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.
I also saw this video and found it quite funny. The best part was when Sen. Shortey said the bill was a problem because the government does not have the right to tell men what they can and cannot do with their own bodies - yet when the argument was turned around to talk about abortion, Shortey said that was a different story, because it was about protecting life not about the freedom of choice. This video makes it impossible not to laugh at the ridiculousness of a pro-life senator defending a man's right to do what he wants with his own body, yet not stick up for the same right of women when abortion is called into question.
ReplyDeleteI think your post makes a really good point. Most people, including pro-lifers would agree that masturbation should be legal. However, just like each zygote is a potential life each sperm is also a potential life, and people everywhere are constantly ejaculating without impregnating anyone.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQKASww9Ni4
Here's another video humorously debating whether masturbation should be legal or not. It doesn't connect masturbation back to abortion, but I think it's really funny.
I really enjoyed this episode of Jon Stewart too...He's so good at identifying the consistencies in politicians' arguments and totally making fun of them. He recently touched on this issue again, this time examining the conservative party's claim that the "war on women" is a phony, liberal construction.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzxU2fDcrp0
Stewart compares the War on Christmas (which Fox News takes very seriously) to the legitimacy of the War on Women and finds that Fox also recognizes current wars on Halloween, Fall holidays, fishermen, potatoes and are only willing to consider the War on Conservative Women.