Women’s health as a collective fight
There is so much that is not taught about when it comes to sexual health. In the United States especially, it is almost unorthodox, and especially unheard of, of teaching sex ed in schools. I know that when I got taught about sex ed in high school, the main point about sex was that the best preventative measure against pregnancy was abstention. I was told about other measures to protect against pregnancy, such as condoms as well as the pill, but there was not as much as an emphasis on this as there was abstention. In those sex ed classes, it was almost taboo to talk about the sexes, particular about the sexual organs. Even now as I write this, I am getting apprehensive that this might not be an appropriate topic for the reading response even though this is not the main topic of the response.
The main thing that I wanted to discuss within this response is the need to destigmatize talking about the female body, however, of course, I understand that this is not something that is easily done nor that is possible at this time. There is almost a fear in many countries around the world for women to discover their own selves, and to discuss it outside of matrimony. This is evident in the article, “Feminist Body/Politics as a World Traveller”, where Kathy Davis discusses a book dubbed the ‘Women’s Bible’ written by a group of feminist activists and translated and spread throughout the entire world, known as Our Bodies, Ourselves. This book covered many controversial topics centered around the female body, and it gained a lot of praise and criticism, as well as a lot of censorship around the world. It is reflective of American ideas, and there were many books based on it and that also took ideas from it. The goal of OBOS is to give women around the world information about their bodies, and the fact that it was able to spread this far says a lot about the knowledge about these crucial things to understand the human body before it was written.
Care is a word that pertains to the human condition, and has many meanings associated with it. There is one that sticks out among the rest, and that is described as “being worried or troubled” by Michelle Murphy in her journal article “Unsettling Care”. This focuses on the quality of health that is afforded to women’s bodies in health as well as the difference of care between women in so-called “First-World Countries” to those in “Third-World Countries”, particularly related to cervical cancer, the most common cancer that was found in women, especially women in Third World Countries. In response, there were several books that were written as self help books for women to help themselves and to see the signs of cervical cancers and how to fight them.
The point of this response to talk about the health issues about not sharing this information. As mentioned earlier, it is vital that women know about their own bodies, so that they understand and know what is going on with their bodies. This is not enough however. Because the womanly sex is so stigmatized, something so often occurring as periods are also stigmatized, to the point where it is expected to not be talked about, and it is expected for women to figure out how best to deal with them, as there is a general stigmatization of men against the notion of periods which is usually a monthly occurrence for women. It is important to discuss the women sex not
as a figure to fight for just rights and respect, but really for the benefit of their health. I myself do not know much about cervical cancer, however, I will probably research it after I type this up. It is necessary that diseases that can harm women are also discussed, especially if they deal with the womanly sex, because if it is not discussed, then there is the danger for the woman herself to die because of ignorance in this case. There is also obviously the case of STDs and STIs, and what could happen if a women is ignorant of ways to prevent them, ways to protect against them, as well as to protect against unwanted pregnancies. Last week we talked about how women erotic freedom is a threat to the heteropatriarchy. Ignorance of their own bodies is a threat to women’s health, and as David describes how sex is both something not talked about but also blatantly in your faith, knowing about female bodies is also essential for women to truly feel safe and know themselves, instead of the heteropatriarchal narrative of their necessitated ignorance. We as a collective as OBOS tries to accomplish, need to fight so that there is less of a stigmatization against women’s sexual health.
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