‘Get Out of My Crotch’ tells it like it is
By Kathryn Reed
Disturbing. Enlightening. Thought provoking. Gripping. Gritty. Sad. Troubling.
Those are some of the words that come to mind when describing “Get Out of My Crotch”, a book published by Cherry Bomb Books, an imprint of Bona Fide Books in Meyers.
It’s one of those books that can’t be read all at once. It’s too powerful and disturbing. There’s too much to think about and process.
It’s one of those books that probably won’t be read by the people who should and need to read it. They would be all the politicians who want to regulate women’s reproductive rights.
“Crotch” is a collection of 21 essays from 20 women and one man about life today in the United States when it comes to women’s reproductive issues.
If you think all women have access to safe abortions because of Roe v. Wade, well, you clearly don’t pay attention to the news.
We have politicians who think a woman who is raped has the power to control whether she gets pregnant. We have politicians who think there is never a valid reason for an abortion. Why they even think the government should have a say in what a woman chooses to do is mindboggling.
But “Crotch” isn’t a book about abortion, though it starts out that way. (Just keep reading the book.)
The stories are not unique. That is largely what is so sad about them. If they were isolated cases, the book probably wouldn’t have been published. It’s because these stories are the same stories your sisters, your friends, and your neighbors’ could tell you, but probably choose not to, that the words are so powerful. If you can’t hear it from them, maybe you can read what a stranger has to say.
These are stories involving discrimination, access to birth control, how race plays a part in how people are treated, what Congress is trying to do and has done. They are stories about women wanting to decide what’s right for them without interference from others.
It’s a book I sent to my two nieces earlier this year when they were 17 and 24. It’s a book that people need to read. It’s also a book you won’t want to read.
please send a copy of this book to every right wing, tea party whacko out there. Start with Rick Perry and Michele Bachman.
Just the kind of “high class” stuff that keeps SLT the armpit of the Lake.
Doug-That’s just the kind of statement that keeps the holier than thou wingnuts ‘War on Women’ an important issue for informed voters all across the country. If men such as yourself could get pregnant-reproductive rights would be sacrosanct.
I am reading this book now and I totally agree with this review. This is a powerful and timely book. There is a political war on women going on right now, one in which our reproductive rights are very much at stake. Through powerfully written essays this book presents both the political and personal ramifications of this vital issue. I think this book should be featured curriculum in high school and college classes. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and doomed is the key word here.
We all have differing values on life and choice, this debate will rage without end. Both sides have their points.
I think we should tax all the churches to pay for sensible sex education administered by actual women’s health professionals for our young people facing the difficult choices of teenhood, including instruction about birth control.
Let’s not leave decisions about reproductive rights to the fundagelicals, they want the kind of dangerously wacko dominionism exposed by:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org.
Interesting idea, Bill. That used to be one of the responsibilities of parenthood. But I guess it’s too much trouble for parents to pay any attention and teach their own kids anything anymore, huh?
Let’s let government just take care of everything for us from now on. Is that how you’d like it to be? Yeah, that’s a great idea. We’ll just all go to work every day and let government keep ALL our money, and maybe they can just give us an allowance.
It’s interesting to me why all these hate the gubmint teababblers are completely in favor of all sorts of draconian federal and state laws telling us exactly what we must do with our personal decisions about our families.
These talibornagain pontificators should mind their own business and follow the advice of this book’s title.
dan, if you mean regulating a woman’s reproductive rights is a ‘point’, well, yes, i guess both sides have their points.
Dogula:
Many years ago, C. Everett Koop, an evangelical christian and Surgeon General during the Reagan presidency, once noted that he was pretty sure that girls in New Jersey were not 23 times more promiscuous then girls in Sweden (the difference in teenage pregnancy rates between Jersey and Sweden at the time), but Sweden’s (a nation of lots of Christians mind you) matter-of-fact approach to sex education and access to birth control not only resulted in far fewer teenage and unwanted pregnancies, but also in a much lower abortion rate (wow shocking, reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions go down, who would have thunk it). Educating our youth as to how their bodies function and providing access to birth control, does not vacate parents responsibility, but in fact leverages it so that we can as a society reduce teenage and other unwanted pregnancies, thereby reducing both economic cost and social cost that accompanies such pregnancies. Yes government health dept., schools, etc. have a clear responsibility to inform – as it cost me, a significant tax payer lots of money not to.
