The Fight For Our Rights

January 22nd, 1973. Made history. This date showed people with uteruses that we matter and are respected enough by the Supreme Court to control our bodies. Our uteruses. Our sexual and reproductive freedom.

June 24th, 2022. Made history. This date showed people with uteruses the reality of the system we live in.

Heartbroken. Defeated. Speechless. Hopeless.

What pains and perplexes me is how women are turning on women. Slut-shaming. Gaslighting. Invalidating. When will this end? When will we realize that the battle isn’t between women? Or people with uteruses vs. everyone else? The battle is the oppressed vs. the oppressor. Who’s the oppressed, and who’s the oppressor? We’re all victims and perpetrators, depending on how you twist the story. And that leaves me hopeless. Because justice is in the eye of the beholder.

As the integrity of the Supreme Court dissolves, I wonder if anything I plan on doing for women and LGBTQ+ rights will ever matter. I wonder if, someday, I’ll live in a system that won’t suppress my rights and views because it’s clear today that my concerns as an Asian American woman don’t matter. As Asian hate crimes continue to rise and my rights as a woman continue to be restricted, what will be left? My integrity? My dignity? My pride? Or will the corrupt US system take that away from me too, and camouflage their crimes as justice?

I used to believe in the Supreme Court. I used to believe that effort and time would equate to progression. But it’s clear today that fighting for human rights is an ongoing fight. A fight that appears frivolous in the eyes of many, but not to 165+ million people in the US and billions around the world.

Written by Winnie Zheng