Responsibility: The Enigma of Generation X

According to oxforddictionaries.com, a foremost authority on words and their meanings, the word RESPONSIBILITY is defined as follows:

• the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone,
• the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something,
• a moral obligation to behave correctly towards or in respect of,
• the opportunity or ability to act independently and take decisions without authorization,
• a thing which one is required to do as part of a job, role, or legal obligation.

Understanding the above definitions of “responsibility, my question is, if I am to be responsible for my own actions and what I do with my own body (having exceeded the age of reason), why do so many American women believe it is perfectly fine for the government, a body of power they’ve been fighting with tooth and nail for centuries, to be in control over their bodies?  I just don’t get it.

Truthfully, I’m not thrilled I found an irresistible urge to discuss politics on my blog and doubt I will ever do so again.  Politics is a very personal issue.  However, there is no avoiding the barrage of campaign ads every which way you turn.  What got me most incensed was the cartoon posted on the President’s campaign website.  The cartoon itself is not offensive; I embrace freedom of speech.  Broadcasting it on an official political website is.  It was derisive and mocks me as a female.  I suppose the First Lady either thought the cartoon was funny or wasn’t aware it found a home on her husband’s platform.

I’m not sure about you, but I don’t appreciate the government interfering with my “lady parts.”  Healthcare is for men and women.  Both sexes buy contraception and should be responsible for what happens when they engage in sexual activity.  Why then has contraception become only a woman’s concern and why is some woman plopping her narcissistic butt down in front of Congressional members or hyperventilating over a podium demanding the government pay for her birth control?  Unless her diaphragm is made of gold or she prefers diamond encrusted condoms, $3,000 a month is an extremely inflated figure for birth control.  Let’s not forget “the men who support her.”  Seriously, why should they want to pay for contraception when they can get it from the government for free thus championing this frivolous cause?

This person certainly does not represent me or any other mature, responsible woman I know.  Her disingenuous references to the medical consequences suffered by women at her college as a result of not having free access to contraception were inane.  I found her to be supercilious and feel she set the Women’s Liberation Movement back on its heels.  Again, I’m speaking strictly from my own personal viewpoint and respect other people’s opinions, though I may not agree with them. 

My statement does not reflect the topic of women’s healthcare under the umbrella of domestic violence, rape or incest either.  Rather, my argument focuses on being responsible for my own body and my desire for the government to stay out of my vagina.  Never once while becoming an adult, did I expect taxpayer money to fund my contraception, gynecological visits or anything having to do with my “lady parts.”  All taxpayers contribute to fund a healthcare system for the poor, low-income, abused or disabled.  My beef is with the able-bodied, employable women who expect others to pay for the requirements of their individual lifestyles.  What next, 5-speed twisting vibrators on the taxpayer’s dime?

I apologize to any woman who doesn’t understand that my disgust is with the “entitled generation” not with those unable to care for themselves due to being underage, underprivileged, abused or disabled.  I find the sight and sounds of an educated, capable young woman bellowing injustice, the nonsense of immature, insensitive, spoiled females, disheartening.  Have we failed to teach our children the true meaning of respect and responsibility?  Listening to the infectious rhetoric permeating the conventions, I fear we have.

The last thing I need to hear is a self-serving female speaking on my behalf.  It might be wise for women like Ms. Fluke (I guess I should mention her name for clarity) to concentrate on those less fortunate than she.  If you are an able-bodied female, you should pay for your own birth control, abortion, fertility treatments or sex-change operations, or have your partner help pay.  You can do as you please, but don’t expect me to fund your choices.  It’s time you grow up and learn to take responsibility for yourself. 

“Why do children want to grow up?  Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity.  But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do?  Not much:  they can “do” drugs, “have” sex, “make” babies, and “get” money (from their parents, crime, or the State).  For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty.  Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents?”  ~Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) Legendary Psychiatrist and Academic