"no rights to women" posters

It was only in 1965 that the Federal government in the US took steps (via the Voting Rights Act) to assert the principle that black people had the right to vote in every state of the US.

That Menarebetterthanwomen site is hilarious. Dick Masterson indeed!

Found first link really interesting, especially where he's discussing their 'key beliefs'. He says they oppose 'the feminist hatred of men'. I'm still trying to get my head around what feminism is, but it seems to me we're fighting for some of the same things bizzarely enough, for example not presuming women to be the best caregivers, and 'looking at the individual and not judging by gender'.

Sorry if that doesn't make sense or typos, have sleeping baby on lap!

That pamphlet is really shocking. Giving women the vote might result in evil occuring???

:o vesuvia

"BECAUSE 80% of the women eligible to vote are married and can only double or annul their husband?s votes."

Do you think they realised this makes NO sense whatsoever as an argument?

"BECAUSE in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule."

Oh no! Don't let women vote! Because if you let women vote, that might, just might have the unexpected result of affecting who gets elected.

Reading those reasons for denying the vote to women leaves me with the impression that anti-feminist reasoning has a very long history but has failed to improve the quality of its arguments, which were pathetically weak from the start.

Mind you, by that time, women in their nearest neighbour, NZ, had been voting for a decade.

Well said Senator Stewart!

Gosh, I never knew Switzerland was still arguing the right to vote for women in 1971!! Eye opening.

In preparation for teaching (uni) I stumbled across a Hansard (Australian parliament) debate about why women should/should not get the vote. It was so interesting (and from 1902).

Arguments Against
Sir Josiah Symon (South Australia)
"My own belief is that woman is at her noblest and best as a wife and mother. I think that the great majority, I will not say of the best women, but of women generally, are content to guide the house, the child to teach, to be an example to their children and the joy of their husband's home. I feel that the introduction of political debate - I put it that way - into the ambit of their service is overloading them, and is certainly not promoting women's destiny at its best. She has an ample mission and an ample field outside and above all politics ... politics means a service to the State. I think women might be quite good as servants to the State, and quite as effective in their by brightening up their homes, by making them happy and attractive for their husbands, and by brining up their children as well ordered and useful citizens of the Commonwealth."

and ...

Senator John Downer (South Australia)
"The conclusion I have come to is that, except in the case of a woman who has some means and property of her own which gives her an individuality, women vote just as their husbands, fathers, brothers or sweethearts vote; and if a woman does not happen to have any of these relations, she votes just as the other man, whoever he may be, who has the greatest control over her, votes."

but then, a shining light ...

Senator Stewart (Queensland)
"The very men who say that giving a woman the vote would degrade her, have not the slightest compunction about making her a drudge. They do not regard it as degrading to black a man's boots. Oh no! It is not degrading for her to scrub a floor or to be turned into a stuffy kitchen to cook for a man, or to be put into a factory where she will have to work nine or ten hours a day for wretched pittance. None of these things will degrade a woman, but to give her a voice in the government of this country will degrade her! ... I pity the man who thinks that women are stupid. He cannot have much to do with them."

I wish Senator Stewart was my great-great grandfather!!

ullainga, that disgraceful situation about Appenzell canton that you've described strikes me as a good example of how women have had to fight for the vote, instead of having it granted by benevolent men in power, acting out of the kindness of their hearts.

It seems that the Appenzell male-dominated establishment only granted voting rights to women very begrudgingly through gritted teeth when a higher authority forced them.
What a dilemma those men faced:
"Do we tell a few (probably male) constitutional specialists to waste their extremely valuable time asking them to change a few words on a piece of paper?"
or
"Do we give voting rights to the other half of the adults in the canton?"

I don't think the Supreme Court covered themselves in glory either, because they appear only to have started caring after the women took action.

Thanks so much for the link to those posters. Completely shocking and eye-opening. Especially the dummy with the vicious insect on it. How insidiously dangerous we are to our children when we have political equality! I never knew!

"Women ruined gayness"
"The Challenger explosion probably happened because there was a woman aboard"

I love to see such well-reasoned lines of argument!

Btw I took my baby with me when I voted, thus ensuring that exercising my democratic prerogative didn't interfere with (clearly) my fundamental child-rearing duties. Does that make me less threatening to the world order?

Yuno

That site is definitely a joke. Whether the people making it or reading it are in on that joke is another matter

Is that site a joke?

I assumed it was, but then I kept reading and they take the joke quite far...

Was this website the inspiration for james may's new series I wonder?

LOL Jess that site. My favourite is the No.1 reason why men are better than women;

1. Men have penises

When it comes to being a man, being quick at identifying problems is tantamount to fixing them. In fact it?s tantamount-ier. Having a penis ? in other words looking like a man and having man parts ? is a man?s way of telling other men, ?Hey. Look at me. I?m a man. I won?t fuck up whatever it is that you?re trying to do. If you need some help, maybe ask me and I?ll see if I can lend a man-hand. It?s the least I could do to be fucking courteous.?

I've not laughed so hard in a long time.

Thanks for the link jess. It's all a bit sad really isn't it

I stumbled across this delightful website the other day. I couldn't bring myself to read more than a couple of sentences.

Men are better than women

ullainga - wrote "vesuvia, I just find it quite ironic that a Swedish dad would go to Switzerland to fight for his rights to raise his kids (for the reasons mentioned in my previous post)"

Indeed it is ironic. I take your point absolutely. I was thinking more along the lines of anti-feminism knowing no borders.