by Carolyn Gargaro & Stephanie Herman - Rightgrrl Founders
"I'd be happy to give him [oral sex] just to thank him for keeping
abortion legal."
Those were the enlightening words uttered by former Time contributor and
White House correspondent Nina Burleigh in an interview in Mirabella
magazine, as reported by Howard Kurtz in a
Washington Post Article. However, it was learned on 07/16/98 that her
comment was a little different from that. Nina Burleigh has now
filled in what word she really used in the spot the Post bracketed and
revealed her next sentence to Kurtz, that he did not share with readers.
So women should all break out their kneepads. Sorry Nina, I think we'll
pass on your "blow the President" suggestion. Not all American women live
by your standards - or lack thereof.
This new information is in the July 20th edition of the New York Observer
in Nina's opinion piece, "My Spin Through the Cycle," relating her experience at becoming a mini-celebrity over her
comments. While the paper has a Web site www.observer.com, the text of
articles is available only through AOL. Key word: NYO.
Nina's comments are quite interesting, considering that just a few years
back author (and liberal) Rene Denfeld accused
radical feminism of adopting rather Victorian attitudes toward sex.
Perhaps in response (or perhaps not) the feminist camp has donned a new
attitude toward sex: it's OK if it's done for the cause.
Take young feminist writer Anastasia Higginbotham's political motivation
for becoming a lesbian. "Sleeping with women... is also something I
aspired to as a die-hard advocate for women," writes Higginbotham in an
essay, "Chicks Goin' At It." "I worried (and still do occasionally) that
I was taking on lesbianism out of loyalty to a cause, fearful that my
capacity to sleep with the bad guys was bad for PR."
Nina Burleigh's definition of oral sex as the supreme thank you for a
correct-thinking liberal male nicely fleshes out the observations of
Star Parker in her essay Why the Modern
Woman voted For Bill Clinton. "The way liberal women have justified their
vote for Bill Clinton kind of reminds me of the relationship a whore has
with her pimp," states Parker. "She knows he's using her, but because
he alludes to providing for her children, she'll tolerate the abuse. All
the President had to do to solidify the female block was smooth talk
promises of daycare, family leave and college for our kids." Think NOW
might disagree? They don't, actually. When President Clinton signed the
welfare reform bill, they admitted feeling used in the NOW National
Times: "...it feels like Clinton came around and sweet-talked us in 1992
and then didn't respect us in the morning."
What would pro-choicers say if the situation was reversed and a pro-life
woman said she would give Pat Buchanan oral sex "just to thank him for
his position against abortion"? Can you imagine the outrage? The cries
of pro-choice feminists on the "submissive" nature of this action, and
the finger pointing at pro-life women en masse would be, no doubt, a
media event. We can just imagine the headlines: "Self-Righteous Abortion
Foes Admit to Sexual Favors to Further Their Agenda." Oddly, we don't
see many media accounts of Nina Burleigh's statement.....
We're not suggesting that all, or even most pro-choice women, would
perform oral sex on a married president to thank him for keeping the
exploitive procedure of abortion legal, but Nina Burleigh's quote seems
to mirror at least the attitude of many female Clinton supporters.
Clinton helps the liberal pro-choice agenda, so many liberal pro-choice
women look the other
way when it comes to his alleged sexual harassing behavior, his coddling
of China, a nation which forces women to be sterilized and have
abortions in the ninth month, and some of his anti-woman actions in
general.
How ironic that some of the same women who forgive Clinton's anti-woman
behavior, and possibly, if there are other women out there like Nina
Burleigh, would submit themselves sexually to him, do so to keep their
precious, "empowering" right to choose -- a "right" which, if taken
away, would undermine women's equality. Or so they claim. It seems as if
these same women who swoon over President Clinton have done a pretty
good job of undermining women's rights all by themselves.
July 10, 1998
Updated: July 16, 1998
Her full quote: "I would be happy to give him a blowjob just to thank him
for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be
lining up with their presidential kneepads on to show their
gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs."
This article is copyright © 1998 Carolyn C. Gargaro & Stephanie Herman. All rights reserved. It may not be reproduced with out specific consent of the authors.
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