Walking up the library steps this week, you may notice something strange on the lawn. Approaching from afar, you will hopefully see the word CHOICE spelled out in strange shapes.
On taking a closer look, you may be horrified, amused or surprised to see cut-outs in the shapes of sports bras and boxers. But the important part of this display is that there will be words on these undergarments - important words.
Words that express the choices and decisions of individuals. Words that show that we are a free people, in that we have the ability to make our own choices. Words that give us the ability to be unique.
This display of words written on sports bras and boxers to form the word "choice" is part of the new choice campaign that Tufts Vox is bringing to campus. Along with posters that ask what choices you make, and this op-ed, the goal of this display and the larger campaign is to expand the meaning of choice and to make it personal.
Why is it that pro-choice is equated only with pro-abortion? The word "choice" implies more than one option; abortion cannot be the only option for pregnant women that pro-choice advocates are favoring or proposing.
Choice means having the ability to choose between abortion, adoption and motherhood. It means having the ability to choose what to do with your own body.
It means eating at Dewick instead of Carmichael, dying your hair purple instead of pink, ordering Pizza Days instead of Domino's. It means choosing to use a condom, choosing to be on the pill, choosing not to have sex.
Pro-choice is much more about freedom than about abortion. It is the freedom for a woman to choose to bring a child into the world or to wait until she has planned to have a child or to never have a child.
It is the freedom for women and men to make decisions about their own bodies. It is the freedom to have sex or to not have sex. It is the freedom to be gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It is the freedom to feel safe and to be able to make healthy decisions.
Pro-choice affects each and every life on this campus every day as we all make decisions, because we believe in the freedom to choose how to live our own lives.
Why is it that pro-life has to mean anti-abortion? What about being pro-woman's life? What is often forgotten when considering the life of the fetus is a consideration for the life of the woman.
Or what about the life of the man who might have to support a child in a way he simply cannot afford? If we examine the meaning of pro-life literally, it really means pro-choice. Favoring life - a full, free life in which each person has control over his or her own life - means favoring choices.
So why are so many people trying to take choice away? We live in a supposedly democratic nation built upon the ideals of freedom and choice, and yet we are still fighting against choice.
I am not trying to change avid "pro-life" people into pro-choice people, because one article is not going to make a difference in such strongly rooted beliefs. But I challenge everyone who reads this to think about what choice really means and what role abortion and sexual health play in that meaning.
If you are a firm believer in choice, come by the campus center today or tomorrow from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. or go to Carmichael around dinner time and write down some of the choices you make on our pseudo-bras and boxers that will be part of the display.
Yes, if you haven't figured out why bras and boxers, it's making a reference to sex and the body. So if you like making choices and want to be a little controversial, voice your choice and be part of the choice revolution!
Alyssa Ursillo is a sophomore majoring in community health and women's studies. She is also the vice president of VOX.
