Wayne Lusvardi, semi-professional idiot October 25, 2008

From blogger Wayne Lusvardi, also known as “The Pasadena Pundit,” comes a real gem of an article: No on Prop 8 is Anti-Feminist. Wayne, as you’ll immediately see, is both a champion of feminism and a brilliant scholar:



The word ‘marriage’ comes from the Latin word ‘mater’ for mother.

Great point! Except….it doesn’t. It comes from Old French (marier, “to marry”). He’s thinking of “matrimony.”

And ‘mater’ is what matters in marriage. Marriage is unavoidably built around female sexuality and procreation. Marriage can only concern a relationship to a woman for procreation. It is the opposite of concubinage, which is an involuntary relationship with a man of higher status in a traditional society.

All right, first, can we get T-shirts that say “MATER IS WHAT MATTERS”?

Second, let’s take a moment to marvel at the egregious, oblivious sexism in this paragraph. “Marriage is unavoidably built around female sexuality”? Wayne, that’s not true, but if it were, you could try not to sound quite so bummed about it. Check out that third sentence, too, which quietly assumes that heterosexual marriage is exclusively the domain of—guess who!—men (who, in their enlightened feminist benevolence, generally opt nowadays to possess us one at a time rather than keeping entire harems).

A social order that doesn’t protect a woman from rape or incest or concubinage can’t give women freedom to control who the father(s) of their children are, or their own bodies, or even their own health. Marriage is the structure of this freedom of choice for women in a modern society. Women’s freedom to control access to their body for procreation is what modern marriage is all about. Without that there is no societal or religious basis for laws to protect marriage, particularly gay marriage.

Aren’t you glad Wayne is such an ardent supporter of women’s rights to control their own health and their own bodies? I think we can safely assume that he’s on the front lines of the fight to keep abortion and contraception legal and available, to offer comprehensive sex education in all our public schools, to protect rape victims and toughen laws against rapists, and to provide universal health care to all Americans…….oh. He thinks a husband is all we need? Well, I guess he should know, being a man and all.

Defining marriage down to a mere contract between companions or non-procreative sex partners will only end up harming all women for if everyone can marry, no one needs to and it becomes meaningless.

Yeah, yeah, the magical hedge of protection. We already know. Move on.

Women will ultimately suffer most. Gay marriage robs something that belongs exclusively to women.

Fallopian tubes? Kotex? Supermarket Sweep? I give up.

Traditional man-woman marriage is not anti-gay, it is pro-feminine. Same sex marriage is anti-feminist.

Let’s review.

THINGS THAT ARE FEMINIST: All straight marriages, including those that involve spousal abuse and domestic violence; the use of “feminine” as a synonym for “feminist”; men who tell women what’s feminist and what isn’t.

THINGS THAT ARE ANTI-FEMINIST: Lesbians.

Any questions?