Reclamation

It seems strange that, even nearly two decades later, Ian Mackaye of all people would be best able to clue us in to the real issue-at-hand affecting the female community, and distill the debate into easily digestible nuggets, and irrefutable soundbytes.

I read an article in Esquire Magazine this morning, “What Happened To All The Loose Women”, which went on to lament the increasing paucity of empowered and sex-positive women in our contemporary culture. The article referenced a lot of modern “culture” with which I am unfamiliar (I proudly do not watch broadcast-television), the historical-bent of the article allowed me to appreciate those older cultural documents that were being referenced. We seem to have entered a new era of prudishness and priggishness, exemplified by such [allegedly] physically arresting, yet highly sex-a-phobic public figures as the former Republican Vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin (though the article contends that Hillary Clinton is much the same). I use the word "seem" because in my lifetime I have witnessed a rolling back of rights and mentalities to a much more conservative, much more repressive social order. This movement, which I’m afeard to characterize as “a movement”, lest people assume I’m talking about a conspiracy or physical-organization, as opposed to a more broadly defined trend (even if there are organizations specifically dedicated to these goals. (The National Organization for Marriage, and Al-Qaeda both come to mind) ) has increasingly been represented by women, on a scale unseen since the temperance movement inextricably tied itself to the movement for women’s suffrage.

Yet for all the polemics, and the fear-mongering, and talking-head partisan bullshit the people who would roll-back our rights and freedoms are forgetting the very simple tenet that underlies the whole debate, whether it be Roe vs. Wade, the War-On-Drugs, or even the recently contentious Bill 44. That simple tenet is what I love Ian Mackaye for expressing so succinctly, namely: “We want control of our bodies.” We, the people want the freedom to control our bodies. The very simple fact of this matter reduces to a fight between those who want freedom, and those who would try and enslave others. Mild-slavery is still slavery, no matter how well-fed the slaves are. One should feel perfectly at ease morally opposing, say, abortion (heck, even I kinda oppose it) but there’s a huge difference between having your opinions (your totally irrational and un-justifiable opinions) and then using the laws of the land to persecute and prosecute others who hold differing opinions. The difference is a fight between freedom and slavery. There is no middle ground. You either firmly and resolutely believe in freedom, or you believe you have right to enslave others. You can not take but one step away from freedom. Those who would oppress others, and prevent them the exercise of their own god-given right-to-life are nothing but power-hungry wolves in the guise of lambs. All their talk about tradition, family values, social-values are lies, meant to deceive, and hide the fact that they consider themselves superior, consider themselves to be equivalent to das Herrenvolk, whether by virtue of their race, religion, or ideology--it doesn't matter, they're all lies, being told by charismatic liars, who would enslave you with the stroke of a pen. They will deny it, of course, because they have to--their political lives depend upon it.

We want control of our bodies, and it is that freedom that has underlay every massive social upheaval this past century, and it would be foolish, if not downright dangereous to assume that the victories of the past can’t be rolled back, and without due-diligence those freedoms will be rolled back. To tie it all back to the Esquire piece, women can choose promiscuity, or not, it’s strictly irrelevant to me, as long as women, and men, are still free to make that choice, and are free to make their own decisions, anything else is slavery. As such, we all have to make the choice of who we want to be: the slave, or the master. Seems like a simple decision, but the truth is that an increasing number of North Americans are making the despicable choice of the latter. Will you?

"These are our demands: We want control of our bodies.
Decisions will now be ours.
You carry out your noble actions, we will carry our noble scars.
No one here is asking, but there is a question of trust.
You will do what looks good to you on paper, we will do what we must.
Return, return, return. Carry my body."