Ultrasounds, Doonesbury, and Rape
Jim Hines has smart things to say about Doonesbury's use of "rape" to describe mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds. Obvious trigger warnings apply. There and .
I've mentioned before, for about two years, I had a transvaginal ultrasound two and even three times a month as part of my fertility treatments. And after a while, I got pretty blase' about them. Other than worrying about the possibility that the person administering it might someday turn out to be a former student, I eventually got over the nervousness about lying back and having a wand inserted into my vagina. When
slashspouse finally saw one and his eyes got the size of saucers, I almost giggled. It became familiar.
But you know what? It never became not intimate, and it never stopped being uncomfortable and sometimes outright painful, and messy, and a little embarrassing to have a total stranger's hand between my legs, to be trying to keep my thighs out of her way to keep contact to a minimum, to not whimper too loudly when the ultrasound starting hurting my back...
All of that was there on my fortieth transvaginal ultrasound.
I was having those procedures voluntarily, for something I desperately wanted. More importantly, having those procedures medically assisted that goal. If I had been required by a legislature, particularly a group of made up largely of men, to have one not because it would have assisted me in creating that child, but to make sure I understood what I was doing in making her, if they had mandated that something be inserted in my vagina for reasons other than my health whether I wanted it or not for information about the morality of my choice whether I felt I needed it or not ...then yes, I would call that rape.
This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/965426.html. If you can, please speak there.
have spoken there.
I've mentioned before, for about two years, I had a transvaginal ultrasound two and even three times a month as part of my fertility treatments. And after a while, I got pretty blase' about them. Other than worrying about the possibility that the person administering it might someday turn out to be a former student, I eventually got over the nervousness about lying back and having a wand inserted into my vagina. When
slashspouse finally saw one and his eyes got the size of saucers, I almost giggled. It became familiar.
But you know what? It never became not intimate, and it never stopped being uncomfortable and sometimes outright painful, and messy, and a little embarrassing to have a total stranger's hand between my legs, to be trying to keep my thighs out of her way to keep contact to a minimum, to not whimper too loudly when the ultrasound starting hurting my back...
All of that was there on my fortieth transvaginal ultrasound.
I was having those procedures voluntarily, for something I desperately wanted. More importantly, having those procedures medically assisted that goal. If I had been required by a legislature, particularly a group of made up largely of men, to have one not because it would have assisted me in creating that child, but to make sure I understood what I was doing in making her, if they had mandated that something be inserted in my vagina for reasons other than my health whether I wanted it or not for information about the morality of my choice whether I felt I needed it or not ...then yes, I would call that rape.
This entry was originally posted at http://cereta.dreamwidth.org/965426.html. If you can, please speak there.
have spoken there.