• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bitterroot Star

Bitterroot Valley's best source for local news!

  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Classifieds
    • Buildings
    • Farm & Garden
    • For Rent
    • For Sale
    • Free
    • Help Wanted
    • Real Estate
    • Sales/Auctions
    • Services
  • Legal Notices
  • Obituaries
  • Calendar
  • Services
    • Letter to the Editor
    • Place Classified Ad
    • Submit a Press Release
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
  • Subscribe

Women are not chattel

May 18, 2022 by Guest Post

by Linda Schmitt, Corvallis

Montana women are not chattel.

This is not a state for wimps. Freedom and independence are deeply held values, along with family bonds and reverence for God. Where does Gianforte get the idea that “a special legislative session” is necessary to tell women what to do with their own bodies? He can’t abide a mask but it’s okay to tell a woman she has to have a baby? In his mind freedom and independence apply to himself and the men of the state. Women in his mind are chattel.  

Not in Montana! Montana women have never been “owned” like chattel, pieces of property to be meddled with, traded, managed, and ordered around. Thank goodness Montana men respect the women in their lives. Women have led this state since early homestead days and still do. Our bodies are not battlegrounds for Gianforte’s inability to state the truth: women are independent and free to determine their reproductive lives. Back off, Gianforte.

 

Share this:

Filed Under: Opinion

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Claire Kelly says

    May 19, 2022 at 2:09 PM

    Why am I not surprised that it is another man who supports Gianforte’s devotion to male dominance? More than half of the people in Montana are female. Those of us who have past minority resent and reject males’ dictating to us. We are not frogs or birds, as Gianforte’s buddy Daines seems to think. We are not chattel;; and we vote.

    • Mike Miller says

      May 25, 2022 at 3:10 PM

      Are you implying your insecure feelings into something the governor has’t indicated (women being chattel)?

      Are you saying I support the governor? If you are, I have stated that nowhere.

      Based on the US Census page, you’re wrong about women outnumbering men in Montana.

      Abortion kills roughly 73 pre-born every year worldwide. Do you support that?

  2. Mike Miller says

    May 19, 2022 at 9:01 AM

    Not wearing a mask doesn’t kill a person, further, if you desire to wear a mask, you can. It’s the freedom you talk about. Current CDC stats indicate a 98.8% survivability rate from Covid. The survivability rate of abortion is 0%.

    You speak of women not being chattel, yet you seemingly regard a living fetus as less that chattel.

    You clearly are a strong supporter of abortion. Did you know abortion is racist? Feel free to look it up. So… if you support racism, does that make you racist?

    • Will Walker says

      May 24, 2022 at 10:54 AM

      Masks are a safe and effective way to reduce the rate of transmission within our community. Arguing that we should not wear them because 99 out of 100 of us will live anyways is quite cold. My uncle would be alive today if he had chosen to wear a mask. It was ultimately his choice, but I wish he had been better informed of the very real danger that covid posed to the young, elderly, and immunocompromised.

      • Mike Miller says

        May 24, 2022 at 11:27 PM

        Roughly 73 million preborn children are murdered every year from abortion worldwide. Unlike everyone wearing or not wearing a mask, those preborn children had no choice; their survival rate was 0%. The scientific fact is that’s much colder than the 98.8% survivability rate of covid.

Primary Sidebar

Search This Website

Search this website…

Local Info

  • Bitterroot Chamber of Commerce
  • Ravalli County
  • Ravalli County Economic Development Authority
  • City of Hamilton
  • Town of Stevensville
  • Town of Darby
  • Bitterroot Public Library
  • North Valley Public Library
  • Stevensville Community Foundation
  • Ravalli County Council on Aging
  • Bitterroot Producers Directory
  • Ravalli County Schools
  • Real Estate
  • Montana Works

Like us

Read our e-edition!

Montana Info

  • Montana Ski Report
  • Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks
  • National Parks in Montana
  • Montana Wildfires – INCIWEB
  • US Forest Service – Missoula
  • Firewise USA
  • Recreation.gov

Check Road Conditions

Road Conditions

Footer

Services

  • Place Classified Ad
  • Submit a Press Release
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Submit an Event
  • Subscribe
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Our location:

PO Box 133

115 W. 3rd Street
Stevensville, MT  59870
Phone: (406) 777-3928
Fax: (406) 777-4265

Archives – May 2011 to Present

Archives Prior to May 2011

Click here for archives prior to May 2011.

The Bitterroot Star Newspaper Co: ISSN 1050-8724 (Print) ISSN 2994-0273 (Online)
Copyright © 2025 · Bitterroot Star · Maintenance · Site by Linda Lancaster at Bitterroot Web Designs