HPV vaccine required for new immigrants

recipient:

Metropolitan Home/ StyleGuide/ PO Box 413050/ Naples, FL 34101-6818

sent:

Dallas Morning News Human papillomavirus vaccine requirement for immigrants raises concerns

reasoning:

it’s now even more expensive to apply for american residency and citizenship. i’ve touched upon this in previous posts (like here) but the HPV vaccine is getting even more convoluted and controversial almost everyday. not only has it been reported that it’s one of the most painful shots one can get and some girls are even fainting from it, but its very campaign geared towards young women of a “sexually active” age brings into question race, gender class, abstinence-only sex education, and preventative medicine.

it’s amazing and almost astounding that we now have vaccines that can prevent cancer, its like the medicine of the future. this HPV vaccine needs to be made accessible, and its great health insurance companies are now covering the costs, but requiring it brings about a whole new level of control over girls and women’s bodies.  even though guys are just carriers, why aren’t they required to get vaccinated? and have we got into the habit of using pharmaceuticals to cure ailments that might have been caused b/c we’ve been taking other pharmaceuticals?  it’s definitely a stretch to say that HPV and cervical cancer are caused by drugs, but conspiracy theory time: what if the government’s new requirement of the HPV vaccine is because they are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies, and the vaccine itself has a fairly strong and positive message, which makes it easier to market? it’s more obvious to see why doctors are pushing this so hard, but the prospect of the government & the pharmaceutical industry in bed together is not an earth-shattering notion.  i definitely believe that gardasil is an amazing piece of medicine & scientific research, but who it’s made compulsory for – young girls many of whom cannot cannot afford it because they do not have health insurance, and now many of the young girls trying to immigrate into the country are being forced to pay even more and jump through additional hoops – is what worries me.

pro-choice love?

recipient:

Lucky Magazine/ PO Box 37650/Boone, IA 50037-2650

sent:

“I Love Pro-Choice Boys” and “I Love Pro-Choice Girls” stickers from NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading advocacy group for privacy and a woman’s right to choose, who conduct their work by helping to elect pro-choice candidates, organizing local communities, lobbying Congress, and conducting research & analysis on the federal, but also state and local levels as well.

reasoning:

a magazine like Lucky with its focus upon shopping, clothes, and other goods, and its primary target being women would most likely be pro-choice or female reproductive freedom-friendly, so these stickers should seemingly be right in line. perhaps they’ll even look up the website, and the merchandise, and feature it in the back pages of ads as something you can buy online.

it’s interesting to note that these “I love pro-choice boys” and “i love pro-choice girls” sticker seem cute, laughable, and irreverent at first glance, and something most progressive, liberal-minded folk would gladly wear or display. but as my housemate, charactersketch, pointed out, would it be ok for a boy to wear an “I love pro-choice girls” sticker, with perhaps an implication that he could do whatever he wanted with them, and sleep around, and they may or may not exercise their choice in possibly aborting the baby that may result from one of their late-night trysts? and if i a girl were to wear an “i love pro-choice boys” sticker, to mean that she is attracted to like-minded boys who wouldn’t mind if she chose to get an abortion. this speaks only of heterosexual relationships, what about homosexual, queer, or uncategorized acts of love, what does one person wearing this possibly signify to the other?

it may seem that we’re both reading too much into the words and first glance meaning of the sticker, but these sayings on stickers, pins, and t-shirts are becoming ever-popular. people are adopting them to say the things they feel but do not want to necessarily constantly verbally express. so while the purpose behind “i love pro-choice boys” and “i love pro-choice girls” may be a seemingly superficial attempt to tell people one’s own political views, and to hopefully attract looks or chuckles from seemingly like-minded people, there’s a power behind words, languages, and clothing as a form of expression. i’d be cautious because the implications of this saying reach far deeper into the pro-choice/pro-life debate to being whether or not the act of an abortion is allowed, acceptable as a form of birth control, or excusable, and also the need to commodify every movement, feeling, and expression in our consumerist culture today.