On September 19th my mother shared with me a post by the artist Teafly on Facebook. The post entailed a picture of a woman standing by a quote that stated, “my body is not a democracy. It is an empire and I am its dictator. You do not get a vote. There will be no coup d’état. Rebel forces will not overthrow me. I am in charge of it forever”. Now, while this image is meant to inspire body confidence, a major issue facing all women, I could not help but apply these thoughts and statements to the current arguments about Planned Parenthood, another example of how, once again, the woman’s body is being left up to a vote.
Planned Parenthood is a government-funded health clinic that provides services specifically for women like breast cancer screenings, STD testing, and abortions. However, the pro-life pro-choice fight surrounding the hot button issue of abortion, a fight that seems to be split right down party lines, has put this very organization in jeopardy of being shut down by those who want to reduce it to a fetal tissue farm. But, since when is women’s health simply about abortions? The purpose of this fight is to make sure that the federal government is not funding abortions, even though they have not been funding the abortion side of Planned Parenthood for years, in order to appease those that think they have a voice in what a woman should do with her body. Those in power who believe that their opinion should outweigh situation, autonomy, and empowerment of all women who may simply want a breast exam or who may even, god-forbid, want an abortion.
From day one, little girls are made to see that their bodies are not their own. They are told that what they wear is not appropriate, because of how it may seem to boys, that they are not allowed to behave a certain way because that is not lady like. Little girls are bound by the voices telling them to be less loud, less smart, less talented, and just less because god forbid they be better than their male counterparts and make themselves appear less attractive, because really, that is their main function right, to be attractive to boys? By the time those girls become women they already know that not only are they less, but that their body, the one thing that should be inherently theirs, is not. It belongs to society to vote on, and decide whether it is appropriate, whether it looks right, whether it is dressed right, and whether it must carry all fetuses to full term.
Now, this really is not about abortion, though people would like to simplify Planned Parenthood to that one act. This is about the fact that a small piece of the medical community that is carved out specifically for women, may loose it’s funding because someone thinks that it’s okay for health of the woman’s body, my body to be left up to a vote. Because someone decided that the heath of my body may not be worthy of their funding. Because someone decided that what happens with my body was a matter for the whole country to decide proving, one again, that my body is not my own, and never will be.
The medical community has never been a friendly place for the woman’s body. The fact that borderline barbaric practices, and heavy, possibly dangerous drugs are still used to give birth to children in a time when you can wear a miniature computer on your wrist proves just that. But the idea that a woman’s small piece of this hostile environment may be taken from those who may not be able to afford to pay a private physician makes me angry in ways that I hoped never to be. The only thing I can think to do about this anger is to channel it into the fight against the idea that this democracy over my body is ok. Starting today I am overthrowing the powers that tell me that I don’t get a choice, that the choice is up to someone else. Today, I am going to channel my anger into the hopes of a someday coup d’état where I can become my body’s dictator. I hope other woman out there find the anger to hope the same.
