Only Wednesday and the week is already full of awesome NOW-ish stuff!
First thing, Sarah, Nikita, Julie, and Liz went to the play, Body and Sold this Monday. Whoa! It was definitely thought provoking. Basically, it was the story of 8 or 9 average people and how easily they fell/got trapped into a horrible cycle of prostitution, drug use, and abuse. Sad, but uplifting at times, too.
Also, some lucky ladies attended the discussion this Tuesday at Think Coffee! This is what Liz had to say when she filled me in:
The discussion at Think was really interesting; we stayed for the whole thing which was 3 speakers and then some Q and A.
They mainly focused on the Christian Right and how they've infiltrated our government since bush has been president. they
also highlighted some main things that need to be done THE MOMENT whoever comes in next starts the job; ie eliminating the
global gag rule that prohibits any country receiving us funds to not talk about family planning options, getting all of these "faith
based" sections of offices eliminated, especially from the oval office, stopping our torture practices, implementing
comprehenxive sex ed and eliminating the huge budget for abstinence only ed. personally i think that if we wanted to do
something on comprehensive sex ed, or make that a priority for next year, it would be great!
one of the other women specifically discussed this sect of christianity which is called the "quiverful movement"; basically their
core idea is to have as many children as possible because 1) chlldren are a blessing, 2) trying to avoid pregnancy is questioning
gods will which is a sin, and 3) as many good christian babies need to be born to counteract all of the secular atheists at home
and all of the muslims abroad. scary stuff...the goal is to have like 8 kids, which im sure you can imagine makes their
movement quickly growing haha.
the other woman talked about how this anti-abortion movement isnt really about abortion, which is proven by the fact that
anti-abortion believers also dont believe in contraception which is the only PROVEN method of decreasing the number of
abortions nationally. instead, its basically a war on the american lifestyle, which includes single people staying single longer,
gay people being together, and non-traditional family structures. and of course let's not forget, all those extra babies keep
women at home where they can stay out of trouble and stop questioning things...i mean a lot of what she was talking abotu
was SO conservative...although its hard for me to understand even being against contraception, so i guess im a biased judge of
insanity haha.
the Q and A was good--one kid asked about tips for getting comprehensive sex ed into his school district back in
nebraska...they were basically like UMMM GOOD LUCK haha but then they talked about how he's armed with the truth because
abstinence-only curriculum has been proven to correlate with higher teenage pregnancy rates and also higher rates of
STDS...since, surprise these kids dont know what theyre doing! one girl commented on how the movie Juno was anti-choice,
and Racheal (YAY!) commented back that really that movie focuses very much on THE CHOICE that she has to make and just
because she doesnt choose to have an abortion doesnt make her or the movie anti-choice. plus, at least theyre talkinig about
teenage pregnancy as a real problem that can effect all kids!
keri asked about the abortion pill (which i hadnt even heard of...good work liz haha) and what impact it would have, but
basically they said it hasnt increased access because apparently the same places that abortions are available are the only places
that the pill is available (ie not in low-income areas).
If anybody has any thoughts they'd like to share on either event for those of us who couldn't be there or for those of us who might not be at the next meeting to hear what yall have to say, LEAVE A COMMENT!
Also, if anyone is interested, this Monday, March 3rd is the kickoff event for Women's Herstory Month! A pretty cool looking female comedy show is being put on featuring Chicks and Giggles, "a stand up group featuring the best female comics in New York. You'll be totally vadged out." Vadged out?! I'm there. It's at Kimmel, 4th floor, doors open at 7, and tickets are FREE at Ticket Central! Could be fun! If a few girls are interested in going together, comment here, and get something worked out!
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2 comments:
that sounds fun! I'd go : )
I went to both of those events and they both affected me in different ways. The production of "Body and Sold" was excellent. I was really surprised to see that they were singing in it. I just expected it to be a play. I thought that was a powerful way to transition between things and ease a little bit of the tension that the play's content brought about. I felt emotionally troubled after that play but I that's part of the whole point. We need to realize that these things are not just happening outside of the US or that these things "can never happen near me or to me or my friends" because they can. I was really moved and glad to have gone to see that.
Next, the presentation was really good. I wasn't sure what to expect from these women and what they had to say. I knew the general topic of conversation but I only skimmed the e-mail and therefore only had a general idea of the content. What stuck out most to me was the fact that they said that the anti-abortion movement was not just about abortion and that it was an attack on the lifestyles of all North Americans. I had never thought of it in that context before. The fact that anti-abortionists are against contraceptives and all birth control methods (which can include abortion) does show that they are against any other type of lifestyle in conflict with the "nuclear family" that does not use contraception. If they are against contraception, they are against family planning and all of the lifestyles that we take for granted. I certainly take for granted the fact that I am in a heterosexual monogomous relationship with a partner who agrees that we should use contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. Without that choice of lifestyle, we'd already have children which is something that neither of us want. Without contraceptives, the abortion rate would skyrocket and if there was no abortion than the death-rate for young sexually active women would go up as well because we would be forced into back alleys to be provided with unsafe and unhealthy abortions or methods for pregnancy-prevention.
Also, thanks Rachael for saying something about the movie Juno. I really liked it and was completely dumbfounded by her comment. I also wasn't able to articulately formulate (at least in my head) why I was in such disagreement with her about the movie Juno and the whole Jamie Lyn Spears thing). So thank you for saying something and shutting down her one-sided and very un-thought-through (?) comment.
That's all. Someone remind me about the event on Monday. I really want to go but I feel like there's something else that I have to do that day. Anywho...now that I think about it, I think it's my sister-in-laws birthday but I'm not going home for it anyway so it doesn't matter. Oh well.
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