CONTENT WARNING:
This page contains elements of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Sexualized. ✅ Traumatized. ✅ Sterilized. ✅
Bodily autonomy is a significant factor in trauma recovery. Just as I left one systemic power structure to finally breathe, the nation quickly reminded all people with the capacity for pregnancy there is no permanence in safety.
Throughout childhood my mom taught us daughters that our ability to breed is “the most important contribution a woman will ever make in this world.” And yet throughout my life, my dad verbally and physically abused women in the family – without accountability, without remorse, and without bastion from our mother, our church, our rural community and patriarchal society.
During my time in the military my body was sexualized, assaulted, weaponized, and disposed of like it was nothing. I was told my pain will never be worth more than a serial predator’s potential. Like I was nothing. He retired as an honorable sex offender with beaming approval from the U.S. Air Force, SECAF, CSAF, CMSAF, SAF/PA, and all his creep good ol’ boy wingmen.
This is MY body. This is MY choice. And I will NOT let fascist and sexist politicians (or their followers) dictate what my body will or will not do. When my consent does or does not matter. When my worth is or isn’t valued.
The South Carolina House, in a vote of 67-38, will not decide overnight that we are not equal. They will not erase transgender lives with an “aye” of a bill. They will not take away the right to privacy or the right to healthcare access because they feel inferior by the powerhouse that is our sheer existence. They will not force me to endure the oppression of an unwanted pregnancy, render me unable to terminate a fetus, and then spend the rest of their lives passing bills that make it impossible for majority of working families to have livable sustenance while refusing to tax the rich. Ode to America, the coward.
Today my OBGYN took out my fallopian tubes and I guess you can officially call me a righteously raging feminist for life. 🖕💕🖕
by Cambria Nesryn | 09.08.2022
#metoo #iamvanessaguillen #prochoice #proroe #sasurvivor #mst
Citations
I Am Vanessa Guillén Act brings ‘historic’ military reform as calls for justice persist, NBC News, Jan. 21, 2022.
IAmVanessaGuillen documentary explores the culture of toxicity at Fort Hood, NPR, Jul. 12, 2022.
Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus, Taylor & Francis Online, Sep. 26, 2019.
South Carolina House approves total abortion ban with exceptions, PBS, Aug. 30, 2022.
Victim Impact Statement, U.S. v Zier, Aug. 14, 2021.
Cambria Nesryn 