"Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon." ~ Gloria Steinem

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Clarification On "This Is Me Judging You", or, In Which I Abuse My Extensive Vocabulary

You may recall a post I made a while back regarding infertility treatments. Of recent years, I have fallen into the habit of being quite a bit more explicit than I feel I need to be; see, once you become an activist, you realize that those who oppose you or think you're unreasonable/hypersensitive or feel threatened by your position tend to assume you mean things, whether you meant them or not. By this, I mean that, on occasion, it is necessary to think out all possible ramifications of your statements and preemptively deal with any "misunderstandings."

Hence, upon further reflection (this is sort of thing my brain wanders into while I'm surveying.), I feel compelled to clarify my position.

I stand by what I said; infertility treatments are indeed a shocking waste of money, time, and effort. However, this does not mean I would support any sort of attempt to limit the ability of adults to do it. This is an important distinction. Although I disagree--vehemently--with your choices, and feel they ride the edge of societal ethics, I will fight to the death for your freedom to make them.

I would also like to clarify my exact position, and why this bothers me so much. (yes, it does bother me, a lot, in case you hadn't noticed.)

Infertility treatments illuminate contradictions now present in our culture in two ways.
  • Firstly, when juxtaposed with society's pernicious belief that humans are not subject to evolutionary forces in the manner that other species are, as illustrated by those who feel that the solution to food shortages as a result of population growth is to produce more food*, the widespread yet unacknowledged acceptance of an unconscious, evolutionary-based drive to perpetuate one's genetic material reveals a dearth of logic, to say the least. 
  • Secondly, it strikes me as odd that some proponents of infertility treatments blather on about how children are a blessing, children are wonderful, children are Jesus reincarnate and will make all of your problems go away, and yet, because they are also the same people who refuse to raise someone else's children ("We thought about adoption, but we just really wanted our own kids"), they do not give a hoot for the children who already exist in the world--the children who need to be adopted. 
So there you have it. A lot of big fancy academic words in the first one, but all I'm trying to say is that nobody stops to think for even a second these days. And if they did, they'd see the same glaring inconsistencies I do.


* Populations will always, always, always increase in numbers to match available food resources; the opposite is also true. This has been demonstrated many times with many species, and yet no one seems to believe it. Populations began exploding once we obtained a food surplus--i.e., formed civilizations.

1 comment:

  1. Amen, Sistah! I find the statement, "I really would rather have my own children [despite the procreation failures of my body]," is, frankly, selfish.-Lauren

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