Everything in Pamela Morrison's post rang true to me. I have been
concerned about the pervasiveness of the so-called "empowerment" model,
in which hcps help mothers to clarify their choices and empower them to
make their own choices. In reality, this translates all too frequently
to a mentality that says, "It is your problem, live with it." Have
trouble breastfeeding? Well, you made the choice. Have trouble coping
with the pain of childbirth? You chose not to take drugs. Have trouble
making ends meet on one income? You chose to stay home with your
children, or have children when you did, and if they weren't planned, it
was because you didn't know enough to make a choice...
I have trouble seeing how this is much different from telling abused
women that it is their fault. We *know* that choices are not simple,
that not all people have the same choices, that making a choice without
adequate support to make the choice right is even worse than making a
lesser choice, because you will get blamed for it. I am angry when my
teenagers are told at school that it is up to them to make the right
choices, and the choices are presented supposedly value-free but
actually laden with mainstream values. We are expecting people to choose
without helping them to understand the full implications of the choices;
we are pretending that all choices are equally valid; we are not
considering the implication of an individual's choice on the lives of
others and we are not empowering people with the right kind of
information and support. I don't know why this has happened; it is a
by-product of po-mo culture and the reduction of free-will and democracy
to their lowest common denominator: I can do whatever I want. It doesn't
matter.
My son is protesting expropriation of a helpless little brook today. As
I was trying to find a way to explain when "Do you own this problem?"
was a relevant question and when it was not, I was thinking of the "not
in my back yard" mentality, and how it seemed that the back yards in
question were always behind corporate interests.
Sorry for the rant. This has been simmering too long and overflowed.
Jo-Anne

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