Sunday, April 7, 2013

Why I Got Fed Up With Alice Walker's Autobiography

     I think Alice Walker has contributed so much with her prose and poetry, The Color Purple, made into the Spielberg movie with Oprah Winfrey, etc., criticized as making black men look bad, and have been enjoying her autobiography.
     The one thing that bothers me, is the part about her wanting to kill herself if she could not have an abortion at nineteen or twenty, when she was in college.  That is a bit cold towards an unborn child.  I got pregnant out of marriage, by my boyfriend at age twenty, when I was in college as well.  I was a singer and had hopes and dreams, but there was no way I would even have thought of not having my baby, and he is thirty years old now.  My ex husband married me in a so called, 'shot gun wedding,' but I would have had the child either way.  Six years later I unexpectedly got pregnant with my second child, now twenty-three going on twenty-four.
     I do not judge others, but Alice Walker says nine out of ten women, have had an abortion.  I have not, and I am now fifty-one years old, and cannot have children of course, in any way shape or form.  My own mother thinks that abortions are a good thing, and that women who have them suffer..., but I would not know, because I have not had one.  Sisters, if you are reading, all my female friends and family have, so do not think I judge.  I understand that sometimes someone would need or want an abortion, especially in rape or incest, threat to one's life, living on the street perhaps, and having no means of support, being way too young of course, like twelve, which also qualifies for rape, and no child that young should give birth, or finding that the fetus has a horrific birth defect, which would disable quality of life.  I do not think retinitis pigmentosa, which my sons and I have, would be in that category.  I just think the fetus is a person, and I know Baba people say, "oh Baba said the soul...", but truthfully I do not care, because I feel how I feel.  I mean why get rid of a perfectly good baby, that someone else might want, a nice single person or couple in fact, straight or gay, who cannot have kids of their own?  I do not have a problem with gay marriage, by the way, in case you are jumping to the conclusion that I am reactionary.  I am not.
     My own mother acts like you are not a real woman or something, unless you had an abortion, and says she councils all the women who come through, who had one.  So what am I, a freak, because I never had one?  I mean serious, man.  Don't you think these liberal feminist approaches go too far?  In fact frankly, as much as I love Walker's writing, and am interested in how she married a Jewish guy and all, I am going to stop listening to this, and send it back to the Library of Congress, Talking Books for the Blind.  I have had just about as much as I can take of pro-abortion rhetoric.  If anyone is angry at me, please feel free to exercise the first amendment.  I will respect what you say, I suppose.  It is the one thing I cannot stand about liberals, even though I am a Democrat. This is one reason, although I do not believe abortions should be illegal, I think if nine in ten, had one, they are too prevalent.
     I am going to go back to Condoleezza Rice's autobiography.  Plus, Alice Walker bitches about being blind in her right eye. Well I am too, but so what.  I don't bitch about it.
     Condoleeza Rice, although a Republican, like Laura Bush, is pro-choice, I am quite sure, and so am I.  Do not get me wrong, but I do not like to feel that abortions are good, because they really suck.  Watch a film about what they really do some time.  You can be a real woman and still not have one, even though a certain family member has no respect for my position, but I love her anyway.  When did killing babies get to be glorified, for crying out loud?  And, no I do not believe in killing babies in the war, like some sixties hippie would say to me, and have said to me.  You cannot bunch people up into a category, because they might have one opinion, and as I said, I understand, but still...
Look, as I said, I am not judging anyone.  I really am not.  All women are my sisters.  I just wish someone would respect how I feel, and not look at a virtue as some sort of shortcoming.  I do not put others down.  Why does anyone have to put me down?
     And, by the way, I am one of the people who have protested the drones, on facebook, and I am against war, and I am against killing, unless it is to save someone, like the holocaust, for example.  I did not believe in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  I do not like what we did, so please do not get the wrong idea about me.  
   
Note: I should not have said 'killing babies.'  That was not appropriate, and I do not think that way.  I guess I was mad at a certain person's attitude, and took it into my writing. My apologies to all or any I may have offended by my bad wording.  I am not going to write on this subject anymore, anyhow.  It makes me uncomfortable and is too sensitive a topic, so I was insensitive to write it, and it was even, in fact, too personal on all fronts.

2 comments:

  1. I do not think killing babies (via abortion) has ever been glorified by any of MY sisters that I ran/run with. I don't know anyone who ever celebrated or was happy about having an abortion either. I do respect how you feel. With love, D

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  2. You are right, Donna. Thank you. I think I was just complaining about the way a certain person acts, but you are completely correct. In fact I almost hid this article from facebook, and thought maybe I should not have written it. I know no one glorifies that, and I should not have worded it that way. I may later remove this article or at least edit it. Thanks for the earnest feedback. I think mostly I found Alice Walker depressing and negative, and am enjoying the refreshing lightness, although the suffering of discrimination in segregated pre-civil rights Burmingham, Alabama, of Condoleeza Rice's aut. I just could not take the heaviness. I have enough of that in myself. Much love.

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