The Obama administration believes that contraception should be offered to women as a means of improving public health and women's autonomy. The Catholic church would be violating one of their strongest helded beliefs by offering contraception to its employees and affiliates. (link)
This is the kind of dilemma I face as a Catholic feminist who holds the separation of church and state as an indispensible virtue of government and religion.
I believe that the availability of contraception is directly correlated to the improvement of women's health. I also understand why the Catholic church is against contraception and I fully support their position on denying the use of contraception in the confines of being faithful. No seriously though. I get it. I understand why arguments such as "but contraception use reduces abortion rates" and "but 92% of all Catholic women have used birth control" don't hold an ounce of water against "contraception is against the teaching of the Catholic church".
And yet, the feminist in me is cheering for birth control.
As tomorrow begins the season of Lent, a time of reflection and fasting, and for me the beginning of of my 10th year in the Church, I'm going to be seriously trying to figure out how to reconcile these differences in who I am. Maybe I'll never see an end to this struggle, but it seems to me like I'm unable to keep them as seperate facets of my life and so I keep trying to blend the two as if they could possible exist within one person.
Showing posts with label birth control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birth control. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Thursday, September 1, 2011
and your medical charts, and when you start
This post is about menstruation. It's not an apology or even a warning, it's just a notice. Menstruation, below.
I know I'm risking losing my credibility as a reasonable feminist (street cred, yo) to say this, but dood....having periods is like....ovulation and being fertile and part of some sort of womanly bond...and like....the moon. For realz.
But then, well, then there's the blood.
(See first line above)
Okay, I know it's not really blood, it's lots of things that make up the lining of the uterus, that like...drips out of you. But like...despite how easily all the absorbent cotton products on TV make it seem, well, it's not always well-managed. Amitrite, ladies? Sometimes it's like WWII down there and you just want to throw your hands up and wave that white flag. Or well, it probably wouldn't be so white anymore, but....I digress.
Us modern women have lots of choices, both for controlling the length and flow of our periods and managing to not walk around covered in blood once a month. It's pretty amazing to think about what kinds of products and options we have today compared to what our great-grandmothers did or didn't have. But sometimes I think way way before that, back to a time when humans were just evolving. I assume that women passed along to each other that they would get this thing occasionally and that it didn't mean they had a wound, but was there ever an early time where they just didn't know what was going on? Did they ever think they were ill or did they just know it was part of the life cycle? These are the kinds of things I wonder while curled up in my sweatpants shoving a chocolate bar into my mouth. I think about cave women trying to figure out what periods were. #mylifeissad
The other thing that I find absolutely fascinating is the whole ovulation cycle. Now, I know my heteronormative is showing a little here but HOLY CRAP did you know that women's bodies were like...meant to conceive by making them the rowdiest right at the time where they're most likely to conceive? It's how we're still alive and the Dodo Bird is not. (I only assume that the female dodo birds all got "headaches" when they were the most fertile.)
I mean, check this out.
You see that purple line go up right around day 21? Yeah. That's your lady boner. Basically, God puts on a Barry White record to make little babies. It's absolutely genius. No wonder feminists are always blah blah blahing about how amazing periods are. They ARE amazing.
In today's world of Seasonale and Mirena and tampons in neon colored candy wrappers, I just didn't want y'all to forget that even though you have the incredible option of not being a baby making machine, your body is totally designed to get you off the couch every once in a while and into bed to do the nasty. That, ladies, is intelligent design. ;)
I know I'm risking losing my credibility as a reasonable feminist (street cred, yo) to say this, but dood....having periods is like....ovulation and being fertile and part of some sort of womanly bond...and like....the moon. For realz.
But then, well, then there's the blood.
(See first line above)
Okay, I know it's not really blood, it's lots of things that make up the lining of the uterus, that like...drips out of you. But like...despite how easily all the absorbent cotton products on TV make it seem, well, it's not always well-managed. Amitrite, ladies? Sometimes it's like WWII down there and you just want to throw your hands up and wave that white flag. Or well, it probably wouldn't be so white anymore, but....I digress.
