Dear Brockport and Novgorod Class Members,
Thanks so much for everyone's patience with our technology glitches on Tuesday. I am so sorry that it took a bit of time to connect but so glad that we stuck with it so we could see and talk with everyone class-to-class. There is, I think, a good lesson here, that, faced with obstacles, good-will, innovation, and strategy prevail.
As follow up to our discussion on abortion, sex education, and gender violence, I want to pose a few questions on behalf of our class members about reproductive health, contraception, sex education, and gender violence as we understand this in America and Russia. Please reply to whatever question or questions resonate most with your thinking. Please don't feel obligated to answer all questions.
1.
In the US, under the current presidential administration, women
across the US are living in fear that Roe v. Wade (the 1973 court ruling that
gives women the right to a safe, legal abortion) will be overturned. In Russia,
do you feel that the right to a legal abortion can one day be repealed? Or is
this not even a concern? Related, what is common consensus on abortion in Russia? Are most
people for it or against it?
2. Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex
relationships?
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy
in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
4. In the US and Russia, if
you desire birth control ranging from condoms to
emergency contraceptives, do you have reasonable access to them? Would you
feel comfortable seeking these out or would you feel that there is social
stigmas and judgement that may steer you away from them?
5. What
are the options for birth control in Russia for children under the age of 18? Can
children get birth control without the consent of their parents? In the US and Russia, do you think parental consent is important?
6. Grace and Tyler in our Brockport class mentioned this video to me as follow up to Kirill's question about feminists in Russia poring bleach on white males
while riding on a subway if the males were “manspreading.” Here is one video link about this that Grace shared:
I wrote to Grace that I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. The radical feminist act in support of women's equality and against male dominance and taking up space is courageous. So my initial reaction is a bit of awe. And also gratitude. Which I feel in solidarity for anyone who fights the fight in such a way. But inverting a power structure never works. So bad behavior never corrects bad behavior. And the bleach is a bit violent I think. And I am against any form of violence directed at others. Perhaps some of the manspread is aggressive and could become violent. But it also is sociocultural. So it is learned behavior that may at times be unconscious vs intentional. Not any less offensive or harmful or excused, but context is everything. Importantly, what do US and Russian students think about this?
7. How does the Russian government at state or federal
levels view gender-based crimes? What about in the US? Think about the Brock Turner case here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/brock-turner-appeal.html
For additional information about reproductive health and justice concerns in the US and global portraits, see the Guttmacher Institute: https://www.guttmacher.org/
Also interesting to this topic is recent news from Ireland https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/27/ireland-to-start-abortion-law-reform-after-historic-voteAnd from Poland: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/europe/poland-abortion-women-protest.html
Thanks in advance for all your good-thinking here.
Peace and Da sveedaneya
Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it's fair that women are primarily in charge of taking birth control or getting an implant, or other methods to prevent pregnancy, but other than condoms, I don't know of any other preventative measures available or created for men. The part that I have an issue with isn't necessarily that as women we have to take measures to prevent pregnancy, but that it isn't socially acceptable to talk about said measures. If a woman is on birth control and chooses to take her pill in the evening, she must hide the pills in her purse and find a time to take it where it isn't obvious what she's doing when around men or women that she's unfamiliar with. There is nothing wrong with taking birth control, yet it is something that we don’t talk about in our society.
Similarly, men are able to buy condoms or carry them around with little to no judgement from society. However, if a woman was to buy a box of condoms or be seen with one in her purse, she would be seen as promiscuous or called other derogatory names that either don’t apply to men or are said as a joke, not a harmful label. This is the part that is unfair in our society. Women are expected to take birth control and make sure her partner uses a condom, yet society it is looked down on when a woman is seen either taking or talking about birth control or seen buying condoms. There is a confusing standard that women are expected to live up to, and society doesn’t help.
My initial thought upon viewing the video was that pouring watered-down bleach on others is violent and aggressive. It made me question whether or not manspreading is really that serious of an action, and whether a man manspreads to show dominance or because it is a comfortable way to sit. I don't think I agree with Dovgalyuk's use of physical action and her lack of hesitation to pour this solution on men. I guess I am also taking this out of context and I do not know whether or not she kindly asks the men to move before springing into action. Generally, I do not condone physical acts or violence because I believe there are better ways to resolve conflicts or express varying points of view. In conclusion, I believe that from the information I have been presented I think that Dovgalyuk's use of watered-down bleach to single out men who manspread is not the best way to approach her issue with the action. While I do believe that her actions are not right, I admire her courage to do what she believes is right and her drive to fight for women.
