Starting Word Count: 2,157
Yesterday, I mentioned that I initially had a different topic for my introductory blog piece and decided it would be more beneficial to explain a little bit about NaNoWriMo before I began. That was yesterday. Today, it's time for that rant.
I consider myself a feminist. That does not mean I hate men. It does not mean I think women are superior to men. It means that I think women should be treated with respect equal to that which is received by men.
I also personally consider that women are under assault politically. Constantly. Every single day, I feel as if I am hearing about another stupid, heinous, misogynistic law that is being implemented against women. And most of it is because of religion. I have a huge problem with this.
Absolutely huge.
I really do not care what form of religion you practice. However, when you decide you have a right to stick your cross in my uterous, I have a problem with your religion. Find that crass? Good. I'm not going to apologize for that thought, because to be honest, I really feel like this is what is being done in this country.
We have freedom of religion. That means something. It does. And I am okay with you wearing a cross on a necklace around your neck or a yamulca (apologies for the spelling of that. I know it is wrong, but no spell checker. See blog 1 for grammar issues), or a burka or a beard or whatever outward expression of your faith you deem necessary. I don't care. I have no problem with you praying in your home or your church, or at a restaurant before you take your meal.
But there are a few issues I do have. I have a problem with Christians (yeah, I'll call you out) deciding that their religious freedom is more important than anyone else's. And when someone tells them that they are infringing, they are being "persecuted". Let me tell you something right here: in this country, you are not a persecuted people. I know you like to feel that you are because you feel closer to your God. However, in this nation, you're the persecutors. You feel persecuted only because people have stopped letting you bully them. There are places on this earth where your religion is well and truly persecuted. I am not going to deny that. That would be stupid and wrong. However, here, when you are "persecuted", it is in response to your own persecution of others. Unfortunately, I doubt very much that many of you will see that. I don't really care if you do or not. If you feel this is hostile, good. If you feel I am angry at a good portion of you, good. It's time you felt that wrath.
You are NOT serving your religion well. You are making a mockery of it by your behavior. You are acting like hypocrites. And if you do not personally feel that you are, that I am blasting your faith unfairly, this I say to you: look at what your people are doing to others. Have you stood up to them and said "you are not acting as a messenger of our Lord and Savior." ? Have you stood beside those who were being perscuted by others of your faith and said "I am sorry. I have your back, and we do not all feel this way?" If yes: I'm not talking to you, and you probably already get why I'm so angry. If no, you've stood silently while others took the name of your God in vain and created this environment.
You've enjoyed Religious Priviledge. You don't even know what that means, but I can tell you.
1. If you have nodded your head in agreement when the criticism was levied at the current president because he was a Muslim, and therefore, unAmerican -- you are enjoying religious priviledge.
2. If you've been to an event and been asked to pray -- and you know it will be your faith that is leading that prayer, you are enjoying religious priviledge.
3. If your faith is the one held up in courthouses as right -- and you expect others to live up to your faith's teachings, you are enjoying religious priviledge.
4. If you are not afraid to tell your friends and family what your faith is, because you know that is what they accept -- you are enjoying religious priviledge.
5. If you have no problem going up to people you have never met and asking them where they go to church -- you are enjoying religious priviledge.
6. If you put verses from your religious text on your business publications, and you are not a religious organizations -- you are doing it because you know you have the dominant faith and you will not lose business for advertising your religion -- you are enjoying religious priviledge.
Examples of living without it?
1. Having your wedding be of a faith other than your own so that your family will accept it.
2. Not being able to tell people what your faith is because you don't want to have them shun you. Or lose your job.
3. Knowing that if you tell your family you do not share their faith, you will be disowned.
4. Being told you're going to hell because you do not believe in the common faith.
5. Serving in the military and not being able to have your religious choice printed on your dog tag....or your head stone.
6. Having your patriotism and right to live in the country of your birth questioned because you do not practice the common faith.
But the biggest example I can think of right now: A corporation has more rights to its personhood than an actual female person does. Do you honestly think I'm kidding? Corporations have been granted freedom of speech and been declared persons. They are now going for freedom of religion (what kind of god does a corporation worship, and how exactly does it do so? What are the tenants of the faith of a corporation? Side tracked).
Here's my issue with birth control and health care. It is a prescription drug. It does not cost a corporation any more to carry this prescription than do exclude it. However, companies like Hobby Lobby and others want to claim that it is against their freedom of religion to do so. They don't want to pay for birth control. First of all...birth control pills do much more than simply prevent pregnancies--I will state this for a fact. I used to be on them. In High School. Guess what, it did not turn me into a sex pot. All it did was give me the ability to function. There are a lot of women out there who have seriously bad menstrual cycles -- cycles which are debilitating. Without the hormonal regulation offered by birth control, we cannot function. This has nothing to do with pregnancy prevention. This is a bona fide medical treatment allowing us to actually be able to stand up and not shout out in pain every second of our periods. I wonder how many young women get pregnant JUST to get a brief reprieve from their debilitating cramps.
