The Sacred Body- Aknowledging Hypocrisy in societal rhetoric about the body and asking: "What the fuck do we do about it?"
Today is Monday, May 20th, and the Scorpio full moon just came and went like roaring whirlpool. If you are paying attention in the political/feminist circuits, you know that many are up in arms (and I suppose many are jumping for joy) about the abortion bans which many states are passing.
Now HEAR THIS. Abortion is still LEGAL in all those states. The ban cannot revoke a Federal law. YET. But that’s their goal. That’s what they are trying for.
So why, on my little blog dedicated to embodiment, sacred activism, decolonizing, and general animistic goodies, am I talking about abortion. I am a healer, not a politician, after all. I am addressing this because my main interest and focus, in both my creative and healing practices, is addressing and challenging ways of knowing that block energy flow, perpetuate oppression, and do not serve individually and globally.
And because, this issue is directly about the body, and I could go on an on about that.
But mostly, because I have internalized a lot of silencing. Because the violence and trauma I was exposed to as a child attempted to make my experiences invisible, my body invalid, my thoughts unimportant, my emotions insane. I have long feared to say what I actually think publicly because I didn’t want to hurt those who have spent their lives denying my truth.
But I have healed too much to live like that anymore. I want this blog, my practice, my books, my art, to support people in removing themselves from the toxic beliefs that coat our society, lulling us into internalizing their abuse.
This is the beginning of that. I am being incredibly brave. I am healing myself. These words are a gift to me, and to you.
What is so heart breaking and infuriating about the converstions which have been and still go on about abortion is the ways in which a group of people who call themselves pro-lifers, have been able to take a stance on an issue as though they represent something, when actually they REPRESENT THE OPPOSITE. I know they do this genuinely. Many of them actually believe the stance they are taking is about life, innocence, protection, love, even doing Gods work. Fundamentalists and Extremists ALWAYS believe that they are the ones doing the work of God. Wether that work is Genocide, Indoctrination, Suicide Bombing, reform schools. They know they are in the right.
So I want to look that that for a moment.
Placing the anti abortion movement as pro-life, is a slippery slope. Because there are lots of issues in the States (and world) today that are issues of life and death. And almost always, anti-abortioners (or pro-lifers) stand on the death side of all those other arguments.
I learned this first hand, growing up in a Christian fundamentalist home and community. I left the church at the age of 15 because the hypocrisy I saw was so unmanageable, so unfathomable, that there was no possible redemption for me.
But even in the writing of this, I found a gorgeous quote by a nun. And so there is redemption perhaps.
This was said on PBS’s “Now With Bill Moyer” With Sister Joan Chittister, a Catholic Nun
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
She has basically said everything this post is meant to, faster and better, but I’m still going for it.
To claim a stance of pro-life but not care about the fact that children of immigrants are being ripped from their parents and held as prisoners with no rights or care, is violence. Your silence means everything.
To claim a stance of pro-life and deny people ( those born children) access to affordable health care, is violence. Hypocrisy. The cry “It’s socialism” is an excuse to continue patterns of oppression.
To claim a stance of pro-life and deny the children you forced to be born access to sufficient food, or good and affordable education, is violence. You don’t care about children.
To claim a stance of pro-life and care nothing about murdered and missing indigenous women, children, and trans-men, is violence. You don’t care about those who are suffering, innocent, and deserving of our protection and attention.
To claim a stance of pro-life and do nothing about continued segregation patterns in schools, and lower quality lives for children of color, is violence.
To claim a pro-life stance and then support the military industrial complex, is violence. You don’t care about protecting people, you care about killing those who are inconvenient or threatening, and you care about building an even bigger army
And to claim a pro life stance, but be complacent in your voting, attention, donations, and support about what happens to those children, is violence. And a betrayal.
Wow Faith, them’s be fighting words, you may say. They are. I came to the work I currently do through a long journey of filtering through the body-hating rhetoric which had been handed to me with my racist white birth right, and I’ve had to do a lot of work to filter out why it all tasted so damn bad.
