a woman is

[urban teacher]

New blog I found unless it's been discussed. Communist(not really) turned Catholic conservative. Headcovered, submissive , thought she was faux Jew at first.

/awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/

[Salamander]

I felt like raising my blood pressure so I clicked on her blog's "abortion" tag. She volunteered at a Planned Parenthood clinic when she was in college as part of a class-assigned community service project.

awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-time-at-planned-parenthood.html

When I went off to a small “Catholic†liberal arts college as a political science major, [the issue of abortion] was bound to come up.

The idea of killing an unborn child made me uncomfortable if I really thought about it, so I carefully skirted the issue by saying:

“ I don’t think it’s right, and I would never have an abortion… but I don’t think I have the right to tell another woman what she can or can’t do with her body.â€

If I’d given it much more thought I would have had to ask myself why a woman’s right not to be inconvenienced trumped a child’s right to live and I very quickly would have realized the fallacy in the logic behind the argument that it’s a “woman’s right to do whatever she wants with her body.†After all, none of us have the right to do whatever we want. Our rights end when they begin to encroach on someone else’s rights and that becomes especially clear when we plan on physically harming another human being.

Dunno why she always puts Catholic in quotes. Just because the university's Catholicism is different from hers doesn't mean she gets to decide whether it's legit or not.

Forced birthers do not get that the second you give a fetus rights, you condemn women to being second-class citizens. But I guess women having less rights over their own bodies than men have over theirs just ain't no thing. :shrug:

I was also very bothered by the ages of the girls whose pregnancy tests I was running. I would only have a urine sample and a birthday, and I couldn’t help but notice that I was giving positive results for girls who were twelve years old. They didn’t come in with their parents and I knew that they would be offered abortions without their parents’ knowledge (or consent). How would I feel if that was my tiny beautiful ballerina cousin who was almost the same age?

Did it not occur to her that those twelve-year-olds had reasons for not telling their parents they suspected they were pregnant? And she'd rather a twelve-year-old carry a pregnancy to term than have an abortion? Fucking absurd.

I first had to free myself from the absurd chains of moral relativism that my poli-sci professors had been reinforcing and that our secular culture embraces. I had to realize that there is right and wrong, good and evil in this world and as a human it’s my responsibility to speak out when I see the rights of those who are weaker than me violated.

Moral relativism seems to be the buzzword of choice in fundie pseudo-intellectual circles. Not sure if it always has been or if I'm just now hearing it.

It is so intellectually lazy to see things like abortion as always being either "right and wrong, good and evil," and it doesn't take into account why the right to abortion needs to remain intact. In any case, abortion itself is morally neutral; infringing on someone else's bodily autonomy is absolutely wrong.

[Dinorah]

The headcovering thing is odd because it's not really a Catholic thing, even amongst fundies (ie Lefevrian Latin mass types) it''s generally limited to mantillas in church, certainly not tichel-type covering in everyday life. And I love that she's so modest she has to post one billion pictures of herself smiling demurely at the camera. She's pretty btw, lovely eyes.

[takers401]

The headcovering thing is odd because it's not really a Catholic thing, even amongst fundies (ie Lefevrian Latin mass types) it''s generally limited to mantillas in church, certainly not tichel-type covering in everyday life. And I love that she's so modest she has to post one billion pictures of herself smiling demurely at the camera. She's pretty btw, lovely eyes.

She does have a home-based business making and selling those snoods so having nice pictures of her wearing them doing everyday things is probably a good advertisement for her business. She's definitely uber-Catholic who is raising her kids to be uber-Catholic but her girls wear pants when they feel like it, they don't spank, they live off little income yet don't starve as punishment, etc so I personally don't think she's in the same league as other fundies that are mentioned here.

[louisa05]

I'm so tired of the "pro-life" propaganda that abortion is only for a woman's "convenience". It blows my mind that they can continue to believe that anyone terminates a pregnancy merely because they find it "inconvenient". I think that idea helps to demonize the women and thus disregard their rights and autonomy. The rabidly "pro-life" people I know always use skiing, as in "women get abortions so they don't have to miss their ski trips". It is, frankly, easier to look down on someone who aborts to keep ski reservations than someone who aborts because she is 14 and her uncle is the father, though. So I guess that propaganda is probably working for them.

