Our Bodies Are Not A Debate

I am outraged, and you should be too. The recent abortion legislation passed in Alabama is the most aggressive in modern American history. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.” These recent anti-abortion laws undermine women’s autonomy and right to equality.

We live in a sexist society regardless of whether or not you choose to believe it. Women’s bodies are being legislated; men’s bodies are not, and that is the patriarchy in a nutshell. I’ve written about rape before: how 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted each year and how only 1% of perpetrators are ever convicted of a crime. Victim blaming is rampant (focusing on what a victim was wearing, instead of on the man who assaulted her). We normalize violent criminal acts against women, yet restrict women’s autonomy over her own body. Sadly, it makes far too much sense that the toxic patriarchy we live in normalizes rape (reinforcing male power) while women are routinely shamed for sex, especially when it results in an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. We routinely overlook that each pregnancy literally couldn’t happen without the specific and intentional actions of a man.

There are very real and tangible inequalities here. Women, we are told, should not have sex for pleasure. This attitude ignores the fact that sex is a completely normal, healthy…