An Eye For An Eye?

It's a common response from mischievous children when asked why they hit a classmate: "Because he hit me first!" An Eye For An Eye is not only one of the oldest written laws in human history, it makes a lot of intuitive sense. It's fair, it's punishment for wrongdoing, and it follows a natural reaction to being wronged.

And humans never seem to grow out of it.

Example:

A bill has been introduced in the Ohio state senate as a counterbalance to the strict and sexist anti-abortion laws by Senator Nina Turner. The bill would regulate men's reproductive health by requiring men looking to obtain erectile dysfunction, drugs such as Viagra, to first "see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency."

While there is a very thin front of concern for male reproductive health, the biggest purpose of the legislation seems to be a strike back at legislators pushing for the same kinds of regulations on women's reproductive health, especially the supporters of the controversial "Heartbeat Bill" that would make abortion illegal as soon as the fetus has a detectable heartbeat (about 6 weeks after conception at the earliest). If men are going to impose egregious regulations on women's health, Senator Turner's supporters reason, they might change their minds if men's health faces similarly bizarre regulations. The Occupy Wall Street movement has already voiced support for Senator Turner for this very reason.

And these regulations really are bizarre, and probably harmful. Impotence might be caused by medical or psychological reasons, and a sex therapist trying to resolve a medical problem may only augment the existing problem. Not to mention that many sex therapists are sex-negative, as Dan Savage points out repeatedly on his show and column, and could add new problems to a sexual relationship. And the requirement for an affidavit signed by a partner seems to have no purpose beyond humiliating men much the way women are under some abortion laws, and therefore forcing men to confront their own unfairness in passing those abortion laws.

This bill makes intuitive sense - and only intuitive sense. Give men a taste of their sexist medicine. If they could only see just how draconian and humiliating their "pro life" legislation is to women, then perhaps they might change their minds. But that's the funny thing about the mischievous children who are asked why they hit a classmate: without the teacher, most often neither he nor the kid initiated the fight would realize that hitting is wrong. The bullied's lesson on why violence is bad - "now you know how it feels" mentality - only increases tension and anger. Both children suffer, and both children get in trouble.

If Senator Turner and her supporters understand how wrong the laws oppressing women are, they should know better than to try and mimic them. The answer to oppressive women's health laws is not oppressive men's health laws. Then Ohio would become a land of oppressed men and women, where instead legislators should be fighting against oppression. Senator Turner's legislation is just as dangerous as the legislation she is retaliating against.

If this is the strategy we use to fight for women's rights, then neither side, like the two children, will win.