Phyllis Schlafly: a self-loathing human.
Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2016, 06:44 PM - Edit history (2)
Her entire identity as a political and cultural figure was bound up in a choking hatred of and complete lack of empathy for her own gender. She despised womanhood and was terrified of the very idea that women might achieve autonomy from and equality with men. And she could not tolerate the notion that the place of women in the paid workplace(ALL women-with the possible exception of the Kardashians and the Trump wives-work, and work full time, it's just that many aren't paid for their labor) was, by the time she achieved notoureity in the early 1970's, a legitimate and permanent fact of life deserving of respect and equal protection under the law.
Not only that, but she also showed no understanding whatsoever of sexual minorities(even though she had an openly gay son)or people of different races, religion, nationality or economic condition. In Schlafly's world, suffering was always deserved and any display of compassion was intolerable weakness-and any effort to change anything for the better could only be the latest scheme in a diabolical conspiracy to enslave the world(not that she had opposed slavery, OR Jim Crow, because that would mean going against the sacred doctrine of "states' rights"
under the tyranny of "one world government".
And yet, while proclaiming herself a defender of "liberty" and the supposedly traditional roles of men in the workplace and the home, Schlafly always displayed both implacable hostility to any recognizable notion of freedom-she insisted on rigid and absolute conformity to her idea of how life should be lived from all people at all times-and a barely-concealed contempt for heterosexual manhood and all those consigned to it-to hear her tell it, we were all too insecure and emotionally fragile to handle relationships in which women were equal partners with us, we would be all but emasculated if women received equal pay for equal work and equal respect in the workplace, we would fall apart and be useless, pathetic husks if asked to listen, grow, or change in any way whatsoever-or even if we were called on to do SOME of the housework or cooking. She not only despised women and those who differed from her in any other way, she gave no credit to men for having any capacity to be...well, men-that is, to be strong enough not to have to be dominant, to be capable of gaining insight or understanding or wisdom, rather than just making "command decisions" and ordering other people around, to be able to admit it when we are wrong just as we can stand up(as can anyone else) for what we feel is right. To Phyllis Schlafly, we were not "men" at all...we were just big toddlers who can drive and use power tools.
She not only insulted our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, life partners and daughters(among those of us who are straight and male), she demeaned our grandfathers, fathers, brothers and sons. And she did her level best to grind everyone else into the dirt as well.
She was no one's ally. She was no one's friend. She made nothing better and many things worse.
She fought against us all.
And in the end, I think she fought against herself.
That is what a person does when she cannot see the good in anyone or anything in the present, and refuse to believe anything better can be done in the future.
She loathed the world she lived in, that we STILL live in. She loathed those of us who inherit that world when she left it.
Ultimately, she loathed herself.
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Response to Ken Burch (Original post)
