Lifestyle Choices

Sometimes I think women are going to "choice" themselves to death.

Literally.

Look, I'm all for equal pay for equal work, no more glass ceilings, a woman's right to choose, a woman in the white house, etc.

But when it comes to feminists trying to flip the patriarchy on its head, denouncing everything that is feminINE about being a woman (did they forget the "femi" part of the equation here?) I just have to draw some sort of line.

Men and women are different. Women have different biological functions and cutting those off entirely it a bad idea - biologically alone, let alone what it does psychologically to women and to the culture.

The feminist idea of demanding things be more "equal" can often get twisted into something truly bad for womenkind.

Women actually campaigned for the right to have pain-free childbirths (based on the Biblical idea that pain during birth was Eve's "punishment" for taking that apple) and what did they get? Scopalomine - "twilight sleep" - where women (and subsequently babies) were drugged up so much that laboring women had to be strapped down and blindfolded so they wouldn't hurt themselves or someone else, and babies had to be delivered by forceps and nurses exerting incredible force via a woman's abdomen.

Better for women? I just don't think so.

Women demanded birth control - and it showed up in the 60's in the form of "the pill." The dangers of tampering with your hormones over time have been proven in cancer studies again and again. Yet we still offer this little convenience (and have yet to develop one for men, you'll note) along with all the hormone replacement therapy we give women to "control" their menopause symptoms (also now being proven to cause cancer in studies). And an added bonus... those hormones are now showing up in our water systems...

Better for women? I don't know...

Women also wanted to be able to "forget" about that monthly inconvenience of having a period. Pads were improved. Tampons were introduced. (Nevermind that the toxic substances in them are harmful and they are filling our oceans with plastic applicators...) Now women want to be able to only have one period every quarter - like that annoying quarterly report you have to compile for work. Just business, right? Except, as the dangers of the pill and hormone replacement therapy above have shown... altering your body's natural cycles doesn't come without a price.

Good for women? Ya think?

I don't see being female or everything that comes with it - menstruation, giving birth, menopause - as an "inconvenience." It's part of who I am, and in fact, the differences between men and women should be stressed more and women should be given consideration for being women. Instead, we have a culture that keeps trying to make women into men - denying their basic biological functions instead of celebrating and honoring them.

Instead of women demanding elective cesareans because they've been so brainwashed into believing childbirth is too painful to be borne by a culture obsessed with painless existence (can you say Prozac?) women should be demanding the right to the higher standard of care (proven in evidence-based studies) given by midwives in whatever setting they choose.

And what about giving extended paid maternity leave, more sick time for women with children, offering mainstream natural alternatives to the pill, hormone replacement therapy, tampons, etc. There are too many women out there who do what their mothers did, or their sisters or friends do, because they don't know there are alternatives that would be better for them, their environment, and their children.

Feminists say we've come a long way, baby... well, maybe. But for my money, I'll acknowledge that distance when, instead of denying their basic femininity and demanding "relief" from their monthly menstrual cycles, women start demanding three days off every month during their period.