Honored to have achieved the lofty ranks of Crank-in-Chief! The Honoroable Geezer-of-the-Day! His Crotchetiness!
Especially, when so exquisitely conveyed upon me by the FPA's Resident MadMan.
Now, I may die in peace.
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Before I do though, I feel I must explain to the now banned member and any other readers that might not have understood or took offense at my remarks, first, the definition of a Metaphor, then how my remarks were meant to be understood.
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According to Merriam-Webster, a metaphor is:
"A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy . . . "
They give the example of "Drowning in Money". Everyone understands that this is not a literal statement, and "drowning" in this context is a desirable experience, not a death by suffocation.
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In the USA during the 1960's (largely due to the invention of the birth control pill a decade earlier) women were finally becoming free from the historical role of motherhood as a career, whether desired or not. This gave birth (OOPS! another metaphor) to the Women's Movement, which had at it's spearhead (OOPS! another one) the women who chose to call themselves Feminists. A major concern at that time was access to higher education, equal access to the job market, and family planning.
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By working and having control of their own incomes, women's choices broadened explosively. Abortion was still illegal until 1973 when Roe vs. Wade became the law of the land. Before that, women had bad choices when pregnant without wanting to be, and feminst desires to control all aspects of their lives demanded a change. These modern women soon realized that they did not even understand their own physiology, and several "Taboo-Breaking" books burst on the scene, instructing women how to learn about their own bodies.
Here is link to an authoratative reference work on the subject:
http://www.womenshealthinwomenshands.org/PDFs/Immodest Witnessing[1].pdf
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When a new world suddenly opens up to a new group, a new generation, a new culture, wide-eyed expectations coupled with over-enthusiasm, often combines with ill-informed, overly simplied, false, or superstitious beliefs; this often leads the newbie to grave miscalculations. Like the time when I was 21 and a motorcyclist for less than a year, I first drove my 1971 Honda 750K-3 across country, then off a cliff on the Pacific Coast Highway at Big Sur. The classic case of a lack of experience meeting up with an unexpected, oncoming, speeding, Volkswagan Bug.
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They say that what does not kill you makes you stronger.
Anyway, I digress; back to the women.
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The desire to take control of their own reproductive lives led to groups of young women meeting up for the purpose of sitting in a circle on pillows on the floor with their pants off and knees in the air, passing around a hand mirror and a transparent speculum; and coming of age together. As you know, the lives of American women have changed dramatically and permanently for the better during the span of my life, and these influences will surely pass through to the rest of the world during the next such span, as the unstoppable result of the very universal communications network known as the internet, which you are currently using to read me.
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My admittedly brazen comparison should be obvious by now. My initial take on our petition-miester friend's scattered, inaccurate, paranoid assertions was that he might benefit from the same kind of self-examination as did our strident, emergent, feminist friends; elsewise, he too might soon find himself at 30 miles-per-hour, airborne, and with nothing but boulders and sage brush 200 feet below, between himself and the ocean; as once did I.
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AI