<
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/23/abortion-and-authoritarianism-why-womens-freedom-threatens-male-supremacy/>
"Will America's future be one of democracy and women's control over their own
bodies or one of authoritarianism and forced pregnancy? The two issues most
motivating Americans to vote for Democrats in the rapidly approaching midterm
elections are far more intertwined than is generally recognized.
At a time when right-wing extremists are hellbent on making American states —
or, as many intend the whole nation — into the fictional Republic of Gilead, it
is appropriate to turn to Margaret Atwood. "Tyrants and dictators like Adolf
Hitler and Nicolae Ceausescu have often dictated the terms of fertility and
criminalized those who did not comply," she pointed out in 2017. "It's no
accident that Napoleon banned abortion. He said exactly what he wanted
offspring for — cannon fodder. Lovely!"
Speaking of authoritarian regimes, Atwood said in 2020, "What it comes down to
is that they assert their right to control reproduction, and they assert their
right over people's bodies. All totalitarianisms, no matter what they say their
aims are, no matter what's on the flag, they all have in common the rollback of
women's rights."
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who has conducted a transnational and transhistorical
study of authoritarian regimes, makes the same point. "Control over female
bodies," she writes in her 2020 book, "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present," is
invariably among the goals of the insecure males who call themselves by that
name.
To understand, and try to overcome, both the treatment of women as property and
the basis of authoritarianism, we must dive into the deep history of humanity.
When we do so, we find that those two evils emanate from the same source.
It is more than mere coincidence that the desperate, redoubled quest to outlaw
abortion gained traction during an era in which women have achieved a greater
degree of autonomy in other areas. The underlying question is not whether a
fetus is a person. Rather, it is whether
a woman [is] a person, or simply
property.
That oldest and most consequential question in human history is the deep font
of the struggle to control women's bodies, which is why it is so crucial to the
self-doubting men who turn toward authoritarians."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
