You know, despite chastity whore Dawn Eden‘s anti-choice (and other) craziness I held a very teeny tiny soft spot in my heart for her because she once stood up for me during the boobie fiasco. Very stupid idea on my part–because this is beyond vile.
Jessica Valenti of Feministing asks: “How is one supposed to feel about the state of the education system when a college gives medical benefits to employee’s pets but not to same sex partners?”
Not being an animal lover, I’d have to guess the answer is about the same as I feel about the state of the legal system when the law gives the right not to have their brains sucked out to pets, but not to human babies in the womb.
On that point, Valenti, blogmistress for NARAL Pro-Choice America (left), who clearly adores her dog, disagrees.
There’s an interesting logic there. A pet is worth less than a same-sex couple — but more than a 36-week fetus in the womb.
Hey, Jessica, I’ll make you a deal. The next time you’re pregnant, instead of taking that EC and relying upon the prospect of an abortion as backup, just have the baby. (Emphasis mine)
For reals, bitch? The next time I’m pregnant? Do you have some sort of insider knowledge of my uterus’ history that I’m unaware of? No? Then shut the fuck up. I know it’s inconceivable to some anti-choicers that a woman would want to protect reproductive rights and health for all women no matter what her own reproductive history, and that it’s easier to paint pro-choicers as harlots who get an abortion a week than be honest, but seriously? For shame.
(And by the way, pregnant women don’t take EC–read a book, dumb dumb.)
UPDATE: Also funny–and telling–is that Dawn took down this picture of me from her post after a commenter complained that I was “immodestly dressed.” Shoulders, apparently, are the new cooter.
UPDATE (AGAIN): It seems Dawn has taken the post down and apologized. I’m still irritated that she would write it at all, but the retraction is appreciated.
60 Comments
Once again, more concern shown for a fetus than for actual human beings living in the actual world (the original post was about partner rights, yes?). What a heartless immoral bitch Dawn Eden is.
Make that an imaginary fetus. She isn’t even showing concern over actual events.
Oh, you know how all feminists are – crazy fertile and constantly making the sex.
How ridiculous and rude. But you know, she really comes out looking like an uninformed moron.
On a seperate note, I’m extremely offended by your super slutty tank top. A clear recording of your descent into abortion-filled whoredom.
Not only is she a chastity whore, she’s not an animal lover.
Oh, and she’s a jerk to our Jessica.
Hate.
It’s just like how ex-smokers are the most insufferable anti-smoking fanatics.
Huh? She manages to turn a point about same sex partnerships into abortion and how slutty our shoulders are? Oi, one track mind, that woman.
The hell? She turns a post about same sex partnerships into an abortion diatribe and personal attack? Damn.
I wonder how she reconciles the idea of people who are pro-choice and having a kid? Just because I decided to go ahead with my pregnancy doesn’t mean I expect every single other person to make the same decision.
That EC bullshit? Hilarious. How stupid.
You also have to love the idea that saying same sex partners should have medical benefits in the same way that pets do (in this particular case) means that a pet “is worth less”. Also the lack of ability to realize that an actual, live animal is different than a potential person. Crazy people.
Amazingly, Eden’s article is now missing.
At least it makes her look like an even bigger idiot.
Last week when I was walking to class on my college’s campus, a “Crazy Christian Preacher Lady” (as we call them) was shouting at girls that we were “dressed like harlots”, “looking like whores”, needed to “cover [our] immodest bodies”, etc., with the usual crap about how we were just tempting all of these poor little virginal college boys to think filthy thoughts and feel us up. (Women are all just such filthy, seductive whores, donchaknow?) Some of the girls she shouted at were wearing mini-skirts, boots, and cleavage-featuring tops, and some of them were wearing sneakers, jeans and t-shirts. Even though I don’t care to see the bits and pieces of the other girls on campus, it still pisses me off that anyone tries to tell anyone else how to dress.
The “modesty” thing is an epidemic. Can’t our clothing choices be OUR choices?
Sorry. Rant.
When I was younger I had a friend who went to a private Christian High School where the girls were told they couldn’t wear sleeveless shirts because – not kidding – “their shoulders were for their husbands”.
WTF? How does she turn an argument about the need for same-sex partner medical benefits into a pro-life rant? And where does she get off on this “next pregnancy” crap? Oh it must be because of all the sex you’re having – what are you up to now, an abortion a year? Grargh.
