You are not a good woman unless you have children.
This article highlights the impact of women in terms of nationalism and reproduction.
Nationalism, simply put, is when a large group of people feel a sense of patriotism and loyalty to their country. As a child, I remember having to learn the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” and recite the pledge of allegiance every morning before class. In order for a country to run efficiently, the government needs to cater to the people’s needs and wants. In a perfect society, men and women would live together in peace and everyone would respect one another’s bodies and private property. Of course, we do not live in a perfect world, let alone a perfect country. The United States of America, is a country that is very proud; it is a nation that thrives on the idea that all people are created equal. America is also a country where you will get shunned for saying that you are not proud to be an American or if you do not stand and pledge yourself to the country. For a nation that is so proud of it’s people, it fails to notice the impact of women and the freedom that women deserve regarding their own body. The idea of limiting women’s access to abortion and birth control shows that the country wants to control reproduction. People are needed for a nation to survive, and women provide people. Often times, women are pressured into having children or forced to have children. Nira Yuval-Davis’ in “Nationalist Projects and Gender Relations” states that “depending on the hegemonic discourses which construct nationalist projects at specific historical moments, women might be encouraged, discouraged, or sometimes forced to have or not have children” (Yuval-Davis 12).
How and why are women’s bodies and reproduction central to a nation?
Women make up more than half of the population. As women, we are expected to do our womanly duties such as being obedient, cooking dinner for the husband, and having a lot of children. More often than not, women are frowned upon for not doing these womanly duties, especially the duty of having children.
Women are major contributors to the nation and the economy solely through reproduction. In terms of the economy, thousands of dollars goes towards women being pregnant and taking care of children. There are maternity clothes, baby care books and when the baby is actually born, thousands of dollars goes towards baby food, clothes, diapers, etc. Despite the fact that the woman is the one having to bear through the pain of a living person growing inside of her body, the man believes that he can have a decision in terms of whether or not the women decides keep the baby. The idea of women being able to control their own reproduction has scared many Americans into believing that the right for women to choose should be taken away. There is an informal social control over what it means to be a women. Women are expected to have children because it is they duty to society to reproduce, so the thought of women being able to control their own body is terrifying to men.
Womb Envy
Womb envy is the concept of men feeling envious that women have the ability to bear a child. Womb envy is in direct contrast to penis envy, which is a concept developed by the physiologist Sigmund Freud. Penis envy is the idea that women are envious of a man’s possession of a penis. Freud does not recognize the womb as a place of production, and even believes that a “little girl is a little boy before she discovers sex.” Freud also fails to take into account the physical woman body and even calls the clitoris a “little penis”. A current example of womb envy is the Trump administration signing a federal ban on federal money going towards groups that provide abortions. After this ban happened, a viral picture emerged on the internet of Trump being surrounded by a group of men as he was signing this ban. The phrase, “men making decisions about women’s bodies” began to trend on Twitter as hundreds of people were infuriated over Trump denying women the basic right to choose. Why should a man decide what is right for a woman’s body? The woman is the person going through the physical, mental, and emotional changes because of a child growing in the uterus. Men do not want women to get abortions because they want control over the woman’s womb.
Taking the option of abortion away is removing the right of women being able to choose what they want to do with their own body. Abortions are scary to men because it demonstrates that men are not the ones making the baby and women have the option to stop the process of a baby growing inside of her if she pleases. A woman being able to choose what to do with her body is a basic human right that has been fought by women for many years, and the desire to reclaim the woman body back into the patriarchy’s hands only plays into the concept of womb envy.
Other examples of womb envy.
The very traditional concept of a child taking his/her father’s last name is an example of womb envy. Having the father literally brand his child with his last name is the father’s way of being a part in the process of having a child. The father cannot birth the baby, so he claims the baby by stamping his last name on the birth certificate. Another example of womb envy is when father’s-to-be say the phrase, “we’re pregnant” when in fact the father is not pregnant. Saying this phrase indicates a form of possession that the father feels over the mother’s womb. The father believes that he had a major part in the creation of the child, so he says “we’re pregnant” even though the mother is the one dealing with all the symptoms and pain that are attached to being pregnant.
