Full Frontal Feminism_ A Young Women's Guide to Why Feminism Matters - Jessica Valenti [26]
And it’s not just women working in women’s organizations who are making a difference. Young women are getting seriously innovative in their free time.
One New York City website called Holla Back catches street harassers in the act and publishes their pictures online. Readers are encouraged to take pictures of would-be flashers and harassers with their camera phones and send them in with their stories. (“If you can’t slap ’em, snap ’em” is their motto. Perfect.)11
The organization RightRides, which you learned about in Chapter 1, offers free rides home to women who are out late on the weekends.
There are even organizations dedicated to educating men about violence against women—there aren’t a lot of them, but they’re there. Men Can Stop Rape is an organization that provides training for younger men and boys on violence and gender equality. We could use a lot more organizations like this. Remember: This is not just women’s problem!
And these are just a few examples. Across the country, young women are thinking of new ways to take the battle against violence into their own hands. And you can too. You have to.
5
IF THESE UTERINE WALLS COULD TALK
It’s not news that women’s reproductive rights are under attack. Shit, by the time I’m done writing this sentence, another state will probably outlaw abortion. And if there’s any issue that’s associated with feminism, it’s abortion. Because feminists eat babies. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
Feminist baby-eating aside, repro rights are about more than abortion and birth control. They’re about being able to have sex when we want to. They’re about having affordable, accessible contraception. They’re about being able to control our bodies even if we can’t drive a car or vote yet. And if we’re feeling parental, they’re also about being allowed to have children. Unfortunately, these seemingly reasonable things are a lot more complicated than they should be. Especially for young women.
We don’t hear that much about how reproductive rights is a young women’s issue. I mean, we are the fertile ones, right? Not only are young women more likely to get pregnant, we’re also more likely to have restrictions on our contraceptive choices and pregnancy options. That’s why it’s so important that we be on top of this shit. Repro rights is the one issue that mainstream U.S. women’s organizations have been focusing on for a long time—but younger women are at the center of the battle, so we have to take our rightful place in it.
There’s something else about women’s repro rights that isn’t talked about that much—the real reason behind the anti-abortion, anti-contraception nonsense. At the heart of it all, it’s truly about just hating sex, or at least hating that women have sex. There’s a lot of talk about life and morals, but it’s nonsense. To the people who want to limit your choices, it’s about slut-punishing. They are completely terrified of girls having The Sex. So much so that they’d rather see us pregnant or with an STD than give us the tools to have The Sex safely. Shit, they’re even making up bizarre stories about birth control-based teen sex cults (I’m not joking).
If we want anything to change, we can’t forget this. Plus, we can make fun of them for being all prudey.
Contraception Misconception
Nothing exemplifies the real motives of the anti-sexers as much as their stance on birth control. They talk a big game about how bad abortion is, but most of them don’t say much about contraception. That’s because they don’t want you to know what they really think—that birth control is bad. They don’t want you to use it. Ever. Now why in the world would the people who hate abortion so much want you to forgo the one thing that keeps you from getting pregnant?
HAVING ALL THE GOODIES AND NOT PAYING THE PRICE
Because it’s for sluts. Seriously. According to Missouri