In this week’s class we will focus on a critique of birth control as population control. We will also have a guest speaker, Dr. Betsy Hartmann, from the Population and Development program at Hampshire College to talk about population control. Please make sure to respond to the readings for this week! Several of you have not yet posted a blog or given me your blog name–remember that your blog entries count for 30% of your final grade!!
Also, the “From Explosion to Implosion” reading did not download properly onto the course website. Please disregard this reading for next week.
I especially enjoyed the ” Different Takes” articles from the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. These articles are more succinct and easy to stay interested in. I liked how the majority of this week’s readings talked about how population is not the primary problem of environmental degradation, decreasing resources, and other global issues.
There are many other factors which affect all of us…and not everything will be solved if we simply reduced the sheer numbers of people on this earth. This was a good concept for me to realize because I never looked at it that way. The common belief is that too many people using up too many resources and public services is the primary cause of many environmental, economic, and social problems.
Population control can be inhumane and severe and hurtful to those people who are targeted as contributing to the ” population bomb” or ” population explosion”. One point that stood out to me was from the article entitled ” 10 Reasons to Rethink “Overpopulation”
In direct relation to this class, Point # 6 addresses that population control targets women’s fertility and restricts reproductive rights. I think this is extremely important to consider that a common approach to population control is targeting women and the fact that they are the creators of new people….and more people on this earth. These numbers of new people being brought into the world need to be decreased. This is the goal of the government and other organizations and they aim to get it done . Women are not taken care of in a sensitive manner…they are subject to forced procedures that prevent them from having more children.
I certainly do not agree with this method of attempting to curb the problem of an ever-growing population. And as I learned from these articles, population growth can be a problem but it is not the only factor that needs to be considered and improved in order for many global issues to improve. Another important point was that “Conventional views of overpopulation stand in the way of greater global understanding and solidarity.”
If the majority of people believe that overpopulation causes many negative things to occur, they will support the idea of reducing certain so-called ” problematic” populations. It will become easy to blame economic, social, or environmental issues on a targeted population….instead of gathering resources and man power to work towards changing the problem. People need to realize that every person had worth and it is not fair to get rid of certain people and let others continue to reproduce and live. I think it is important to teach people about other factors that go hand-in-hand with overpopulation. In this way, the public will know it is a complex issue which cannot be solved by simply reducing the number of bodies on earth.
Before learning about population control, I had the western view that over population was because of poor women not being able to control their reproduction. After reading all these articles it has completely changed my view. The first article I read, 10 Reasons to Overthink Population seemed as though it was wrote just for me. It completely helped me understand the economy, and the politcal views of the country. It broke down 10 different ways that politics and the government were at blame for overpopulation (or actually lack of reasources). I definitly think that all political parties do not view over population in the correct way. It seems that governers and presidents want to put the blame on anything else other than their own faults. In the 5th reason in this article clearly explains how the government will not take any responsibilty. Also in the article Security and Survival, it also explains how the government needs to change their views, and how lack of resources is the main reason for problems.
Another idea that I did not really think about until reading these articles is the idea for the perfect person. However, after reading all these articles it made complete sense to me. As the reading Old Roots New Shoots explains, the world is looking to find the perfect person. It can be shown in the media, western society, and how the government is regulating people. In the media, the example the reading gives, is that birth control pills advertise for a liberating feeling of only having a period four times a year. This is horrible! Periods are part of women, and I find it liberating when I have my period! Western society is alsways looking for people to be “perfect”. Anorexia and bulimia stem from this idea, and in my opinion Tanning. People will do anything to be the perfect person. Government tries to control people by giving them cheap birth control that has horrible side effects. All the government cares about is helping themselves not the people! I believe this is the real thing we need to control. We need to get better people representing us in the government to help us fix all these problems!
I agree with Senorita55 that the Different Takes articles are valuable–although academics can write as many long, exhaustive papers as they want, a true paradigm shift in popular opinion (which it seems to me, is necessary for any widespread change to occur) needs short, concise articles like the ones in this newsletter to arm the public with knowledge that is accessible and pared down to its essence while not being oversimplified.
I was especially impressed by the “10 Reasons to Rethink Overpopulation” article; I guess it’s happening more and more as I get older that common opinions I had taken for truth are disproved, but this piece did an especially good job of tearing the idea that the planet is “overpopulated” apart and pointing to more feasible causes of hunger and poverty instead. Each of the 10 points is so well backed up that it presents a nearly unassailable case.
The “Black Stork” article was incredible and really hard to read. I took a class in high school that focused on historical atrocities, and heavily on the Holocaust. We studied the eugenic practices of “doctors” in Nazi Germany–I remember learning a lot about Josef Mengele, who was a physician known for doing some really horrible experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. But what I remember more than that is that despite the evil being perpetrated in the name of racial purity by the Nazis, the extent of everyday, government-sanctioned eugenic measures like sterilization might have been just as great, though much less publicized, in the United States. As Nazism in Germany gained popularity, the Germans shared membership with the US in the International Society for Racial Hygiene.
**The part of the article on Dr. Harry Haiselden, an American doctor who advocated killing babies who would grow up to be “defectives” and who became a media darling for advocating the practice to others, and even starred in his own film in which a biracial child was killed with Jesus’ explicit consent, was probably the most appalling part of the article and the hardest to believe happened in this country less than a century ago. Although maybe more unsettling is the fact that it actually isn’t all that hard to believe…the readings so far this semester have shown how far the social acceptability of a practice or sentiment, no matter how morally reprehensible, goes in terms of people’s willingness to admit their support.
The US has had to apologize for a lot of its past in its relatively short history, but the victims of the eugenics movement aren’t among those to receive public regrets. How is this part of our history something that is still relatively under wraps? Why isn’t Fannie Lou Hamer praised like Rosa Parks for fighting the injustice that surrounded her, undaunted by the lack of social support?