Disgusting.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

I'm so tired of the "pro-life" propaganda that abortion is only for a woman's "convenience". It blows my mind that they can continue to believe that anyone terminates a pregnancy merely because they find it "inconvenient". I think that idea helps to demonize the women and thus disregard their rights and autonomy. The rabidly "pro-life" people I know always use skiing, as in "women get abortions so they don't have to miss their ski trips". It is, frankly, easier to look down on someone who aborts to keep ski reservations than someone who aborts because she is 14 and her uncle is the father, though. So I guess that propaganda is probably working for them.

Disgusting.

I see what you are saying, I do. But at the same time, I actually think those of us on the pro-choice side should reinforce that it's fine to get an abortion for any reason. If I had gotten pregnant in the last ten years, I would have had an abortion, and the reason comes down to inconvenience. I COULD have raised a kid during that time if I had wanted to with family support, but it would have created a LOT of inconvenience as I tried to navigate grad school at the same time. That's perfectly valid, isn't it? I just think it's similar to how we always have to talk about the right to birth control in the frame of "taking it for health reasons" like PCOS, irregular periods, etc. Obviously those reasons exist. But, I take birth control because want to have premarital sex and not get pregnant....again, totally valid, no?

[louisa05]

I would not consider financial concerns and completing an education to be a matter of "convenience". You have to understand that when they talk about this (and I spent a good part of my life surrounded by people who spent every Saturday protesting clinics...I'm not making this up) they don't use "inconvenient" to refer to the necessity of completing education and having the ability to support a child. Those are necessary things and a woman's issues surrounding them might invoke someone's empathy. They talk about women supposedly getting abortions because they don't want to be pregnant on the cruise they reserved three months from now or not be able to ski over Christmas. One woman I knew liked to claim that someone she approached at a clinic told her that she was having an abortion because she and her husband had planned to have a child but to not get pregnant until three months later for reasons involving vacations and convenient maternity leave. I truly don't believe such a conversation ever took place or that anyone seeking to get pregnant would abort because it was a few months off of their ideal time line. And you have to admit that if you believed such stories and believed that they were the ONLY real reasons women abort, you could be swayed to the anti-abortion position much easier than if you thought about the reality of teens with no resources or education, women in horrific relationships, college women who need and want to finish their education and have more stability before having children, women struggling to support two or three kids already, victims of incest, incredibly young girls, etc...Again, the pro-life people I know don't talk about legitimate life concerns when they use the word "inconvenient". They use that to paint a picture of wealthy, self-centered women who can afford the Christmas ski trip that you can't so that you have no empathy for them.

[danvillebelle]

Well, I appreciate you linking it for a purely shallow reason - I'm a headcovering junkie and I like what I see, I'm going to browse her shop. I'm interested in reading her posts on the practice itself as well.

[desertvixen]

louisa05 - Thank you!

I also hate how they make it sound like women are waking up at 8 months, tripping down to get an abortion and then they get a pedicure thrown in!

[chaotic life]

I do find her far more palatable than Abigail. Certainly, SHE is being industrious to attend to her family's needs and financial situation even from her home situation. However, she displaces the same underlying problem I have with most conservatives and fundamentals and that is the reality that is it never sufficient that they have the freedom to live by their convictions and choices but that they MUST insist that their morlity and convictions be imposed upon EVERYONE in society.

I mean, if you want to be pre-Vatican II Catholic and wear a snood and sell them to help support your family--okie dokie. That's fine. It's your life, and your choices.

However, *I* do not need to fall under your convictions. I am not a pre-Vatican II Catholic and have no conviction to wear a snood. I have not personally ever choosen an abortion. However, I utilize some serious, serious birth control choices *because* I opted to not abort with my last, extremely dangerous pregnancy and nearly lost my life in that decision. I'm quite partial to staying alive to raise my children and realized that if I ever got pregnant again, I absolutely would abort, thus I use birth control heavily to prevent the need for an abortion. Thus I have no desire to limit abortions nor birth control for anyone else because I do not stand in their shoes and cannot make their choices nor judge their morality for them. I would no more insist that fundies be required to maintain a family size limit or undergo forced abortions than I would support that those who do not want/cannot have/or simply are "inconveneinced" being forced to continue pregnancies they do not wish to carry because someone else's morality says they must.

