I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping. (Margaret Atwood ~ The Handmaid’s Tale)
When I read Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s tale several years ago, I was still a believer. I was very struck by the desperate tone of the book and its religious over tones. For the uninitiated a quick synopsis:
In the future, infertility is widespread.The story is presented from the point of view of a woman called Offred ( The character is one of a class of individuals kept as a concubine (“handmaid”) for reproductive purposes by the ruling class. Abortion is strictly forbidden, and the novel is a powerful story of control and freedom. For an American, it beings up the most divisive issue of my lifetime:
Abortion.
It’s where politics and religion merge and ugly divisiveness is born.
It’s the quintessential religious/political issue in America.
But if you think it is about LIFE, or children, you are mistaken. Children die from war, childhood disease, abuse, lack of healthcare, etc..yet where are the protests? Where are those people to demand a minimally good quality of life for ALL children? Unfortunately post-birth children and people die and suffer needlessly from a myriad of causes and these people aren’t in the streets to raise awareness of it…why?
Simple.
Because it is about CONTROL. Control over women.
Think I am just a super cynic? Consider this: In a country where babies and life were ‘sacred’ wouldn’t they offer free childcare? Women’s healthcare? Pre-natal care? Children’s healthcare?
To the Catholic church (and Christianity in the U.S) QUANTITY of children simply means MORE money in the coffers and greater dependency on the church. Power over a mother and her reproduction is VERY powerful, and very sinister in the hands of those with the power to administer guilt. It is a little scary to think that to the Catholic church we are nothing but brood mares, HANDMAIDS, if you will.
The ability to plan your family and have control over quantity of children and quality of life is VERY new in the human experience, and a BIG threat to those who used to control religious fear and superstition. People who can plan a family, can plan a future, can provide themselves and their children with opportunity.
At the same time, of course people against abortion have a PERFECT right codified in the first amendment to express their views, BUT before you throw a little plastic fetus at someone here is the bottom line:
Getting an abortion is an awful experience. No woman WANTS to have an abortion. It is physically painful, emotionally devastating and most importantly…ABSOLUTELY NONE of your business. Are you willing to adopt every unwanted child born? Pay for their college tuition? No? Then as crude as it may sound: please shut the fuck up. Because the first amendment allows ME to say that too.
And the flip side of the coin is as ugly: China’s one child policy that results in forced abortions is the same logic, namely control. It has resulted in a sinister manifestation of misogyny: the selective abortion of the female fetus. China, forced into such a policy by an exploding birth rate has created a reverse handmaid’s tale universe, and may be on the road to creating a real one since the policy has caused an artificial shortage of women.
I have often said cynically that if men got pregnant, abortions would be available at the 7-11. But worse still is the realization that men simply would not ASK permission, that would not be forced to beg for the right to their own body. As with all things the balance of extremes is the best: women must have access to safe effective birth control and legal safe abortions, and ABORTION or BIRTH is never a decision that should be coerced or forced upon any woman.
Life is too sacred for that.
Speaking of the sacredness of life….
I am a mother . My nine year old son is the sun around which I orbit..he is the center of my universe and I love him beyond description. My experience as a parent has been wonderful. Why? Because I was ready for him, I wanted him, and I had power over my choice. I had power.
Imagine each woman as her OWN handmaid.
If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine. ~Michael Jay Tucker
Yeah.
OK enough serious crap! What would one of my posts be without poking fun at religious ‘logic’? I present the Libertyville abortion protests…notice that even though they believe abortion is ‘murder’ they aren’t willing to put those ‘murderers’ to death!
Awesome possum!
I liked the part about your son and the fact you had a choice, that was good.
I think China (and India’s) problem with a shortage of females is more complicated than simple misogyny.
For thousands of years those dominant cultures used sons as their social security system. Despite the Communist Revolution in China, the eldest son is still the only retirement plan for extremely poor Chinese. As a woman, it was (and still is) your only insurance in old age to have a son who will support you.
In most of the world, females have been so utterly objectified, they are now a sort of burden, like an expensive car. Your average Indian peasant sees a roomful of daughters as a herd of Mercedes he can’t afford to keep or sell (the dowry problem).
But I’m getting off topic, anyhoo I like your essay about choice vs. the American Taliban nuts.
I totally agree with you about India and China..and China. Since both have to deal with a population problem, it is difficult to imagine WHAT they could do besides mandate birth control, or in the case of China abortion. The population imbalance between males and females is an interesting phenomenon and may have unforeseen consequences in China.