical knowledge. He is an ignorant LAYMAN.

Anonymous said...

I am sorry, but your claim that his article contains hatred of women is about as justified as the claim of our fellow asexuals that your writings contain hatred of asexuals...

I just believe that no subject should be exempt from discussion, as long as nobody gets violent... If some of pro-lifers' opinions are based on faulty medical arguments, this can be dealt with by means of scientific discussion. If pro-lifers use lies in their propaganda, they can be sued. Other arguments can be dealt with within ethical, religious, political, etc discussions. As long as nobody gets violent... But demanding that discussion is stopped is not right.
V.

Clarissa said...

I conclude that Douthat hates women based on the totality of evidence. :-) Looking for different ways to put women down seems to be a favorite pastime of his.

I'm not saying, of course, that he needs to be prevented from speaking. But it's sad that he has NYTimes for a tribuna.

The guy basically tries to justify someone who killed a doctor. Every person's life is precious, but in my opinion a society that doesn't accord special respect to doctors is hopeless.

(God, I really hope no one interprets this as saying that I propose todisrespect people of othe professions and starts condemning me for that).

Anonymous said...

I hope you will not interpret the following as me justifying that guy who killed the doctor... Pro-lifers killing anyone is ridiculous and very harmful to their own pro-life claims. But
a) No one should be automatically super-respected just because he/she has certain profession or certain level of education. All people should be respected on a basic level as human beings, but everything above it is earned. And not through earning a degree.
b) The guy believed that the doctor performing abortions is a disgrace to doctors profession anyway.
V.