Reading the articles all relating to overpopulation and eugenics has taught me a lot of information about ongoing world issues that I was unaware of. Overpopulation has become a great fear through out the world but in reality the real fear of people is that the minorities will become the majority. It bothers me that diversity cannot be embraced due to differences in skin color or stereotypes that have been made up about specific races. People are so worried about overpopulation that they are not focusing on the real issues at hand. As explained in the article “10 reasons to Rethink ‘Overpopulation,” this idea is just reinforcing racism and targeting women’s rights. In the 6th reason it talks about how population control is targeting women’s fertility and reproductive rights. Once again women are the “problem” and seen as the irresponsible ones in having too many children. Why is it that women are being put through these harmful and painful procedures to be sterilized. Women have the right to choose whether or not they want to undergo these procedures but the problem is that poor women of color are the ones being mislead. If these contraceptives can be dangerous especially to black women who are more susceptible to the side effects then why are they being targeted. In the first reason, it explains that the population ‘explosion’ is over but people are still worried about it.
After watching the video about Sanger and her help with the development of birth control I was surprised to see in the article “The Black Stork,” that she was a supporter of eugenics. What even bothered me more was that she exploited black stereotypes to reduce the fertility of African Americans. By exploiting black stereotypes she was just continuing the idea that blacks were unfit. She also continued to only present the negatives and made African Americans look bad in the case histories she used. I also agree with Floyd, in finding Dr. Haiselden apalling because of his work in killing “defective” infants. The crazy thing is that people followed in his foot steps and were open and proud about it. He disgusts me with his negative representations of blacks by calling them ugly and defective. This idea of having the “right” genes is constantly reminded to us through the media with the ideal looks and body type. The article “Old Roots, New Shoots: Eugenics of the Everyday,” talks about the media portrays a specific image of how we should all be. It is going to be hard for things to change if our society is so focused on the “perfect” image. No one is to decide what we should look like because every individual in different…we can’t all be the same.
A common theme I found within many of the articles assigned for this week’s reading was to blame the victim. Women of color with low economic status were looked at as the main predicament of overpopulation and in my eyes were preyed upon by government and society as problems that needed to be taken care. Society associated overpopulation with African American’s inability to control their sexual urges and ignorance of birth control methods and took it upon themselves to “correct the problem†with forcible sterilization and other means to try and hinder African Americans reproductive capabilities.
It makes me sick to realize that the United States was performing our own genocidal experiments even before Hitler came to power. The illegal sterilization of low income women and women of color was completely unethical and disheartening to read about. I was absolutely appalled to find out that our country had designed and participated in such a disgusting form of cruelty. Not only were these women being sterilized without their knowledge, they were taken away an inalienable right that no other human being should have the power to take away which is the right to bear children.
Not only were African American women targeted for sterilization, African American men were also being targeted as well. These groups of people were being discriminated based on their skin color and were now being targeted for what whites believed to be “the downfall of Western civilizationâ€. This entire way of thinking was brought upon by scientific prejudice and the Medias presentation of this falsified information. Many articles were written about the “lazy, hyperfertile welfare mother†which generalized all African American women as living freely off the government and constantly reproducing.
One quote that I especially loved while reading the Black Stork and one which I think highlights the inherent racism that still is going on in this country to this day is when one African American parent said “My daughter can be implanted with Norplant or have an abortion without my input or knowledge via the school-based clinic, but my suburban c-workers field calls from school nurses who must get their permission to give their daughters an aspirinâ€. It is sickening that such practices are still taking place today. That our society has not been able to get out of the mentality of blaming the victim and not looking at society as a whole and trying to figure out why there is differences between race and class and what they, as an individual might be doing to perpetuate these differences. I believe that everyone needs to look within themselves and try to figure out what they, as an individual can do to make a difference and stop placing blame on the victims in which we have created within our society.
The paper “Old Roots, New Shoots: Eugenics of the Everyday” pointed out some very scary things eugenics are perpetuating in our country today. Genetic screening seems horrifying in that it could be made mandatory and could deny people with pre-disposed genetic diseases health insurance. This would further alienate them from U.S. society causing emotional and physical distress without the aid of any kind of health care. Even worse, fetal genetic screening has the potential to diminish the population of people with certain “defective” genes whether they are life threatening or not. “Defective” can come from a medical stand point but also that of the parents, depending their personal beliefs and whether or not they feel they can support a disabled child. Depending on how widely used this method could become, parents could use it to abort a fetus based on their own eugenic beliefs. Now that the human genome project is complete, and the government is funding private companies to come up with “new medical applications,” these companies will surely have their own ideas about what is “defective” or not and also have the money to enforce these ideals, further perpetuating eugenics.
Also, I never really thought of eating disorders as being influenced by eugenics but after reading this article it makes perfect sense. A friend of mine who was anorexic in high school and is now bulimic has always been a perfectionist in every aspect. She is blonde, has blue non-prescription contacts, maintains deans list at an Ivy League school, and exercises tirelessly, all at the expense of her current and long term health. This is definitely a society so entrenched with eugenics ideals I didn’t even think of how they affect psychological disorders like eating disorders. It seems as though society is actually reverting back to the early 20th century when eugenics was first proposed to use medical information to “end social ills by encouraging the birth of children with good, healthy, and beautiful traits.” (The Black Stork)
The U.S. has become much more racially, ethnically, economically diverse since the beginning of the philosophy of eugenics.. it seems unreal that these ideals have never left and are becoming more prominent in our society once again. It’s scary we have such little control over government policy, limiting immigration and controlling the population through steriliation methods and environmental justifications. Why is it that the government chooses to expend its resourses on the war in Iraq rather than our own domestic social programs? Why is it ok to endorse pharmaceutical testing on people in third world countries??
I found the different takes articles very poignant and informative.
In James Oldham’s discussion of Malthusian Narratives, the generalized assumptions about population impacts on the environment seem short sighted. Rather than addressing the economic and political systems that create environmental degradation these narratives consistently place the blame on the poor and the responsibility of population control ultimately on women. As was the case in Madagascar, government policies, environmental and political inequalities were the major causes of environmental degradation, not overpopulation in poor communities.
