Sappho
I think, in the hypothetical situation described, it is morally permissible for Wendy to obtain a Caesarian section by choice. The chief difficulty is that Wendy herself seems like a shallow and frivolous person, and the majority of the reasons that she offers for wanting a CSBC seem rather shallow and frivolous. Wendy's reasoning is that, as a personal trainer for other women, her body is a form of business advertising and that -- based on the fact that a celebrity like Britney Spears has a CSBC -- the operation will leave her body more aesthetically attractive. She also prefers the convenience of being able to schedule a surgical appointment in advance, rather than having to wait around for her cervix to dilate. And finally she notes that the father of her child, Harry, believes that her vagina will be tighter if she has a CSBC rather than undergoes the process of natural childbirth. If Wendy has a better reason than any of these, it might be that she notes that her mother's experience of natural childbirth was hardly a joyful or unproblematic one -- Wendy's mother suffered from incontinence and prolapse for the rest of her life. But we must ask ourselves whether Wendy's right to medical autonomy trumps our analysis of her own reasoning -- and surely it does. After all, medicine is not permitted to observe Wendy having sex with Harry and pass judgment over whether they are too shallow in their approach to moral reasoning in order to conceive a child: that would be
And six weeks after Harry impregnates Wendy, medicine will not forbid Wendy to have an abortion for reasons as shallow and frivolous as those she offers in seeking a CSBC -- the reasoning here is that abortion would be adequately covered under Wendy's right to autonomy as a patient. It is hard to understand, therefore, why anyone might find it morally impermissible for Wendy to obtain a CSBC, despite the overall shallowness of her reasoning. We do not require Wendy to have a "good" reason to have sex with Harry, or to get pregnant when she does, or (by and large) to obtain an abortion if the pregnancy is unwanted. If the lines of argument that Wendy presents to her first physician were instead being offered several months earlier to an abortionist -- about wanting to keep an attractive physique for professional reasons and a tight vagina for Harry's enjoyment -- it seems unlikely she would be forced to have a baby because her reasons for seeking an abortion are too shallow. It therefore seems ridiculous to suggest that her reasons are too shallow for obtaining a surgical procedure in order to give birth to a child. The claims that CSBC in some way "endangers" the child seem to be dubious at best, since the only statistics involve births where the Caesarian section was medically necessary (i.e., births that are already complicated and problematic to begin with, and that are already endangering the child quite naturally without any recourse to analysis of the mother's ethical decision-making skills).
And yet the objection could be raised here that Wendy's physician is more knowledgeable and responsible than Wendy, and his opinion that a Caesarian section is not warranted in Wendy's case should be valued above Wendy's. (This is not much of an objection -- given the quality of her moral reasoning, we might very well value the opinion of a circus clown or…
" Thus, some may argue that the Sappho's implication for modern gender roles is stunning, suggesting that feminism is not a modern movement, but had its roots as far back as Sappho's time. In addition to its implications for gender and all humanity, Sappho's poetry is of special significance regarding the topic of homosexuality. North writes that two important terms used by homosexual women today come from Sappho and her surroundings --
Sappho Bowman, L. (2004). The "women's tradition" in Greek poetry. Phoenix 58 (1), 1-27. Bowman -- a Greek scholar at the University of Victoria in Canada, who has published on issues of women in antiquity -- addresses the question of Sappho as a specifically female poet, and how gender affects her place in the "tradition" of Greek poetry. Bowman approaches the issue from two angles. She asks first whether there was a
Sappho Among the famous love poets known today, few of them are women, even though women are generally considered to be the more romantic and sentimental gender. However, one of the most influential of the ancient Greek poets was in fact a woman. Sappho is still known today for her incredible influence on the direction of poetry and the passion involved in her work. Also, Sappho is famous for her unconventional
He cannot imagine killing his family and friends. Disloyalty haunts him from both directions. He would deceive his family and friends by fighting against them, but he would also deceive the Kurus by refusing to fight for their cause. He is wracked with grief over the fact that the Kuru army would even think of engaging in a war with their kinsmen. 2. What is the "embodied self"? The "embodied self"
Sappho In "That fellow strikes me as god's double," the speaker experiences unrequited love. The narrator feels an overwhelming sexual desire for a man or woman on the couch, who is coupling with a "fellow." Overwhelmed with jealousy, the speaker claims that the fellow "strikes me as god's double." The phrase "strikes me" can be taken two ways: as a figure of speech but also as a literal reference to being
From this prohibition, women like Murasaki Shikibu helped develop what would become known as classical Japanese prose. But because Murasaki wrote in a style of Japanese that was still developing from the spoken language, many of the physical gestures often associated with the spoken word make the prose seem "flowery," and overly descriptive. Women had a secondary role in society, and this was reflected in the writings of Murasaki
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