Chloe Viening-Butler: My Body Is Mine

My body is mine: it has born three children and received lovers (I don't feel the need to say how many). I have given my body willingly to those people: turned over a piece of myself and allowed myself to be vulnerable. Most of the time, I have been rewarded, in turn, with what I give. When I haven't, it has been my choice and mine alone to either give without expectation of reciprocity, or to shut down the interaction. But like everything that belongs to a specific person, my body can be stolen, violated, hurt and vandalized. It can be mistreated. And it is my responsibility to protect it. This is not new: I have always had to protect myself and my body and the rights we share, between us. My mother had to do so. Her mother had to do so. So did your mother and her mother and her mother before her.

So why is the hard work of our past generations of strong, vocal, activist women being undone? And how? Reproductive rights, equal pay, access to sexual education, laws protecting us from sexual discrimination and laws protecting our right to nurse our children... these are all being slowly- or not so slowly- weakened and broken down- the pieces swept under the rug- the corpses burned. Little by little at first, and now in greater and greater chunks, the long proud history of womens rights is being taken apart by the GOP.

I am not complacent. Neither are most of the women I know and love. We care about our bodies and our rights and we are ready to fight to protect them. How did we get here? Each of these damages, big and small, had to be enacted by the politicians our country somehow elected into office. Each of these decisions had to be thought of, written, supported, presented by someone who wanted them to happen. But with most of them, I saw a news story on a website or a feed on my Facebook wall and thought "what the fuck?? How did this happen??" They snuck up on me. Many were already bills or laws before I knew they were even being considered, many in other states, where my vote holds no sway. So what can I do? What can we do?
 

Stay informed. Gather more information, research it independently when you can, and discuss it with others: real life friends, Facebook "friends", forums, college groups and anyone else with whom you feel comfortable doing so. Talk to the other side and try to understand where their hearts and minds are on the subject. Often, the pseudo-anonymity of an online conversation can make it easier to both speak your thoughts and run your mouth. Keep both facts in mind, along the way.

Participate. Write to politicians, sign petitions, attend rallies and protests, join groups, and create pieces of visual art and/or written work upholding your beliefs, your anger, your fears, your needs, and your expectations. Don't ever let the bastards forget that you exist.

Spend Your Money Wisely. Know how the stores, products and services you frequent spend the money you give them. Know how they treat their employees and the earth. Know the way their advertising affects the overall image of women. Know the messages their products send to people, both male and female alike, about the worth, expectations and value of women. Know where their higher ups spend their money politically. Money talks. Money votes. Money makes big decisions. Money guides cultural trends. 

 

And most of all:
VOTE. Vote Democratic, vote Republican, vote Independent. Vote for whoever you feel best represents, considers and is willing to protect your needs, rights, interests and beliefs. Encourage your friends and coworkers to vote. Encourage your sister to vote. Encourage your mom to vote. Get your aunt to the polls, if she doesn't have a ride. Don't let it slide when a woman says to you "I don't vote. My voice doesn't make a difference." Speak up! Tell her how to speak up for herself. Don't let yourself or the women you love become voiceless, forgotten non-citizens.

To keep our rights, we must protect them, and the best way to do that is to become a presence and play the demographic to it's fullest. When the female vote is strong, the elected officials must listen to it's voice, or they don't stay elected for very long. Don't listen to the news politispeak about red state/blue state, female state/male state, white state/black state/Latino state. Don't let them tell you where you matter on their maps. Wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you believe, whatever you want: Your vote matters. Your voice matters. Your rights matter. Now more than ever.
My body is mine. Your body is yours. But we are all intertwined and we are all responsible. Take the tools our mothers and grandmothers won for us and use them. Because, as Maya Angelou said: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

Chloe Viening-Butler
Grand Rapids, Michigan

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