A New Focus for Feminism
During this season of change, feminist organizations must reach out to people of color, young people, and straight men.By Kay Steiger
January 22, 2009
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelson, from left, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Gloria Feldt, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., shout and hold a banner during the abortion rights rally and march on the Mall in Washington in 2004. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)In this moment of progressive re-awakening, feminism and the reproductive rights movement have accomplished a lot. Not only has a pro-choice president taken office after eight years of an administration that openly attacked women’s rights and reproductive freedom. This fall, Emily’s List, an organization that recruits and funds women to run for office, saw more victories than ever before. Pro-choice groups also defeated ballot initiatives in three states that would have restricted or directly challenged the right to an abortion. Today, public opinion remains two-to-one in favor of the decision made in Roe v. Wade. And with health care reform on the table, groups like the National Women’s Law Center have done a good job of trying to keep women’s interests represented in the debate.
Still, the reproductive rights movement is incomplete. Many people believe the movement, with its obsessive discussion of choice, Supreme Court justices, and slogans like “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” seems to be speaking past some key groups that could—and should—be its strong allies. These groups—people of color, young people, and straight men—all tend to think of feminism as we know it as something purely under the domain of white, relatively privileged women. If the movement hopes to achieve broad victories during the Obama administration, it must better engage these constituencies. If it doesn’t, it will have wasted this once-in-a-generation opportunity to truly make an impact on as many people’s reproductive lives as possible.
Recently, the movement began to adopt the moniker of reproductive justice. That name doesn’t necessarily mean straying from maintaining the right to an abortion, but it takes a more holistic approach to the needs of women (and men) when it comes to their bodies. A study by the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, released last year, revealed that abortion and abortion access was relatively low on the priority list for young women of color, falling far behind health care, the economy, immigration, and the environment. The needs of young women of color fall often outside of the narrow discussion that has been restricted by focusing on choice alone.
NARAL recently launched a campaign to try to engage with young people, and it seemed especially targeted at young people of color. The project was called Free. Will. Power. and produced several videos featuring spoken word artists. The project is likely to be unsuccessful because it not only didn’t address real issues of sexuality and health but also because it failed to connect the highly produced videos to legitimate political fights and put forth a call for action.
Groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund do have youth outreach arms to their organizations, but they seem reluctant to grant those youth or the organizers they employ any power beyond signing or working on a petition. A major project coordinated by the youth arms of feminist organizations last year was a co-branded petition to protest the rising cost of birth control on campus, but the project didn’t change the fact that the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act remained in place, often doubling the out-of-pocket cost of contraception. The Prevention Through Affordable Access Act was introduced to Congress in 2007, but the legislation never made it out of committee.
Another group that has long been neglected by feminist organizations is straight men. There are often divisive debates over whether or not a man can ever call himself a feminist. Men are marginalized within the movement, told they can never understand the plight of women, and must step aside to allow women to speak for themselves. It’s a running joke that men only sign up for women’s studies courses to get laid. A recent Ms. Magazine cover featuring Barack Obama in a “THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE” t-shirt caused a controversy to erupt in the feminist blogosphere. But certainly women who want to see equality will need men as allies and partners in achieving gender equality.
Men, by far, are the largest perpetrators of domestic violence and are often unengaged on issues of reproduction until they are asked to be fathers. Fathers, Barack Obama noted in his Father’s Day speech during the campaign season, are sorely “missing from too many lives and too many homes.” By refusing to engage with men and teach them about gender equality, there is little hope of actually achieving equality in professional and home life, let alone maintaining the right to contraception and abortion.
To be fair, there are a number of groups that are organized around engaging these neglected communities. A number of ethnic-based groups, like the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and Sister Song, are doing an excellent job of advocating for the reproductive rights of marginalized communities. Advocates for Youth and Choice USA are organizations that work hard to fight against damaging abstinence-only programming. And one organization that works directly with straight men through mentoring is Men Can Stop Rape. The work of groups like these should be applauded and duplicated in other groups that focus on reproductive rights.
Still, the reproductive justice movement has a long way to go. Hopefully one day it won’t just be ethnic groups advocating for the reproductive and economic autonomy of women of color. Perhaps men will be not only be allowed, but expected to engage on gender equality and reproductive justice. And maybe one day, youth will have the power not only to sign a petition, but to really push for legislation like comprehensive sex education and access to affordable birth control. After all, without these communities, the reproductive justice movement isn’t about justice, it is only about choice. There is so much more at stake.
Kay Steiger is an associate editor at Campus Progress.
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Comments
My sister is a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in NY state. One issue I discuss with her is image and the all or nothing battle. The second being that R v W is a Court decision vs legislated law.
Image: pro-Choice people are not pro-Abortion! yet we let the Pro-Life groups set the tone that we want to kill babies. The reality is we all want fewer abortions.
As for all or nothing pro-choice groups fight ethical changes that should be law because it will chip away at R v W. Reality is there should never be a third term abortion ever unless the mothers life is threatened. If you can’t decide in 6 months sorry too late. As long a R v W is a court ruling there will be a battle. Every country with pro-choice laws have them as laws not court rulings. Even Spain!
And laws should be equal. I voted against the parental consent initiative in California and do every year. Why? It is unfair.
Fact is if you get pregnant under 18 you need an adult to get involved in your life. But so does the male who impregnated the woman! And in cases of rape/incest parents/relatives/friends etc need to be exposed if this happens.
So I write the people who try to get this law passed and state that when the boy has to notify his parents and when the boy who impregnates woman after woman will be force sterilized by the state then I can possibly vote for such a law. But until then they are evil hypocrites who go to church while actually serving satan.
— Howie Goldfarb - Jan 26, 01:32 PM - #Thanks for taking feminist organizations to task for not adequately engaging women of color and youth in their movements! I’d like to lift up the work that the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is doing to engage the African-American and Latino faith communities to offer comprehensive sex education within their churches. I think too often organizations want to address the concerns of people of color but fail to take any cultural concerns into account. It’s the old assimilate or be ignored tactic that fails every time. Fortunately, as you said, there are good, albeit small, organizations who keep women of color, youth, and straight men at the heart of the organization’s mission rather than as a side-note.
— Alex McNeill - Jan 29, 04:44 PM - #