Men Rule… Because They Make the Rules
I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina,
but ‘no means no.’
That quote from Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown has gotten plenty of attention, along with her banishment from the House floor for uttering the word “vagina,” a perfectly natural, normal part of female anatomy. A word that was attached to legislation under debate. And as Rep. Brown points out, if you can’t say “vagina” you shouldn’t legislate it.
Yet while saying “vagina” is off limits, it’s just fine to propose laws that threaten women’s lives and health?
That’s right, inane Michigan legislators want to forbid health care providers from following the cheapest and most advanced medical practices for administering drugs to end a pregnancy. And they want to bar doctors from supervising the procedure via videoconference.
Next, Rep. Barb Byrum was banned for recommending vasectomies be regulated, in an attempt to show how ludicrous legislating women’s vaginas is.
Really, the men who barred Brown and Byrum from speaking rule only because they make the rules, not because their rules make any sense.
Same with Catholic Bishops scolding nuns for helping the poor and promoting health care when “obviously” they should be spending their time spewing hate toward gays and letting women die from back ally abortions.
It’s all part of the War on Women that seeks to control our bodies, minds and voices.
But women aren’t sitting back and taking it. Soon after the banishments thousands of women gathered at the Michigan State Capitol to hear their Reps perform The Vagina Monologues, where the word was uttered – and shouted — more than a hundred times.
As Rep. Brown put it, “Vaginas are here to stay.”
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Posted on June 22, 2012, in feminism, gender, politics/class inequality, reproductive rights, sexism, women and tagged Barb Byrum, feminism, gender, Lisa Brown, Michigan, reproductive rights, sexism, The Vagina Monologues, women. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
BroadBlogs 
Imagine if the tables were turned and we were residing in a matriarchy type of society. I highly doubt we would be having a debate about penises and how we were going to put a stop to all that ejaculation! It’s ridiculous that people in power, mostly men and some misguided women think that it’s ok to not give women a choice. To try and regulate things that are not worthy. If a human has an abortion because she has been raped and had the horrible luck to get impregnated with a child, they want to make it so difficult or so expensive that she may be stuck with her predators child. It’s just straight inhumane and unjust in my opinion. Women’s rights need to be taken into great consideration. Not only because without us there would be no earth, but because we are human and deserve the same as any man.
Great points!
It’s easy for people to oppress the rights of others, but when it comes to their own rights getting oppressed they get defensive and outraged. The men in these political seats are hypocrites and are all have double standards. Instead of putting the people they claim to represent in mind when they pass laws, they look to their own personal beliefs and make decisions based on that. People not only in Michigan but also people across the nation are starting to finally realize that these men in power are completely in the wrong. It is wrong to regulate a person’s own body, and it is even more wrong since they are trying to regulate a body that isn’t of the same biological sex as theirs.
WOW! I read more information about this and this story is so interesting. We, as women, have come so far from how this country used to treat us, and we get people in legislation preventing progress. The article in the Washington Post, talks about how this action is a “war on women,” society tries to regulate and micromanage any and all aspects of a woman’s life without their consent. Which makes me think, isn’t this unethical? not-biblical? unconstitutional?
There is obviously a huge difference between men and women physical attributes, but dang to go as far as to ban a woman for using the correct term is ridiculous.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/lisa-brown-silenced-on-the-michigan-house-floor-helps-read-vagina-monolgues-on-statehouse-steps/2012/06/19/gJQAwcGEoV_blog.html
This was my response, if interested. Liked your response, above.
http://wp.me/p2lN8u-w9
Beautiful poem on this silencing of women. You really feel it.
Thank you…
Yes, it is all about controlling women’s bodies, and nothing makes that point clearer than the Republican House leadership’s decision to punish a woman for referencing a normal part of female anatomy. With my children, we’ve always told them to use the word “vagina,” and not any of the cutesy words that are more commonly used in their age group, because I don’t want them ever thinking that it’s a “bad” word that shouldn’t be said.
Yes. Women must fight back.