Rick
Well, Rick your basic premise, that your tax dollars are paying for those pregnancies, is my first point. You shouldn’t be paying for them. If girls and boys knew that they were responsible for providing for their own children, they might think twice before having unprotected sex. We’ve had sex education in the schools in this country since the 60’s. Has the teen pregnancy and STD rate gone down? Nope. And I don’t think comparing Sweden to the USA is actually valid. Very different culture, in spite of the fact that it is socialist, which is what we are becoming. Back in C Everett Koop’s day, it was very homogeneous. Not so much today, but still, they do not have the “cultural diversity” nor the history that we do.
Parental guidance and involvement is still the best way to ensure that girls (and boys) grow up to value themselves, become productive, happy adults and eventually become good parents themselves.
Dogula:
You do not get it. We pay in higher cost in health care, etc.
No, actually comparing societies that provide for education and access to birth control to those that do not and finding that there is a strong causal link to pregnancy rates and abortion rates is important and how one informs policy. Providing information so individuals can make informed choices is what a well educated society does.
I for one believe society should stress education and act to reduce social and economic cost from teenage and unwanted pregnancies. Pretending sex is evil and you should be punished if you have it is how crazy uneducated people act. I choose to be informed and not act stupidly by denying education because I think some kid might actually have sex. The just say no approach has been discredited as a total failure.
Check facts, as you continue to spout falsehoods. And I quote:
In 2011, there were 31.3 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, or 329,772 babies born to females in this age group.[1] Eighty-nine percent of these births occurred outside of marriage[1]. The 2011 teen birth rate indicates a dramatic decline of eight percent from 2010 when the birth rate was 34.2 per 1,000[1]The teen birth rate has declined almost continuously over the past 20 years. In 1991, the U.S. teen birth rate was 61.8 births for every 1,000 adolescent females, compared with 31.3 births for every 1,000 adolescent females in 2011 (see Figure 1). Still, the U.S. teen birth rate is higher than that of many other developed countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.[2]
How can you not bother to check facts and continue to be wrong on most issues?
Rick
Who said sex was evil?
Your statistics sure make you look smart. They say nothing about my point. Nothing at all.
Repeat after me dog.
‘cognitive dissonance’
The teen birth rate has declined almost continuously over the past 20 years.
‘(statistics) say nothing about my point. Nothing at all.’
Dr Koop was a joke. Are you seriously harking back to his day as something good?
Dogula:
You continue to miss the point. As I noted in my first post, sex education and providing access to birth control does not vacate a parent’s responsibility of providing guidance to their kids, but it is clear that communities that have a strong sex education/access to birth control program actually have lower teen pregnancy rates. Your unwillingness to accept that sex education has played a significant role in the significant lowering of teen pregnancy in this country (and much more so in other countries) is pure unadulterated ignorance on your part. By not advocating for a strong education program on sex I would argue is in fact vacating our role as parents.
Oh and by the way your view the U.S. was more homogenous in Koops time is a code word for racism. I repeat, as the country has become more diverse, as we have pushed for stronger sex education and access to birth control, the teen pregnancy rate has dropped precipitously over the last 20 years; still higher then many other countries. You clearly have not traveled much if you believe Europe is homogenous.
Rick
dogface, Id rather have my tax dollars pay for education and to be proactive and prevent unwanted baby’s than to have a child be born that isnt wanted and will eventually become a bigger problem for society to deal with. It always amazes me how people that are totally against preventing unwanted babies and/or against abortions will fight for those unwanted babies to be born than turn their backs on careing for them after they are born.