Joyce Arthur: Hey Parliament, Keep Your Laws Off my Body. Canadian women won equality rights 27 years ago when the gender equality clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms took effect in 1985. Our Supreme Court has since protected and advanced women's constitutional rights on numerous occasions. Yet, several times since the turn of the 21st century, Parliament has seen fit to debate whether women's rights should be restricted. How can this happen? I'm speaking of course of the abortion debate, in which anti-choicers pretend that it's all about saving an unprotected class of "human beings" -- fetuses and embryos -- and not about completely subordinating pregnant women to their childbearing function, including forcing women by law to forfeit their own health and lives if necessary.
Most anti-choicers, including Canada's national anti-choice group Campaign Life Coalition, want to ban abortion under all circumstances, including to save the woman's life. But fetuses and pregnant women cannot be considered separately. "I am sorry, Mr. How Frightened Patriarchal Men Have Tried to Repress Women's Sexuality Through History | Sex & Relationships. May 29, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The sexual revolution was not sparked by a single incident and no particular group can claim credit (or blame) for carrying it forward. But the opposition to the sexual revolution goes much further than sex. At the beginning ... In primitive societies, men regarded women with the same dread they felt toward the natural world.
The first sexual prohibitions were likely Paleolithic taboos against intercourse with women during their periods. As time passed, men’s fear of women evolved into outright hostility, with the result that menstruating women were regarded as equal parts dangerous and filthy. Over the centuries, menstrual blood came to be regarded as mystical, and found its way into recipes for sex potions.