A System of Control: Policing Women's Bodies

The policing of women’s bodies has been a significant struggle for second and third wave feminists.  Abortion rights, and more specifically reproductive freedom in general is an issue that the United States still dwells on, regardless of the fact that it should be a human right.  As Roxanne Gay has phrased it, “It is a small miracle women do not have short memories about our rights that have always, shamefully, been alienable.” (279) The legal system’s control over women’s bodies has reinforced the belief that women can’t actually think for themselves, as many states require ultrasounds or waiting periods before an abortion.  Not only is this problem in the legal realm, but the media as well.  The negative and often sexist portrayals of women in the media, whether it be through magazines, film, TV or music highlight the idea that women cannot be trusted with the ability to make decisions about their own bodies.  If women’s self-worth is seen through the eyes of men, this only promotes the idea that men should be allowed to make these decisions for them.  I personally think that the reason abortion has been such a strong talking point for politicians stems from a desire to control women.  Since the overwhelming majority of our country’s leaders are men, a woman’s voice is often not heard.  Conservative politicians can push their pro-life agenda with less dissent because none of the restrictions could possibly affect them as men.  As any systematically oppressed demographic makes headway in their movement, it is up to the oppressors to find ways to keep them down. Policing women’s bodies is exactly that. 

A drastic but ultimately true sign by pro-choice advocates

Birth control pills are a major aspect of the movement to control women’s bodies.  Even in a society where women are just as sexually active as men, there is still stigma surrounding the pill.  This creates a massive paradox in the role that women are supposed to play in America.  While the media exploits our sexuality, encouraging men to see us as sex objects, we are shamed for actually being sexually active.  We are only supposed to be sexual in theory, while practice makes us “slutty.”  “In certain circles, birth control is being framed as whore medicine.  We are now dealing with a bizarre new morality where a woman cannot simply say, in one way or another, ‘I’m on the pill because I like dick’” (Gaye 276).  This contradiction can be really damaging for women’s self-esteem.  On the one hand we are told our worth lies in our sexuality and on the other that sexuality is shamed.  Neither scenario encourages women to love themselves for who they are, nor does it promote the reality that women are just as capable and worthy of sexual freedom as men. 

As white women pushed for abortion rights in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, women of color were facing even more than the right to terminate a pregnancy.  After giving birth/having an abortion minority women were often sterilized either without their consent, or without proper information to understand what it was they were giving permission to.  This was obviously a push towards population control that stemmed from the eugenics movement in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  Sterilizing women of color would keep minorities at bay, because life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was really only intended for white men. “Indeed, physicians in many states used eugenic sterilization laws, passed in the first two decades of the twentieth century, to justify sterilization of poor and often very young women of color” (Nelson 4).   This also reiterates the idea that women cannot think for themselves, so much so for women of color that they can’t decide whether or not they want to have children in the future: “The 1973 sterilization of Minnie Lee Relf, an African American teenager who was sterilized without her knowledge or consent at a federally funded health clinic in Montgomery, Alabama, demonstrated when it became a public scandal that contraceptive providers judged women of color ‘incompetent’ to make decisions about their reproductive lives” (Nelson 4).  Having children is a beautiful thing that should not be denied to any woman in this country, and denying her that ability is not only a violation of her human rights but also to her pursuit of happiness. 

The absurdity of men's majority in the pro-life movement.

In recent years, abortion has really been the leading issue in the legality of women’s sexual freedom.  While it is technically legal throughout the US, there have been an overwhelming amount of restrictions passed within recent years.  “To put recent trends in even sharper relief, 205 abortion restrictions were enacted over the past 3 years (2011-2013), but just 184 were enacted during the previous decade (2001-2010)” (Guttmacher Institute).  This increasing amount of restrictions is a prime example of the need for control that conservative male politicians feel slipping away as women make gains through the feminist movement.  By denying a woman the right to choose, the government is limiting the opportunity for women to become educationally and economically successful.  Having a child should be reserved for the right time, and every woman should have the right to choose when that is.  Pro-life politicians are hypocritical in the fact that they push for babies to be born yet don’t believe in systematic support for those babies through welfare programs.  It seems that a fetus is only of value in the womb; once it develops into a person it’s on its own.  The most important issue regarding abortion is the fact that women are going to get them whether they are legal or not: “Women have been forced underground for contraception and pregnancy termination before, and we will go underground again if we have to.  We will risk our lives if these politicians, who so flagrantly demean women, force us to do so” (Gay 268).   Repealing Roe v. Wade is not going to stop determined women, but rather put their lives in danger; current restrictions are not only endangering women’s lives but also allowing for more unwanted children who may grow up to live difficult or traumatic lives. 

