I'm A Woman, Not WomEn

[teleen_fiction]

I'm a woman.  I was born that way and have never had anything but the most fleeting desire (hmmm, I wonder what it would be like to have a penis; shit, my period really sucks) to be anything other than a woman. 

I have my own thoughts on feminism.  I feel that being a sex worker is the ultimate in feminism, so long as the women involved are given the ultimate power, as they have in every club in which I've worked and as it is when prostitution is legal.

I'm pro-choice (NOT pro-abortion), pro-reproductive rights in every sense (I have a much longer post on this issue that I will eventually share) and against any religion and/or culture that treats women as second-class citizens.

I believe in equal pay for equal work, no glass ceilings and providing reproductive education and HPV vaccines to young women.  

Personally, I'd like to be barefoot and pregnant and a housewife, but this doesn't mean that I think less of women who want to be doctors or have other high-powered careers, especially not since technology is making it easier for those women to have reproductive choices (assuming that they want children at all).  

I'm into freedom of choice for all women everywhere.

But.

I don't speak for all women everywhere.  If I say something stupid or ignorant or hurtful, if I do something stupid or ignorant or hurtful, it shouldn't reflect negatively on my entire gender. 

I am a woman, an individual, a person, a human being.  I am not an entire gender. 

So please remember that when you're speaking to me or about me and say things like, "Women like you..."

There are no other women like me.  While I am not a beautiful and unique snowflake, I am still the only one of me in this world.  

And I should be judged only based on me, not on the genitals that I happened to be born with.

This sort of judgment is also passed on other marginalized persons, from women to GLBT to PoC to the Irish.  It's impossible for an entire group of people to ALL be one thing... other than human, of course.  But the human bit is often lost in the shuffle when people are saying, "Well, if you want 'special rights' you have to expect to all be lumped together."

No one in any of these groups wants any 'special rights'.  Period.  End of argument.

We all simply want equal rights.  Truly equal, not just whatever bones happen to be thrown our way.  

Human beings all wish to have the same freedoms to choose their own destinies that a privileged MINORITY have always had.  It's funny to think of it that way - that the one group that has always had the power is actually the least in numbers and always has been.  

It's up to you to decide who really holds the power in this world - captains of industry, the Church, or simply those who have the most money.  I'm going with the third option myself, but I could be wrong.

And if I am, it's only me that's wrong, not my entire gender.  Or race.  Or creed (or lack of creed).  It's just me.   

I'm a woman, not all women everywhere.

This rant inspired by several conversations, both in rl and online, as well as by the world at large.  And by the letter s. 

Comments

[heeroluva.livejournal.com]

Very well written. I'd think it's a good mix of all three.

This reminds me a bit of what I've been experiencing lately. So many people are like "well if it was ME in that situation I would have..." And the thing is it wasn't them, it was me, so it doesn't matter. No two people will react exactly the same way to any given situation.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Exactly, :).

Thanks for the compliment, :).

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Excellent post!

I do have a question though; why do you qualify being pro-choice? I mean, why the need to express that you are not pro-abortion? Surely stating pro-choice explicitly means that you're pro-whatever a woman decides to do with her body, including seeking termination of pregnancy.

I don't know anyone who is seriously pro-abortion, as in considers abortion to be a method of birth control (even though it was, and to a certain extent still is in certain parts of Eastern Europe, where the stigma of abortion is greatly reduced). I'm inclined to believe that everyone would like to see less abortions and more safe-sex. As we know, the only way to reduce unwanted pregnancies is to teach ourselves and others how to use the proper methods of safety.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Thank you, :).

I qualify being Pro-choice because the last time this subject came up it needed to be qualified, :). Basically, I equate Pro-Life with Anti-Woman and had a long conversation about it with someone else that resulted in us both realizing that we had the exact same philosophy, but she identified as Pro-Life and I identified as Pro-Choice.

Both of us felt that education was the key (as you said) and that a woman should be given as many options as possible, with no restrictions placed on abortion.

I think that the difference is that we're both in the US, where being Pro-Choice is, sadly, equated with being solely pro-abortion and there's a huge stigma and a lot of misinformation put out about the Pro-Choice movement here that basically equates those who identify as Pro-Choice as being *only* Pro-Abortion. The Pro-Choice movement needs a better name now - I vote for 'Pro-Woman', :).

I agree with you completely, but again, since it came up before I felt the need to clarify, :).

[kendermouse.livejournal.com]

Well said!

km

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Thank you, :).

[excentric397.livejournal.com]

Well said. I agree with you on all of it. Money is god in this country, possibly everywhere. Those few with the most of it have unequaled power over the rest of us. They manipulate the market to maximize profit, they..oh, hell. I am nowhere near as articulate as you are. The worst of it is, we have truly become 'a nation of sheep', and it seems most of us believe whatever we are told. Critical thinking is becoming a lost art, to our peril. Unfortunately, most of us seem too stupid to realize it. The level of self-delusion in this country today boggles the mind, and it really, really makes me sad to have my pride in my country destroyed. This is not my America. Not the one I was raised to believe it was, anyway.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Hope is not lost:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-Valedictorian-Speaks-Out-Against-Schooling-in-Graduation-Speech

[excentric397.livejournal.com]

Impressive speech, especially from one so young. A new site to add to my greader, too. Thanks. I was very fortunate in having, besides the high school freshman English teacher who had us reading Weekly Readers, three remarkably inspiring teachers. Teachers who encouraged us to think for ourselves, to learn for the joy of learning, to want to be better because they were better. My favorite teacher was D.K.Smith, who taught English Lit. It was not his field and he occasionally had to go down the hall to check on something or other with an actual English Lit teacher. He made me want to read and learn everything I could get my hands on. He made me love reading, love learning, love trying to figure things out for myself. My own children were not so lucky, and I think most students are not. I never went to college, but I had a better education than some people I know who did, even some who are actual teachers themselves. Better because it required me to think, and decide for myself, and not just sit back and believe everything that was told to me. We are in serious trouble in this country, and the current generation of teachers had just as poor an education as the students they are teaching, so even though this speech was very good, it does not really give me much hope. Until something happens that causes people to step out of their self-delusional complacency, nothing is going to change. I had hope, with the new president, but there is so much resistance to change, and so much just blocking the person, the color, the party you hate, regardless of the benefit to the citizenry, that we are going nowhere. It makes me sad.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Me too, :(.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

I see nothing wrong with choosing to be barefoot and pregnant as long as you make the right choice, but that's the same way with all paths in life!

I think a lot of women would be happy to be housewives, at least at some point in their lives, and the same for some men who want to try being the nurturer for a change.

I see people as individuals, not as represntations of whatever they are, and they make individual choices. Sure, a lot of them will make choices that I am like, I could never do that, but I'm not them.

I've known women who've chosen the old fashioned man is head of the household and gives all orders. Eeek, I might think, but it works for them.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

As long as it works for them, :).

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

:) (but not for me....)

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Me either, lol!