What’s always relieving about this fact is that it relieves men of the pressure–impressed upon us by the silly, sacrosanct, airbrushed view of women’s bodies–to hide our physical imperfections with bluster, machismo, or even by being too afraid of women to approach them.

Not that it has anything to do with abortion….

so true Kevin. So true. and thanks for the comment.

Despite your professed bleary-eyed state, this is maybe the clearest articulation of the “It’s my body, and I’ll make the choices for it” argument I’ve ever seen. Specifically because it’s not about simple defiance or independence, but about common sense with regard to the human body, which is, let’s face it, very imperfect. We can be beautiful and ugly in turns.

As a teenager, I managed to not be jerked around by my nether bits by keeping one simple mantra in mind: “Even hot girls have smelly farts.”

This helped me not take beauty too seriously, or get too hung up on the pretty girls. I still worshipped beauty occasionally, but I needed to really like that person to really find them beautiful.