I must admit, I know very little about the American "Women's Lib" Movement. I'm sure it has something to do with the misogynist evil male historians leaving it out of survey history textbooks. Or something. But the phrase conjures up images of women dawning pants and burning bras, divorcing their husbands and demanding the right to kill their children, giving themselves HPV by having sex with too many partners, and that one chick going under cover as a PlayBoy Bunny. And that's about it.
I cannot take women today, nor women from 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago, seriously about them being oppressed and enslaved; that they had to free themselves from the chains of an antiquated patriarchal society, and that they are only ever one vote for a Republican away from again being enslaved. I just don't see that.
Oppressed like how Irish indentured servants in the 17th to 18th Century America and Europe were oppressed? Enslaved like how the POWs of warring African tribes were sold into slavery to the Arabs, Europeans and Americans? Chained up like a disobedient dog and beaten into submission with a stick?
Or how about being objectified? Being so down on your luck, so hopeless and helpless, that you turn to stripping, pornography, or prostitution? What about being used? By strangers or someone you love, but who does not reciprocate that love? What if in your efforts to free yourself, you enslaved your child; made her your property to dispose of in order to compensate for "gender inequality"?
What about being enslaved to a little pill in order to achieve your "freedom"?
Women are less free today than they were in the days when they were considered the property of their husbands.
I personally never experienced anything particularly "liberating" that also coincided with my being a woman. I've climbed the Alps and dangled my legs off the Cliffs of Moher. I've street raced down a dark and deserted desert road doing over 100 mph. I've skinny dipped in the Pacific Ocean at three in the morning. All very liberating. But had nothing to do with me being a woman, nor with me being a "liberated woman."
It was not until I started getting a grasp of NFP (Natural Family Planning) that I finally, truly, experienced Women's Lib.
I am convinced that there is nothing more liberating for a woman than for her to know her own body. If you were to ask me, I could tell you with absolute certainty that at this moment, I am not fertile. And if you were to consult me again in, say, a week, I could describe my cervical mucus to you and tell you whether I am nearing ovulation or already ovulating. If you were to ask me on any particular day, I could tell you what my waking temperature was and describe the condition of my cervix and tell you what that reveals about my cycle. With all of this knowledge, I can tell you that my husband and I have been able to avoid pregnancy while still maintaining a healthy sex life, and without having to put any barriers or restrictions between us.
I had a friend once ask me where her cervix was. This is a girl who became sexually active years before I did; who has been with six times as many men as I have; who has done so much more "experimenting"; who basically lives for sex. But she didn't even know how to find her cervix. She didn't know it was possible to avoid pregnancy without having to pump herself full of hormones. She was a slave to The Pill.
I find it deplorable that "Women's Lib" meant women becoming slaves to synthetic hormones. Women are "free" but at risk for blood clots, lung clots, hemorrhages, strokes, heart attacks, breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Women can have all the sex they want or make themselves orgasm but they do not even know their own bodies.
How ironic.
Suggested reading: New Feminism: The Pill Kills
