Abortion and Sex Changes - A Feminist Issue?

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written one of these. My bad. I hope there are still some readers out there and I haven't been forgotten lol.

Today I am going to tackle a subject that will no doubt ruffle a few feathers, cause a few arguments, and generally put my fine ass on the line.

But I have to write about it. I wouldn't be me if I could stay quiet about such things.

What I want to talk about is the female reproductive system; namely the uterus and the vagina.

Firstly, the uterus.

What a wonderful amazing gift the uterus is. Despite once a month hating the very existence of mine and wishing I could chop it out, it is a wonderful thing.

Why?

Because it nurtures and brings forth life.

Just think about the amazingness of that for a moment.

If you are a woman, the ability to make children (even if you choose not to) is a wonderful amazing gift. For those who can't have children, the fact that it doesn't work can be devastating. It can bring into question your very womanhood.

This ability to nurture and grow life sets us apart from men in a way no other thing really can. You can take hormones to grow boobs, you can get a vagina made, but you can't create a working uterus. It is unique and precious.

It's very design is formed to cradle a baby in a way that keeps it safe, warm and fed.

So abortion really grinds my gears, as it is a invasion and desecration of something amazingly beautiful and precious.

The topic of abortion is one that is really difficult to address publically if you are not pro-choice (NB: pro-choice means you want women to have the right to choose whether to keep the baby or not; pro-life means you believe that every baby conceived should be given the chance to live). The pro-choicers are loud and aggressive and we pro-lifers are often shouted down. We are called bigoted, anti-feminist, and basically terrible people.

Apparently abortion is a feminist issue in that women should be given the right to choose what to do with their bodies. I would argue it is a feminist issue for a very different reason:

If a woman's body is created to bring forth life when insemination happens during sex, then if you consent to have sex, you are consenting to whatever the consequences of sex are. To put it in a way people may understand, if I consent to eat heaps of chocolate, I also consent to the fact that I may get very fat. You can't have one without being prepared to deal with the other.

So when women have sex, knowing that they could get pregnant, even when using protection, then they are letting their bodies work the way they were intended to. To then let a person stick foreign objects into you in order to stop the body doing what it should is an invasion not only of the foetus' body, not only of your uterus, but of your very womanhood.

It is ripping away from your body the right to do what a woman's body should do.

It is a feminist issue because woman's bodies should be given the opportunity to do what they were made to do. When a woman's body is artificially stopped from completing what it naturally does, then it is a feminist issue. It is a feminist issue as it speaks to the right of the woman's body to work properly. It is a feminist issue as it speaks to the equal right every human has to live in freedom without being hurt, and the baby is having that taken away from them.

The argument that abortion is a woman's choice because it is her body is also suspect. A foetus is genetically different from a mother as soon as it is conceived, so it isn't your body you are messing with, but the body of someone completely different from you.

Feminists are meant to stand for equality for all people. This must, it just has to, include everyone who you can differentiate from yourself. THAT INCLUDES UNBORN CHILDREN. To argue otherwise is to undermine exactly what feminism is meant to fight for.

And speaking of feminist issues:

Recently Bruce Jenner has been all over the news for getting sexual reassignment surgery. Apparently he is becoming a woman.

And that last sentence annoys me more than anything else I can think of right at this moment (ok....child abuse, poverty, slavery, sex trade.....there are many more things that piss me off more than this but just work with me here).

The reason that this annoys me is that NO MAN CAN BECOME A WOMAN.

"But wait," I hear you cry, "he is having hormones to grow boobs, and is making his penis into a vagina. Surely he is a woman."

NO!

Vagina does not maketh the woman.

Whether my innie is and outie or vice versa does not actually make me a woman or a man. Because outward appearance does not equal gender.

For example, if hubby lost his genitalia in some freak accident (much easier to use a guy in this example, can't think of an accident that could happen where I would loose my genitalia), I would not think he was less of man. He may feel like he is, but he wouldn't be. He would still be a man, my man. Because he isn't a man simply because he has his junk all in tact.

Let me do some basic genetics with you.

Inside every cell on every person is a nucleus. And inside that nucleus is our DNA. Our DNA is like the code that makes us look the way we do. This code is called our genome or genotype. The outward appearance of the genotype is called the phenotype.

The phenotype, or outward appearance of a person, is caused by a combination of their genotype and their environment. Your environment can have an impact on how you look. You can change your face and body through surgery and this means that your phenotype has changed, but your genotype is always the same.

In other words, it doesn't matter if you chop your bits off and make new bits, your genetics will still state that you are a man or a woman. If you spill blood at a crime scene, it doesn't matter if you dress like a woman, the blood will say that you are a man.

