LMLD (5): Criticisms and Inclusion

 

I recognized that, as white women, my mom and grandma would not be in positions to adequately answer my question about inclusion. Still, I wanted to hear about the movement from their own observations. I asked:

Do you have criticisms for the current reproductive rights activism?

Christine: I don’t want to suggest that you guys are a complacent generation. I just think it’s a different position to be in. I would say that as a white women it’s really hard for me to understand-this gets back to white privilege-I don’t understand what it’s like to not to have the privilege I have with respect to reproductive rights but I would bet that there are women of color who may feel that they have not been at the table in the way that they should be. I think even if you look at the leadership of amazing organizations like Planned Parenthood-I want to be careful because we have some great leaders- I don’t know how representative it is of all women and I don’t know how much women of color feel like they are a part of the fight and whether they are in positions of influence.

 

Do you think the intersectionality of the movement has worsened or bettered over the generations? Remained stagnant?

Maria: I know that there has been a Black Women’s Health Network that came out of the South. I was on a project that dealt with reproductive rights internationally. I felt that the women were not heard being a party to that group of women. I felt that their particular issues were not being heard, that we have been dismissive of what they should have as their rights. You don’t travel 100 miles to go somewhere to have some kind of reproductive health care down South. We went to Malaysia to get to know the issues around the world and [the women associated with the Black Women’s Health Network] brought to the table this idea that the first way that change takes place is through awareness. To back up what Christine said before, your generation has given us hope. I get emotional over it-I feel that you’re starting another movement and that is wonderful. It’s very exciting for me especially at this age. I’m going to be hitting 78 in a few days and it is so encouraging to have your vitality, your energy. It’s like the Civil Rights movement, Gay Rights Movement, Women’s Rights Movement-you are starting it all again. I don’t know where we are going right now with congress, the supreme court, corporations, those are the power people.

Christine: You can probably look across time and look at access and who is disenfranchised by the laws and the changes and all that. If you look across the board and the organizations and entities that are leading (NARAL, Planned Parenthood, etc.), who’s in positions of power and leadership. Like what Maria was saying, there are parallel organizations to represent the voices of women of color, are those organizations still around? Are they integrated?

Maria: And how they are treated medically and you know. Women coming in equally and being treated differently in medical institutions.

Alex

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my grandma (orange shirt) with relatives in Greece. 

my grandma (purple shirt) with relatives in Greece. (1976)