Excuse me for being a girl

Representative John Boehner, Speaker of the House of representatives and therefore one of the most powerful men in the United States and the world, belongs to a golf club that not only will not admit women, it won’t even allow them on the grounds.

It’s so bad that years ago, when a small plane carrying a woman crashed near the 18th hole, employees quickly escorted her to the front gate and sent her on her way.

I guess that shouldn’t surprise me, given the Republican party’s attitude toward women in general – that we shouldn’t be allowed to prevent pregnancy or decide what to do about it, but after we give birth, we certainly shouldn’t receive any assistance raising or educating the children we were forced to bear.

But it does. It is 2012 and I do find it shocking that, simply because of the arrangement and function of my genitalia, I would be denied entry to a club, and that, furthermore, the Speaker of the House thinks that should not be a problem. Memo to the Speaker: exclusion is a problem here in the land of the free and home of the brave where we are supposed to have equality for everyone.

Oh, calm down, little lady, it’s just a golf club that you don’t want to go to, anyway! Why so upset?

I imagine that if I had a club where people at the highest levels of power discussed issues of vital importance to our country in a congenial atmosphere of camaraderie but I decided to exclude people with naturally Oompa-Loompa orange skin, Mr. Boehner might change his tune.

If Mr. Boehner wanted to chat with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over a round of golf, he couldn’t take her to this club. It’s just galling that he associates with people who, for one reason or another, for some reason find women so objectionable that they can’t even swing a golf club in their presence.

This is part of their makeup, part of what is so vitally important to them that a plane crash victim had to be hustled off the property rather than given a comfy chair and a glass of water while she settled her nerves.

I have personally argued (somewhat tongue in cheek, and with a great deal of back-and-forth) that men shouldn’t be allowed at BlogHer. As the member of an oppressed group (and if you don’t think women are still oppressed, try being one), I felt that we needed a place to be open and flower on our own. But you know what – I have changed my mind. I feel like BlogHer has become such a place of power for women that no matter how many men come, the girls will be all right.

Meanwhile, back in Boehner’s world, men still control government, business, banking, the military, the media and most of the money. I wonder when they will feel they are safe enough to let women in?

I’m ready to kick discrimination in the nuts.