This is a guest post by Anna Lekas Miller. Anna Lekas Miller is a freelance writer and rabid feminist based in New York City. Her work has appeared at GlobalComment, The Nation, Gender Across Borders, and the Electronic Intifada as well as many a 140 character rant that can be followed @agoodcuppa.
I just wrote a piece about sexuality education for The Nation. Someone in my life (male) wrote to me, and told me that though he liked my language he questioned whether I truly meant to describe a lack of access to sexual health information as a “war” on women. He thought that it was too strong a word, and implied that I was lazy in my final choice of language. With all due respect to him, I wrote this response to let him know that I most certainly fucking do believe it is a war on women.
Lacking access to information isn’t just something that “kinda sucks” — it’s potentially dangerous and life altering. For example, I didn’t know what Plan B was until I needed it. Luckily, my boyfriend’s roommate had been in that situation before, and told us that we could get Plan B at Walgreens. My boyfriend took full responsibility and paid the $50 to buy it for me. I also live in New York City, meaning that I could walk down the street to Walgreens and purchase it.
I was mortified to ask the Pharmacist for Plan B. I felt like a complete whore for having consensual sex where the condom just happened to break. In this country, if you are a girl who acknowledges her sexuality, you feel like whore by default.
So, what if I hadn’t lived in NYC? What if I had lived in the middle of Texas and needed to get a ride to a Planned Parenthood that was 50 or even 100 miles away? What if I lived in South Dakota or Idaho or North Carolina? What if I didn’t have the money? What if some bullshit (that has happened to three of my friends) happened where I went and they said “I’m sorry – we are out of Plan B. We will have it in two days and you can come back then.” (I’ll give you a hint, its not called the “two days after you fuck” pill). What if I had been alone and my sheer embarrassment had gotten in the way? What if my boyfriend just straight up hadn’t had access to that key information and I was just doomed to being pregnant because no one else had ever bothered to tell me anything?
I would have a two-year-old kid at this point. My boyfriend might have stuck by me to raise it with me. He also would have had the option to leave me on his own accord without consequences. Even if I had decided to give the kid up for adoption, pregnancy is an exhausting and emotional process that requires you to take time away from school and work which only further educationally and economically marginalizes women.
Condoms break and Plan B is a really easy fix. There are also numerous types of birth control that are specially designed to work for different women. They are also meaningless if women don’t know that they exist in the first place.
The sexual health information barrier disproportionately affects one portion of the population more than another, and that portion happens to be women. I am passionate about politics, but sexual politics is in its own class because its battleground happens to be on my body. Declarations of war on access, information, or access to information on women’s sexual health take the decision of what a woman will and wont do with her body, or how a woman will or wont plan her family out of her hands and into the hands of arbitrary circumstance. Will she know where to turn for reliable information on contraception? On health insurance? On cervical cancer? On abortion? Will the services she needs be safe and affordable? Can she take advantage of them without inconveniencing her life by driving many miles or having to stay overnight in another city? Is she able to access both this information and the necessary services?
Perhaps she knows this information. Perhaps she has a supportive network of friends that is able to tell her where to find this information. Perhaps she does not.
I was lucky in all of my circumstances. I was lucky that I had a boyfriend who helped me find the information I needed. I was lucky that I lived in a city where I could get Emergency Contraception from the pharmacy, Planned Parenthood, or the Student Health Center within an hour. Not every woman is as lucky as I am. Many women are not able to get the preventative information they need in order to avoid an unplanned pregnancy, an STD, or cervical cancer. This will affect them for the rest of their lives.
This war on information is a battle. This war on information is injustice. This war on information is a strategically arranged set of operations designed to victimize and control a specific group of people. This war on information is war.
Yeah, “WAR” is the correct word.
Which men, in the privileged position in patriarchy, don’t have to care about.
I agree it’s war – hard to believe that male in your life thinks he knows better than you do.
