22.3.07
All Shock and No Substance: The Tate Plaza Display.
Alright folks, it's hot button time.The "And Justice for All" display is up at the Tate Plaza now, and it infuriates me to no end. Not (just) because I am staunchly pro-choice, but I am so sick of pro-lifers resorting to scare tactics to frighten people into their point of view. Yes, that is what an aborted fetus looks like; that's also what it looks like in the womb. These people are preying off society's natural aversion to blood and surgery to shock them away from pro-choice--all that display was pictures and no objective information at all. People would be just as disgusted with graphic shots of lobectomeys and the like, in spite of the fact that it is life-saving surgery. And often times, abortion is as well.
What also infuriates me is how they're forcing us to look at it. This display is huge, guys--it's taller than the walkway cover between Tate and the book store. And there's a half-assed little "Warning: Graphic Images!" sign in front of the stairs, which I noticed after the display. Not very effective, in my opinion. I am in no way advocating censorship, and I don't care if they want to make pictures of aborted fetuses available to the public, but forcibly throwing them in people's faces in a very high-traffic area is unprofessional and irresponsible. "But we're showing the truth!" some pro-lifers would say. Yeah, but re: brain surgery. Not necessarily something I want to see on my unassuming trot to class in the morning. I would complain about that display just as much, believe me.
I'm also tired of the demonization of surgery as a whole. People's gut reaction (pun intended, hee, but anyway) to seeing blood, bones, muscle, tissue, and the like is that of recoil--it's an instinct of ours. An image of a body cut open for heart surgery sets off alarms in people. And by the way, this explanation here is about the objective appearance of abortion, not whether or not it's the same as heart surgery per se. But once again, abortion is very life-saving in many occasions.
I had the unfortunate opportunity to get caught up in a debate with a staunch pro-lifer; she compared abortion to the holocaust and genocide. Yeah. I laughed in her face for that one. Radicals have no idea what they're talking about.
Vent over; later.
PS: A very special link for pro-lifers: "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion!"
† Anonymous
at 2:57 PM
‡