Another outlined idea that disturbed is the idea that AID organizations come into some of these poor communities with predetermined ideas and goals in terms of what they want to see happen. Their programs are not based on what the community needs, nor what may be in its best interest. With the trend toward the “community target setting, monitoring and celebration†intervention models, I can see how a predetermined agenda, coupled with few resources can result in poor communities being subjected to implementation of programs that are “doable†because they are monitoring “success rates†in terms other than those that may be most indicative of true change and community improvement.
Old Roots, New Shoots was very disturbing. I had trouble with some of the connections drawn, such as the connection between non-native plants / animal species and human immigrants. I disagree with the idea that “notions of natural purity†make racism and ethnic prejudice more acceptable. I just don’t see the connection there.
I do agree with the author in the idea that our belief of “consumer rights as the foundation of free enterprise and democracy†encourages “positive†eugenics. The idea that we should be able to design our children (if we have the economic resources) or end pregnancies due to disability, or that there is a connection between race or ethnicity and crime or intelligence or disease susceptibility without addressing socioeconomic factors that are true indicators of these issues.
10 Reasons to Rethink ‘Overpopulation’ was an excellent article that I really enjoyed reading. It addressed many of the issues that the other articles brought up for me, especially those concerning human rights, the role of markets and political forces and the notion that these messages are being propagated by certain areas of thought with particular goals. This article did a wonderful job showcasing that fact that governments enforce or encourage population control among poor and female populations yet do not address the economic and political systems that are in effect which perpetuate this poverty. This is supported by the idea that many of the reasons given to support overpopulation are actually the result of political policies, not overpopulation at all. For example, in the United States, farmers are paid to overproduce certain crops, which are then stored and often rot in order to maintain a certain economic balance. At the same time there are more than “1.2 billion people who earn less than $1 per day†who are living in poverty and food insecurity. This is a failure of government, not a problem of overpopulation.
Population control is obviously an issue of human rights and women’s rights as well. As the article states “all women should have access to high quality, voluntary reproductive health care servicesâ€. When good medical care for women and the general population is sacrificed for services that are based on population control, is that not a violation of human rights? An example of this is described in Bangladesh in the 70’s & 80’s when reducing fertility was considered more important than primary health care focused on preventing and treating malaria, improving maternal and child health and addressing malnutrition. Poor people who could not afford better care had their health sacrificed in order to prevent population growth. A strategy which is short sighted and a solution to problems that do not result from overpopulation in the first place.
These articles represent yet more examples of how women and the poor bear the burden of the world’s troubles in so many different ways. The are disproportionately effected by the problems blamed on overpopulation such as poverty, disease, food insecurity and malnutrition and environmental degradation while at the same time being blamed for these problems.
Like most Americans, I recognize the top institutions of our nation to produce brilliant scholars that enlighten us with their research results in research journals, mainstream newspaper articles as well as their own published books. After reading these articles, (specifically Security Survival and the Black Stork) I was astounded to find that graduates of Standford and medical schools were spreading their ideas of racism by presenting them as facts backed up with research (which was unfounded). What’s scary is that most people won’t question a respected man from these institutions and will passively accept this racism and treat it like newly acquired commonsense. This is truly disturbing. Especially because the media exacerbated the situation by printing articles with simple headlines about this research or ideology without any questioning themselves. Maybe they were just as passive as the rest of America who bought into these racial myths or maybe they wanted to sell more papers. Either way, I’m dissapointed in the so-called “scholars” and the media for selling these racial myths as truth to the public.
To clarify my disgust for these people, I will point out examples in the readings. The first can be found in the Security and Survival reading. The perpetraitor: Paul Ehrlich. The crime: Writing a book called the Population Bomb that accuses third world, minority, and lower classes of overpopulating our world which can only support a small amount of people. He would like us to believe that poor people bring poverty on themselves by having too many children which drains the wealthy of their resources to support them. Therefore, the priviledged are “obsolved from responsibility and free of complexity.” He uses the excuse that there are not enough resources for everyone to survive on earth so we need population control to make sure that we survive (aka the healthy and wealthy). He draws on the fears of non-hispanic whites, that immigrants and minorities are draining the resources and how we need to cut our losses. The fact is that there are enough resources on the planet to feed and support our population, the problem is that most of it is concentrated to a small percentage of the population who isn’t willing to share. Another fact that dismisses the overpopulation myth is that the world’s population has been declining since the 1960’s. Fighting overpopulation isn’t as imperative as Paul Ehrlich would like us to think. Eliminating people from a social class shouldn’t be used as a method to fight poverty. Overpopulation is not causing poverty; concentration of resources is causing and maintaining poverty.
Another perpetraitor: Dr. Harry J. Haiselden. The Crime: condoning and practicing the belief of eugenics. The belief that those unfit for life, aka defective, aka genetically inferior, aka black shouldn’t be nurtured but should be eliminated from our society for the overall good of society. Haiselden created a medical atmosphere where it was acceptable to kill off these select infants and parents actually looked for doctors to do so. The media increased the acceptability and popularity of eugenics by making the film “The Black Stork.” The film blatantly labeled blacks as inferior, immoral, irresponsible and demanded their elimination from our society. The popularity of eugenics crossed the ocean to Germany and prevailed there with the help of the Nazis.
These are just two men who warped the impressionable views of many American citizens as well as people from all over the world with their beleifs of white superiority and need for greater control over others. They didn’t accomplish this all alone. Their accomplice was the media, a profit driven, white-owned machine that infected millions with racism, classism, and sexism. I can only hope that today people question the media and authority figures and that people are actively trying to fight these racial myths and stereotypes.
The two articles from “Reproductive Rights and Wrongs” completely changed the way I viewed overpopulation. Completely. Despite an interest in global health and in women’s health specifically, somehow I had never come across information that made me question the commonly accepted ills caused by overpopulation. It seems so logical that more people equals more pollution, less jobs, overcrowding in urban areas, more soil erosion, less clean water. Along with that is the misplaced Americanized truism that more children, bigger families, exacerbate already poor living situations, burdening the individuals within that family and those in the surrounding community. The idea that the propaganda deeming overpopulation as the root of many of society’s problems, from environmental degradation to political unrest, is so insidious, yet so far from the real causes of these problems, is eye-opening.
