Allen West, the Republican congressman endorsed by Sarah Palin, has asserted what women’s roles in politics should be: Breeding warriors.
Anything that doesn’t involve breeding is anathema, which of course includes Planned Parenthood, West announced in a recent speech before a conservative women’s group in his home state of Florida.
We need you to come in and lock shields to strengthen up the men that will go into the fight for you – to let these other women know, on the other side, these Planned Parenthood women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women who have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness, to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient. That’s what we need you to do. Because if we don’t, then the debt will continue to grow.
We leave it to you to ascertain the connection between the debt and controlling one’s own fertility. What’s clear is that West’s extended metaphor of Spartan women was rather selective.
His reference to shields began with Spartan women who, he said, “But when you understood what made the Spartan men strong, it was the Spartan women. Because the Spartan women at the age of nine gave up their male sons.” And so on until you get to the Spartan women’s urging their sons to either come back with their shields or borne by it.
Of course, in addition to their warrior-like capabilities, Spartans were also famous for their alleged propensity for anal sex, which is neither procreative nor a favorite activity, at least in public, of most Republicans. You see it referenced in Aristophanes and in Urban Dictionary alike. But who cares about history? It’s only Congress.
Rep. West: Planned Parenthood “Neutering American Men,” Making Men “Subservient” [Political Correction]