and the band played on.

i just read the first spate of letters to Salon about their article on Female Chauvinist Pigs. wheeeeeeee. i'm sure that in two days there will be letters in response to these letters - i was almost tempted to write one myself. i almost clicked the little "letters to the editor" button because of one sentence in one letter: "feminism is supposed to be about choice."

this is something that i have been turning over in my head for months, probably at least since the election and possibly before that. the language of "choice" has come to dominate feminist activism, and reproductive justice activism in particular. this troubles me. when i hear someone say that feminism is about choice, i want to say "with all due respect - not really." i know it's problematic for anyone to claim to know what feminism is about, but if you put a gun to my head and told me to take my best guess, i'd say that feminism is about rights. it's about the right to bodily integrity, it's about the right to equal pay for equal work, it's about the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness just like everyone else.

there was a deliberate move towards the language of "choice" and away from "rights" in the 70s and 80s - feminism was under siege in the popular media, and they needed a way to appeal to a broader spectrum of the population. so instead of demanding rights, we began talking about women being able to make choices for themselves.

this was a slippery slope. as i noted in my earlier post on Female Chauvinist Pigs, such loosey-goosey language allows for all sorts of ridiculous proclamations being made in the name of "choice" these days. slowly but surely, we've allowed women to empty out their decisions of political and cultural analysis. in the 70s, we had "consciousness raising" groups where women made connections between their personal, day-to-day lives and the patriachal society in which those lives functioned. that knowledge, that awareness of their position within a larger system, allowed them to make choices in a more informed way (in my humble opinion). now, for the most part, that whole political and cultural analysis part is left out. women can get away with just making choices, and backing them up not with reasoned arguments, but with the rationale that "it was my choice." talk about circular.

so. i think in terms of feminist activism, we need to start avoiding "choice" language like the plague. it's not really getting us anywhere. Media Girl had some great thoughts around this back in August, when the NARAL John Roberts ad hit the fan, and Daily Kos told feminists to simmer down already. she talks about pro-choice language, privacy language, and how in the end none of that is sufficient:

This is a liberty issue, an equality issue. Women are autonomous beings, or they aren't. The embryo/fetus is not a "person" -- the legal status of being entitled to rights -- until it is born, and no longer a part of the woman's body.

this is particular to the abortion debate, obviously, but i think the point is relevant to all feminist activism. we're people. we're autonomous. we have rights. we deserve to be treated like everyone else. all this other crap - whether or not to do cardio strip tease, etc - cannot be settled until we establish this. and to those who think it's already been settled, i say:

76 cents on the dollar.