there's this person....

in my SOCY class....that's driving me nuts.

Today we disussed the double-bind of feminity. Then we moved on to Flat Broke with Children where this person suggested that the Personal Responsibility Act was really doing good for the mom's on welfare because it was making them realize the consequences. Meaning: a woman has a 3rd kid, the state takes welfare benefits away from not only the child but also the mother and this is good because it's helping her. But it's not regulation, it's help.

Prof then said but no, it's regulation because it's telling her what she has to do to get that money, what rules she has to follow to keep that money and most importantly, regulating her sexuality. Being that this sort of "reform" comes from repub's, it's a direct contradiction to the distaste for Big Government. Right?

So anyway, we quickly move on when this same person states that the US Government doesn't force people to not have kids like China - or something. Because this is when both Prof and I said, OH yes they have! Eugenics was big in these United States and it was huge in Virginia. And it's not that it was targeted at all poor women, it was only targeted at poor black/African women.

It has been driving me nuts the way some of these people have been responding to these sort of issues but hell, I'm 30 and most of them are 18-21. It's a maturity thing I'm sure, but it's also an education thing. I didn't realize Virginia had such deep roots in eugenics 'til about 2 or 3 years ago when I got curious and looked it up myself. I wasn't surprised because we seem to have a long history on only setting a precedent when it comes to bigotry and hatred, not where it actually counts toward human rights.

It was only fitting that, when I got back to work after said class, I had this waiting for me in my email in-box: Get Hitched, Young Woman. It seems Bush is taking up the "it's those black women who aren't married that are causing all our poverty issues" debate. Again. Are any of us really surprised?

The fact is, women’s lives have dramatically changed during the last 40 years, but neither our government nor our society have made the necessary changes that should have accompanied the entry of such huge numbers of women into the labor force.

I can only say here we go again, blaming the largest group affected by poverty instead of trying to fix the actual problem itself.