Monday, January 3, 2011

Human Ownership

In class we were asked to agree or disagree to the statement "Children are their parent's possessions".    Many of the class agreed to this statement saying that legally parents are in charge when their child is in trouble.  Another argument is that the mother has the baby in her womb and therefore is in complete ownership of the child.  I strongly disagree with these statements.  I believe that under no circumstances can a human own another human.  I believe that parents are responsible, legally, financially and otherwise, towards their kids, but never have the right to claim ownership over them.
During the class discussion Mr. Bolos and O'Connor brought up public displays of ownership.  Although not their original point, the class immediately jumped on the conclusion of leash babies.


We have all seen them and been sufficiently creeped out by them.  A direct claim of ownership over someone, the 'leash baby' is an iconic example of parent control and displays of ownership over their children.
When talking about the leash baby, a picture came to my mind from our World History class last year.  When studying Iraq, our teacher taught us about the torture prison Abu Ghraib and the photo from it was stuck in my memory (WARNING: there are frightening and graphic images here- if you choose not to click the links below, there will be little confusion through the rest of the post).  Abu Ghraib was a torture prison in Iraq.  The tortured Iraqi citizens were forced into sexual, painful and humiliating poses while the US soldiers working there snapped photos that were put on facebook and myspace.  The separate link of the photo shows a female US soldier holding a leashed, naked and tortured Iraqi.  The particular photo stuck out to me because of the sense of ownership and control so clearly exhibited through the leash.  The complete control that one human has over another is sickening and whether in a prison in Iraq or with a simple parent child relationship, a human being under no circumstances has ownership over another human being.

4 comments:

  1. Anna,
    This was a very thoughtful and thorough post. I agree with your stance on the difference between owning and being responsible for your kids. Your connection to the Iraqi torture prison was interesting, although I think it's too different of a situation to compare that much to leash babies. However, the significance of the leash and how degrading it is is quite apparent. Good job!

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  3. Elizabeth,
    Thanks for your comment! I agree that the situations are too different to compare. My goal for the post was to link the idea of a leash and the ownership it clearly shows, both in the extreme example of Abu Ghraib and the everyday examples of leash babies.

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  4. I doubt these parents are doing much more than trying to keep their kids safe. I am thinking of getting my wife a leash for our son while she travels with him to Asia. Having him on a leash will allow her to let him walk around while she is waiting at the airport. I am not getting her a leash so she can publicly display her ownership of him. I just want them to be safe.

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