Judie Brown
Stooping to honor Stopes
By Judie Brown
Something has definitely gone awry at Britain's Royal Mail headquarters. Though this news may be old to some, I just learned that one of its new postage stamps will bear a picture of the racist/eugenicist Marie Stopes.
Perhaps you have never heard of her before, but she was at the forefront of spreading the culture of death in the United Kingdom. She was a huge fan of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the women's rights pioneer who endeared herself to every aficionado of sexual perversion throughout the United States. From what I know of Stopes, she imitated Maggie right down the line.
Christopher Howse, a columnist for the British newspaper, the Telegraph, commented on the release of the Stopes stamp by telling his readers,
Worse is the 50p stamp, which celebrates the absurd Marie Stopes, under the banner of "family planning." It is hard to think the postage stamp committee was fully aware of the craziness of Miss Stopes's life and ideas. She believed that coal fires gave off beneficial rays and so she would sit naked before the fire, a practice she enjoined on the nation.
She "imagined conspiracies everywhere" according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "even in the court order to destroy her beloved chow, Wuffles, for attacking other dogs."
As for family planning, when her only son Harry announced his engagement to the daughter of the inventor Barnes Wallis, Marie Stopes reacted furiously, claiming that because the girl was short-sighted and had to wear spectacles, she must suffer from a hereditary defect.
According to another article, Stopes, clearly of the eugenics mindset, wrote a loving letter to Hitler, sent him a book of her sentimental poetry and was, in more ways than one, his ardent admirer. In fact, the writer, Gerald Warner, explains,
This keen advocate of eugenics and subverter of family life had a long career of activity in the politics of human reproduction. In 1919 she urged the National Birth Rate Commission to support mandatory sterilization of parents who were diseased, prone to drunkenness or of bad character. In 1920, in her book Radiant Motherhood, she demanded "the sterilization of those totally unfit for parenthood be made an immediate possibility, indeed made compulsory." Her 1921 slogan was: "Joyful and Deliberate Motherhood, A Safe Light in our Racial Darkness."
And finally, British pro-life leader Anthony Ozimic is quoted as follows: "Praising Marie Stopes as a woman of distinction should be as unacceptable as praising Adolf Hitler as a great leader."
So, the appropriate question to ask is simple: Why did Britain's Royal Mail choose to issue this stamp? Are they ignorant of this woman's notorious history, or are they attempting to rehabilitate her image by honoring her in a way that might invite people to study what she said?
Legitimizing a wayward, if not evil human being seems a rather strange way to acquaint postage stamp users with Britain's history and heroes. If you ask me, something is rotten somewhere, and it behooves us, at the very least, to register our concern. One way the Brits are being asked to protest is to follow the lead of Father Ray Blake, who announced on his internet blog, "I am afraid any items of post arriving here with this stamp on it will be returned to the sender. I hope other bloggers take this up, especially amongst the Jewish community." And well they should.
Americans can express their concern over this stamp by contacting the British Embassy:
Public Enquiries
Public Affairs Team
The British Embassy
Washington D.C.
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington D.C. 20008-3600
202-588-6500
e-mail: pat@britainusa.com
web site: http://www.britainusa.com
A final piece of news about Marie Stopes' namesake organization, Marie Stopes International: This organization is one of Britain's chief promoters of abortion. However, it seems that its campaign to push for "full access to legal, voluntary, safe and affordable abortions as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care around the world" has had little success thus far.
After a full year of signature collection, the best the Stopes operation could do was approximately 500 signatures, and according to LifeSiteNews.com, "A detailed look at the list of campaign supporters reveal that nearly 20% of the signatures are from employees of the three sponsoring organizations."
We hope this is a sign of things to come. Perhaps when the Stopes stamp becomes sufficiently controversial, it will simply be taken off the market.
© Judie Brown
Something has definitely gone awry at Britain's Royal Mail headquarters. Though this news may be old to some, I just learned that one of its new postage stamps will bear a picture of the racist/eugenicist Marie Stopes.
Perhaps you have never heard of her before, but she was at the forefront of spreading the culture of death in the United Kingdom. She was a huge fan of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the women's rights pioneer who endeared herself to every aficionado of sexual perversion throughout the United States. From what I know of Stopes, she imitated Maggie right down the line.
Christopher Howse, a columnist for the British newspaper, the Telegraph, commented on the release of the Stopes stamp by telling his readers,
Worse is the 50p stamp, which celebrates the absurd Marie Stopes, under the banner of "family planning." It is hard to think the postage stamp committee was fully aware of the craziness of Miss Stopes's life and ideas. She believed that coal fires gave off beneficial rays and so she would sit naked before the fire, a practice she enjoined on the nation.
She "imagined conspiracies everywhere" according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "even in the court order to destroy her beloved chow, Wuffles, for attacking other dogs."
As for family planning, when her only son Harry announced his engagement to the daughter of the inventor Barnes Wallis, Marie Stopes reacted furiously, claiming that because the girl was short-sighted and had to wear spectacles, she must suffer from a hereditary defect.
According to another article, Stopes, clearly of the eugenics mindset, wrote a loving letter to Hitler, sent him a book of her sentimental poetry and was, in more ways than one, his ardent admirer. In fact, the writer, Gerald Warner, explains,
This keen advocate of eugenics and subverter of family life had a long career of activity in the politics of human reproduction. In 1919 she urged the National Birth Rate Commission to support mandatory sterilization of parents who were diseased, prone to drunkenness or of bad character. In 1920, in her book Radiant Motherhood, she demanded "the sterilization of those totally unfit for parenthood be made an immediate possibility, indeed made compulsory." Her 1921 slogan was: "Joyful and Deliberate Motherhood, A Safe Light in our Racial Darkness."
And finally, British pro-life leader Anthony Ozimic is quoted as follows: "Praising Marie Stopes as a woman of distinction should be as unacceptable as praising Adolf Hitler as a great leader."
So, the appropriate question to ask is simple: Why did Britain's Royal Mail choose to issue this stamp? Are they ignorant of this woman's notorious history, or are they attempting to rehabilitate her image by honoring her in a way that might invite people to study what she said?
Legitimizing a wayward, if not evil human being seems a rather strange way to acquaint postage stamp users with Britain's history and heroes. If you ask me, something is rotten somewhere, and it behooves us, at the very least, to register our concern. One way the Brits are being asked to protest is to follow the lead of Father Ray Blake, who announced on his internet blog, "I am afraid any items of post arriving here with this stamp on it will be returned to the sender. I hope other bloggers take this up, especially amongst the Jewish community." And well they should.
Americans can express their concern over this stamp by contacting the British Embassy:
Public Enquiries
Public Affairs Team
The British Embassy
Washington D.C.
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington D.C. 20008-3600
202-588-6500
e-mail: pat@britainusa.com
web site: http://www.britainusa.com
A final piece of news about Marie Stopes' namesake organization, Marie Stopes International: This organization is one of Britain's chief promoters of abortion. However, it seems that its campaign to push for "full access to legal, voluntary, safe and affordable abortions as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care around the world" has had little success thus far.
After a full year of signature collection, the best the Stopes operation could do was approximately 500 signatures, and according to LifeSiteNews.com, "A detailed look at the list of campaign supporters reveal that nearly 20% of the signatures are from employees of the three sponsoring organizations."
We hope this is a sign of things to come. Perhaps when the Stopes stamp becomes sufficiently controversial, it will simply be taken off the market.
© Judie Brown
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
