Many women's health issues are directly tied to pregnancy and birth. Like a stunning proportion of them. It significantly increases your odds of everything from having a cardiovascular event to developing an autoimmune disease and even going blind. So I've been advocating for years that women all over the world collectively stop having children. That is our bargaining chip. If enough of us decide to withhold babies from society until the medical field starts taking our health seriously and governments/cultures start showing us respect and equal treatment, we could literally upend the system. No more new wage slave labor. No more new taxpayers. No more new voters or soldiers or caretakers until we get what we want. It'll never happen because far too many women are brainwashed into the patriarchy or focused on themselves and their own desire for children, but it would likely work if we tried it.
Yep. I have a sister who is considering pregnancy right now, and she lives in Tennessee. In the most Bible-thumping town in the US. During the Trump regime. I don't understand that kind of willingness to take your life in your hands. No baby is worth that.
Great comment, Elanor! The only thing women really have over men is our ability to produce children. However, men won’t allow us to refuse. The rape and incel cultures would demand their sexual appetites be satiated, and if we don’t give up freely they’ll take it from us. Still, a plan worth considering.
"Taking it" is not as easy as men think. Sure, they could try to orchestrate campaigns of mass rape, but starting a global war with women in this day and age is a lot more dangerous for them than it used to be in the past. Men have to sleep. They have to eat. They have to have their children survive to adulthood without being killed by their mothers. They have to be able to trust the people living in their house. A global war with women is not in their interest, even if they think their big manly muscles can somehow protect them from bullets and poison. This ain't caveman land anymore. Thanks to technology, women can be every bit as dangerous to men as men are to us. We just choose not to be. The main issue with a birth strike is not men losing their shit when we stop having babies. It's getting enough women to open their eyes. But I think if men tried too hard to "take it" once most women on earth decided to stop "giving it," they would be in for a pretty rude awakening.
Study the health of women who are put in the housewife role while trying to have a career at the same time. Wives are mothers to their husbands. The invisible ink on the marriage contract suddenly appears after the couple says, "I do."
Now that we've bashed women's treatment, what's the plan to change our role? How do we accomplish the plan?
I’ve noticed that a lot of the recent studies actually including women and addressing women-specific conditions are predominantly led by female doctors and researchers. Encouraging more women to enter the medical field isn’t an all-encompassing solution, but it’s def a step in the right direction. It also needs to be paired with a broader cultural shift when it comes to gender roles, expectations, etc., though.
The stats that remain puzzling are the women that support - or at least don't push back, on curbing women's health rights like abortion access and other types of reproductive healthcare.
Perhaps all women should start a 'snip, snip' campaign to at least lessen the need for abortion access - although it's not clear if this would prevent pregnancy through incest??
Abortion rights were shot down in Washington State by a majority of men. I have a sticker on the back of my RV, at eye level for the convenience of the drivers behind me:
Don't like abortion?
Have a vasectomy.
Maybe men can take responsibility for their half of the situation? Women aren't the sole cause of pregnancy...it takes two. Yet, we're the ones that get punished.
One of my favorite books that flips this narrative on its side is called Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion By Gabrielle Blair. She is a Mormon mother of six who wrote this book after the 2018 Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in which old white male politicians were going nuts grandstanding about abortion which they used a political tool to harm women and men alike. It's a provocative book and easy to read. She shifts the conversation to holding men accountable for causing unwanted pregnancies.
Yes, it’s baffling how many women seem not only fine with but actively supportive of political parties that are openly waging war on our bodies. I think it’s partly due to a lack of understanding about the real consequences of abortion bans and partly a naive belief that if they comply with patriarchal rules, they’ll somehow be spared.
Remind me to tell you sometime about what it's like being eventually diagnosed and treated for Graves' disease by an overabundance of male endocrinologists. Yuck to the extreme.
Oh yes, they have a vast series of inappropriate and arcane tests that they conduct on you, seemingly for their own entertainment. The classic was the lid lag test. You have no idea how many tumescent male groins I've had to fix my eyes on when in actual fact, the same test could be conducted so that observations by the specialist can be made without ending up having to stare at their crotch.
I'm a vehement opponent of communism—I even created a pub to vent my dislike of the system. But one good thing, a really good thing, about it was that it created total equality between the sexes. I've never known what it's like to be treated as less because I'm a woman, and for that, I'm thankful.
