To the Editor:

The issue of “personhood” raises a question of responsibility. The debate of birth control, abortion and procreation has been placed on the shoulders of one party, women.

Of course, in the horribly patriarchal society in which we live, this is to be expected. If we are going to call women who use birth control “sluts” or openly allow those who have abortions to be ridiculed, I feel that men, as they feel they have control over women and their bodies, should also bear responsibility in the following ways.

1. Any male wishing to receive a drug to treat erectile dysfunction shall be subject to a prostate exam, blood panel, full physical, a complete listing of all previous (or current) STDs and a database check to ensure that the male does not owe back child support and is not a sex offender. The final decision will rest with a panel of women who will decide if the male is intellectually sound enough to be allowed to pass his genes along. If a (U.S.) House (of Representatives) panel on women’s birth control and insurance coverage of it only includes males, then, in the interest of equality, women should have some say in men’s issues.

2. The information gathered shall be consolidated into a database (much like the one which many Oklahoma legislators wanted to create for women who have abortions), where the male’s date of birth, city, occupation and race can be viewed. Also, female commentators in the media will be allowed to call them “sluts” without fear of retribution.

3. Any male who fathers a child and misses more than three consecutive child support payments, or three in two years, will be subject to a forced vasectomy. No excuses such as, “I couldn’t find a job,” will be accepted. We do not need anymore men helping to turn women into those pesky “welfare mamas!”

4. Finally, no employer shall be forced to pay for erectile dysfunction drugs. In fact, they should only be used for procreation (since the “moral majority” seems to be heading in the direction of sex being for reproduction only). If pregnancy does not occur within three months of drug “therapy” the male shall be forbidden from receiving the prescription for a period of five years and ridiculed in the same fashion as women who leave and enter abortion clinics are.

I truly feel this levels the playing field. As a male and a feminist I am saddened, shocked, sickened and outraged by this placing of undue burden upon our mothers, sisters, partners and friends.

I am doing my part by planting the seeds of an idea which helps men “man-up” and hold some form of responsibility.

—Anthony Edwards

Pioneer Reader