Consider this, via Althouse, on Amanda Marcotte's extreme views on abortion:
The underpinnings of the moral angst about abortion — the idea that a woman has no right to pry loose a flag a man has planted in her (even if he agrees with her decision, as most men in this case do), or that she should be punished for having sex — offend me to the core, and that many women go through anguish over getting abortions depresses me.
Ok, I'm trying not to vomit as I write this, but let me deal with this piece by piece. First off, did she just compare a human fetus to a flag planted on a field? Has the debate sunk so far now, that the fetus is reduced even further than a lump of cells, to a flag? Secondly, did I miss something, because I thought it takes two to make a baby. Why is it only the man that "plants the flag?"
As for the third and fourth points, I like Ann's responses:
Well, it offends me to the core that you think material like this helps preserve abortion rights (which I support).
I'm pro-life, for all intents and purposes, but my third point was going to be that even most clear-headed pro-choicers would find Marcotte's argument revolting, and Ann's comment here shows that.
The "abortion" shirt[the focus of the underlying post], on the other hand, admits that you've done something for yourself that involved sacrificing what many people believe is another human being. Why do you want to say that by T-shirt? In Marcotte's view, it's to show that you're proud of "taking care" of yourself "despite all the misogynist messages out there." I thought it was more to normalize abortion — to make it seem ordinary, widespread, and something that would be done without shame by nice, upstanding women.
Exactly. In Marcotte's moral sideshow of a universe, abortion is some sort of a moral smackdown to the "entrenched misygonist patriarchy" that supposedly punishes women with babies (fetuses?) they supposedly don't want, and she laments that women have the audacity to find ending the lives in their womb problematic. How dare they act like mothers? Don't they know that sex...oh I'd better stop here, before I say something that gets me in trouble
1 comment:
I feel like what is a "smack-down to the patriarchy" (from a pro-choice perspective, at least) is refusing to go along with the idea that -- after having an abortion, you simply must feel guilty about it.
Certainly, some women do feel guilt or depression after abortion (though it must be said, at a far lesser rate than those who feel depressed after childbirth). These women deserve our support. But it doesn't help them to tell them "yes, you should feel awful", and likewise it's bad to tell the women who wouldn't otherwise feel that way that they're insufficiently devastated.
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