|
 Peg's
Polemic
Every
month, philosopher Peg Tittle casts off the calm, measured and qualified
style of her profession to deliver her opinionated and impassioned
column, exclusively for the TPM philosophy café...
Number
28. Population
Growth (i.e., rape)
I
am amazed at the number of population growth analyses that don't
mention rape. So far I've read, let me see--none. And if
they don't even mention rape, they sure as hell can't consider it
a major causal factor. Call me crazy. Or call me a paranoid
man-hating victim-feminist who forgot to take her Prozac. But think
about it: Do you really believe that millions of women want
to be pregnant for five to ten years? Do you really believe that
most women would actually consent to child number four when
the other three are still under six?
And
look! The lower the status of women, the higher the birth rate.
Compare Bangladesh's birth rate of 3.7 with Sweden's 1.9. Gee. What
a coincidence! "Women of low status have less control over
their lives, including decisions involving their fertility"
(Diana M. Brown, "Population Growth and Human Rights"
in Humanist in Canada 30.1:29). Go ahead! Say it! They're
more likely to be raped! That's what they were bought for!
"Son
preference is strong when females are undervalued, so parents go
on increasing their family until they have the desired number of
sons" (Brown, as above). Parents? Don't go all gender-inclusive
on me now! Men are the ones with the obsession for
progeny, their progeny, male progeny.
And
also look! Iraq and Gaza top the chart with birth rates of 6.7 and
8.0 respectively. I wonder what the figures are for Bosnia, Croatia,
Serbia--I mean really, do you think that after a hard day of castrating
the enemy and raping its women, the Man of the House is going to
come home to bed and ask first? I don't think so. And don't
forget, this is war! We have to outnumber them! (Why
does the Pope come to mind just now?)
"We
know from research in many countries that if women were allowed
to choose for themselves and had unfettered access to suitable family
planning methods, fertility would be falling much faster than it
is" (Brown, as above). Go ahead, say it! The population growth
problem is due to men--who rape.
So
the solution is not female literacy or the availability of contraceptives.
Government intervention? Yes. But not for a one-child policy. Rather,
for an anti-rape policy, husbands included.
.
Peg's
Polemic will next be updated early May 2003
Previous
polemics
27.
26.
25.
24.
23.
22.
21.
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
|
