My body, my choice is a slogan describing freedom of choice on issues affecting the body and health, such as bodily autonomy, abortion and end-of-life care. The slogan emerged around 1969 with feminists defending an individual's right of self determination over their bodies for sexual, marriage and reproductive choices as rights. The slogan has been used around the world and translated into many different languages. The use of the slogan has caused different types of controversy in different countries and is often used as a rallying cry during protests and demonstrations and/or to bring attention to different feminist issues.
Bodily autonomy and integrity
"My body, my choice" is a slogan that is meant to represent the idea of personal bodily autonomy, bodily integrity and freedom of choice. Bodily autonomy constitutes self determination over one's own body without external domination or duress. Bodily integrity is the inviolability of the physical body and emphasizes the importance of personal autonomy, self-ownership, and the self-determination of human beings over their own bodies.The Limits of Bodily Integrity Ruth Austin Miller – 2007 In the field of human rights, the violation of the bodily integrity of another is regarded as either unethical infringement and/or possibly criminal.Civil Liberties and Human Rights Helen Fenwick, Kevin Kerrigan – 2011Xenotransplantation: Ethical, Legal, Economic, Social, Cultural Brigitte E.s. Jansen, Jürgen W. Simon, Ruth Chadwick, Hermann Nys, Ursula Weisenfeld – 2008Personal Autonomy, the Private Sphere and Criminal Law Peter Alldridge, Chrisje H. Brants - 2001, retrieved 29 May 2012Privacy law in Australia Carolyn Doyle, Mirko Bagaric – 2005 Freedom of choice describes an individual's opportunity and autonomy to perform an action selected from at least two available options, unconstrained by external parties.
Academics have shown how the framework of individual choice allowed the slogan to cross over to a wide range of feminist political claims. However, this ideological flexibility also enabled its use by those protesting against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination during the global pandemic. Feminists have also critiqued the slogan’s emphasis on individual choice, arguing that it overlooks systemic barriers to accessing abortion, including disparities in healthcare access linked to wealth, employment, citizenship, and the legacies of racism and discrimination. In response to these critiques and the slogan’s appropriation, organisations like Planned Parenthood have shifted away from pro-choice language, promoting alternatives such as 'Bans Off Our Bodies' and 'Protect Abortion Access' that emphasize community and systemic solutions.
According to Suzannah Weiss, the slogan, "My body, my choice" is a feminist idea which can be applicable to women's reproductive rights and other women's rights issues. It is also the opposite to treating women's bodies like property, and asserts the importance of a culture of consent. Rameeza Ahmad describes how the Pakistani version of "my body, my choice," "Mera Jism Meri Marzi," is important to feminists because it is important for women to know they have control over their own bodies. Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner writes that while it seems simple that women's freedom is linked to women's own control and decisions about their own bodies, in practice the slogan of 'My body, my choice' is too often changed to mean of "not really your body, not really your choice." and women's rights like access to birth control, abortion, and reproductive health are attacked.
A background document for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) held at Nairobi summit in 2019 sums up, "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all aspects relating to sexuality and the reproductive system Good sexual and reproductive health" can only be termed to be "Good sexual and reproductive health", to achieve the same, every person need to have a right to make decisions governing their body and to access services that support those rights.Background document for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) held at Nairobi summit in 2019 attributes to Starrs and others, 2018 and (United Nations Population Fund, 2014; WHO, 2004). The document further elaborates that everyone has the right to make their own choices about their own sexual and reproductive health, which means that every one should be able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the right to self-determination to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so.
History and use
In late 1969 the slogan was coined as a feminist struggle for reproductive rights and subsequently noted by the global feminist struggle.
Austria In June 2019, the Vatican City women's football team decided to withdraw from a football match with a Vienna-based Austrian women's football club, since Austrian women used the occasion to display the slogan "my body, my rules" on their bodies, along with pro LGBT slogans as a mark of protest against the Catholic Church's position on abortion.
Hong Kong In 2011 Hong Kong started an anti slutshaming and anti victim blaming movement called slut walk. Its 7th annual march in 2018 focused on the "My body, my choice" slogan, to raise awareness against "sexual, gender and body-based" violence prevalent in Hong Kong.
India In India the concept of My body, my choice was discussed in a March 2003 article in the Indian women's magazine, Femina.
