Sexist Bedfellows

Women today are under assault from Republican anti-abortion fanatics. And, women today, conversely, continue to be overly protected by divorce court judges nationwide who almost always find for the woman in custody and other matters regardless of the circumstances.

Both positions are extraordinarily sexist. Deciding whether a woman may have an abortion (a decision mostly by men) is as sexist as it comes. Favoring women over men in divorce is both sexist and paternalistic, even when the judge is a woman. They are one and the same, and they are from both the right and the left.

One group seeks to take away rights of women guaranteed by the Constitution and the other “protects” women from men. Both are saying in one voice that women are unequal and unable to make it on their own.

Both positions are knee jerk reaction by people who would never claim to common cause, yet they both really care not one iota for the rights of women. In fact, when judges find against men in divorce courts, they are as sexists as the extremists.

It is interesting, but at the same time sad, that sexism against women harbors such strange bedfellows. Neither group - those on the right and divorce court judges mostly on the left - would be likely to admit to being sexist. But they are and women suffer as a result, and men do at times as well.