Really? Men Are Still Trying to Control Women's Fertility? Really!?!

4/6/2012

Tags: abortion/reproduction, discourse/language, gender, government/the state, inequality, contraception, feminism, fertility, slut-shaming, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2012
Length: 2:44
Access: Hulu

Summary: In this clip of Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler's classic sketch called "Really!?! with Seth & Amy," the comedic duo rails against the rash of recent politicos, who seek to restrict the ability of women to control their own fertility. Seth and Amy refer to the hearings held by a House Oversight Committee on religious liberty and insurance coverage for contraception on February 16th. In the hearings, representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) accused Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of manipulating committee rules to block women from testifying as witnesses. Seth and Amy also mention Foster Friess (a major donor to the super PAC backing Rick Santorum's presidential campaign), who recently joked in an interview on MSNBC about contraception. "Back in my days," Friess remarked, "The gals put [Bayer aspirin] between their knees, and it wasn't that costly." Not mentioned by Seth and Amy is Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke's recent testimony before Congress in favor of contraceptive coverage. Political commentator, Rush Limbaugh, responded by calling Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute," and he made her the following proposition: "So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch." These recent news stories, many of which are touched on in Seth and Amy's comedy, illustrate the ambitions of men to continue to exercise power over the reproductive lives of women. In the first congressional hearing, the experiences of women were formally excluded from the congressional record. The remarks from Friess and Limbaugh, in contrast, amount to slut-shaming, which is a discourse that similarly attempts to control women's sexual lives. While the above comedy sketch may not be intellectually rich on its own, it works well as a means of broaching a discussion about why contraception is a feminist issue, and how formally controlling women's sexual behavior through law works in concert with informal controls, such as slut-shaming.

Submitted By: Lester Andrist

5 Comments

Sandie Reed link

5/8/2012 10:01:57 am

Politicians - keep your politics out of my healthcare! Really...I mean it! Really!

Charlotte

12/4/2012 12:13:14 am

The video is only available in the US, is there another link?

Melanie Jean Garuffi

2/13/2013 04:39:56 am

The arguments posted here only address, in part, what a few attention getting extremists have to say. I offer the viewpoint of the mainstream pro-life community: We simply do not want to pay for the death of any human being, born or pre-born, just conceived, or advanced in years, healthy or unhealthy. Most of us know that God is the Creator and Giver of life. We do what we do to honor Him and we believe in keeping women safe. The number of women coerced or terrorized into abortion is very high, the evidence of the psychological consequences are very often delayed and the harm of not knowing that what is conceived and called a "fetus" is a baby. Fetus is Latin for unborn baby. I am praying for Jesus to show you His love and protection.

Elyse

5/28/2013 07:31:19 pm

I am not looking for attention, but your comment provoked me to respond. What you are trying to promote is Ignorance. I would love to know what defines a Extremists in your opinion? In my personal opinion you are the perfect example of a Extremists brainwashing as your entire paragraph ( with the exception of your 2nd and last sentences are the only times you are speaking directly. For someone like your self to make such bold statements why are you afraid of standing behind your beliefs and speaking for your self rather than hiding behind words like "We".

What gives you the authority to speak on the behalf of others, who you are calling the mainstream pro-life community? I certainly stand behind human life, but what I do not stand behind is a country where the Government or my peers get to decide how I want to live my life and are capable of preventing me from making a choice I feel is best for my self and my unborn child. I would rather give my child to God knowing that if I was screwed up on drugs or too poor to wipe my own ass. I am sure glad I had that option at 18. I couldn't live with my self knowing I had brought a child into this world that I could not afford to take care of let alone try to take care of my self...all by my self.....so I can cost the state more money because I have no education and the job I can get doesn't even cover my cost for day care? And you wonder why taxes are so Damn high...because people are encouraged to be Energy/Money Suckers!!

You state your group of " main stream-ists" simply do not want to pay to kill any human being, but if you truly understood the gift when your higher power created Earth and everything on it you could better spend your efforts on things that could really use your energy. You see the Earth is created out of Energy and everything that comes from earth also possess energy including humans. The Amazing and wonderful thing about Energy is that it (we) never DIES, it only Transforms...The shell that you are given when you arrive on earth from your mother...is exactly just that...a "shell" just like a crab or snail we use it until we grow out of it and then we shed it and move on to another one that we use for as long as our higher power as our higher power deems necessary.

It frightens me that there are people out there like you that are still thinking in your terms, such as "we believe in keeping woman safe". That statement makes no sense nor does it seem rational. What the unfortunate reality has been for so many years and for so many woman to experience is being Raped by some man, more often than not by someone they know or are related too and they end up getting pregnant and are FORCED into keeping it as a means for their abuser to manipulate the woman even more. There is far more EVIDENCE showing psychological damage that continued because the girl or woman did not have a CHOICE to abort the fetus by their abuser! Not sure what part of the country you are from but it's sad to see that so much of these nonsense comes from religious values that have no business in our Government!

M S

7/9/2018 03:15:08 pm

I don't believe men should have any say in women's reproductive rights in any way. Men don't have to carry the child for 9 months go through torturous labor all the hell women have to endure only to either refuse the child, leave with another woman or make her suffer. Women aren't on this planet to give men children or to take care of them. Men that assume that women shouldn't have any rights reproductive or otherwise need to stay silent. Trump is doing too much damage and sending the United states back to the dark ages. Down with trump down with his egotistical administration down with those that try to control women.

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Really? Men Are Still Trying to Control Women's Fertility? Really!?!

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