Healthcare Reform

I apologize for my recent absenteeism. It is likely to continue for the next couple of weeks because I have a lot of thesising to do! My entire rough draft is due a week from today, a final will be due to my committee about a week after that, and in 4-5 weeks I should be defending. So if you don't hear from me before then, that is why.

I have been wanting to write about my familial struggles regarding health care reform, but I had been concentrating my energy and efforts into writing out letters and compiling documents into a simple statement about my feelings regarding health care. These packets are intended for my family, who over Grandma's birthday dinner at Ye Olde Outback Steakhouse, attacked the prospects of health care reform. Not only that, but this conversation evolved into an asinine detour regarding Obama's nation of birth.

So I will make a mini-statement here about my feelings about health care reform. I am fairly happy with the developments that have been made because they are a step in the right direction. Anyone expecting anything more radical at this juncture needs to wake up and smell the coffee (or the coffin placed on a democratic delegate's front lawn as a protest to their support of the bill). If I have learned anything from the women involved in environmental work I interviewed for my thesis, I have learned that baby steps are a necessity for any change. That being said, I applaud the passing of the health care bill, despite its flaws and despite the little matter that Representative Stupak contributed (in a nutshell, no federal funding for abortion proceedures). I only wish that this bill would have been passed years ago, when I was a college graduate under the age of 26 with no health insurance. I am very happy for those who will be able to now stay on their parents' health insurance plans until the age of 26.

What upsets me most of all about this whole debacle is how worked up, angry and violent the opposition is becoming. And I'm not necessarily referring to all this "isolated incident" talk, but rather to the reaction of my family to this whole thing. I fervently defend my political beliefs, but as a rule, I try not to bring up politics around my family, especially my extended family. Now under the Bush regime, everyone in my family was happy, I maintained my political silence around them, and for the most part, peace abounded in their lives, while I privately battled the demons of the Bush administration. But now that things are not going their way for the first time in 8 years, everyone seems to be involved in the political arena, and everyone in my family seems to have been informed by Glenn Beck. In my defense, they are the ones who have been bringing up the subject of health care reform, and I am the one voice of opposition (reason?) in their lives. Maybe it is something I need to work on, but I simply cannot maintain silence when my grandmother looks at me and tells me she is scared for what this health care reform is going to do to the elderly and this country in general. I had never, ever heard my grandma talk politics or about the government. Wanting to share with her that I don't think she should be scared, and that health care reform can be a great thing for many people including myself, I told her that I was excited for a change in a clearly broken health care system. What followed was a hodgepodge of "Where's the birth certificate?" and "This country was founded on freedom and we are losing that," among other questions and comments. Coming at me from all sides at the family-style seating, I can no longer even distinguish who said what or who attacked whom. I do know that something changed that night involving our family dynamics. I also know that I lost sleep and sanity as a result of the hubbub.

Several hours later, I suffered from another episode of an "opthalmic migraine." I put this in quotations because I am still not 100% certain that is what it is, but basically I get stroke symptoms, my vision goes haywire and my extremities and lips go numb for a short period of time. I get confused and have trouble reading, writing, and remembering. It is a scary thing to go through, and there really isn't much I can do besides ride out the 1-2 hour happening. I don't know what set it off, and it is still not even widely understood in the medical community. But I feel that maybe, just maybe, the stress about this whole health care thing has contributed to my recent episode. Due to health care reform debates, I must seek health care.

So if you see me within the next couple of weeks/months, we can talk about anything. But please lets not talk about health care reform, ok?

Update: Found this interesting...from http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/mlm/healthscatter2.png

Day-O!

I have had a really bad past couple of days. Maybe you have felt the same way lately. Maybe this will cheer you up like it did for me, if you have the same nostaglia for Beetlejuice and love for Catherine O'Hara as I do.


And here's another great music moment from The Royal Tenebaums that's lovely.



That is all.

Chat Roulette

So you have probably heard of or even tried Chat Roulette by now. I assume you have heard of it, because every journalist in the world on every media outlet has covered it. In case you haven't heard of it, or even if you have, check out the following clip about it from Ben Hoffman of Infomania on Current TV. (In case you haven't noticed, I think CurrentTV is the bees knees!) Chat roulette is basically a chat site using a webcam that allows you to connect with, talk to, and look at a random stranger.

I tried Chat Roulette once, and it was obviously creepy. But not necessarily because not one of the people on the other end was female, or because there was some serious groin-groping going on. I just kind of sat there, looking bored, "nexting" each person because: A)I don't have anything to say to an anonymous stranger, and B)I didn't really want them to look at me. I have a certain voyeuristic side to me, I'll admit. But the exhibitionist side, not so well developed. Are the two diametrically opposed? I wonder how many people trying chat roulette are voyeurs and how many are exhibitionists. To be honest, most of them just seemed bored.

