S/R #7

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Synthesis: This week's readings illustrated how bodies, especially women's bodies, are politisized throughout the world. I mean this particularly in the sense of how those in power can use their authority to make choices about women's bodies for them. This can be done by physically forcing women to make certain choices about their bodies, or by creating conditions in which making a certain "choice" the only practical, feasible, or apparently 'healthy' option.

Response: This week, we read a multitude of different accounts of various things done to women's bodies or done by women to their own bodies that spanned from female circumcision, sex slavery, sex work and/or prostitution, sterilization, abortion, birth control, and more abstractly, working abroad, away from family. Though apparently diverse, these issues all reflect issues of choice in relation to power.
A good place to start examining this is the issue of sterilization and Puerto Rican women in New York City, as described by Lopez in her article. The high rates of sterilization in these women reflect choice in relation to power in two important ways. First of all, Lopez describes the commonness of sterilization abuse, especially before the sterilization guidelines were put in place in NYC in 1975. Those in authoritative/powerful positions would actually choose to sterilize the woman (or man), or as Lopez describes, threaten with "having their welfare rights taken away if they did not accept sterilization, were not given consent forms at all, or were provided with consent forms to sign while they were in labor." This shows the direct relation power can have on choice: that to eliminate choice completely.
Still looking at the high rates of issue of sterilization and Puerto Rican women in NYC, we must consider the huge number of women who have the surgery voluntarily. Now the relation between power and choice is slightly more subtle, yet, as Lopez says, "all decisions are socially constrained and mediated when individuals confront them as active social agents". The article finds that the reasons most Puerto Rican women 'choose' to become sterilized have to do with their economic circumstances. This shows how being socially disempowered made sterilization appear to be the best option; essentially, the socio-economic position made the decision to become sterilized, not the woman herself. Another way power can subtlety influence choice in this situation is described in the "Norplant Information Sheet", in a section also discussing the sterilization and Latinas, when it describes how it is not uncommon for doctors to not provide all the information necessary or they will give their "medical opinion" for what they think is "best". This is clear illustration of how someone in power can make a choice appear to be the correct or healthiest choice for someone even if it may not be.
The articles we read involving sex slavery and sex trafficking also showed power affecting choice regarding women's bodies. Sex tourism and the vast numbers of sex workers in Thailand that are described in "Global Woman" are another sad example of this. For at least one in twenty of the sex workers in Thailand, choice is very completely eliminated and they are either sold, kidnapped, or tricked into becoming sex workers/slaves. It was heart-rending to read how these women's (or girl's, often) spirits are broken through extreme violence and rape, and the wretched conditions to which they are subjected. They are kept in their powerless position through the continuation of this violence, as well as being paid next to nothing, if not nothing, and having to pay for their 'room and board', which is hardly anything in itself. Consequently, these women are forced into debt they cannot pay which further traps them. Thus, their bodies are manipulated by those in power in devastating ways. The plight of the Burmese and Laotian women in Thai brothels was especially horrible, as their powerlessness is amplified by their inability to speak the language and understand what is happening.
The examples go on and on of how women's choices about their bodies are limited or eliminated by power in the hands of others. The "comfort" women in the Philippines and Korea also experienced horrific sex slavery at the hands of the Japanese government during the second world war, with no choice of what was to happen to their bodies. Other women turned to sex work during this time, like Minda Pascual in the "For the Boys" article. Forced to leave home at 16 because of being raped by her grandfather, she was worried she would "die of hunger if she didn't solicit sailors" at a US base camp in Olongapo, as she made so little money as a waitress. This was not choice she wanted to make, but a path she had to take to live.
Every article of the many we read illustrated this concept. This has to to with the fact that women are so often in positions of little power throughout the world, so choice regarding their bodies is often eliminated by others, generally men, in power. Furthermore, if the choice is not outright eliminated, a lack of power, coercion by those in power, the withholding of information by those in power-and especially a lack of socio-economic power- prevent women from truly making choices about their bodies.