In March 2015 a short film, My Choice, as part of Vogue Indias social awareness initiative. Indian actress, Deepika Padukone, played the lead role and the film was directed by Homi Adajania. My Choice not only refers to reproductive rights but also a range of women's rights issues relating to South Asian women, such as freedom to choose clothing, movement, love, sex and marriage.
Malaysia In December 2019, Malaysian Deputy Education minister, Teo Nie Ching launched an educational video called "My body is mine" to educate kids about 'Safe touch and unsafe touch' as part of child safety education and save them from possibilities of negative child grooming and decided to include the subject in Malay school books in subject Pendidikan Jasmani dan Kesihatan (Physical education and health).
Pakistan
Mera Jism Meri Marzi (; ) is a feminist slogan used by feminists in Pakistan in context of women rights.
The slogan Mera Jism Meri Marzi was popularized by the Aurat March in Pakistan which has been observed on International Women's Day. The slogan has been very controversial. According to The Friday Times 2022 March end news report a man from Lahore killed his fifth time pregnant wife for chanting the slogan Mera Jism Meri Marzi.
South Africa In 2018, multiple South African sexual and reproductive health and rights organizations came together to champion a social and community media initiative named #MyBodyMyChoice. The initiative "call[s] for protecting and promoting women's rights to make decisions about their reproductive health, bodies and lives." The underlying principle is that if it is a woman's body, she should be the one to make choices about and have the agency to access the health support she needs, and take well-informed decisions in relation to her own body, health and life. This considered a fundamental right—irrespective of their sexuality, where they live, how much they earn, or their ethnicity. South Korea In South Korea, the slogan of "my body, my choice" has meant choosing whether or not to marry and to have children. It is a push for single women's equality in the workplace, where there is a large wage gap between men and women.
Turkey In 2012, an abortion rights demonstration in the Kadiköy district in Istanbul drew 3,000 women. Protesters carried banners reading "My body, my choice" in response to the government's plans to limit abortion access in the country.
United Kingdom Emma Watson has worn T-shirts with the slogan, "my body, my choice" to bring attention to the need for funding of rape crisis centres in England and Wales.
United States In 2015, in the United States, the slogan was used as a hashtag, to indicate support for Planned Parenthood, which was in danger of losing government funding. In 2019, as the most restrictive abortion law in the United States was signed by Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, demonstrators used the slogan outside of the Alabama Capitol in protest.
Zambia In 2017 Protest in Lusaka for Women's empowerment issues Zambian women marched with slogans like "My Body, My Sexuality. My Rights, My Choice"; "My Body, My Choice"; "We Have the Right to Be Heard"; and "Before I'm a Woman, I'm a Human."
Context of women's rights movements
Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include the right to bodily integrity and autonomy; to be free from sexual violence; to vote; to hold public office; to enter into legal contracts; to have equal rights in family law; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to have reproductive rights; to own property; to education.Lockwood, Bert B. (ed.), Women's Rights: A "Human Rights Quarterly" Reader (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), . According to Ursula Barry throughout human history the bodily autonomy of women has been contested. The notion of the body (but not the mind) being associated with womenBordo, Unbearable Weight, p. 4 has served as a justification to deem women as property, objects, and exchangeable commodities (among men). For example, women's bodies have been objectified throughout history through the changing ideologies of fashion, diet, exercise programs, cosmetic surgery, childbearing, etc. This contrasts to men's role as a moral agent, responsible for working or fighting in bloody wars. The race and class of a woman can determine whether her body will be treated as decoration and protected, which is associated with middle or upper-class women's bodies. On the other hand, the other body is recognized for its use in labor and exploitation which is generally associated with women's bodies in the working-class or with women of color. Second-wave feminist activism has argued for reproductive rights and choice. The women's health movement and lesbian feminism are also associated with this debate.Paragraph forked imported from Wikipedia article Feminist theory as retrieved on 25 March 2020 According to Barry, challenges facing women include sexual objectification, sexual harassment and gender based sexual abuse and violence. Barry emphasizes that women's freedom from violence is about the right to bodily integrity. While discussing choices surrounding reproduction, bodily autonomy is about freedom of one's own choices. Impediments posed by conservatives and religious and cultural moral police includes autonomy over one's own fertility includes both opposition to forms of positive fertility treatments, opposition to contraception, sterilization and also abortion. According to Barry, the right and access to abortion manifests one of the last struggles to achieve women's bodily autonomy.