I want to live in a country where women can say no and not be sentenced for it. There is a line from my favorite novel, White Oleander, when Astrid loses Claire. I wanted to throw something into the fat ugly eye of God. I feel that now, deep in my bones. The helpless rage […]
What baffles me most about this story is that overpopulation is framed as everyone’s problem. But declining birth rates? It’s all on us, ladies. First, we came for Applebee’s. Then, we came for Sears. And we didn’t stop there. We moved on to the real estate industry, stubbornly refusing to cough up down payments on […]
Birth control, I love you. It’s not you, it’s me. Dear Birth Control, I just wanted to take the time to say thanks for sticking by my side all these years. You empowered me to take charge of my own story through the most turbulent chapters of my life. You’re the reason I’m the most […]
You know the character traits associated with your sun sign, your Hogwarts house, and your favorite flavor of La Croix, but have you thought about what your menstrual products reveal about your personality? Your period is a time for many things: binge-watching television, catching up on your comfort eating, getting into arguments for reasons you’ll […]
As a woman of color and a feminist, I have worked in politics and women’s rights activism for 14 years, and in my time as a candidate for office, campaign staffer, and political consultant, I have never seen such an upsurge of political effort on the part of women. It’s no wonder that the new […]
At least at home, I know they won’t run out of condoms or be put in a situation where they don’t feel like they can say no. Like most parents, I try to avoid thinking about my kids having sex. Having been a teenager myself once upon a time, I knew it was likely they’d […]
Female condoms sounded weird and complicated and I figured we already had condoms so this discussion was really unnecessary…and then I changed my mind. When I was a kid, the local pop radio station had a nightly phone in sex chat show. Most nights, I would secretly listen as folks called in with their questions […]
Male birth control is a long overdue part of gender equality. Last summer, high school junior William Trinh landed a coveted internship funded by the National Institutes of Health. He showed up at the University of Washington expecting to spend a couple of months peering into a microscope, but that wasn’t the kind of help […]
Laughter is women’s go-to, and socially palatable substitute, for something men might really not like, aggression and anger. Women around the world were thrown into fits of side-splitting laughter earlier this week after media reported that a clinical trial for an “extremely effective” form of male contraceptive was closed after men in the study didn’t […]
I refuse to accept that childbirth and child rearing is an inherent and integral part of womanhood. When you read this, I’m probably either getting ready to go to or am already at the hospital to get surgery. Yes, I’m getting my tubes tied today! I have been waiting for two years for this to […]
Being touched, even by a doctor, made me feel ashamed. Having sex? That was even worse. “I don’t know why I’m getting so emotional right now,” I said as I wiped tears away from the face. “I don’t know, either,” Dr. O’Neil shrugged as she handed me a tissue. I tried to get myself together […]
It’s hard being excited for babies you never wanted. I woke up disoriented, blurry. The anesthesia worked and was wearing off. My soon-to-be husband and mother stood next to my hospital bed holding my hands. I had just undergone laparoscopic surgery for cyst removal. The cyst wasn’t cancerous and was mostly liquid-filled. But once inside, the doctors did a little more […]
