Readers React: The ‘war on women’ is real, and women are fighting back

To the editor: For opinion page demagoguery, it’s tough to top Jonah Goldberg. He rattles off cherry-picked facts and half-truths, leavened with cheap one-liners, in his effort to downplay the war on women. Problem is, Goldberg ignores crucial battles still being fought. (“What ‘war on women’?,” Op-Ed, Sept. 22)

His haughty harangue omits, for example, the fact that our male-dominated Congress and Supreme Court have impaired women’s access to various reproductive health options. Men, meanwhile, continue to enjoy a full spectrum of prescription medication to help them stay sexually active. He also overlooks the glaring gender disparity among corporate chief executives. Yet he laughably avers, “There’s a vast feminist industrial complex that is addicted to institutionalized panic.”

Goldberg’s column amounts to a patronizing pat on feminism’s shoulder, in essence saying, “Now, now, ladies, it’s all in your heads.” No, sir, it isn’t. Walk a few miles in our shoes, and then get back to us.

Devra Mindell, Santa Monica

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To the editor: I have seldom been as incensed as I am now after reading Goldberg’s column. He rattles off statistics without giving citation, while an article in the Calendar section noted that women only made up 30% of the new television programs.

To address his larger point, when I was in college in the 1970s, men used every trick in the book, cajoling, begging, humiliating, threatening or even raping to get their sexual needs met on a regular basis.

At every job that I had — from restaurants where I was greeted in a sexually crude way, to the Roman Catholic archdiocese — men felt entitled to comment, grab and take whatever liberties they felt they could get away with.

From my work as a psychologist with young women today, I can tell that not much has changed.

Little was reported then, and thank goodness women are finally starting to feel empowered enough to say, “Enough.” Maybe this isn’t a war, but it’s about time it’s become a battle.

Maya S. Ziegler, Newport Beach

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To the editor: The real war on women is being fought in red states, where Republican governors and state legislatures have relentlessly gone after women’s health clinics that provide vital services such as cervical and breast cancer screening along with family planning.

Some lawmakers and even governors in the party that professes to oppose intrusive government have called for mandating invasive ultrasounds before abortions can occur. What hypocrisy.

Edward S. Pope, Irvine

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To the editor: Tell me, does Goldberg walk around with his fingers in his ears? How else can he imply that women have it made?

Just one example: He must have missed all the recent news about professional football players who beat their partners and the discovery that the NFL management considers marijuana use a worse offense.

Spousal abuse, access to contraception and abortion, pay equity, rape and sexual assault, discrimination and harassment at work — these are all problems that women continue to deal with. And women in other countries have far worse problems: genital mutilation, a lack of access to education, child marriages, so-called honor killings and more.

Still, I am intrigued about Goldberg’s revelation of a “vast feminist industrial complex.” That was news to me. Does he have contact info? I’d like to join.

Laura Sines, Los Angeles

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