So Bruce Jenner will still be Bruce, even if he changes to Barbara.

And as a woman, having a man claim that they are woman kinda annoys me. No man can know what it is to be a woman. They don't understand periods. They don't know what it is to be inside a woman's head. They don't face our challenges or triumphs. And the same is true of a woman becoming a man.

Sex changes are a feminist issue as it is the uniqueness of women that is to be celebrated. It is our challenges that we fight for. To have someone simply pick up our gender and state they are who we are is a slap in the face for every woman out there. It is saying that what we are is like a new outfit that can be picked up and dropped at will. It refuses to recognise that there is something deep within us that cannot be copied or surgically inserted.

Being a woman is far more than looking like a woman.

(Disclaimer: I do not hate cross-gender people. I understand that there is something much bigger going on for these people than I understand. I also do not hate those who have had or will have abortions. I know people who have had them. I have studied what happens and the other options out there when I was teaching young girls about sex. I just think we need to think bigger than 'me' and 'my body'. I have also avoided religious arguments as I know not everyone has the same standards as Christianity does. But as a side note, I believe ALL life is precious, from conception to death. I also believe that we are created by a God who knew who and what we should be: to mess with that is to mess with a Divine creation).



I am NOT a boy...

I have often thought that life would've been so much easier if I had been born a male.

I wouldn't have got told off for making my dresses dirty when playing.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't have to wear dresses!!!

Seriously, women's clothing is the most uncomfortable stuff ever.

Every morning you need to spend ages doing your hair and makeup, covering up, perfecting and changing everything to make you look presentable.

You lament over your body and how it doesn't look as skinny, as curvy, as sensual, as tanned, or one of a hundred other things as the girl next door/on tv/your sister/your best friend.

You are taught to compete with other women on how you look in order to get men to notice you.

You wear high heels to look sexy and appealing (and because they are sooooo damn cute) only to have your feet destroyed by them.

You get periods. That alone is a deal breaker on whether being a guy is easier. Enough said.

You are taught to find your worth in men, your fathers and boyfriends/husbands, but finding one who hasn't been affected by the image of the 'ideal woman' and who accepts your flawed body is getting harder and harder.

You are looked at strangely if you ever say you don't want children.

You have to go through pregnancy and childbirth.

You get paid less, promoted less, and have to juggle having a family and working.

You always, where ever you are, have to be aware of your surroundings, the people that are there and, if trouble strikes, how to defend yourself.

You can't walk by yourself much anymore without some kind of fear and trepidation of attack.

Your relationship with your mother will be strained at some point, and your relationship with your father it will make or break you.

If you get emotional some guy somewhere will assume it is hormones, and in a work situation it is seen as weak and pathetic.

HOWEVER:

Being a woman is unique.

The bond you share with other women, when you aren't competeing with them, is deep and sisterly and cannot be replaced.

I have to say that relationships with sisters, when they are going well, are worth all the painful things put together (Keren, I love you so much).

Though your Dad has the potential to destroy your self image, there is also a special bond that can occur between men and their daughters that leads the men to be better people and teaches the girls how capitvating and amazing they are.

It is GREAT to be able to cover up a really bad pimple with makeup!

Shoes are too cute, who cares about the pain.

Babies are worth every moment of pain that you ever experience to do with periods, pregnancy and childbirth. The ability to be the one who brings life into the world is one that is humbling and beautiful and amazing.

Learn how to defend yourself; there is nothing quite as satisfying as having some idiot try to do something to you only to end up writhing on the ground because you aren't gonna let it happen!

So.....

Learn to love being a woman.

Learn to love other women as your sisters and not as competition.

Learn to appreciate what the world sees as weakness as your strengths, given to you by a God who knows your heart, knows how much you want to be loved, knows how valuable you are, and who made you beautiful, in his image, and as the pinnacle of creation (Adam needed Eve, just as a male dominated world needs women).

Find your worth in God and it will never again destroy you when someone lets you down.

Embrace your feminity, curves, sensuality, and emotions as strengths. Only women can bring them too the world, and without it....

...the world would be a much hairer, smellier place!

If I were a boy...

This morning I was reading a really good blog by one of my fav lecturers, Dr. Mark Keown (read the whole post here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkKeown/~3/OaqRGUs21T0/women-bishops-euodia-and-syntyche.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email).

He was basically talking about how he doesn't understand why there is such a big kerfuffle in the Church of England about making women bishops when they have a Queen, have had a female Prime Minister and are basically ok with women being in charge in every other sector of society.

Preach on preacher man.

