WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME

Posted by: Pat Johnson on: February 25, 2012

• In: Open Thread | Patriarchy | Uncategorized | Women
• Comment!

I’m talking about women here.

We come in all shapes, sizes, color, and intellect. We don’t all think alike and our values may differ from one to another. Despite our differences we do share one thing in common:

Our bodies are designed as vessels. It is us – the better half – who ensures the propagation of the human race. Without that “special compartment” concealed within the folds of our anatomy, “life” would come to an abrupt halt.

For most women, that “specialness” comes with a warning. We do not want to be taken for granted. We prefer to decide for ourselves the number of children we are willing to bear, raise, nurture, and prepare to enter the world. The “hand that rocks the cradle” is not a machine. Like any machine it comes with an on and off switch and we reserve that right to “flip it” at any time we see fit.

What was once considered settled law, guaranteeing the right to privacy and the right to make fateful decisions based on that right alone, is now a political football that has become “the war on women”.

There is an idiot contingency out there who believe otherwise. These morons are focused on their interpretation of “free will” by denying it outright. Granting “personhood” to a zygote is the first step toward the elimination of freedom of choice. In this instance all women are grouped together as one.

In the first place, not all women come equipped with the “maternal instinct”. They prefer their own version of individuality. Believe it or not, there are many women who do not consider child bearing a top priority. My own daughter is one of them. She made up her mind a long time ago and stuck to it. She had other plans for living her own life and valued her own instincts for how she preferred to set her own course. And she has no regrets.

I’d like to think that my involvement in the Women’s Movement way back when – small as it was – allowed her to be her own person. To decide for herself without interference to be her own person.

My daughter in law has always wanted to be a mother. But she set boundaries. Two children, evenly spaced, was the goal she set and she also stuck to it. The joy for her is watching her daughters grow and mature and she is devoted to exposing them to all that life offers.

Each of these women share a commonality that may one day be unavailable to my granddaughters: the ability to construct a course that fits their purpose – the freedom to choose. That freedom is in jeopardy today as more and more state legislatures focus on the rights of the zygote over the role of women in a culture that continues to move backwards.

We are not all alike. We do not share the same values because we are who we are as individuals.  Force will not change that.  Freed from the bonds of servitude, women have strived to become who they were born to be.  Roe v Wade put an end to the “barefoot and pregnant” generations that came before us.

We will not go silently. We will not be fettered. We will not return to the “back alley” solution. 

We will be heard.