Diaper Change #34 - Perspective

The Clean Diaper:

Miriam's toned down version of the original

The Dirty Diaper:

The Vulgar Buzz Original (Unsalted)

We have softened the blow for sensitive souls in the Dirty Diaper above. Click here to open the unmodified Vulgar Buzz Original (VBO) replete with the trauma-induced salty language of an Irish abortion survivor.

Miriam's Commentary

The sheer contrast between the numbers of humans forcefully killed by abortion daily (200,000) and humans forcefully killed daily by every other means - excluding war but including murder by guns (1300) should be cause for alarm. Our society’s obsession over the latter and nonchalance towards the former is quite odd to me at least… and it seems as though Ms Vulgar Buzz would quite emphatically agree.

How can we continue to obsess over the 0.65% and casually dismiss the the 99.35% as irrelevant?

I was chatting with Buzz about this a day or two after a radicalized US Army Vet drove into a crowd of New Years Day revelers in New Orleans killing 14 and wounding 35. She said she had made this meme to slap some much needed perspective into the consciousness of all thoughtful people in the face of similar events in the past decade.

Less than 1% of the humans violently killed today will be at the hands of terrorists, gun toting gangsters, or any other person with murderous intent.

More than 99% of humans violently killed today will be at the hands of doctors who legally perform the killings with deft efficiency and focused regard for the safety of the women wishing to terminate their pregnancy.

Buzz commented further in our phone chat that there is a very plausible reason that there has been an uptick in mass murders in the last few decades. She proposes that there might be causation in the fact that 200,000 humans are killed and thrown away as trash daily, thus devaluing human life in general.

If human lives are that devalued and expendable would it not stand to reason that our entire world culture has become a culture of death?

If such a culture exists (and Buzz and I think it does now more than ever before in human history) then why are we surprised at mass murders that mimic decades old video games produced by that culture (e.g. Death Race 2000)?

Honestly, what do we expect in such a global culture?

Of course there are those who conveniently dismiss the entire thought process above as coming from some right wing nut cases that just want to oppress female humans and their rights.

Perhaps here is where we need to remind those very folks that female fetuses are targeted for abortion more than males in many cultures.

So are fetuses of color.

So are fetuses with detectable disabilities.

Seems odd that we especially target female fetuses of color with disabilities for violent death in order to protect the rights of older females.

Strange indeed.

A Note from Buzz on Trauma Dumping

In my original meme you get the full force of trauma that I was working through at age eighteen when I discovered that my mother had attempted to abort me. My therapist recommended that I use my graphic design skills to work through my rage, grief and pain... a closely supervised 'trauma dump' if you will.

The visceral, raw and often vulgar rage you see in the original image is not that of some ultra right wing pro-lifer.

That fetus is me!

That little baby holding up the sign is me desperately trying to fight for my right to live.

This is personal, not theoretical.

Let that sink in a minute.

All that being said, I am happy to report that working through this under the careful guidance of my therapist has definitely helped. I've moved past the 'rage stage' and found some healing. Healing has also come through working with Miriam here and connecting with other abortion survivors (there are more of us than you think).

If you have been traumatized we highly recommend seeking healing through a psychologist who specializes in trauma therapy like our friend Paul in Uganda. (nkatapaul@gmail.com, WhatsApp +256765480918). We had the privilege of speaking with Paul in Chat 8 which you can see here.

My Vulgar Buzz Original memes are not for sensitive souls or the feint of heart. They are not made public to promote vulgarity, incite violence or bring harm to anyone. Nor are they an exercise in vicarious traumatization.

Rather they are shared to allow the viewer to gain some sense of the raw trauma that I and other abortion survivors have experienced. I believe it also gives a relatively realistic response of a tiny human in utero if it was given adequate abilities to express itself knowing it was about to be violently dispatched.

A Note from Miriam on Diaper Changes

A mother isn’t bothered by a messy diaper or a child covered in vomit. We clean them off, sometimes singing to them or tickling them along the way and then we send them off to play.

 
As such a mom, I’m treating this Vulgar Buzz Original as a child with a dirty diaper. I’m not bothered much by its stench and refuse to ignore the child because it is smelly or in this case, uttering crass vulgarities under dire duress; a completely understandable response to trauma.

It was pretty easy to imitate the VBO style with InDesign to make the more civil language version above. My intent in creating these toned down WWFFS style memes is to bring the same message as the VBO's without the lingual slap in the face that might keep some people from even processing the message.

We also want to bring healing to traumatized souls. To that end, Buzz and I have been sharing our phone chats in the 'Survivors Unite!' section. These conversations have had beautiful moments of healing and hope intertwined with the other themes presented on WWFFS.

Our true hope is that something we've done here will help someone make a better choice for the most vulnerable humans in the world.