Fun blog I put together with a friend of mine this week after the Hobby Lobby BS hit the fan.
https://writingstoed.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/feminine-hypocrisy/
If there’s anything the Hobby Lobby ruling screams…it screams hypocrisy.
Yes, as a woman and as a human being, I of course think the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case is a terrible one. However, my opposition to that decision has less to do with its birth control aspect and a lot more to do with the religion issue, and specifically with the “morality” issue inherent in the SCOUTS decision. Hobby Lobby is now not required to have its health insurance pay for contraception for women because the company’s religious beliefs relegate that action to being immoral. (I will completely gloss over the glaring facts that the company’s retirement plan invests in contraceptive companies, that a company can now apparently have yet another individual right: freedom of/from religion, that their insurance plan covers ED meds which can encourage immoral fornication, and that the decision opens the odor to endless suits seeking to restrict other rights via religious freedom challenges.)
No, this particular piece will be about the hypocrisy of all those who are up in arms about how this decision allows someone else to make decisions about their lives and, more particularly, their bodies without being equally upset all the other ways that our bodies, especially women’s bodies, are controlled by others.
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Birth Control.
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the debate that has raged about women’s access to contraception, most recently with “morning after” medications.
The Hobby Lobby case is directly related to that access.
The fact that (mostly white male) legislative bodies have attempted to prevent women from having access to contraception for decades is well-known. Their reasoning has essentially been that if women can utilize contraceptives and prevent pregnancy, they will become wanton sluts because sex will no longer have penalties for them in the form of unwanted pregnancies. (Kind of like men.) In other words, women will become immoral because they can have sex with anyone they want, any time they want, for any reason they want and for many (mostly male dominated) religions, sex itself is immoral, especially when the sex is driven by, and for the benefit and pleasure of, women.
But women stood together and fought for their rights to their own bodies and now have access to contraception, both for prevention of pregnancy and extremely early termination and are still moral people. The Hobby Lobby decision doesn’t take that access away.
What is does is to force women to pay for their own contraception, based on an arbitrary religiously-motivated notion of morality. That’s discriminatory – if for no other reason than economics – and many women and women’s organizations totally support the right of all women to be the sole arbiters of what they do with their bodies and have voiced their objections to the decision, but it’s still not an actual erosion of their hard-won right to access and utilize contraception. Especially since in this case, the Federal government will step in and pay for the cost of medication.
Abortion. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the debate that has raged about women’s access to abortion.
The fact that (mostly white male) legislative bodies have attempted to prevent women from having access to abortion procedures for decades is well-known. Their reasoning has been that if women can terminate a pregnancy, they will become wanton sluts because sex will no longer have penalties for them in the form of an unwanted pregnancy. In other words, abortion will encourage women to become immoral because they can have sex with anyone they want, any time they want, for any reason they want and for many (mostly male dominated) religions, sex itself is immoral, especially when the sex is driven by, and for the benefit and pleasure of, women.
But women stood together and fought for their rights to their own bodies and have had access to abortion for decades now. And while many (mostly white male) legislative bodies are now attempting to curtail that access by imposing severely limiting and even invasive restrictions on it, it’s still available and women are still moral people.
Health insurance has rarely paid for abortions, usually based on an arbitrary religiously-motivated notions of morality. That’s discriminatory – if not no other reason than economics – and many women and women’s organizations totally support the right of all women to be the sole arbiters of what they do with their bodies and have voiced their objections to restrictive policies, but it’s still not an actual erosion of their hard-won right to have an abortion.
Prostitution?Unlike Birth Control and abortion, however, it seems quite a bit less of the Nation, both male and female, are familiar with the debate that has raged about prostitution, but they at least know what it is.
Or they think they do, because it is almost uniformly promoted as a bad thing that exploits women. The fact that (mostly white male) legislative bodies have for centuries actively prevented women and men from having sex with anyone they want, any time they want, in return for compensation is well-known.
The reasoning for this always essentially has been that if people have consensual sex with other people in exchange for mutually agreed upon compensation then those people, according to many (mostly male dominated) religions, are automatically immoral, especially when the sex is driven by, and for the benefit of, women. Yes, for the benefit of women (and men) who choose to work in a branch of Prostitution (Escort, Street, Brothel); not for their exploitation but their choice of how to use their bodies and how they want to make a living.
Many of the very same women who stood together and fought for the rights of all women to be able to do what they wanted with their bodies with respect to utilizing contraception and abortion, now vehemently and hypocritically oppose the right of some other women to choose what to do with their bodies; use them to have sex in return for compensation.
And while many (mostly white male) legislative bodies continue to allow women and men to be prosecuted for having consensual sex for compensation, they are actively supported in this suppression of free will by many (mostly female) activists.
So, there are apparently degrees of freedom,
degrees of bodily autonomy and those degrees are still being dictated by a few and supported by many others who purport to believe in the inviolability of a woman’s body with regard to birth control and abortion, but not with regard to sex work.
Hypocrisy, indeed. But who are the real hypocrites?
Decide for yourself…
AMIRIGHT, MY SISTERS?!
Feminine Hypocrisy - Blog About Women's/Human Rights
