Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Not all hope is lost in NC! This kid is terrific!

Phyllis Schlafly Gets Schooled By A Twelve Year-Old

One pint-sized can of rhetorical whup-ass
OK, not just any twelve year-old. Those of you who follow the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina may remember Madison Kimrey, the twelve year-old who stood in front of Governor McCrory's mansion and spoke up for voter rights, and who McCrory insulted by having an aide bring out cookies. This will refresh your memories:

Now she's done it again, this time in print. Her target is Phyllis Schlafly, that maven of "conservative womanhood" whose latest editorial stated that women needed to be paid less so they could get men.

Madison is having none of it.

In an open letter, she very eloquently defines what feminism is.
http://samuel-warde.com/2014/04/open-letter-phyllis-schlafly-12-year-old-madison-kimrey-guest-post/

You MUST click the link and read the whole thing, but I'll give a precis and some highlights.

She begins by attempting to find something they both have in common so she can speak to Ms. Schlafly on equal terms:

I’ve been thinking about how I can explain what feminism means to my generation in a way you might not have thought of before. I wanted to try to work from something we have in common, and it’s been kind of hard to find something I have in common with you. Then, it came to me. I bet you wear a bra.

Using the context of shopping for a foundation garment, Miss Kimrey very clearly shows what true equality is.

I don’t know where you shop for your bras, but I bet you have a favorite one. I bet you have that one bra that’s comfortable and goes with just about everything. I bet the last thing you were thinking about when you bought that bra was what a man would think about it.

Well, making choices in our lives as young women is kind of like finding that favorite bra. Not all of us are going to fit into the same kind and not all of us are going to find the same style attractive. We all deserve to have as many choices as possible, and as women, we shouldn’t be judging the choices made by other women. Choosing a bra is a very personal choice and is none of anyone else’s business. We should be, as women, looking for ways we can expand the choices both for ourselves and other women, just as Megan Grassell did when she started Yellowberry. Equality doesn’t mean women will all make the same choice. It means women will be treated the same no matter what choices they make.

Then she goes in for the kill:

What you’re doing, Ms. Schlafly, is contributing to something very disturbing I see happening with some of the teenage girls I know. At a time in their lives when they should be free, independent, and exploring and preparing for the possibilities they have in the future, many of them are worried about getting or keeping a boyfriend. There are young women my age who are extremely smart but they hide it because they get messages from women like you that if they are too smart or successful, boys won’t like them. They get messages from women like you that pleasing a man should be their number one goal.

And that's not even the last part. By the time it's done, the mic is dropped, and Schlafly is left, a quivering mass, on History's Ashbin of Irrelevancy.

I'm voting for Madison Kimrey for President in 2040.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/19/1293216/-Phyllis-Schlafly-Gets-Schooled-By-A-Twelve-Year-Old