fem peer
Write a peer conversation post to the following discussion to dig into the topic of womens bodies.
Including one direct quote from the reading attached.
One huge issue in society I wanted to discuss is breast feeding. Society has made it seem like it is an evil and wrong thing to do in public. A woman can be sitting at a public bench breastfeeding her own child and there would people most likely thinking that she is crazy, wanting attention, whatever the thought might be. Why do people believe it is wrong or gross in other terms? We all have been through it as children, and now when you see someone else do it, you believe it is wrong and shouldnt be allowed? Breastfeeding is simply feeding your child. The mother has a right to feed her child without anyone telling her otherwise.
Women should have free will of what they want to do. Their choices reflect on their own actions and not connected to anyones judgement. Women have control of their own bodies, their decisions, their time, and their lives. This is what women rights is all about. Equality is where this is all connected with. Women are empowered by asserting the value of both their productive and reproductive work. Women should never be forced to make a choice between mother-work and other work. Conditions supportive to successful nurturing, are conditions which reduce gender subordination generally by contradicting negative images of women and emphasizing the value of womens reproductive work (Penny Van Esterik, Breastfeeding: A Feminist Issue). I chose to include this quote because I believed it played a role in the decision-making women need to make to be a good mother. Women should always be supported, because they work as hard as men if not twice as hard taking car of the house and their children. A woman should never choose work or their children, there should always be a balance that is fair for both.
Cesarean and vaginal birth is another issue that I want to discuss. The social norm is vaginal birth. C section is rare compared to natural birth, but it is increasing rapidly. When looking at childbirth, women fear the pain. For many women, natural birth is something they wanted to avoid and that is why C section is being used more. I argue that normative femininity devalues a womans ability to endure pain, to work hard, and to prevail in the face of adversity. Instead, normative gender expectations celebrate a womans rescue from difficult situations and I suggest that this has material consequences for her conceptualization of pain, her understanding of labor, and her bodily experience of birth (Jolly, Does Labor work?). I agree with this 100%, because women and men are equal. Saying women cannot handle the pain or saying men can easily handle it. That is completely wrong. Women are strong beings and can endure the pain, because they are people of power. Women are capable of anything that comes to mind and same as men. We are all equal in the mind and in the body.