Our current policies and beliefs regarding the so-called third world is still ridden with a combination of exploitation and fear of the other. The readings seemed most depressing when they exposed how in almost every facet possible, those in power have exploited those not in power, and to the greatest extent they were able. In describing the reasons behind the environmental degradation in El Salvador, Hartmann describes how the elites pushed local farmers onto less arable land, causing not only soil erosion but also the inability of families to sustain themselves on the product of their land alone. This second effect worked well for the large landowners, giving them a seasonal labor force that was poor enough to have to work to support their family, but not so poor they had to have all their basic needs met by the large landowners.
And perhaps what I found most amazing about Hartmann’s discussion of the various causes of the problems we like to blame on overpopulation was how much more hope focusing on those various causes seemed to contain. The view of a wildly-breeding, uncontrollable other, ignorant of western cultural values, as the cause of so many global crises creates a sense of fatalism, especially for those who would be unwilling to openly accept selectively pushing birth control measures on powerless women. If these problems are instead results of unequal distribution of resources, of a lack of empowerment and equality among populations, those problems not only seem conquerable, albeit very difficultly, but can inspire a following and fit into a socially-progressive agenda. The focus on real issues, and issues that inspire solidarity, call for the very actions that proponents of overpopulation propaganda want to suppress.
I found the “Black Story” very interesting and most of all, easy to read. Sangers movement into the birth control era paved the way for what is so commonly used today. Birth control allows the woman to regulate what she contributes to the population but before this was a possibilty, doctors took it into their own hands. It is hard to understand why the doctors would have sterilized women unknowingly but it is also hard to make judgements based on readings because we do not have the doctors point of view (I do not agree with sterilization) It is hard to believe that such events could have taken place and it puts much appreciation on the fact that women, and women of color have won their rights. Although the eugenics article might not agree totally and still feels that the population is controlled and for reasons not everyone agrees with, I think for the most part, change will eventually bring equality. In third world countries and developing countries, the poverty is so high that funding and education of health awareness and care is extremely hard to distribute. With time I feel that all women will be equally educated on the, and even though eugenics is unconsciously present in society, our culture has created it. With advertisments, film, and celebrities showing tall, skinny models and beautiful buff men, it is no wonder that our society is striving for a specific assumed perfectness. In reality not much of the population looks like those glamorized. I think that with technological advances, Americans have lead themselves to their own downfall of being worried about appearance and what is normal.
I have to agree with McLovin’ in saying that reading about forced sterilization and eugenics is just truly heartbreaking. Before the readings for this week and watching the video last class I had not ever thought about birth control as a negative. Not in the context of racial issues anyway. I, like many others, thought of birth control, the pill in particular, as a positive invention that was empowering for women. I thought of birth control as a way for women to have control and choice. However, after reading “The Black Stork” my feelings about birth control have been questioned. I now see a complete different side to birth control and its uses. I have read and learned about IUD’s and other forms of birth control as a way of population control amongst women of color, African American women in particular, however I had not thought of the pill in this way. I am not sure why it had not occurred to me that the pill could be used just as much like the other forms of birth control. Now that I think about the fact that the pill was one of the first forms of contraceptives i can see how it was used as a political measure to prevent overpopulation among races the government thought to be unfit.
This leads me to the eugenics aspect of “The Black Stork” article. Eugenics is a part of this country that leaves me speechless. I do not know what to say about about the eugenics movement, aside from the fact that its a disgrace. I can not believe that our country, the country that I live in and take pride in being a part of, would have the eugenics movement as part of its history. People believed that they could actually say who they wanted to be part of this world and who they wanted to kill out. It sounds more severe when you use the words “kill out” but this is what was going to happen if the eugenics movement had continued.
An article that focused somewhat on the issue of overpopulation made an large impact on my view of overpopulation, which is why I was very interested in “10 reasons to rethink Overpopulation”- The article says that the era of rapid growth is over, whereas from the media and certain politically motivated articles depict this dire and imminent overpopulation issue. I overlooked the fact that today, women are out of their previously dominant role of house wife, and increasingly out into the real career world, and therefore are having children later, and more spred apart, if not in smaller quantities. The media portrays the issue of overpopulation as something that we need to address immediately, basically implying that we should all hoard our food and water for the decades to come. As stated in another article, the issue IS the inequal distribution of resources, not that there are “too many mouthes to feed”. Another connection that i subconciously overlooked is the fact that people in third world countries are consuming MANY more calories than boiologically/nutritionally needed, creating this percieved stress on our food sources. It seems to me that this percieved issue is more of a selfish defense mechanism to make sure that we as a nation have all we need, more, and surplus as far as food goes, while other countries in still the same need, if not worse. This also goes to show that simply put, these ideas are pushed mostly upon people of lower economic status as well as minorities in order to further the gap between the “haves” and “have nots” of the world.
The eugenics article also raised my eyebrows as well as my spun my moral compass. Though i plan on pursuing a career as a nurse specifying in women’s health and i completely agree with genetic screening, but it goes against my stance which is more or less “what will be, will be”. I can only see negative coming out of this as another form of oppression and elitism- It is theperpetuation of variation in life and people in general that makes the world closer to equality, and incites compassion and empathy in others. Not to mention, having these genetic anomalies give way to new technology and medicinal practices. If eugenics were implemented, it would make our world a much more bland place.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s story put knots in my stomach. No wonder the incidents of sterilization and experimentation on women of color is an absolute abomination, not to mention one of the most embarassing and savage things to have ever been done in our country’s history. In the same spectrum, the fact that in the case of eugenics, “well born” means “well off, or wealthy, or born to wealthy children”- this is exactly the reason why I believe that eugenics should not be implemented. There has been and always will be certain people that disply gross deficiencies of cultural relativism by saying that it is “black wiry hair, and prostagnathous profiles” were the antithisis of beauty, when in fact, it is from this area that homo sapiens emerged. The “Mississippi appendectomy” is further support that some, if not most of eugenics in general is simply a way of pushing homogeny (specifically aryan/caucasian looking)of agent groups.
