Choice

I feel like a lot of reputation that pro-choice activists get is from the pro-life activists. Since much of their energy is devoted to protesting abortion pro-choice folks automatically get labeled as the opposite, aka for abortion. Also the fact that abortion is such a controversial topic makes it good material for the media to blow-up. Birth control pills and midwives are not nearly as controversial. So the pro-choicers end up being only known for abortion making them seem scary to the rest of the world. A lot of the change needs to come from the media’s portrayal of the issues. If the media wouldn’t sensationalize abortion then maybe the world would realize that the definition of choice is not abortion. It is hard to change this of course. Grassroots media groups can do a lot to promote the issues of pro-choicers other than abortion. If equal access to health care, right to contraception, right to choose how to deliver your baby were issues that got more coverage I think the there would be more support for “choice”. Americans are unaware of what choice means. They think it means pro-abortion only. This needs to change to move ahead. Like we discussed in class equal access to birth control is less controversial and something that more people can agree on. These issues are a good way to introduce the idea of choice to Americans.
And on a lighter yet highly relevant note

Social Services in America

Our government agencies and social security services run on a bureaucratic timeline. It is like a Franz Kafka novel. Papers have to be processed, once you get to the head of the line you are told to go wait in another line and then you will be seeing your check in the mail in the next 3 to 8 weeks. This timeline does not work people who are trying to live on a two minimum wage jobs with four children. Obviously many people in impoverished situations cannot afford to wait. They therefore are dissuaded from participating in the social services the US government provides and resort to taking payday advances, taking out a credit to pay the bills, and finding other quick fixes that ultimately end up making them more in debt. Our capitalist system in the United States is not out to help the common good. It is designed to take advantage of those with less and support those with too much already. For some reason socialism has a bad name in our country. But things like public education, social security checks, Medicaid are all rooted in socialist ideas. I feel like a lot of our social services that promote health, education and food are pushed to the back in the government’s agenda. Therefore these services are not as well known or accessible to people who need them most. There are resources out there for people but they have to go to tremendous lengths to reach them. Our poor are getting poorer because of this system. Capitalist systems are taking from them while social services are just out of grasp leaving people and families in the middle with nothing.

Western Feminists

As a geography major I have learned to look at the world objectively and through the lens of cultural relativism. What is right in one society is not necessarily right in another. I feel that feminism is a luxury of the developed post-industrialized world. And even more specifically the educated elite of these westernized countries. The west loves to give aide to developing countries but sadly this aid never reaches the ones who need it and sometimes cause more harm than good. For instance the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund gives loans to countries but these loans are conditional. The conditions under which these loans are given are from a western perspective. They force countries to lift subsidies, devalue their money, and privatize businesses and other measures. These measures basically kick all the support out from underneath developing countries in order to force them to act like an industrialized capitalist nation. It is not economically feasible for them to privatize food programs, health care and education as well as take away subsidies from farmers and other producers of goods. They need these supports because their economy is not like ours. As westerners the IMF believes that capitalism is the cure for poverty so they force them to adapt to their beliefs in order to get the loans. It doesn’t work though; these countries are poorer than they were before.
Western feminists act in a similar way. Their beliefs and values are not the same as women in Ghana or India. In the U.S. we value equality and liberty. Women should be able to choose any profession, lifestyle, religion, sexual orientation, and gender, whatever. In the Middle East these are not even concerns because they value other things like dignity and brotherhood. How can we take what we think is right and make them believe when our beliefs stem from different values.
The role of feminists around the globe should be to promote the health and welfare of women from the point of view of those women. What aid can we give these women that would benefit them most? We could not even begin to say without talking to them first. We can’t give them aid on our terms and conditions; wanting them to believe that they should get jobs and educations and speak out against their husbands. We need to create dialogue before we even begin to prescribe them with aid.