Students for Life tackled a greatly ignored topic in the U.S., when they recently screened the documentary "It's A Girl" to raise awareness for gendercide.
Gendercide is a recently coined term that describes how countries across the globe abandon or kill female children simply because of their gender.
Although many cultures in the world promote the advantages of male children over female children, gendercide is taking this prejudice way too far.
Many people, both conservative and liberal, view this topic as simply another pro-life/pro-choice argument, but this global problem has a lot more depth than that. While this terrible conquest to eliminate females from certain countries certainly raises a huge concern for advocates of the pro-life movement, it is also a hindrance to any rights a female has and any sort of equality to men a woman posses in these regions of the world.
Women have to adhere to husbands' and governmental desires to have a male child.
If a woman is unable to produce a male child or unwilling to give up her female child, she is most often abandoned by her husband, forced to have an abortion, or to leave the female child she gave birth to.
The focus of this problem should not solely be on the fact that the woman is forced to kill her child, but also on the fact that the women loses all of her rights to control her own body. She has, in these cultures, no control and she is forced to take the right of existence from another being.
I'm sure you're probably reading this and thinking, "What on earth does this have to do with my happy little life here at DePauw?"
While it seems as though little can be done here in America to help stop this movement, there are many ways to take action as a young college student at a small, private American college. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to advertise in this day and age, so I strongly encourage you to not only become informed and watch "It's A Girl," but also to spread the word about the film, and the topic in general, to help raise awareness of this abomination to everyone you can.
Do not think of this from a pro-life/pro-choice standpoint. The issue of gendercide threatens females, and males, everywhere.
Women are necessary for a society thrive; this is simply a fact of science. Beyond that however, we need to realize that feminist issues are different in every country. To help combat these issues and support transnational feminists, men and women alike need to actively work together to try and put a stop to this prejudice against women.
As DePauw students, we all should be well aware that making connections with people is the most useful tool in accomplishing our highest goals.
So by spreading word of this terrible trend in other countries, you never know whom you will reach out to and inspire. The next person you educate about this topic may be the one to help put an end to gendercide and help these regions in the world give women, in and out of the womb, the equality, and the simple right to existence, that they deserve.
-Hannel is a first-year from Hillsdale, Mich. whose major is undecided.