But to comment on the penis-action I saw that fateful afternoon...Why is it that the first thing people think of when they get their hands on new technology is to turn it into something sexual? When I was introduced to chat roulette via several reports on TV, it was immediately posited as a sexually deviant place. If someone had told me about the idea of chat roulette without mentioning any connection with sexuality, would I immediately have thought of the sexual angle people would play with it? Probably.

Oh the things humanity will do under the veil of anonymity... Until someone they know recognizes the identifying birthmark of a loved one's hand as he "anonymously" masturbates to strangers over the internet.

To close this discussion, here is a clip of chat roulette in action in a way that is creative, not creepy. There is an f-bomb in there, so don't watch it on high volume with your grandma or anything.

Empowerment

As you may know, my thesis is about women involved in environmentally-related organizations on the US-Mexico border. In my thesis I investigate whether or not women are becoming empowered as a result of this activism. Of those women who consider themselves empowered, I want to know if they consider themselves feminists or if they are participating in any kind of activities that seek to improve the lives of women in their community, even if they don't embrace the term "feminist."

One of the biggest challenges has been the use of language. First of all, the term "empowered" is not literally translatable into Spanish. I asked one bilingual informant who was born in Mexico and went to grad school in Great Britain if they have a term that encompasses this, if the literal translation "empoderad@" works. She told me that she would know what I meant by that term, but I have a feeling it would require an understanding of English, Spanish and the idea of empowerment in the first place in order to embrace this term.

Another challenge with language is how to define the term empowerment, even in English. Trying to find a consensus of empowerment in the academic literature is understandably hard. But I have trouble, even in casual conversation, describing what exactly empowerment is. It might be the ability to control your own life and have equal control over resources despite class, race, sex, sexuality, ethnicity... For some people, it could mean obtaining knowledge. Some may think an empowered woman is an unmarried woman because she does not rely on, or have to compromise with a partner. It varies with each individual, and I don't think it can be quantified by comparing a list of traits (i.e. person A is more empowered than person B because she exhibits more of these traits).

My own personal empowerment is not something I was born with. I didn't achieve it in high school or even early on in my undergraduate experience when I studied abroad for the first time or took my first women's studies class. It didn't even come as a result of my chainsaw-wielding experience in the deserts of New Mexico (ok, maybe just a little. I miss those chainsaw muscles). It has been a slow process, for which I don't think I could pinpoint the exact milestones of empowerment achievement. (So how do I expect my interviewees to do the same?). I do know that one aspect of my empowerment was achieved this quarter, and it has nothing to do with my academic achievements per se.

I have been taking the Women's and Gender Studies capstone course this quarter. It was my final official class of graduate school. It has been quite a departure from the gender and development courses I have taken up to this point. My previous classes have had a strong focus on the theory and literature. We would spend most of our time talking about (sometimes) abstract concepts as applied to the readings, and it felt a little detached from reality. Other students in the course would complain that talking all of this theory did not help when it came to the real world and how they would bring empowerment through their actual development work. It did not feel necessarily practical. This quarter, although the readings have been intense, the class discussion has been heavily based on personal experience. We would read about "hegemonic masculinities" and "heteronormativity in schools," for example, and then we would talk about our experiences in high school and beyond. How do you see hegemonic masculinities in your own lives? Several (many?) students in this class complained that we did not focus enough on the theory. I understand their complaints, but coming from a history of classes that went overboard on theory, it was a welcome change. It is expressly because of the emphasis on personal experience in the class that I personally felt empowered. Empowerment, to me, is feeling that your own experiences matter and are relevant to the things you dedicate your life to studying. I have spent 2 years taking classes like global feminisms where the focus is primarily on women from other nations (read: developing world, global south, etc.) and their experiences. I feel that women from other countries and their experiences were favored in this class, while the only thing I could offer were second-hand accounts of my experiences in other countries. No one ever really asked me how my life related to any of the readings. I felt distant and removed from the subject matter a lot of the time, and that shouldn't be, because I AM a global feminist!

It was nice to have a class where I could finally relate the readings and subject matter to my own life. It gave me a new perspective on things and made me feel that my experience counted for something. I was disappointed on the last day of class when our discussion mostly centered around negativity. Some students felt the class was too western-centered and that it was not theoretical enough. Once again, I understand their complaints because I have felt the same way but on the other side of the spectrum. It is sad that not everyone could take away the same empowering experience from that class as I did. Though I suppose they may have felt empowered through their participation in classes like global feminisms. The only thing is, at the end of the quarter in global feminisms, we didn't have such a discussion.

It is my hope that everyone doing research in a realm that may seem miles away from their own reality can step out of the intellectual side of big theoretical terms, just every once and a while, and see that their personal experience is important, too.

Alice in Wonderland- A minute Review

I submitted this clip for consideration for the Current TV show, Rotten Tomatoes.



