Feminist Looking Glass

This morning I awoke to the sad news of Ted Kennedy’s passing. Though it may not have been a surprise, it’s a shame nonetheless. ‘The Lion’s’ legacy will live on in many ways– his tragic and complicated family history, his championing civil rights, his fight for health care, to name a few. For feminists, we also remember that he fought on our side for women’s issues. Despite allegations in his personal life of being a womanizer, Kennedy was a strong source of support for women’s rights, gay rights, and important health care initiatives.

Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List have released statements about his support of Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and expanding women’s access to health care services. Feministe also notes his crucial involvement in passing the Freedom of Access to Free Clinic Entrances, “which made it a federal crime to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to prevent individuals from obtaining or providing reproductive health care services.”

As I was watching morning news coverage on his passing, I noted how some commentators used it as an opportunity to discuss the current health care reform battle, which Kennedy called the “cause of his life.” Others, like Chris Matthews, used it as an opportunity to go on a brief bizarre rant about Obama. While waiting for Obama to give his statement on Kennedy’s death, Matthews went off about Obama, stimulus, and condoms.

Though I can’t recall verbatim what was said, Matthews spouted something about Obama’s recent ineffectiveness and the economic stimulus, particularly about the inclusion of contraceptives. “Condoms! Condoms,” he yelled, “can you believe it?!” First of all, it was a fairly inappropriate time to go off about that, but also, this was controversial  about six months ago. It bothered me then, and it bothers me even more now that Matthews is still talking about it and still committing to being intellectually lazy about the matter. Matthews is acting either like an abstinence-only education supporter or a ten year old boy making jokes about sex that he doesn’t understand.

Condoms were not tossed carelessly into the economic stimulus bill to be sexually explicit or perverted or shock people, but to give a strong push for comprehensive sex education and contraception access (which Ted Kennedy fully backed). Especially after the last eight years of abstinence obsession, there’s a big need for pushing forward on this issue. Teen pregnancy and STDs rose significantly under Bush– a trend that has no small cost.

And while we’re talking about health care and prevention, condom use helps prevent such a range of serious infections and diseases, like HIV/AIDS and cancer-causing HPV, that the government is also spending a great deal of money on trying to treat.  Its completely absurd to me that prevention of non-sexually-related illnesses is seen as important, but that STIs are somehow off-limits.

Its frustrating that so much misinformation is continuing to be propagated about things like death panels and condoms. The Recovery Act was by no means perfect, nor is the current fight for health care reform. But acting like Randall Terry, being reactionary, and refusing to think about the issues, is not going to get us anywhere.

Ted Kennedy wanted a world where each and every person would have a fighting chance– where a person’s gender, sexual orientation, race, or socio-economic status didn’t prevent him/her from accessing treatment. Its not going to be an easy thing to do, but we have a current opportunity to seize.

Filed under: Politics, Reproductive Rights, Sex Tagged: | chris matthews, condoms, contraception, Health Care, stimulus, ted kennedy