Rick Santorum is running for President this year. If you’re unfamiliar with Santorum, he was a senator and a published author. In one of Santorum’s books he says, “In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them don’t need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do.” In the book he also accused feminists of causing women to abandon their families, writing, “… their misogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect.” Naturally, this brought heavy fire from feminists, as they claim that Santorum is saying a “woman’s place is in the home.” Santorum has never came right out and said those words, but he’s danced around them – quite intimately, if you ask me.
What Santorum doesn’t realize, though, with that quote is that working outside the home is not “the only marker for social value and self-respect,” it is a way for women to earn their own money, and give them a sense of responsibility and pride. A way to allow them to contribute to the household in a real way. Maybe they can use their money to spoil their children, or even themselves. If they’re lucky enough, maybe they get a job in something they love or something that interests them, allowing them to grow as human beings. You know? Hm.
As for these women that Santorum is championing, sitting home cleaning and raising children is an honorable thing to do. I know several …
… stay-at-home moms and most of them say they love it. I’ll concede that it’s probably one of the hardest jobs in the world, but they also say they often miss talking to grownups and experiencing adult things. A 20-40 year old woman can only spend her days with a two-year-old and The Wiggles for so long before she loses it. Working outside of the home allows for a woman to have her own life and experiences, so when her partner comes home over dinner they can have an actual conversation, instead of her just listening to his stories.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Santorum what he meant by the passage in his book criticizing feminists for luring women into the workplace. The former senator suggested that it might have been written by his wife, a nurse and lawyer, who felt that people “looked down their nose” at her decision to quit her job to raise the children. His main point, he told Stephanopoulos, was that there should be an “affirmation of whatever decision women decide to make.” Santorum is right about that last fact, it should be a woman’s decision and male senators should probably keep their opinions where they belong … in their own private homes.
Santorum opposes: abortion, birth control, and prenatal care. He advocates that women shouldn’t work, should have as many children as God wants her to have, and then he claims his wife writes some of his anti-woman rhetoric.
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Feminism is about choice and it is choice that Santorum wants to take away. He wants women dumb, pregnant, and terrified.
He is a repulsive snake. I simply cannot believe he has any chance at all of winning.
AND_ where the HELL did that sweater vest thing come from? I (sadly) live in his district, and the only thing he is known for here is being a pompous ass.