I found the readings from this week to be both very informative, and shocking. In the last couple weeks of this class I have learned a lot about population control, and about contraception. Before reading these articles I too had adopted the Western views of overpopulation. I had only heard theories about overpopulation that discussed increasing birth rates. I had heard about how poverty hunger was due to overpopulation rather than poor distribution of resources. I was shocked to read in Reproductive Rights and Wrongs that we have enough resources for everyone in the world to receive a 3000 calorie diet daily, yet so many people go hungry. Although I was well aware that resources are not distributed evenly I was unaware that this uneven distribution is the sole reason that people go hungry and live in poverty.
The second theme through out the articles that I found both informative and honestly rather disturbing is how women are used as experiments. The articles described how with many forms of contraception such as Depo-Provera, The Pill, and Norplant women were used as guinea pigs. Researchers administered these contraceptive methods, to mostly poor underprivileged minority women, without knowing the safety of these methods. The most shocking thing of all is that these methods were still given to women after researchers and doctors had found that they had serious, often life threatening risks associated with them. These women were not informed of the risks, but were still given the contraceptive to simply control the population. I find it shocking what they did, and often still do to women throughout the world. I think that we need to start looking at the bigger picture of what really causes poverty, hunger, and unemployment rather than blaming overpopulation and in turn women.
The article “10 Reasons to Rethink ‘Overpopulation'” was particularly interesting to me. I have always believed that our world is facing serious overpopulation issues that need to be addressed and helped. I always hear people stressing over concerns of not having enough food to feed today’s ever-increasing population, and the poverty families with “too many children” and families of different races face. This article proves that people are in hysteria over nothing; that overpopulation concerns are more underlying issues of racism, stereotypes, and an attempt to restrict women’s reproductive rights. Little did I know that not only is the world not constantly growing in numbers of people, but in some parts of the world such as Europe, there is a steady decline in population. Our country is also not facing a food shortage either. There is plenty of food to feed every mouth, is it more a matter of having the money or land to get it. While the United States is the largest food producer in the world, 10% of our nation goes hungry….does that make any sense? People also have a vision of african american women being on welfare and having more children than they can support. This link of racism to overpopulation is not only stereotypical, it is also inaccurate. Most women on welfare have an average of less than 2 children, so where did this idea originate from? Lastly, the view of women as mere producers or “breeders” is having a serious effect of women’s health care. In the attempt to bring birth rates down, health services is done cheaply and fast. Forms of sterilization and long-term contraceptives are often given out to treat this “problem” we are having. This form of treatment only provides greater health risks and does not protect from STDs, a major concern. All of these factors are the truth behind the urgent “need” to control population rates, and most people, including myself, do not even realize how unnecessary it all is.
I took a psychology course last year and we were taught about the genetics of race and sexuality. We were told that there were a number of biological factors that influence the sexuality of a child, like, having a male hormone in the womb may make a child gay. And in class it was stressed that the human race’s genes are something like, 99.99% similar to each other. It never occured to me that this science was potenitally very harmful and disasterous. I was reminded of that class while reading the “Eugenics of Everyday†article which touched upon a point that I found very intriguing and spot on : trying to teach anti-racism, can ironically enforce the race binary. Focusing on privilege is tricky because it could mean supporting concepts of biological race, eugenics, etc. But, like the article said, we don’t focus on what really makes us similar: class, goals, hopes, etc. Because of this focus on the biological matters, we overemphasize and attribute more meaning to certain variables like race, and underemphasize and minimalize perhaps more important factors like the effects of classism, racism, sexism, etc.
Something else that struck me was the concept of how we, Westerners, look at large families and the third world view of reproduction, with a huge superiority complex and an elite, ethnocentric attitude. Let me preface this with, I don’t approve of child labor, sweat shops and the abuse of workers. Even though I technically employ these children, and workers working for an unfair wage, since I often buy things produced by them, I don’t feel good about it. By buying non-sweatshop shoes, and union made tee-shirts and Fair Trade coffee, I often feel better, like I’m helping these workers and giving them voices. I thought that my views were progressive. However, while reading “Reproductive Rights and Wrongsâ€, the article spoke about how having large families was a means of survival because child labor is really important economically to these families. And the article goes on to talk about the many ways in which the children are employed. Then I felt like *that* Westerner with a superiority complex, here I am , thinking that child labor is awful, but it’s crucial to the family’s survival, as well as that child’s. Then I thought about the difference between working on one’s family farm and being a caretaker verus and working for an unfair wage. If everybody were to stop supporting child labor, and maybe the UN would shut down all the sweatshops, what would happen to the families who need that money to survive? They would probably not do well and life would be even harder for them. This article helped me revise my thoughts on the issue: that sweatshops/some forms of child labor would be fairer and more okay, if they were paid a fairer wage, had benefits, had freedom in their job position, had workers rights, were able to unionize and worked under safer conditions,etc …but the root of this problem is really the capitalist system, because the children will never be able to get out of the rut they and they’re families are stuck in without having the education and options to succeed, and to have the access to education they would need the finances, which they wouldn’t be able to acquire if not working in a factory…The irony.
The readings for this week really helped me broaden my knowledge regarding these issues of population control and how it relates to womens fertility issues. As PinkGrl said above, I think I sort of had a Western view of population control, that poor women were unable to do this because of their financial situation. The article ‘Security and Survival’ really made me realize that in countries other than the US, having many children is more of a means of security; the more children in a family, the better guarantee that the family will have financial/economic success. This is because children’s responsibilities are to help out with earning money, putting food on the table, and taking care of their siblings.
