Contraception: The Breath of Modern Life
Apr. 6th, 2012 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crabby_lionessMuch fuss has been made lately of the contraception fiasco, especially the statement by Republicans that contraception is not a big issue for women. But if that were true, why doesn't the issue go away? Why does it continue to dominate women's thinking and actions in a way that no other political issue has come close?
For women, contraception is like oxygen. In our day to day lives we don't think about it much. How often do you think about the air you breath? How many millions of breaths do you take without thinking, expecting the oxygen to be there for you when you need it, one thoughtless inhalation after another? The oxygen is there doing it's job, allowing you to focus on your life.
Contraception is like oxygen for women. As long as it's there it allows us to focus on our lives. Whether that focus is currently on furthering our education, our careers, figuring out what we want to do about an aspect of our lives, or on the child or children we already have, contraception gives us room to breath.
And just like the air we breath, contraception is not something women focus on all that often. We don't want to focus on it. We don't see why we should have to focus on it. It should be there in the background so we can make other things a priority.
But what happens when something threatens your air supply? Suddenly nothing is more important than drawing that next breath. Nothing focuses a person's attention so swiftly and thoroughly as not being able to breathe. Panic sets in, followed by an adrenaline surge. Nothing is more important than removing the obstacle which threatens your breathing. And nothing makes you angrier than the possibility that someone took away your ability to breathe deliberately.
That is the kind of reaction a threat to contraception sets off in modern women (and smarter men). And that is why women won't stop until the threat is ended, and until they can once again breathe freely and get on with the rest of their lives.
For women, contraception is like oxygen. In our day to day lives we don't think about it much. How often do you think about the air you breath? How many millions of breaths do you take without thinking, expecting the oxygen to be there for you when you need it, one thoughtless inhalation after another? The oxygen is there doing it's job, allowing you to focus on your life.
Contraception is like oxygen for women. As long as it's there it allows us to focus on our lives. Whether that focus is currently on furthering our education, our careers, figuring out what we want to do about an aspect of our lives, or on the child or children we already have, contraception gives us room to breath.
And just like the air we breath, contraception is not something women focus on all that often. We don't want to focus on it. We don't see why we should have to focus on it. It should be there in the background so we can make other things a priority.
But what happens when something threatens your air supply? Suddenly nothing is more important than drawing that next breath. Nothing focuses a person's attention so swiftly and thoroughly as not being able to breathe. Panic sets in, followed by an adrenaline surge. Nothing is more important than removing the obstacle which threatens your breathing. And nothing makes you angrier than the possibility that someone took away your ability to breathe deliberately.
That is the kind of reaction a threat to contraception sets off in modern women (and smarter men). And that is why women won't stop until the threat is ended, and until they can once again breathe freely and get on with the rest of their lives.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-06 02:55 pm (UTC)In this day and age, smaller families are better. It means a healthier mother, healthier kids, and more time/resources to devote to each child in turn. It really is a HUGE win-win situation that they seem incapable of grasping. People used to have tons of children because, beyond not being able to prevent pregnancies, they needed extra labor around the home/farm/factory/whatever and few of those children would even survive to adulthood. It was quantity over quality. Now, we have the ability to focus on quality over quantity, providing more time and energy towards each child brought into the world.
Because seriously, don't they understand that if you don't have contraception and you REALLY don't want to have another kid (whether at all, or just not right now) .....the only other option is to just NOT HAVE SEX with your wife. How many guys in a healthy, happy relationship are down with that?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-06 08:28 pm (UTC)And of course most of the people who are all 'you weren't using that oxygen, were you?' are men; people whose 'oxygen supply' is composed very differently since they get to literally walk away from the consequences of the lack of same.
Contraception is like oxygen for women. As long as it's there it allows us to focus on our lives. Whether that focus is currently on furthering our education, our careers, figuring out what we want to do about an aspect of our lives, or on the child or children we already have, contraception gives us room to breath.
...and here is where you describe EXACTLY what it is about contraception that makes the de-evolved cave-dwellers with power want to take it away from us. They don't want us to have those choices, that ability to focus for ourselves; they want us to not be able to take one single step in any direction that doesn't require the approval, support and/or permission of a man. No contraception and no abortions = nostalgia for the 'good old days' days when pregnancy kept a lot of women who'd otherwise be independent either (a) shackled into unhappy marriages (b) punished with poverty for having sex outside marriage, and (c) held back from any uppity notions of having a career. It's all part of the plan. *rage threshold exceeded*