Abstinence porn: Pictures of fully clothed people doing innocuous things for you to look at without getting aroused. Or maybe not look at.
Wow. I think you made my brain explode.
Anti-feminists are SO anti-woman. The first thing they turn to after being questioned is the “YOU WHORE!!!” defense. It makes my skin crawl.
Bah.
I wonder what caused her to remove the post. I’m guessing it wasn’t guilt.
Re: why she took down the post… I think she must have realized, after the fact, that it was an unhinged and unprovoked attack and just made her look uber-crazy. Maybe she was suffering from insomnia, surfing the web, and came across this site. She saw the top post and thought, “That whore!” and posted an unhinged diatribe. She then got some sleep and thought better of it.
That is what I imagine happened.
Wow. I’m no stranger to the how-can-you-worry-about-this-when-THIS-is-happening bait and switch, but I’ve never seen one so very random before.
On the upside, my shoulder rubs will now have the added spice of feeling naughty.
Dawn Eden is basically a Gen-X Dr. Laura. She uses moralizing and women-shaming to promote herself. She’s so fuckin’ narcisstic. Sorry you had to deal with that shit, Jessica. Sadly, I can relate. Someone called me out on my slutty behavior because I belly dance for exercise.
By the way… her assertion about pets having the right not to have their brains sucked out. I may be off-base, but it’s my understanding that I can have a pet euthanised at almost any time. I know someone who put down a cat because the cat was unadoptable and they were moving out of the country. It’s a creepy aside, I know, but it’s also true. Dawn posits rights for pets that don’t actually exist.
Good point, sgzax. It IS legal to abort pet fetuses (aka “have their brains sucked out”). Yet another glaring mistake (or lie) in her stupid rant.
Okay, so if she’s a abstinence person, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have people who were so conservative that they thought that tight shirts or exposing the shoulders was immodest. I think it’s kind of silly, but I wouldn’t attack them for it.
Also, I think it’s good that she took down the post, regardless of -why- exactly she did it. It means that on some level she realized that it was wrong.
After all, we do allow for the euthanasia of pets…
sgzax – maybe she thought the post made her look undainty and less-than-a-lady?
God, Jessica. Cover up your collarbone. Have you no shame??????
Seriously, though, it still truly makes me sad that people are perpetuating the whole “taking EC = having an abortion”. There’s enough ignorance in the world as it is. Ugh. Not a good way to start my Tuesday…
Well, considering the few comments on her blog, I’m pretty sure she took it down of her own accord. Maybe I just like to think the best of people
For example, if it were -me-, I would take down this post, as a show of good faith. Since she publicly acknowledged that she was wrong and removed the post, there is no reason that this post remain. We already disagree with the woman, there’s no reason to accumulate bile.
I’m still chuckling at her “next time you’re pregnant, have the baby” jab. Oooooh, good one!
I disagree l.short, and I find your apologizing for her odd and unnecessary. She posted something unhinged and took it back. Good for her, but it doesn’t mean the object of the attack has to pretend it didn’t happen.
“Since she publicly acknowledged that she was wrong and removed the post, there is no reason that this post remain.�
When did she acknowledge that she is wrong? I must have missed that part. She took the post down, yes, but that is far from acknowledging she is wrong. If she wanted to publicly acknowledge anything, she would write a little apology or something.
jessica’s been cyberbullied!
that’s why you should think before you blog. nothing goes away completely on the internet. she knew that, it’s her fault.
Um, no you don’t have to pretend it didn’t happen, nor -should- you pretend it didn’t happen, but I don’t think that something this vitriolic contributes to the debate.
And this is what she says:
UPDATE, Tuesday a.m.: If you are visiting from Jessica Valenti’s blog, this is where I posted something hasty last night (see the timestamp below).
Just before posting it, I was commenting on another blog that blogging makes it far too easy to post offensive things without thinking. Well, it looks like I have done just that. I took the post down before leaving for work today, but not in time for Jessica to see it and be offended. I apologize.
She says the following:
That it was hasty
That it was offensive
And that she apologized
Well, no she doesn’t say that we also humanely kill animals, or that the connection is inane, but she apologizes for being -rude-. It was mud slinging. This post is mud slinging. Neither is contributing. One can acknowledge the apology and the intent behind that while still recognizing and maintaining that one was wronged.
I’m not saying that Jessica has to do that, or that I think less of her or anyone for that, but its what I think. I like to assume the best intentions of people, which isn’t always intelligent, I’ll admit.
