But, before I am anything else, I am a person, and I would like to have my bodily autonomy and health care issues treated as such.
All of this makes me so tired. And sad.
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» Do It Your Own Way: thisgingerisback: tw: rapelike THIS IS THE GOAL OF THE PRO-LIFE...
tw: rape
like THIS IS THE GOAL OF THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT. it is’t about ~saving babies~ it’s about controlling every fucking aspect about a woman’s body and life
and if you refuse to see that, you’re backing the movement that is more invested in giving rights to…
I would just like to say that for the most part I am pro life because of the babies that are “botched abortions” if they get rid of being allowed to kill those babies after they are already born, then I would be completely pro choice because shit happens I know that and even worse, bad shit happens to woman with rape, incest, and having their lives in danger if they have the baby. I would never judge you if you got an abortion. But like I said, I can’t handle the thought of live babies being put in a dark closet, without a blanket…. to die in their first few moments of life. I just can’t.(I WOULD LIKE TO ONCE AGAIN POINT OUT, THAT ABORTIONS SHOULD BE LEGAL. BOTCHED ABORTIONS SHOULD NOT. THAT’S MY WHOLE POINT. My name has nothing to do with it and the stupidity of the person who tried to make a joke out of this because of the name just baffles me. Rape isn’t funny, incest isn’t funny, and there is not place for that crap in a serious conversation. Seriously grow up.)
Also the video on this site. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/04/15/wh_no_comment_on_protecting_babies_born_after_botched_abortions.html
http://aclj.org/planned-parenthood/362-infants-born-alive-result-botched-abortions-died-decade
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/14/babies-born-alive-after-abortions-abortion-clinic-workers-testify/
Also, I knew someone who used to work in an abortion clinic, she quit because she was REQUIRED to put the babies in the closet and not go near them again until their death.
(hopefully this worked this time)
It worked, but probably not quite like how you were expecting.
- First of all, “real clear politics” is a conservative-leaning news source. It doesn’t take much research to figure that out. And… absolutely nothing in that first link provides any sort of solid evidence that “botched abortions” are supported and approved by the pro-choice movement? In fact my favourite line was “You’re asking for hypotheticals about legislation or proposed legislation that I haven’t seen, so it’s hard for me to comment on it.” I mean, what the fuck is the point of that first link in the first place? It’s a bunch of politicians taking about hypothetical situations. I think the bill in question was HB 1129 and yeah, Planned Parenthood was against that, because of the clause that said if a baby were born in these bizarre circumstances then the rights of parenthood would be stripped from the mother. It’s such a vague, weird piece of legislation that people criticizing it are absolutely in their rights to do so.
- Your second link is fucking laughable right off the bat. The ACLJ? Friend, that was founded by Pat-fucking-Robertson. You know, the dude that blamed the people of Haiti for the devastating earthquake? The guy who blamed 9/11 on “the feminists, the abortionists, the gays, and the lesbians”? You’re seriously expecting me to take that source seriously? The dude is a fucking hate-mongering bigot. BESIDES, that entire fiasco has been debunked so many times it’s actually painful to see you buying into it. Here’s what ThinkProgress had to say on the matter in their article ”How The Right Wing Manufactured A Fake Controversy Over Planned Parenthood’s ‘Infanticide’” (I would provide a link but unfortunately tumblr’s new reblog system is weird and stressful so look it up if you’d like)
Aside from the fact that Planned Parenthood was essentially backed into a corner by Florida Republicans — forced to testify against an unnecessary provision within a misleading piece of legislation, and then forced to respond to an imaginary “botched abortion” procedure that’s already against the law in the state — the organization’s position on caring for infants is already quite clear. Planned Parenthood has a long historyof providing professional medical care to women and their children. Abortion opponents often attempt to misconstrue Planned Parenthood as an irresponsible organization that doesn’t adhere to medical standards, but its clinics already provide high-quality primary care and preventative services to millions of people across the country.
The organization responded to the manufactured controversy to clarify this point. “As a trusted health care provider, Planned Parenthood strongly condemns any physician who does not follow the law or endangers a woman’s or child’s health,” aPlanned Parenthood representative testifiedbefore the Florida House Health & Human Services Committee on Thursday. “And while HB 1129 addresses a situation that is extremely unlikely and highly unusual, if the scenario presented by the legislation should happen, of course a Planned Parenthood doctor would provide appropriate care to both the woman and the infant.”
Perhaps the ultimate irony of the right-wing’s imagined controversy is that — even in states where it’s not against the law to perform late-term induced abortions — Planned Parenthood clinics don’t provide that type of service. Many Planned Parenthood affiliates only perform abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy, when women can eithertake a pillor have a less-invasive surgical procedure. It’s actually the women whodon’thave access to Planned Parenthood clinics, which areunder attack across the countryas GOP-controlled legislatures do their best to shut them down, who are forced to resort todangerous, illegal, late-term abortion serviceslike the ones described at the Florida hearing.
