(On Bing, one of the first suggestions that came up when I was searching "Tyler Durden" was Brad Pitt's workout for the part, followed with a title like, "Get Ripped Like Tyler Durden!". I find this ironic in one of the worst ways possible.)
First off, I want to make a comment about Margaret Sanger.
Now. For those of you that don't know. Ms. Sanger was a lovely, lovely lady during the Progressive era of the United States that founded Planned Parenthood and strove to give women power over their bodies to be able to have sex without getting pregnant when they weren't ready. She fought over the years to help fund the Pill, and then to make it accessible to all married women, and then to all women.
Margaret Sanger, in short, is a lady that I very much so look up to.
I am a feminist. I don't think this is a bad word. I embrace it. My heroes are counted among Betty Dodson, Betty Friedan, and yes, Margaret Sanger. And don't get me started on my love for Ms. Susan B.
(I could have done without the whole Carrie Hatchet phase of feminism in the 1920's.)
ANYWAY.
I am a feminist, and I think it's fantastic that I can choose when I want to have a child, or if I want to have a child at all. My choice. Not the choice of a man. Or the choice of an unsafe circumstance. We can be protected from STDs and have any career (almost--sexism does still exist, contrary to what most people seem to think) and choose motherhood whenever we want.
We have access to birth control in all its forms--condoms, the Patch, the Pill, etc.
So why the hell are there so many pregnant teenage girls at my school?
At any given time, out of a population of about 2000 at my school, there will be anywhere from half-a-dozen to a dozen girls doing the waddle.
Then, they'll usually drop out. This pretty much dooms them to a life of poverty. No education = no money. And while materialism is a no-no, I'd say it would be pretty nice to be able to feed yourself.
Well, I asked you why this happens.
That was more rhetorical than anything.
I know pretty well why there are so many young girls that get pregnant too young.
They get pregnant when they are too young because they are not educated.
Now, in the South, the sex education that I've received from school can be summarized thus:
Don't have sex. EVER. Unless you're married. If you have sex before you're married, you'll get pregnant a bajillion times and catch a bajillion STDs.
There's a problem with this, friends.
We're teenagers. We're stupid. We're hormonal. And, whether you want to admit it or not, we have sex. Get over it.
Most people are aware of the presence of condoms. Or the Pill. That's not really what I mean about not being educated in regards to birth control.
What I'm talking about is guilt.
Pure, unadulterated, guilt.
The US of A is a country where condoms are locked away at drug stores so you have to ask for a clerk to get them for you. Planned Parenthood clinics are staked out by anti-abortionists that will hassle anyone entering the building, even if not for an abortion. By many Christian groups, birth control is seen as a way of interfering with "G-d's plan," and girls wear purity rings and swear to be abstinent.
Now. Abstinence isn't necessarily bad. Can be good. But where abstinence becomes dangerous is when people are unprepared for sex.
That's when STDs and pregnancy happens, folks.
We're being raised in a guilt culture. A guilt culture where women are refusing to embrace what the women before us have given. A guilt culture where we are still allowing ourselves to be second-class citizens by not taking responsibility for not only our actions but also our bodies.
I don't give a damn how devout you are. I don't give a damn that you've been wearing a purity ring for years. You're still susceptible to that one moment of temptation. If you want to put it religiously, G-d made it that way. Adam and Eve. Song of Solomon. The urge is there. It will never go away.
So, instead of being in a situation where that urge could ruin you, keep a condom in your purse. Abstinent or not.
There's no reason for so many girls to be ruining their lives.
A lot of people ask me why I still consider myself a feminist. As though this became unnecessary once we gained the right to vote. As though modern-day feminists are just a bunch of hairy-legged, hippie lesbians that should be shoved to the far political left and mostly ignored.
Well, I'll tell you why I still consider myself a feminist. It's because girls still refuse to step up and take control of their bodies and of their lives in general. Not all girls. But a lot of them. Until we are all in control of ourselves, I'm still calling myself the "F" word.
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