unrepentant old hippie

A R.E.A.L. headache

I call it "Sudden Onset REAL Women Syndrome"; the migraine that comes from reading stuff like this, part of an interview with Gwen LanDOLT of "REAL" Women. REAL of course is the sexist-misogynist-homophobic social conservative organization whose campaign against Status of Women Canada resulted in funding cuts to the extent that 12 of 16 SWC offices were closed. Last week, ironically and bizarrely, wingnut freak Landolt was given a seat at a parliamentary committee on the Status of Women, and here are a couple of the things the fucking idiot had to say:

MP Irene Mathyssen: I wonder, do you think that equal pay for work of equal value is a laudable goal?

Ms. Gwendolyn Landolt: No, it’s a feminist concept. We do not agree with that.

Mrs. Irene Mathyssen: You talked about professionals in Canada, women having reached professional status. Were you aware that even in female-dominated professions in Canada, women still make less on average than their male counterparts?

Ms. Gwendolyn Landolt: Yes. And do you know why that is? Because women work differently from men.

One of the things that's most amazing about these social conservative nitwits is their ability to just pull information straight out of their fat asses and present it as Fact; no sources, no stats, no examples, just some dumbass statement like "women work differently from men". I won't even delve into the odious and obviously incorrect insinuation here, which is: women work less effectively than men, therefore deserve to be paid less. As a woman who's worked all my adult life, in most cases doing exactly the same job as men, I know it to be untrue, so it isn't worth dissecting. But it's worth highlighting as a clear indication of REAL's respect for the women it claims to represent.

Obviously, REAL women isn't about women. It's a front organization for Fuck-us On The Family and its Canadian clones, another social conservative stealth strategy to exercise influence on government policy-making. A visit to their website reveals their true agenda: anti-female autonomy, anti-abortion and grossly homophobic, all dressed up in the ersatz guise of "concern for the family". Concern for whose family? Surely not mine.

As Sooey points out here, one wonders what the fuck these idiots are even doing spewing their bullshit at the table of a parliamentary committee, so at odds is their bigotry with Canadian values. But you know what? As much as it makes me want to rip my head off and kick it across the room, I'm actually glad they're at the table. Because bigotry exposed is a lot less dangerous than bigotry that lurks hidden and oozes its toxic pus from undisclosed locations.

(from My Blahg via Canadian Cynic)