Friday, May 11, 2012

Feeling Fed Up

I have been fuming for the past few days over a few things that have happened this week. I kept thinking that it was pregnancy hormones that were causing me to have such a reaction to things that I normally stay out of but since I haven't calmed down much, I guess I need to vent a little!

Firstly, Amendment 1 actually passed in North Carolina!!! WTF?!?!? I can't even believe it!! I think of NC as being a fairly progressive state and I think of people has being generally evolved when it comes to basic human rights. I was wrong apparently and even though I don't live in NC, it just galls me to think that this horrible thing actually got enough votes to pass.

Next, President Obama did an interview and stated his opinion that he is in favor of same-sex marriage. I personally feel like this wasn't a politically motivated move since our country appears to be very divided on the subject. However, as the news is sometimes on in my house, I hear that he is being called a flip-flopper since his views on the subject seem to have evolved over time or that this was done as a political move to help garner more votes in November or how the vice-president forced his hand with a "flub" where he said that he was in support of gay marriage and how he has just cost Obama his re-election.

I feel like anyone who is threatened by same-sex marriage must simply be mis-informed. How does it effect anyone if a gay couple gets married? How will my life change or be effected if a man and another man get married? Will my taxes go up? Will I lose any benefits at work? Will my children be harmed in ANY way? No to all the above! Love and marriage isn't owned by the Christian faith and since marriage began as a contract made by a man and a woman's father, it doesn't seem like keeping marriage to its original intent is something we should really strive for!! Marriage today is supposed to be about two people who love each other and want a public commitment and contact protecting them and their children. That is what marriage is and I really don't give a crap if it is a man and a woman, a man and another man or a woman and another woman - love is love people!!!

Lastly, have you seen the new cover of Time magazine? It shows a woman nursing her toddler who is somewhere between 3 and 4 years old. The picture shows the side of the woman's breast and other than that she is covered. There is talk that sellers of Time will have to cover the cover to protect people from seeing the side of a breast. There is talk that parents will have to explain this cover to their children. There is talk of how inappropriate is it to nurse an older child. All this talk stems from the sexualizing of breasts in our society. Now, I will grant you that breasts are lovely, I certainly have on occasion worn something to reveal and enhance my breasts to get some attention, but sex is not what a woman's breasts are for (neither is the whole woman for that matter!) they are on our bodies to feed and nourish our children. Period!!

I am simply amazed at all the Facebook comments condemning a woman for feeding her child. Comments about how nursing shouldn't be done in public (because nursing is somehow a sex act?), how nursing should be discontinued when the child has teeth, or reaches a certain age, or my favorite - can "ask" for it. I think that this one is the most ignorant of them all. Babies know that they want/need to nurse from the moment of birth!!! They can scoot and root and find the breast all on the own when placed on a mother's belly immediately following birth. They "ask" for it when they cry, whimper, root around and nozzle. As they get older, they will begin to "ask" for it, by pointing or touching and as verbal skills improve they will come up with a word or sound that lets their mother's know that they are "asking" to nurse. So, when exactly, are these people suggesting that nursing cease??

I seem to have unknowingly surrounded myself with people who are fairly open minded and evolved so I was really shocked to see how many people are still so ignorant about children and their proper development!

Look around at the world, full of people who have anxiety disorders, eating disorders, relationship issues, obesity and all the other problems that plague our world. You don't think that how they were treated in infancy has anything to do with these issues? How can the first lesson you learned in life about how not to trust your parents because when you cried, they left you alone and scared, not effect your life?

Babies are not little aliens, they are human beings that will grow into adults. Why are they given any less consideration than anyone else? You can't raise a person who has good feelings of self worth when you treat them like their feelings aren't important. You can't raise a woman to know that it is never OK for her husband to beat on her when her own parents instilled in her as a child that there was a time and place when getting hit was OK!! You can't raise a person who feels strongly about equal human rights, when they as a child had none!!

OK, I am done ranting!! I just needed to get all that off my chest!!!

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