Oh – wait – men know everything about how it is to be a woman in this country. Better, of course, than you could. Praise the lord and pass the ammunition, he was there to point out your mistake. Cuz you know those girly brains get lazy, over emotional and use the wrong words.
Seriously, I read your post at “The Nation”. I had no idea sex education in schools was that bad. Unbelievable.
Thanks for educating me.
I agree with Iris. The male person who scolded you for using the word “war” was just mansplaining.
Take it with a grain of salt and recognize that the remark was the byproduct of unexamined male privilege.
Thank you.
To add to this brilliant piece, a fundamental component of war is violence, and while I usually can’t stand it when people drop in definitions straight from the dictionary to prove a point, I think in this case it is (very) appropriate:
vi·o·lence/
1. Behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
2. Strength of emotion or an unpleasant or destructive natural force.
Oh, if only. If only we could get him pregnant and drop him in Texas. His chaps would be slapped and his ass would be whooped.
I had an argument with my husband about this very issue today. I told him that Representative King’s remark that the government should withhold birth control from women so that the birth rate will go up was forcing women to have babies they didn’t want and effectively a form of slavery. He may be a progressive and call himself a feminist, but my wonderful husband disagreed with me, specifically on my choice to use the words “force” and “slavery.” The thing is, he is male. He doesn’t have to worry about his body being hijacked by an unwanted parasite that will effectively own his body for nine months and then change his entire life, all against his will. He’s MALE. But what I don’t get is this: if even progressive males don’t get it, how in the heck are we supposed to move forward here?
I also didn’t know about Plan B until I needed it once in the same scenario. My boyfriend and I did some frantic Googling and were lucky we could afford it from a local Walgreens. What I felt so incredulous about at the time was, why was I being inundated with TV commercials for prescription drugs for restless legs syndrome–and, hell, ED pills, now that I think about it–but I didn’t know the first thing about emergency contraception?
[...] to the following, I must be a boy: I was mortified to ask the Pharmacist for Plan B. I felt like a complete whore [...]
I absolutely think “war” is the appropriate term, because really…what in the hell else can you call it? A war doesn’t have to involve direct physical violence, in the same way that someone can be called abusive without being physically violent – there’s verbal abuse, emotional abuse, etc…all abuse even if a hand is never raised. Likewise, a war doesn’t require a loaded tangible weapon, but can be made up of active hostility, conflict and cruelty, which is most fucking definitely what the right is doing to women in general (and by extension, to our society at large in the long run).
I agree with others that a guy being mealy-mouthed about not wanting to call it a war is a clear sign of his privilege and his ignorance of it. As has been said many times, if it were men/male-bodied people who got pregnant, birth control, abortion, bodily autonomy, etc would be the most sacred things on the frigging planet.
I do not believe “war” is the appropriate term, but on the other hand in US political rhetoric we have seen a lot of non literal “wars”. I guess “war” here is about as appropriate as in “war on poverty”, “war on drugs”, or even “war on terror”.
I am not sure how much that semantic question matters anyway. The US political situation related to sexual health issues is seriously screwed up – no matter what terminology you use.
Thank you for writing this eye-opening article — the war on information and science based reasoning all too often disproportionately harms women in society — certainly the current ignorance being disseminated at Fox News about the Obama administration’s decision to include contraception as covered preventive care exemplifies how full grown adults can demonstrate a frightening level of ignorance. Stephen Colbert did a brilliant segment on the “debate” on Fox on Wednesday night.
And an agenda that pushes against access to contraception for women who can least afford the cost goes far beyond a war on reproductive justice – it simply becomes an all out war on women’s social and economic equality.
This is most certainly a war on women — and this war on women and war on information is meant to constrain women politically, economically, and socially. Without the basic right to control our fertility how can we be expected to competed economically or within the educational system. Steve King would prefer all women remain within the home — forced into the only appropriate role for women — motherhood.
