In which I enter the political fray

I rarely, if ever, write about politics -here, or anywhere. You are far more likely to read a story of mine in Redbook about the first successful U.S. ovary transplant or an article in Women’s Health about some wacky sexperimentation my husband and I undertook in the name of science, or a blog about the difference between men’s and women’s “ideal” body image. But when Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was recently announced as the likely VP-candidate to accompany John McCain, I found myself seething for a number of reasons, the least of which is she doesn’t believe women should have the rights to control our own bodies or that a man or woman should be able to marry his or her loved one if that marriage doesn’t jive with her (Palin’s) own personal philosophy.

Now news has emerged about Palin’s 17-year-old daughter being pregnant and has “decided” to keep the baby and marry the father. (A boy who, BTW, proudly refers to himself as a “f---in’ redneck who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes” on his MySpace page and lists himself as “in a relationship," but doesn't want kids. That should work out well.)

So I asked myself, what do I as a body image blogger have to add to the frenzy over Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy?

It turns out, I have a lot.

First, let me lay out a bit of my background: I have a Master’s degree in Public Health – a field which deals with the physical, emotional, and psychosocial repercussions of sex education (or lack thereof), of abortion (or what happens when women are denied access) and all other sorts of crucial women-centric issues. While enrolled in my program, I conducted my thesis at a Chicago-area Planned Parenthood. I worked in the abortion clinic, where women entrusted me to speak with them and guide them through one of – if not the - most difficult decision of their lives. Quite often, I held their hand while they underwent the procedure. Am I a doctor? No. Am I a politician? Certainly not. But I am a woman with ample experience in and dedication to this arena and a staunch advocate for reproductive rights. Oh, and I believe women should have control over their bodies. Call me crazy.

It is with this background that I am about to embark into unknown territory – politics – while trying to tie it into something I am considered a nationwide expert on: Body image. Here goes.

The government defines body image as “The way a person thinks about his or her body and how it looks to others.” If you read Weighting Game or were drawn to my book, Locker Room Diaries, I would assume you are someone who has either struggled with the way you feel about your body or grown tired of the media’s ceaseless emphasis on looks or are, I dunno, sick of pornography, soft or hardcore, and its wayward infiltration into the minds of little girls who now think having a triple-D augmented chest and shaved vagina are necessary to being popular, happy and successful in life.

What, you might be asking, could possibly be the link between a shamelessly looks-based society which messes with our perception of our bodies, promotes a fertile environment for eating disorders, and makes millions of women feel like crap because they have cellulite or a “muffin top” or aren’t blonde/tall/thin/bog-lipped/Botoxed…and our right to choose to keep or end a pregnancy?

Here it is: If women are taught by an anti-choice government that we cannot trust our bodies, that we are in no condition to be in control of what goes into or comes out of our vaginas, that it is not up to us whether they carry a child to term and then must face the repercussions of a baby we are ill-equipped to care for, then how on earth can we ever learn to LOVE our bodies? To accept them the way they are? To be proud of our strength or ability to run and dance and work? If I, as a young girl, am raised in a culture where I am taught from day one that my reproductive rights are not mine to control, that my uterus and what it bears is a decisions best left to a 72-year-old man who has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits, then how am I can I be expected to mature into a woman who is sure of myself, who trusts myself to make my own decisions and chose my destiny and tell the Establishment to screw themselves, I don’t need to mold or starve my body in order to conform to what you tell me is best? If I, as Palin purports, don't know enough about my own body and mind and needs to make a decision as serious as whether or not I am ready to be a mother, how do I trust myself to look in the mirror and love what I see? Or feel pride and ownership over the image staring back at me?

Isn’t there a strong parallel between other people dictating my right to reproduce and other people dictating what I should look like? Both involve power being taken away from us, being undermined and treated like infants, being dis-emboldened to live the lives we want. A happy life. A life in which we decide on our own what we should look like (thin, curvy, chubby, strong, pregnant) – not our government. Not to mention both lines of thinking – the anti-choice movement and the societal movement towards an unattainable physical ideal – involve hiding bumps or physical flaws of any kind. (Anyone seen the picture of Bristol holding her mom’s youngest child, Trig? It’s a politically-reconnoitered version of, say, Halle Berry disguising her baby bump with a stack of magazines.

