169 Bodily Autonomy

This week we discuss bodily autonomy. Our culture shows us in many ways that we don’t have true control over our bodies, so it’s no wonder that we can’t imagine a culture based on affirmative consent when we’ve been taught since childhood that there are times our autonomy can be violated or ‘overruled.’

In This Episode

Bodily autonomy is something that we feel is often overlooked in so many ways in our culture. The public, of course, has a lot of discourse around abortion, and we’re starting to talk about rape and consent culture, but there are so many other ways in which our bodily autonomy is violated, especially as children. We thought it would be beneficial to tease out some of these more subtle topics to explore how we are taught that our bodies are not our own since birth, and how this relates to the way in which we deny animals their bodily autonomy as well. Topics discussed include:

* Prevalence of sexual assault

* Actors/actresses expected to do anything the director tells them; ex: Al Franken/Leann Tweeden situation

* Spanking or hitting children; assigning good/bad traits to their behavior

* Prisons

* Circumcision (description of foreskin here)

* Abortion debate

* How we “atta boy” men/boys who are sexually assaulted by women; ex: Katie Perry kissing 19 year old on American Idol, teachers who sleep with their students

* Vaccines, medication, birth control – it is difficult to make informed decisions about these things as they are pushed so hard with little to no information given by medical professionals, even upon request

* Organ donation – oddly, dead bodies seem to have more rights than those with female reproductive organs

In animals (particularly “pets” or companion animals):

* Spay/neuter

* Leashes, shock collars

* Restrict/control food

* Clip tails, balls, ears

* Restrict vocalizations

* Control play time, where to go when

* Control socialization and environment (leave home all day, tell to go lay down)

* Take away their family

* Breed without consent

Joke in the Middle

What kind of fungi loves hot goss (gossip)? (A Nichole Dinato original joke!)

Bitchy Shitshow Ranty-Recaps!

Nichole hilariously recaps the martial arts movie, The Protector

Links and Information

News

* Starbucks to Release Plant-Based Food Line This Year (VegNews)

* San Francisco Bans Fur Sales (VegNews)