This weekend, I went to see the movie Prometheus. If you’ve been alive and within 50 feet of a television or computer screen in the past 30+ years, you know what a chestburster is. If you haven’t, you’re welcome. Summing up the plot pf Prometheus quickly (SPOILERS), Noomi Rapace (of Dragon Tattoo fame) has sex with a man who ingested some primordial alien ooze. Ten hours later she’s three months pregnant with a terrible alien fetus. She asks (logically) to have it removed from her body. David (an android played magnificently by Michael Fassbender), tells her “that’s not possible.” So she runs away to the self-contained surgery suite that Charlize Theron has smuggled on board. I know. Stick with me.
Noomi Rapace, wracked with cramps (?) paws away at the control panel of the surgery suite, is asked what procedure she would like, then speaks the dreaded word aloud:
Cesarean.
The control panel tells her that unfortunately, the table is designed for men only. She swears, manages to program for removal of a foreign body from the abdominal cavity, climbs on the table, and…well, we are treated to a scene of graphic abdominal surgery, topped off by a robot hand equipped with forceps, reaching into the character’s stomach and pulling out an alien fetus.
Two weeks ago, Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown said the word vagina on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives and was banned from speaking for the rest of the session (later reduced to only the remainder of the day, ’cause that totally makes it better). Another Michigan Rep, Mike Callton, had the following gem of a quote:
“What she said was offensive. It was so offensive I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.”
Rep. Brown responded logically:
”If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating [on] vaginas?” she asked. “What language should I use?” To clear up any lingering confusion, she noted that vagina was the “medically correct term”, adding: “We’re all adults here.”
Let’s return to Prometheus. I will give you three guesses what the “medically correct term” is for the removal of a fetus from a woman’s body. Abortion. It’s abortion. However Noomi’s character was impregnated, whatever the reason for her needing to remove the fetus, she needed an abortion.
And the self-contained surgical suite (from the FUTURE. Stowed away by a FEMALE crew member) was only programmed for male bodies. Ignoring the probability of any of those plot points holding true, the whole scene stinks of an intricate dance set up for a single purpose: to avoid using the word abortion.
Because, as Rep. Callton noted, “I would not say that in mixed company.” In a movie filled with sex, gore, violent death, sexism, mild racism, aliens, and the depiction of a woman having a fetus CUT OUT OF HER STOMACH, they didn’t say the word abortion once.
‘Cause to be “medically correct” would be stepping too far over that line.
What happened on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives and in the movie Prometheus ia happening all over the country and the world. Opponents assume that by stifling dialog and silencing those impacted by anti-choice laws and policies, they will continue to win the debate. And they are not wrong. In the Michigan House, the anti-choice bill passed 70-39.
As long as silencing is a tactic of the opposition, we must stand up, like Rep. Brown, and speak truth to power. The next day, Eve Ensler read from the Vagina Monologues on the steps of the Michigan legislature. “Medically correct terms” are not dirty words – they are the truth of the war on women and the power behind the fight for women’s health.
So if you were looking for a talking point for when your friends bring up the movie Prometheus, ask them what they thought of the abortion scene. Let’s keep the dialog truthful, powerful, and as always, medically accurate.
3 Comments
A couple of comments.
First up (the pedantic one): the machine was not designed to be used on women because the ‘other’ passenger was a man. Given his condition, the operating machine was embarked for his sole use.
Second: Prometheus is only a film (and a pretty poor one at that), so I would not read too much into it. But I do take your point about the fear or reluctance to mention the A-word.
In defence of the producers, it is understandable: there is a desire to offend the least number of potential viewers as possible. That is why a murderer is never gay, and why all lesbians are nice (you know, role models).
On the other hand, you are wrong to state that only the anti-choicers (is that the term?) use euphemisms. The pros have the same reflex. What is therm used in the UK? No, it is not ‘abortion’ – it is a ‘termination’.
In France, it is an IVG – an Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy. Yup – an interruption!
I shall bet that even in the USA, the term ‘abortion’ eventually be replaced by something less marked/offensive/controversial.
By the way, on the literary front, George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’ is fascinating and well worth reading.
In a movie filled with sex, gore, violent death, sexism, mild racism, aliens, and the depiction of a woman having a fetus CUT OUT OF HER STOMACH, they didn’t say the word abortion once.
Huh. Maybe that was because the alien embryo Shaw cut out of her stomach wasn’t killed? My brother was delivered by Caesarean section; I’d be hard pressed to claim that he was aborted.
I will give you three guesses what the “medically correct term” is for the removal of a fetus from a woman’s body. Abortion. It’s abortion.
And I’ll give you three more. How about abortion, Caesarean, and birth? All of these are removal of a fetus from the women’s body. However, if we’re talking about removal of the fetus without rendering it non-viable, then I’d have to say abortion no longer qualifies.
Pedantic disputes aside, it really seems like you are trying to make this movie into something that it isn’t. You don’t *abort* a non-human parasite, even if it is in an embryonic state. When I was treated for head lice, I didn’t undergo an abortion. When I got antibiotics for the bacterial infection in my leg, that also wasn’t an abortion, and it wouldn’t have been even if the bacterial infection was in my womb.
So if you were looking for a talking point for when your friends bring up the movie Prometheus, ask them what they thought of the abortion scene. Let’s keep the dialog truthful, powerful, and as always, medically accurate.
I guess I have to give you “powerful” (in the way that any deliberate obfuscation can be noted as “powerful”). As far as truthful or medically accurate, I think you’re pretty far off base.
Ooh, here you go though! There’s an anti-choice ticket taker who totally agrees that this is all about abortion!
http://badassdigest.com/2012/07/03/seattle-ticket-taker-spoils-prometheus-on-moral-grounds/