[Turtle]

At least she vaccinates her kids and doesn't hit/starve them in the name of Jesus. Way to set the bar high, fundies.

This is a little frightening: awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-inadvertently-unvaccinated-child.html?m=1

ETA: Just read a little more, and I agree with her a bit on this one. I'm glad that she's conscious of promoting a healthy body image for her girls. And that she doesn't assume people eat unhealthy foods because they don't know any better or they are lazy.

awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/2013/05/common-sense-and-body-mass-index-chart.html?m=1

[dairyfreelife]

She's certainly not as nuts as some of the people we have discussed on here, but she's still a religious nut. At first, her blog looks nice. Pictures of her cute kids, funny things they do or say, stuff about her basic life and such, children dressed like normal children today doing what normal children do (play) with occasional religious stuff about going to mass and such. Really, if she left out her evil pill and abortion protest and evil feminist stuff she posts at random, I would think her to be just a normal Catholic mother. Yeah, I guess it is good she doesn't hate all feminists because some were good and let her vote and work and stuff, but she still doesn't get it.

Also, I see this a lot on fundie blogs with large families that say people looked down on them for having a third child. My mom had three children and she says no one ever said anything to her about it. Especially since she had two girls, people probably just thought she was trying for a boy whether she was or not. And I really have a hard time believing people only pretended to be sad she lost a pregnancy in the second trimester and were actually glad she lost it. It's really not that odd to me for someone to have three or four children. Like Kendal claiming people were giving her awful looks when she was out with her four children (who she also said were skating bears down the aisles, which was probably were the looks came from-not that she had four children).

[Full enough quiver]

I will never understand the anti choice crowd. One, if you think abortion is so bad, why are so many of them against birth control and sex education? And two, I don't get why it's anybody's business why anyone gets an abortion. So what if it's about convenience for some people? Why is it ok for the 14 year old, or the rape victim, but not because you don't want to miss a ski trip? I dont care if youre having an abortion because you are a selfish bitch who hates kids. In fact, kudos to you for knowing that about yourself, and not giving birth to a child you dont want. I personally am not comfortable having an abortion, but I would never take that decision away from someone else no matter what the reason.

[Jinger Jar]

She's a frequent poster on Catholic Answers, where I lurk for its eminent snarkability and where I first found her and her blog.

Her posting history, both on CAF and on her blog, goes something like: daughter's new dress, not pregnant this month, snood shop, went to Mass, :shock: TEH HOMOSEXUALIST AGENDA !!1!!!1! :shock: , new recipe, sewing tips, pediatrician's visit, made a rosary, :shock: THE PILL IS MURDER!!1!!!1! :shock: , got a new minivan, breastfeeding, got the house blessed, teething baby, :shock: OBAMACARE IS EVIL!!1!!!1! :shock: , the Pope, DH started class today, look at my new snoods, baking cookies, :shock: PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS EUGENICS!!1!!!1! :shock:, our Christmas tree, SAHM challenges, weaning baby, more pictures of the kids, :shock: GARDASIL IS FOR SLUTS!!1!!!1! :shock:.

Basically traditional Catholic mommy stuff punctuated by regressive, misogynistic, homophobic nastiness.

I had to walk away from her blog right around the last election when she posted a meme denigrating African gays and lesbians who face execution because of their sexuality. There's right wing nuttiness and there's plain old mean spiritedness, and that post crossed the line for me.

[FakePigtails]

She's a frequent poster on Catholic Answers, where I lurk for its eminent snarkability and where I first found her and her blog.

Her posting history, both on CAF and on her blog, goes something like: daughter's new dress, not pregnant this month, snood shop, went to Mass, :shock: TEH HOMOSEXUALIST AGENDA !!1!!!1! :shock: , new recipe, sewing tips, pediatrician's visit, made a rosary, :shock: THE PILL IS MURDER!!1!!!1! :shock: , got a new minivan, breastfeeding, got the house blessed, teething baby, :shock: OBAMACARE IS EVIL!!1!!!1! :shock: , the Pope, DH started class today, look at my new snoods, baking cookies, :shock: PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS EUGENICS!!1!!!1! :shock:, our Christmas tree, SAHM challenges, weaning baby, more pictures of the kids, :shock: GARDASIL IS FOR SLUTS!!1!!!1! :shock:.

Basically traditional Catholic mommy stuff punctuated by regressive, misogynistic, homophobic nastiness.

