Laurie Edwards is all too familiar with life in the “kingdom of the sick,” which is how cultural critic Susan Sontag famously described the hidden world of chronic illness. From an early age, the 32-year old writer, blogger and mother of a young daughter has spent weeks of her life in the hospital and endured [...]
As the XIX International AIDS Conference draws to a close tomorrow, the United State’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has announced a $5 million grant for the Together for Girls (TFG) partnership–designed to address violence against girls and boys. U.S. Global AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby says funds will go to “support countries’ responses [...]
As the XIX International AIDS Conference proceeds in Washington, D.C., this week, its pertinent to note that a new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body of former world leaders and top legal, human rights and HIV experts, has labeled the global response to the AIDS epidemic as “stifled” by various [...]
Rivka Solomon, the daughter of 1960s activists, has long been a rabble rouser. Her 2002 edited anthology, That Takes Ovaries!, now in its sixth printing, still inspires action with its essays by women telling their true stories of “being bold and brazen, outrageous or courageous”–from rallying against sexual harassment to chewing out a burglar in [...]
On the final day of Women’s History Month, let’ s take a moment to remember Miss A, the first woman medically diagnosed with anorexia, and the pioneering doctor who used her case to challenge the era’s prevailing presumption that eating disorders were simply a mark of an hysterical woman. On October 24, 1873, esteemed English [...]
For years now, eating disorders patients and their families been watching and waiting for clinical trials to verify what treatment experts have been observing in practice: that the family-based Maudsley method really is the most effective treatment for many young anorexia patients. Last week The New York Times reported a new study by Maudsley pioneer [...]
One friend likes it on the coffee table. Another friend posted that she likes it on the floor near the couch. Then there’s one who like it on the desk. And no, these statements aren’t related to Karen Owen’s sex “thesis”—these are actual status messages on Facebook by my female friends. First reaction: Um? Second [...]
Today, September 30, is the last day of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month; tomorrow, October 1, is the first day of Breast Cancer Month. Are they connected in any way other than the fact that they are both (mostly) women’s cancers? Absolutely. Those of us who carry mutations on the genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 [...]
When I first discovered Frida Kahlo many years ago, something about her work called to me. During her lifetime her politics were decidedly leftist and revolutionary. She engaged in affairs with both men and women and her paintings centered on women, or more specifically herself. What’s not to like about this incredible woman? But there [...]