ReplyDeleteQ: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteA: Yes, my school did have a class (health) in which we talked generally about sex education. It covered methods of protection, but we did not talk about what makes a healthy versus unhealthy relationship. Personally, I think that information is just as important as contraceptive when discussing healthy and safe sex. Toxic and abusive relationships lead to dangerous situations and potentially even rape. When I took a more advanced level health class (I chose this class, it was not a requirement) we covered healthy relationships and abortion in more depth. This knowledge really impacted my perception, and it is unfortunate that not everyone will hear this information. Another note about my experiences with sex education at my school is that no one took it seriously, including the teacher. The majority of the class either didn’t pay attention to what he had to say, or made jokes and asked silly questions. My teacher is an incredible and very knowledgeable person, and his methods of teaching other topics were strong, so I do not necessarily think it is his fault. I think the students’ reactions reflect on how our society shys away from important discussions like this. So when these conversations finally come up, kids don’t know how to react, which leads to awkwardness and the use of humor as a defense mechanisms.
Q: What are your thoughts on manspreading?
A: I personally think that people getting upset about manspreading does not make any sense. In my opinion, saying men do it to assert their dominance is stupid. From speaking with multiple guys, I know this isn’t true for the majority of men; they sit like that because it is comfortable, that’s it. I agree that in a crowded place, the polite thing to do would be for them not to sit like that, but I don’t see what’s wrong with them manspreading when there are plenty of other seats. And in the event that someone is still manspreading even though there are a lot of people, I think the solution is just to politely ask them to move their legs so someone else can sit down. In my opinion, pouring bleach on someone for manspreading is significantly worse than the act of manspreading itself.
Q: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this include information on safe sex relationships.
ReplyDeleteA: Yes, my school had a health class that provided information about safe sex, contraceptives, and stds. We did not discuss the difference between healthy vs unhealthy relationships. I feel that this can be just as important because both woman and men need to understand the impact of toxic, abusive relationships and how dangerous they can be.In high school I feel like no one is serious and think it is all a joke, most people in my class laughed during the lectures and did not pay attention. I feel that there needs to be a way to make this information seem more real to students to catch their attention.
Q:What are your thoughts on manspreading?
A: I think that both men and woman shuld be able to sit the way they want and there should be no stigma about it. Most men that I know sit like that for comfort and are not doing it to be dominant or to upset any woman. However, it is polite to sit up if there are alot of people so that others can sit. I think pouring anything on a mans genitals can be considered assault just like the woman are claiming that the man is supposedly doing.
Q: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteA: The high school that I attended had a health class where we discussed these topics as a unit, but the unit was only a couple of days and did not go into much depth about anything. It was mainly about safe sex options but thats all it covered. I think they could have done a better job within the class but I think the social stigmas around talking about sex make it difficult for teachers to want to make that big unit.
Q: Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
A: I feel like there is a lot of pressure on women to prevent pregnancy by being on birth control and if a women is not on birth control they become responsible for going and seeking emergency contraception. I don't necessarily think that it is fair, because a simple conversation can be had that can share the responsibility of trying to prevent a possible pregnancy but I think that there are certain things that are to be done on both partners sides to prevent that and its just more recognized about the things a women can do so they kind of become "responsible".
2. Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteI did take a couple health classes in high school, in which we had different units on sex, STD's, healthy relationships, etc. I was lucky that I got a really good teacher who tried to be really open and unbiased. He thought it was important to talk about problems that can occur with sex or unhealthy relationships, he talked about using birth control, what would happen if we had an unwanted pregnancy, etc. I think there should be more health classes though, because I was only required to take one half year health course throughout high school. There is the option to take more health classes if you wanted to, which I did, but I think they need to be made part of the curriculum because it's so important to learn about sex and health especially when you're a teenager. I know a lot of parents might be wary of their children learning about sex at a young age but I think it's a good thing. Sex is a part of life and we should be educating our kids about it and not be afraid to talk about it.
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
I don't think it's fair for only the woman to have this responsibility. I feel like the man and woman should both take care in preventing pregnancy. It should not be the woman solely who is in charge of birth control, the man should be on board with her and be helping to prevent it as well. I think couples need to communicate about which forms of birth control they plan on using and then they both need to follow through and work together to make sure an unwanted pregnancy doesn't occur.
2. Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteBarely. My health classes did the bare minimum. They basically taught celibacy and glossed over birth control methods and only vaguely mentioned consent. I actually had more of an education on healthy sexual relationships from a online program Brockport held. I remember being angry about how this information wasn't taught to me earlier. I grew up in a rather small, traditional town, so I'm not surprised now that it didn't get brought up and I only hope it changed for the later classes, so the kids who came after my class understand how to stay safe and make good choices.
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
I do think it's unfair. It seems to be socially acceptable for a man to have sex and not have to worry about producing children, while a woman has to worry about it and make the choice whether or not she wants a child. Our birth control pills give us insane side effects, making us feel sick, the same reason a birth control pills geared for men was never released. It's all from the expectations of society, in my opinion.
Q: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteA:
at my high school I id have to take a class that informed us about sex education and safe sex relationships. Unfortunately, the class that i had to take was really boring and in 9th grade so I don't really remember anything specific that was taught. the onlypart that i remember was our teacher putting a condom on her arm and having it stretch to her elbow. I think that students should have to take more than one class to fulfill the health requirement because your body and social norms are always developing and changing which could impact what you have been taught in the past. In high school i wouldn't say that i was taught anything use full on safe sex relationships also because none of it stuck with me again.
Q:What are your thoughts on manspreading?
My thoughts on the manspreading video that i watched was initially very confused and outraged that a women would commit this kind of act just because a man is sitting in a way he deems comfortable. I could understand people getting mad about manspreading if it resulted in them not being able to sit down in a particular area but her just walking up and pouring bleach on someone for sitting that way is completely unnecessary.
Q: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteA: I did go to a high school where sex education was provided. We learned about how to use condoms, the different options for birth control, and how to prevent and treat STDs. The big lesson that was taught was that abstinence is the only way to 100% prevent pregnancy. The idea of not having sex at all was pushed on us, rather than accepting the fact that we're all going to have sex at some point. I also believe that there wasn't enough information about safe relationships. I didn't understand that my partner could be the one to hurt me and that it was actually more likely that someone close to me would assault me instead of a stranger. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way when I was in an abusive relationship in my senior year of high school. No one told me what a healthy relationship looked like, and I never had an example of one as my parents never had one (like most people's parents). I thought that the controlling behavior he displayed were signs of love, not abuse. For these reasons, I believe that sex education should be a lot more about how to seek out and maintain healthy relationships rather than abstaining from sex.
Q: Do you think it's fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
A: I believe that the reason the responsibility falls on the woman is because the woman is the one who has to physically carry the child once it's conceived. It is harder for woman to "run away" from the situation when the child is part of her. I also believe this issue has to do with dominance. It is more socially accepted for men to fulfill their sexual desires, while disregarding the consequences of them. For example, men are more likely to be congratulated for having sex while women are more likely to be made to feel ashamed for fulfilling their desires. Having said this, I do believe it is unfair that most of the responsibility falls on the woman. I also want to make a point that birth control options for men and women are quite different. For men, condoms don't affect their hormones or their physical health, whereas birth control options for women usually use hormones or painful procedures to insert IUDs (intra-uterine devices), even if they aren't hormonal. Pregnancy and birth control has a lot more to do with women's physical health than with men's physical health. All in all, contraception is a 50/50 responsibility because it takes more than one person to make a baby.
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely do not think this is fair at all. Women are expected to be on hormonal birth control which requires a prescription, previously required copays under most forms of insurance, suffer physiological side effects, etc. I think that between partners, preventing pregnancy should definitely be the job of both partners involved. For example, if a woman prefers something like an IUD as opposed to the pill, she could potentially pay out of pocket (not necessarily under the ACA and through organizations such as Planned Parenthood, but I'll talk more about that next). In any case, these things can be very costly and should not be the responsibility of solely the woman to ensure. It takes two, to reproduce.
4. In the US and Russia, if you desire birth control ranging from condoms to emergency contraceptives, do you have reasonable access to them? Would you feel comfortable seeking these out or would you feel that there is social stigmas and judgement that may steer you away from them?
