Biden's "War on Women"???

 

My friend Diane sent me an article she noticed on Yahoo! News and asked, "Your opinion, please?"

The article turned out to be from the National Review.  Yikes!  My father used to subscribe to that right-wing journal back in the 1970s when it was supporting Richard Nixon.

This article is headlined, "Joe Biden's War on Women."  Alarming, right?  

I love a detective assignment, so I jumped right in.

Here's my reply.

Hi Diane--

Thanks for challenging me with this classic puzzle.  Here's how to figure it out:

1) You start out by remembering that Yahoo! News is just reprinting articles from various newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.  (I'd say don't even look at Yahoo! News because half the articles might be from weird sources.)

2) Next you look at where this article came from: the National Review.  You google it, check its front page, maybe look at Wikipedia on it.  You check out the headlines on its website.  https://www.nationalreview.com/

3) When you do that, you see "Joe Biden's COVID Deceptions" and "The Absurd Calls to Shut Down Fox News."  You think: hmmm...Joe Biden seems to be unusually blunt and honest, according to newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and New York Times and Washington Post.  You think, shutting down Fox News is fine with me.  So you start to distrust anything National Review writes.

4) You read the article "Joe Biden's War on Women" and notice that it's mostly about transgender issues.  It's not really about women's rights to equal pay or child care or anything important to you.

5) You notice lines like " the transgender lunacy of Democratic radicals."  You think, wait a minute!  I'm a Democrat.  And I'm sympathetic to someone who thinks they identify more with the opposite sex than the sex they were born.  What's wrong with respecting them as the identity they feel they are, especially if they've had surgeries and take hormones?  You say, I'm not sure that the Democrats' positions on transgender are "lunacy."

6) You notice at the end that this article is trying to address a real issue beneath its anti-Biden, anti-Democrat hoopla--whether a trans woman (born male) can compete as a woman in sports.  You say to yourself, yes, that doesn't sound fair.  Even if she's taking female hormones to be female, she may have a stronger build and stronger muscles and win in competitions against XX women.

7) You notice that there is a bill called the Equality Act that passed in the House of Representatives last year, and this year it could pass in the Senate too.  You decide to research this act and figure out what it's about and whether you favor it.  You go to a newspaper or website you trust and see what they say about the Equality Act and transgender issues.  For example, you could go to the website of Christian Feminism Today.

8) You notice that the writer claims that if the Equality Act becomes law, terrible things will happen:

The order is just a warm-up act to the Equality Act, which passed the House last year and which the Biden administration has promised to pass and get signed into law within the first 100 days. If this were to happen, it would redefine sex in the law as a formal matter, and make the destruction of women’s sports, spaces, and hard-won rights complete.  

9) You realize that whatever happens with how to handle a few transgender people in sports, it's probably not going to destroy women's sports and other "hard-won rights" of women.  

10)  So you either ignore the scary headline "Joe Biden's War on Women" and move on to read the next article, or you start to tell your friends about this article and the lies of the National Review.  You find out whether other Republicans or Democrats are saying this, and you write to your representatives stating your support for the Equality Act.  You email your friends--and family if that's safe!

11)  You go to a church that has 1-2 transgender members and ask them what they think about the sports situation and the Equality Act.  If you have time, you get to know a transgender person.

12)  And you consult with friends you trust--like me!  You did that right, lol.

Lots of love,

Anne

 

Note: this kind of analysis of news articles or news websites or broadcasts is called media literacy.  It's now taught in college as part of courses in critical thinking.  You also check what organization owns the website or newspaper or magazine, and you check who supplies the money for this organization or website. how new or old it is, etc.

To test your new skills in media literacy, go work on any article in The Epoch Times, a newspaper and website subtitled "Truth and Tradition."