Just add some sexism to misogyny, rinse and repeat. I should have had something put together sooner, but I didn't. Exactly. I kept starting diaries, and not finishing them. Somewhere between the winter storm and utter disgust, lay my procrastination. I wouldn't say I was stumped, but mostly just pissed off. Resentful because I would rather focus on the environment, but for this, metastasizing feature of Western culture (one of many) that insists on hypersexualizing women while simultaneously invoking what I can only describe as Victorian sexual mores.
Follow me through the orange flaming hoop for more.
I think it's been the discussions about women in the military that finally did me in this week. Old wounds hurt the most, especially in the context of having to repeat the same conversations, over and over and over, since like the 1980s and for some of us, since even longer than that. I should apologize, but I am not going to. Sometimes I just have to stop, and remind myself to breathe. This is just pure, unadulterated, outrage, exhaustion.
Informed Consent is once again, becoming an issue of contention for uppity womerns every where. I know it's difficult to imagine, but we like to be informed of all our options and given the opportunity to decide what is best for us in that moment, much to the chagrin of the Catholic Church and various other American entities at large.
Catholic Hospital's Religious Rules Lead To Negligent Care in Miscarriage ACLU Says.
This is a contemporary story. The incident happened in 2010, but the case just now received a ruling. This happened in America. Time after time, our (womens') worst fears are realized when zealots are allowed to dictate the quality and scope of our care, based on interpretations of religion. A woman is forced to suffer excruciating pain during a prolonged miscarriage, in which she is never allowed informed consent by the hospital, that refuses to tell her that the fetus she is miscarrying has no chance of survival. So the entire time, while she is in pain, she is fed false hope that a baby might be born premature. The hospital staff decided to lie to her, for her own good, because speeding up this process would have been too much like giving her an abortion.
Luckily her story did not end like that of Savita Halappanavar.
Savita Halappanavar, a dentist of Indian origin, died in a hospital in Galway city last month from complications when a termination of her pregnancy was delayed after she had been miscarrying for several days. She was 27.
For those of you who do not know what
Informed Consent is:
Assent to permit an occurrence, such as surgery, that is based on complete disclosure of facts needed to make the decision intelligently such as knowledge of risks entailed or alternatives.
Other definitions base this notion on community standards of care. I would offer that this standard of care is being changed for women, for the worse. That reasonable expectations on our part for complete information and the power to consent and to exercise our options are eroding by the second thanks to cases like this in addition to outrageously sexist legislation by religious extremists and their agents.
Case(s) in Point:
1. State Sanctioned Rape by Instrumentation: Vaginal Probes.
2. Conscience Clauses allowing individuals to refuse to fill prescriptions of birth control pills to female patients. According to the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of Americans do not support such a clause. It was also a topic in the 2013 Govt Shutdown.
3. Various laws allowing relatives of a woman to sue a doctor for providing an abortion, because HER decision can be trumped by parents, spouses, in-laws, etc.,
Even when laws are overturned or legislation thrown out-- the fact that these pieces of legislation were given serious thought, as though they served a purpose other than to deny American women their human rights and their civil rights is simply shocking and demoralizing, hurtful and infuriating. I can only look up at the people who try to pass this crap, and call them traitors. I am an American--I don't deserve to be treated like this. No American woman deserves to be treated like this.
This week Hobby Lobby is in the news again, about whether or not a corporation can be a church too, so that it can hire you, and simultaneously force you to live by it's religious "moral" code. And I used the term "moral," loosely. Another diarist pointed out the hypocrisy of Hobby Lobby, refusing to fund birth control, while buying all it's material from China, which is famous for the repression of Christianity, sweat shop labor, and a one child policy that would make Margaret Atwood shudder.
The American Military is still wrestling with it's own lack of political will to make real, lasting, and positive change for female service members. Even after decades of opportunities to make that change all on their own, the brass balks when women and the public get fed up and look for means outside the chain of command, to stop the epidemic of sexual assault and harassment against women in the service.
