Women's Studies: A Reflection on the Personal is Political

 When you decided to take the Women’s Studies class, it is important to know what is going to happen. This should be not about having gender biases or something. For me it should actually go towards equality. And how is equality taken into account in this matter? It is to know that we should disprove people who want to say that the personal is not political. It has not been long when we first had laws on violence against women. These laws struck everyone towards this notion to stop the former rationalization that the personal is not political. However, we have always disproved violence, we’ve disproved murder, we’ve disproved hurting someone, yet it took us a long time to recognize that in the smaller realm called home, we overlook the hard slaps that women take from men.

Maybe these were the big issue of before, but today we have an evolving number of issues that leads us to still remember that the personal is political. That domestic violence is a public issue, that healthcare for women and children is a political issue, that unfair work practices is an issue, that equal education is an issue, that contraceptives is an issue.

That reminds me to discuss contraceptives. Governments around the world have recognized the growing population. In a country like the US where population is growing faster than its opportunity rate, it is such a problem. I am partly to blame for contributing to it since I want to see my chances or opportunity here thus taking away an opportunity for another person who has always lived here. But reality is, I am a minute statistic, and every minute there are a couple of kids being born to different types of parents, of people who have waited long to have one, of couples who are struggling to survive, from surrogate moms, from different kinds of people. All these kids add up to the percentage of the population for this nation, and the government would like to do measures to prevent it from rising too much. But how do we solve the problem? Is it by giving options to mothers on what contraceptive to use to prevent them from being pregnant? Is it by ligation where we have to ask fathers first to “authorize” this procedure before it is done? Or is it by letting them suffer and die without accessibility to healthcare? I am not an advocate of contraceptives, and I do respect the decision of most couples to use it. But isn’t it weird that there are a lot of options, both safe and unsafe, yet these are only to alter women? What are the available options for men? Condoms, vasectomy, and Viagra? Correct me if I am wrong, but these are the only options that I know of, and I know, for the sake of being sarcastic that I added Viagra, coz we popularly know it to increase libido, to cure, in scientific terms, erectile dysfunction. What? It is not that we were talking of curing the population problem, yet we give the men a chance to increase their semen production? I don’t get it. Enlighten me.

The only thing about the class is that we need to open our minds more. I too was taken aback when mentioned of the military benefits vis a vis stay at home moms not having social security benefits. Military service is different, we all know that. That is way too physical for us to imagine, especially if we get sent off to the rowdy states of Iraq or something. Yet that is the whole point. It is not to rob off our troops of their benefits, but if mothers can also get the a percentage or same amount of benefits given to our troops as stay at home moms, then there are chances for a better life for each person. Maybe there are more opportunities even.

But we were primarily socialized to separate the personal and the political, and I know we still have it and believe on that one.

***im sorry. i shall edit this piece. but due to my outrage or what (as ive been thinking about this since i stepped out of my class), i want to put it on writing and share it with all of you.***