I am not the only one to make this link. In 2002, Brown University made it a point to include pro-choice messaging in its campus-wide Love you Body Day Event. Love Your Body Day is a campaign organized by the National Organization for Women in response to the unhealthy and exploitive images of women in the media. The goal: To promote positive, healthy images of women and girls, protest harmful and offensive advertisements, and raise awareness about women's health issues. Brown University’s then- Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances Katie Del Guercio explained, “We will be talking about the right, politically, to respect your body.” Campus orgs like the Domestic Abuse Advocacy Project, Students for Choice, Planned Parenthood, women’s athletic teams, sororities and representatives from Campus Health Services all came together to promote this joint mission.

As Jessica from the inimitable and stellar jezebel.com points out, Palin’s daughter should not be shamed because of the decision she made to have sex or judged for her decision to keep the baby. But I have to wonder…was it her decision? And what will happen when the days comes where, as Bristol’s mother would have it, that decision doesn’t belong to girls anymore? Forget the angering and humiliating “J. Love has a lumpy butt!!” tabloid spreads and media extravaganzas over how Nicole Kidman lost all of her baby weight in 14 days and impossible-to-live-up-to reports of Jennifer Lopez competing in a triathlon while simultaneously breast-feeding her newborn twins. That kind of news won’t even warrant angry blogging anymore. We’ll have far bigger fish to fry…and the ubiquitous phrase, “I hate my body” will take on a whole new meaning.

Comments

I can't agree more...respecting your body and yourself as a woman is inexorably linked with deciding what is right for you in the realm of sex and reproduction. Bravo, Leslie.

I'd have to say that your initial foray into politics was a success. I never really appreciated the link you talked about, but it makes perfect sense.

Leslie for President!

It seems Palin is making a lot of women who aren't political bloggers make political statements. I guess that's good :) Even if she's not.

Well said.

Kudos!!!

I think you should stick to writing about body image issues. The decision about whether or not to end a human life has absolutely nothing to do with not feeling bad about eating bag of Oreos.

Here, Here!!

When I started to read this entry, I thought you were going to comment on McCain's striking propensity for choosing women in his life - who all must be LOVELY women, I am sure of it - who look like trophy wives with a nice rack but sound a little less blessed in the brain department. THIS is what girls are supposed to aspire to when they see the first woman VP candidate? THIS is what we've come to after all those years of struggle for equal rights? You can be VP if you have zero qualifications whatsoever but 'look right?' I'm beyond horrified.

I'm just glad you focused on Palin's actual POLITICS as opposed to all the other salacious mud-slinging gossip going round the Internets right now.

I think you did a great job of presenting your point of view and backing it up with your considerable experience. Go Leslie!!

I hink the connection between body image and family planning is clear. Both movements have the same message. "You are good enough just as you are. You have all the same rights as any other human being. You don't need to put other people's wants or even needs above your own, just because you are female."

You don't need to suffer to change the way you look and please other people, just because you're a woman. You have the right to your own body.

You don't have to suffer with pregnancy / parenthood that would cause trauma to you, impoverish you, impair your health, or cause deep emotional scars just in order to put another person's needs above your own needs. You have the right to your own body, and you are allowed to say that your needs should be met too.

Which is not to say, FTR, that I think women should go out and get abortions willy nilly. But we SHOULD be allowed to have a voice. We should be able to decide which needs we can meet for others and which of ours are important too.

Including Oreos!

Amen! I, for one, DO NOT want to go back to the days when women were considered property.
It amazes me that a woman who owes her entire career to the Suffragete and Womens' movements can be so completely opposed to everything they have given her.

Here here! If we aren't allowed to make the most basic decisions regarding our bodies, how are we supposed to learn to love and respect them? How will we know how to take care of them if we are supposed to regard them with suspicion and a close eye?

Great post, great insight!

a little late to the party but NOT unwilling to chime in with whats been said already.

I think the most stunning thing to me is precisely what alyssa said. That women (and there are shockingly many and MANY I call friend) who have benefited tremendously from the women's movement in general can, while taking all the advantages it hath given her, come out as opposed to it at the same time.

I cant wrap my brain around being OPPOSED to a choice, either.

but that's me.

and (lastly. I know.) IMO it is 100% the same issue. women and weight women and choice women and body imagine.

inextricably linked.

that said I really like that LoLo disagreed and expressed it.

discourse, People.

what it's all about right?

sorry I rambled....

I don't know, MizFit, I'd respect LoLo's disagreement a lot more if it hadn't been trying to shut down a discourse. It's fine to say "I think this is the right choice, this is the wrong one" but to say that Leslie equated abortion(I'm not going to go into the killing babies thing except to say I think LoLo is incorrect to call it that) to feeling bad about eating an Oreo? no. And also, Sonn, how many women do you know that go out and get abortions willy nilly? I sure don't know anyone who didn't consider it important-deciding to get an abortion or not, they didn't decide lightly. why does that seem so hard for politicians to believe?

