“Very simply, women of color and poor women have fewer choices than other women. …there are two overarching concerns. One is the desire to make reproductive services, including new technologies, broadly accessible. The other is the need to safeguard against abuse” (Nsiah-Jefferson 363-364). The cultural imperialism of Western societies is evidenced in many ways, from images of women presented in the media to fast food chains to reproductive rights. Traditionally, white women and women with more economic means have framed the debate about reproductive rights, making the argument a very narrow one and not addressing issues that are relevant to the majority of women (nonwhite, non-middle class).
First of all, Western medicine has monopolized the way medicine is practiced internationally. In “Abortion, Vacuum Cleaners and the Power Within,” Inga Muscio writes, “Western medicine…is based on a law opposite the one the rest of the universe goes by, namely, Healing Has Nothing To Do With You; It’s Something Only Your Doctor Can Control” (115). For Muscio’s third unwanted pregnancy she opts for a natural means of abortion through massages, abortifacients, and emotional support. Abortifacients and contraceptives have been used by women for hundreds or thousands of years, and yet modern Western medicine has convinced us that the only means of “unblocking the menses” is through modern Western medicine. The abortion debate has typically centered around two options: pro-choice and anti-choice. Yet, could there be other options? Muscio writes, “Concentrating on the power within our own circle of women was once a major focus of the women’s health movement. I think we would benefit from once again creating informal health collectives where we discuss things like our bodies and our selves” (117). In “And So I Chose” by Allision Crews, she writes, “I labored for five hours and birthed naturally, with little intervention from the doctors who had doubted me” (148). Furthermore, modern-day abortions and health care (with its institutionalized racism) can be expensive, difficult to obtain, and biased, more so for poor women and women of color. As Nsiah-Jefferson writes in “Reproductive Laws, Women of Color, and Low-Income Women,” “Poor women and women of color often live under circumstances that make it difficult for them to obtain early abortions. …A particularly important factor for women of color and poor women is the cost of many prenatal screening procedures” (364-364). The barriers put in place by patriarchal Western medicine where only your (probably male) doctor can decide for you are not ideal and make Muscio’s model of a women’s health collective perhaps more fair and equal. If women followed this model of massages, herbal teas, and natural births, the government would not have as much of a say and it would afford more women access to reproductive rights. Today, the options for poor women and women of color are either Western medicine, if you can afford it, or nothing. If we followed this health collective idea, the lines drawn at white and middle class would begin to vanish as poor women, women of color, Third World women, etc. would gain more control over their bodies.
Secondly, reproductive rights debates coming from the West have centered on what white, middle-class women want, overtaking the needs of poor women and women of color here in the US and abroad. However, there are many other issues out there that more significantly limit women of color and poor women’s access to reproductive health care and/or limit their ability to birth as a result of eugenics. In Angela Davis’s article, “Reproductive Rights,” she writes, “women of color are urged, at every turn, to become permanently infertile, while white women enjoying prosperous economic conditions are urged, by the same forces, to reproduce themselves” (113). The debate streaming out of the United States and dominating most discussion of reproductive rights, namely the ability to choose not to have children, is framed by white, middle-class women. While access to birth control and abortion is a serious issue for women of color and poor women as well, there is another issue that has remained covered up and overshadowed—sterilization. This is often forced or coerced or women of color are convinced to do it by doctors who skew information or flat out lie. For example, “by the 1970s, over 35 percent of all Puerto Rican women of childbearing age had been surgically sterilized” (Davis 112).
Just like colonialism of the past, cultural imperialism slants the whole world’s view to a narrow one held by the West ("Who Defines Women's Rights? A Third World Woman's Response"). Colonialism has shown us how women can be used in the struggle for power. In the article “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” Lila Abu-Lughod writes about being “suspicious when neat cultural icons are plastered over messier historical and political narratives” (486) because the need to “liberate” Third World women gives an excuse for colonial powers to control a country. We must look beyond the “neat cultural icons” of pro-choice or pro-life, Western medicine or none at all, and see the “messier historical and political narratives” that lie beneath.
Although this has recently been overturned by Obama, it could come back in the future and is an example of US foreign policy actively engaging in cultural imperialism.
-Erica
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