Well, it’s about time – Texas legislator Jessica Farrar has finally introduced a bill supporting gender equality.
If the bill passes – remember of the legendary snowball in hell? – the new law would require any man seeking a vasectomy to have a rectal examination, attend an anti-vasectomy course, and submit to a 24-hour cooling-off period.
In other words, men wishing to affect their reproductive capabilities would have to undergo the same kinds of restrictions as women do in Texas. And in another 42 states.
It seems only fair, doesn’t it?
The bill was introduced to the Texas House of Representatives by a woman. No doubt a few men will protest that a woman has no right to dictate male sexuality. But gee whiz, wasn’t it males who legislated female sexuality?
Mirror image
Farrar’s bill is, in fact, a mirror image of Texas’ laws restricting abortion. It applies the same provisions to men as already apply to women – allowing for anatomical differences, of course.
For example, it would require the Department of State Health Services to produce and distribute informational materials that match A Woman's Right to Know, the state-mandated booklet for pregnant women.
Farrar admits the bill has no chance of becoming law. She admits that she introduced the bill as a satirical version of the Texas law, passed in 2011, that requires women to have a sonogram and hear a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion.
Her wording takes pro-life claims about the sanctity of life seriously.
And so it institutes a fine for masturbation. Men who masturbate are wasting sperm that could start a human life. For that offence, they would be fined $100. Masturbation would "be considered an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life."
Men caught masturbating would be registered on a "Hospital Masturbatory Assistance Registry” so that hospitals and other social organizations could "provide abstinence encouragement counseling."
Men wanting to purchase Viagra or Cialis prescriptions would also be required to undergo “a medically unnecessary digital rectal examination” – presumably to ensure that they were in their right mind – and they’d have to endure a 24-hour waiting period before getting to use their prescription.
The bill would also provide legal protection for any doctors or healthcare professionals who refuse to perform a vasectomy, to prescribe Viagra, or to perform a colonoscopy "due to their personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs."
Satire ain’t always funny
Farrar described her own intentions on her Facebook page last Saturday: "Although HB 4260 is satirical, there is nothing funny about current healthcare restrictions for women... Women are not laughing at state-imposed regulations and obstacles that interfere with their ability to legally access safe healthcare, and subject them to fake science and medically unnecessary procedures. Texans deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect when making healthcare decisions, regardless of their gender."
Women have made huge gains in the last century or so. Worldwide, most women now have the right to vote (although Saudi Arabia didn’t allow women to vote until two years ago).
Most countries now have some kind of equal pay rules. But often they apply only to selected jurisdictions, such as federal employees. Canadian women currently average $0.82 to every $1 earned by men.
Iceland recently became the first country in the world to mandate equal pay across the spectrum – in both public and private businesses -- “regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or nationality.”
Systemic inequities
Many men will protest that women have long received benefits that can’t be measured financially. Men get killed to protect their women and children, hold doors open, and bring home paycheques. Some men will insist that women receive preferential treatment in law courts.
Maybe so. Except in matters related to sex, where men continue to believe that they have a right to define what women may, or may not, do with their bodies.
In much of the world, young girls are still married off against their will to older men; boys are rarely forced into marriage with older women.
Circumcision does not diminish male sexual satisfaction; female genital mutilation does.
In parts of North Africa, one in seven women died in childbirth; not one male did.
Recently, a Calgary judge was forced to resign after asking a rape victim, “Why didn’t you just keep your knees together?” He did not ask the accused, “Why didn’t you just keep your fly zipped up?”
Jessica Farrar’s bill won’t cure any of those continuing inequities. But at least it draws attention to the fact that they still exist.
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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
The responses to last week’s column tended to focus on either the automation, or the financial implications.
On the minimum income aspect, Rob Dummermuth wrote, “A few years back now the Australian Federal Government used a similar exercise and averted the worst impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Australian economy. It does work.”
