A Short Story
I was cleaning out a box of stuff from high school the other day, and I came across the following I had cut out of a magazine in 1986.
The year is 2010.
The President of the United States is a woman. The Supreme Court has eight women and one man. Ninety percent of the House and the Senate are women. Men make 59 cents for every $1 that a woman earns.
Men are getting angry. They want to be equal. We women feel that they are getting a bit out of hand. Looking back through history, we see that laws that control the human body are an effective means of oppression. We act.
The Supreme Court rules 8-1: Ejaculation without the express intent to create life is unconstitutional. The sperm contains half of the genetic material to create life. To ejaculate without intending to create life will be a felony and will carry harsh sentences.
The men in our country are in an uproar. Their cry is heard throughout the nation, "Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide!"
I'm not looking to start a debate on abortion, equality or women's rights...I was just intrigued by the fact that I had kept this piece of paper for so many years. What about it struck a cord with my 16 year-old self that I thought to cut it out and tuck it among pictures, poems and greeting cards that meant so much to me? Maybe I was holding onto it until 2010 with the hope that by then some of these 'predictions' might not seem so outrageous.
It seems as if we might be going backwards. Roe v Wade is, and I believe always will be, a hot button issue, always on the verge of being overturned. Women with the same experience still make less money than men doing the same job. When Justice O'Connor retires, there will only be one woman on the Supreme Court. And despite what some pundits say, and even if Hilary does run in 2008, we are decades, if not a lifetime, away from a female President.
When I was 16, I saw this story as hope of a possible future. Now I know it is nothing but a short piece of fiction.
The year is 2010.
The President of the United States is a woman. The Supreme Court has eight women and one man. Ninety percent of the House and the Senate are women. Men make 59 cents for every $1 that a woman earns.
Men are getting angry. They want to be equal. We women feel that they are getting a bit out of hand. Looking back through history, we see that laws that control the human body are an effective means of oppression. We act.
The Supreme Court rules 8-1: Ejaculation without the express intent to create life is unconstitutional. The sperm contains half of the genetic material to create life. To ejaculate without intending to create life will be a felony and will carry harsh sentences.
The men in our country are in an uproar. Their cry is heard throughout the nation, "Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide!"
I'm not looking to start a debate on abortion, equality or women's rights...I was just intrigued by the fact that I had kept this piece of paper for so many years. What about it struck a cord with my 16 year-old self that I thought to cut it out and tuck it among pictures, poems and greeting cards that meant so much to me? Maybe I was holding onto it until 2010 with the hope that by then some of these 'predictions' might not seem so outrageous.
It seems as if we might be going backwards. Roe v Wade is, and I believe always will be, a hot button issue, always on the verge of being overturned. Women with the same experience still make less money than men doing the same job. When Justice O'Connor retires, there will only be one woman on the Supreme Court. And despite what some pundits say, and even if Hilary does run in 2008, we are decades, if not a lifetime, away from a female President.
When I was 16, I saw this story as hope of a possible future. Now I know it is nothing but a short piece of fiction.
posted by kcterrilynn at 11:15 AM
2 Comments:
Your Supreme Court ruling is scaring me to death!
Robb-I can see why, with all of the lesbian comments on your Top 10 post today. :-)
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