Her Body, her choice

Kianni Johnson

Media 384

March 31, 2017

Politics of Sex: Her body, her choice!

            I am pretty sure that people from the past cannot believe that we are currently in the 21^st century, yet women are still having decisions made for them. Women are not completely equal to men and sad to say, we don’t even have control over our own body. There is a huge problem when you realize that the government has complete ownership over a woman’s body. They control the choices women make and how they must go about certain things. In the “Alienable Rights of Women”, Roxanne Gay says, “Rather than solve the real problems the United States is facing, some politicians, mostly conservative, have decided to try to solve the “female problem” by creating a smoke screen, reintroducing abortion and more inexplicably, birth control into a national debate.” (Gay, 268)

            Society is constantly putting girls under a microscope and criticizing them for their personal decisions. Women are constantly put down and shamed for loving their own skin. This happens to women of all ages but it is often taught at a very young age. In the school system, there is a dress code where policies are pushed down girls throat. They must wear skirts a certain length and get punished if their shorts are too short. It is supposed to be more important that we teach out girls to cover up and not be a “distraction”, while boys can walk around anyway. Why is it not an issue to teach boys self-control? Instead we spend years policing our girls and teaching them to be shameful for their bodies. We also saw an example of this in the Persepolis film when Marjane stood up and spoke up for herself.  

You go Marjane!!

One huge issue that struck a nerve with me personally is the Heartbeat Bill, which we spoke about in class. This bill bans abortions in the state of Ohio from the moment the heartbeat of a fetus is detected, which is usually about six weeks into a pregnancy. The idea of this being an actual thing is mind blowing and completely unconstitutional. No one has the right to tell women what they can or cannot do with their bodies. This excludes women’s right to make decisions for themselves. In addition, if a woman does not find out she is pregnant until the 4^th or 6^th week, she ultimately has no time to even consider anything. “Pregnancy is at once a private and public experience. Pregnancy is private because it is so very personal. It happens within the body. In a perfect world, pregnancy would be an intimate experience shared by a woman and her partner alone, but for various reasons that is not possible.” (Gay, 269) Being pregnant is a beautiful thing that greatly affects a woman, it is not something that should be rushed.

            If a woman decides to have an abortion, it should be a choice that she makes by her own free will. Depending on their situation, they may not be capable of supporting a child, they may have health problems, or perhaps they were even raped. Whatever, the situation is; 1. It is no one’s business and 2. They should be able to make their own decision! “Things have gotten complicated, in too many states, for women who want to exercise their right to choose. Legislatures across the United States have worked very hard to shape and control the abortion experience in bizarre, insensitive ways that intervene on a personal, should-be-private experience in very public, painful ways.” (Gay, 270) While I am pro-life, I am also a loving, caring human with a big heart and I understand that things happen. People argue that if someone doesn’t want to have a child, they should practice safe sex or even abstinence. However, sex is a part of life and there is nothing anyone can say to justify having the government as the main source of decision making for women’s body or rights. Women, like men, deserve to have every right to make decisions about what they do to their bodies. “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, to pressure women into not terminating their pregnancies…” (Gay, 272) Equality is nonexistent if the body of a woman is left in the hands of a man or government.

Women should never have to live in fear, not knowing what will happen to their body next. The introduction by Jennifer Nelson describes a horrific story about a woman who was “sterilized without her consent.” (Nelson, 1) However, this poor woman was not the only one who suffered. As Nelson continues to discuss, “Acosta and Hustado’s stories are emblematic of how many poor women of color lost their ability to bear children through involuntary sterilization, but, in 1973, few mainstream feminists viewed ending sterilization abuse as an important demand in the fight for women’s reproductive freedom.” (Gay, 1)

Works Cited

Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist. Harper Perennial. 2014, pp.

267-279.

Nelson, Jennifer. "Introduction." Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. NYU Press. 2003, pp.  1-20.