On the Oftentimes Unmitigated Reach of the Positions You Support
I have never been so naive as to readily believe that any great number of people have and/or will ever read this entire article. We have had many, many conversations elsewhere about both the voices of women of color being viciously silenced, and of the horrendous futility of attempting communication in a world filled with self-absorbed individuals. The irony of my posting the //You Won’t Finish This Article// article on Facebook two years ago today is nauseating and laughable all at once. That doesn’t mean that I excuse said flagrant behavior, though.
It is preferable to remain comfortable stewing in the baseless belief that every decision one makes can be and is isolated from not only that one’s other decisions, but that they have absolutely no bearing on the lives of others. Even more popular is the misconception that contraceptives are readily available and easily accessible in all fifty states. Neither has ever been true, and the latter is less true today and ever before. The unwillingness to acknowledge these discrepancies allows a collective to disregard injustices with the excuse that the victim’s of these crimes “should know better” (as those who spout the quote showcase how little knowledge they hold). Complaints are made null when you are a willing participant in your own repression – it is important to make note of that.
As satisfying as it would be to rant how invaluable it is to be a responsible consumer, the war against women, the actualities of access to safe abortions, about striving to educate ourselves beyond the extremely low bar that has been set by anti-intellectuals, and how reading every single thing that you sign is of the upmost importance, while throwing the thirty-seven citations that I have all over this post (yes, I have thirty-seven references, and more than half are old articles reporting the illegal actions described in this article, and legislation allowing our imprisonment that I have been screaming about for the past seven years), I can’t really find a reason to do so. Not anymore. If over eleven years of facts and figures, of notices of rampant ignorance being made into lesson plans, and headache inducing articles detailing working and middle class women of all ethnicities being subjugated and violated in this manner doesn’t push you to know and do more for someone other than yourself, nothing that I/we ever submit will make a smidgen of a difference to the general public. I refuse be looked upon as an insufferable child, AND still be expected to teach the asinine masses. All I and those who are in my position (privileged enough to be in the know and able to speak out) can do is impress the importance of this extremely dire situation upon our respentatives. As integral as the people may be in selecting knowledgeable and assiduous politicians, there is a clear disconnect (see: overwhelming stupidity) that needs to be bridged in order for us to retain our body autonomy.
loudspeakerandlemonjuice 