Posted on 9.10.2012 by Amy
I've spent the past two weeks on the road with the independent TV/radio show Democracy Now! covering the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. If you missed DN's extensive coverage of the conventions, it's worth at least checking out this short interview Amy Goodman did with a Missouri GOP delegate and former state legislator who once served alongside the embattled congressmember and Senate candidate Todd Akin (you know, the one who said it's rare for women to get pregnant from "legitimate" rapes because their bodies have a way to "try to shut that whole thing down.") In the interview, Missouri delegate George Engelbach, who bore a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, defended Akin, reiterated Akin's central point, and described the differences between "brutal" rape and rape of "some girl or lady that was sort of inebriated."
Behold:
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of your senatorial candidate, Todd Akin, and his comments?
GEORGE ENGELBACH: One, I served with them for two years in the Missouri House. I never, ever heard him say anything derogatory or off-color. He has apologized. He’s asked for forgiveness. And since when can we not forgive? I forgive. If there was no forgiveness, we are all in trouble.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, the entire leadership here at the Republican convention—Paul Ryan made a personal call to him—Romney—they’ve called for him to step down.
GEORGE ENGELBACH: I don’t know nothing about that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, they’ve called publicly for him to step down.
GEORGE ENGELBACH: I don’t pay any attention to what they’re doing.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think, if he stepped down, someone else would have a better chance of—
GEORGE ENGELBACH: He’s not going to step down. He’s not going to step down.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about his views on abortion. I notice you have a pin there. What does that pin represent?
GEORGE ENGELBACH: That’s the size of the feet of an eight-week-old fetus.
AMY GOODMAN: So what was wrong with what he said? Do you feel that Congressman Akin was unfairly targeted?
GEORGE ENGELBACH: He said what he said, I feel, in a wrong connotation. It’s documented that there is a relatively low conception rate with highly traumatic rapes, rapes that are just brutal. So—
AMY GOODMAN: Is there another kind of rape?
GEORGE ENGELBACH: Certainly.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s the other kind of rape?
GEORGE ENGELBACH: Well, if you’d, for example, rape some girl or lady that was sort of inebriated, maybe a little bit high on drugs or something like that, that’s going on all the time, "slip a Mickey," as we call it. When I grew up, we called them "slipped somebody a Mickey." And, you know, it’s non—it’s not consensual, and it still happens. And that’s the rape that is really hard to prove, many times, but—
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Posted on 8.30.2012 by Chantal
My familiarity with radical feminism started out in college. I might as well out myself now... My senior thesis would have been (if I had actually finished the damn thing) about representations of masculinity socioeconomic class in Larry Flynt's oft-reviled rag, Hustler. Part of my thesis research included an in-depth exploration into feminist critiques of pornography. This was my first real exposure to seminal radfem writers Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon. Now keep in mind, my theoretical roots were already firmly planted in the land of postmodern and queer theory, after all I graduated from college in 2009, not 1979. The whole anti-pornography thing seemed wildly outdated, a relic of a bygone era that I like to call “the bad old days.” Regardless of how I felt about pornography (I happen to be in favor. Are you shocked?), what rankled me the most about radical feminists is the way they treated women. Any woman who disagrees with their incredibly narrow perspective is dismissed as a brainwashed dupe, tricked by the patriarchy into participating in her own oppression. This includes, of course, sex workers (who Dworkin describes as “poor, desperate, homeless, pimped women who were sexually abused as children”), women who watch porn, women who make porn, and really any and all women who have sex with men. Because at its core, radfem is profoundly second-wave, I dismissed it as just another thing that feminist movements got wrong. (You know, along with ignoring race and class and selling out anyone who isn't willing to compromise with those in power.) But what if the bad old days aren't over?
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Posted on 8.28.2012 by Kelly
For those of you who are looking for a distraction from the neverending onslaught of patriarchal bullshit from politicians and pop culture alike, I have a recommendation: Push Girls. Push Girls is a reality show from the Sundance Channel which began airing earlier this summer and follows the lives of a group of friends in LA who all have spinal cord injuries: Angela, Mia, Auti, Tiphany, and Chelsie. I first heard about the show in May from the Bloody Show blog, but I wasn't able to check it out until I had access to cable while traveling this summer. As described in the blog, Push Girls “is neither focusing solely in on disability nor ignoring it but instead include it as one dynamic” of the women's lives.
The show focuses a lot on relationships: romantic, sexual, and friendly. The support and advice of the group of friends is a central pillar in the show as each woman deals with and discusses aspects of her life such as breakups, dating, sex, family strife, the pursuit of new careers, apartment searching, and athletic training. The group ranges in age from 20-42 and the women are ethnically diverse. They all appear to be fairly privileged economically, though the continuing financial troubles of Angela, who has recently separated from her husband, as well as the struggled past of Auti are threads throughout the season. While I enjoyed the more playful elements of the show, such as a ski trip the five women took, I was also impressed by the way the show has tackled reproductive health issues, such as in episode 4, “Hope It's Not Too Late.”
