Martha Thomases: The Horror! The Horror!
It is more than a little likely that, as you read this, I am getting a root canal.
Dentists terrify me. Not on purpose — they are not the stars of It — but, nonetheless, they fill me with dread.
I’m sure that most people who go into dentistry as a career are motivated by a desire to help others, and yet, when I go to the dentist, I can’t help thinking about this movie and this scene.
A lot (not all!) of horror fiction is about the fear and loathing of our bodies. As children, they frustrate us with their limitations. We can’t fly, and we are not tall enough to reach the cookies. As adults, they frustrate us because they no longer do the things they did when we were younger, like stay awake all night on purpose, or digest spicy food.
I’m not really a fan of horror fiction. My life as an informed citizen has enough horror non-fiction. However, I understand that fiction provides a way for humans to process our fears in a healthy way. And I enjoy Stephen King books, not because they are scary, but because he has a gift for creating characters he seems to really care about. If we didn’t care about them, we wouldn’t be frightened by the threats they face.
(A friend of mine was in a rock band with King, and he says the conversations on the tour bus focused on body functions a lot.)
The horror and thriller genres are, to me, most effective in prose, when I can imagine the threats, or in movies, where a good director (and script) provide surprising jumps. Comics can’t do that, at least not in the same way. Comics can give the reader some vivid imagery, and there is no limit to the amount of blood and gore and mucus the artist renders on the page, but, in the end, it’s just a flat picture. We, the readers, come at these images at our own pace. We can rip them up or throw them across the room if we like.
For me, the primary exception is Alan Moore. From his first Swamp Thing stories, with Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, he made stories that haunted me long after I finished reading. It wasn’t just the insects (although they gave me the icks), but the way he treated the characters’ perceptions of their bodies. The stories inspired not only fear, but disgust and mistrust.
More recently, Moore has explored these issues and this imagery in Providence. I confess that I’m not a big Lovecraft fan, so these books are not my jam. Still, Moore, with Jacen Burrows, gets plenty creepy and ominous, and perhaps you will enjoy it.
There are scary stories about ax murderers and the like, but it is those with threats from within that freak me out the most. As a culture, we especially fear women’s bodies. In modern film, from Rosemary’s Baby to this week’s debut, Mother!, it seems that the men who make most movies are terrified about women’s ability to have babies. What if women decide they don’t want to? What if women want to have babies, but with somebody else? What uncontrollable forces inhabit the bodies of women that allow the creation of other beings?
There aren’t many horror movies from the perspective of the women who might have children, especially when they don’t want them. The closest I can think is Alien and, this day, I can’t watch those movies because I read the comics adaptation first. A monster who plants a fetus in my body against my will that bursts from my chest? No, thank you.
The lesson I learn from horror fiction is that I am responsible for myself, especially my own body and what happens within it. Nothing will make me immortal, alas, but the choices I made about food and exercise and how I go through life are my own. This is why it is so important to me to support Mine!. Without access to health care, people cannot make the choices necessary to live the lives we want. We need to get PAP tests and STD tests and mammograms and birth control. We need pre-natal and post-natal care. Today is the last day you can pledge, and I hope you will.
Any other being that grows in and comes out of my body should only do so with my permission. The alternatives are too frightening.
I have a dentist phobia, too! :-)
It’s all happening inside your head! How can one not be terrified?
Comparing the Alien Chestburster which is a parasite that kills its host, with normal mammalian reproduction is the most egregious example of a false equivalency I have ever read.
And again, Planned Parenthood provides 0.97% of the nation’s PAP tests and 1.8% of the nation’s breast exams. These stats are from the Guttmacher Institute, a semiautonomous division of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It was renamed in memory of Alan Frank Guttmacher, an obstetrician-gynecologist and former president of Planned Parenthood.
Except that that was at least a large part of the intent of the film.
“Except that that was at least a large part of the intent of the film.”
Exactly! That’s why it was a science-fiction/horror movie and not a feel-good rom-com.
I think it is interesting that your comment addresses my Alien movie reference but not Planned Parenthood’s lies about their health care stats.
You’re quoting percentages rather than actual numbers.
How many PAP tests and mammograms are administered annually in the US?
Hmmm – slightly north of 18 million mammograms {i can’t find a number of “breast exams”, but i’d say we could conservatively place the total number somewhere around twice that of mammograms} and about 21 million PAP smears.
So, going by the figures you quote, Planned Parenthood provides a minimum of somewhere around 280,000 breast exams (a “minimum” since there are large numbers of breast exams that don’t include mammograms), and a bit north of 200,000 PAP smears.
That’s a lot of exams and smears.
Taking the further fact that many – if not most – of those were provided to people who either couldn’t afford the out-of-pocket expense and/or had no insurance, we see that PP does a lot of good.
But, of course, since you tend to be wrong on most social issues, i didn’t actually originally feel it was necessary to point out that you quoted the statistics in the manner that looked worst?
“So, going by the figures you quote, Planned Parenthood provides a minimum of somewhere around 280,000 breast exams (a “minimum” since there are large numbers of breast exams that don’t include mammograms), and a bit north of 200,000 PAP smears.”
