Letters to the Editor
Cynthia Montgomery
Published Letters: 36 Editor's Choice: 6
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Male rights re: abortion
[Read the article: A man's right to choose, take four]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In answer to the person who asked what the 'feminist' view of male rights is - I can't answer for the feminist view, but as a feminist I will say that the man has the right to his feelings, and to expressing his wishes. He does not have the right to be the decision maker about another autonomous being's body.
Look at it this way - say a man is married, and wants a vasectomy because he does not want children, or any more children. The wife wants a child/more children. Should she have any legal say over whether he has the vasectomy?
While it is true that sperm is not a fetus, and therefore not perfectly applicable to the abortion question, the comparison is apt - should one person have legal sway over another's body?
Even though the fetus is a separate entity in some ways, it is totally dependent on the woman's body to exist and grow to viability.
The human who is providing the 'body environment' should have the legal say...and the woman who's husband wants a vasectomy should either go along with her husband's wish, or divorce him and find someone who wants to father more children.
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Dear "Effort"...
[Read the article: A man's right to choose, take four]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was only referring to the abortion/no abortion decision, not any other issue. If men bore the babies, then it would be their right to make the final decision. In an either/or situation of this kind, one party must be able to make the legal decision - it affects both parties, (the pregnancy) but it affects the woman a hell of a lot more.
Expecting 'equal legal rights' in an inherently unequal situation just doesn't work...if he can force her to bear the child, or not bear it, then it is not equal. If she makes the decision, it's still not equal, but it is as equitable as possible, concerning the reality of who's body is being used.
I said nothing of financial support, parenting, or any other side issue, and you attributed attitudes to me that I don't have. Those issues are difficult as well, and there are no perfect answers to any of them.
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Of course men should have a say -
[Read the article: A man's right to choose, take four]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but I am talking legalities. One naturally assumes that the woman will discuss the pregnancy with the man, and that he will have his say, and that she will consider his wishes carefully...all I said was that the 'legal say' must be the female's.
This discussion seems to be a tad too vitriolic.
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Effort, the combat thing...
[Read the article: A man's right to choose, take four]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Women are not in combat because they are not allowed to be - not becuase of their own choice. I would love to see women 'allowed' in combat positions.
You sound like a man who has a lot of enmity toward women. I'm sorry that your experiences have been so bad. Surprisingly, life is still no equality-laden cakewalk for women, either.
Artificial wombs are only about 20 years away - maybe then there will be more parity in this issue.
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It's strange -
[Read the article: Religious conservatives: All women should be pregnant! Oh, except you]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As soon as Bush was elected, a bunch of neaderthal throwbacks came screaming out of their caves. Surprise! Who knew that years of social and human progress could so thoroughly pass anyone by? Who even knew these nutjobs existed, and in such scary numbers? Amazing. The good news is that these fundie uprisings always eventually fail in America - check the history. It won't be long, and the silently sane majority will force these pestilential prudes back in to their caves where they belong.
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more signs, please
[Read the article: Apple juice, straight up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If certain parents were more responsible about their children, no one would be so fed up as to post signs about strollers or behavior.
The fact that explicit signs are now needed for what used to be unwritten but widely known 'rules' of polite society is appalling.
The hilarious part is that people now become 'offended' by others asking for/expecting basic decent manners.
Personally, I find it 'offensive' that we have to put up signs asking parents to ACT LIKE parents.
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Er, "compensate her" ? Really?
[Read the article: A man's right to choose, take five]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Maybe the woman could be compensated for her time and the use of her womb".
That remark is absolutely stunning.
I'm sure he meant well, but that statement reveals an incredible ignorance of what actually happens during and after pregnancy & childbirth. Unfortunately, I'm sure that many men have the same deplorable lack of information on the subject.(not all, just many)
He makes it sound like the woman is just sitting around, uninvolved physically, emotionally and mentally, with some 'goings on' in a remote, magical 'body closet' that has nothing to do with her.
There IS NO FAIR COMPENSATION for pregnancy and childbirth, and the associated risks and problems. How do you 'compensate' the woman if she develops diabetes from the pregnancy? If she dies? If she develops a bad back and hemorrhoids and has to live with them for the next 50 or 60 years? If it's a really difficult delivery that renders her unable to have any more children? How do you compensate for the fact that the baby can leech needed nutrients from her very bones and makes the woman's health secondary, even dangerously secondary, to it's own needs?
Are you going to cover every possible risk throughout her lifetime that the pregnancy and delivery could cause? I hate to say it, but some men have no clue what they are talking about in this matter - and the idea that anyone can think that a pregnancy and childbirth can be reduced to 'time and womb use' is both astounding, and depressing.
Sex ed should include not just sex, but a full explanation of what happens during pregnancy, and how it affects/can affect the female. (and male) Maybe then the level of ignorance, which has a real bearing on these kinds of procreative decisions, will change.