The media plays an extremely important role in policing women’s bodies because it reinforces this system of control through its often sexist representations of women.  These representations depict women as objects rather than human beings, and encourages women to view themselves as such: “A woman is conditioned to view her face as a mask and her body as an object, as things separate from and more important than her real self, constantly in need of alteration, improvement, and disguise” (Kilborune 122).  This subsequently reinforces the male gaze, in which a woman’s worth is determined by men’s standards:  “She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life” (Berger 46).  If women see themselves through the eyes of men, and they see their portrayals in the media through the eyes of men, this creates a world in which only the male view is brought to the table.   This is directly apparent in the fact that women’s reproductive freedom is constantly being questioned. That being said, some progress has been made in the media.  The feminine hygiene brand Always has created a “Run Like A Girl” movement to promote empowerment and self-esteem for girls.  A recent episode of Girls portrayed a character that nonchalantly had an abortion.  

            The policing of women’s bodies through limitations on reproductive freedom has remained on politicians minds from the sexual revolution to today.  Over the past 50 years women have had to deal with sterilization, stigmatized birth control, and restrictions on birth control.  While our country is supposedly founded on the concept of freedom, this theory falls far too short for women, as their reproductive rights have consistently been tampered with.  

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.

Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays. 2014. 267-279. Print.

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. Print.

"Laws Affecting Reproductive Health and Rights: 2013 State Policy Review." State Rends for 2013 on Abortion, Family Planning, Sex Education, STIs and Pregnancy. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. <http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/2013/statetrends42013.html>. 

Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York UP, 2003. Print. 

Final Project Proposal

         My project will be a short film depicting a mother and her daughters, side by side in a split frame for the entire film, as their stories cross over and intertwine with one another. It will be scripted, based on my upbringing and research. The point will be to watch and listen as a relationship unfolds in front of our eyes between mother feminism and daughter feminism while struggling through life’s’ endeavors. 

Specifically in their household, school, sleep away camp, activities and hobbies, and eventually dreams/hopes/aspirations/goals in life which will be present from the beginning of the film as a source from each is coming from. I want to show the ups and downs of a mother/daughter relationship while both strive for “their” feminism ripping them apart or together, yet trying to maintain this bond. As a background the a dining room will be visible and hopefully I will be able to have it being set and cleared over and over by the daughters presented in the film. Depending on time, I plan to make this fiction but if I cannot than I will make a short documentary in which I will include my sisters and myself in the film or I will present the class with a script (with copyright of course) of my film with hopes of fellow students input and involvement.

             I think when asked the point in my film comes up when I look up images to reflect the vision of my film and what I “Google” are shadows of mother daughter relationships representing growing up and the struggle we, as adolescents and women in general face with ourselves, one another and society when we learn from our greatest source, our mothers to be the best us, women, we can be to retrieve the ultimate happiness.

         But to find happiness we have to fight and to fight we have to learn how to fight so who teaches us how to fight, is it our mothers or our fathers? What deems proper fighting and what doesn’t? All of these questions the various thoughts and tangents are what I want my film to accomplish. I want the daughter’s voice to her mother, I want the mother’s voice to her daughter, I want the sisters and I want for all of their opinion to be laid out on the table we so often are mean to set and clear. Thus serving as the constant background, playing in cultural and social upbringings. I know I touch on a lot of dynamics but my life is filled with all of the world’s complexities so my job as an actor and filmmaker is to show you my world through a lens and a story as I live it to make a difference and see a side we may not realize as daughters, mothers and sisters yet we fight for it everyday. 