Episode 4 centers around Auti's attempts to get pregnant at age 42. Her anxieties are reflected in the title of the episode, as she is concerned that she may not be able to have a baby due to her age as well as her paralysis. She also reveals during conversations with Mia, Angela, and her fertility doctor that she has had two miscarriages and also had an abortion eighteen years ago. As she describes, “Just a year after my accident my mother passed away from cancer. I was an emotional wreck, I was in a bad relationship, and I got pregnant.” While she seems to understand that she was not in a good place to take care of a child at the time, Auti clearly needs to process her past decision. While she doesn't explicitly say she feels ashamed or regretful of her decision, at one point she says, “I just hope they didn't mess up anything down there,” seemingly blaming herself for her subsequent miscarriages. Mia, Angela, and the doctor do a great job of giving her affirmation and helping her to move past her guilt. Angela tells her that she is “very powerful” and that she “will support [Auti] any way that I possibly can.” When Auti tearfully divulges her miscarriages and abortion to the fertility specialist, expecting her to connect the two, the doctor barely blinks and says, “Obviously the accident didn't immediately change your fertility.” Auti is reassured that her age, not her previous abortion or her paralysis, is the largest influence on her fertility and it is discovered that she still has eggs.
Overall I felt that the episode dealt with many reproductive health issues such as infertility, disability and pregnancy, miscarriage, and abortion in a thoughtful and real way. While this episode ends after Auti's appointment, her attempts to get pregnant are mentioned throughout the rest of the season. I am interested to see the discussions to come whether Auti ends up getting pregnant or not. Push Girls is an entertaining and engaging show that goes beyond the usual reality show drama to bring us the real-life pleasures and problems of an interesting group of women, and I would definitely recommend checking it out.
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Posted on 8.23.2012 by Lily
Re: Todd Akin, I just can't even.
Re: TRAP law shuttering a Tennessee clinic, I can't. I'm glad Amy did. But I can't.
Paul Ryan. "Legitimate" rape. Official GOP party platform. Transvaginal ultrasounds. Waiting periods. 20 week bans. Sex selection. Lila Rose. Insurance (non-)coverage. A 16 year old dying of cancer because she's also pregnant. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I can't. I have what Jezebel aptly named rape fatigue, except it's Misogyny And Everything fatigue. I can't get properly outraged at every outrageous thing. I wouldn't have anything left.
It seems like every day there's another setback to our rights. Another shameful law making it that much harder to access vitally needed, life-saving health care. Another vile politician spouting off nonsense they know nothing about and making it that much clearer just how much these people should not be legislating health care. And, well... it just gets to be too much. Plus my job, it's just too much.
I don't even read a lot of feminist commentary about all the terrible stuff that's going on anymore. I used to devour the feminist blogosphere, back when I was in college and not living abortion every day. And I got outraged.
Now I live abortion every day. And with abortion I work with women. I work with birth control, and I work with the lack of access to it and education around it. I work with rape, and domestic violence, and the very real pregnancies that result. I work with young women, and poor women, and women of color, and undocumented women, all of whom have their own set of unique challenges to obtaining the health care they need.
I love abortion care dearly and can't imagine my life without it, but damn, is it hard. It's nonstop emotional, and it's seriously draining. Sometimes it's uplifting and empowering and beautiful, and sometimes it's terrible. Patients are at once wonderful and awful. Sometimes patients thank me, so sincerely, so heartfelt, so grateful for our service that they're in tears, and it makes it all worth it. Sometimes patients scream at me and I wonder why I do this. Most days involve some mixture of everything.
It's difficult to come home after a day of living abortion and to go on Facebook to unwind, only to see my news feed exploded with the asinine comments of some douchebag Republican about how only "'legitimate' rape victims deserve access to abortion." And I want to scream and cry and I wish he would live my job for a day and learn the truth.
And then I get up and go back to my job the next day.
I'm incredibly fortunate that with the plethora of laws introduced lately to restrict abortion care, Connecticut has remained unscathed. As I mentioned a little while ago, we have it really, really good. I'm lucky that I can JUST be drained by the daily reality of my job, without all the added absurdity going on elsewhere in the country. I may have to find out what it's like to be the target of a TRAP law, or worse, but I honestly cannot even imagine it. This job is hard enough.
And that's why I blog about the ins and outs and ups and downs of direct service in the field of abortion care. (Thanks, Abortioneers!) What's going on in the news is obviously important and outrageous and we need to be aware so we can fight back. But people also need to know just what this work actually IS. What I do every day. Who my patients are. That abortion care is love and life and everything beautiful and terrible, that it's the TRUTH. Abortion is the truth, because we've always had it and we always will, no matter what laws are on the books or what the politicians say.
So yeah, more blogging about my actual work and less about what's going on in the world outside my clinic walls. Because my actual work is what gets me through, and my actual work is what will still be here every day even after the media spotlight fades away on this latest uproar. I'll still be doing this amazing, life-saving, incredible work, and that's my response to Todd Akin.
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