Most of the public response to the brutal silencing of two Michigan state legislators, Reps. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, and Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, women who committed the unpardonable sin [/snark] of mentioning their vaginas in floor speeches during a heated debate of an unconscionable anti-abortion bill, has displayed better grace and good humor than I would have managed under similar circumstances. E.g., Naomi McAuliffe of the Guardian:
Apparently, when discussing a medical procedure, it's not really appropriate to use medical words. Well not about lady bits anyway. It makes me wonder what euphemisms would be acceptable. "Will the representative get his hand out of the otter's pocket?" "Can the honourable gentleman refrain from trespassing in the lady cave?
Meanwhile, the formidable Eve Ensler joined Reps. Brown and Bynum and a crowd of about 2500 in a performance of Ensler's The Vagina Monologues on the steps of the Michigan capital. The entire event serves to point up the Michigan state House debate of perhaps the most draconian anti-abortion bill anywhere in the nation, proposed by the Republican men of the House, who seemed determined not even to let women representatives speak in their own behalf.
I could go on and on about the utter folly of Republicans' determination to go forward with such blatantly unconstitutional bills in an election year, perhaps appeasing their base of maybe 30 or 40 percent of the male population, while alienating the entire veritable army of women, probably slightly over 50 percent. But I won't do that. Instead, I'll just quote the title of a book by Michigan Rep. Maxine Berman, D-West Bloomfield...
“The Only Boobs in the House are Men”.