If I Should Have A Daughter  - TED Talk 

Van Morrison - Days like This  or The Shirelles - Mama Said

Policing of women's bodies and the impact it gets in society

The media and politics manipulate women’s body as their own desire. In the media women’s body are restricted to the point that it is show only as a sexual object, while in politics we see something like “men act, women appear” (Berger) which it is a cruel reality of women’s body restrictions. Women’s body are treated to the point of been a negotiable object. Women have no freedom to their own body, everybody but them have the power to decide over their bodies. It is curious that the people that choose how women’s bodies should work and look like, most of the time have no clue of how it even works. So, how it is possible that they continue to make rules on how should women run their body when they have no knowledge of how women’s body really works. Those are the things where we clearly can notice that those patriarchy ideals are alive, are part of our daily life. Women are restricted from having the same chance as men, the freedom it is not part of women life yet. Pregnancy, politics and the policing of women's body.

Men have not even knowledge of how women's
body works and they want to choose over it.

We have so many restrictions on abortion and birth control on this country, where laws are basically denying basic human rights to women. “A woman should always have the right to choose what she does with her body. It is frustrating that this needs to be said, repeatedly” (Gay, 273). The problem with all these regulations and restrictions is that if a woman chooses to prevent pregnancy and try to get birth control pills she will be seen as a slut or simply as “I’m on the pill because I like dick.” (Gay, 276) and then if she gets pregnant and she choose to gets an abortion, then she is an assassin. So these laws are around only for a specific time, the time when the problem is around and when a decision needs to be made. But before and after the problem these laws do not take part. It will be more easily if birth control pills were more accessible to every woman to not get to the point of abortion. And if in any case the decision of abortion is made, I think women have the right to do it.

women do not want restriction over
her decisions.

It is funny that birth control and abortion is a dispute of women’s issues in politics. Women voices have no place in the moment that the decision has to be made. As we watched on Jessica Williams of the Daily Show interview Alabama attorneys, where we see that they have the power to defend a fetus on court if the mother has chose to make an abortion. How ridiculous is that, women have no rights to choose over her own body. So by having this barrier women are denied to get an abortion if she needs one. In this example we clearly see that women have no rights and that politicians get to defend their belief. 

I just want freedom over my
body.

Jennifer Nelson from Abortion to Reproductive rights shows us that this is not a new torment for women, there always been and before was even worst. Nelson shows us stories of how poor women of color got sterilized without their concern. Only certain group of people was allowed to have children or to have a safe abortion if in any case is needed. Guadalupe Acosta (1973) she gave birth to an encephalic child who died subsequent to delivery. “After her labor Acosta’s obstetrician sterilized her without her consent. At a postnatal check up, Acosta requested the pill, her doctor chose that moment to inform her that she no longer had any need for contraception because she could no longer conceive” (Nelson, 1).

Finally, the big issue is why women cannot have control over her body and sexuality, just like men does? We women have gone far defending our rights, but have done just so little in such a long period of time. This oppression against women have change a lot but still we do not get what we want, which is a simply thing, we just want to have control over our body and sexuality, just like men does. We have to keep continue fitting for our rights, try to make the media change the way it portrait women body, so we do not get represented as a sexual object. So in order to reach the society expectation of women in media and legislation, a women have to follow all the rules that they impost, obey and allow what they decided to do with a woman’s body. Other than that, if we do not follow rules, we are seen as a prostitute (trying to get the birth control pills), which can help us to prevent to get pregnant. And then, if we get pregnant and we choose to get an abortion, then we are seen as criminal. But the media and politics do not help women to prevent this entire situation, is like they push us to get to this situation, so they can restrict and manipulate our life just the way they want. 

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.

Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays. Print.

Nelson, Jennifer. "Introduction." Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New                           York UP, 2003. 1-19. Print.

Until Men Grow Ovaries... Policing of Women's Bodies

Group of women urging government to keep the law off
their bodies...as it should be.

It’s funny how the media and the government are quick to police a woman’s body to their liking. It’s funny that they continue to do so without further knowledge on how the woman’s body works or what it is actually meant to do. They are quick to paint the perfect picture of what it should look like, disregarding the imperfections a woman might have or they are quick to make rules on what a women should do with her body without regards to her control over her own self.  Is it fair? No. Do people believe that this is the right thing to do? Depends on whom you ask. Yet no one blinks an eye to the laws and rules that they play on a woman’s body…forcing to keep the ideals of patriarchy alive.