Here is a clip from Jan Svankmajer's version:

In addition to this short video, I have plenty to say about the movie. I wanted it to be incredible since I am such a fan of Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, I'm more of a fan of American McGee's video game version of Alice in Wonderland that Tim Burton's highly anticipated film. I wanted it to be darker and more sinister. Although the insanity angle is played more thoroughly in Tim Burton's new movie than Dinsey's cartoon version, I still could have used more insanity. The acting was so exaggerated it drove me crazy. Anne Hathaway's character, the White Queen, is always talking in the delicate whisper of a Disney princess, and always waving her hands back and forth whimsically. It was distracting to the point that I was hyper-aware of Hathaway's presence as an actress, and I didn't lose myself in the fantasy of Underland or any of its characters. Helena Bonham Carter (as the Red Queen) was by far the most enchanting part of the film, and I was relieved for her contribution whenever she came into a scene.

My disappointment may have partially come from the fact that I was in the fourth row at an IMAX theater, and my eyes and brain were fried after the 2 hour 3-D joyride. But I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time, and was heartbroken to be let down by Mr. Burton's rendition.

"Too Posh to Push"

Before I let too much time come between now and this year's Ohio Latinamericanist Conference, I wanted to write a little about it.

By far my favorite presentation was Jill's presentation during the "Empowering Women through Change" panel (avec moi) entitled "The Rising Rate of Cesarean Birth in Brazil." I never thought I would be interested in any discourse about pregnancy or birth, but I became fascinated. The presentation was so informative and inspiring in fact, that I offered to present the information in my Women's Studies capstone class this week, as it is relevant to the topic we are covering right now which is "Maternal and Permeable Bodies." (That presentation never came to fruition, but I was totally willing!) Because I don't have any of the information in front of me, I will not explore this topic in as much depth as Jill did. I will simply touch upon the main points I remember. Some of the reflective points will be my own, but most of the information I am paraphrasing from Jill's research. She's the brains of this operation.

I want to make a disclaimer here: I am not demonizing or blaming women who do have C-Sections. This procedure exists for a reason, and I know several women in my own life who have had to deliver in this fashion. I want to explore here how c-sections are resorted to for reasons that have nothing to do with preserving the health of the mother and child.

C-section rates are rising in many places all over the world, but in Brazil the figures are unprecedented. Here you can see the rates represented all over the globe, up to 80% in private clinics in Brazil. Already, Jill's audience was engaged and gasping at the statistics.


So why are women going through a more invasive procedure during childbirth, electing to be cut open and have a higher risk of infant mortality and secondary infection in the mother? Granted, there are legitimate reasons that lead to cesarean section births. But the line of necessity often begins to blur, especially in a country where 80% of private clinic births are c-section births.

1. Pregnancy as Sickness- Pregnancy is often seen as a malady, and not associated with a very normal and natural part of the life of many women. Thus, removing a fetus like a cancer, that is with scalpel and sponge, may seem like a natural medical procedure.

2. Doctor/Patient Disconnect- Doctors are often guilty of thinking that their patients do not understand the medical procedure or terminology they are using. This is not necessarily a myth, as many people clearly are not familiar with complex medical terminology. However, this is an opportunity for the doctor to explain his or her way through the procedure and complexities, rather than just leave the patient in the dark because they “couldn’t possibly understand.”

3. The Marvels of Modern Medicine- We still live in a world of positivism. Science seems to trump all knowledge, and anything involving modern technology is said to "revolutionize" just about everything. Juxtapose shiny, sterile medical instruments with a woman grunting and pushing a being through the holiest of holy orifices, and we can start to get a picture of how the modern way is seen to be more medical, scientific and modern. An audience member shared that when she had her child through vaginal birth in the US, her friend had recently given birth in Chile via C-section. When said audience member admitted to delivering "traditionally," her friend replied, "like an Indian?" This shows that vaginal birth is even racialized.

4. Too Posh to Push- Victoria Beckham had a C-section, so did Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera and Claudia Schiffer. It is more expensive and thus it is a kind of status symbol. Classism is thus at play along with racism. (Update: At least Kourtney Kardashian did it this way!)

5. The Virgin and the Whore- Straight up, in layman’s terms, women want a tight vagina. Or rather, men want women to have a tight vagina. Vaginal birth clearly messes with this. But you can stay good and tight for your man. Your sacrifice is an incision just below the bikini line (which can often be small or later corrected with plastic surgery).

6. Health Insurance- Of course we cannot talk about any problems in the world of medicine without revealing the seedy underbelly that is health insurance. Jill shared that in Appalachia women who have one c-section are required to give birth through c-section every time after that in order to have it covered by health insurance.

I could go on forever, but I will stop there and I hope I have convinced you of some of the underlying reasons that many women go under the knife unnecessarily during childbirth.