"I am a woman. I am a feminist. And I am angry."
March 5, 2016 4:00 AM   Subscribe

 
On this subject, Erin McGathy had Tara Flynn on her podcast this week and they discussed the abortion issue in Ireland. Flynn also wrote this, which is worth reading.
posted by selfnoise at 5:13 AM on March 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


The X-isle Project publishes portraits of Irish women who have traveled abroad to have abortions.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:32 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Fantastic article. It is not easy not to be angry when so many of society's basic assumptions spit in the faces of women and then people think something is wrong with you for not being grateful for the latent and even overt abuse.

Thank you for the link.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 6:37 AM on March 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm not Irish but I followed equal marriage's recent passing as it seemed to be a strong marker of progress in a Catholic country. Reproductive healthcare is an LGBT issue as well and I wonder if some of the mainstream momentum around equal marriage could be or is being parlayed into action around reproductive rights and other feminist issues in Ireland. Speaking as a queer and a feminist I would love to see that; that connection is made in the X-isle project above.

Thanks for the link.
posted by radiocontrolled at 7:16 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


At what point does it become impossible for a decent person to be a catholic?

When does "You can't prove I did it myself!"* become an acceptable answer from a prince of the church?

Sexual and psychological abuse of children. Criminalising and imprisoning women for being actual, biological women who might have unsuccessful pregnancies. Demanding that the only people who can define the rules for how women manage their bodies are virgin, celibate men who are explicitly forbidden from having peer relationships with women.

The catholic church is an institution of evil, and it is is run, managed and operated by evil men.

(*that's cardinal pell's argument)
posted by Combat Wombat at 8:29 AM on March 5, 2016 [7 favorites]


It's a true pity that the project isn't called X-Isle, it would have worked really nicely on two levels. Brave, brave women who can offer to be a public face to this. I remember when my friend went to England, on a boat, by herself. What were we, fifteen or sixteen? Something like that. She took the second pill back in Ireland, stayed home from school, pleading sick after her "shopping trip" to England. No advice or aftercare, no one to talk to but me who had less of a clue than she did even. She has lovely babies now with the same man, these many years later, when she can care for them and provide for them, but she also has this complete fucking nightmare of an experience in her history and for no damned good reason.
posted by Iteki at 8:53 AM on March 5, 2016 [14 favorites]


The catholic church is an institution of evil, and it is is run, managed and operated by evil men.

That is to be fair,a rather broad stroke. It's an institution than has done some evil things and been operated by many evil men. Maybe I've lucky but, dogma related issues aside, any priests I've known have tended to be kind, thoughtful people doing good. That said the institution deserves everything that's happening to it and only has itself to blame. I do hope something can be salvaged from the wreckage: rituals, community, thinking about the incorporeal as a community.
posted by Damienmce at 8:57 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


At what point does it become impossible for a decent person to be a catholic?

I think it's asking a lot to say that in order to be a decent person, you have to abandon your faith. And "Catholic" is a broad brush that includes the most hard-hearted, hateful people, as well as those fighting to make the church more progressive.

And let's not forget that many of the victims of the Catholic church are also Catholic.

In my opinion, it starts becoming impossible when you do nothing, and actually becomes impossible when you say nothing. When you are supporting these policies, making excuses--then you have crossed the line into someone I don't want to know.

Of course people are multi-dimensional and someone may be decent in other ways. But my line is not the indirect and abstract support of these policies through the moniker "Catholic," but direct support in belief or actions.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:01 AM on March 5, 2016 [9 favorites]


It's also worth remembering that this is not just a "Catholic" issue. I live in the North, which is part of the UK and historically the majority religion was Protestantism. Abortion is also illegal here, and gay marriage is still illegal (the most recent motion to approve it was passed by a majority of MLAs but then vetoed by the DUP who are very much anti-Catholic). It's more about conservatism than Catholicism as unfortunately one of the few few things both sides agree on up here is that a woman's body is not her own.
posted by billiebee at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2016 [12 favorites]


Demanding that the only people who can define the rules for how women manage their bodies are virgin, celibate men who are explicitly forbidden from having peer relationships with women.

