Consider the state of the world. From one corner to the other, it is dominated by Males Behaving Badly. Organized gangs, vicious political parties, child-molesting religions, government bullying.
In the face of all that, women face a lot of opposition in attempting to acquire autonomy, equality, and dignity. Meanwhile, the forces of these Males Behaving Badly are continuing to press their advantage, which is taking a toll on women, their children, and their callings.
Your work on women’s health rights couldn’t be more timely. I’m interested in stories where empowering women in healthcare—be it patient or practitioner—led to transformative change. Could you share an example of such a turning point for my letter? How do you see the global rollback of rights shaping women’s futures
Honestly? No, we’re not good. I’m legitimately afraid of where this trajectory leads. I’ve even had the thought exercise that I’m grateful for the man I married, because if things keep going the way they’re going, women’s freedom may come down to who is lying next to you at night. You’ll learn very quickly whether your partner is a good man or not, because in a world where rights are stripped away, your access to safety and freedom could hinge on him.
All of these things are interconnected—the rollback of reproductive rights, the erosion of voting rights, the rise in violence against women, the normalization of sexual violence in public life. It’s become so normal that it doesn’t even stop someone from becoming president or senator. Brutalizing women no longer carries real consequence.
If you want to know what that world looks like, look at Native women. Ninety-six percent of sexual assaults against Native women are committed by non-Native men, and they experience the highest rates of sexual violence of any group. Why? Because government-created loopholes mean predators can act with impunity. Those women are treated like sitting ducks, unprotected by the system.
That is the direction we’re heading for all women. When there are no real consequences, the only thing standing between you and harm is how much the men closest to you value you—your spouse, your father, your sons. And while some women will be protected by that, many won’t. That’s the danger: we’re moving toward a world where the value of a woman’s life is defined not by her rights, but by whether the men around her decide she matters.
Men in general, and certainly our democratic men need to sit with their donor card applications and really think deeply about it and what it says and means. And once they think they’ve got it, to then actually take a deeper dive into exactly the meaning and principles behind it and then apply it to ‘the now’ living, breathing selves and what that means and whether or not they would enjoy or accept living with tethered testicles, for example, that would be controlled by a partner or government entity on when and how they use them, or enjoy relief from the binding or ability to reproduce at all, will men ‘get it.’ Because this is the crux of “it.” You may or may not like choices women make or have to make, but to understand they don’t have standing that supersedes privacy and autonomy (yes the dreaded word) there is a standoff and dilemma between status quo or full personhood for us, and that is essentially operating politically, with one testicle tied behind their political backs. Free the women!
Consider the state of the world. From one corner to the other, it is dominated by Males Behaving Badly. Organized gangs, vicious political parties, child-molesting religions, government bullying.
In the face of all that, women face a lot of opposition in attempting to acquire autonomy, equality, and dignity. Meanwhile, the forces of these Males Behaving Badly are continuing to press their advantage, which is taking a toll on women, their children, and their callings.
Your work on women’s health rights couldn’t be more timely. I’m interested in stories where empowering women in healthcare—be it patient or practitioner—led to transformative change. Could you share an example of such a turning point for my letter? How do you see the global rollback of rights shaping women’s futures
Honestly? No, we’re not good. I’m legitimately afraid of where this trajectory leads. I’ve even had the thought exercise that I’m grateful for the man I married, because if things keep going the way they’re going, women’s freedom may come down to who is lying next to you at night. You’ll learn very quickly whether your partner is a good man or not, because in a world where rights are stripped away, your access to safety and freedom could hinge on him.
All of these things are interconnected—the rollback of reproductive rights, the erosion of voting rights, the rise in violence against women, the normalization of sexual violence in public life. It’s become so normal that it doesn’t even stop someone from becoming president or senator. Brutalizing women no longer carries real consequence.
If you want to know what that world looks like, look at Native women. Ninety-six percent of sexual assaults against Native women are committed by non-Native men, and they experience the highest rates of sexual violence of any group. Why? Because government-created loopholes mean predators can act with impunity. Those women are treated like sitting ducks, unprotected by the system.
That is the direction we’re heading for all women. When there are no real consequences, the only thing standing between you and harm is how much the men closest to you value you—your spouse, your father, your sons. And while some women will be protected by that, many won’t. That’s the danger: we’re moving toward a world where the value of a woman’s life is defined not by her rights, but by whether the men around her decide she matters.
Men in general, and certainly our democratic men need to sit with their donor card applications and really think deeply about it and what it says and means. And once they think they’ve got it, to then actually take a deeper dive into exactly the meaning and principles behind it and then apply it to ‘the now’ living, breathing selves and what that means and whether or not they would enjoy or accept living with tethered testicles, for example, that would be controlled by a partner or government entity on when and how they use them, or enjoy relief from the binding or ability to reproduce at all, will men ‘get it.’ Because this is the crux of “it.” You may or may not like choices women make or have to make, but to understand they don’t have standing that supersedes privacy and autonomy (yes the dreaded word) there is a standoff and dilemma between status quo or full personhood for us, and that is essentially operating politically, with one testicle tied behind their political backs. Free the women!