I always dread March. Like so many other months, it’s tied to some forced obeisance at the altar of identity: Black History Month (February,) Latino History Month (October…they bumped the Italians,) Gay Pride Month (June) etc. and so forth ad nauseam. March, Women’s History Month, recognizes 50 percent of the population for somehow being special. And don’t get me wrong, we are special. We give life. We are the conduit through which God guarantees the survival of the human race. But virtually the only thing that we don’t commemorate during this eponymous month is mothers. Life. Women who give life.
No, we get women who were the first in this, and recognized in that, and tokens in space, and guest stars in science, and basically, special because they/we did something while having ovaries. The ones who actually are noteworthy for what they’ve done did it within the system, not by breaking it.
Sandra Day O’Connor was the first female Justice but never considered herself a role model because of gender (unlike her sister Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.) Madame Curie nabbed two Nobels in science, an unheard of feat, but wasn’t particularly obsessed with gender (which is to say, pas du tout) And the great Francesca Cabrini, the first American saint, was more attached to her identity as an Italian than as a woman (despite suggestions to the contrary in the magnificent new film about her.)
Women’s History Month has always been political too. Let’s be honest, the majority of the glowing profiles we see are about liberal women, or at least those who weren’t overtly conservative. I sometimes feel like telling the people who run the PR campaign that conservative teenagers exist, and they deserve to see themselves reflected in the proffered icons, but I know it’s useless. And I just suffer through the 31 days (of course they picked one of the longer months.)
But this year, I’m not going to just sit back, grin, and bear it. This month I’m going to make a point about what really matters. My friend Kristen posted something on Instagram that grabbed me by the throat, something I hadn’t considered up until now. There are women who are not able to celebrate anything this month. They are hostages of Hamas. Jewish women who have been raped, abused, starved and psychologically terrorized by Palestinian psychopaths. And we are ignoring them. There are few if any marches to free them. The only ones talking about them get drowned out by the uneducated ignoramuses screaming about rivers, seas and genocide. And many of that toxic crew are women.
So this month, I’m not celebrating the sisters. Until every Israeli hostage, every Jewish victim of an attempted ethnic cleansing is freed, I will shout back that NO woman deserves to be praised, honored or recognized.
Because until we bring them home, we have no right to feel good about the women we can see. The ones who matter are the ones left behind.
Bring them home.
Christine Flowers is an attorney and lifelong Philadelphian. @flowerlady61
Mic drop.
Well said Christine. I haven’t read your columns in a long time for good reason. Number one is because I don’t buy newspapers (Delco Times) anymore because they are nothing better than the roll of toilet paper in my bathroom. Secondly, print media is practically dead due to their hate speech. To those who profess to support the Palestinian dregs of the world I say go where the sun doesn’t shine. And that includes the “women” who say they represent us in Congress (can I squid, oops I mean squad) that support those dregs. Keep on going Christine.
More typical fake outrage from the ever-offended Christine. Like a dog with a bone, Christine gets hyper-focused on 1 particular outrage, unable to see anything peripherally and only able to see the one thing by which she is so incredibly outraged. In this case, women she likes, (Judeo / Christian) have been harmed by people she doesn’t like (Non Judeo / Christian) so all Jewish women are glorious and all Palestinian women are worthless and whatever horrible fate awaits them no matter how innocent they may be is ok with Chrissy. And until enough of them are massacred, starved and homeless, Christine won’t be happy. This goes without even bringing up her ridiculous hypocrisy of her rabid, unhinged pro-life position. To Christine, every zygote is sacred. She is so irrational, she doesn’t see the hypocrisy in her advocacy (even glee) at the slaughter of an indefinite number of Palestinian children. One can peruse her beyond-juvenile Twitter or Facebook feed to see her lash out at someone for even considering the idea of aborting a deformed fetus and then days or sometimes only moments later equally lashing out at someone who dares say that Palestinian children don’t deserve to be slaughtered. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Christine Flowers article if she didn’t squeeze in some of her delusional belief in the supernatural (“We are the conduit through which God guarantees the survival of the human race.”) This is the kind of thing you would expect to hear a mentally ill person mumbling to themselves on the street. At first glance, one would think the truly mindless, sophomoric, narcissistic selfies and bad lip-syncing (while carefully looking around to see if anyone is watching her) are the worst things about her. But nope.. If you waste enough time reading / listening to what she has to say, it becomes obvious that this is a disturbed human. And it has nothing to do with a simple “difference of opinion.” She is a walking, hypocritical simp who unfortunately has learned how to use media to amplify her rantings. Even sadder is that she has an audience. Granted, it’s small. But there are at least hundreds of people who see / read/ hear her and think “Yep. She’s pretty insightful.” These are the same people who can say “I like Trump because he tells the truth” with a straight face.
Plot twist! I didn’t not predict Margaret’s heel-turn into a Hamas apologist. So dramatic!
Ahh. Another mental deficient who can’t discern the difference between Hamas and an innocent Palestinian civilian. Even as a MAGA, don’t you get bored with just always being in lock-step with what your “team” tells you to say? Well, you would definitely appeal to Christine with that much myopia, so bravo I guess.