The battle axes were sharpening their blades March 20. Their objective: how to cut themselves a bigger piece of the victimization pie. Translation: how to get their hands on more of our money.
The room quickly filled with all the usual suspects, sporting various tattoos and flesh-piercing silver. From the looks of the place, I thought I'd just walked into the "Cantina Scene" in Star Wars.
Guys - these were the women your mother didn't have to warn you about.
Collected at the National Organization for Women meeting were representatives from the Lawyers' Guild, the Socialist Workers' Party, the Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Alliance, the General "Humanitarian" Movement, the National Association of Social Workers, the AFL/CIO and, of course, NOW at the University of Houston and from other chapters. Also present were members of the Sierra Club, an environmentalist wacko organization, and the Irish Unity Committee, supporters of the Irish Republican Army. And rounding out the club were an assortment of geriatric hippies, longing to relive the glory days of free love and flag burnings.
The main attraction was the appearance of the president of NOW, Patricia Ireland. She's been stomping across the United States talking to "progressives" (left-wing radical Socialists) in her attempt to round up local resistance against the conservative tide which has swept the Congress and state legislatures - and to sell her book for $24 a pop.
Patsy was elected to be president of NOW in 1991. She was brought up to lead the movement out of the doldrums that have persisted in the radical Feminist Movement. Growing numbers of women are finding that radical feminism and the demonization of men have gotten them nothing but more work on top of the hectic jobs of being wives and mothers. A second reason Patsy was brought on board was NOW needed a new type of leader. Her predecessor Molly Yard and the women before her were the epitome of the nickname "Old Battle Axe."
Patsy, on the other hand, is a trained lawyer. With this training she's learned the arts of tactfulness and rhetoric - although not necessarily convincing rhetoric. Therefore, you're not going to find her to be a firebrand like her predecessors. You're not going to hear her pronounce how she will "rip down this f***ing patriarchy" like Gloria Steinem, editor of Ms. magazine (which, at last report, couldn't pay its writers). Her main contribution to NOW has been to adorn its posters and flyers with a softer, kinder face to mask the hard-core organization.
Having a good time at Patsy's expense can be fun, but never underestimate her. She's as tough and steely-eyed as they get. Under her leadership, NOW orchestrated the fight against Clarence Thomas and his nomination to the Supreme Court. When Anita Hill didn't have a case and wanted to back down, it was NOW that pushed her to continue.
NOW pushed public opinion to have Sen. Bob Packwood resign from the Senate for sexually harassing women who had worked for him. As a conservative and a gentleman who respects the gentle flower of femininity, I'm glad to see Packwood back in Oregon. A man such as he does not deserve a leadership position in the Republican Party - a party where honor and dignity actually mean something.
NOW also worked to discredit Paula Jones and her sexual harassment case against President Clinton. In a press release, NOW stated, "President Clinton did not commit sexual harassment against Paula Jones, because she said 'no.'" Now I'm glad that he did stop for the sake or Ms. Jones and for the office of the presidency.
Obviously, a double standard has risen. If you're a conservative and you get into trouble, "We, the NOW gang, will run you out on a rail." On the other hand, if you're a liberal senator from Massachusetts and you make a waitress sandwich out of a young girl in a restaurant in Washington, D.C., with Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd from Connecticut, we'll look the other way.
But to all the perplexed who thought that NOW was dedicated to serving and advocating the rights of women, one must understand that NOW is not representative of most women. It isn't even representative of most people who call themselves Democrats, for one reason or another.
The upper ranks of NOW are made up of a bastion of elitist women whose main concern has nothing to do with advancing women's causes, but are solely there to advance a liberal agenda and engage in the acquisition of power - whether the American people agree with what they espouse or not.
Wolf is vice president of the
College Republicans at UH.