Furthermore, sexual education must also include open discussions about sexual violence. There is a frightening lack of information and abject ignorance about rape and sexual assault in the U.S. that is often facilitated by an equally ignorant mainstream media (the manner in which the NY Times reported on the gang rape of the 11 year old Texas girl epitomizes this ignorance as well as the sickening re-victimization of any women that deigns to report a rape). And there is certainly an urgent need for education about sexual violence on college campuses.
I think the US political situation about sexual health is awful. But I don’t think it’s a war. I don’t like war metaphors. And I, me, personally, speaking only for myself, would not like to explain about this “war” to a war survivor.
Just a small point for reproductive health accuracy: Plan B is commonly called “the morning after pill”, but actually it can be taken up to 72 hours (3 days) after the sex in question. It is more likely to work the sooner you take it though, but if the choice is between Plan B after 3 days or no Plan B at all, better late than never.
Not trying to undermine your larger point, I just want people to know what their options are if it is something they have to face.
ElleDee, isn’t there also normally some combination of birth control pills you can take to get an equivalent dose of the morning after pill (I recall reading something about 3 or 5 pills being the equivalent). If so, always useful in an emergency.
Libby Anne, not to mainsplain to you but your Husband’s life would also be changed by that ‘unwanted parasite’ after / during the 9 months, not as much during but pretty equivalently afterwards. He likely has somewhat less sympathy / empathy because he knows his choice ends at having sex, and barring the one virgin birth we have recorded sex is what causes pregnancy. So to him there really is no difference if King withholds birth control because it doesn’t alter his choices at all. That you have other choices and don’t see it is a factor of privilege in the same way he can ignore the effects of the 9 months of pregnancy on you is a factor of his privilege.
2ndnin:
A quick perusal of my birth control pill packet information tells me that I can take 8 pills divided into one or two doses to mimic Plan B. I take a 91-day/cycle pill, so it’s probably different for other brands.
Here’s a site with a nice table if you need to do this:
http://www.fwhc.org/birth-control/ecinfo.htm
Another one:
http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html#dose
thanks for that information!
I am a middle-aged white hetero guy and I have to agree that “war” is the appropriate term in this case.
If reproductive services, and education and information were difficult or impossible to obtain simply due to remote location, low population density or poor infrastructure, well, that’s too bad. Life can be tough sometimes.
However, if reproductive services, and education and information are difficult or impossible to obtain due a systematic plan created solely to under-fund them, de-fund them or outright criminalize them, well that is an assault on women. And when many individuals and groups work in a coordinated effort to achieve such goals, that sustained and coordinated assault can only be called a war on women.
I tend to avoid the war metaphors when I can. But, if the shoe fits…
I love semantics!I love words!
What would you call it? Suppression? Oppression? Belligerence?
Bellicose? Hawkish? Obstructionist? Extreme cultural backlash?
“Even if I had decided to give the kid up for adoption, pregnancy is an exhausting and emotional process that requires you to take time away from school and work which only further educationally and economically marginalizes women.”
I’d like to note that paid maternity leave at a full-time job is covered in the US, and there is increasingly also paid paternity leave. A woman can be pregnant, miss a bit of work (but still be paid for it), and go back to her job after delivery if she so chooses. In addition, in the US Title IX covers the rights of pregnant students. If a woman is pregnant and in a title IX school (which is pretty much every university in the US), she has every right to be extended the same opportunities for success in the class as any non-pregnant student does even if she has to miss classes for appointments or delivery (the professor is legally required to give her the same opportunity to get A’s in her class as all of the other students). There’s a title IX counselor at every university who can fight for her rights not to have to drop out of school if she does not desire. There are many successful mothers who attend university while caring for infants and children. Being pregnant is considered a “medical condition” and women cannot legally be marginalized for being pregnant either at work or at school. If a pregnant woman is marginalized, it’s because she doesn’t have the access to information that she has rights as a pregnant employee/student.
If a pregnant woman is marginalized, it’s because she doesn’t have the access to information that she has rights as a pregnant employee/student.
