The Standard
•
19th May 2022
Durr: My mother taught me my body is my own; the world taught me it isn’t
As an anxious child who was never fond of physical displays of affection from people outside my direct household, my mother taught me one very important lesson: You are in control of your own body; if you don’t want somebody to touch you, that is your choice to make.
While in the context I was taught this, it applied to family members hugging me and children on the playground tugging at my hair, it became a lesson with a much different connotation the older I got. A childhood lesson became the foundation on which I built my understanding of bodily autonomy.
My mother taught me on that day, and in the fifteen or more years since, that I have control over myself in all forms, including my body and what I decide to do with it. In the span of 98 pages, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sought to teach me the exact opposite.