Subscribe to RealityCast:
RealityCast iTunes subscription
RealityCast RSS feed
Links in this episode:
365 Days
Nixonland
Daniel Radosh
George Will thinks he's funny
Transcript:
This week on Reality Cast, we'll have an inteview with
Nixonland author Rick Perlstein. Also, a
segment on the right of doctors to refuse treatment, why George Will has no
empathy, and a review of anti-choice songs.
I promise the review will be more funny than painful
I'll admit; I'm fascinated by the Christian version of sex advice books. You know, the ones that are strictly for married couples. There's a recent one that sounds almost kind of nightmarish.
- insert 365 days
I'm honestly not surprised that a lot of evangelical couples find that it's hard to ignite the passion. It's too much pressure to be utterly celibate before marriage and then turn it up to 11 after the wedding. This immoderate solution will probably have the same problems. Meanwhile we heathens have perversely learned the value of moderation
***********
This segment demonstrates why I find religious arguments endlessly frustrating. Religion turns into this get out of jail free card that's denied to non-religious people in so many ways. Like the issue of refusing to give medical care to someone. Not that you find doctors doing something like refusing to treat prostate cancer in anti-choice men on the grounds that they should learn that gender is destiny, but if doctors are going to hide behind religion, I'd like to see other, more rational doctors have equal rights to just make up the rules as they go along themselves.
June 10th, on CNN, American Morning had their legal analyst Sunny Hostin on to talk about doctors refusing treatment to patients on bigoted, er, religious grounds.
- insert sunni
I don't know if it should be framed as a freedom of religion issue, because that calls into question how many other bigots out there can start claiming god told them to mistreat entire classes of people. Pharmacists are already hiding behind "freedom of religion" to deny basic services to people they have prejudices against. Sexually active women and gays are the two major classes of people that Jesus gives these pharmacists permission to hate, but what if some pharmacist has a revelation that, say, Jesus doesn't want him dispensing drugs to black people? There's a whole can of worms when you use freedom of religion as a cover for bigotry.
That said, I think doctors should have a general right to refuse patients, but should be obligated legally to disclose their prejudices up front. Doctors are special, because the service they provide is so personal that it's just important that the doctor is a good fit for the patient. If a doctor can't be fair to a patient, then it's in the patient's best interests that this be disclosed so she can go to a doctor that will fight for her.
- insert sunni 2
Good advice, but I think it should go a step further. Patients are often, and for good reasons, intimidated by doctors. Doctors should own the responsibility to inform the patients up front, perhaps in a sheet that you sign with all your other paperwork. Just something that says, "X, Y, and Z are things I won't do for you, so if that's what you need, go elsewhere." Interestingly, doctors who provide abortion are all up on this responsibility, really creating a model for other doctors. A lot of good abortion providers have counseling sessions ahead of time to outline what will and won't be happening in their care. That should be the industry standard, I think.
***********
- insert interview
************
Daniel Radosh, the author of "Rapture Ready" was recently on Reason TV talking about the weird world of Christian pop culture.
- insert Daniel radosh
Oh, I know all about fundie Christian pop culture, at least one area of it, which is the anti-choice industry. There's cartoons where fetuses loll around in over-sized uteruses that look like apartments. There's little necklaces shaped like tiny feet, and you can have tiny feet stamped on your checks so as better to terrorize hapless bank tellers with the knowledge that you oppose their basic human rights, at least if they're female.
But one thing that never stops puzzling me is the huge numbers of maudlin songs about how terrible abortion is. I've played a couple on this show before. I played a country western song last week about the Colorado ballot initiative to define fertilized eggs as persons. But I've never done an overview. And now, without further ado, I shall.
The first category, and possibly my favorite, are the songs sung from the perspective of the fetuses themselves. Like this one called "Deliver Me" by Marie Morrison.
- insert deliver me
This pretty much hits all the themes. First of all, it's imperative that the talking fetus be male. If there's singing fetuses out there that are female, I haven't heard any of them. I'm not doubting that there's one or two, but the main thing here is that by pretending to be the fetus itself, a man takes on this authority to berate women and tell them what to do that's kind of unseemly otherwise.
The singing male fetus genre hit new heights when Nick Cannon released a song a few years ago called "Can I Live" that was all up on the Total Request Live hit parade.
- insert can I live?
The video is from "Can I Ball" productions. He also has a song called "Dime Piece" where a variety of women are sized up as "potential stalker", "old school freak", "emotionally unstable", and in a great act of hypocrisy, one is blown off for having "too many baby daddys". Luckily, there are no singing fetuses in that, because who knows what things they'd say.
Another category of anti-choice song writing is similar in the sense that it's still about being self-absorbed, and of course treats women like second class people. These are songs that flatter the listener by telling them they're a unique snowflake, and suggest that abortion rights are a direct assault on that.
"One In A Billion Choices" by Lawrence and Diane Marie Leach fits this bill.
- insert one in a billion
You can guess what the lord is going to say, since the lord says whatever the songwriters want him to say.
And of course the genre of anti-choice songs would be incomplete without Christian heavy metal. Oh yeah, Satan's music brought to bear for the lord's work in oppressing women. Here's Holy Solider, singing as the fetus of course, in their song "See No Evil".
- insert see no evil
Usually the lyric, "Mother, I'm coming soon," means something entirely different in heavy metal songs.
If you come across anti-choice songs that make you scream for mercy because of the suckitude, please email them to me at amanda dot Marcotte at gmail dot com.
***************
And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, George Will edition.
- insert george will *
First of all, Obama's comment was made in reference to sex education, not abortion. But the general point is the same, I'll grant you.
What I don't get is why these men think it's so ridiculous for women to think that being punished with a baby should be a bad thing. What part is foolish? The part where we don't think babies should be punishment? The part where we think that babies should be wanted and a joy? The part where we think that it's unfair to be punished for sex while men get off scot-free? I'm thinking that's the part Chris Matthews and George Will think is so hilarious. Those silly ladies and their belief that they should have the same rights as men to own their own bodies and sexuality.
