The Handmaid's Tale
About 20 years or so ago I read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and was so terrified by the repression of the female sex depicted in the book that I have never been able to forget it. Welcome to 2006 and a world that is careening closer and closer to the downright horrifying events that transpired in the novel. Terrifying how? The title character basically wakes up one morning to discover that she is now living in a totalitarian religious state and that all of her rights have been stripped away. She has no money. She has no voice. She has no freedom. She has no value. There is no room for dissent. Her husband is killed and her daughter is taken away. She is locked in a prison but because she is fertile she is given the role of "handmaid" -- a sexual surrogate to a leader in the regime. Her sole purpose is to bear a child. According to the regime that is her only value. A man accused of causing a miscarriage is literally torn limb-from-limb by indoctrinated handmaids. Only those in power can circumvent the laws, but only men have power. Only men have power because "the bible declares it so".
Scary shit.
And recent events have futher scared the bejesus out of me and my reproductive organs. South Dakota? One question -- how many women voted? In Minnesota there is a bill in play that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions depending on the pharmacist's "conscience". And my favorite? The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, introduced in the US Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), which would allow insurance companies to ignore nearly all state laws that require insurance coverage for certain treatments or conditions, including contraceptives in their prescription plans.
So let me see if I've got this right: the plan is to prevent women from having abortions, having their birth control prescriptions filled, or having their insurance companies pay for their birth control.
Which lead me to my next question: where the fuck are the women in the country and why the fuck aren't they saying anything?
Scary shit.
And recent events have futher scared the bejesus out of me and my reproductive organs. South Dakota? One question -- how many women voted? In Minnesota there is a bill in play that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions depending on the pharmacist's "conscience". And my favorite? The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, introduced in the US Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), which would allow insurance companies to ignore nearly all state laws that require insurance coverage for certain treatments or conditions, including contraceptives in their prescription plans.
So let me see if I've got this right: the plan is to prevent women from having abortions, having their birth control prescriptions filled, or having their insurance companies pay for their birth control.
Which lead me to my next question: where the fuck are the women in the country and why the fuck aren't they saying anything?
posted by Moxie at 1:53:00 PM
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