Bob Rollwagen wrote, “The challenge is how to get resource value spread fairly across the whole population fairly. The most recent historic swing from top-level greed to fair distribution started in the 1950s. That ended with the millennium… Wealth managers are working hard to take an unreasonable share … History seems to illustrate that when the flow from resource value gets restricted by managers, government becomes unstable and the populace revolts. Revolt once was by war. A century ago it was by unionization. I am not sure how it will reveal itself this time, but like climate change, we are seeing early warning signs.”
Cliff Boldt offered a cautionary note: “Don't expect something like Mincome from our ‘Sunny Ways’ Prime Minister. Like electoral reform, it might work against those who keep him in power.”
On the impact of automation, Steve Roney commented, “Conventional wisdom says you are right: automation is going to kill a lot of jobs. Notably, the single most common job in both the U.S. and Canada is truck driver. And now we have autonomous trucks.
“You might have mentioned that it is not just manual jobs that are now under threat. White collar trades are also technically obsolete. AI can diagnose faster and more accurately than a human doctor. A decent search function can take over about 90% of legal work.
“I am still hopeful that this prediction is wrong. After all, the effect of the last big industrial revolution was to create more, not fewer jobs.
“You lament that robots do not pay taxes. I don’t see that as a major concern. One can simply adjust the tax system to get its revenue from sales tax or VAT. Or capital gains.”
.
Tom Watson noted the further spread of automation: “Just recently, I saw videos of the following:
• Robots serving food at a restaurant in Japan.
• Robots making pizza in Los Angeles.
• Robots flipping hamburgers in a fast food place in the U.S.
• Robotic machines planting rice in Japan.
• Giant robotic machinery laying and picking up those huge cement barricades used in road construction.”
John J. Shaffer recalled, “In 1957 I worked for two weeks in a Ford factory. While working on an assembly line, I was working in the shadow of a machine being installed to take my place. It cost one million dollars.”
Robert Caughell looked at my list of jobs eliminated by modern appliances, and noted, “You still need someone to run vacuum systems, load clothes/detergent, etc., into and run the washing machine/dryer, prepare/cook food, until you have places that clean themselves, robots to wash/dry clothes, food replicators, as in Star Trek.”
JT note: Yes, but those appliances take far few “someones” than doing all those jobs manually.
In second email, Robert continued, “The biggest worry for many people is whether machines will one day become more intelligent than us? Are we advancing technology faster before we have laws in place to handle the moral/ethical results? Have you heard of Isaac Asimov's ‘Three Rules of Robotics’ proposed to protect us from robots running amok?”
Now, on to other subjects.
Peter Scott wrote about the column two weeks ago on immigrants, “Thanks for the nudge, Jim. Your immigration column reminded me the kind of country I want to live in so I contacted Joan Jarvis, the Social Justice staff person in the Manitoba and North Western Ontario Conference of the United Church of Canada and asked how people in Ontario could help the people of Manitoba receive refugees fleeing from the United States of Donald Trump. She sent a prompt and very helpful reply in which she emphasized the need for financial support of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council to which refugees fleeing the United States are being referred for support and integration into Canadian society.
“I took Joan's letter and information to a meeting of the refugee committee of our local congregation. The result, I hope, will be some financial support for the good work being done in Manitoba. All this because of your column.”
Heather Richard was “saddened to read Irene Wilson's response to your article ‘Walk-In Immigrants’. It's so full of what I think of as ‘trump-isms’. The phrase ‘these people’ -- separating the good ‘us’ from the bad ‘them’.
“And who says they're ‘hiding’ anything?
“And while I agree that radical Islamists are not compassionate, neither are radical Christians, or radical atheists. Do we deny entry to Canada to everyone on the basis that they might be a terrorist?
“I don't know what articles Ms Wilson read about Muslims, but it's been shown time and again that Islam, in its purist form, is one of the most tolerant and accepting religions.
“Oh, and I hope ‘our race’ was just a misstatement, because Christians and Muslims are NOT separate races. That kind of thinking leads to more ‘us versus them’ attitudes -- not what Canada, or our world in general, needs.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net