There I was, fuming. Angry. I couldn't tell why.
What happened was simple. Really simple.
It was Monday morning, and I went to CVS to get my latest fill of birth control. I love birth control. Birth control is love and birth control is life....well, actually, it keeps mine baby-free and practically period-free so the pun works well there in that sense.
I come to the counter and ask the woman for a refill when another CVS pharmacy worker asks her in front of me, "What does she need?"
The woman at the counter assisting me whispers, "Birth control refill."
I might be an irrational person for feeling this way...but that whisper set off a flare inside. When I come in for any kind of medicine, there is no whispering. Ever. Here I am exercising my right as a woman to be in control of my body, and it's something that should be whispered. Taboo. And the worst part is, is that women themselves were doing the whispering.
There is nothing, and I literally mean NOTHING, to be ashamed about if you are on birth control. It has the very word in it that matters: control. You, as a woman, have a right to decide how to live your life, how to maneuver your sex life, and how to regulate your body. No one else has that right over your body. Ever.
And that right isn't a whisper. It's a roar. It's a scream to anybody or any institution that has tried to curb our rights in the past. It's a bellow to every time someone tried to make us feel inferior. We are in control.
I am proud to be on birth control. I am keeping the already large population away from adding another being that I cannot take care of. I'm sure many feel the same way. I am proud to be in charge of my body.
You should be too.