Apart from the fact that I completely unreservedly agree with the good Doctor, it also got me thinking about the world if the gender inequality was reversed.

Let's imagine I was a man and women ruled the world.

The church is based around a female God who begot an only Daughter.

For years the church has been run by only women and the subjegation of men is a shame that darkens the church's history.

It is into this world, developed as it is now, at my current age with my job and relationship status the same but my gender reversed, that I now delve into.

What would that look like?

For starters I would be involved in a church that more than likely made me feel somewhat inadequate.

The preaching and teaching would be about a Mother and her Daughter and an undefinable Spirit that I am expected to be able to relate to on all levels despite the fact that this raises it's own barriers. I mean, how can I relate to a female about porn addiction, raging hormones, the male drive to succeed, wet dreams, feaers of being a father and various other male only issues?

Anyway, I want to emulate a male, not a woman, even if her gender is only 'metaphorical' or 'pictorial'.

The female God is waaaaaay too touchy feely for me, I wanna bit of grit and spit and righteous anger in my God thank you very much. This God seems to nag at me and tell me off a lot and not really like men and sometimes I feel isolated from Her.

The bonus would be that at this age in my life (27) I would not have to be deciding if I would like to get pregnant or not! No stress on that one, but in this world not only would my prospective employers ask me questions about when I want to start a family as I am the one who will more than likely stay home and look after the kids once they are born. This can affect my chances of getting a job but my wife would more easily get a promotion and pay rise than I would anyway.

But what I find really frustrating about being a man is that I feel called by God to be a preacher. Now a lot of churches support me in this role but a lot of them don't. Not because I am bad at it, or I am not strong in my faith, or because I am not educated or respected, but because I have a penis.

That's it.

No matter how passionate I am, how much I love God or how much others think I should do it too, there will always be people who tell me that the God who said there would be no inequailty in Her also thinks that my male brain is insufficent for Her ministry.

Now let's flick back to reality.

If this was the way the world was, and I was a woman watching men being less than me, I would feel so sorry for every man who was unable to follow God the way they felt lead to. I would want everyone to support and love them and make room for them. I would feel outraged that this was the norm and would demand change in the face of such unbiblical behaviour.

What would you do?

Are you doing that for women now?

Does the plight of women in these churches and societies make you angry? Does it stir you to action to help, to cry for a biblical, loving treatment of women? To honour them as Jesus did? Does it make you look at the women around you and wonder what they are capable of?

What are you going to do?

My current Haunting Question ('the Perfect Woman part III')

I have been thinking a lot recently about the role and expectations on women in life and in the church (see previous posts) and there has been something bugging me. It has often been said in the church that Jesus understands every temptation and struggle/suffering that we can endure as humans. Now correct me if I am wrong but Jesus was a dude. He had a penis and not a vagina so therefore he has never experienced child birth or period pain (both real suffering by all accounts). He has never felt what it was like to be the voiceless of his generation or the sexually promiscuous of ours. He has neverr been in fear being raped on a date or even struggled with heart ache in the same manner as a woman does. He would never have been tempted by the hot boy on the basketball team or felt the intensity of love for a child (or the intensity of pain if that child is lost). In short, we can only safely say that Jesus understands and relates to half the population of this planet past and present.

So where does this leave the believing woman? How can such a large proportion of the planet follow a God and a Saviour who, really, has never had to bear their burdens? Granted God talks a lot about being like a mother to wayward children, but in reality the best female understandings of God we get are metaphorical in nature. The only physical representation we have of God is in Christ and that has the potential to alienate half the globe. What would it feel like for men if they were walking into a church every week that celebrated a female incarnation of God and how would they be able to relate to that? How are we to reconcile Christ with womanhood?

It has also become apparent to me in thi how much I would have preferred being a man, something which I beliee has been subvertly taught to me. There are very few strong female role models, and an awful lot of bimbo ones. Our lives are shaped by how we look, our bodies, our faces and our clothing. We are judged on our appearances more often than our brains, not to mention the monthly cycles that are such a hassle and cost so freaking much!! The joy of bringing life into the world is overshadowed by the pain of it. And all of this in contast to how easy it would be to be male, how many strong men their are out there who are applauded for their strength (yet on the flip side there are many missing fathers too.....).

I am frustrated (you may be able to tell haha) and have no idea how to teach a new generation of women how to be strong leaders without falling into the trap of sounding like a man hating, bra burning, lesbian feminist. I don't want to sound like that at all! Yet how do e point out the flaws in how are women are treated and portrayed in the world in a way that is intelligent, passionate and yet loving and focused on growth?