The Myth of “Women”

This post was inspired by a Bad Catholic post.

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” – Susan B. Anthony

It might sound like Susan B. Anthony was speaking to Hobby Lobby, but she is, in fact, speaking to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has created the myth of a particular type of woman. She is pro-choice, licentious, and interested in sex almost purely for its sensory overload. But this is a meager caricature of women, a grand piece of propaganda drawn up to win the support of the public.

Planned Parenthood supposedly stands up for “women.” But what are women? Popular gender theory tells us that the term is simply a construct, something invented for the unification of a group who have historically felt oppressed. But where does that leave biological women, with their two x chromosomes, who do not agree with abortion, employers’ having to pay for non-medical contraceptives, or Planned Parenthood’s grand myth of “women?”

They can rot, or that’s what Planned Parenthood seems to say. Look at the slogans, the memes, and all the hullabaloo. Every piece suggests that this is a question of weak women, fighting male, fat-cat corporate bosses for their own empowerment. If that is the case, what do we make of the fact that many of those standing against Planned Parenthood are women? What of the reality that many of these corporations are non-profits?

“Chase, those women are just wrong. They can be wrong. They just can’t impose their beliefs on me.” Nice try, but that is not the reality. “Women,” meaning the Planned Parenthood construct, are imposing themselves in this scenario as much as they are being imposed on. They ask others to violate their beliefs because their “god” demands that women have free access to non-medical contraceptives, whatever the cost. Ironically, contraceptives are not exactly bank-breaking or hard to come by. But that doesn’t matter to “women.” So my response is “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

As it stands, Planned Parenthood has created its own definition of women, a construct, a myth. It has been designed to reinforce gender stereotypes such as the weak woman against the powerful man. I am no friend to corporate fat-cats. But in this case, the “fat-cats” are sometimes nuns and sometimes men, running non-profits; they’re true to themselves. They don’t claim to represent “women” and no one can do that besides each woman who decides what it is she believes.

On that note, I direct Planned Parenthood supporters to another early feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft: “Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.” Perhaps we’ve taken gendered autonomy there.