Political cartoon depicting the views on birth control.

Abortion and birth control have been and continue to be a very debatable issue in this country. You would think that because women get pregnant and are the only ones biologically able to bear children that they would be the ones who decide what they do with their body but you’re wrong. All these legislations and laws denying basic human right to women are mostly placed and perpetuated by men, but you don’t see any being placed on men. The last time I checked, it took two to make a baby, yet men have the option to hold no responsibility over the matter. If she uses birth control she is promiscuous and if she gets an abortion she is a murderer, always a catch 22. The problem with these laws and the policing of women’s bodies is that they are only around for a limited time. While a woman is pregnant or seeking birth control that’s when the game begins, they will try everything in their power to stop a woman from gaining control over her decisions but once she has decided then the law no longer cares and it is up to her to continue on with the life she chose. I always wondered if the tables shifted what would happen. I always said that if men were able to get pregnant then birth control would be free and abortion and Planned Parenthood clinics would be around like Starbucks. Yet why is it so difficult and expensive for women to get the same needs? They don’t want a woman to abort a child but won’t give her the means to prevent a herself from getting pregnant.

Self explanatory graphic on how men control
the law on women's bodies but do not
function the same.

Gay explains in her essay ‘The Alienable Rights of Women’ that,  “What often goes unspoken in this conversation is how debates about birth control and reproductive freedom continually force the female body into being a legislative matter because men refuse to assume their fair share of responsibility for birth control.” The men who police a woman’s body are those who have no care or concern over how it works. They believe women were put here to bear their children and to comply with their every call, mostly sex, but the second she tries to regain control of herself and enjoy the aspects that society claims only men are allowed to then she has to deal with every consequence that comes her way…but only if it abides by the laws that are placed. If a woman is raped is it her fault, if she gets pregnant it is her fault, if she tries to have sex without consequences it is still her fault. The policing of women’s bodies do not only affect what she could do with it but how she is supposed to feel about it. She can’t control it but if she lets it go beyond her control then she is to blame. But where are the men or rather people who should take responsibilities for the things they do as well? Nowhere to be found I assume.

Berger states that “Part of the radical feminist message offered by groups such as Red stockings was that abortion concerned all women equally. They maintained that every woman needed to get involved in challenging anti-abortion laws, because without the fundamental right to control reproduction in every instance, women remained subject to men.” And what he states is correct. In order to change what is going on within the law then one must take action to do so. If a man does not have the same parts as a woman why is he in such control over what control she has over it. If you cannot understand how a woman's body functions then there should be no say in the matter whats so ever. 

Funny graphic on how women are viewed
depending on the choices they make. 

In the book by Jeanne Flavin, Our Bodies, Our Crimes, she explains "Importantly, because women’s gender is tied up in reproduction in a way that men’s gender is not, the consequences of official attempts to restrict reproductive freedom have a much more profound effect on women than they do on men. Women’s reproduction is more likely to be targeted than men’s is, and with far more devastating consequences." No matter what a women does she would be viewed as the bad guy. Even if she is trying to control what happens to her, she is viewed in a negative light. She is forced to deal with her choices in such a negative aspect that it becomes exhausting.  They teach women not to get raped, they teach her that if she enjoys sex that she is a ho, they teach her that if she gets an abortion then she should be ashamed. All of these negative connotations are a burden to women. A burden that they should not pay for, but constantly do.

Until we are able to break the barrier between how women and men's bodies are policed or  if men are able to become pregnant, then the way the law breaks down on a woman's body will continue. They will continue to force women to give birth, they will make birth control more expensive and they will make a woman feel ashamed of being comfortable with her sexuality.  The best way to combat all of this is to continue to fight. Continue to make media that debunks all the crap the world is trying to feed woman. If not she will continue to be the burden that the world is making her out to be...when all she wants is control over body and her sexuality. If men could do it...why can't women?

Works Cited:

1. Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.
2. Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays. Print.

