PostsWOMEN

 
I think it’s fair to say that this culture has issues when it comes to women’s bodies. For example, babies who are breastfed have lower risk of allergies, diarrhea, constipation, ear infections, upper respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, reflux, obesity, asthma, SIDS, multiple sclerosis, leukemia, and heart disease. The reaction that lots of people still have when seeing a woman breastfeeding? Treat her like she’s doing something shameful and give her the stink eye or ask her to go do that somewhere else. The soft porn that exists in every checkout line in every store, however, is a familiar constant.  Of course there is the impossible standard of beauty that women are held to that no one can actually live up to as most every printed image of women is photo-manipulated. There’s the jokes and shame surrounding menstruation, and the overall disdain of the rather phenomenal ability that women possess to give life to another human person. I mean, when male doctors do this in the lab (albeit while costing thousands and thousands of dollars, and with the problematic discarding of large numbers of fertilized embryos and selective reductions) they get the Nobel Prize. When women’s bodies do it naturally and for free, we are treated as a liability and pressured by our doctors to disable this ability with contraceptives. Don’t get me started on the pressure women feel to “get their body back in shape” after they just went through something as epic and powerful as childbirth.
As a result, I think it’s likely that most women don’t experience awe in regards to their bodies. They self-objectify, seeing a collection of parts rather than a valuable person, or thinking they’re only worth something if they look like a supermodel. I worry about the ramifications to women’s spirits as well. I recently wrote about the relational cycle of women. I won’t repeat the whole thing here, but just to summarize, when women are menstruating, they have less energy and naturally feel more withdrawn and reflective. It is a good time for rest and reflection. After menstruation ends, their energy levels rise and their interest in being more social returns. This is a good time for proposing and planning. When a woman enters her fertile days, she is bursting with creative energy and is naturally nurturing, selfless, and giving. A few days before her menstruation begins again, women feel a desire to pull inward again. Their spirits are more vulnerable and people ought to respect her sensitivity.
So in this culture where ovulation is seen as a liability, and in which millions of women who don’t want to get pregnant choose to take drugs to inhibit ovulation, it gets me thinking. By robbing women of our natural cycles, I wonder what else are we being robbed of? If women take drugs to eradicate our cycles, we also don’t get the benefit of our whole relational cycle. When women are fertile, this is when they feel the most alive and energetic. When I’m in my fertile phase, six hours maximum is enough sleep for me. I’m ready to get out of bed and seize the day, even though I’m not known to be a morning person and I still nurse my baby during the night.  Women in their fertile phase naturally feel very selfless, nurturing, and giving. They feel alive and creative. This is often when I do my best writing. This is also the time when a woman’s husband will be the most attracted to her. Multiple studies have shown that men find ovulating women more attractive. I personally have found that when my husband and I are avoiding pregnancy, if we can’t come together physically during my fertile phase, it seems we come together emotionally. Often our best conversations, the moments of our greatest relational intimacy coincides with my fertile time. Do women not want their creativity to be at its peak? Do men not want a partner that’s selfless, nurturing, and giving? Do women themselves not want to feel this way? Do women not want to feel more attractive? Do couples not want this strong emotional connection with one another? For although they may not realize it, they handicap all these things when they willingly choose to not ovulate.
Second-wave feminists fight for access to abortion and contraception so that we can be free from our femininity, seeing our bodies as an unfair burden from which modern science can help us escape. I think though, that if one is actually disdainful of what is feminine, that can’t be considered authentic feminism. This is why I celebrate the dawn of New Feminism, a feminism that upholds and honors the beauty and power of women. New Feminism recognizes that if discrimination exists in the culture on account of women’s bodies, it is not women’s bodies that need to change, but the discriminatory culture. I think it’s time to hold our heads high because let’s face it, women are extraordinary, just the way we are.