Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Personal Property

I mentioned that the last post came out of a Facebook discussion. One of the ways that conversation got derailed, was that people converted concern for personal property into intrusive comments about people's bodies, including what they eat.

I hope that my previous post could address some of those fears head-on, that body autonomy means your body is your own, my body is my own, etc. We can talk about issues of body-shaming, Healthism as the New Puritanism, Ableism and fatphobia later. One step at a time.

Part of the discussion involved questions of private property, namely the idea that one can do whatever they want with the things that they own.

Much like body autonomy, I think there's a "Yes, but..." to that discussion. If one began to smash every object in one's apartment or house, I think it's likely that neighbors would call police to report a domestic disturbance.

Wantonly destroying property - even one's own property - is violence. It can be disturbing to perform, disturbing to watch, disturbing to read about.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Body Autonomy

Parts of this blog have become a "Feminism 101" for STEM professionals, who most likely have not taken Women's Studies courses or significant Humanities classes. Today is one of those topics, inspired by an old, private Facebook discussion that has been deleted.  I'm starting off with body autonomy.