I agree with what Star24 said above: That the people who are so concerned with the world’s population growing are really concerned with other issues, such as racism, and the attempt to control the reproductive rights of women. This makes me angry.. people should open their eyes and minds to see what the real issue is here. Several of the readings make a point of saying that the population has been declining, yet this issue is still coming up. Is it really about how many people there are in the world? Or is it the need for control? Controlling women and their bodies. Disgusting.
Regarding the notion of eugenics, I agree with AAA1313 in saying that if this practice is implimented, it will lead to more oppression, and more negativity in our society, not to mention lack of diversity. This weeks readings have made me say “this sucks” out loud at least 10 times..
This week’s readings have really opened up my eyes to the unfair treatment that women of color, especially African Americans, STILL receive in this day and age. If you take a step back and think about all these issues concerning birth control methods, black women are constantly the ones who are pressured and misled into sterilization. They are also encouraged to use Depo Provera and Norplant when these methods have continually shown to be harmful to a woman’s body and have terrible side effects. When I first started using birth control I talked to my doctor about the different options available to me and I can not remember my doctor recommending Norplant or the show, and I am Caucasian. It really makes me wonder if my doctor would have encouraged different methods if I was African American. I feel this is a form of racism because we are pressuring African American women to use unsafe birth control methods without giving them the facts! It is really sad and pathetic that our society feels the needs to control certain populations using unsafe contraceptive methods. White women would never be pressured to use unsafe methods, so why should other groups be subjected to this?
Another issue from this week’s readings that boggles my mind is that population-environment programs blame environmental degradation almost solely on poor communities and especially on poor woman’s fertility and I feel this is just a cop-out. In some cases over-population can lead to forest degradation and the depletion of natural resources, but this is definitely not the case in all situations. It seems as if people need to place the blame on someone or something for the degradation of our environment and highly populated areas become the scapegoats when the issues are much deeper than this.
The article about rethinking overpopulation was surprising to me, and I agree with Star24 because I also thought that overpopulation was a huge concern for our world when in reality there are underlying issues, such as racism and stereotypes, that stir up the notion of overpopulation. I was shocked to read that in Europe the population has been declining and people are concerned about this! It was also interesting to read that scientists believe the world population will eventually stabilize in 2175. I agree with this article when the author stated that hunger is not a problem about “too many mouths to feed†because global food production has always kept up with current population. People go hungry because they do not have land to grow it on or the money to buy it. Overall, all of the readings from this week have changed my perceptions about birth control and over-population because I now understand these topics a little more and realize there are underlying issues that complicate these things, such as racism and the need to suppress women’s reproductive rights.
Across the different readings i saw a couple of themes that really stood out to
me; racism, lack of resources, and most importantly fear. These
were factors i hadn’t really thought about before in the discussion of population growth.
I completely agree with the “10 reasons to rethink over population” in that
there are so many more global issues out there that we should be worrying about. That there are so many more determinants that go into population growth and
decline other than food production or lack there of. The focus shouldnt be on
overpopulation but one of the issues involved is the racism that comes out of the belief that those in poverty are causing and reinforcing a population problem. Most agricultural fields are owned by multinational companies that pay workers little to no money.
One example or racism that stood out to me was in the Reproductive Rights and Wrongs article. The example of the people of the sub saharan “breeding like animals”. Honestly, before i read these articles i hadn’t really given much thought to over population but i have to say when that example was brought up I feel like iwas one of those people that did think that people of south africa had no control over their sexual needs/wants. My friend is actually in south africa right now and before she left her friends were worried about her getting raped down there and contracting HIV/AIDS. Our racism like Betsy Hartman describes is one that operates on a silent, unspoken yet commonplace belief. My racism was so subconscious, i just automatically thought these were the type of people they were. Same with my friends thinking the way they did. It was never spoken about yet how did we all come to the same conclusion? So rediculous of me to have thought that although now my views have definitely changed. Instead of viewing them as “breeding animals” i thought about their situation. We live in a country in which birth control is readily available. People in third world countries dont have that type of access. They dont have the resources like we do. More focus should be on ways of getting methods of birth
control more readily available to those who want or need it.
The 10 reasons article also touched upon world food production. The U.S is the largest food producer in the world yet one in ten American families go hungry or are the verge of going hungry. That to me is incredible. There is enough food in the world to feed every man woman and child yet people go hungry everyday. This example also makes me think about how much i take my food for granted. I waste so much food. I really should feel more greatful for what types of resources I am able to attain.
Justifying racial and ethnic stereotypes (racism) also creates fear for overpopulation of certain types of people. There is a lot fear in that certain undisirable traits and ethnicities will continue growing and overpopulate society. When i hear about ethnic cleansing and sterilization i immeadiately thought of nazism. Why would anyone want to return to that kind of regime? Its sad today and almost unfathomable to know, however, that people still think this way. In my town, which was once predominantly Italian, immigrants of latino and hispanic ethnicity have come to populate the community. Anti-immigration groups run rampant. The older italians are angry that this new wave of hispanic and latino familes are “taking over” and leading the neighborhood down a dangerous path- other than what they are used too. I hope that both types of ethnicities can come together and rather than focusing on gettin rid of eachother focus on how to make our community better. Same for the global issue of overpopulation. Rather than worrying about a problem that doesnt really exist, we need to focus reducing the fear and racism associated with certain groups and most importantly gettin the resources to those who need them.
I totally agree with many of the statements made by Betsy Hartman in her book Reproductive Rights and Wrongs. I believe that women are treated as second class citizens because in many cultures women and their female children are not valued as highly as men and male children. Women’s work is undervalued even though in many societies they have the most responsibilities in terms of child rearing, cooking, growing food, and clothing the family. Daughters are not treated with the same respect and care that sons are due to the idea that the son will stick around and take care of his parents in their old age, where as daughters are bought and sold like cattle through marriage and leave the home at an early age to help contribute to their new husband’s family.
