“Abortion is Not the Only Issue”

Amidst the inevitable onslaught of letters to the editor and blog posts bemoaning the millions aborted, I would like to try, on the thirty-sixth anniversary of the supreme court decision of Roe v. Wade, to create a space for recognizing the millions of women before 1973 who had no legal control over their reproduction. Seeking to complicate this space, we might recognize the current restrictions on abortion, access to birth control, and comprehensive education, the powerful triad that determines whether so many women will become pregnant.

A common complaint from my students in the class I teach at Ohio State is that the texts we read on women’s rights and experiences are outdated. Informed by images of women in suits on Wall Street, powerful images of female consumers as icons of high culture, and the compulsive representations of women in the media (no matter how, or by whom, the women are characterized), some students find that feminism is useless. Oddly, feminism’s relevance is confined to only a few questions: in a relationship, who makes the living and who cares for the home, are women still turned away when they want to be lawyers and doctors, and aren’t women sexually free now?

In the 1910s, Margaret Sanger was arrested for distributing “obscene” materials on birth control. Over forty years later, before 1965, married couples could not legally obtain information on contraceptives or contraceptive devices. And another forty years later, an American President enacted a rule that allows doctors and pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control if women having sex hurts their feelings. Progress is often seen as moving straight ahead, with only subtle regressions and set-backs that are later characterized as huge mistakes made by a people or their government. So goes the narrative of seeing so clearly years later; so why is it still so hard for women to make meaningful progress?

Not that there have not been tremendous advances. Birth control is legal. After thirty-six years, abortion is still legal, though with tightening restrictions. Rape of all kinds is seen as an outrage, but with many exceptions. But I would argue that the regressions have been substantial to the point of solidifying values that do damage and make it increasingly difficult for women to do basic things, like take a daily pill that ensures that she has control over the rest of her life.

This is where the pro-choice conversation begins today. It is not just the choice to end a pregnancy, but the choice to prevent it. Not just the choice to have a baby, but the choice to have one with your same-sex partner. Not just the choice not to have sex, but the choice to have sex with partners of your choice. This concept of choice seems to demand an awful lot; but it has been awfully long coming.

journal January 6

What is feminism capable of? Who does it reach? Who is saved by feminism, the personal life philosophy? (Granted, it did save me). Who is saved by feminist legislation? Who is saved in the feminist classroom?

My emphasis on being saved by feminism is due in part to the urgency I have recently begun to feel. Not even halfway through my first year of a master’s program in Women’s Studies, a heavy feeling of uselessness has taken over much of my desire to be doing something in the world. After spending a quarter analyzing criticism of women’s studies and observing and evaluating the limits of my own department, worries about my usefulness peaked. Yes, there was a bit of a crisis for a minute. The huge question “what is women’s studies – feminist scholarship or feminist activism?” became so daunting and difficult to negotiate that I have checked out of that argument for the moment, resigned to believing (because I do) in the redeeming powers of feminism. As a personal solution, feminism helped me solve very large problems in my life that will never be repeated, and because of feminism, I won’t let other people recreate them against me. Feminism enriches my world view, makes me feel purposeful, and has provided ways to have the richest and most love-filled relationships with people that I have ever had. As a result of my apparent love letter to feminism, the experience of learning it shouldn’t be confused with taking a sort of pill that does the work as you lie back and relax. Difficult and sometimes painful engagement led to my appreciation.

It is still there, in the back of my mind, back-seat to teaching and my own graduate courses. I am deeply in love with feminism – this is how much of a personal solution it is. My love for it doesn’t come from what is has done for tons of women, because I have learned of its limits. I feel happiness for the ways that it has enriched other women’s lives. The deep emotional attachment, however, is a result of a one-on-one interaction with feminism. Realizing this, I ask what feminism is capable of. What problems can it address today? Could aspects of it certainly be “stuck in the past”? Is it really “for everybody”? Keeping women and gender always and forever on the table as categories of analysis is no doubt beneficial. Can it go further, though? And if it does expand, does it stay feminism?