Sexuality I: A Matter of Choice

Abstract

The women’s movement has, from the start, campaigned for every woman’s right to define her own sexuality and make choices about her own body. A woman’s sexuality is part of her self. She cannot accept herself fully, cannot feel positive and loving and confident in herself, unless she accepts her body and feels in control of it. One essential aspect of this is fertility control:

All women are sexually oppressed in Ireland. We are oppressed because we have little chance to understand and define our sexuality on our own terms, or to express it in ways we have freely chosen. (Women’s Right To Choose Campaign, Dublin, 1984.¹)