Ironed Jawed Angels

I actually wrote this some time ago, but never posted it. I think I will today...

I was watching Iron Jawed Angel last night and tonight...I have a sick toddler so it took me a bit longer than it should. I began to think. While we have come a long way are we truly free? I feel like I fight an up hill battle every day for my rights. First I am a woman. While I can of course get a wonderful education, and make money that is some fields thanks to the recession woman actually do make more than a man. I still lack in health care rights. We are punished for having children with expensive hospital births that sometimes cost more than some families make in a year. If a woman chooses to give birth at home which has been statistically proven to be just as safe as a hospital when done with care and education, we are shunned by our peers. The government in some cases threatens or does take away our children. Not because they came to harm, but because we exercised our right to make our medical decisions.

Our rights to our own health does not stop there. Now we are told as women to take our daughters in, and vaccinate them against 4 stains of virus out of hundreds that exist. They tell us that this will save our daughters from cervical cancer. To not do this is bad parenting. In California it is a mandatory vaccine. Does this not infringe on our right to be in control of our sexual heath? To me the next step is mandatory chemical birth control for all teenage girls. After all, it's for their own good. While some people would argue that giving them birth control would encourage sex at a young age that argument was waved aside by pro-vaccine advocates. After all telling these kids that the vaccine does not protect them from all strains will stop them...because telling them the birth control is not 100% has worked terribly well.

We also are under educated in how reproduction works. What chemical birth control does to our bodies, and how fertility really works. We are told that we shouldn't bother charting, because it means nothing. Except it does. It can show patterns in fertility that a blood panel simply can't. We have little understanding of how child birth works, and then fear it all the way to  the labor bed where we blindly nod as the doctor offers an epidural, pitocin, ruptured membranes, and a c-section.

I fight for my right to breastfeed in a society that simply does not remember a time when we breastfed beyond year one, and for most it's a miracle if woman get the support and encouragement to go beyond the first weeks of life. Some where in our fight to show that we are equal to men and can do it all we lost our one of those special talents to be women. That we have produce both life and food to support that life. As long as we take the time to nurture that ability. When we fought for our right in the work place we gave up our right to nurse our children without risk of criticized by our male counterparts. We give up without truly trying, because even many women don't support our right to feed our kids as we see fit. Today as I work on this there is a bill in Georgia that would allow breastfeeding in public to be considered indecent!

My last struggle is not everyone's. I'm a Pagan. I don't yell it from the roof tops, but I am. My rights as such are limited. Some groups of government acknowledge certain paths. I conform to none. To most we are just nuts who run through the woods naked. Some think we worship the devil. I do neither. We don't have churches per say, and most would not allow them in their community. We do not try to convert others, but having people on a regular basis trying to convert us. We are made fun of openly, and no one speaks up for us but perhaps those that are angry and tired of being made fun of. Most organization do not recognize us, and will refuse to authorize us. We don't build schools for our children. The grants are simply impossible for a Pagan community. I've tried.

So, have we come a long ways in earning rights for all? Of course we have! We have also traded off some very simple family choices in the process. Hopefully, people will never stop fighting for those rights. I know I won't. I'm not a scream it from the rooftops advocate, but when push comes to shove I guess I can be. Life choices are not always simple. We should have the right to make them for ourselves though.