So far, rhetoric from the Right in 2012 has been hearkening back to 1912 (or far earlier), particularly on the issues surrounding contraception, abortion, and women's rights. From forced vaginal ultrasounds to personhood amendments to attacks on contraception from the pill to condoms it seems as though Republicans are trying to shrink government to be smaller simply so that it can fit in the vaginas of America's women. This is not a question of religious rights. Its a question of human rights. It is unfathomable that the right to legal medical procedures and legal contraceptive devices should be taken away simply because of the outdated moral beliefs of your employer.
Much of the public outcry (which, by the way, has come from the Right, Left, and shadowy Center) has been very productive. Without any kind of election, public outcry has led to some positive changes in State and Federal Governments as well as in the private sector. The fight is certainly not won, but there have been many positive developments.
However, one particular piece of that outcry has worried me. All over the social media platforms I subscribe to are calls from women that men should stop talking about this issue, that men have no right to weigh in on this discussion, that unless you are shaped exactly like them, your voice is not welcome in the discussion. In one way, I understand these feelings. The fat old white men who rule our country have gone out of their way to make sure that women are not included in the conversation. The fact that Congress' most recent panel on birth control and contraception included no women is a travesty. Women should be playing as promenent a role in this discussion at the governmental level as they are on facebook or the twitterverse. Pregnancy, abortion, access to contraception... these are all incredibly important issues for women.
But that does not mean that men have no right to weigh in on these issues. On a personal level, these are male issues as well. I may not have to carry a baby inside of me but I certainly would prefer tools to help me decide when I want to be a father.
However, on a more general level, this is not simple an issue of women's rights. It is an issue of human rights. The idea of baring someone from the conversation simply because they supposedly cannot understand the issue because of their particular life experiences is a dangerous one. Turn it around and it is this kind of moral relativism that allows us to wash our hands of helping those who look or behave differently from us, those who live in different parts of the world, those who have led lives we can hardly imagine. I certainly hope I will never be able to truly relate to the life of say, a child soldier, but I feel perfectly justified in saying that what was done to him was wrong and that steps must be taken to try to ensure that nobody need suffer as he did.
The point of Democratic argument is to present differences of opinion and decide on the correct course of action. Many issues Progressives hold dear may not be able to garner the support of the majority of Americans quite yet... but I do not believe this is one of them. Trying to bar male voices from the argument will simply alienate friends and silence some fantastic advocates. This is a basic issue of human rights, and it is one that the bigots will find themselves on the wrong end of.
YES YES YES YES YES.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it's good to remember, as you pointed out, that it's not just folks on the Left who are against the absurdity going on. Plenty on the Right are incredibly upset as well. We all need to remember that this isn't simply The Republicans. It's a very conservative, very desperate, very crazy faction of the Right. The Republicans who are against this war on women/sex/bodies/health are, in fact, some of our most important allies.
Allies are important. Allies MATTER. Allies are the difference between fringe activism and positive societal change. Because if you want change throughout all of society—change which usually consists at least partly of society as a whole respecting the needs and rights of a minority—society has to be on board, not just the minority.
And it is tricky, walking that line between standing with a group and speaking FOR the group. Yes, men need to be mindful that they speak alongside women, not for them. It's a sensitive area. Navigating it requires communication, on both sides. It requires men to understand an allied, privileged position, but it also requires women to understand that men can be allies, and that allies have voices.
Because as you say, there definitely have been some troubling responses from women who want to silence the men who are on our side. Old, straight, white men may be the perpetrators (or at least the powerful ones), but that doesn't make all men like them. It helps no one to view this as a women-versus-men issue. We need to get back to seeing it as a human-rights-advocates-versus-misogynists issue. Any voice speaking out against the conservative campaign of reproductive tyranny is a voice I want to hear. Rather than stifling allies, we should be supporting dialogues.
We need to encourage an environment in which everyone can work together. We won't all agree on everything, issues of privilege (and politics, and identity, and...) will come up, so it's time to understand that, accept it, and learn to grow from it. Imagine if we could have an environment of informing and educating that isn't viewed as attacking and silencing. That's a goal for ALL progressive movements and discussions, not just this one right now. It demands that people be humble and open, which is not easy, but is necessary.
And with this issue, it isn't actually just about birth control, or transvaginal ultrasounds, or zygote personhood. As you stated in the beginning, it's about a faction of the government trying to infringe on individual, human rights. The fact that it's playing out in, on, and around women's bodies simply reflects larger issues of misogyny, which make women's bodies the more acceptable battleground.
(Also, to have a queer advocate moment: while I've used the term women throughout this, it's important for all of us to remember that not all people with uteri identify as women.)