3. Flavin, Jeanne. Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America. Print

Mixed Signals Leave Women Without Agency: Women in Media and in Legislation

The policing of women's bodies perpetuates the cycle of sexualization and oppression that the patriarchy calls for. These policies restrict women from having the same chance as men for freedoms, which include anything from the simple freedom of self expression to the more complex idea of sexual freedom -which is only complex because the patriarchy makes it so for women. Women's bodies are restricted not only in media -restricted as in, seen only as sexual objects or homemakers- but also in politics. Politics take “men act, women appear” to another, impossibly oppressive level (Berger).

Birth control and abortion are highly contested women's issues in politics. It has no longer become about the woman's voice or her decision, but the say has been given to her senators, governor and politicians. In class, we watched Jessica Williams of The Daily Show interview Alabama attorneys who have the power to defend a fetus in court against the mother who wishes to abort it. (Yes, as insensitive as it may seem, in my opinion the fetus is an "it" at that stage). While the segment was funny, it was also alarming and disturbing because it is real. Having an attorney speak for a woman's fetus makes it impossible for that woman to get an abortion if she needs one. This barrier may seem so far fetched, but it is an example of how far politicians are willing to go to defend their belief, not only about religion, but also about what women's roles are and their duty/responsibility to bear children even if it's unsafe or inopportune.

self explanatory cartoon...
a double standard enforced by Christianity

As Roxanne Gay writes in Bad Feminist, “we are now dealing with a bizarre new morality where a woman cannot simply say, in one way or another, ‘I’m on the pill because I like dick.’ It’s extremely regressive for women to feel like they need to make it seem like they are using birth control for reasons other that what birth control was originally designed fore: to control birth” (Gay 276). This couldn’t have spoken truer words to me; I too told my mom my menstrual cramps were unbearable, and thus, needed the pill, even though this was not the case. For a woman to admit that she wants to be on the birth control pill is seen as synonymous with sleeping around, promiscuity. Sex for women has been shamed and stigmatized so badly that we are made to be uncomfortable with what we want; trying to create barriers for childbirth has become a barrier for us.

This is not a new ordeal for women- ever since there has been resistance from women against being mothers, there has been more societal punishments (per se) for these un-obliging women. As early as the 1940s, abortions were hard to come by and dangerous procedures- only a select group of people was allowed abortions (and they were not poor nor minorities). “By bestowing access to abortion on ‘deserving’ patients, doctors could ensure that pregnant women did not become masters over their own fertility. Some doctors even require that a woman be sterilized after her hospital abortion, punishing her for her transgression –engaging in sex without wanting a child—by eliminating her right to motherhood” (Nelson 8). So even when “deserving” women finds power from deciding not to have a baby, that agency is stripped from her when she is sterilized (often against her will).

Pro-Life protesters in DC

These politics are intertwined and perpetuated by the media portrayal of women. Religion in and of itself often holds beliefs that make women secondary citizens, restricting them to the role as the child bearer, the mother, or the root of all evil (Eve was so stupid to eat that apple, right?). Religious groups often use religion as a barrier to provide or support women who use contraceptives or want abortions. Religion is an undeniable force in the lives of many; if a woman is taught that sex is bad, sex is for procreation, or that pregnancies must be carried out, it takes away a woman’s agency before she even realizes she has other options.

A common slogan used by pro-
choice protesters, which sums up
their request in an incredibly simple phrase 

This also brings us back to the idea that media outlets control our perceptions of women’s bodies on the legislative level. These portrayals put women in a lose-lose conundrum; women are not supposed to get pregnant or want contraception, but women are also supposed to meet to standards of models, celebrities and socialites who often give us cues of sexualization. “Women feature in culture more often because of how they look and the preferred look is young, slender, sexual, and white. The female body is a spectacle, both something to be looked at, whether real or mediated and to be through in the search for feminine identity,” (Gunther 206).

So while women are supposed to be sexually desirable, they are also supposed to avoid sex or have sex defenselessly. In order to reach the societal expectation of women in media and in legislation, a woman is essentially supposed to be sexual and thin and beautiful but is not supposed to desire or engage in sexual behavior. Because if she does, the blame -and the child- is hers.

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.

Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays. Print.

Nelson, Jennifer. "Introduction." Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York UP, 2003. 1-19. Print.

Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Print.