This de-valuing of women and their work in some societies leads to the justification of abuse of female children. This abuse takes many forms such as giving girls less food, less health care, to even more drastic forms of abuse such as female infanticide and sex selective abortion. China’s one child rule is a huge instigator of sex selective abortion. Because of this law couples will go into an ultrasound with the notion that if the baby is a boy he will be worth more to them so they will keep it, however if the baby is a girl they decide to have an abortion. This can lead to un-equal sex ratios in later generations.
The idea of some societies giving preference to male children over female children in terms of health care is one I am familiar with. In another class that I had we discussed this topic and watched a video which really horrified me. In the video a mother talks about the health of her male and female children. She says that if a boy gets sick the family will spend all of their money on medical bills to make sure he lives. However if a girl gets sick, the family will not take her to the doctor because it is believed that the cost of medical treatment outweighs the value of the girl because she will be married off anyway. So they let the girl die because she is not valued as highly as the boy. This makes me sick.
The reading that sparked the most interest in me was “Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control”. Not only did I strongly agree with many of the points made in this reading, but it brought to mind the concept of distribution of resources, which seems to be a common theme not only in this reading, but in our class as a whole thus far. In regards to distrubution, there was a portion of the reading that discussed environmentally harmful processes and their relation to population growth. Although the Malthuistic view seems to blame environmental problems on population growth, Hartmann says, “There is a vast difference, for example, between the land degradation caused by corporate grain farming in the United States, much of which goes to feed livestock, and small-scale, labor-intensive rice cultivation in Asia, which feeds millions of people.” This point alone is a huge reason why I personally chose not to support the meat industry.
I strongly believe that if everyone cut back on their meat consumption, there would be a positive impact on our environment. Therefore, rather than blaming population growth for many of our problems in our world, it is essential to look at what initially caused these problems to occur. Most of these problems that we face today dealing with population growth can be traced back to colonialism and as Hartmann says, “The impact of population growth differs from country to country and is influenced by a variety of factors”, therefore there is no east answer. It isn’t population size thats the problem, but greed, which is the real issue at hand.
First, I enjoyed this weeks readings, as much of the class did too. I think the issue of “over-population” need to be explored in different contexts, as many of these articles suggest. Often, the problems of overpopulation seem connected to those with the fewest resources. As one of the articles stated, enough food is produced globally for each person to exceed their necessary calory intake daily. The reason people are hungry is due to a lack of access to land in resources. As cited, in Brazil 1% of the country’s richest own more than 50% of the arable land. This is a gigantic problem for Brazil. In my economics class we studied this issue and found that the majority of Brazil’s poor are landless and thus, homeless. Meanwhile, the country’s richest own’s so much land that remains unproductive. IN recent years, there has been a development of a landless movement in Brazil, where the country’s poor take over the un-used land of the rich. Land is viewed as an inalienable right. Since the start of the movement, many thousands of poor families have received access to the land and their living conditions have vastly improved due to the fact that they have access to more resources produced from the land, such as foodstuffs. The main point being, that land is held in scarcity whereas if it were distributed more equitably, more people could have access to the vital resources they lack.
In addition, this weeks readings pointed to the fact that blaming the impoverished for overpopulation points fingers away from whose really to blame. First, I think that not one source remains responsible for any one societal problem. But politicians and governments need to accept some of the weight for the state of the people in their countries rahter than merely stating that people are having too many kids, and thus it is their own fault that they can’t support themselves. I think the problem boils down to an unequal access to resources. One of such resources is a woman’s ability to choose. In many countries, woman are not given access to the right of control over their own bodies. I think that this is a basic human right for women to have the ability to choose. In addition, this ability includes that of having or not having children. In some places, including the united states, women are forcibly steralized in the name of population control. I think this is a complete violation of human rights to take away the ability for women to control their own reproductive health.
Finally, these articles improved my understanding of the issues at hand in concerns to overpopulation. More so, people need a better understanding that the issue isnt’ really overpopulation but an unequal distribution of vital resources.
This week, the reading that realy stood out for me was the “Reproductive rights and wrongs: the global politics of population control” by Hartmman. It really made me mad and intimidated just with the fact of how people can find excuses, decent arguments to place the blame on the victims, in order to hide the truth
(the ones who are really guilty of things that are going on in our society).All those theories made and argued to place the blame “why society is going down or why society are suffering with things such as global warming” on overpopulation are scapegoats. The entire theories blamed over-population to be the cause and foundation for everything that is going wrong with our society.
I remember last class, we actually were discussing about whos responsibility was the distribution of contraceptives, or to limit population and many responded that the responsibility of controling births rely mainly on women. In other words, if women have many children is their fault and they are not being
responsible enough and that they are ignorant. But, really when you deepily think about it, many women specially in poor communities dont even know if contraceptives exist, and many women cant have access to them, due to the fact that in areas where they live may not have close health facilities near by to
provide them info and give them access about contraceptives. Also another thing is money, they cannot afford contraceptives and the governemt for sure right now are not willing to provide good contraceptives that wont place anyone’s lives at risk. Im sure many of us have commmited iresponsible sexual behaviors such as drinking and having unprotected sex with a stranger, and if it wasnt for those emergency pills many of us would have had so many kids; so why are we judging other women, basically “us”(we are women too) for having too many children, not thinking about others women’s life circustances. Another thing is why are we making such a big deal with over-population. I my self dont agree that term even exist. The nature is enough to give all of us decent amount of food for all of us to make it through a day. The problem is that many of us are having too many resourses and others having none. How many of us, have thrown so many good food away, while others are dying to have just a little bit of what we throwing away.
Another thing that really pissed me off when reading, was just the thought about “who are these people such as Ehelichs, Malthus” to say things such as over-population is why we have so many problems in the world. My question to
them is “why are they trying to control who can live and who cannot”, because im sure if their mothers took birth control, they themselves would not even be born. I totally agree with the author when he was saying that we should view population as “enhancers of nature” not “takers from nature” because no one owns nature. The problem with society has nothing to do with the population
growth, because every day people die and every day people are born. The problem is that we dont want to equally share our resources that belongs to all of us. Finally, the government is there on power not to make decisions who should be born or who shouldnt, but the government should be looking for ways to
accomodate every member of the population, making sure they have the main necessities of life. People need to stop thinking, Ohhh we cant afford feeding everyone, its not about money; money is manmade. Also how can we afford feeding everyone if many of us have too many resources that are not even necessary for
survival, such as ipods, iphones, buying jewlery every weekend….how can we feed everyone if we over feeding ourselfs with things that are not food, water, thing humans and animals in general need to survive?
