"You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with…” — Jim Croce “Don't Mess Around With Jim.”
Think abortion rights are just a woman's problem? Think again...
Sexism is like spitting into the wind. What you get back is your own fault.
It’s a common misconception that reproductive rights are solely a woman’s fight while men are outsiders either rooting from the sidelines or acting as the opponent with nothing to lose.
It’s rather sardonic to consider that these men who believe they have nothing to lose in restricting women’s rights are pretty much always the same ones who complain bitterly about biases towards women in divorce and child custody cases, men having to shoulder the bulk of the financial burdens of society, inequality in child support cases, female rapists getting lighter sentences, etc.
In other words they still haven't figured out what’s hitting them in the back of the noggin every time they throw the boomerang.
We’re not doing asexual reproduction here. Whatever happened to “It takes two to tango?” And WHY do people think that slamming one side of the gender binary isn't going to affect the other?
While it’s true that biology has a massively lopsided way of doing things when it comes to mammalian reproduction, that’s what we've got to work with. Neither man nor woman got a choice in that matter. I’m quite certain otherwise that men would be choosing to get pregnant with regularity in the world, especially in poorer countries where children are still critical economic assets as born labor.
This macro popped up on a news feed of mine yesterday, so I decided to use it as article fodder. Borrowing the list illustrated, I'm going to show you how the oppression of women's reproductive rights has destroyed men's reproductive rights as well.
1. Preventing access to birth control options for women means preventing birth control options for men.
Women have spermicides, condoms, diaphragms, pills, shots, IUD's, implants, rings, rhythm method, Essure, Tubal Ligation, hysterectomy, and abortion.
Men have spermicides, condoms, vasectomies, and testicle removal.
2. Excusing the rapists of women automatically excuses the rapists of men.
Rapists are sexually oriented on power and control, not on gender like a normal person. If you can hold someone down physically, emotionally, mentally, and/or legally, you can rape them. It's that simple.
This is why when men are sexually assaulted, it usually happens when they are still little boys.
But men are certainly not immune.
When you use the 'boys will be boys' excuse, you're also saying "girls will be girls." The attitude that a person is bound instinctively so fully by their gender—so as to be completely untrainable—is the same attitude assumes that girls don't/can't rape a boy.
Accordingly, female rapists are far less likely than males to ever see jail time unless they get caught with outrageously stupid and blatantly obvious evidence against them like phone sexts, child porn pictures, or babies.
This is why you never excuse rape from anybody for ANY reason.
3 and 4. Stigma doesn't discriminate.
Female rape victims are often ignored, shunned, blamed, and stigmatized.
Male rape victims are often ignored, shunned, blamed, stigmatized, PLUS face disbelief that it's physically possible to rape them, PLUS the fact that it's not "manly" to complain about "getting sex" while ignoring the fact that it's not sex, it's a brutal violation of the body involving the genitals, PLUS being even less likely to ever see prosecution happen to their attackers, especially if they were attacked by another man because of the stigma of being gay.
Again, most men who have suffered from sexual assaults in their lifetimes did so as boys. Since when is it EVER considered acceptable to ignore, shun, blame, stigmatize a CHILD? When is it EVER acceptable to tell a little boy that they are not only essentially scum for being raped, he gets the added shame of failing his entire gender by being, "weaker than a girl?"
6 and 7. When women are uneducated and unable to get jobs, it pretty much locks men into being forced to work themselves to death providing for everybody.
I've never met a man with a working wife and shared bills who did not appreciate her income.
8. No paid maternity leave for women means loss of income along with loss of sleep for men.
How is this fair to either mothers or fathers?
Is it fair that new fathers are denied that critical bonding time with their newborns?
We’re not living in the Victorian age anymore, folks. We've finally afforded ourselves the luxury of being able to choose what’s best for our individual families. Men can finally be stay-at-home dads if they want to.
Oh. Wait. No they can’t. Because not only do the vast majority of women not have maternity leave benefits at ALL from their jobs, even if they do, it’s a moot point because it applies only to women. There is no such thing as paternity leave except if you are lucky enough to work for a very enlightened company.
The prevailing societal attitude is that men and fathers are expendable and unimportant.
9 - 14. More of the same.
The GOP would really love nothing more than to keep you chasing the red herring that feminism is the enemy* and the cause of all of this, but the facts are sitting in your bills, men.
You have less money in your wallets, less say in your children's lives, less say in whether or not you want to be a parent, less leeway in court, and less ability to be there for your loved ones. You're getting ripped off and you cannot afford to pretend that women's rights are not the equal partner of men's rights any longer.
Reproductive rights are OUR rights.
*Note: I'm fully aware there are unscrupulous feminists who want punishment and elitism, not equality. I do not subscribe to that line of thinking, and I do not support anybody who does. I plan to write an article/rant about it, but for the sake of not bombing this article with killer tangents, I've deliberately made the choice not to go into it at this time. Thank you for your time.