Way to blame the victim there. A woman at my university had a baby and was told she had to be back at work 2 days later or she would lose her job (and therefore her graduate school funding, and her ability to continue in her program). It doesn’t take a genius to know that that’s WRONG and a violation of your rights. The question is whether you have the power and leverage to do anything about it, and in this case she did not.
But I guess since nobody ever does anything illegal, nor retaliates against people for standing up for their rights, this situation must not exist after all. My bad!
@emeeks:
“I’d like to note that paid maternity leave at a full-time job is covered in the US, and there is increasingly also paid paternity leave.”
While it’s true former President Clinton signed into law the Family & Medical Leave Act, nobody gets paid unless they have sick/vacation time accrued to cover the time off.
Saying it’s paid leave is not exactly the same thing.
Also, the enforceability of that law is subject to the size of the company, along with the requirements that the employee must meet a certain number of hours of employment as a precursor to the leave.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/benefits-leave/fmla.htm
I couldn’t find anything in Title IX about medical conditions. It only talks about gender. Do you have another source?
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleix.htm
A correction to my comment above:
Title IX does mention no penalty should be imposed on a person for seeking a legal abortion.
[...] “This war on information is a battle. This war on information is injustice. This war on inform… [...]
@Human, It wasn’t my intention to blame the victim. Forgive my careless use of words. There aren’t a whole lot of pregnant students, (many of them face problems with professors), but they do have rights. It was my intention to say that we should spread information like this to women in those circumstances so that, if need be, they can fight to get the treatment they deserve.
@Iris, My source on the Title IX thing is the feministbreeder.com, who is studying to become a lawyer defending women’s rights, and her source was Melanie Ross Levin who works for the National Women’s Law Center in Washington. Feminist Breeder recently had a baby and faced some issues regarding her rights to deliver her baby in the middle of the semester and still get attendance points, which constituted a significant portion of her grade. In order to fight this, she found out that as part of Title IX’s protection of female students covers this issue. She also said that every school under Title IX has a Title IX advisor that pregnant students can talk to to sort issues like this out. Unfortunately, for the month of August her site has been taken down because she needs some personal time and doesn’t want to manage the comments. I’m posting the link to her website (because it should be up after her hiatus) and a link to another website that has a copy of her blogpost complete with links. Please excuse my mis-understanding about paid leave, that has simply been my experience with women that I’ve known.
http://thefeministbreeder.com/did-you-know-pregnant-students-have-rights-neither-did-i/
http://toesintheair.blogspot.com/2011/06/pregnant-student-rights-great-thing-to.html
Ah, I got you, emeeks, sorry for my snippiness, there. I very frequently run into people who blame students for not standing up for their rights in the workplace, completely ignoring the fact that there’s a serious power imbalance that means that, for the most part, they’d be hosed if they did. I assumed you were doing the same but I see I was incorrect, so my apologies. The answer to the power imbalance problem, of course, is a union, and we’re working on that!
@emeeks
Thanks for the links.
Checked out the 2nd one – excellent information for students who attend a school covered by Title IX.
If I understand you correctly, you know women who got paid parental leave without having to use their accrued sick/vacation time? Kudos to those employers!
One can take up to 12 weeks of FMLA in a calendar year – paid or not – so if one timed it right that could work out to almost 6 months.
Wow. I am shocked that nobody seems to notice the hurtful use of whorephobic language in a piece about the war on women’s bodies!
Good for the women who have full-time jobs – however, the problem as I understood from the original post is how much defunding and undermining access to birth control and family planning services hurts the women who do NOT have that kind of resources at their disposal. Being self-employed, a student, or working part-time simply do not afford the same kind of benefits.
It never ceases to astound me how many people, even self-described feminists, fail to see through their own privilege when evaluating the choices made by less privileged people – they simply seem to have no idea that not everyone has got the same assortment of choices available to them. Classism is a very real feminist issue, too, when the availability of health and family planning services is so closely tied to a woman’s status on the economic ladder and resources she already has.