On Friday, staff columnist Nicky Vaught wrote about the Genocide Awareness Project, a display brought to college campuses across the country intended to provoke discussion about the morality of abortion, while utilizing violent imagery of supposed actual abortions juxtaposed with images of recognized genocides, such as the Holocaust and Rwandan clash between the Hutus and Tutsis. The display was met with a considerable amount of backlash, including a counter-protest staged in front of the display, with students from all walks of life and various segments of the political spectrum ensuring a presence against such triggering photographs was established.
You, as a reader, may believe this topic has been rehashed enough, and wonder why I would bother to write yet another piece about something the student body collectively would like to move forward from. By and large, Vaught’s column articulated many of the sentiments of the counter-protestors.
However, I found one paragraph alarming enough to merit a follow-up column: “Some may wonder why I, a man, am writing this column. Shouldn’t it be a woman? Yes, it should. But when dealing with anti-abortion rights, it’s not uncommon that a woman’s point of view might go dismissed. This was exemplified Wednesday when one of the demonstrators walked away from my female friend mid-conversation, saying to a female demonstrator, ‘You deal with her.’ So take this as me utilizing my privileged voice as a white male for the greater good.”
Vaught is completely right in saying that a woman’s point of view is often overlooked, if not outright dismissed, but acknowledging a woman should be writing a column, then going forward with writing one in her place, under a banner of misguided feminism “for the greater good” is just as harmful.
I don’t think Vaught intended for his column to be seen as derogatory to the very components of women’s rights activism he is supporting—especially the pro-choice cause, which centers around the idea that no person, male or female, can make a decision for a woman about her body. But it is important to recognize and acknowledge when missteps occur, and remember to cede the bulk of the conversation to directly affected parties when the time calls for it. I can’t claim to speak for feminism about the whole, or the pro-choice cause, or even the entirety of the counter-protest. I can, however, as a woman, speak up for the way the conversation should be swaying. Vaught is correct—there is a war on women, and apathy is not allowed and should not be tolerated. We just have to make sure women are given the loudest voice. That doesn’t mean men shouldn’t be involved in the conversation. Many men stood with us in counter-protest last week on the Brickyard, first and foremost to express distaste for the methodology of the GAP display—the primary goal of the counter-protest. Close behind was support for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, a life experience men will biologically never have. It is simply important for men to recognize their own privilege within society, including having greater opportunity to have their voices heard, and hand the microphone over to women, so to speak.
At the end of the day, it is going to fall on all of us—women and men, as voters—to ensure that reproductive rights remain a priority in this country, and abortion remains safe and legal in the United States. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in North Carolina, recent legislation has placed restriction on women seeking abortions including, “A woman must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.” These kinds of laws, intended to scare women and shame them into choosing differently, are simply not okay. As a voting public, we must remain vigilant of and engaged in the political process, while allowing women, those directly affected by abortion laws, to take center stage in the discussion.
Send your thoughts to Justine at [email protected].
