Tuesday, September 28, 2010

i love this quote

"Walsh says she doesn't feel like labels are important. 'They can connect to a pecking order of the 'gold star lesbian' being more legit or more truly evolved than someone who has a more diverse sexual history,' she said. 'I also think that if we cling too hard to a particular self-identification, it can blind us to the full spectrum of what feeds our souls — and can make us more prone to judgment, and too rigid about others' situations. Instead of parsing and arguing and classifying, we could be spending that time making out, or meditating, or having some really groundbreaking new conversations.'"


from this article, about the fluidity of sexuality.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

in which i rant and foam at the mouth

Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform's anti-choice Genocide Awareness Project display is back on campus tomorrow for 2 days, which of course will send me into a ranty bitchy mood for at least a week. They attempt to draw a comparison between the Holocaust, lynching of blacks in the United States, and the Rwandan genocide with abortion. They also perpetuate common anti-choice propaganda such as the claim that abortions cause breast cancer and that abortions are dangerous.

Despite the fact that most people at university are annoyed and disturbed by this triggering, racist, nauseating display of ignorance and stupidity, they are still somehow allowed to be here. By all means, have a reasonable discourse on abortion. But do not exploit dead people of colour who you would not normally give 2 shits about to further your agenda. Do not pretend you care about horrific racist events in our history to further your agenda. Do not shove your misinformed opinions down my throat. Do not compare women and health care providers to Nazis. And do not blatantly lie to women about how abortion affects their health.

"Pro-life" is a funny term for these people to call themselves. They certainly don't seem to be very "pro-life" and so I refuse to call them that. If they were pro-life they would take into account the lives that already exist in this world. They obviously cannot see that far past themselves.

If the "pro-life" movement really cared about reducing abortions, they would:

1) make birth control cheaper and more accessible
2) improve the quality of sex education, and stop abstinence-only
3) support single mothers and fathers
4) support pregnant women in making sure they get the best healthcare possible
5) support low income families
6) help make the adoption process easier and more efficient
7) care about women's health at all, ever

as it stands, the anti-choice movement does not do any of these things. They badger and pester women to keep their babies in the most difficult of situations, calling them murderers if they do choose abortion, then on the occasion a woman keeps her baby, leaving her in the cold as soon as it's born.

In no other instance is one person required to give up their body or parts of their body for another. A parent is not required by law to give their child a kidney or bone marrow. But somehow women are required to give up their bodies for a baby that they may not be able to love or care for properly.

Let's be real. The motive of the anti-choice movement is to make sure that women are never in ownership of their own bodies.

On a related note, here is a funny poster making fun of GAP's tactics:

Tuesday, September 7, 2010