I do not know as much as I could about access to birth control but I do know that, here in the US, women do have access to free birth control as a result of the Affordable Care Act that went into effect during Obama's presidency and that this access to free birth control is now under threat due to changes that President Trump is trying to change. As far as having access to things like condoms and emergency contraceptive, it is complicated because of the cost that comes into play when trying to obtain them, particularly emergency contraceptive which can cost upwards of 50 dollars for one time use. I think that the issue of unplanned pregnancy is at risk of becoming far worse if Trump does away with access to free birth control. Especially for teen mothers because most cannot afford the cost of emergency contraceptive or medical procedures such as abortion if they chose to seek out those options.
Q: Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteA: I attended a high school in New York City and every incoming freshman was required to have an advisory course where sex education was taught. The class was not Co-ed and my advisory teacher was biased in that she taught the class with her children and religion in mind. we were supposed to take a trip to a clinic outside of the high school and she decided not to take us. Most of the in-class projects were about sexually transmitted diseases and the cons of having sexual intercourse. I wish that I would have been taught the ongoing issues with relationships and reproduction not just in the United States today, but worldwide.
2. Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
ReplyDeleteYes, sex education was somewhat covered in my high school. I say somewhat because I come from Nepal, which is a traditionally conservative country (at least in terms of topics associated with sex and reproduction). We were taught about Sex Education as one or two chapters in our generic Health, Population and Environment course that I believe is now mandatory as part of schooling requirements. There were some basic aspects of sex ed covered, but it was not descriptive enough to allow us to get a thorough understanding of safe sex relationships and how to follow the correct practices in our own lives.
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
No, I don’t think that it is at all fair for just the woman to be responsible for preventing pregnancy. A woman does not get pregnant on her own and both the man and the woman should be accountable for taking the right measures to prevent pregnancy. It was convenient for men to promote and speed up research into longer-lasting contraceptive methods for women, resulting into developments of IUDs, pills, rings, shots, etc. While these things are very helpful, I think that a woman should not always be expected to be on one of these methods and that the man should make sure he uses some form of contraception himself to prevent pregnancy as well. I recently read about research into a “pill” for men that suppresses sperm production and act as a contraceptive. Maybe this will help shift perspective on responsibility associated with pregnancy in the near future.
Link to Male contraceptive pill: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health/male-birth-control-pill-study/index.html
Привет from Russia!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your questions! It was really interesting to read all these ample answers and opinions about such acute problems. Thank you, guys, for sharing your ideas with us. May we help each other to understand this life better! :)
I would like to answer questions which I think are the closest to me.
1) In the US and Russia, if you desire birth control ranging from condoms to emergency contraceptives, do you have reasonable access to them? Would you feel comfortable seeking these out or would you feel that there is social stigmas and judgement that may steer you away from them?
Well, here in Russia I personally has never heard of the problem with the access to barrier or hormonal contraception. I wouldn't speak for all Russian regions, but still, in Novgorod particularly we have all the range of the most popular and effective contraception, from basic condoms to the emergency contraceprion and brand new hormonal patches. (but its cost may vary).
A woman may come to any pharmacy and ask for a pack of pills or condoms. Another thing is that not every woman is sexually educated enough to study all these kinds of contraception properly and thoroughly, that's why there is a lack of knowledge about the effectiveness and the right way to use this of that variant of contraceprion provided.
2) Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relationships?
Yes, I had one week of sex education in a high school. I don't really think it was useful for me, though, because we hadn't enough time (and courage, haha) to ask all the question which were interesting for us. There was a general atmosphere of awkwardness, but I think it was the teachers'fault because they didn't try to create a positive area among us all.
I hope that it will be any useful for every of you. Hope to proceed our discussions!
Good luck!
2. Did you attend a high school where you had sex education and did this education include information on safe sex relations?
ReplyDeleteYes, I did attend a high school where sex education was taught. This "education" was only a half year during my sophomore year and didn't really go too in-depth on the topic at all. I suppose it did touch on all the basics of sex education but nothing more. This class did include information on safe sex relations, but seemed to focus more on student's choices and what would be a good choice and what wouldn't be rather than informing students on how to have safe sexual encounters.
3. Do you think it is fair that the job of preventing pregnancy in both of our countries primarily falls on the woman? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI think that it is entirely unfair that this responsibility falls almost entirely on the women. This is for two main reasons; one, being that an unwanted pregnancy is the result of BOTH parties having failed in preventing this occurrence, not solely because of the woman; and two, because of the fact that anatomically speaking, a man can get essentially an unlimited amount of women pregnant in any amount of time, while a woman can only get pregnant once every 9 months or so. Because of this, I believe that the responsibility should be at least partly the mans, if not entirely.