They don't have to be virgin.
posted by srboisvert at 9:22 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Great article. Thanks for posting. In case people are unaware Louise O'Neill is the author of Asking for It, a novel where she imagines a case similar to the American football rape cases happening in small town Ireland and makes it all too believable. An absolutely stunning fictional depiction of rape culture.
posted by roolya_boolya at 11:29 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I just looked up the X Case to refresh my memory..... a 14-year-old girl was raped by a neighbor in 1991; he was convicted not only of raping her, but of molesting her for more than two years before she became pregnant. He was originally sentenced to 14 years, reduced on appeal to 4 years, he actually served only 3 years. After getting out, he was convicted of raping another underage girl, a 15-year-old, and sentenced to 3-1/2 years for that.

So, the X Case: a pedophile who repeatedly molested a 12-14 year-old child got all of 3 years in jail, after which he resumed his previous criminal behavior without a break. Lovely. And the kid he repeatedly raped? She got dragged through every court in Ireland, before she was fortunate enough to miscarry the pedophile's fetus.
posted by easily confused at 11:35 AM on March 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


That's a very powerful piece. Thanks for posting.

(Oh my dog, I hope hope hope the internet won't tear her to shreds over this.)
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:47 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Hopefully she will stay a million miles away from The Comments...
posted by billiebee at 11:58 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's a superb piece by O'Neill and I hope it gets wider coverage because at a glance from outside, Ireland might be seen as a poster child for a once deeply religious country now rapidly throwing off the shackles of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately their influence in the education system is still extremely strong, and there's plenty of evidence of various 'lay' organisations inserting themselves into the curriculum at every level.

Most adults nowadays seem to wander out of this school system regarding themselves as not particularly Catholic / culturally Catholic / 'don't attend mass but will marry in a church to please their parents' Catholic, but they do unquestioningly carry away plenty of the Church's opinions on gender roles, women as untrustworthy temptresses and so on. The constitution still has this clause in it explaining precisely where women should remain -

In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.

The X Case led to a referendum which was the first thing I was old enough to vote in, so this bullshit has been hanging around all my adult life. One of the results of this referendum was the 13th Amendment which guarantees the right to travel outside of the State for an abortion. So in a beautifully hypocritical Irish solution to an Irish problem, we have in our constitution both an effective ban on abortion and also a right to travel for an abortion if you have the means and the documentation to do so.

The Irish Times published this cartoon by Martyn Turner when the X Case was going on. It remains the most powerful editorial cartoon I've ever seen.
posted by o seasons o castles at 11:46 PM on March 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


I was too young to vote (the anecdote above took place at the same time roughly as the x-case) but voted a few years later in the divorce referendum and was not eligible to vote on same-sex marriage since I, with thousands of others, had fucked off to be married elsewhere. It's incredible how many times my countrymen have gone to their local schools and town halls to decide how and whether I should live my life. I love our young nation and the direct democracy used to adjust our quick and dirty constitution has always felt exciting, but seriously, this is getting out of hand and if the eighth comes up for a public vote I will be establishing residency to cast mine.
posted by Iteki at 8:51 AM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


What a fantastic article. I admire her so much for writing it. I think that even here in Ontario where same sex marriage and abortion rights have been the norm for years that the Catholic Church needs to be curtailed. Not individual Catholics buy the Church as an institution moves as a cancer in our midst. Ages ago when I started university who held up distribution of condoms to undergrads? The one catholic college at the University of Toronto! Whicheck schoolboard came out against gay/straight student alliance groups? The Catholic one! Which school board protested and didn't want to teach the recent updated sex ed curriculum? The Catholic one!
So even though I agree that individual Catholics can gain strength and do good because of their faith, the prominence of the Catholic Church in Ireland or the public funding of Catholic schools in Ontario is a deep problem.
posted by biggreenplant at 9:51 AM on March 7, 2016


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