Monday, August 20, 2012

What Century Am I In?

Any of you who follow my blog or my tweets regularly know that I don't normally go on a political rant - no matter what issues are making headlines.  But there are just a few things that I can't let go.

I write about women in history.  About women who lived five hundred years ago.  A time when they were treated little better than possessions - and sometimes worse.  When women didn't have the right to choose anything - not a life-partner, not a career, not a leader and certainly not her reproductive options.    A time when any and all reproductive issues were blamed on the woman - the ability to get pregnant, the health and physical strength of the baby, even the sex of the child.  A time long before science caught up with reality.

Reading the news today, I felt transported back to another century.  Because science hasn't caught up with a man who claims that a woman's body can "shut down" and "not get pregnant" if she is attacked. And humanity hasn't caught up with the emotional, reproductive and legal rights of a victim of rape.

Today, in the United States of the 21st Century, women have rights.  We have rights to choose our careers - we can be teachers, doctors, governors, Navy SEALs.  We can choose our life-partners, and we can choose which gender we prefer to become our life partners.  In many states, we have control over our reproductive options.  And we have the right to choose our leaders, and the right to demand that they respect our choices.

We have an election coming up, my friends.  I loathe the runup to November in election years.  I'm pretty good at hiding my head in the sand.  I can't access television programming in my house.  But I vote.  In every election.

One hundred years ago, three states granted women suffrage.  The rest of the world caught up eventually.  Choices are what make us human.  Our "ladder to the stars" as Mumford & Sons say.  Don't you think we ought to exercise that?  We have a voice, unlike the women in Tudor times.  That's something to celebrate.

For more information on what inspired this post, take a look at today's BBC News article on Todd Akins.

And check out Kami Kinard's blog for a fabulous post on women in politics and women voting.

9 comments:

  1. Well said Katherine! And thanks for linking to my blog. :)

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  2. Homes & I had a good laugh over the article. It's the kind of laugh you make when really you feel like crying or shouting in outrage.

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    1. Yeah, we had that laugh at our house, too, Beth. And a shout of outrage, too...

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  3. This is a great post, and so very true. However, I need to make one correction: while women can become teachers, doctors and governors, we still cannot be Navy SEALs.

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    1. No, really?! Thank you so much for correcting me, Anonymous. I guess I've been hoodwinked by Hollywood and Demi Moore. Maybe one day. But the truth remains that women still make kick-butt soldiers and firefighters other tough, gruelling jobs originally thought to be solely the preserve of men. So yes, maybe one day...

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  4. Excellent post. I was shocked when I heard those comments. I guess he thinks that all the rape victims who got pregnant weren't really attacked. He probably also thinks a woman can't get pregnant the first time. What a buffoon (more polite than what I really want to call him).

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    1. Very polite, Amber! And you echo my thoughts. Can't believe he was on the House Science Committee....

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