And yet, Hobby Lobby, who will not receive a bill for the remainder of the co-pays for birth control believes that since birth control prevents a fertilized egg from implanting into the uterine wall, it is the equivalent of an abortion, and they do not support abortion, so they should be able to claim religious freedom and not have to pay for it.
THIS is where I draw the line at your religious freedom. Firstly, Hobby Lobby is not paying for it. They are paying for a health care package with a prescription drug benefit. Including birth control is not going to cost them more. They just want to prevent women from having the option of having that covered by insurance. And might I add something else? Hobby Lobby's employees have a co-pay, so they are also paying for this insurance. Hobby Lobby is getting a group discount for their employees -- however, it is not just their dollars being used to purchase this insurance. The money for this comes from their employees as well.
I recently saw a photographic saying "you would not make an athiest buy you a bible you wouldn't force a vegetarian to buy you a hamburger. why are you forcing someone to buy your birth control." Because I'm not. I'm demanding a right that was hard fought for. Prescription coverage for this prescription drug -- insurance companies have only been covering birth control for the past 15 years or so, if that long. That was after a lawsuit because of it being discriminatory against women. Now these same people have found a new tactic "Religious freedom." And I don't buy it. I'm going to call it: SHARIA LAW. That's where laws are made based on a religious text. You're used to reading it about Islam, but Christianity is just as bad about using their religion to create laws (while at the same time deriding Sharia Law. I personally think they are so angry at the Muslims because they have countries they control where they get away with this treatment.)
This is why I state it so crassly about keeping your religion out of my pants.
Birth control should be a non-issue. Yet, corporations and pharmacists have all decided they want a "moral exclusion" as if birth control was immoral. It's not. It's about responsible family planning. It's about female sexual freedom, and reproductive freedom. Not to these people. They want to keep women 'in their place' ... they don't actually care about the unborn...they just want to make sure that any woman who dares to have sex is punished by a baby. And a baby should not be considered a punishment.
If you have a problem with birth control, don't take it. I am not going to force it down your throat. But I am not going to allow you to claim you have the religious freedom to DENY ME freedom.
You don't.
If you're a corporation, you do not believe in God. You're a separate legal entity designed to protect your owners from personal liability. Therefore, you do not have a faith. Shareholders might. But you, Hobby Lobby, are not a Christian. You might be a company owned by Christians. But you're not. You have no morality.
And as for pharmacists. I'll use this argument. No one forced you to become a pharmacist. You made that choice when you were in school. If you had a moral problem with certain meds, the time for you to make your moral choice was in school. You do not get to make your moral objections with others paying the cost. If you truly believe this, then make the sacrifice and change professions. Do not demand your customers make the sacrifice for YOUR issue. Your job is to prevent interactions between prescriptions. If you see that my BC is going to interfere adversely with my hay fever meds, please, by all means, do something. But if you just have a problem with BC, you know where you can shove it....don't you?
I mean...let's put it this way: Imagine a skinny, health conscious vegetarian working at Walmart at the check out line. And imagine an obese woman buying a lot of chips, junk food, and beef. ( She's having a cook out!). Let's just say that this skinny vegetarian refuses to sell the chips and meat because it is against her personal beliefs. What would happen to the check out girl? She'd be fired. And she should be fired.
So should the sanctimonious and self-righteous pharmacist.
Freedom of Religion should not ever give you the right to deny others THEIR rights. Yet, all too often, it has been used as an excuse.
It does not stop with corporations: The unborn have more rights than women.
There was a pregnat woman recently who was forced to enter a drug treatment program -- not because she tested positively for drugs, but because she had told her doctor she had been addicted to prescription medication and was weening herself off of them. Her fetus got a lawyer -- her? Not so much. There was a hearing and she was forced into drug treatment -- because of a whole host of things where she was treated as nothing more than an incubator.
I have not even gotten to the legislative rape with the transvaginal ultrasounds.
I'm tired of it being a crime to be female. I'm tired of laws and legislation which target women.
Fetus rights should NEVER trump those of the woman. Not in the way where birth control is denied because it, as Monty Python put it, "every sperm is sacred". Not in the way where abortion ... which for the record is legal, whether or not you like it ... is restricted so that access becomes impossible.
Women are people too, damn it. And it's time that not having a penis is no longer a cause for legislative discrimination.
How would men feel if laws were specifically enacted to discriminate against their freedoms and rights?
Oh, we don't know....because women do not control the legislatures....but oh, I wonder if they'd be so quick to regulate my uterus.
Today's word count: 2,247
Total Word Count: 4,404
No comments:
Post a Comment