Trusting Women.
While I was raised Roman Catholic I ultimately reached a point in my spiritual journey where I concluded no “religion” has a monopoly on truth. In fact, most religions seem to be about “proving” their “beliefs” are more accurate vis-a-vis the Truth than those of any other religion. One other former belief of mine dropped away along my journey - that human religions can ever be objectively true. In college I learned that the Roman Catholic Church was not perfect but was the “fullest expression” of Christ’s Church on Earth. What I’ve learned since is the notion that God is a man not only underscores the beliefs of most monotheistic religions but also is the foundation for virtually every culture’s views about gender roles.
Consider the US preference for women to take the names of men when they marry. While this is not a universal reality it is far and away the most common. Some Spanish-speaking communities in the US follow Spanish naming conventions when their adult children marry but as language is lost so too are many traditions. The first time I saw a guy with a newly hyphenated name I immediately fell back on my own early training and thought there had to be something wrong with him. Eventually I saw the light and realized there is no cultural value in having women, but not men, give up their surname. Indeed, married couples adopting hyphenated names may be far more valuable combatting racism than many other efforts combined. My blue-eyed Irish American father understood that I took a lot of crap from folks representing both of my ancestral lines and traditions; in my freshman year of college he suggested I hyphenate my name to include my mother’s “Maiden” name. I didn’t do that for a number of reasons but I think it ultimately forced me to understand just how much the US is a patriarchy.
Names, careers, family roles, toys and athletics are just some of the matters deeply influenced by our national male-centric focus. Throughout much of Western history and certainly over the past 250 years in the US, women have been seen as inferior to men in matters of great import. Running governments, businesses, religions and so on have long been deemed the province of men. Add to this, quite likely, a state based regulation of reproduction by women (but not men) and the reality becomes increasingly obvious. The USA is unquestionably a patriarchy.
In the near future we’ll find out what the Supreme Cour has to say about a state’s right to regulate reproduction by women. While there will be an uproar regardless of their holdings many do not understand that Roe v. Wade did NOT legalize abortion. In an objectively mediocre opinion, Thurgood Marshall relied on 400 year old “medical” terms in an attempt to answer the question - when does human life begin? Even though the opinion clarifies that we do NOT know the answer to this question the Court decided to highly limit the ability of states to regulate abortions during the first and second trimester of pregnancy. Today, we still have no idea when human life begins. Many, of course, resort to their religions and manmade “Scriptures” to answer the question however there is no real consensus on the topic.
What then SHOULD we do, granting that we do NOT know when that which makes a person “human” first exists? Some scriptures point to the “first breath” after birth. In other scriptures the human authors flatly place human identity into a developing fetus. While these are all of interest they are ultimately not universal authority on much of anything. We may never be able to answer the question of when “human life” begins particularly since “self-awareness” is really what folks are talking about. That said, we must nonetheless address an issue that has existed and will continue to exist and cause turmoil until it is addressed. That issue is female autonomy and equality.
The roots of the United States’ cultural values cannot be found in philosophical circles but rather in unbridled zealotry. Contrary to what so many believe, the original colonies were NOT about freedom OF religion but rather freedom of the early colonizers to make their group’s religion the only religion that mattered. Over time other Western believers made their way to the Colonies and carved out large pieces of land to create their own ostensible religious haven. While religion may have been the genesis of the Colonies in the end it was Capitalism that caused the Colonies to join forces, not faith in any religion. Like religion modern commerce saw a fundamental change in the way humans interacted and lived. Where once there were clear and intelligent gender-based roles among humans they were replaced by a system that tied women to childbirth and childrearing so that men could “work.” It was in this framework that abortion came to be a cultural issue.
In patriarchal terms, whether a developing embryo is fully human is irrelevant as that embryo is first and foremost viewed as the property of the male who aided in its creation. It is in this setting we find that trusting women to do what is right is simply NOT a consideration for those who seek to preserve the patriarchy. Even so, it is precisely what must happen if we are to see full equality among the genders. Whether it’s about a woman’s right to keep the name she was given at birth, run a government or business and to pursue her dreams as much as any man the bottom line is this - we must trust women. That doesn’t mean they, just like every man, will not make mistakes but it does mean they will and should have the same opportunity to make decisions as men do. I don’t know that humans will ever be able to ascertain when “human life” begins but no question remains that women MUST be as free as men to live their lives else we’re headed down a very rough road.