Women in the United States are finding themselves in the position of Middle Eastern women whose conservative male government turned the clock back to the Middle Ages. For too long, America has viewed women's rights as a one-trick pony, abortion. It's been viewed simplistically as black and white, right and wrong by those who push agendas.
The leaked Supreme Court document may be about abortion, but the long-term stakes are much higher. This is a human rights issue, a privacy issue, and an autonomy issue. At no point in history have white men ever been subjected to the invasion of their privacy that women are subjected to consistently. Men think it's awful when a divorce attorney and a judge are given access to their private finances in a divorce, and what they consider to be their possessions are taken from them by strangers. Imagine if a judge required a man to freeze sperm and hand it over to his ex-wife. Or required a man to be sterilized because he hadn't supported his last child. These sound extreme because they are. Our government and the men who run it want full control of women's bodies, including health issues that are NOT their business.
Imagine being raped and then forced to co-parent with your rapist. This is not a woman's issue entirely, it's a victim's issue. Men are raped. Suppose the government forced a man to live next door to his rapist. Where are his rights as a victim? Exactly where our government places us. The constitution is intended to protect us; but in recent years, it's become a powerless political device. People of color are mowed down by racist cops, white men are gunning down black joggers, and we've watched a cop murder a black man in a public place. Where is the constitution while this goes on? Where are the women and men leading our government? Having pissing matches over territory and leadership opportunities all the while feeding the animal radically reducing our rights.
Donald Trump, a serial sexual deviant, led the way by piling the court with a fellow sexual deviant, and a far wing radical female. However, don't let the others off the hook. Many Republicans and some Democrats have looked the other way as women have been marginalized, traumatized, and brutalized by toxic masculinity, an idea driven by a male belief that women owe them. Full disclosure, we know this is NOT all men. In fact, it's a startling number of women. The problem for me is while they sanctimoniously side against women and our right to privacy, they're eroding rights that at some point may impact them or their daughters. Imagine you've supported pro-life emphatically. Now, your daughter is married to a bad man and refuses, therefore, to give him a child instead she wants a divorce. The government says no, that's she's broken her covenant and is required to provide him with children. Now she's stuck in an abusive marriage and forced to bring children into a domestic violence situation. As extreme as this sounds, it's not far from where we are.
Currently, our right to birth control is hampered constantly by law. Barefoot and pregnant is where these men want women; without the ability to own property, handle their own money, hold down a job, or make their healthcare decisions. If you don't believe this will happen or it seems an impossibility to you, read our history. Many women had to battle heart and soul to win the rights we've allowed our government to steal away. My dad passed away two years ago, yet everything that comes to my mom is addressed to a dead man. Because in America, a dead white guy has more power and control than a living woman.
If you've never battled before, now is the time. This is the place. American women are being called to defend the autonomy white men have never had threatened. This is our fight. This is our time.
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