“Botched abortions” ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD, ABORTION PROVIDERS, OR PRO-CHOICE INDIVIDUALS.
- Your final source is from LifeNews. Life. News. It has “life” in the title. It is a pro-life, hateful, fear-mongering website, and the link you used is yet again trying to make it out that Planned Parenthood is totally for killing babies after they’ve been born—and that’s been debunked here numerous times so I’m not even going to get into it.
You are literally buying into anti-choice propaganda that has been spreading these smear-campaigns across the country in hopes to dupe people like yourself who take what’s being said at face value without ever doing your own research. Please, from now on, when you find a story, check the source and for the love of god read up on what’s ACTUALLY happening outside of what these republican think-tanks are jerking off to.
“Botched abortions” and “partial birth abortions” are devices used by the anti-choice movement to push their fearmongering agenda. Even in events where terrible, TERRIBLE things happen (because yeah, they do) that doesn’t mean that the pro-choice movement as a whole supports them. Because we don’t. And we’re loud about calling out the bullshit that happens.
Plus, late-term abortions—the ones that would potentially (maybe) result in the cases you are citing—are for the most part either illegal or incredibly difficult to obtain. Meaning that the likelihood of these instances being prevalent or even occurring is.. well, slim to none. If you’re TRULY concerned about “botched abortions,” throw your support behind the pro-choice movement, because we’re the ones preventing these. Women who cannot get the abortion services they so desperately need and deserve often resort to extreme measures that could, potentially, end in a “botched abortion” type scenario—but this is because she was forced to wait, can no longer get her abortion legally, and is at her wit’s end. You stop “botched abortions” by being pro-choice, NOT by buying into right-wing conservative anti-choice propaganda!
Pro-Choice never wants a person to have to resort to a dangerous, illegal, unsanitary abortion. Pro-choice is Anti-Botched-Abortion—as every fucking person should be.
But Pro-life is about intimidation, fear, misinformation, and it is about men controlling women. (or anyone who can become pregnant)
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Regarding all this talk about Birth Control and The Like
I don’t like to talk too much about myself online.
I don’t like to talk about my health, full stop.
But there’s a lot of scary stuff happening in Virginia, on the floor of our legislature, and around this country.
Right now, like this very instant, I am in some pretty bad pain. I won’t say horrible, or searing, nauseating, or excruciating, because that is what the pain was like today at noon when I had to leave work early. But still pretty bad.
Six years ago, when I was nineteen, I had a cyst the size of a softball removed from my ovary. Before I had that surgery, I was in searing, nauseating pain for nearly three months. Because no doctor at the university medical center would believe me that what I felt was worse than just “cramps” or “gas.”
I passed out during church (I went to church back then).
I had to crawl into an elevator because I couldn’t walk from the pain.
And now that pain is coming back. It’s been sneaking up on me. But I’ve been afraid to go to the doctor. Afraid to face up to having been uninsured and unable to pay for medication for the last two and a half years, despite specific orders that I remain on birth control always and forever. Afraid to see a new doctor and explain what I KNOW is happening to me, because I remember what it was like to be dismissed. Afraid to remind my parents that I am currently on birth control, which they strongly disagree with, despite it being the tenuous shield that is protecting my health.
All these legislators are arguing to try to take away my ability to own and control my body. It just makes me sick to my stomach. And I don’t need that right now.
It is ridiculous enough that I am afraid to go to the doctor because my experiences tell me that I won’t be taken seriously without having to see headline after headline about how some old men are certain that I cannot possibly know what is best for my life and my body. Because none of this is about religion, it’s about making sure that I will never have the confidence to walk into my gynecologist’s office and say, “I’m 25, I don’t ever want to have kids, and this uterus and these ovaries have been nothing but trouble to me, please take them away.”
I’m having a sonogram tomorrow, and hopefully some wonderful, understanding, feminist doctor will come and zap me with a magical laser and I will be okay forever. Because I just want my body back.
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» I’M NOT OKAY WITH CHRIS BROWN PERFORMING AT THE GRAMMYS AND I’M NOT SURE WHY YOU ARE
And, this week, Grammy producers confirmed that Chris Brown will be performing on Sunday’s show.
“We’re glad to have him back,” said executive producer Ken Ehrlich. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”
Read that quote again. Think hard about what is being said. Here is what this quote says to any woman who’s ever been abused:
- By blacklisting Chris Brown from the Grammys for a “few” years (actually, a grand total of TWO Grammy Awards), the Grammys have gone above and beyond expectations for the social exile of an adult man who hit his girlfriend so hard she went to the hospital, and honestly it was really, really hard for them to show even that much support for victims of domestic violence worldwide.
