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We haven't come all that far, baby
By Zoë Williams
williamz@mscd.edu

A friend’s recent pregnancy scare led me to stand at the local pharmacy to retrieve a home pregnancy test thanking the universe Planned Parenthood still exists. As I stepped up to the cash register, I was faced with a wall of fashion magazines and celebrity gossip. My eyes were privy to who was hot, who lost more than 25 pounds and what female celebrity was the heartbreaker this season. I read about a television show in which the female star is openly called ugly.

All this led me to think about women’s freedom in this country. There is talk of women holding a competitive place on the 2008 presidential ballot. Condoleeza Rice sits on the president’s cabinet. Oprah Winfrey rakes in millions every year with her enterprise based on being an older woman of color. Is this truly women’s liberation?

For as long as I can remember, the right to safe and legal abortion has been teetering on the brink of repeal by the Supreme Court. In the upcoming elections, Colorado does not have a pro-choice candidate for governor, which may jeopardize reproductive freedom in this state.

In the last decade, federal mandates have slashed funding to reproductive health organizations that offer abortion services. This has made the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy increasingly inaccessible to poor women. Accessibility to emergency contraception is considered a matter for legislative debate rather than personal choice.

Reproductive choice is a sign that women have control over their physical beings. It means women can choose when they will become sexually active and how they will protect and take care of themselves. It also means women can choose abortion, adoption or keeping the child safely, affordably and with medical support. This is a pillar of liberty for women.

As reproductive freedom was granted to women in this country, fashion models dropped to a weight 23 percent lower than the average woman. People who weigh more than “average” - specifically women - are less likely to be hired, promoted, receive equal pay and have a secure job. It is still legal for bosses to require female employees to wear makeup or revealing outfits in many cases. Courts have upheld that appearance can be held against women in legal cases regarding rape and sexual harassment in the workplace.

The fashion industry has long served as a mechanism to further belittle women in society. It reinforces women’s status as objects as well as creating an economic mandate for women to be beautiful in order to survive.

It is not deniable that women in this nation have freedoms incomparable to many. We are able to work, own property and divorce, among other things. Yet how many of these rights are superficial freedoms, when we are not at liberty to dress freely without harassment, make health choices for ourselves or simply exist in the bodies we were born in without discrimination?