I’M CONFUSED!
You were saying that if PETS can get rights, then same-sex couples should definitely be getting rights too! Saying that SAME SEX COUPLES (translation: human beings) deserve rights doesn’t translate to “pets should have their brains sucked out.” No one said the pets shouldnt have rights…this is so stupid.
also…. what is she talking about a 36 week fetus… thats 9 months…forgive me if this is ignorant, but who gets an abortion at 9 months anyway?
l.short.1230, writing a post wondering aloud how many abortions I’ve had is mud-slinging. Me pointing out that post is not. I said I appreciated the apology, which I do. But considering I didn’t write anything incorrect or you know, do anything wrong, there is no reason for me to take the post down. Get over it.
Okay, crazy anti-choicers doing/saying crazy anti-choice things isn’t exactly new.
I’m more shocked and awed by the immodesty stuff. That’s…terrifying on a level that I can’t really describe.
I wasn’t on this site during the boobie fiasco, but I found the picture in question. You’ve got to be kidding me. People had a *problem* with that picture? Or created one, in order to devalue you? I just don’t understand…
You know, if you go to get your pregnant cat or dog spayed, they will kill the fetuses. Animal shelters do it all the time. And if your cat got knocked up and you went to the vet to get her spayed, he/she would probably do the same.
We make decisions for our animals. Women, not being animals that anyone else owns, make decisions for themselves.
This just confirms my suspicion that people who don’t like animals are shady in general.
Has anyone told her that vets commonly give animals abortions (generally when their owners take them in to get spayed and discover they’re already pregnant)? My god, and the animals don’t even get to /consent/! She should definitely go do some activisting about that moral travesty, which surely is more shocking than Jessica’s alluring shoulders.
All I know is that if there was a dog in my uterus, I’d want it taken out. What anti-choicers fail to understand is that polyp, organ, animal, or embryo/fetus, if it’s in my body and I don’t want/need it there, I have the right to get it taken out. Hell, I can get my uterus taken out if I wanted to. Nothing has the right to exist in one’s body, period. I don’t give a shit what kind of DNA it has.
Secondly, you right shoulder is covered by your hair, and about 25% of your left shoulder is cut out of the picture. Anyone who gets turned off (or on, for that matter) by that picture really needs to get out more.
The highlights have already been thoroughly gone over. I’ll just add this tiny observation – note her “deal”: you get to do what she wants with your body, and she offers nothing in return.
Same old, same old . . .
RE: “Also, I think it’s good that she took down the post, regardless of -why- exactly she did it. It means that on some level she realized that it was wrong.
After all, we do allow for the euthanasia of pets…”
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Passive-aggressive much, shorty?
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RE: the subject: last time I checked, my dog didn’t have its head rammed into my uterus. If ever it is, I wouldn’t hesitate to have its brains sucked out.
All this brings up another dilemma. My dog sometimes gets into my trash can. It’s possible my dog has eaten a few fetuses given my slutty nature and the way I utilize my bionic uterus to power expel any unwanted intruders. Oh the horrors!
You know, if there were a strange dog in my *house* that I hadn’t allowed in there, eating my food, threatening my health, and taking up space I wanted to use for myself, and the only way to get rid of it was to suck out its brains… yay for brain sucking, because I would absolutely do that.
We have rats in our house. Rats are pretty much identical to dogs and cats, in that when they are pets they are adorable and cute, and when they are feral and stealing your food, they are vermin. If I can ever get Orkin to come give me decent glue traps, I will totally bash a glued rat’s skull in so it will not be living in my house eating my food. Which is not exactly *sucking* the brains, but it is breaking the skull and smashing the brains, close enough.
My *house*. Not even my *body.*
I let two little critters live in my body and they wrecked the place. As I am typing this I am running to the bathroom every twenty minutes because I have a bad cold and ever since my pregnancies, when I sneeze I pee myself if there’s any urine in my bladder at all. My stomach muscles no longer work, I have a permanently distended abdomen due to muscle dysplasia and I have to get surgery to fix it or I will never be able to sit up with just my muscles again. My tailbone aches horribly when I sit, which, given my job, is all the time.
