Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Local Issue?

The hot topic in town everyone has been discussing is whether or not a strip club should be allowed in town. A friend from church wrote a heated letter to editor decrying strip clubs because they degrade women. I strongly disagree. Banning a strip club to "protect" women is the equivalent of bailing one bucket of water out of a flooding basement and deciding that will stop the problem. Women today are under siege but often it comes from the oddest of places.

When I altered my career plans and switched from genetic counseling to stay-at-home mommy, I was told I was a sell-out and personally setting women back to the Dark Ages. Silly me, I had been raised to believe I could be whatever I wanted. I never realized being a mother didn't count as a career. Sorry, I choose a Little House on the Prairie life instead of being post-modern.

Had I opted for a "real" career, I would have been expected to place my job before my personal life. And if decided on kids, I would have been rewarded for motherhood with only 6 weeks of maternity leave. Then when my kid was sick and I couldn't come to work, people would be cursing me under their breath for making their day harder. (It used to be me rolling my eyes.)

Women are told, most often by other women, that should we should dress nice and look good. Otherwise, we won't get a guy. Is that all we really should be striving for? Am I less of a woman because I wear sneakers and tee-shirt? I'm still a woman even if Sex in the City or total submission to my husband isn't my ideal life.

We aren't even allowed real control over our bodies. Sex ed in school is usual abstinence only or not much more. Birth control (barring condoms) is not easy to obtain. Abortion is slowly being eroded away as an option. Even in pregnancy, we're scared into tests we don't want and procedures we don't need. If we question our OBs, we're told we're bad mothers.

We are supposed to have it all. Be perfect mothers. Hard working career women. Run the PTA. Be loving wives. And love every minute of it. More women are unhappy because they try to live the ideal than figure out what will really make them happy.

We need to accept that women don't need to be protected. Thanks for caring but leave me the hell alone. All we should be asking, especially from other women, is that our choices be respected and we be allowed to put our families first. Otherwise, the next generation will be even more screwed up than ours.

1 comment:

  1. I just discovered your blog and enjoyed this post. Looking forward to reading more in the future.

    ReplyDelete