I don't consider myself a feminist, nor do I consider myself a liberal or any sort of activist. I'm not going to refuse to walk through a door because a man is holding it open for me, and I'm not going to join up with the Occupy movement. Politics is one of my least favorite topics of conversation followed closely by religion.
With all that being said, this is my blog and my tiny space on the internet to write what I think. I know I haven't been updating for a while, so I don't know how frequently people even read this anymore, but whatever.
I am really annoyed and very much fed up with Conservatives FREAKING OUT over the Obama's mandate about birth control. While I agree that if a church believes that birth control is morally wrong, the government should not enact a law requiring the insurance provided by that church to fund birth control. I also think that if people require birth control and need insurance to fund it, perhaps working for specific churches is not in their best interest. You wouldn't go to a Kosher Deli and be outraged when you found you couldn't order pork, would you? Insurance is a messy business and its funding and the government regulation of its practices is a tangled web.
What really makes me upset is the fact that all this outrage and condemnation regarding "who should and shouldn't be forced to provide birth control" from these churches and conservative leaders has been centered around female birth control. Not ONCE have I heard ANY discussion about male forms of birth control. What about insurance covering vasectomies? What about other forms of male birth control? Where is the discussion about any of THAT??? A vasectomy gives a man just as much "sexual freedom" without the consequence of children.
I hate double-standards.
ALSO, what about the committee that met about this whole issue... It was all men! Wartburg-Track-and-Field! A committee made of entirely of men, deciding what should and should not be done with women's bodies? Yes, many of the people there were clergymen belonging to various religions, who claim to know God's will and want to eliminate the government from messing with people's consciouses, but that should not be an excuse for excluding women in this discussion. What they are discussing and deciding affects 1/2 of the population... Shouldn't that part get a say in all of this?
I am also disgusted with Rush Limbaugh's poisonous condemnation of Sandra Fluke. I am appalled at the language he used and directed towards her. Calling her names and devaluing her as a person, even though he has never met her, and has no information about her life other than Fluke is a 3rd year student at Georgetown University. Regardless of a woman being on birth control, that is NOT an indicator of them being sexually active. Limbaugh's claim that Fluke is having so much sex, she can't afford her birth control is libelous. Calling her a prostitute and stating that she (and the other women of Georgetown) should post sex videos online so that the people who are paying for her birth control have some reward, is disgusting. I am repulsed. It makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and frightened that there are people out there listening to him and thinking these kind of statements are "okay."
Limbaugh is engaging in the poisonous rhetoric that is still so prevalent in our society -- about how women are lesser people. How they can be purchased, owned and objectified. How women do not deserve the rights and honors that men have held for so many years. His terrible statements are no different than the thought that if a women is dressing provocatively she is "asking" to be taken advantage of sexually.
*smacks keyboard* NO! No, no, no!
Limbaugh, you are an [insert very strong four-letter word here].
Finally, riddle-me-this: The Catholic Church teaches that couples should always be open to new life and that all forms of birth control are morally wrong. Married couples should engage in natural family planning to space and prepare for offspring. Okay, that's fine.... BUT then how does this statistic come about? 87% of Catholic women who are currently sexually active (ages 15-44) are using some form of birth control.
That's a big number. And while statistics may fluctuate, I doubt they would fluctuate to any extreme. 87%.... How can that be? If the Catholic church is teaching that birth control is wrong, how can that statistic exist? Clearly, there is a failure of communication somewhere... Either from the pulpit to the congregation or from the parents to the offspring. 87% is a pretty significant number to be going against the teachings of the Catholic church. That means that only 13% of Catholic women are either not sexually active at ALL or simply not using birth control.
Finally, finally, what about people who take birth control to manage and regulate other aspects that only affect women? Extremely heavy menstrual cycles? Ovarian cysts? That is what Sandra Fluke WANTED to talk about, but was not allowed to speak at the all-male committee for various excuses. What about all of THAT????
So, there you have it. My little rant.
TL;DR
-A committee of only men making choices regarding the female body is a bad idea.
-No discussion or outrage over MALE forms of birth control (i.e. vasectomies, condoms, etc.) shows the bias in the system.
-A law is not going to made requiring a Kosher Deli to sell pork. Why make a law that requires a church who is against birth control to pay for it?
-Limbaugh is a stupid-face who is encouraging the belief that women are objects.
-87% of Catholic women who are currently sexually active use birth control.
-No where in all of this political-moral vomit battle does it discuss women who take birth control to manage other aspects of the female body (ovarian cysts, excessive heavy menstrual cycles.) In fact that is why Sandra Fluke was STOPPED from addressing the all male committee.
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What is the world coming to? I wish the GOP didn't have stupid people running for president. I also wish that this election focused more on balancing the budget, improving education, job scarcity and turning this country away from its obsessive consumerism and overseas profiteering. What happened to Made in the USA?
