Tom Ranocchia
Media 384
Prof. Caçoilo
3/31/2017
Watching so many
women come together for January’s Women’s March was a great precursor for this
course. Seeing the determination and passion shown by the women paved the way
for me to understand issues such as reproductive and sexual rights from a new
perspective and to have greater awareness of the true fear that government
policies with regard to these issues can generate. Like many young people who
have grown up in the post Roe v. Wade era, I have taken much for granted.
Among other
things, until several weeks ago I was unaware of
- just
how expensive birth control can be for women
- how
numerous and how dangerous the side effects of birth control can be
- how
many states – in 2017! - impose
complicated, invasive and unnecessary procedures and other restrictions on
women seeking abortions
And I was most
definitely uninformed regarding the horrific practice in the US of sterilizing
women of color without their permission or knowledge. As Jennifer Nelson points out, “coerced
fertility control was racist and abusive” (Nelson 4) and it is unsurprising
that women of color would have a different outlook on the issue of reproductive
rights. While mainstream and white feminists focused their attention on
abortion rights and freedom to choose options such as sterilization, women of
color have been compelled to look beyond this at the wider issues of state
support for contraceptives and economic support so that poverty is not a
barrier to reproduction (Nelson 18).
While women are
not monolithic in their views, they have clearly been united by current
political events, including the election of Donald Trump, which have increased
anxiety that the fundamental rights of women are at risk. Roxanne Gay expresses
the fear of many women that, in the hands of mostly male politicians (and
particularly at a time when Republicans control the executive and legislative branches,
not to mention control 32 state legislatures and 33 governorships), women’s
rights are indeed alienable. As such, they can be demonized by politicians
cynically attempting to distract people from the much more dangerous issues
facing our society today, and they can be stripped away (Gay 268).
At the federal
level, Republicans in the Senate are trying to confirm a Trump nominee, Neil
Gorsuch, for the Supreme Court as part of a long-term strategy to make the
court more conservative and more likely to overturn Roe v. Wade at some point
in the future. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are attempting (not with any
success thus far!) to repeal or water down the Affordable Care Act, putting
millions of women in the situation where they could lose their health insurance
and their access to affordable contraception and health care. Among the
provisions of the legislation being proposed is to cut off Medicaid reimbursements
to Planned Parenthood – essentially defunding it - for any services including
contraception, cancer screenings and treatment of sexually transmitted
diseases. (Note that reimbursement for
abortion is already excluded from payments going to Planned Parenthood.) The
GOP would say that, although the federal government does not fund abortions
specifically, providing Planned Parenthood with over 40% of its income each
year means that it does in effect subsidize abortions. The legislation proposed by Paul Ryan would
encourage women to use Federal Health Community Centers that provide, other
than abortion, the same services as Planned Parenthood. The goal, therefore, is
to limit access to abortion and to deny the right of pregnant women to choose
abortion. In defunding Planned
Parenthood, the government would remove an option that has historically been an
important, safe space for women of all backgrounds to deal with their private
health issues, and this would represent a misogynistic “slap in the face” to
all women. It should be noted that a
Kaiser poll indicated that an overwhelming 75% of people do not want to see Planned
Parenthood deprived of resources for the non-abortion services it provides.
Interestingly, this includes majorities of both Republican women and men. http://kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-aca-replacement-plans-womens-health/
At the state
level, where Republicans dominate public offices, there are “creeping” restrictions
on abortion introduced routinely. As
Roxanne Gay writes, “waiting periods, counseling, ultrasounds, transvaginal
ultrasounds, sonogram storytelling - all of these legislative moves are
invasive, insulting, and condescending because they are deeply misguided
attempts to pressure women into changing their minds… as if women are so easily
swayed that such petty and cruel stall tactics will work” (Gay 272). Clearly
the implied message of these abortion restrictions is that women are inadequate
to the task of making decisions regarding their own bodies.
In Texas last
week a senate bill passed which bans “dilation and evacuation” abortions, the
most common and the safest second-trimester procedure (Texas Tribune). The
passage of the bill will require women to undergo additional medical
procedures. The reaction of reproductive rights activist Amanda Allen speaks
for all women in saying that lawmakers “need to abandon their crusade against
women’s dignity and focus on measures that actually improve the lives and
health of women and their families.” https://www.texastribune.org/2017/03/20/texas-senate-wrongful-births-dismemberment-ban-legislation/
While the issue
of abortion - which brings forth debate over science, religion and human rights
- is clearly controversial, it is more surprising that in 2017 women need to be
fearful of losing access to contraception and health and welfare programs
designed to assist them in having and rearing children if they desire. Surely
those who are oppose abortion so strongly would be in favor of funding these
alternatives? Yet, Gay discusses the problems faced by women wanting to avail
“themselves of birth control with the privacy and dignity and affordability that
should also be inalienable” (Gay 274).
In an article on
restrictions on birth control, Tanya Steele examines just what lies behind the
desire of men to prevent women from accessing contraception and she finds that
the answer lies in the fact that sexuality belongs to men and that they want to
maintain the status quo and keep it this way. Steele notes that birth control
gives women the opportunity to “understand our sexuality without life-altering
consequences” and that it does so within a culture that is dedicated to male
sexuality. She says that “the desire to restrict birth control is, at its
heart, the desire to stop women from sleeping around” (Steele). She goes on to
say that men are not interested in the desire of women to experience their own
sexuality and that birth control levels the playing field for women, so is not
an issue that men relate to. As with many things, rescinding access to birth
control has greatest impact on those who are financially marginalized and who,
by virtue of their greater need for connection, will by necessity take more
risks. Steele would like to see greater
rallying for access to birth control as a means to sexual exploration. Her view is consistent with that of Beauvoir
who felt that “the female body ought to be the situation and instrumentality of
women’s freedom, not a defining and limiting essence” (Butler 16). She suggests
that with a more gender-balanced view of sexuality (which would flow through to
media and culture), we would see fewer unintended pregnancies and failed
marriages.
Steele uses the
case of Hobby Lobby, a company that won a Supreme Court ruling allowing it not
to provide contraceptive coverage as mandated by the Affordable Care Act for
religious reasons, as an example of the restrictions that women are facing.
Steele also
looks at the media, which she sees as having reinforced notions of the
centrality of male sexuality over the years. She does note that television
shows such as Orange is the New Black
are placing an emphasis on female pleasure, and calls on vanguard content
creators to reinvent the idea of sexual representation. I believe that her
calls are being heeded as current television programming, which is at the
forefront of progress, takes women’s sexuality and desire into account more and
more frequently. Programs such as Transparent, Masters of Sex and Outlander
would be examples of this. See also this article from New Republic magazine: https://newrepublic.com/article/120667/television-2014-figured-out-what-sex-women
Steele is
correct when she says that birth control levels the playing field for women and
gives them much greater opportunity to explore their sexuality. The same applies
to legal abortion, which offers women much greater scope for taking charge of
their own lives. There can be no doubt that unrestricted reproductive rights have
a serious impact on male control and male self-perception, as does seeing women
so unified and determined to hold their ground and push for greater change.
While I consider that the most recent election was decided on many factors, the
significant and lasting change that would be brought by a progressive female
president certainly must have played a part in the thinking of all voters.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion
of Identity. Routledge, 1989.
Gay, Roxanne. Bad Feminist: Essays. HarperCollins,
2014.
Nelson,
Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive
Rights Movement. NYU Press, 2003.
Steele, Tanya. “Hobby
Lobby, and a Woman’s Right to Sexual Exploration.” Rewire. 10 July 2014. Web.
20 Mar. 2017.
