If you want to fight for choice, I’m sorry feminists, but here it is. You have to fight for a woman’s right to have a child, even if she is having it under all the conditions that seem to be ripe for a pro-abortion argument. If choice is genuine, it means choosing when and if a woman becomes a mother, even if that decision is to carry to term, over and over again. And additionally, it doesn’t just mean carrying the pregnancy to term, but the decision as to how and whether to get pregnant in the first place. That’s right, we have to stand up for Michelle Duggar.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that there’s this televised family in the south with 19 children, the last of which was born three months prematurely at 1lb 6oz due to Michelle’s undiagnosed pre-eclampsia. After spending 4 months in the hospital, baby Josie came home, followed by another brief hospital stay.
And if you’re familiar with the show, you know that the Duggars are fundamental Christians, and although they don’t promote one specific denomination of Christianity, it’s generally believed that they subscribe to the “Quiverfull” movement which discourages the use of any form of birth control, including natural family planning, and encourages its members to have as many children as “God allows”. The family lives in a very gender-structured household where all the children are home-schooled. They subscribe to the theory that couples should not kiss or hug before marriage, and value modesty in a very traditional sense. Needless to say, their upbringing is “different”.
When their 19th child was born, you should have seen the interwebs. It was full of “This should be their sign not to have any more children!” “It’s reckless to have so many children!” “Michelle Duggar should have her tubes tied!” And even from some of my feminist friends… “Why wouldn’t she just use birth control! Doesn’t she know she has a CHOICE?”
This is neither the time nor the place to discuss why the Duggar’s choose not to use birth control, but the fact is that they have that choice. They do not consider themselves able to “choose” how many children they have, rather that God chooses how many children they have. Regardless, the argument can still be made that they “choose” whether or not to follow the teachings they believe to be true.
I think we might need to take a quick second to deconstruct the Quiverfull movement. The Quiverfull movement was started by women. It was a reaction to the feminist movement that popularized birth control, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily make it anti-feminist. I think people have a tendency to assume that this movement was started by some sort of patriarchal board that decided their women couldn’t use birth control, and that wasn’t the case at all. Women decided that the feminist movement didn’t speak for them and their religious beliefs, and so they congregated in groups and started this movement by themselves. That’s totally feminist! Now I know that Mary Pride, who some consider original author of the Quiverfull doctrine (although she has now distanced herself from being called the founder of this movement) considered herself to be an anti-feminist, but I’m confident that when she is mistaking being a mother for being the opposite of being a feminist. If you want to read more about the Quiverfull movement their website can be found here and some more balanced information (wikipedia) can be found here.
Is Michelle Duggar’s (and Jim Bob Duggar’s for that matter) choice to have 19 children any less defendable than someone’s choice to have an abortion? Of course it’s not. And for the sake of argument, her children are very well provided for, not just in the sense of basic necessities but in the sense of quality relationships with others. Obviously the camera only gives us a glimpse into their lives, but for all intents and purposes those kids have it better off than a large number of American children. But their quality of life isn’t really the argument here. The argument is the fact that Michelle Dugger is the quintessential example of choice. Just because her choice wasn’t abortion, doesn’t make it any less of a choice. Michelle knows she has a choice. She makes a choice every day. She’s made the choice to have 19 children, all of whom are well cared for, healthy and loved. She chose motherhood. How much more feminist could that be?
And this is the argument we need to get back to. Choice is about motherhood, not abortion.
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