Shall we dance?

Gentlemen, take cover. It’s Leap Day (Sadie Hawkins Day in some traditions). That’s the one day in every four years that I get to stop sitting anxiously by the phone (in my customarily appealing and dependent feminine way), waiting for you to call, and I call you instead. Today, you’re the ones dancing backwards, although we won’t make you wear high heels (unless you really want to). Whee.

Lessee. What should I invite you to do? Dance with me? Whisk me off to a Moroccan beach? Peel me a grape? Wash the kitchen floor? Muck out the cat boxes? Oh, all of those, and then one more thing.

Recognize the full humanity of women, which means accepting that women are perfectly capable of making reasonable decisions about their bodies and their lives without state (or imperial) paternalism, and that given the freedom to do so, they have overwhelmingly made the wisest choices, which are definitely not always the same choices – they are the choices of the women on the spot. The liberation and empowerment of women has historically always meant a leap in social health. Support it however you can. (Rule 1 of support: listen and follow; don’t lead.)

In Canada this week and next, a dishonest attempt to separate women from their pregnancies and to establish and privilege the personhood of the fetus over the full humanity of the mother is underway. You can read about it here and here. You can sign the petition against it here. You can write to Stéphane Dion to ask him to whip his caucus from a handy form here. And you can talk or write to your MP.

And then we’ll boogie, as soon as pogge gets his blues blogging up tonight. We love you guys very much, in spite of everything, under the circumstances, all things considered, and weather permitting.

Thanks to fern hill at Bread and Roses for the alert.