Those little critters, who are now happily playing at day care, are beings I *chose* to let into my body, knowing they could do serious damage. Just like if you adopt a puppy you know it could chew up your house’s furniture and widdle on your rug. And you allow it, because you wanted that puppy. But if a strange dog was in your house, chewing your furniture and widdling on your rug, you would kill it. Or you would call Animal Control. And they will take it to the pound and *then* kill it. Because we don’t allow living creatures to live in our *house* and mess the place up without permission. Why the *hell* would we let creatures live in our *bodies* without permission? Just because they’re human? I’m sorry, but if there are strange humans living in my house and I can’t get them out by negotiating with them or calling the cops, I’m legally entitled to kill them should that be the *only* force available to me to get them out of my house. And my body is rather more important as a territory under my control than my house.
(Before anyone argues with me that no, I’m not allowed to kill strange humans: I said *if* I try negotiating and that doesn’t work, and I call the cops and that doesn’t work. At that point, yes, self-defense says I can use physical force to remove them. If said physical force would kill them — say it’s below 0 outside and they don’t have coats — I DON’T HAVE TO CARE. They were not entitled to live in my house without permission. And no, leaving the door unlocked one day was not the same thing as giving permission.)
Honestly, this is one of the stupidest anti-abortion rants I’ve ever read. We totally *do* kill pets, all the time, for living in our house when we no longer want them there. If they were living in our *bodies* I’d guarantee you we’d kill them a lot more often, because that kitten you had implanted in your stomach muscles would stop being cute right about the time it starts to knead with its claws. So if you want to belittle a person by comparing her to a house, well, you know, your analogy *still* doesn’t work because we still *do* kill pets for living in our house. A pet isn’t worth more than a fetus (last I checked, was PETA outside marching around every animal control shelter and lobbying to demand an end to pet euthanasia?) and is killed for much less important reasons than “living in your BODY when you don’t want it there.”
No matter who she is, or how ridiculous she is, perhaps we shouldn’t call her “whore”. It is a disrespect to all women, IMO. We needn’t stoop to that level, and if a random person comes across this post and then goes to her page in comparison, they may have more respect for the courteous language on her post than for the nasty language on this this one.
That being said, she’s still so misguided that it’s sad.
“our clothing choices be OUR choices?”
Only if you’ve got that extra dangling appendage.
I get the feeling that Dawn Eden is a woman who hates herself to a worrying degree.
Wow Jessica. I’m sorry you have to deal with this kind of thing, but I’m glad that you don’t ever let them slow you down. If I woke up to that, I would be in a kerfufle for at least 3 hours.
It took me a second to type that out. I was just enjoying a delicious unborn baby sandwich smothered in puppy blood.
What the fuck is up with using gendered slurs like “bitch” and “whore” to get your point across? For shame.
Well said, l.short.1230, Nightingale, goddes5, etc.
If we want other people to get over their gender-related language hook-ups, we need to get over them ourselves. It’s simply not acceptable for us to use the words that we excoriate other people for using. Yeah, she was inappropriate. But she’s apologized and we’re the ones that need to take the high road and get over it. Point out her mistake. Call her inappropriate, call her ignorant, but DON’T call her bitch or a whore unless you want to continue being called that yourself because of your views.
hang-ups, not hook-ups. oh my…
I thought of the term “chastity whore” in the same vein as when I say blogwhoring–there was no sexual connotation intended. But point taken.
I understand the anger over Jessica’s use of words like “bitch” and “whore,” but Eden’s post did more than imply that Jessica is a whore…it pretty much openly stated that she’s had multiple abortions (even though the terminology was wrong, as the morning after pill is not equal to an abortion) when her only “proof” of said moral licentiousness is the fact that Jessica is pro-choice. I wouldn’t consider Eden’s words to be “courteous” by any stretch of the term.
I care more about animals than fetuses, and I think this woman shouldn’t be allowed within 50 feet of an animal!
If she thinks “pet” animals don’t get aborted intentionally by people, she’s very much mistaken. I once participated on a trap/spay/neuter/release program for cats, and if a female happened to be pregnant, no matter how far along she was, the little babycats got taken out along with the girl plumbing. I suppose if one had been just about to “pop” it might have been saved and brought to a rescue group to be dropper-fed, but it would literally have had to been within hours from potential live birth with no contraindications to survival. The idea was to cut down on the population of unwanted animals. See?
Good for her for having second thoughts about the post, though.
Wow, what a nutty…nut! And that is really scary that she has not even bothered to learn the difference between emergency contraception and an abortion.
I disdain the expectation of perfection in the face of a snide personal attack far more than I disdain the use of the word bitch in response to such an attack.
The perfection/pedestal expectation is the same madonna complex used to berate “uppity” women back into their place.