The Best Of Shut Up And Listen Year 2--Column 73

Equality
For my daily intake of news, one of my sources if Talk Back Live on CNN. I usually watch the first ten minutes because that way I get the info on all the issues without having to hear someone make statements I already agree with and someone who is just a fucking moron. This week there seemed to be a recurring theme: mothers. A secondary theme in this was the father’s rights.
	Now before I get into this, I must say that I love women. I really do. They’re great. The people I love most in the world are women. The following is not a sexist column against women. No, it is meant to badmouth some women. Just like when I badmouth some men. When I call Bush a fucking moron, I’m not calling all men a fucking moron (or every Bush) so when I bash some women, it is meant to be directed at just women who share those opinions and no other women, okay?
	First, we’ll talk about Tanya Meyers from Ilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. See, Meyers is pregnant and wants to have an abortion as is her right, but the father of the child, John Stachokus doesn’t want her to abort the child as he would like to raise it and be a father. Do you see the dilemma? 
	She was still intent on having an abortion despite Stachokus’ objections, so Stachokus took her to court in an effort to save his baby. A judge granted a temporary restraining order that would prevent Meyers from getting an abortion until he could reach a decision. On Monday, another judge rescinded said order, thus allowing Meyers to go ahead with the abortion.
	The words “Roe v. Wade” were thrown around a lot, and so were other phrases like “a woman’s right to choose”, “her body” and “constitutional right.” Fuck those. Fuck them, I say.
	What about the father’s rights? Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, the father has no rights until the baby is born and then he is responsible for it. So he has no say until he’s forced to give money. Nice. Real fucking nice.
	I am going to speak out against a woman’s right to choose so far as including the father in the decision. It’s his kid too and he has just as much right to say whether or not it lives or dies before it’s born. I don’t care if it’s her body as that’s just the way things are. Yes, life’s a bitch like that, but for me, I’m going to try and side with life.
	What I’m talking about is that if the father wants to raise the child on his own, he should be able to. If the mother wants to raise the child on her own, she should. If they both want the thing aborted, then go for it. My point is that it’s both their kid and they both should have equal rights.
	Remember how in divorces it used to be standard practice for the kids to go to the mom? Do you know why that changed? Because firstly, it was discrimination based on a stereotype and secondly, it meant that a lot of kids were going to the worst of the two parents. 
	I hear all these things about the woman’s movement for equal rights and I agree, women deserve to be as equals to men and vice versa. The sad fact is that some women don’t want equality, they just want to take men down. And you know what? Some men deserve it. Some men are the most fucking despicable examples of our sex and deserve to be taken down a few pegs so that women can rise up a few.
	But not all men.
	No, because being sexist against men is just as wrong as being sexist against women. It’s the same thing. Sexism is sexism.
	But the only solution I can see besides people becoming tolerant and pulling their heads out of their asses is for medical science to find a way to transfer babies to their father’s body somewhere to be removed by c-section when the time for birth is at hand. See, once that happens there is no argument of a “woman’s right” or it being her body being “usurped by men.” No, then it’s the man having to carry around that child for eight months (because odds are, she’ll carry it for a few weeks to a month before they remove it).
	Because that seems to be the only way for men to be considered equals in parenthood, I am offering my body to be experimented on for this purpose. They can alter my body as much as necessary so that one day men will be considered equals in having babies (although then there’ll be bitching about no labour even though more and more women are having it removed via c-section so that there’s no surprise or anything like that).
	The other case of women’s rights as mothers came from Florida where before a single mom can put a baby up for adoption, she has to put her vitals in the paper. Stuff like what she looks like, what the father looks like and anything else that may be needed so that the father has enough info so he can contact the mother and get custody of the baby. This is so that there’s no court battle between the father and the adoptive parents if he finds out about the baby years down the road. But of course, this is seen by some to be an invasion of privacy. It is, but it’s also done for the good of the child and isn’t that a good enough cause? To avoid long court battles that don’t help anyone except the lawyers, so that the child can at least get his/her father’s medical history, and to give the father a chance to know his kid are good enough reason, don’t you think?
	Do you know what this law also does? It makes women who wouldn’t tell the father tell them just to avoid having the embarrassment of having all their personal details revealed to the public. Because that’s another thing some women do that’s just wrong when it comes to kids. This is of course, ignoring all the cases of rape, when the father just leaves or was abusive to her. I’m talking about where the mom just doesn’t like the father the way that people do when they break up.
	All I’m asking for is equal rights. I’d think women would be sympathetic to that cause.
	Note: if you thought the above was anti-women in general then you obviously didn’t read it and just imprinted your own message onto it, which isn’t my fault. 

Writer’s Commentary
I was discussing this yesterday with my friend Melissa. Then that episode of Roseanne was on where she’s pregnant and there might be something wrong with the baby, so her and Dan get in a fight about what they should do if there is something wrong (should she get it aborted?). So amazingly, this column is still relevant even in these modern times. Heh.
	I still stand by it, if you’re wondering. And no, it is not about controlling a woman’s body. It’s about equality. (Sorry if I repeat what’s said above.)
	I don’t believe in responsibility without rights. That sounds a lot like many of those old laws about women that stated they were only “persons” when they broke the law and at no other time. Again, I am very sorry that it’s women who have the babies. I can’t help that. And neither can most of the men around the world. Also, I’m sorry that men have been such assholes to women for thousands of years, and many still are. I can’t help that.
	But fuck, it is frustrating as hell to think that some day I might meet a girl, have sex, get her pregnant and then have no say over what happens to the baby until it’s born. That scares the shit out of me, okay? That’s what this column is about, I guess: me being scared shitless of something that may or may not happen.
	Someday, I’d really like to have a family. I want to have a wife and kids and all that shit. And dammit, I want to be a good father and be very involved in my kids’ lives. I think I’ll be a pretty good father (once I grow up a bit more, though, definitely), and I hate how because I’m a man I’m already seen as the secondary parent, in a way, you know? There a plenty of men out there who are great parents and some who are better than the child’s mother (yes, it is possible).
	That’s also what this column is about: an attempt to stop the stereotypes on men. Many deserve them, sure. I’ll admit that. A lot of guys are fucking jackasses who totally live up to all those negative stereotypes, but not all, and it’s not fair to judge a person as a potential parent just because he has a penis.
	Heh.
	Yes, we’ve reached the age of masculinism. That’s fucked up.