Well they’re Planned Parenthood’s Guttmacher Institute’s figures, but yes, I did quote them.
“You’re quoting percentages rather than actual numbers.”
Okay, actual numbers. That means that Planned Parenthood, which promotes itself, not as the abortion corporation it is, but as a health-care provider, does NOT provide 17,720,000 breast exams and does NOT provide 20,800,000 PAP tests.
Planned Parenthood likes to use percentages too when they claim only 3% of their services are abortion, something even Slate and the Washington Post acknowledge is a misrepresentation. The calculations they use to claim that 3% is explained here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgqxvaV-8U
“But, of course, since you tend to be wrong on most social issues, i didn’t actually originally feel it was necessary to point out that you quoted the statistics in the manner that looked worst?”
Uh… that’s a bit presumptuous. What other social issues do you feel I am “wrong” about? I don’t comment about social issues other than abortion.
Perhaps i have you confused with someone else, and if i do, sorry.
Also, if you are the person i recall from numerous posts at Peter David’s blog, reliably coming down on the right-wing side of arguments,perhaps “social” was the wrong term – “political” more properly.
Again, if not, i apologise for assuming you’re as wrong on other political/social issues as you are on abortion.
However, if you would kindly provide figures {from a reputable source; Guttmacher would do} that “prove” that PP is primarily – or even significantly – engaged in abortion services rather than any other services it provides, i’d be interested.
Well, gosh. Shame on PP for not providing services to people who pay for their own or have insurance coverage to pay for them.
Do you throw shade at fire departments because they only get .002% {or whatever the actual percentage would be} of cats out of trees?
To be relevant to your argument, those percentages would have to be approached from the other side – how many of the women who need those services would not have been able to obtain them if PP hadn’t provided?
I do not post regularly anywhere except ComicMix and usually not about abortion. (Only the I have to.) That said, you probably do recognize my name from Peter David’s blog. Coincidentally I posted there last week when Peter tied the bad reception of the TV show “Young Sheldon” on Facebook with “Trump’s America.” There are a lot of things Trump says that he can and should be called out on but people not liking “Young Sheldon” seemed to be to be a bit of an outrageous leap. I said that instant and unreasonable criticism was around before Trump. A number of other posters echoed those sentiments.
The previous time I posted on Peter David’s blog was about year ago during the Vice-Presidential Debate and that was concerning abortion. More specifically, Tim Kaine claiming to be an observant Catholic and also being Pro-Choice. You, but mostly Jerry Chandler, argued that Kaine could be both and I quoted Canon Law that is quite concrete:
“Those Catholics who promote abortion are automatically excommunicated for two reasons. First, they have fallen into the sin of heresy by believing that abortion is not always gravely immoral (canons 751 and 1364). Second, these Catholics are providing substantial assistance for women to obtain abortions by influencing public policy to make abortions legal, and to keep abortions legal, and to broaden access to abortion. Those who provide such substantial assistance commit a mortal sin and incur a sentence of automatic excommunication (canon 1398).”
I ended with, “Finally, if you think there there exists some loophole in Catholic dogma that excuses abortion, you are simply wrong, as is Kaine, Kerry, Pelosi and Biden.”
So anyway, that remains the only social issue I feel strongly enough to bother posting about. The whole thing is on Peter David’s blog. It you want to check go to his archives, October 4, 2016.
Now back to the subject at hand.
However, if you would kindly provide figures {from a reputable source; Guttmacher would do} that “prove” that PP is primarily – or even significantly – engaged in abortion services rather than any other services it provides, i’d be interested.
PP alone as a single corporation is responsible of 34.9% of all abortions in the country. The video I linked to above on Sept. 30 explains the veracity of that figure. They claim abortion is only 3% of their business by giving every service: pregnancy test, consultation, STD test, etc, the same weight as the abortion itself. That is a gross misrepresentation of their business. They preform an abortion every 97 seconds.
Do you throw shade at fire departments because they only get .002% {or whatever the actual percentage would be} of cats out of trees?
Getting cats out of trees is just something fire department occasionally do. It is not their primary job. Putting out fires is. Similarly, breast exams are just something PP very rarely does. Their primary job is abortion.
Planned Parenthood’s annual report lists their assets at 1.8 billion dollars and their profits at 1.3 billion dollars.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/18/40/1840b04b-55d3-4c00-959d-11817023ffc8/20170526_annualreport_p02_singles.pdf
Why should a company with money like that be getting a 500 million dollars from the government?
To be relevant to your argument, those percentages would have to be approached from the other side – how many of the women who need those services would not have been able to obtain them if PP hadn’t provided?
There are 665 Planned Parenthood locations. There 13,540 comprehensive health care clinics, 20 for every 1 PP.
http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/17/planned-parenthood-loses-government-funding-heres-map-health-clinics-take-place/
Check out the map at that link.
Mike, I have responded to your post but it is “awaiting moderation”. It has a couple of links in it.
Don’t know why my post is being delayed so long. There are only two links and one of them is to Planned Parenthood’s annual report.