Leslie, I love to read your articles about body image and dieting, and oh how I wish you would stick to that topic. Yes, I agree women have reproductive rights, but the moment they become pregnant, they have created another life with just as many rights as they have. We, as humans, have no right to take another life, no matter how small and "insignificant" it may be. We women need to love ourselves enough to take responsibility for our actions and our mistakes and make sure we can give that baby the rights he or she is entitled.

I don't see the link between body image and the right to choose unless by right to choose you mean the right to decide whether or not you are ready to have sex in the first place, which to me is tied to self-respect. Having sex means that you are taking the risk of becoming pregnant. No birth control is 100% fool proof and if you're willing to take that chance, you better be willing to deal with the reprecussions if you happen to get pregnant. If a woman truly respects her body, she should use that respect to make the choice about sex before abortion even enters into the equation. Once she is pregnant,I agree with Andrea, it realy is no longer all about her. While I'm all for women having a voice, I think one of the ills of our society is our extreme focus on self. If someone isn't ready "to suffer with pregnancy/parenthood", as Sonn put it, then that someone should keep it in her pants. I do take a different view when a woman's inital choice is taken away via rape or incest, but that is not most cases.

And also, Sonn, how many women do you know that go out and get abortions willy nilly?

No no no... I don't mean people DO go get abortions like they go get a latte; I mean they *shouldn't.* What I was trying to say was that yes, reproductive rights are inextricably tied up with body image and self image for women, you can't separate the two. HOWEVER that doesn't mean that in order to love our bodies we all need to run right out and have an abortion. Abortion is a rough road to face, no doubt, and a lot of heartbreak and careful thought and desperate searching for options goes into it. I know this. I'm simply saying that having a voice in that situation, being able to make your own decision instead of letting a stranger make it for you, *whatever that decision is,* is a very positive thing for women's health and sense of self.

Cheers!

(And, btw, Andrea thank you also for posting! We disagree but I appreciate a well thought out and intelligent comment.)

Lol, I love you Leslie but I guess this is why people aren't supposed to discuss politics.

I don't think Palin's daughter should be "ashamed" of having sex and getting pregnant at 17, but I also don't think it's anything to be proud of.

Women can choose to control their bodies -- they can choose to have sex. They can choose to use birth control. Or not. But once they are pregnant, I don't believe a woman has the right to end that life.

Oh yes, and in response to this:

"sick of pornography, soft or hardcore, and its wayward infiltration into the minds of little girls who now think having a triple-D augmented chest and shaved vagina are necessary to being popular, happy and successful in life."

It's definitely TMI, but I've watched porn before, and my size B's are fine by me (and my boyfriend).

Oh well, you can't agree on everything hmm?

Here Here!

Very well put. Upon hearing that Palin's daughter was pregnant, I couldn't help but wonder if she actually did make the decision herself. I mean, it's possible that she did, but you have to wonder. I'm beginning to wonder if this VP nomination will hurt McCain. I have some conservative political leanings but am very pro-choice and because of this, McCain has lost my vote.

thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful comments. I'm really proud of us for not raising e-voices and respeting each other. Like Sonn and Nikki, who loves her B's like I love mine, said - we can't all agree all the time. And we don't need to. Would be pretty boring. I do want to clarify for Lolo, tho, that I certainly do not equate the decision about whether to obtain an abortion with the decision to eat Oreos. As I mentioned in the post, I understand the agonizing decision-making and soul-searching that goes into the former.

PS Dana, I hereby accept your nomination and will be running on the Pink Sequin Party ticket.

I think Rush Limbaugh is already running on that ticket, Leslie!

You're going to have to go with the "Beautiful Shoes" party.

amen, sister!

Well said!

I can sympathize with Bristol on this one - I became a mother at 17. My own mother (who claimed to be very anti-abortion) actually offered to take me for one if I chose, almost pressuring me. I declined, and honestly never gave it a serious thought. That said, I remain pro-choice, but believe PREVENTION is so much more important.

I was also married before my daughter was born, which WASN'T really my choice. (I was underage - he could have gone to jail, I thought marriage was the better option.) I knew we wouldn't last, and I was divorced at age 21.

I hope the marriage is not entirely forced upon her. I hope Bristol has a choice there, at least.

Teen pregnancy is not the end of the world, but it's not the ideal. I support the choice to keep the baby. I also hope this makes Sarah Palin think about what abstinence-only education leads to, as my mom has now changed her stance there too.

