*Dusts off soapbox* Ahem.
Last year I decided to attempt and be an advocate for a few things that I feel fairly strongly about: people not giving a damn about other people, universal access to clean water, same-sex marriages, etc. Each of these issues is important to me and I would love to take my little soapbox all the way to D.C. to bitch at the people who are being so ignorant about all of it.
But today is a special day. Today I want to rant about legislation that directly affects me. To begin I want to say that I am not as well-educated on this subject as I am on the other issues I've discussed. I don't have a lot of pretty statistics to write down or any fancy and convincing quotations from experts. or anything like that. What I have is a brain and feelings, and I want to have those feelings heard- if only be the internet.
So, let's just get this sort of taken care of right here: I'm going to be ranting about all this extremely terrible legislation involving rape and abortion. And I'm fairly certain this is not going to be pretty.
When I first learned about rape I was told, repeatedly, that it was not about sex. It's about power and control. (Unfortunately for the second part of my ranting, it's still sex, but we'll get to that.) I'm not sure when the psychology of rape was lost on all these politicians, but it seems like they've never heard this concept. I get that some of them may be a little older than this being taught in schools- but why the hell aren't they researching this subject in depth?
Not to mention the biology of it- I know they learned about that. Or at least learned enough to know what sex is and what sex isn't. Unless they're just a bunch of virgins and can't admit it because they have four kids.
Now, what confuses me most about all of this hullabaloo is this idea of "legitimate rape."
Let me say that again: Legitimate. Rape.
As if somehow being raped isn't bad enough, now there's a question about whether or not it was legitimate. "Oh, I'm sorry, it appears your body had an involuntary reaction to this forced act, clearly that was a conscious decision on your part and you liked it.
Or, my favorite, "You were in an area, alone, at night, where you know there would be other people. Why do such a thing when you know something like this could happen?" "Why wear such a short skirt and a tube top unless you wanted some?"
I mean, what? Somehow you are responsible for things your body does, like...oh I don't know, yawning after seeing someone yawn. Sure there's a slight difference because yawning isn't traumatic, nor does it often bring out your fight or flight response. But still- the idea is the same. It's an involuntary response to a stimulus.
And this whole business about "asking for it"? What. The. Hell? Maybe someone, somewhere, has one of those domination kinks where something like this is desirable. But for the majority of us? Uncomfortable, humiliating, and all around demoralizing.
Yes, I'll have a side helping of "my life is shit" tonight. I really needed something truly horrible to happen to me to make everything else in my life look just that much worse.
I love when that happens, don't you? Somehow adding another crappy thing to my life makes everything okay. So of course I would encourage such a thing.
Barf. Just...barf.
And, finally, this whole thing where, if a woman is impregnated during rape it's not actually rape because "the body has natural defenses to stop itself from getting pregnant if it's rape."
Um...what? I think I smell something, and it's not formaldehyde because they clearly skipped biology.
Where do they get this information? Do they live in that world that Katie talks about in Horton Hears a Who where everyone eats rainbows and poops butterflies? Just...no.
Sorry, the body cannot somehow distinguish between forced ejaculate and....happy ejaculate. It's all sent into the body in the same way. A woman has the same chance of getting pregnant during rape that she does any other time sex happens.
There are a lot of things I partially understand. Hell even this new Arizona legislation I'm going to bitch about makes some sense.
What I don't understand, is why this kind of stuff exists in politics. To be so completely ignorant and just plain stupid should not be allowed in the public sphere- and certainly not out there making the laws that govern us. Keep your stupidity to yourself.
Which brings me to my next topic- this new law in Arizona that defines pregnancy as starting at the end of the previous menstrual cycle.
See, this almost makes sense to me. I get that the idea is that the ovum is technically beginning it's maturation. So the potential for life exists. I get it.
But...come on. Really? Unless that egg is fertilized that day, there's no potential for life. Honestly, even if the deal was that it was something ridiculous like "once conception has occurred the pregnancy is considered to have started the first time the female participated in coitus after the termination of the previous menstrual cycle." (Like how fancy that sounded?) See- then at least the potential for conception existed. Still stupid.
And all of this bureaucratic bullshit is focusing on one thing- abortion laws.
I'm not sure if I've said this on here, but I'm pro-choice with a very pro-life mentality. I don't want abortion to exist, I certainly don't want my taxes to go towards it, and I always hope that there's another option for those women to choose.
But God help you if you try to take that right away from women. Because as much as I don't want it to happen- those women are going to make that choice regardless and I want the safest possible environment for them and will defend them
It takes a lot of guts to go through with an abortion. Because every time they go into that clinic, people will insulting them, telling them they are horrible people, and generally making the whole situation even more stressful than it is by default. There's no reason that these protestors should be allowed anywhere near that building.
But this is America. And we're free to do shit like that.
One more time: This is America. Let's try and uphold those values we've been trying to- you know that whole freedom thing?
The most startling thing in all of this is that most of these legislators, the people making laws that affect women and their bodies and mental state, are men.
I honestly cannot think of anything more insulting and horrifying as a bunch of men who don't know basic biology and psychology making laws that affect woman where biology and psychology are important factors.
So to these men who just want to "protect unborn lives," just...fuck off. If you're so concerned with the global population go have sex with your wife and your five mistresses and leave the policy-making to someone who understands what they're talking about.
