Monday, August 20, 2012

Alex Wagner, MSNBC, and the conversations on women's health/reproductive issue. Or, men like breasts as much as women (do).

The problem with the conversation on women's health issues is topic of sex. Of birth control. The arguments from the "right" are about fucking. The left talks about it as if that was no part in it, or if they do allow for it the couch it in the term "reproductive" health.
These are the wrong terms.
Few people have ever had condoms purchased by their insurance. The right sees no reason that the pill, the sponge, IUD's or fellow travelers should be paid for by insurance. (Yes condoms are often handed out for free, but thats not the same as government mandated corporate purchases for individuals). And there is no similarity between paying for Viagra and the pill. Viagra fixes a problem, a disfunction in the system. A treatment for vaginismus would be a better comparison.
The left sees this as a women's health issue, as if any restriction involving a vagina is unthinkable, even if the restriction only makes restricts provided services, not health. The left likes to think that access to provided services prevents pregnancy. The right feels that sex is optional and people should be held responsible for their actions. The left agrees, at least as it comes to men.
And when the left discusses reproductive health, they discuss birth control that prevents other things than pregnancy. Ovarian cysts, for instance. I think Sandra Fluke raised this one. But this is not birth control. No one argues about preventing ovarian cysts.
So stop couching the argument in feminist terms. Make it about general health. Fix the disfunction and raise the stakes. We need better preventative services in general, so of the pill prevents ovarian cysts, argue for any medication that prevents cysts. That way all cysts get equal prevention. Take sex out, both the act and the gender.
If the pill prevented cervical cancer then the argument would be over cancer prevention for everyone. Of course, the left doesn't get as much feminine support for cancer prevention. Women don't get as tuned in for cancer.
Unless it's also about breasts.
How much money do men and corporations donate to breast cancer every year?
If that does not show a decent response to women's health issues then nothing will.
Men like breasts.

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