How could an Army Sgt pressure cash-strapped female GIs into prostitution? Well in the military, having money problems is considered a security risk. And it wouldn't be difficult for a person with more experience to convince any other young recruit, that they might lose their spot in a technical school, or lose an advancement opportunity, via the loss of a security clearance due to said money problems. See Fort Hood Sentinel for a more in depth explanation.
Loss of a school or security clearance can and often does have an enormous impact on a person's career, and will often determine retention status at some near, future date. The military can force you out if you have consistent or serious issues with debt, see the General Article of the UCMJ, 134.
Young, new recruits are easily victimized because they are of low rank (junior personnel), with fewer professional connections due to their junior (new) status, a lack of experience, and a lack of professional knowledge. The regulations that govern their command, their military branch of service and the Dept of Defense in general are mysterious and complex. It is easy for someone with rank and authority (and experience) to warp the truth and scare the shit out of any new recruit that might be having troubles of any kind.
See also the AR 600-15 on Soldier Indebtedness
The topic of Women's Rights is complex. It's more than just about rape and abortion. Women's Rights are about how we are able to live in this world, in this society and whether or not we live as equals or as something less that equal.
It's also about what happens to us as mothers.
Oddly enough, Pantene nailed a big part of this picture as well in a commercial. Women's rights are also what happens to us in the professional world. Thank you Huffpo for posting this.
The Pantene commercial reminds me of the lessons my mother taught me as a working mom back inthe 1970s. Everything old is new again. She struggled with the same labels, I struggled with the same labels 20 years later. We are stuggling with the same labels, the same tired old attacks on our freedoms, health and credibility.
Outrage Exhaustion is everywhere. "I write with great weariness. We have done this before." This story reminds me that just because someone is religious, doesn't make that person anti-woman, and doesn't make them an extremist. Intellectually I know this, but it is grand to be directly reminded from time to time, outside my own close circle of friends and acquaintances. On most days when I read the latest on the War on Women, religion is often a invoked as a reason for these attacks on our human and civil rights. It is easy to feel there are no friends to women in religion as a result.
My thoughts for the future: What would it be like, if future presidential candidates would sign a clause that expresses a position opposite to this one? That a candidate pledge to uphold women's rights, as human rights, as unalienable rights that cannot be undermined by gender, gender identity, or reproductive status; what would such a pledge look like?
A Remembrance:
The life and the works of Nelson Mandela will not be forgotten. The effect this one, great man had on the world will be felt through many generations, all over the world. A soul that reminds us all, that passion for a cause does not have to remain seated in anger or hatred, but that we can achieve a better victory by focusing on the work to right wrongs, rather than simply living inside past injustices. Mr Mandela, a friend to women because he saw us, this soul sees us as human beings. He accomplished so much more, but this is a special thank you to this soul for remembering and supporting the women of his country, his continent and of the world with his work and his words.
Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.
Nelson Mandela, quoted by Ms Magazine.
Nelson Mandela: How he freed the Women of South Africa.
“As a tribute to the legions of women who navigated the path of fighting for justice before us, we ought to imprint in the supreme law of the land, firm principles upholding the rights of women. The women themselves and the whole of society, must make this a prime responsibility […] Together, we have it in our power to change South Africa for the better.” Aug 9 1995 qtd by the Telegraph
The story goes on to state that:
Mandela set about creating a constitution, which gave South African women one of the most comprehensive set of rights in the world including the right to “bodily and psychological integrity”, the right to “make decisions concerning reproduction” and to “security in and control over their body." It also protected women from discrimination, rape and domestic violence.
The right to bodily and psychological integrity and the right to make decisions concerning reproduction.
Meanwhile, here in the United States, members of the GOP who pretend to understand this soul and his work, sign pledges that attack our bodily and psychological integrity and our ability to make informed, independent decisions about our reproductive capabilities or desires.
It's up to us to keep fighting the good fight.
Women's Rights are Human Rights.
6:36 PM PT: A diary that goes more in depth, into the women vs religious hospital issue:
ALCU Lawsuit Highlights Growing Dangers For Women at Catholic Hospitals.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Well worth the read!