I’ve been asked how I decide on a blog topic. Sometimes, when I don’t have an idea, I toggle through fonts, thinking, I need a font that feels creative.
My go-to font is “Avenir.” I’m using it now, but a few minutes ago, I tried Ayuthaya. I think my Squarespace website automatically resorts to Times New Roman, or some boring sort, so if you are curious, you will check out the fonts I’m mentioning. I decided against Ayuthaya. I jumped to K2D.
Oh, gosh, no.
Niramit medium? No.
Would Nanum Gothic do the trick? I like it. I thought about using it. I thought about possible blog topics such as the ladybug resting on a rhododendron leaf that I saw recently. She was tiny. Shiny. Beautiful. She was alone. Then there was yesterday’s experience of helping my friendly crow recover a peanut from a spot it couldn’t reach; or the latest of Scooter’s antics. I could choose one of those topics I thought as I left my desk, moved to the kitchen, and slipped past my husband who stood at the counter reading newspapers. I needed to warm my coffee.
“Look at this,” he said. He handed me a David Horsey editorial cartoon from the Seattle Times. It pictured a clever set of lyrics about forest-fire smoke in the air. “Smokn’ USA” set to the tune of Beach Boys “Surfin’ USA.” Fun to see, but nothing to write about. That is, nothing until I happened to turn over the clipping, and saw this:
“ERA,” I said. “Equal Rights Amendment? Wasn’t that big in the ‘70s? Is there an article that goes with this?”
He fished through pages set aside for recycling, found the article for me. I heated my coffee and returned to my desk. And to Avenir font. That, my friends, is how this blog got started.
I remember the ‘70s. I was a stay-at-home mom with lots to do; as was Phyllis Schlafly, the mother of six, who called defeating the Amendment a hobby. A woman’s job was in the home as wife and mother, said she, the feminine fighter, as she traveled the country working behind the scenes and in front of the camera. “The women of this country don’t want to be lowered to equality,” Schlafly said in ‘73.
She was a privileged woman, as I recall. She enjoyed what few wives and mothers did: private schools, a law degree, a run for congress, wealth, help in the home, Think-tank membership, powerful political connections, and a supportive husband whose permission was all she needed to pursue her goals. (The HULU series, “Mrs. America,” staring Cate Blanchett, tells the Schlafly story.)
Interestingly, the Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted in 1923 by suffragist, Alice Paul. She believed it would guarantee equal justice for all citizens. The amendment read:
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Schlafly was not wrong in believing that it threatened to deliver equality. And I say, tongue touching cheek, Who wants to be lowered to that?
By the way, not that this blog needs more words, you might be interested in knowing that Alice Paul paid dearly for what was considered defiance. To break the spirit of her growing crowd of supporters, Alice was arrested, tried, and sentenced to seven months in prison. Solitary confinement.
I remember Schlafly’s 1970s nemesis, Betty Friedan, who at the time was simply too aggressive, too insightful, a fiery radical in her time, too strong an advocate of equality between the sexes. She did help assure that the Amendment was constitutionally warranted, and much to her credit, by 1973 it was close to being ratified. But Schlafly’s cool fear tactics and her smart acronym, S.T.O.P. ERA (Stop Taking Our Privileges), turned the tide.
“She was a biological determinist who thought that the physiological differences between men and women should be the primary determiner of their roles. She advocated for what she thought was a privileged position for women in society." Men are rightfully more equal. (Professor Brandy Faulkner, Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences.)
In the ‘70s, I was a lecturer for an international Bible Study organization. In my early years with that organization, believe it or not, when I was at a lectern, I was not allowed to wear pants. Men wear pants. I did have to wear a hat – A woman teaching should have her head covered. This was clearly scriptural.
Well into the ‘70s, the fundamentalist church that raised me confidently named sin: gambling, card playing, dancing, alcohol drinks, swearing, smoking, sex before marriage, divorce, homosexuality, women challenging male leadership, women dressing suggestively, mixed racial marriages, women working a man’s job. I don’t remember inequality being mentioned.
A man who once attended one of my lectures told me that I was a very good speaker. Then he said, “Too bad you’re a woman.” He was attempting to be kind.
And then, there was Betty Friedan and the ERA.
Still with me? Jump with me from 1973 to 2023.
I had a hot coffee cup in my hand. I still held the ERA clipping but what was this picture, on page 4A?
“Southern Baptists vote to expand limits” Seattle Times, Thursday, June 15, 2023
Isn’t “expand limits” an oxymoron? Five Southern Baptist churches (one being the massive Saddleback Church in Southern California) had been expelled this year from the convention because an Amendment (Oh my, an Amendment!) to their constitution declares that churches must have, “only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by scripture.” Two of those churches, one being Saddleback, sought readmittance. The men and women delegates at the Annual Convention voted. Requests denied.
But wait! Who is that woman in the picture? Should she be voting on leadership issues?
Am I saber-rattling? Possibly.
I am, by upbringing, by choice, by years of teaching Bible, and by a Master’s degree in Theology, a Christian. The history of exclusion based on generational readings is very familiar to me.
Evangelicals now dance and drink and play cards and read comics on Sundays and go to movies and actually have more pre-marital pregnancies than the non-religious. Some evangelicals bless same-sex marriage and believe in evolution and are comfortable with four views of atonement drawn from the one New Testament and believe that Catholics and Gays can be Christians and women can wear pants and teach men in seminaries and universities and preach hatless (and they do preach), and some Christian women hold paid positions in some denominational hierarchies and in political hierarchies and do rightfully judge men and women from even the most supreme court.
The lines that once made men fighter pilots and women nurses, men sports commentators and women nursery workers, the lines that determined who wore pastels and who wore ties and who went to the office and who stayed home and who played instruments in the symphony and who made the bread—those lines have been drastically blurred.
By the way, in January 2020, Virginia became the required 38th state to ratify the ERA. The needed count was met. It isn’t yet the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It may never be. The power to make that happen lies with Congress.
Now, one more thing. I hope you can stick with me.
A Gay Pride banner is displayed this month at the lobby of the apartment complex where I live. This pleases some of my neighbors, and not without reason, it troubles others. I get it.
Why pay attention to a woman’s movement that began in 1923?
Why is attention given to some minority groups making headway into equality? You know, like flying this flag.
Gay Pride flag
Do this. Picture a litter of Golden Retriever puppies. They are all dog, equally so. Not one of them should be singled out as special. Right?
But what if that one, the little guy afraid to move around much, the one who got soundly thrashed by the ticked-off family cat; what if that pup with the abscessed cheek, and torn ear . . . what if that one finally is recovering? We want to celebrate. That one, like Alice Paul, has had some hurtful experiences. We applaud recovery.
Throughout history, worldwide, majorities have sometimes (oftentimes) been brutal toward minorities: Indigenous peoples, mentally/physically disabled or disfigured people, Gypsies, Jews, Blacks, Asians, Intellectuals, women, girls, non-heterosexuals, religious/political minorities. You may be thinking beyond my list.
Personally, when I see the wounded recovering, especially if it was my family cat that did the wounding, I want to celebrate recovery. I’m glad to be a woman ordained even though some people I love think it wrong. I’m pleased that my granddaughter can openly love her girlfriend. Hooray for science helping us understand the difference between sexual behavior and sexual orientation. I’ll fly a flag for understanding and kindness.
Ever wonder how a blog gets started? Sometimes it’s little more than needing to warm coffee and seeing a headline.
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