(no subject)

[novapsyche]

The scary thing is, I can imagine myself (or someone like me) bending down to my own children years from now, telling them, "I remember when abortion was legal." You know, how someone today might remember when LSD and pot weren't illegal.

The possibility itself is frightening.

I am not pre-pregnant. If anything, I'm post-pregnant. I've been pregnant before. I'm not planning on being so again any time soon. But if and when I do, that decision should be on my terms.

I already take vitamin supplements, folic acid, zinc, magnesium, iron--just about everything they recommend for women except calcium. I don't smoke. I drink socially. I'm not in the best physical health, but a good reason to get me to exercise is not because I might, at some point in the future, become pregnant. That's not a motivator for me.

I remember remarking to dionysus1999 not too long ago that there is a crackdown on women's rights in this country, and he kind of looked at me like I was spouting crazy talk. As a child born in the wake of Roe, I see it. The backlash some pseudofeminists predicted in the '80s and early '90s is finally hitting us. The movement just needed a president receptive to the ideas of regressive ultraconservatives. (Because the only way to make America strong is to make the family strong, which means a nuclear family, which means rolling back the freedoms privileges that women have enjoyed since the end of WWII. Never mind that the age that these people idolize lasted for less than twenty years.) To be honest, I can see things, if they get a foothold, going all the way back to when women were diagnosed as "hysterical" and confined to bedrest until they went somewhere mentally like in The Yellow Wallpaper.

I am not a descriptor of my womb. My reproductive status does not define me.

Comments

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

No, I totally agree with you. Congress has been chipping away at reproductive rights for years now. One of the most bogus pieces of crap was passing legislation defining a fetus as a person. There is no logical reason to restrict the use of RU 486 either.

Fundamentalists still long for a return to the mythical 50's were white folks could call any minority any name they wanted with impunity. Where Mom was home knocked up and baking an apple pie and Dad could beat his children as much as he wanted.

Ah, the good old days. I think we should organize a field trip to collectively urinate on ol' Joe McCarthy's grave.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

McCarthy showed future neoconservatives how to manage people by their fear. The fear here has to be women's sexual power. I don't know what else it could be.

The idea that biology /= fate scares people. If it doesn't fit into their worldview, it doesn't make sense, and if it doesn't make sense, it must be removed from view.

50s

[magicmaiden.livejournal.com]

Oh yes..dad could legally rape mom too as it was her job to have sex with him.

He could basically do anything to her that he wanted to, she was more a possession than a person. The kids had more rights.

Bush II just a continuation of Bush I

[magicmaiden.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was the main reason I wished Bush 1 out of the white house..he was rolling back women's rights (ok human rights in general, esp women's rights) to the point I wondered if the "handmaiden's tale" might become a reality..grrr.

Bush 2 is worse than daddy in this regard.

Please to remember that freedom of religion means more than which brand of Christianity you believe in and belongs to EVERYONE here.

Not everyone believes in one lifetime, or god, or or or....

I remember life before Roe, before men were expected to be responsible for their children, before women got equal pay for the same work, before women had the job opportunities they have today, etc.

Reproductive rights are part of all of that.

Whether or not to bear children is a very personal choice, according to the woman's values, her life, her unique situation, etc.

It is no one else's business and if we cannot or will not protect that choice for the mother...what type of freedom is that child being born to?

Ok...enough of my "rant". I have just seen too much taken for granted folks..get out and vote.