Mr. Bebe is frightening!

I recently watched “4 months, 3 weeks an 2 Days,” the Christian Mangiu film about a college student, Otilia, who helps her friend, Gabita, obtain an abortion. The film takes place in Ceausescu’s Romania during the 1980’s, a component of the story that is seen on both the scenery and the characters, where abortions are frequent, illegal and many times fatal. (The exact opposite of what they should be in my opinion: rare, safe, and legal.) Mangiu follows Otilia’s journey through shady alleys and with even shadier characters without music, judgment, contrived monologues or other camera tactics used by the box office hits. So what we, the views, get is a hauntingly exact portrayal of Otilia’s world. Not just the action, but the consciousness as well.

I once heard someone describe babies as parasitic; eating and extracting nutrients from their mothers. And it is a long running and universal joke that children are parasitic because they spend their parents’ money, live in their parents’ house for free, and eat whatever they please. So I wonder, did Gabita view her unborn baby as a parasite that drained her freedom, her nutrients, and her honor? Is that why she decided to have an abortion? Or did she view her baby as a parasite but saw herself as the unable host; unmarried, young, poor, living under a totalitarian regime and unemployed? Was it her inability to provide that led her to her ultimate decision?

In the film we learn that Gabita did not plan to get pregnant and in my view it is almost that fact that classifies the fetus as a parasite more so then the fact that it literally lives off of her. What makes it a parasite is that it interrupted Gabita’s life. I am very positive that no woman who was gladly and voluntarily pregnant would view her condition as a parasitic one. Her pregnancy was planned. It is what her life called for, what she wanted. She was the perfect host, a willing host. Gabita’s life plan for herself did not call for a child.

Babies. Older parents living with their children. Illegal immigrants. Unions. Social Security recipients. Welfare recipients. Spouses. Children. Democrats. All of these groups of people can/are viewed as parasites. I am curious, since when has taking care of someone become a burden? When did a dependant become a parasite? Is there a line between the two? Where is that line? I think once again that what defines a relationship as “parasitic” or not is, for many people, their willingness to be in that relationship and their power over the situation. Right-wingers have been classifying many of the policies backed by the Democrats as parasitic. I small anecdote on this point:

My boyfriend is from the small town of Eatonville, Washington. It is a logging town. Enough said. His stepfather, Mooch, is a lumberjack (literally) and lives out of town. When I went to visit for the first time, he introduced his cat as “Demo.” I asked about the origin of the name and was told that the cat had come around begging for “free food” the year before and was christened Democat (Demo for short) precisely because of this. I guess all Democrats want free food. Or something like that. (Just to clarify, the people of Eatonville are unbelievably friendly and kind and Mooch loves Demo very much!)

Conservatives tend to view unions, welfare, social security, other social policy programs as parasitic because they do exactly what parasites do; benefit by deriving nutrients (taxes) at the host’s (tax payers) expense. But, I feel that all people benefit from many of the policies that are funded by tax dollars, either indirectly or directly. And just a shout out, not every one can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps especially when they don’t have boots in the first place. I feel that by accepting government help should not label someone as a parasite. Or as a Democrat.

Taxes also are mandatory and not completely representative of individual people. This fact once again shows that it is the level of involvement that makes something a parasite. We don’t have a direct say in how our money is being spent when we pay taxes, so resulting programs are parasitic upon us. We have a say in what charities and organizations we donate to, so resulting actions are non-parasitic.

What defines something as parasitic? It is the way in which it comes into our lives. It is the way that it affects our world, our actions, and our consciousness. When we want a change in one or more of these things we embrace the event that does so. But when we are the unwilling host to an occurrence that sends us off of our intended path, like unplanned pregnancy, the event transforms into a parasite.