Women’s Reproductive Health and “Mental Health” Liberation
I attended a recent RC workshop on “mental health” liberation and led a topic group on women’s reproductive health and “mental health” liberation.
As part of male domination, males have had control of female reproductive systems. Women’s ability to carry, birth, and nurse children has been the pretext for women being oppressed in this way.
Our histories as women differ depending on our identities. For example, enslaved women were tortured by a man who is referred to as the father of modern gynecology. Native women have undergone forced sterilisations and had children taken away from them. Many women have not had access to safe abortions and reliable contraception.
Women have typically not been in charge of giving birth. Our mothers were probably not in control of our births. No wonder [it is no surprise that] many of us have restimulations about our reproductive system. When we show these restimulations, they are often labelled—for example, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)—and used to oppress us. Our physical symptoms are often dismissed because “women are emotional” or because there has not been enough medical research on female bodies.
Many of us have internalised shame about our bodies and bodily functions and what happens to our bodies at different stages of our female lives.
In the topic group, we each had a turn to discharge and then took turns thinking about what had gone well or what we wished had happened with our reproductive health.
London, England
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of women
(Present Time 206, January 2022)