I had to walk away from her blog right around the last election when she posted a meme denigrating African gays and lesbians who face execution because of their sexuality. There's right wing nuttiness and there's plain old mean spiritedness, and that post crossed the line for me.

Don't forget the occasional post where someone's comment (in real life or in a blog comment) pisses her off so she writes a novel in response. Some of them are truly rude, but she takes it so personally that even my grumpy self doesn't know where she gets the energy to be so upset.

[Jinger Jar]

Don't forget the occasional post where someone's comment (in real life or in a blog comment) pisses her off so she writes a novel in response. Some of them are truly rude, but she takes it so personally that even my grumpy self doesn't know where she gets the energy to be so upset.

She once got tangled up in an epic Ephesians 5:21 thread on CAF, and she just would not back down from the idea that Catholic wives must submit to their husbands on all matters, all the time, no ifs ands or buts. Other posters tried to explain about mutual submission, devoting yourself to your spouse like Christ devoted himself to the Church, etc., etc., but she wasn't having any of it. Her posts were huge, she was posting at all hours of the day and night, and I remember thinking, "Lady, you've got a baby and a toddler and a business and a husband. How in the world do you have the energy for online drama like this?" Anyway, she finally signed off the thread after a couple of days of high post counts with a passive-aggressive flounce that went something like, "I've tried to educate you lukewarm cafeteria Catholics about how we truly Catholic wives and mothers live our lives. I can do no more. Now, if you all will excuse me, my Catholic children and my Catholic husband need me. And I need to get back to my Catholic business." :lol:

She's not unlike Abigail from Abigail's Alcove in that she's an educated Catholic convert. I'm speculating here, but I'd guess she converted because she fell in love with an uber-Catholic man (her husband was a student at Ave Maria University) and subsequently fell down the rabbit hole of right wing traditional Catholicism. I think a lot of the extremist stuff is coming from him. Because she writes so many posts where she comes off as a sane, slightly-quirky-but-normal SAHM, I hope she continues to evolve and that the extremism is something she eventually sheds.

[urban teacher]

I also thought reading her blog that she follows a lot of her husband's ideas. Her move to a cabin without running water, head covering, entc seemed to come from him. I hope she grows up.

[louisa05]

She's a frequent poster on Catholic Answers, where I lurk for its eminent snarkability and where I first found her and her blog.

Her posting history, both on CAF and on her blog, goes something like: daughter's new dress, not pregnant this month, snood shop, went to Mass, :shock: TEH HOMOSEXUALIST AGENDA !!1!!!1! :shock: , new recipe, sewing tips, pediatrician's visit, made a rosary, :shock: THE PILL IS MURDER!!1!!!1! :shock: , got a new minivan, breastfeeding, got the house blessed, teething baby, :shock: OBAMACARE IS EVIL!!1!!!1! :shock: , the Pope, DH started class today, look at my new snoods, baking cookies, :shock: PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS EUGENICS!!1!!!1! :shock:, our Christmas tree, SAHM challenges, weaning baby, more pictures of the kids, :shock: GARDASIL IS FOR SLUTS!!1!!!1! :shock:.

Basically traditional Catholic mommy stuff punctuated by regressive, misogynistic, homophobic nastiness.

I had to walk away from her blog right around the last election when she posted a meme denigrating African gays and lesbians who face execution because of their sexuality. There's right wing nuttiness and there's plain old mean spiritedness, and that post crossed the line for me.

Catholic Answers makes me crazy. And the diocese where I went to Catholic school is full out conservative in their ilk. Most conservative diocese in the U.S.--only one to not allow girls to be altar servers or women to be lectors, etc... So I have many friends from my high school days who swallow everything Catholic Answers preaches. One of them (a 41 year old virgin who has never been on a second date) had the nerve to ask me personal questions about our sex life and family planning choices. I told her I would not discuss that with her or anyone else. Answer: "I just want to make sure you are not living outside the teachings of the church". Okay, then.

All of that said...I was a bit shocked to hear a priest on the Catholic Answers radio show the other day explain to a caller that submission in marriage does not mean that she has to be obedient to her husband's whims or that they are not equal partners. Our priest and premarital workshops emphasized this but this is a pretty liberal diocese. It was good to hear that even the conservatives are not teaching patriarchy or traditional gender roles.