I am from Seattle, Washington and before I came to
college I had never met anyone who was against abortions or even gay rights. Many
people think that the people at Allegheny College are extremely liberal and too
left winged but to me, Allegheny College is actually kind of conservative. I am
extremely thankful to go to this college because not only have my peers and
professors taught me and showed me new ways to think but coming here has shaped
who I am and what I believe in. I am a strong believer that women should have
the rights to their body. Anybody should have rights to their own body. But I
also know that if I became pregnant I do not know if I could ever abort that
baby. But that is me, that is my choice, and everybody deserves the right to
choose. Because of my strong beliefs in the ownership of my own body, my own
history working with abused and neglected babies, and my maternal instincts I
hit a rock and a hard place when it comes to being or becoming pregnant and Susan
Bordo’s argument.
In Susan Bordo’s Unbearable
Weight: Are Mother’s Persons? Reproductive Rights and the Politics of
Subjectivity, Bordo examines pregnant women from an intersectional feminist
perspective. She explains that her argument does not stem from pro-life or
pro-choice but from the body and
bodily integrity. Bordo’s central argument is that when a woman becomes
pregnant society, medicine, and the law instantly treats her as a “fetus
incubator”. As a now “fetus incubator”, pregnant mothers lose their
subjectivity while the infant becomes the “super subject”. This means that a
mother instantly becomes a baby maker and a baby maker only. Her purpose is stripped
only to “baby maker” which is dehumanizing and irrational. She claims that
being pregnant should not impact a women’s subjectivity and body integrity but
it is a sad fact that those things are lost once a woman becomes pregnant.
Society expects women to give up
their subjectivity and that a woman will give it up willingly.
What I want to examine here is the fetus as the “super
subject”. This is where I became extremely confused in what I believe. In my
heart I have a strong sense of self. My body is my own. In other words: I have
bodily integrity (right now at least, as a non-pregnant woman). BUT…I also have
an intense emotional attachment already to the baby or babies I have not had
yet as well as the many babies and children I have worked with in the past. When
I read Bordo’s listing of cases of fetal abuse I find myself questioning why is
the law wrong here?
“A Massachusetts woman who miscarried after an
automobile accident in which she was intoxicated was prosecuted for vehicular
homicide of her fetus. A Connecticut woman was charged with endangering her
fetus by swallowing cocaine as police moved to arrest her. A Washington judge
sent Brenda Vaughan to jail for nearly four months to protect her fetus,
because a drug test, taken after she was arrested for foraging a check,
revealed cocaine use. In 1990, a Wyoming woman was charged by the police with
the crime of drinking while pregnant and was prosecuted for felony child abuse.
In South Carolina, a dozen women have been arrested after the hospitals they
went to for maternity care tested them for cocaine use and turned them into the
police for fetal abuse.” (Bordo, 1993)
I have known all my life that I want to be a mother. I
love children and babies more than anything. In fact, people that know me say I
have a special gift with children. I have such a connection to little kids and
babies that I got a job working as a teacher at a Therapeutic Child Care Center
for abused and neglected children (infants through age 5). There I worked with
many babies and children whose mothers had abused a variety of drugs while they were in
utero. I understand that teratogens really matter in terms of how much, how
often, and when (stages of prenatal development) which should definitely be
taken into account in legal matters. But I also have worked with these children
and seen their struggles because of their mother’s choices “for her own body”?
This is my struggle. When you are pregnant you are responsible for another
being. A being that is incapable of speech and of making decisions for itself
yet.
I understand that a woman’s subjectivity is taken when
they become pregnant and that the fetus becomes higher on the hierarchy of
importance. I believe that women should be able to maintain their bodily
integrity…to an extent. Because when you become pregnant you are automatically
giving up a slice of your bodily integrity because you are not only making
decisions for yourself but you are making decisions that affect the tiny person
inside you.
This means that if I were to see a pregnant woman
smoking or drinking I would simply stay quiet because I respect her body. I see
her as more than just a “baby incubator”. But in my head I will also be
cringing and my heart will be aching for the baby inside her.
What I find interesting is the fact that a woman’s
body is seen as not her own when she is pregnant but when the baby comes out
her body is still not hers. Her body is still subject to harsh criticism,
especially when baring signs of previous pregnancies. I found an article about
a woman whose Facebook status went viral. She went to the beach and some young
people were making fun of her stomach which was covered in stretch marks from
baring five children. I find it ironic that our society places such an emphasis
on a mother being a “good” mother and being held to such a high standard when
you become pregnant but the bodily changes your body goes through because of
that process are frowned upon and seen as “gross” by many.
No comments:
Post a Comment