- It was rather thoughtless of Rihanna to go and get herself hit in the face by her boyfriend, because it’s put such a burden on the Grammys. Maybe if she hadn’t made such a big fuss out of it, things could have been easier for everyone.
- The Grammys think that they were the victim of Chris Brown hitting Rihanna in the face.
- The Grammys. Think. That they. Were the victim. Of Chris Brown. Hitting. Rihanna. In the face
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» Science: "Ladies, We Still Don't Understand Your Orgasms"
After all this time, and all this science, scientists are still unsure of the evolutionary purpose of the female orgasm. Men have orgasms so they can ejaculate and spread their seed to continue their lineage. But why do women have orgasms? And more curiously, why do so few women — 1 out of 10 — actually have them? What it comes down to is this: No one can really figure it out. The female orgasm might be just as vestigial as lactation in men, a byproduct of a bygone part of our biological makeup that shows how very similar we really are. Not that we’re complaining about our useless orgasms, but still. Sometimes it’s cool to know what’s going on behind all that excitement.Wait.
Only 10% of women have orgasms?!
Because…. that seems incorrect.
I’m pretty fucking sure more than 10% of women masturbate, and that’s a means to orgasm. Right? RIGHT??
Okay, I’m about to go have an elusive female orgasm (or several) because I’m suddenly feeling extremely insecure about my ability to come. What if they take it away? WHAT IF??!?
There’s no fucking way. Maybe only 1 in 10 women report having orgasms during intercourse. But I HIGHLY doubt only 1 in 10 women have ever had an orgasm in her lifetime.
Plus, why are scientists still arguing about this? Female orgasms obviously have an advantage when you (male scientists!) stop implicitly assuming rape is an evolutionarily advantageous mating strategy AND if you stop projecting contemporary sexism back into prehistory.
I think it’s safe to assume that our ancient forebears had no fucking clue how reproduction actually worked. They likely understood that sex had something to do with it, but I doubt they even suspected the link between ejaculation and fertilization, especially given that human female ovulation is not obvious to the naked eye. Cavemen would have sex with cavewomen and sometimes a baby would be the result, sometimes not.
It’s likely that ancient humans thought women were the main (re)producers of life, i.e. had the most control over when they conceived. Raping women randomly might get you offspring, but it might also get you kicked the fuck out of your tribe/village/whatever.
We also know for a fact that human children are helpless for a long time after birth. A woman recovering from childbirth couldn’t go out and bring home a fucking wooly mammoth on her own. She needed a partner (or several) to help support her and her children while they were helpless. Given this (and some evidence from studying the few preindustrialized peoples left living in remote corners of the earth), it’s likely that early humans raised children communally. That would ensure evolutionary success, not just a bunch of cave dudes putting their cave dicks into unwilling cave vaginas. Ensuring your genetic material survives is not necessarily just about reproducing as many kiddies as possible—it’s also about making sure they actually survive into adulthood!
You can’t ensure your bundles of genetic material (children) survive all the rigors of a harsh primitive existence without a little help from not only your baby mamas, but your baby mamas’ mamas, papas, cousins, sisters, etc. And I doubt those necessarily tightly knit, extended family/kinship networks in early human societies would tolerate the men basically raping the women. We’re inherently social creatures and coerced sex is inherently anti-social.
OK, so winding down: female orgasms make evolutionary sense because orgasms feel fucking great! Women who feel good are more likely to stick with a particular partner (or two, or three, if you believe that ancient peoples were poly, which I do). Figuring out how female sexual pleasure works is something that comes with time and necessitates a sensitive partner…not a rapist. Given everything I’ve discussed above, it makes more sense to think that female orgasms are not merely a vestigial scrap tossed to women, but something that ensured bonding among partners, which was necessary for evolutionary success.
That’s the problem with speculation about evolution: If you start off with a bad, sexist, patriarchal, culturally-specific premise like, “female orgasms are useless”, then your theories are going to be bad. Oftentimes, shifting to a feminist perspective can answer questions that many scientists have deemed mysterious.
reblogging for downlo’s AWESOME commentary.
Amazing how that shift in perspective makes something “mysterious” so obvious
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EVERYONE
EVERYONE
STOP WORRYING SO DAMN MUCH ABOUT YOUR FIGURE
YOU LOOK FINE.It makes me really freaking sad (working in the food service industry) seeing how many otherwise powerful, intelligent, successful women are completely crippled by their unhealthy opinions of their own bodies.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to the gym, or be careful not to eat foie gras every night. But dammit, if you love food, then ENJOY it! If you want to be in better shape, do it! Work out, get fit. But do it because you want to get fit, not because you’re terrified of being considered worthless if you’re not.
It sounds cliche, but it’s true that people like you better and think you’re more attractive if you’re comfortable with yourself and your lifestyle. And I doubt that you can be that way if