And what that had to do with the topic, I don't know.

I grew up with a mother who was pro-life. I adopted her beliefs, but then I got raped when I was 15. Fortunately, I did not get pregnant, but it was at that moment that I became a pro-choice advocate. While I know my situation was extreme and some pro-lifers make exceptions for rape, I strongly believe that the circumstance alone should not determine whether or not a woman has a choice. I certainly do not want to make decisions regarding what other women should do with their bodies . . . or when life begins.

Yep. What you said.

I was a teen mom. Okay, yeah, I was 18 - but I was fresh out of high school. Yes, I chose to keep the baby and I would do the same today. But it was MY CHOICE. Not my mom's, not the media's, not Al Gore's. (Yes, this was Murphy Brown era.) Mine.

And I think you hit on the thing that infuriates me the most about the whole thing - not only can women not choose to terminate a pregnancy, but WE AREN'T GOING TO TEACH KIDS ABOUT PREVENTION EITHER. Let's make sure if they play, they pay! (And teens Play. No matter what conservatives may want to believe. They Play. It's sort of a biological imperative.)

And let's think about how many of the world's ills can be laid at the feet of overpopulation, shall we? So let's exacerbate the problem by making it a sin to abort, a sin to prevent, and socially unacceptable to teach children about either.

Ostriches have nothing on these people. Their heads are definitely buried, but unfortunately not in the sand.

V.

Could you write about healthy diets

Some of you may consider this off-topic, but what great dialogue! I'm reveling in all this beautiful freedom of speech. Leslie isn't afraid to raise people's blood pressures a bit to address something that she feels strongly about and I respect that. So...my comment may be even more off-topic, but am I the only one who can't understand the hypocrisy of the Republican party on this issue? If human life is so incomparably sacred, then why are they sending our young men and women out into harm’s way in Iraq (all of whom have undoubtedly passed the point at which human life begins by ANYONE'S standards)to be killed by the THOUSANDS? My two cents...

Leslie-when I move to Chicago I want to come to your dinner parties...We would have the best convos!

I've never put two and two together, but this is an interesting idea.

Sonn-have you seen McCain's daughter? She's pretty, very pretty, but by no means petite. (BTW, she has a great blog, too...mccainblogette.com I think. And funny-up until Sunday I was thinking she was the daughter that should be hauled off to Europe until this was done because of all the pictures of her with crap reality stars.)

I peeked at the page, saw Palin's name and the anticipation of what you had to say got me through my homework--'cause I wouldn't let myself get caught up in it until I finished (or I probably wouldn't have)!

I agree with you, 100%. Regardless of when you believe life begins, of how you feel about abortion, we should have the right to choose for ourselves. This is not to say that an adult in a committed long-term relationship might not consult with her significant other regarding such a decision. Nor does it mean that those who believe that life begins at conception are wrong--that is a personal choice, a decision each woman needs to make for herself. But the point is that it is a decision that needs to be made, NOT dictated by the government. Abortions will happen whether they are legal or not, at least if they are legal they are safe, and women won't be left with no choices and no control.

Sorry, that wasn't meant to be a tirade, just wanted to throw in my two cents.

Thanks for getting me through homework!

I have to side with Andrea here. I love your link of reproductive power and loving your body and I am all for a woman controlling her body and being respected for it- but that changes when another human is inside her. I know there's a lot more to it (sex ed for example), but I believe everything changes when another life is involved.

Most importantly I wanted to respond to Sonn's comment. "...McCain's striking propensity for choosing women in his life - who all must be LOVELY women, I am sure of it - who look like trophy wives with a nice rack but sound a little less blessed in the brain department...You can be VP if you have zero qualifications whatsoever but 'look right?'"

Sonn- You can disagree with McCain and Palin's politics, but to refer to them as having a "nice rack" and "zero qualifications" isn't right. Palin especially has accomplished SO MUCH and you are judging her solely on their appearance. That isn't doing anything for "equal rights".

Thanks Leslie for bringing up such a big topic.

Leslie- I usually agree with you but this is offensive, please do not talk about politics. BTW people who are pro choice view the decision to be about themselves while people who are pro life take the decision to be about the (potential) child. You are obviously liberal, please dont try to force politics on your readers!

Bravo, Leslie! I absolutely agree.

Leslie, you are right. Politics and body issues are interconnected no matter what the conservatives want to say. If I can't have a say about what Palin's daughter should do, then Palin should NOT have a say about what happens in my home.

GO LIBERALS!