I also had mixed feelings about the video of the woman pouring bleach on men for manspreading. While I do think that this was a courageous act, I do not agree with this act. I feel that pouring bleach on men will only make the men angry and less resistant to change their sitting position. After having bleach dumped on them, these men will likely continue to manspread out of spite for the woman. I watched this video with my friend and he said that he had seen the video before. He brought up the valid point that in many of the clips, there are plenty of empty seats around the man, so there really shouldnt be a problem with the man taking up extra space in order to sit comfortably. I also discussed this topic with some of my male friends and they said that most men sit this way simply out of comfort, and pouring bleach on men for sitting this way is extremely uncalled for.
ReplyDelete4. In the US and Russia, if you desire birth control ranging from condoms to emergency contraceptives, do you have reasonable access to them? Would you feel comfortable seeking these out or would you feel that there is social stigmas and judgement that may steer you away from them?
ReplyDeleteI think that birth control is very easy to obtain here in the US. It was as simple as going to a doctor and saying that you're having trouble with your period or saying that you would like to practice safer sex and start birth control. My doctor then directed me to a gynecologist who, after a short hour long meeting, prescribed me birth control. For my friend it was as easy as going to the campus health center and asking for them to send a prescription to our local provider. If I were to try to get condoms there are many ways to obtain them. You can go to the on campus health center and right in the doorway there is a bowl of them for students to take. If you prefer a different brand of condom there is a number of drug stores and they can even be found in our local grocery stores. Emergency contraceptives are a little harder to access. Places around Brockport do carry them but not in excess. Sometimes stores run out of them fairly easily and they are quite expensive. This being said, it is still wonderful that we have access to so many ways to practice safe sex and have so much control over what happens to our bodies.
I feel that there is not much stigma around these as you get older. In high school there was definitely a stigma about having sex at all (Considering it is illegal until you're 17 years old in NY) and that stigma kind of sticks with you in the back of your mind when you go out to buy condoms. At the same time the knowledge about Sexually Transmitted Diseases and about my current inability to support a child gives me confidence when buying condoms that I am making a choice that I shouldn't be ashamed of. Plan B, the most widely used emergency contraceptive, does have a little bit of stigma about it. It typically means that you messed up somewhere along the lines if you have to take it so I would say there is some stigma about it here that makes people uncomfortable buying it. This being said, the stigma is generally not enough to stop people (that I know at least) from purchasing a form of birth control that they require.
Hello,thank you for questions
ReplyDelete1.Abortions in Russia are allowed by law and paid from the state budget. With a gestation period of up to 12 weeks, an abortion can be performed at the request of the woman; with a period of 12-22 weeks - if the pregnancy was due to rape; in the presence of medical indications - at any stage of pregnancy.
2. No in my school nobody had spoken about abortion. But i think it is very importent to tell children why it should be done and why not.
3. i think yes, because it their choice do it or not.In Russia, there is a social movement that opposes the right to abortion, and organizations and groups that protect this right. At the same time, the majority of the population adheres to average views: not supporting the ban on abortions, Russians, as a rule, consider abortion harmful to women's health and welcome some restrictions on the right to abortion.
4.Since 1990, the total number of abortions in Russia has been slowly decreasing every year.Abortions in Russia are more often done by married women who already have children than young girls.
Hellow to all!
ReplyDelete1. About aboution climate in our country. I feel just a little fear that a legal abortion in Russia will be repealed. But I see that according to Levada sociological Center poll we have increasing percentage of people which censured abortion from 12% till 35% now. So our society is moving to more traditional values. But majority of people don’t criticize abortion.
3.I think that it’s not fair b/c this is a question of responsibility and respect.
6. I'm so sorry that I’m too late with my opinion about performance with “manspreading” . But it was just performance of a Saint-Petersburg student. She prepared it with her friends. So there was just water not bleach. I’ve seen this information in feminist network society, they afraid that not correct information about this performance can be very harmful for feminist image in Russian society.
7. In Russia I don’t know cases where somebody was convicted in sexual assault just in case of rape or in case of sexual assaulting children before 18.