Denying Bodily Autonomy is a Classic Fascist Strategy
As a man who will never bear a child, nor face personally the choice of whether or not to maintain a developing life within my body, I know my perspective on these issues is of limited value. At a time when women’s rights are under obvious and cynical attack, however, speaking up to clearly and directly support women and their rights is critical, regardless of identity or experience. I support women’s rights, and specifically their right to safe and accessible reproductive healthcare — including abortion.
I’m probably only slightly-more informed than your average American on the nuanced and contested areas of women’s rights. I won’t try to explain or repackage the important work already done by scholars, caregivers, and others. That said, I think I see two related and branching issues, which may help more men to better relate and engage with the dire threat that women face now and in the years ahead.
I have been studying fascism and its roots/causes and effects/evolution informally and through academic works. One of the foremost areas I see it expressed in modern ‘alt-right’ and neo-fascist circles is through bodily control, and its opposite, bodily autonomy or bodily integrity. Opponents of abortion seem to favor taking positions against the bodily-autonomy argument, as they see inherent contradictions between the autonomy-rights of women and the autonomy-rights of developing offspring inside those women. Again, I won’t rehash those arguments, but instead will explain how I see that framing as part of a clear, yet disingenuous fascist rhetorical tactic.
Fascist modes of organizing society are based around hierarchies and repression of dissent or alternatives. These hierarchies and repression depend on force in service of control, which can be contrasted with other modes like compromise and toleration of difference. ‘Moderate’ to extreme ends of modern fascist-tending groups are explicit in their beliefs that the natural state of women is subjugation by men (hierarchy), and women are essentially vehicles for new generations of ‘pure’ races/ethnic groups/cultures/nations (and therefore must be controlled).
In order to preserve and defend their national/racial identity, men in these groups maintain and promote a mindset of reduced bodily autonomy for themselves as well as women. This is seen most obviously in their obsession with violence and its attendant artifacts, like literal armour and weapons, or even in obtaining over-engineered vehicles like massive trucks and military transport-style SUVs. It also extends to more figurative areas, such as personal fitness and hygiene focused on extreme strength or musculature and sexual prowess (however poorly carried-out), or even supposed vows of celibacy and self-/cohort-denial of masturbation. The reduction of male bodily-autonomy is also expressed in ‘uniforms’ such as white polo shirts and khakis, as well as literal military- or militia-type outfits.
The expression of the fascist bodily control of women is much more direct, in that women embody or are avatars of the ‘pure’ nation or race, and therefore must be protected and managed in the most physical sense. Armoured, armed, uniformed men are told to both prize and look down on women. Without ‘pure’ women, the race or nation will ‘die off,’ and ‘pure’ women are also unable to be trusted with their own ‘defense.’ Because they are considered susceptible to seduction or manipulation by others outside the nation/race (different ethnic groups, immigrants, mass media, etc.), their sexuality in particular is to be curtailed as much as possible.
By extension, reproductive rights generally and abortion in particular are also seen as a threat to the perpetuation of the nation/race. Women seeking to manage their own reproductive cycles and events are bypassing the hierarchical structure of the fascist society, and this is where the lie of autonomy shows through. Although right-wing and fascist movements claim that ‘freedom’ and self-determination are paramount, they practice extreme but differing modes of repression of individual bodily autonomy for men and women.
Simultaneously, fascist and proto-fascist movements practice other-ization of those ineligible to be part of the nation/race, chiefly by denying the very idea of person-hood as well as actual resources needed to survive and flourish. This too is covered extensively by more-accomplished critics and commentators. Briefly, though, it is the dissonant idea that a developing embryo or fetus at 6- or 8-weeks is a person deserving of equal autonomy-rights as the woman carrying it, and yet does not deserve assistance in the form of public education, healthcare, or other customarily humane treatment to survive after being delivered. To be clear, fascists believe that eligible members of the nation/race deserve these things, but that providing them to ‘undeserving’ immigrants, poor/out-of-work people, minority ethnic groups, or even opposing liberals is a direct drain or attack on the nation/race.
However, in a still-ostensibly open and democratic society, such a blatantly ethno-nationalist viewpoint is only expressed publicly in those stark terms by the most unabashed extremists — even if shared implicitly by a wider population. In that latter case, a blanket defense of unborn, yet autonomous persons serves the narrative and actions of perpetuating the nation/race, while giving plausible deniability to that being the goal when some of those born turn out to be ineligible for membership in the nation/race and are treated accordingly (by being over-policed, denied ‘entitlements,’ education, and healthcare, etc.). Therefore the autonomy argument for women is inverted, transferring the primary rights to the unborn over the woman who, because of her central role in renewing the nation/race, is already an untrustworthy subordinate to be ‘managed’ anyways.
As with allusions to ‘joking’ about things like police brutality and genocide, or incorporating memes and comedic imagery into violent actions like street attacks or shootings, fascist thinking hangs on inherent contradictions that do not need to be rectified in order to serve the purpose. A fascist society denies bodily autonomy for women down to the level of childbirth in service to the nation/race, and for men down to the level of violence in service to the nation/race. Opponents of abortion may claim to believe in bodily autonomy as a wider principle, but in a white-dominated, militaristic society, their argument is subsumed by the rising tide of fascism.
As an anti-fascist and supporter of more-open, more truly-free societies for all, I support women and their right to accessible reproductive healthcare that genuinely puts their bodily autonomy first. I encourage all men reading this to consider how their actions and bodily autonomy is co-opted to perpetuate such attitudes, and to seek out ways to use their voices and their autonomy to help women and the numerous other vulnerable targeted groups in the face of ongoing threats.
