Why do we alienate women?

Why do we alienate women?

 Why has it taken the publication and publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS)to make women feel loved, free and expressed? Why is it that society holds such high, grotesque and unachievable standards for women? Society is more likely to pick apart women and shame them rather than build them up. In Japan (as chapter six of OBOS describes) OBOS was difficult to translate because their language does not encompass positive connotations around women's bodies - or really any available words to describe the female body. Not allowing women to describe their experiences, or even questions regarding their own bodies is an alienating factor that contributes to a war on women and their bodies.

While positive movements are being made regarding body positivity, the issue of avoiding and isolating women's issues as a whole is still prominent. Sex for women vs. men is an obvious double standard, starting from social norms and sex education classes where girls are taught to save themselves or be casted as a whore - whereas men are applauded and awarded for their lack of virginity/ high body count.

Women are taught that they are made to please men (in and out of the bedroom), women don’t orgasm or direct their partners because they fear they will turn their partner off by their wants. Women are afraid to ask or demand orgasms and there's apprehension when telling their partners. Men don't know anything about women's bodies in any fragmentation. Whether it be about periods, fertitilty, cilterous, breasts or female orgasms. Straight men should be called on to know their partners bodies, and women should expect orgamsms from their partners and not feel like a chore.

Enjoyable sex is not dictated only for men - excluding women from their right to enjoy their sexual experience is awarding ignorant men.

It is even proven from the medical perspective that male doctors do not treat women patients with the same accuracy as female doctors would with their female patients. Medicine should not be gendered nor favor a certain gender yet this systematic male concentrated health sector values womens health as a niche rather than of equal importance.

Males are more likely to recieve the priviledge of an education and therefore have a higher chance of going to college and becoming doctors - because the specialist often are educated on topics that relate to them, more male doctors leads to a larger gap for women seeking health care. If men more affectively treat men compared to women then women have a higher chance of not getting the health care they need. Lack of education on womens bodies and functions isn’t adequate anymore. Generalizing the female body as simular to males is inaccurate and is ruining medicine. women and men need accurate education and understanding of human bodies. This is forbidding progression in medicine, and creating a definite line that womens health is not as important as mens.

Throughout time women have continued to suffer with the discrepencies that seperate men and women. While women are made to feel ashamed of their bodies and their natural processes, men are embraced for their simpilities. 

The fact that OBOS has changed the lives of women around the world for the better is phenominal and this progression is noticed, but the issue is that women have to read a book to gain knowledge about their own bodies and have to use this reading to feel comfortable and empowered. Why are we not treating women as though they belong? Women throughout time have been known to be the heart of a household and communities - proven leaders and supporters of society. Yet society continues to punish and segreate women with inadequate sexual understandings, behavior and medical practices. Demanding women recieve the same amount of care and attention as men isn’t liberal or "too sensitive" - it’s acknowledging basic rights and that women deserve the priviledge their counterparts get.

Works Citied

Davis, Kathy. “Our Bodies Ourselves.” Our Bodies Ourselves, www.ourbodiesourselves.org/.

Vagianos, Alanna. “Amy Schumer To Women Everywhere: 'You're Entitled To Orgasm'.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/07/amy-schumer-entitled-to-orgasm_n_7743282.html.

Yong, Ed. “Women More Likely to Survive Heart Attacks If Treated by Female Doctors.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Aug. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/women-more-likely-to-survive-heart-attacks-if-treated-by-female-doctors/566837/?utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_term=2018-08-06T19%3A00%3A08&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=the-atlantic.