Reproductive health care, abortion and "creatureliness"
....these normal parts of life make many of us uncomfortable on a very deep level
Years ago I attended a Breastfeeding and Feminism conference at UNC, and one of the Professors talked about how breast-feeding makes people, men in particular, feel uncomfortable because it reminds them of “creatureliness” on an unconscious level. As I recall, creatureliness meant our humanity combined with squeamishness about vulnerability—from the helplessness of a tiny baby, to the fact that we live in biological bodies that are going to die someday. Hate to break it to you. We don’t like confronting that truth.
Having a reproductive system with a uterus, it can get very creaturely, whether you ever give birth to a baby or not. Just the other day, professional golfer Lydia Ko stunned a male reporter into silence when she answered his question about why she called over the trainer by saying that her back hurt because “it’s that time of the month.” This literally made news around the world! Makes me think of how for decades, TV ads about menstrual pads used blue water in their demos, because heaven forbid we should see anything that looks like menstrual blood.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and breast-feeding all add to the biological nature of life. I don’t want to reduce us to that, but I want to explore it.
When it comes to reproductive rights, women, transgender men, and nonbinary folks with uteruses have to deal a lot with a lot of creatureliness that cisgender men don’t. I see this reflected in the basic fact that I go to the doctor multiple times per year, and my husband can coast by every couple years if nothing’s wrong.
I don’t know if it’s more accurate to say that it’s a form of male privilege or male ignorance to not understand the basics of anatomy and reproduction. Probably a bit of both.
Everyone should have a right to reproductive autonomy. My heart aches for the people who have shared their raw, traumatic stories in the past couple of days, about rape, incest, lethal fetal malformities, and life-threatening health emergencies that could only be resolved by terminating a pregnancy. I read today about a woman being denied a medically-needed hysterectomy by a Catholic hospital’s ethics board who insisted her potential fertility should be preserved against her will. They cancelled her surgery on the morning it was scheduled to take place.
We shouldn’t need dramatic traumatic stories to back up our rights to basic healthcare and reproductive justice. But I do think it’s necessary and powerful for us to come face-to-face with just how difficult these situations can be.
Back to creatureliness, and the basics of reproductive healthcare. I would like to suggest that unless you understand the meaning of the following words without googling them, you should step back with a lot of humility and realize that you don’t have the background to understand what people go through when making health decisions involving pregnancy, abortion, or childbirth.
These are basic words off the top of my head:
Vagina, clitoris, vulva, uterus, fallopian tube, ovary, ovarian cyst, endometriosis, D&C, abortion, meconium, perineum, episiotomy, cervix, colostrum, colic, prolapse, menstruation, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, miscarriage, postpartum, infertility, menopause, hysterectomy.
Some of these words represent the joys of life, and others are the deepest sorrows. They each point to issues that have important life decisions associated with them—decisions that get right to the heart of our liberty and autonomy.
[Side note: Even spell-check does not recognize the words “fallopian,” “meconium,”, or “episiotomy!”]
I have more thoughts about this but I’ll keep things short today. Yesterday I was so angry that my rage actually transitioned over into paralysis, and I felt dead inside. I’m happy that today I feel like I have the urge to contribute to this conversation.
Think about those words. How do they make you feel? Are they “gross”?
To have a mature and informed conversation about reproductive health, we need to understand and be willing to talk about these basic realities of biological life.
Oh, and if your reaction after reading this is “I don’t know anything about this, and I should just let other people make their own decisions.”--That is 100% fine with me too.
Please back that up with your words, deeds and votes between now and November.
Reproductive health care, abortion and "creatureliness"
Great job on this posts by the way
This is spot on!