Hypocrisy on a Platter: Fun in Fosters

On August 24,  Fosters published an opinion piece by Ashley Pratte, the Executive Director of Cornerstone Policy Research. From Ms. Pratte's scattered, confusing, and somewhat dishonest opus:

In recent weeks there has been discussion around the topic of abortion as well as female objectification when recent sexting scandals were brought to light.

It is important to note that I myself am a single, twenty-four year old woman involved in activism in New Hampshire. On a regular basis I am subject to constant criticism because of my pro-life views.

I think I speak on behalf of all women when I say enough is enough. We need to stand up for ourselves and not be degrading to one another. While as females we may hold a variety of different opinions and beliefs there is one thing that binds us all and that is our gender. If we ever hope to be respected by men we must first respect ourselves.

Last week a known blogger here in the Granite State found it necessary to tweet the following, “@ashpratte @demchairs at least they won’t hit you. Or leer at your boobs. Or call you a “vagina”. They aren’t republican men after all.” Not only do I find this tweet to be horribly offensive but it depicts the culture that we are living in. Women are constantly the subject of degradation especially those in the political arena. 

Oh, some naughty blogger offended poor Ashley. 

That would be me. Fosters generously agreed to give me space, and they've just published  my rebuttal  to the horribly offended Ms. Pratte. Some highlights:

In April Rep. Peter Hansen of Amherst became world famous for calling women “vagina’s” (his grammatical error) in an internal NH House email. I tweeted Pratte to ask if this was an example of family values, since Hansen has a high rating on the Cornerstone legislative report card. No response.

In July, Representatives Jordan Ulery and Gary Hopper came under fire for their internal House emails, which included a cheesecake picture of a nubile young woman. There was no reason for the picture to be included, other than the reason that all women are familiar with — the one that involves drool. Both Ulery and Hopper have high Cornerstone ratings. I tweeted Ms. Pratte to ask about her silence on the subject. No response.

On Aug. 5, we learned that a Republican Super Pac registered in Nashua was hosting a video game called Slap Hillary. What could be funnier than slapping women? This is certainly a novel way of showing respect to a former First Lady, US Senator, and Secretary of State. This was an opportunity for Ms. Pratte to express her concerns about respect for women. She didn’t take it. 

On Aug. 6, in an attempt at snark, Ms. Pratte tweeted out, “What an exciting new follow @DemChairs.” For those not conversant in twitspeak, that means that DemChairs had just opted to follow Pratte on Twitter. My “horrifying and offensive” tweet was in response to that. I tweeted “At least they won’t hit you. Or leer at your boobs, or call you a “vagina” They aren’t Republican men after all.”

I combined those three incidents of disrespect that Pratte had intentionally ignored into one tweet. “Hit you” was a reference to Slap Hillary. “Stare at your boobs” referred to Ulery and Hopper’s soft-core porn, and “call you a vagina” was a direct reference to Rep. Hansen. All are items she’d gotten tweets from me about, which makes her slow ride to horribly offended seem a bit contrived.

It is difficult to take Pratte’s finger waving about respect seriously. She is saying is that in order to show her proper respect as a woman, I must refrain from commenting as she ignores GOP men who are degrading women. She wants me to ignore her hypocrisy. 

Sadly for Miss Ashley, that is a thing I cannot do. 

I mentioned dishonesty. At the end of Ms. Pratte's op-ed, she gives a big shout out to Cornerstone, yet fails to mention her connection to the organization. She's the Executive Director. 

In making this a big public thing, Ms. Pratte has succeeded in exposing her poor reading and writing skills, and put her hypocrisy on a platter for all of us to admire. 

Thanks, Ashley!