Response to Sean's "Why are Abortions and Contraception an Issue?"

http://smc305christblog.blogspot.ca/2012/04/why-are-abortion-and-contraception.html?showComment=1334024388862#c7668876741391247187


Hello Sean, 


I found your views on abortion to be quite intriguing and the question of “Why are abortion and contraception an issue?” really made me want to look into the answer. Although you do make some valid points about how abortion is legal in Canada and so they have technically “won”, there is still a lot of controversy around the topic of abortion. 


What is Human?

Within your blog entry you stated that fetus' are not considered human, but the question remains as to who considers what is human? When is an embryo developed enough to be considered a life worth keeping? This is a very difficult question and people debate this issues all of time- some say that as soon as the female egg is fertilized, that embryo is alive and it is a living thing. Others believe that further down the stages of pregnancy, when the fetus has developed little fingers and toes, it is officially human. This is central to debate of abortion.


The US population is Split on Abortion
Contrary to your beliefs, I do not think abortion is a black or white issue, it is difficult to be either pro-choice or pro-life. This is why abortion remains to be taboo in popular culture and within society. The population within the US continues to have split positions on the issue of abortion.  According to Gallup's 2011 update on U.S. abortion attitudes, attitudes are almost split 50/50, with pro-choice having only 4% more of the population's support.1 Clearly, there is a significant divide in the attitudes of the American people. In Canada, however, 52% of those polled consider themselves pro-choice, while 27% are pro-life, and another 23% either unresponsive, or neither, according to Ekospolitics.ca.2 In comparison between pro-life and pro-choice, there is an obvious gap with a large majority of pro-choicers, but many were unresponsive so I would not really call Canada an extremely liberal state just yet. Although Canada is more open to the issues of abortion compared to the US, most television shows broadcasted in Canada are American productions, therefore the topic of abortion will remain taboo until it is accepted. 

Morality of Abortion: Majority Say it is Morally Wrong
Another interesting finding that the Gallup poll had uncovered is the question of morality and the percentage of Americans who find abortion to be a morally acceptable or unacceptable issue. According to poll, 51% of American's view abortion as morally wrong, while only 39% view it as morally acceptable (the article does not account for the missing 10%).1 With relation to these findings, it is clear that although individuals are more open to the pro-choice ideas, they still consider abortion to be a moral issue. This could also be a significant indicator of the continuous taboo of abortion in American culture. 

Why Do Christians have More Abortions?
To take the issue of abortion a little further, I would like to think about an interesting statistic brought up in lecture- Christians and Anglicans have more abortions in the US than any other religious affiliation. There are obviously many reasons why women have abortions; "3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 3/4 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner".3 In regards to Christians, however, and their strong pro-life values, it is interesting to see that a majority of abortions are preformed on Christians themselves.
I believe that a major reason for the high rate of abortions within Christians is the Christian idea of premarital sex being sinful and shameful behaviour. Within the Christian tradition, premarital sex is seen as sinful action and that intercourse is to be left until after marriage. But according to Centre for Disease and Control, in 2007, 84% of abortions were preformed on unmarried women.4  If a Christian unmarried women does decide to have unprotected sex before marriage and becomes pregnant, it becomes an extremely difficult situation, where the woman is crossed between the shame of having sex before marriage and the moral implications of abortion. Many women are influenced by their religious values and in order to disclose themselves from being known for having premarital sex, they decide to abort the fetus. It is clear, with the high number of abortions being preformed on Christian women that women value other areas of their values and lifestyles over pro-life Christian ideologies. 

Abortion continues to be a sensitive issue within North America, in which abortion continues to be a split issue within the US population and within Christian women and men between abortion and child bearing before marriage. Although abortions are legalized in Canada, I would not say they have “won” over pro-life activists because their voices are still apparent in many parts of the world. As stated earlier, the taboo will not be removed until there is a more prominent pro-choice ideology in America. 

References:


1. Saad, Lydia. "Americans Still Split Along "Pro-Choice," "Pro-Life" Lines". Gallup Politics. May 3, 2011. Accessed on April 9, 2012.  http://www.gallup.com/poll/147734/americans-split-along-pro-choice-pro-life-lines.aspx


2. "Canadians Decisively Pro-choice On Abortion". Ekospolitics. Ottawa: April 11, 2010. Accessed on April 9, 2012. http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/2010/04/canadians-decisively-pro-choice-on-abortion-april-1-2010/


3. "Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States". Guttmacher Institute. August 2011. Accessed on April 9, 2012. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html


4."Abortion Surveillance".  Centres for Disease and Control. Feb 25, 2011. Accessed on April 5, 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6001a1.htm?s_cid=ss6001a1_w

Secularized Apocalypse: "The Day After Tomorrow"

"The Day After Tomorrow" is a classic example of a secular apocalypse film. A secular apocalypse, according to lecture, is an apocalypse made by the actions of humans, either a single individual or an entire society. Secular apocalypses have no Divine supernatural being that causes the destruction, rather it is a result of human action. The fiction film "The Day after Tomorrow" describes future events of the Earth as a result of global warming. Obviously, the events displayed within the film are very exaggerated- a giant tsunami  that washes away New York, a tornado in the middle of Los Angeles, and an ice age that covers North America in a thick sheet of snow-but the lessons for society within the film are quite clear. The film follows Jack Hall played by Dennis Quad, as he tries to save his son Sam Hall, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and his group  of friends and other survivors, from the natural disasters occurring in New York City. Throughout the film, Jack and Sam struggle to withstand the forces of nature, but eventually manage to stay alive until the weather settles and they walk out into the world, which seems to be experiencing a new ice age. 


