Women as livestock

South Dakota representative equates the ladies with the heifers.

Published January 8, 2006 8:46PM (EST)

Here's a great way to start the week: a report, via Pandagon, via Media Girl, that back in December, South Dakota state representative and pro-life activist Gordon Howie compared women's worth to that of cattle: it's all about the calves.

At a Chamber of Commerce crackerbarrel, Rapid City Journal reporter Celeste Calvitto quoted the representative as saying, "We place value on life in South Dakota, and even with a mother cow, as soon as you can demonstrate she is pregnant, an even higher value is placed just because she is pregnant."

Wow. What is there to say, really?

When asked by Calvitto about his column, Howie moved quickly to self-flagellation: "I said that, and it was a clumsy way to make a point. I probably deserve to be beat upon the head and shoulders for it." Or, instead, maybe you should actually just consider why it was a messed up thing to say.

Amanda at Pandagon offers this sage advice to all us heifers: "if you want to end up being a filet mignon instead of a cheeseburger at McDonald's, start getting knocked up already."


By Rebecca Traister

Rebecca Traister writes for Salon. She is the author of "Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women" (Free Press). Follow @rtraister on Twitter.

MORE FROM Rebecca Traister


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Broadsheet Love And Sex