Responsible People, Like me
The Bush administration recently gave out a statement regarding its position on contraception. The statement from the Assistant Secretary for Health stated, among other things:
Well, you know, I saw this, and it didn't seem like anything special, just another political nonstatement. But Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon blog tuned in on one interesting aspect of it -- it's one of those things that you hear and don't think about.
She wants to ask about those "responsible adults:"
Really. Raise your hand if you're irresponsible. Mmm, none here, I see.
I think she's on to something. The world is made up of "people like me" and "others." Sometimes circumstances cause people like me to need someething special. Other people are irresponsible, and we shouldn't reward that. It's classic social psychology, classic attribution theory.
This Administration supports the availability of safe and effective products and services to assist responsible adults in making decisions about preventing or delaying conception.
Well, you know, I saw this, and it didn't seem like anything special, just another political nonstatement. But Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon blog tuned in on one interesting aspect of it -- it's one of those things that you hear and don't think about.
She wants to ask about those "responsible adults:"
So who is not “responsible”? Well, this is perfect politician Unspeak. My guess is that most of the Republican voters think of irresponsible people as “people not like me”. After all, who’s going to say, “I’m not a responsible adult, so take my contraception.” Nobody, of course. The word is just a dog whistle that generally means women who dare not to be married and people who dare to be poor. Thus the reason that BushCo won’t allow Plan B to be sold over the counter where women who are “irresponsible” (read: not rich enough to afford a doctor who’ll prescribe it over the phone) can’t have access to it. Considering how a lot of wingnuts describe women who don’t or won’t marry as narcissists and selfish, we can guess who they’re hoping is outside the group “responsible adults” and therefore eligible to have their access to contraception shut down. Playing “Guess What Bush’s Latest Dog Whistle Means”
Really. Raise your hand if you're irresponsible. Mmm, none here, I see.
I think she's on to something. The world is made up of "people like me" and "others." Sometimes circumstances cause people like me to need someething special. Other people are irresponsible, and we shouldn't reward that. It's classic social psychology, classic attribution theory.
posted by JimK at 10:06 AM
6 Comments:
Jim, the statement ignores sexually active youth. Apparently, they should not have access to contraception or to information about contraception.
Look, we all know that we'd prefer our kids to become adults before they have sex, or at least have them reach an age where they think like adults. But denying them information is denying them a key part of what they need to think about their sexuality in an adult way.
Good point, Tish. It's funny, the way our laws are written, an "adult" is defined in terms of an arbitrary number of years incarnate. (Eighteen, usually, in the US, sixteen in England.) You'd think the concept would include the idea of reproductive maturity -- that seems to be the core feature that distinguishes a child from an adult. ... But any way I think about this, it leads into some kind of discussion that is too controversial, too ripe for misconstrual and offense, to even start.
JimK
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201418.html
"VERBATIM
A Year After The Question, Bush's Answer
Friday, June 23, 2006; Page A23
Almost a year ago, 19 members of Congress wrote a letter to President Bush asking whether he supports contraception and birth control. The letter was sent after then-press secretary Scott McClellan declined to answer a reporter's question on the same subject -- a "no comment" that was regularly repeated in the months that followed.
Late last month, Assistant Secretary for Health John O. Agwunobi responded for the president in a letter to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.)"
Attribution theory - Attribution theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types.
"External" or "situational" attribution assigns causality to an outside factor, such as the weather,
"internal" or "dispositional" attribution assigns causality to factors within the person, such as their own level of intelligence or other variables that make the individual responsible for the event.
According to Harold Kelley, the three basic methods of determining if the actions of others are due to internal or external factors are: Distinctiveness (does the person behave in a manner unique to the situation, or do they often act this way?), consensus (would others behave this way in such a situation?), and consistency (does the person generally behave this way given this situation?).
... You're telling us what attribution theory is????
JimK
"I think she's on to something. The world is made up of "people like me" and "others." Sometimes circumstances cause people like me to need someething special. Other people are irresponsible, and we shouldn't reward that. It's classic social psychology, classic attribution theory."
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