This film portrays many elements discussed within Ostwalt “Movies and the Apocalypse” whereby the author discusses secularized apocalypticism in film and its contrasting themes and elements compared to traditional apocalypse stories. By exploring religious ideas, such as the apocalypse, secularized films that have no religious references at all, still function religiously by imparting an ideology of the end of time (Ostwalt, 2003). 



One particular point that Ostwalt makes with regards to the elements of secularized apocalypses is that they draw from contemporary science fiction . This means that modern evil no longer comes in the form of a beast but a form that current society finds as an issue. Within “The Day After Tomorrow”, the beast is global warming and the end of the world is forced onto them not by a supernatural being but by a realistic issue in our current world. Today, apocalyptic stories are based on events that audiences can relate to. Although the events in “The Day after Tomorrow” are exaggerated, global warming does cause a potential threat to a large portion of humanity- either through water scarcity, natural disasters, or reduced biodiversity- which makes it an appropriate apocalyptic issue. 


Another commonality between Ostwalt's argument and “The Day after Tomorrow” is his argument that the end comes from human stupidity and greed. This removes the influence of the Divine and, instead, examines the role of humanity developing their own future. As a film based on global warming, a result of fossil fuel emissions due to human consumption and production, “The Day After Tomorrow” is a clear example of Ostwalt's argument: the end of the world as a result of human negligence, not of God's will. 


The final correlation between Ostwalt's argument and “The Day After Tomorrow”, is his argument that within secular apocalypses, humans are able to survive the end of disaster. According to Ostwalt “human ingenuity, scientific adaptations, and heroism allow humanity to survive” (Ostwalt, 2003).  Within the film, Jack, his son Sam, and the group Sam had been stranded with, manage to survive the disaster and the film ends with them walking out into the new world. In the final scene, the group exits the library and walks onto the snow covered ground. This leaves the ending rather open, not knowing who else has survived and how the group will be able to continue to survive in the current ice age. Although the continuation is unknown, their survival demonstrates how humanity was able to overcome an apocalypse-“saviors from destruction"- unlike evangelic apocalypse films where humans are powerless.


It is clear that there are many contrasting themes between evangelic apocalypses and secularized apocalypses, and Ostwalt's reading does an effective job of explaining these themes. 




References
Ostwalt, Conrad. “Movies and the Apocalypse.” In Secular Steeples: Popular Culture And 
The Religious Imagination, 157-88. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003

Response to Chloe's "Eve: The Original Desperate Housewife?"

Hello Chloe,

I enjoyed your blog entry and I thought your insights on the depiction of Adam and Eve in the beginning credits were very interesting and something that I myself have never noticed. I would like to take the opening credits a step further and examine other scenes within it that I thought were very interesting as well.

When one watches the opening credits of Desperate Housewives closely, the gender roles and stereotypes are portrayed multiple times. The first gender role demonstrated within the opening credits (second to the scene discussed in Cloe's blog entry) is the Egyptian woman surrounded by numerous children. This clip clearly portrays women as the housewife, attending to the children. It also seems to suggest that women are primarily “baby-makers”, and that their role is to have these children and stay at home to care for them. This stereotype defines women as caregivers and nurtures, and not as independent, work-oriented individuals. Although it is a short clip, this stereotype is quickly understood and it allows the viewer to intake a range of information from the use of the stereotype.

The second stereotype is examined within the clip of American Gothic, in which the husband is seduced by a beautiful woman, and the average-looking wife is left sadden. This scene demonstrates the divided gender role of women;either angels or vixens, average or vivacious, housewives or party-girl. This stereotype of women, which was also mentioned in lecture, divides women as one or the one. Women are characterized by two opposite identities that have become a product of the media and the manner in which women characters are portrayed. Desperate Housewives has also taken this gender stereotype and have used it within the character of Bree Van de Kamp. In the beginning of Desperate Housewives, Bree was portrayed as the religious woman with strong Presbyterian values. In this current season, however, Bree has become a promiscuous woman who has completely forgotten her values and has begun to exhibit the other female identity. It is definitely interesting that a television show with such strong female characters still use this stereotype to define women.

The opening credits also seems to demonstrate progress in the role of women. In the scene described in the earlier paragraph, the wife is left sadden by her seemingly adulterous husband. In contrast however, one of the final scenes with the Roy Lichtenstein cartoon, shows a woman hitting her husband after some sort of altercation. This scene contrasts the earlier scene because it demonstrates a strong and powerful, willing to defend herself. This implies that women have begun to move away from their passive and nurturing roles, towards strong independence.

Although many of the clips demonstrate traditional female roles, it seems that by the end of the opening scene women begin to move away from these ideas. Perhaps the media is beginning to move away from these gendered identities and are beginning to portray women as they truly are.