Carol Forsloff---In the United States a former Presidential candidate and preacher, Mike Huckabee, believes, in reference to women and contraception, they can control their impulses without having government-sanctioned birth control methods. In India a woman politician offers the statement that women are the cause of rape, defending her statement as "her opinion." How do attitudes like this influence our culture and patterns of behavior?
Asha Mirje, the woman politician in India, was quoted by the press as saying women were "responsible to an extent" for rape. She went on to add their "clothing and behaviour" played a part in what happened to them.
Human rights activists as well as the opposition party to that of Mirje were quick to respond that Mirje"s comments were "unacceptable". Mirjie's defense, however, was to state that this had been her "personal opinion." Nevertheless, her opinion was public; and the consequences to the culture in a country where a rape is said to be recorded every 22 minutes is disturbing, counter the activists.
Huckabee's remarks brought an outpouring of discussion about his attitudes in reference to giving women access to no-co-pay birth control under the Affordable Care Act. His remarks, "they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government,"offered an example of opinions that are pervasive in reference to women and sex. Some members of the Christian right were quick to defend Huckabee's remarks, while some in the Republican party were also said to want to distant themselves from those remarks.
In the United States women are divided on the issues of contraception and abortion. References to women's sexual responses as something they should just control in order to prevent unwanted births reinforces attitudes about sex and women's issues that have influenced the culture in negative ways, according to experts on sex, reproduction and psychology.
Ms Mirje later apologized about what she said, maintaining it was her "personal opinion." Huckabee defended his remarks by pointing to the press as being responsible for the firestorm along with the political opposition. “I'm always flattered when people on the far left manufacture a new version of being ‘offended. They can be quite creative in finding something that hurts their feelings,” he was quoted as saying to a Fox News host.
Experts on the matter of unwanted pregnancies maintain the burden of preventing unwanted pregnancies is a shared responsibility. Furthermore, even though abstinence is the method of 100% guarantee as offering birth control, the shared responsibility presented includes methods of contraception as well. But the notion of pregnancy being the woman's fault continues to be offered as the foundation for focusing on women in counseling and birth control forums.
Rape is known to be an act of violence, not of sexual response. It is that violence that is said to be at the heart of the problem, and the lack of knowledge of what rape really is and its long-lasting impact on the woman's life and the life of her family but also on the community as a whole.
Public figures offer pronouncements that often reinforce prejudgments and lack of knowledge about sex and women, as each culture struggles with accepting responsibility for the outcomes of those remarks and women become the target of the negative impact they can bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say something constructive. Negative remarks and name-calling are not allowed.