A day full of nonsense

My day started out ok, but has slowly gone down hill.  It all started when I went out to pick up a new eyebrow pen, only to discover its not just sold out, its been DISCONTINUED! Why Urban Decay, why??? I know this might not seem like a huge deal, but remember my previous post about how I hate my eyebrows? This magic little pen was helping me to actually make peace with them. After a trip to Ulta, two Sephoras, and a desperate call to Urban Decay customer service, I settled on a eyebrow pen from Stila. Finger crossed it works.
My eat less candy effort this week is failing miserably. Its only 3:30 and I've eaten a lot of candy. And the day is not over yet.
I have a pain in my lower back-butt area. Only on the right side. And I don't know why.
And to make matters worse, I came across this little gem on the internet: The 11 Dumbest Things Conservatives Have Said About Women. I have no real issue with conservatives (I can disagree with them, no problem for me there, I'm married to one, for goodness sake!) but I do have a problem with the hateful things that are being said these days to shame and silence women. In case you don't want to read the whole article (I get it, I know not everyone needs to be confronted with frustrating things like I do - I don't have kids, so maybe my life is otherwise lacking in frustration?) I'll give you a quick run down here:
1. "Sex-Crazed Co-Eds..."in refernce to Sandra Fluke, the now infamous Georgetown Law Student.
2. "Lavishly contracepted." "By any reasonable standard, we are one of the most lavishly contracepted society in the history of the planet," Rich Lowry wrote in his New York Post column. What exactly do you mean my lavishly contracepted? I don't feel lavishly contracepted each month when I fork over $80 for my Nuvaring. I just don't, but I'm very grateful that each month I have the $80, making me extremely lucky. "A right is a right in name only if it's not combined with access." True that.
3. "What do you expect from a woman driver?" Again, not cool Rush. You kinda suck. Just because race car pro Danica Patrick supports the president's policy on birth control does not mean you get to personally insult her driving and using a common stereotype to demean this woman because you disagree with her.
4.  Women in the military should "expect" to be raped, says Fox News' Liz Trotta. This one practically made my head explode. There is a HUGE rape epidemic going on in the military right now, and no women should EXPECT to be raped. I have no other words.
5. "In my day, "gals" used to put an "aspirin between their knees" [for contraception]". Thank you for this lesson in pregnancy prevention you ass, Foster Friess (gigantic supporter of Santorum's super PAC).
6. Dana Loesch: "Women already consented to be penetrated when they got pregnant", in talking about the Virginia Bill that would have mandated invasive ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. Consent is required each time a person's body is penatrated. What is so hard to get about that???
7. Booing birth control at the GOP debate. Why?????
8. Democrats and Republicans sitting together is "like date rape." No, Stephen A. Moore of the Wall Street Journal, sitting next to someone you disagree with is what it means to be an adult sometimes. Comparing it to getting raped by someone you know is horribly insensitive to victims of date rape.
9. "My wife won't sleep with me because of this ultrasound provision". Isn't it just so cute to laugh at the funny things our wives get worked up about? Lets not treat the women in our lives as adults, instead, just laugh when they get "worked up" about something "silly."
10. The Pope thinks that couples who use in virto to get pregnant are "arrogant."
11. DC blogger says that women journalists who are "nice looking" in their Twitter avatar are not serious. Because we all know a pretty woman is empty in the head, right?

Women who use birth control are sluts

At least that is what Rush Limbaugh would have us believe. This week, Rush got on his popular radio show, and as most of the world is now aware, and referred to Sandra Fluke, the law student who was barred from testifying about contraception before a congressional committee a slut and a prostitute. Why is Sandra being labeled such? She had the audacity to support the notion that women should have easier access to birth control. Because we all know that women who use birth control do so just so they can sleep around.

I am sick to death of the shaming of women that is currently going on. It extends beyond some idiot's comments calling a woman a slut for advocating for easier access to birth control. Last year, a police officer said that women who dress like sluts shouldn't be surprised when they are raped (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the general idea). The ensuing "slut walks" sought to raise awareness of sexual violence and point out that the way women are dressed is never a justification for sexual assault. The dialogue surrounding this original comment and the resulting "slut walks" ran the gamete of support to shaming to blaming. It is also evident in the proposed bills and legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be given a transvaginal ultrasound (Virginia) or that a ultrasound must be performed and the images explicitly described by a doctor before an abortion can be performed with a 24 hour waiting period (Texas). Many other states are exploring similar legislation. I'm not interested in debating the morality of abortion, but what this says to me is that a woman and her doctor can not be trusted to make the right decision so we have to add these additional safe guards to help her choose "correctly". Because women can't be trusted to make an informed decision on their own or with their doctor about a legal medical procedure. And wanting to prevent an abortion or an unplanned pregnancy by making an informed and responsible decision to use birth control makes you a slut. We can't really win, can we?

And finally, if you want to read more about the double standard, you can find some more here.