Remember Kyle? My favorite e-correspondent on the ins and outs of third wave feminism recently pointed out that I don't make clear on this blog my stance on prostitution. We agreed that you can probably guess based on my posts about other things, but hey--let's actually talk about it!
-I believe that prostitution should be decriminalized and regulated.
-I believe our justice system's MO of prosecuting the hooker and not the john is both stupid and reprehensible.
-An underage girl having sex for money should be treated as a victim, not a criminal.
-I am appalled by the way our society frequently treats prostitutes as negligible human beings.
I do recognize that this is a tricky subject. Obviously, many sex workers would rather not be in their line of business, and rather than punish them further we need to provide more alternatives to poverty. The Clinton administration slogan on abortion was "safe, legal and rare*"-- I suppose my stance on prostitution is "safe, legal and willing."
*Speaking of which, this phrase has been dropped from the 2008 Democratic Party platform--in exchange for more detailed language which many feminists feel improves the platform, in that it is more specific in its support for comprehensive sex ed, family planning, and post-partum help for women who DO have children. Hooray for saying "choice" and meaning it! (And it was primarily written by Obama's policy director, Karen Kornbluh!)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wednesdays With Kyle (Working Girl Edition)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Grey Murder?
Here's my thought provoking question du jour: Is it hypocritical to support abortion ONLY in cases of rape or incest? Isn't that like saying, "A fetus is a life, abortion is murder...unless you've suffered in these specific ways. Then that fetus is NOT a life. To Hell with that fetus!" It proves that many anti-choice people actually just have a problem with women's sexuality--if they're willingly having sex, then we want to punish them by stripping them of control over their bodies. We call it murder. If the women are victims, and we don't have any way to judge them, they're no kind of sexual threat so "murder" is okay.
I know that many (maybe most?) anti-choicers don't even approve of abortion in the case of rape or incest, so obviously these points don't necessarily extend to all of them. You know, to cover my ass.
Now, this news may shock you, but I am pro-choice. I believe that abortion is alright, and should be safe and legal. And if we say "abortion is right," can we really judge the circumstances under which people get them? When liberals bristle over the implication that women have abortions for frivolous reasons by responding that most women DON'T have them for frivolous reasons*, that reinforces the idea that there are BAD reasons to get abortions. Just not wanting a baby isn't good enough. Now, for most women, the decision to get an abortion is a huge decision, one most of us hope we'll never have to make. But if the decision's not that difficult, if the woman just knows, "I don't feel like carrying a baby for 9 months, birthing it, and possibly raising it," if we believe in a woman's right to govern her own body then there is not only no excuse, but no reason to judge.
Just to lighten things up (I'm afraid I'm getting too serious on y'all), here is the crazy website that, tangentially, inspired this post:
http://www.jonathontheimpalerforpresident2008.us/Campaign_Page.html
*As Whoopi recently did on The View, not to criticize Whoopi, I'm just sayin'
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Potent nomenclature
Something I only just discovered through reading posts on Feministing: being in favor of "forced pregancy" is the new term for being "anti-choice."
I have to say, I am in favor of this term. It might seem over-the-top to some of you, but anti-abortionists are often over-the-top, and this is honestly an over-the-top issue. If you're a fan of this term you can buy a button from NOW.
So, are you a fan of this term? Or is it too much? Please discuss in the comments.
Here is an article on the new verbiage. Also, a search on Feministing for "forced pregancy" brings up lots of good results, if you've fallen behind on reproductive news.
UPDATE: "S" in the comments has mostly changed my mind on this. I still believe that the term isn't inaccurate linguistically, though it is obviously not the same as its common (perhaps more precise) usage. And I do think that, applied appropriately, it could potentially reframe the argument in a way that has always appealed to me. (That being the "making women have babies" thing.) However, S is correct that it's not really going to make the cause more sympathetic or change anyone's mind, it's aggressive in a non-productive way, and it is a slight to the form of forced pregnancy that S cites. So again, what do y'all think?
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