A Basic Human Right

This is from a blog meme I ran across today called BlogDriveInsanity(^):

Wednesday Mind Hump

Welcome to another Mind Hump. Today is Human Rights Day.
What human right are you most passionate about?

My answer would be... Well, I would start with the fact that I've never heard of the United Nations' Human Rights Day(^) before now, even though this is the 60th anniversary of the first one.

Yay, learning new stuff!

And second, to answer the question, I guess I would say that I am most passionate about the right to self defense. Without the right to protect yourself, all other rights immediately cease to matter. If you aren't walking the Earth anymore, the right to vote; to property; to clean air and water; to food, the right to anything becomes meaningless.

I'm not talking about the dubious "right" to be an aggressor, or the ability to go to war. Simply put - I mean the innate right to stop aggression against yourself or those you care for. To feel safe and secure to the best of your ability without harming others who are innocent in the process.

I was a long time in becoming convinced that I could protect myself. And that even if I could, that I should. One thing that prompted me toward action was seeing other women taking the steps to defend themselves or others.

Women like Jeanne Assam(^), from my own neck of the woods, who saved untold lives at New Life Church last year.

Women like Stephanie Nielson, author of The NieNie Dialogues, who decided earlier this year to take firearms training and get her concealed carry permit because of crime in her neighborhood. She wrote about it eloquently in a post entitled NieNie get your gun(^).

And women like an unfortunate neighbor of mine whose home was invaded over the summer, and who was beat mercilessly. She didn't have the means to protect herself or her family.

So, I made the decision, took the classes, and did the most important thing: practice, practice, practice.


range practice

I made some interesting discoveries along the way:

• Women are most certainly welcome at firearm ranges. I'm never the only one there. Women made up exactly 25% of my training class, and there are often knowledgeable women working in sporting goods stores that sell firearms.
  
• People in the know are willing to answer questions, make suggestions, and offer explanations. There are no stupid questions, and all of my questions have been answered with respect and patience.
• Everyone involved with firearms that I've met takes safety and competence very seriously.
• It feels good to become competent at something that had previously seemed so scary and once I did become competent, the scare factor went away.

So, the right I am most passionate about is the one I consider to be most basic right of all, the one that all others flow from.

Finally, I mentioned Stephanie Nielson above, a blogger I've very much enjoyed reading for some time. Stephanie and her husband, "Mr Nielson" were in a terrible airplane accident in August, 2008, and they both sustained life threatening critical burns.

While they recover, their loved ones are reposting previous NieNie posts. To read her blog, click on the link above. If you'd like to learn more about these two wonderful people, or if you would like to help, click the icon below.

Namaste.

Current mood:

Goodbye Motrin. Hello, brand equivalent and non-insulting generics.

Tonight, after I got home from a lovely day out and about with my sweet husband (we had a blast - more on that later), reading through my RSS feed, I found an entry at Crunchy Domestic Goddess(^) that I found infuriating (not directed at CDG, of course).

Companies often try to capture the spirit of a particular group for monetary gain. This shouldn't shock us - it's how advertising works. Advertisers want you to associate their products with your problems. They want you to think that they understand and that they can help solve your problems. They try to use words and images that register with us, so that we'll think they are speaking our language.

Mothers are a group that is frequently targeted. This also shouldn't shock us - moms like me make a lot of the buying decisions for our homes, and persuading us to purchase something can result in huge profits.

It's far too late in the evening (early in the morning, actually) to debate the pros and cons of target marketing, but allow me to say this: when it doesn't work, it can result in the worst type of backlash.

Like the kind I am about to engage in:

All parents, regardless of where they live or what they believe, want what is best for their child. Good food, good health, and safe environment. Those are the basics.

Of course, we all want everything good for our children. We want them to love and feel loved; comfort and feel comforted. We want them to feel sympathy and empathy, to receive it when they need it, and to have the compassion to give it freely when they should.

We all want our children to grow up to be everything they were meant to be.

And while we each may parent differently, we all want the same things. We all work toward the same goals, though we may take different paths to get there.

So, when a company chooses to poke cynical, mean-spirited fun of us to make a quick dollar, it doesn't help. It adds nothing of value. It belittles the very people who do society's heavy lifting.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the makers of Motrin, (ibuprofen), have decided that it makes monetary sense to belittle women who, after careful study, keep their young babies in slings worn on the body(^). Women the world over "wear" their babies. They always have. It provides babies with the constant warm and loving environment they need to thrive and flourish physically and emotionally.

Many moms have found that babies who are worn are generally happier, and more content. They find that their babies eat better, and they often breastfeed longer, which directly translates to better health. Slings allow mothers the freedom to move back into an active lifestyle soon after the child's birth, and it has been suggested that slings can help with postpartum depression. Translation: it's good for moms as well.

But, according to the people who make Motrin (and Tylenol, for that matter), and in contrast to the overwhelming majority of women who wear or have worn their little ones, doing what women all over the world do and have done for centuries, wearing your baby makes mom cry.

The ad has lines like:

Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion.

Translation: Jump on the bandwagon, you silly, thoughtless woman.

Someone should inform them that women have always done this. Always. Take a look at a United States Mint One Dollar coin. It has Sacajawea, the Shoshone guide to the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 on the obverse side, her tiny son Jean Baptiste being carried on her back.

More, from the ad: Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.

Supposedly? Where is a baby supposed to be, if not with her parents? In a crib, alone and screaming?

(&)

These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders. Did I mention your back?!

Um, no they don't. Choosing the right sling and wearing it properly doesn't hurt. If it does, seek out the help of other moms, try a different one, or wear the one you have differently. Did I mention it isn't supposed to hurt?

Honest.

Really.

I promise.

The ad ends with:

Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom.

Translation: There you go again, fluff-for-brains. You didn't research your position. You didn't think it through. You aren't competent or smart. You're doing it because it looks good.

~~~

McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Motrin thinks it's ok to insult moms to make a buck. They think it's ok to demean women, to undermine our parenting, to sell their product.

But they are wrong. This cynical ploy is enough to banish Motrin from our medicine cabinets. If the makers of Motrin feel that denigrating women to make a buck is ethical, we feel comfortable refusing their product.

Generics are there for a reason. Loyalty to brands only works when the brand is worth being loyal to. The makers of Motrin and Tylenol have lost me as a customer.

If you'd like to hear the ad yourself, find it here, at Motrin's website. It was there when I started writing tonight. If they remove it, Barb at Perfectly Natural Photography(^) has thoughtfully transcribed it.

If you Twitter, consider tweeting this. If you do, please add "#motrinmoms" or "#motrindads" (no quotes) to your tweet. I'm not sure who started this, but here are the results at Twitter(^). Pages and pages and pages. My own Twitter feed is in the smaller column here on my blog, or here(^).

If you feel moved, you can write a quick note to McNeil Consumer Healthcare here(^). Here is what I wrote:

I find it hard to fathom that denigrating mothers makes good business sense, so when I heard your commercial last night which belittles dedicated parents to sell Motrin, I was shocked.
We will no longer be purchasing Motrin (or Tylenol) and will strongly encourage our friends to avoid your products as well.

I am mommy, hear me roar.

Namaste