Sex Politics- Presentation 5

           Our Sex Politics presentation focused on the gender within politics as well as the history of women’s ownership of their sexuality. In our presentation, we displayed Bill O’Reilly presenting his misogynistic views that women were incapable of being leaders in politics. To the audience his point of view is nonsensical and repulsive. He wants the woman to be a weak figure, but through his interviews and throughout history, women have proven to be resilient and powerful beings.

The power of the woman is demonstrated when discussing woman’s sexuality, her right to reproduce and the choice taken away from her. Before the legalization of abortion in 1973, women went to extremes to have the right to choose whether they want to have children. They poisoned themselves, threw themselves downstairs, beat themselves with meat pulverizers so they can regain the choice of being pregnant or not.  It is important to state that there were wide efforts that helped women get illegal abortions before 1973, but many women who were incapable of getting abortions were often poor women. Victimized by the class and lack of money, poor women had to do anything that was best for them.

Many women of color did not get the opportunity to choose whether they would have children. Many poor women of color were sterilized without their consent and often by the hands of the government. In an effort to control population and reproduction, sterilization became a norm, and the ultimate violation of the poor woman. Not surprisingly, the majority of the women who were sterilized were black.

It is important to understand that through time women have fought to win a battle of controlling their bodies and doing what they please. They have fought to regain a power that they have lost numerously throughout history. Women fight everyday saying “My body is my body. And I have the power to choose how I live with my body.”

Sexuality is such a taboo subject that society chooses to misinform future generations about it. To create a world that understands sexuality we must invite younger generations to try and understand a concept that will be ever present in their adult life. If they are taught with wrong information, how can they make the right decisions?

Questions from presentation

How is it that you feel that you exercise your power?

How are other bodies besides (poor) women (of color) politicked?

How can we invite sexuality into our classrooms, without crossing lines, or is it impossible?