Many women's health issues are directly tied to pregnancy and birth. Like a stunning proportion of them. It significantly increases your odds of everything from having a cardiovascular event to developing an autoimmune disease and even going blind. So I've been advocating for years that women all over the world collectively stop having children. That is our bargaining chip. If enough of us decide to withhold babies from society until the medical field starts taking our health seriously and governments/cultures start showing us respect and equal treatment, we could literally upend the system. No more new wage slave labor. No more new taxpayers. No more new voters or soldiers or caretakers until we get what we want. It'll never happen because far too many women are brainwashed into the patriarchy or focused on themselves and their own desire for children, but it would likely work if we tried it.
Even if I wanted children, which I don't, I would be absolutely terrified of having them in a world that doesn't give a damn about my body and health.
Yep. I have a sister who is considering pregnancy right now, and she lives in Tennessee. In the most Bible-thumping town in the US. During the Trump regime. I don't understand that kind of willingness to take your life in your hands. No baby is worth that.
Great comment, Elanor! The only thing women really have over men is our ability to produce children. However, men won’t allow us to refuse. The rape and incel cultures would demand their sexual appetites be satiated, and if we don’t give up freely they’ll take it from us. Still, a plan worth considering.
"Taking it" is not as easy as men think. Sure, they could try to orchestrate campaigns of mass rape, but starting a global war with women in this day and age is a lot more dangerous for them than it used to be in the past. Men have to sleep. They have to eat. They have to have their children survive to adulthood without being killed by their mothers. They have to be able to trust the people living in their house. A global war with women is not in their interest, even if they think their big manly muscles can somehow protect them from bullets and poison. This ain't caveman land anymore. Thanks to technology, women can be every bit as dangerous to men as men are to us. We just choose not to be. The main issue with a birth strike is not men losing their shit when we stop having babies. It's getting enough women to open their eyes. But I think if men tried too hard to "take it" once most women on earth decided to stop "giving it," they would be in for a pretty rude awakening.
I think you’re right, Elanor. 💪🏼
Unfortunately, it starts before pregnancy and childbirth. Parents are often not equally invested in health of their sons and daughters
That's sadly very true.
Wow!
Study the health of women who are put in the housewife role while trying to have a career at the same time. Wives are mothers to their husbands. The invisible ink on the marriage contract suddenly appears after the couple says, "I do."
Now that we've bashed women's treatment, what's the plan to change our role? How do we accomplish the plan?
Suggestions?
.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the recent studies actually including women and addressing women-specific conditions are predominantly led by female doctors and researchers. Encouraging more women to enter the medical field isn’t an all-encompassing solution, but it’s def a step in the right direction. It also needs to be paired with a broader cultural shift when it comes to gender roles, expectations, etc., though.
The stats that remain puzzling are the women that support - or at least don't push back, on curbing women's health rights like abortion access and other types of reproductive healthcare.
Perhaps all women should start a 'snip, snip' campaign to at least lessen the need for abortion access - although it's not clear if this would prevent pregnancy through incest??
speaking to "snip, snip"
Abortion rights were shot down in Washington State by a majority of men. I have a sticker on the back of my RV, at eye level for the convenience of the drivers behind me:
Don't like abortion?
Have a vasectomy.
Maybe men can take responsibility for their half of the situation? Women aren't the sole cause of pregnancy...it takes two. Yet, we're the ones that get punished.
.
One of my favorite books that flips this narrative on its side is called Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion By Gabrielle Blair. She is a Mormon mother of six who wrote this book after the 2018 Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in which old white male politicians were going nuts grandstanding about abortion which they used a political tool to harm women and men alike. It's a provocative book and easy to read. She shifts the conversation to holding men accountable for causing unwanted pregnancies.
Yes, it’s baffling how many women seem not only fine with but actively supportive of political parties that are openly waging war on our bodies. I think it’s partly due to a lack of understanding about the real consequences of abortion bans and partly a naive belief that if they comply with patriarchal rules, they’ll somehow be spared.
Thank you for this article.
I just posted something about equality on my Substack:
https://sheilahunter.substack.com/p/power-but-not-to-all-the-people
Thank you for putting this together.
Thank you for reading!
Remind me to tell you sometime about what it's like being eventually diagnosed and treated for Graves' disease by an overabundance of male endocrinologists. Yuck to the extreme.
Oh, gosh. I can only imagine how difficult and frustrating this must have been.
Oh yes, they have a vast series of inappropriate and arcane tests that they conduct on you, seemingly for their own entertainment. The classic was the lid lag test. You have no idea how many tumescent male groins I've had to fix my eyes on when in actual fact, the same test could be conducted so that observations by the specialist can be made without ending up having to stare at their crotch.
I'm a vehement opponent of communism—I even created a pub to vent my dislike of the system. But one good thing, a really good thing, about it was that it created total equality between the sexes. I've never known what it's like to be treated as less because I'm a woman, and for that, I'm thankful.