And I have learned. Issues like abortion, and reproductive rights, are not and never have been about protecting unborn children.
Its about segregation, and continuing the oppression of People of Color and the domination of white bodies, culture, and comfort
http://religiondispatches.org/the-not-so-lofty-origins-of-the-evangelical-pro-life-movement/
It’a about dominating bodies which can create life, usually by bodies who cannot.
It brings to mind current conservative arguments about gender norms. It’s biology, they cry! Well pick up a text book my friend. Biology is a spectrum, a rainbow of experience and expression. Testosterone does not make a man any more then estrogen maketh the woman. it is so much more complex and interesting and gorgeous then that (Even Bill Nye says so… https://youtu.be/aQDBNJ3mPa0 ). This argument even extends to rape. After all, most sex in nature is rape isn’t it? Doesn’t that make it natural? We can’t blame our boys for just following their instincts, being such virile strapping lads! (*Shivers in horror)
But if conservatives go to the biology argument to prove the birth right of male dominance, then they sure can’t get mad when I say, abortion is natural. Rabbits re-absorb fetuses when the warren is too crowded. Hamsters eat their weakest offspring. Dogs bury their pups when their lives aren’t safe. Animals have practiced selective reproduction SINCE FOREVER. Because actually, as our Republican and Christian friends have such a good history of proving, life isn’t a RIGHT. Life is something that the powers which be give or take depending on how it benefits them.
So next time your beginning to think, well murder is really terrible, I hate for children to die, after all I am a reasonable kind person, then check yourself.
This has never been about protecting children.
And if you do want to protect children, then fight for their rights, support and access. Fight for free safe birth control. Fight for free Vasectomy’s! Donate clothes and food and toys to single parents and those in need. Vote against private ownership of assault weapons, which are killing hundreds of school children, and turning us into a country of fear and terror. Vote for legislation which holds cis/straight men accountable for their own sexual activity, they are just as culpable as women/ uterus bearers in this. Fight white supremacy and its myriad forms of terrorism! Don’t let your sweet caring heart be swayed by a false argument which is actually about denying autonomy and safety to people. Legalizing abortion wasn’t about saying its good or nice. Its about making sure women and children are safe, and live well, whole, thriving lives. Abortions will happen NO MATTER WHAT!!! Abortion laws are about making sure women live through them.
Its funny that Republicans can’t understand this mode of argumentation. It has incredible similarity to their own legitimazation of private assault weaponry ownership. But oh right. Gun laws aren’t actually about safety of private citizens, just like pro-life arguments isn’t actually about protecting children (which they clearly care little about). Its about Dominance, power, and let me sing it again…white male supremacy.
Ok, ok Faith. Long angry Ramble. Thought you were like an energy healer? Your so feisty!
There are a few things I have dedicated my life to.
The remembering of the body and earth as sacred and beautiful and just as if not more viable and important then the non-earthly realm (which none of us even know exists, all of our mystical and spiritual experiences HAPPEN IN BODIES)
Supporting people in abusive relationships to escape and grow wiser from that relationship. This applies to individuals and groups
Transforming our relationship to pathology, recognizing our symptoms as gifts of embodied soul (though also a real drag)
Dis-entangling violent thought forms like white supremacy, imperialism, and other power dynamics
So I am going to write hard scary things on this blog. You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to like it. The intention here isn’t to argue with those whose minds are made up.
Its to support the liberation of those living bonded by the twisted ideas of a culture obsessed with maintaining power imbalances which benefit those on the top.
It’s to remind you that your living in an abusive relationship with society, and it may be effecting you in ways you don’t understand or see, because your so deep in.
Ok. Breath in, breath out.
Here are some links with info to support those in states with bans.
https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/how-to-help-alabama-6-week-abortion-ban-georgia.html
https://www.thecut.com/2016/11/how-to-become-an-abortion-clinic-escort.html
More later.