I agree with vacuumslayer here, that it’s almost mindblowing that, in the year 2012, we are having a political discussion about the merits of birth control. It’s obnoxious, and it really is exposing the undercurrent of misogyny which we’ve always said runs through the heart of the modern Republican party. Anyway, said vacuumslayer has posted an adult conversation on the subject, and it’s a thing of beauty. I’ll excerpt it here, but click over to read the whole thing, as it is a thing of beauty:
Here’s the thing–I’m talking to you, pedophile priests, rape apologists, fundie Christians, and misogynists (in other words, all the grown children of the world): People, being sexual beings, have sex. Half the people on the face of the earth are women. Yes, women have sex, too. Some people find sex pleasurable, and would like to have sex without the fear of getting pregnant. If you find this offensive, I suggest you do not have sex for any reason other than procreative ones. What I don’t suggest you do is tell me how and when to have sex. See, when you do that, you are not exercising your religious liberty, you are trying to exercise control over my life. This just will not do, and I won’t stand for it.
Awhile back, I decided that when it comes to matters of sex and sexuality, the best, most moral choice I could make was to not worry about what other people did in the bedroom. This has a couple of advantages. The great thing about not giving a sh*t about anybody else’s sex life is that you don’t have to give a sh*t about anybody else’s sex life. Plus, I don’t have to expend energy being an assholish moral scold. Whew. It’s so freeing. Y’all should try it sometime.
Preach!
And for those sitting there going, “Why are gay websites so concerned with this women’s rights/birth control issue?,” I will simply state, again, that this is the same issue as the fight for LGBT equality. Same fight. Same opponents. Same religious, patriarchal bigotry. Same, same, same.
“And for those sitting there going, “Why are gay websites so concerned with this women’s rights/birth control issue?,” I will simply state, again, that this is the same issue as the fight for LGBT equality. Same fight. Same opponents. Same religious, patriarchal bigotry. Same, same, same.”
WORD!
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Michael above hits the nail on the head. A really good book has just come out by Sean Faircloth, ‘attack of the theocrats’, which explains this succinctly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfnmx1-S-A
When you’re fighting NOM, which allies with FC, AFA etc, then it is the context of Faircloth’s book that you have to frame the debate: first it’s gay marriage, next it’s creationism is science class, after that it’s your own sex life. And then prohibition. If LGBT activists seize that argument, they’d win hands down Tennessee.
Hear, hear.
And why am I so concerned about the abortion/birth control issue?
1. I’m a woman and though the likelihood of me needing an abortion is virtually zero (unless I’m raped, for example) I still think it should be legal, safe and available to all women. No woman should be forced to endure an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
2. Most women who use hormonal birth control use it for a reason besides contraception. For example, I use them to control the debilitating cramps I normally get for up to 5 days each month. Even when the women are using it for contraception, or they’re seeking other options (such as abortion) nobody has the right to insert themselves between her and her doctor. Nobody has the right to usurp the care plan a woman and her doctor have decided upon. (Wasn’t it the RRRW recently screaming “death panels” getting between them and their doctor?)
3. The same moral busybodies who seek to force their will on women are the ones who seek to keep LGBT people from having rights and living freely. I’m sick of them and will do all I can to fight them.
At my college campus I occasionally have endure protesters with signs depicting aborted fetuses. Oddly enough, non fertilized menstrual blood is just as unpleasing to the eye, especially with clots and irregularities. Humans are made of goop. Gasp. Maybe I’ll dump a ladies napkin trash can at their feet? All that genetic potential, now just… trash. Eww.
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I foolishly came to realize a long time ago that sex was pleasurable in the extreme. To say it feels good is an understatement. That is probably why I am so undone by this idiocy about contraception. Really thought it was a settled thing a very long time ago along with the nonsense that sex is only for procreation. If it didn’t feel so good and embed itself in our minds, we wouldn’t do it for any reason let alone reproduce. Sounds like we should be more like plants. Even animals experience the pleasure of sex.
That said, why do religious losers like Rick Santorum actually get applause for such thinking and statements? Does he understand anything about being a flesh and blood being? I would say not. His and his supporters’ grasp of reality is dubious at best.
It’s really depressing that in 2012 anyone feels the need to have an “adult conversation” about contraception. It should be as absurd as feeling the need to have an “adult conversation” about taking Tylenol for a headache.
I sympathize with women because I see the abuse of women under heterosexism as analogous to what us gay and bisexual men go through.