Comments for The Hiking Humanist

Comment on Having A Vagina Does Not Automatically Make Your Demand Feminist by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:14:12 +0000

It may not have occurred to you that breeding is a choice.

Comment on Having A Vagina Does Not Automatically Make Your Demand Feminist by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:11:47 +0000

Then she shouldn’t breed. You have to own the consequences of your choices, instead of making poor choices and expecting the world to deal with them for you.

Comment on Having A Vagina Does Not Automatically Make Your Demand Feminist by bea

bea — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:09:39 +0000

While I understand the philosophy behind your argument, there are significant logistics that you seem to be underestimating. Sadly, yours is an “it sounds good in theory” argument, but one with little practical weight as a result.

Child rearing in it’s earliest stages is significantly more complex (and expensive) than you seem to understand. Maternity leave is not about deifying mothers. (Though I do agree with you that just because you can reproduce doesn’t make you a goddess, nor is birth a “miracle”- it’s biology, folks.) Maternity leave IS about equality. Women used to have to leave the workforce (or never enter it) BECAUSE they reproduce. Maternity leave is about recognizing that women should be allowed to continue to work, even if they also choose to have children.

However, in the first three months, the mother is often not medically cleared to do a lot of things, neither parent is sleeping much at all, and there are crucial bonding and developmental things happening between the parents- especially the mother- and her newborn. So while “save up your vacation days” sounds like a reasonable argument, I know very few jobs, other than education, who get six weeks to three months of vacation time that could even BE saved up! Plus, even in the case of education, you can’t necessarily plan out when your maternity leave will fall- you can try to time out your reproductive cycle, but biology trumps plans and it happens when it happens. Demanding that women sacrifice their personal health and the well being of their child, while also arguing they should not be paid, during crucial developmental stages of their infant is not the least bit feminist. Check out the statistics in countries like Norway- they give a full year’s paid leave to the mother and 10 weeks of paid leave to fathers because they recognize that the beginning stages of child rearing is both demanding and also a crucial formative time.

I understand that single people don’t also get the same amount of leave. But believe me, maternity leave is not a vacation. It’s exhausting, around the clock work. Likewise, feminism or no, it’s just a fact that there are institutional inequities between singles and marrieds, from tax breaks to maternity leave, etc. It’s just the way of the world. From the dawn of history, marriage has been an economic institution, and procreating is how we propagate the species/ our society.

Comment on Sterilized On World Population Day by Katie

Katie — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:20:08 +0000

I wanted check back in after my post thanking you for sharing your experiences and share my own to return the favor. My big day was yesterday at 7:00am. This was my first surgical experience so I had some concerns about how anesthesia would affect me and how well the pain medications would work (Vicodin doesn’t seem to work for me). Everything leading up to the surgery went smoothly and all of the doctors and nurses were very nice (albeit, a few were surprised to hear I had no children, to which I replied, “and I’m hoping to keep it that way.” That got a few laughs). The surgery itself was super easy. I was in and out before I knew it and the nurse said I seemed to come out of the anestesia pretty quickly. My throat was a little swollen from the breathing tube but nothing some ice chips couldn’t fix. It seemed like I only had to wait 10-15 minutes before they were telling me I could get dressed and I was headed home. I was experiencing a radiating pain on my right side and some cramping (which is normal) that was slowly increasing so I asked for something before I left and they gave me a Vicodin and a barf bag…just in case. Once home I tried my best to get some rest but the pain continued to increase so I tried a Percocet but then vomited almost immediately. I’m not sure if that was a reaction to the anestesia or the pain meds or maybe just the pain. I was what I would consider moderately to highly uncomfortable for about 6 hours. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t easy either. Kind of like having the worst cramps in the world combined with the stomach flu. My pain seemed to shift every few hours which made me wonder if it was due to the gas from the surgery. Then all of a sudden the pain lessened and I felt like I could finally sleep. I had a short nap and then had some soup and finally got to take the extra strength ibuprofen. Yay! I made it through the first night with a little tossing and turning but I feel pretty good. I’m very excited that my tubal is done and I can look forward to life with no artificial b/c and no kids! Thank you again for sharing your story. I hope it helps other women to make whatever decision is best for them. Take care!

Comment on God VS Air by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:35:24 +0000

Yeah, I’d hate to be responsible for bringing children into a world filled with idiots like a certain troll I know. Ahem.

Comment on Gun Control. Let’s Be Reasonable Adults by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:34:09 +0000

It threatens everyone.

Comment on Gun Control. Let’s Be Reasonable Adults by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:33:42 +0000

People kill people, so lets all have more efficient weapons to do it? Is that your argument? I don’t think you thought this through.

Comment on Gun Control. Let’s Be Reasonable Adults by Julie Was Here

Julie Was Here — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:32:15 +0000

Because I can totally shoot bullets out of my mouth, right?

Comment on God VS Air by Fargoth

Fargoth — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:43:07 +0000

Actually, I was hoping you’d have a reasoned, intelligent response to those who use similar complaints about Wikipedia. Personally I have no problem with it. But instead, your vagina took over and you became hysterical. You failed the test. Good thing you aren’t going to breed!

Comment on Gun Control. Let’s Be Reasonable Adults by silentscope47

silentscope47 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:55:52 +0000

There is a difference between malum in se and malum prohibitum laws.

Using a weapon to kill someone is clearly morally reprehensible. Carrying a weapon however, threatens no one.