I was very interested about the underlying theme of the mobilization of fear
by the dominant group in the readings for this week. Many politicians and
people in power have used this tactic of inciting fear in the post-9/11
America in which we live in. People are taking advantage of this horrible
and “unprecedented” act of terrorism (because truthfully and historically,
terrorism has occurred within the U.S. before, just never targeting the
dominant group ie: the enslavement of African Americans, Japanese
concentration camps, the largest forced migration in history with Native
Americans, slave labor of Chinese Americans on the West Coast, etc.) to incite
fear and xenophobia into the general American public, causing them to
participate in the ideologies/actions behind such things as the eugenics
movement. This can be seen specifically in the article “Old Roots, New
Shoots” where Hartman explains the growing connection between Green-consciousness and anti-immigrant groups, where this so-called “threat†of immigration is being linked to something which is, in reality, a very big threat to our Earth, and is possibly the only issue out there today that is treated as being truly and wholly a GLOBAL, universal problem. Thus, with a behemoth of a concern as the conservation of our environment, the blame is placed on immigrants, as scapegoats and people of color are being held responsible for what the entire world has done to the planet. While it may seem ridiculous, it make sense as a political tactic, because by unifying these two fears and threats and convincing people that they are connected, the public feels the weight of a deteriorating environment and are therefore enabled to feel justified in their actions AGAINST immigrants and people of color. Furthermore, as the “10 reasons†article points out, “in many parts of the world, small farmers, especially women, are the main preservers of plant biodiversity through cultivating local crop varieties, preserving seeds, and forest stewardship.†Hence, it is people of color in the lowest socioeconomic classes and mostly women that are contributing the most to the preservation of the environment and natural resources, and YET it is these SAME WOMEN who are being targeted with sterilization tactics and the deleting of their race with the eugenics movement. This also goes back to the discussion we had last week about resources and how they can be sustained with an ample work-force. If there are more people than there are resources, shouldn’t jobs be created to enlist this larger population in jobs that will create more resources which will benefit both the country and the employee? Why is it that when immigration is brought up, there is immediately a feeling of hate towards minority groups and this notion of “stealing†what is rightfully America’s, when in reality, America is based on theft from Native Americans. But even neglecting this obvious discrepancy in history, WHY is it that the only solution to “overpopulation†and immigration issues is to target a women’s reproductive system? Why is sterilization even considered remotely acceptable in today’s world; is this HONESTLY the only option we have? Have all other solutions been exhausted already? Have we tried everything and now all we have left is to enforce sterilization and “aggressively promote†the use of long-term birth control like Norplant and Depo-Provera, regardless of their effect on any individual women’s health? Why is this okay, why aren’t more people around the globe outraged that this is happening? For me, it all comes back to this idea of fear, and the propagation of this ridiculous notion that the white male population is under attack by immigrants, terrorists (which have somehow become synonymous with each other), loss of resources, loss of food, etc. The key is to educate with the truth, not blanket these issues with an impenetrable force of fear.
I think the topic of overpopulation is one that is misunderstood greatly by those who know little about it. From these readings I started a discussion with one of my house-mates. She is very liberal and a very sympathetic person. Her take on it, was that a woman has every right to choose where, when, and how many children she wishes to have. However, to give her a different perspective I told her about a social movement Thailand, and the changes that occurred after it began. In Thailand, after the Vietnam war, the sex industry exploded due to impregnation of Thai women by US GIs and as a tourist appeal. While selling sex is illegal in Thailand, cracking down on it would force it underground, which would only enhance the problems. One individual (whose name I cannot remember) saw that they only way for his country to prosper, would be if it was able to curb it’s population growth and he began a family planning campaign. Here is where my friend interjected with arguments of eugenics, racial profiling (citing the discrimination felt by the off-spring of Thai women and American soldiers), and several other arguments against population control. However, this man’s campaign for family planning (he used a grass-roots approach and paired sexual health education with humor while distributing condoms to thousands of those who needed it most)grew into a huge movement. After he effected the population surge, the economy began to prosper, only to be halted with the threat of an AIDs epidemic. This prompted him into further action, which eventually carried over into advocacy for those infected. What started out as simple family planning education grew into an alliance between the governement, the media, and the social justice infrastructure of the entire country. While this anecdote is not exactly what we read, I feel that using it as an example is important.
After reading pseudonym’s blog posting, I began thinking about the last assigned readings in a different; perhaps more developed way than I had previously. Piggybacking on what pseudonym said about the burdens of our fear being carried by those that are different than us, be they immigrants, Muslims, other minority populations, the global poor, or groups throughout history such as Native Americans, aren’t these the same populations that carry the burden of “our right to consume†that and the issue of global warming being correlated with overpopulation.
Despite the role of the United States in producing greenhouse gasses and the majority of pollution contributing to global climate change and environmental damage, we still have firm, blind belief in our “consumer rights as the foundation of free enterprise and democracyâ€, not only in designing our children to be most desirable but also in consuming more of the worlds resources and then blaming other for the destruction of the environment and ailing health of the planet. Our “consumer rights†consistently trump the human rights of the rest of the world’s population. We, as a country, refuse to give up our consumer lifestyle, and are willing to enslave other people in various ways to continue that lifestyle, whether that is through cheap labor in other countries, wars over natural resources, the allowance of genocide or international health policies that do little to stem the transmission of fatal infections and diseases. These issues are seen as problems that affect “others†and work to our benefit. Perhaps these systems are different forms of population control, forces that work to maintain our comfortable way of life and prevent other populations from interfering with it.