"Bro Choice"

The other day I stumbled upon this video called “Bro Choice” from an episode of Jon Stewart.  The video is about a proposed amendment to the “personhood” bill by Oklahoma State Senator Constance Johnson.  Under Johnson’s amendment, it would be a crime to deposit sperm anywhere other than in a woman, thus making masturbation illegal.  Reporter Al Madrigal creates a parody around Johnson’s amendment by interviewing Johnson and another Oklahoma State Senator and pro-life supporter, Ralph Shortey.  Unlike Johnson, Shortey believes that Johnson’s proposition is ridiculous and embarrassing, but Al Madrigal presses Shortey on his “personhood” views, which prove to be quite controversial.  His first argument regarding why it should not be passed is because it is a free choice issue that gives the government the right to tell men what to do with their bodies.  Al Madrigal is quick to call out that this contradicts Shortey’s pro-choice position that life begins at conception.  Shortey responds by saying that it is the government’s responsibility to protect life, not control a woman’s body.  As Al Madrigal puts it, it is about protecting the product over the ingredients for Shortey for the benefit of men’s health.  Al Madrigal then gets it out of Shortey that what he really means is that men would not be able to masturbate.  The video then cuts back to the interview with Johnson where Al Madrigal turns this debate into quite the parody.  From Al Madrigal’s perspective, this amendment might make him cheat on his wife when he’s on the road.  Johnson responds by saying that this bill would require him to take his wife with her if that’s the case and that if killing a zygote means murder, so should wasting semen.  In a humorous back and forth, Al Madrigal asks if he can be tried for past crimes, stating that this amendment would make him “sperm Hitler”.  The video goes on to talk to the “real victims” of this amendment consisting of a group of teenage boys, ultimately poking fun at the Kony 2012 video.  The boys get a “bird and the bees” talk from Al Madrigal to inform them what this new amendment would prohibit them from doing.  It ends on the note that this amendment would take away male reproductive choice.  Luckily for males, the amendment was not passed, but it is interesting to think about this video in the context of abortion laws being set on women.  Men don’t have equivalent laws and if there were any to be proposed, they would most certainly not be passed.