Nothing freaky, please

This article was published in Willamette University's The Collegian, March 14, 2012

Most of the recent women’s health debate concerns a detail of The Affordable Care Act (which passed), and the Republicans’ attempt to shoot it down (which failed). All this fuss is over a sensible contraception rule which is hardly a significant change in standing law. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission already ruled in 2000 that failure to provide contraception coverage violates the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Polls also show that the majority of voters, even Catholic voters, are in favor of Obama’s measure.

So given Rush Limbaugh’s apparently minimal impact on policy and public opinion, what are the effects of his psycho misogynistic remarks about Sandra Fluke?

The media storm that followed was shocking considering these comments were made by a man notorious for hyperbolic, foundationless, and insulting claims. How can we allow ourselves to be so offended by someone who is clearly insane? And then there’s the feminist movement, so afraid to take a real stand that they’re only emphasizing the non-sexual importance of contraceptives.

I don’t care to defend Fluke as a non-slut. Rather than implying that having sex somehow devalues a woman’s insight, we should be clarifying that contraceptive coverage is a basic healthcare right despite a woman’s sex life.

Our sexuality is clearly being politicized, and one danger of our current defense is it perpetuates a culture of shame. For young women in conservative and religious environments we should not only ensure that their care is covered, but that they won’t be too ashamed or embarrassed to take advantage of it.

So must we all become nymphomaniacal sex-machines for this message to be effective? No.

If the conversation is about our rights, we needn’t discuss to what degree we are sexual beings. Whether we be more prudent or promiscuous, as sexually active women we assume nearly all the risk associated with each sexual encounter. A call to solidarity among sluts doesn’t make this fact anymore obvious to the world.  

We should acknowledge that we enjoy sex for many reasons. However, as healthy and important embracing our sexuality is it has little influence on the policies that affect it. We also cannot generalize our sexuality or advocate promiscuity as a way to disarm our opposition’s offense.

It’s ignorant and beside the point. We can do better.

Clearly we should try to distance ourselves from our designated societal roles as non-sexual child-bearing vessels, but to win legal battles we can’t get distracted or defensive. We have an opportunity here to bring attention to our policies and the lack of women behind them. Women hold 17% of congressional seats, 4% are women of color (Uganda and Afghanistan literally have more women in their national legislatures), and we can no longer afford to entrust old white men with the wellbeing of our vaginas.

When we act either apologetic or radical we just look nuts and give the Rush Limbaugh’s of the world exactly what they want. We have plenty of reasonable arguments and we should stick to them. Don’t be dragged into rhetorical abstraction by a big fat nobody. Instead, use your voice to explain intelligently how “women’s health” is not only a women’s issue, and maybe then we can make some progress.