Us modern women have lots of choices, both for controlling the length and flow of our periods and managing to not walk around covered in blood once a month. It's pretty amazing to think about what kinds of products and options we have today compared to what our great-grandmothers did or didn't have. But sometimes I think way way before that, back to a time when humans were just evolving. I assume that women passed along to each other that they would get this thing occasionally and that it didn't mean they had a wound, but was there ever an early time where they just didn't know what was going on? Did they ever think they were ill or did they just know it was part of the life cycle? These are the kinds of things I wonder while curled up in my sweatpants shoving a chocolate bar into my mouth. I think about cave women trying to figure out what periods were. #mylifeissad
The other thing that I find absolutely fascinating is the whole ovulation cycle. Now, I know my heteronormative is showing a little here but HOLY CRAP did you know that women's bodies were like...meant to conceive by making them the rowdiest right at the time where they're most likely to conceive? It's how we're still alive and the Dodo Bird is not. (I only assume that the female dodo birds all got "headaches" when they were the most fertile.)
I mean, check this out.
 |
| From Wikipedia |
In today's world of Seasonale and Mirena and tampons in neon colored candy wrappers, I just didn't want y'all to forget that even though you have the incredible option of not being a baby making machine, your body is totally designed to get you off the couch every once in a while and into bed to do the nasty. That, ladies, is intelligent design. ;)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
feed them on your dreams
Last week I went home. Actually, home is a funny word. Baltimore is my home, but my hometown is in Ohio. So "going home" means going to Ohio, that is unless I'm in Ohio, in which "going home" means going to Maryland.
No less than 4 very emotional events happened during my visit and on the subsequent drive home, but this isn't about any of them. This is about my visit with the Miss Superwoman Molly, her loserface husband (just kidding, he's super awesome too) and her 2 very fantastic there are no words to describe it children.
Her son, L, has met me once or twice but at the tender age of 5 he doesn't remember. That being said, we were LIFELONG FRIENDS the moment I walked in the door. Now, as someone who finds children, well, annoying and sticky, this was surprisingly welcomed. He's just, the most totally awesome kid and I know that sounds like a 90's motivational slogan but he really is. He's kind hearted and quick to learn and really funny. (Molly, if you're reading this, you can thank me later for teaching him knock-knock jokes.)
The newest addition, baby girl T, was secretly the only reason for my visit. Who cares about her parents, she is the star of the show. Most importantly, sitting on top of this girl's head is a pile of red hair. My heart melts for a red-headed child. And while I can't claim to understand at all how a parent feels about wanting to protect their child, as I sat there holding her on my lap, the most surprising things came out of my mouth. I suddenly had the urge to tell her ALL about life. "You are beautiful. Never ever go on a diet.", I said. "Being a girl is amazing. Sure you get periods and have to shave your legs, but that's so much better than being a boy. You are perfect the way you are. You can do anything you want. And if you're good at math, run with it."
Children never make me want to have my own. They are the best reminder that I am not ready for that stage of life, if ever. But in that moment I did kind of think for a second that it would be very nice to hug something every day and tell it how awesome it is. And then she started to scream and it shattered that little dream. And I thanked God for birth control.
No less than 4 very emotional events happened during my visit and on the subsequent drive home, but this isn't about any of them. This is about my visit with the Miss Superwoman Molly, her loserface husband (just kidding, he's super awesome too) and her 2 very fantastic there are no words to describe it children.
Her son, L, has met me once or twice but at the tender age of 5 he doesn't remember. That being said, we were LIFELONG FRIENDS the moment I walked in the door. Now, as someone who finds children, well, annoying and sticky, this was surprisingly welcomed. He's just, the most totally awesome kid and I know that sounds like a 90's motivational slogan but he really is. He's kind hearted and quick to learn and really funny. (Molly, if you're reading this, you can thank me later for teaching him knock-knock jokes.)
The newest addition, baby girl T, was secretly the only reason for my visit. Who cares about her parents, she is the star of the show. Most importantly, sitting on top of this girl's head is a pile of red hair. My heart melts for a red-headed child. And while I can't claim to understand at all how a parent feels about wanting to protect their child, as I sat there holding her on my lap, the most surprising things came out of my mouth. I suddenly had the urge to tell her ALL about life. "You are beautiful. Never ever go on a diet.", I said. "Being a girl is amazing. Sure you get periods and have to shave your legs, but that's so much better than being a boy. You are perfect the way you are. You can do anything you want. And if you're good at math, run with it."
Children never make me want to have my own. They are the best reminder that I am not ready for that stage of life, if ever. But in that moment I did kind of think for a second that it would be very nice to hug something every day and tell it how awesome it is. And then she started to scream and it shattered that little dream. And I thanked God for birth control.
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