Post 4: The Agency of Woman's Body

I remember listening to it when I was in the introduction to media studies class a couple years back, during my first semester. It was about contraception, and Rush Limbaugh said, on national radio, that women should not be allowed to get contraception, particularly birth control (either for free or more affordable, I can’t remember which) and he said “Have you ever thought about not having sex so often?” When I heard that, I realized something interesting: that question made no sense. Birth control doesn't work in such a way that taking one makes a person immune to being impregnated. It doesn't work so simply or instantaneously. And it put into perspective for me how this issue of contraception was being debated by someone who obviously had no idea what he was even talking about. Then I started wondering why this was being addressed by him at all. Later on in my life, I realized that this was a very political issue for some reason. Then I connected this idea to the issue of abortion, another issue I can’t understand the existence of, and realized something about society in relation to women: It was that, for a woman, “reproductive freedom is a talking about. Reproductive freedom is a campaign issue. Reproductive freedom can be repealed or restricted. Reproductive freedom is not an inalienable right even though it should be” (Gay 273).

But why isn't it an inalienable right? Why do people like Rush Limbaugh get to have that kind of say in what a woman does with herself? Why does it seem like women in general are the only people who are not given this ability. Not only is contraception restricted, but in many states, people are also hostile to the idea of an abortion.

I thought this was an interesting pro-choice statement

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During the feminist movement, before the Roe v. Wade case, abortions were illegal in the United States, unless the life of the mother was in jeopardy. And even though Roe v. Wade decided that abortions were constitutional, many states still oppose the idea, and the fight for the right to an abortion seems far from over. But while abortions were illegal, it wasn't the only issue women had to deal with. They also had to deal with the right to sterilization, and the right to decide on it themselves. “Physicians often rejected white middle class women for sterilization if they were young and had no children” (Nelson 5). So while they weren't given the choice to be sterilized, there was the consideration that they might change their mind. However, colored women weren't given the same consideration. “Women of color... understood that sterilization was often not a matter of choice--that women of color had been sterilized without their consent” (Nelson 5). So while they were not given sterilization when they asked for it, physicians had no problems with sterilizing women of color, without considering their age, or their desire to be sterilized! And in either case, the women were not given the choice.

The issue in this country is in part that women are still seen as objects. Women, therefore, have no desires of their own, and they have no ability to judge such things for themselves. I think this is the main reason for such silly debates (in politics, no less) over contraception and abortion. It is because these ideas are not in the interest of men. Men still rule, and women should be at home cooking, and looking as good as possible. And there is no choice in the matter. Women are pressured from a young age to fill the needs of men around them. For example, women are considered to be more worthy if they are skinny and small with big breasts. And this is an image to strive for in perfection. “If a woman has ‘acceptable’ breasts, then she must also be sure that her legs are worth watching, her hips slim, her feet sexy, and that her buttocks look nuder under her clothes.” (Kilbourne 124). This issue is an interesting phenomenon. Suppose a woman ran for a seat in Congress, but she was large, then it does not matter how intelligent she is, or if she has found ways to improve this country, like stabilizing the economy, or ending wars the U.S. is involved in, she will most likely not even see nomination, because she does not fill the criteria of what makes a woman worthy.

What’s worse is that both boys and girls learn these things and understand them subconsciously at a very young age, because the media makes it obvious that women are supposed to turn out attractive, because “Men look at women, and women watch themselves being looked at” (Wolf 58). Girls begin to obsess over their weight, and their make-up, and all these “girly” things, and boys learn that this is what an attractive girl is, and in this situation, women do all the work and endure all of the suffering, and men reap the fruits of these labors, and this is accepted behavior. Some women, who are gifted in this way, may actually objectify themselves, typically in different mediums, like photography or video making, as a way to grab views from the populous on the internet. Sky Williams, a YouTube gaming streamer, actually felt the need to express his view on how this kind of behavior continues the cycle of objectification. 

                                       

The point I’m trying to express is that, it seems from a political sense to a daily life sense, that women are not respected when it comes to their body, and they seem to constantly be perpetuating these issues through their own behavior, or that they are forced into it by any means necessary (and I personally think that all the media messages that children receive on these issues should be considered a form of psychological warfare), and that this lack of respect is at the root of it all. But this is one issue that men cannot solve (much less are they willing to, it seems), and this cycle just seems to continue. This may be the United States of America, the bastion of freedom, but many people are very far from living in freedom.

Works Cited

Gay, Roxane. "The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 267-79. Print.
Kilbourne, Jean. "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 121-25. Print.
Nelson, Jennifer. "From Abortion to Reproductive Rights." Introduction.Women of Color and RRM. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-20. Print.
Wolf, Naomi. "Culture." The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. 58-85. Print.