This Monday, as the world’s 7 billionth baby was being born somewhere on the planet, I was sitting in a conference room in Seattle catching a glimpse of the future of contraception. I was at, in fact, the Future of Contraception Initiative, where 200 of science’s brightest minds revealed their progress toward the next big […]
Health
Personhood Amendment Threatens Women of Mississippi, Hits Home
Mississippi’s Initiative 26—the so-called “Personhood Amendment”—hits close to home for me. I was born in Mississippi and attended school there until I graduated from college. My immediate family and many, many friends still reside in the state. In just a few short days, my loved ones and all Mississippians will vote on the statewide question: […]
HERVotes Blog Carnival: Mississippi “Personhood” Amendment
Welcome to the fourth #HERVotes Blog Carnival! This time, we’re writing with an especially urgent focus. There’s an extremely dangerous constitutional amendment to the Mississippi state constitution on the November 8th ballot. It grants personhood and constitutional rights to a fertilized egg. Election day is just one week away. We must stop the outrageous movement […]
Why I’m Glad My Miscarriage Wasn’t in Mississippi
I had a miscarriage in 1991. No one accused me of murder. No one arrested and jailed me on suspicion of abortion. No one charged me with endangering the miscarried fetus. If Initiative 26 to amend the Mississippi constitution passes next week, that won’t be true for the next woman who miscarries. She will be […]
NEWS BRIEF: Global Population Hits 7 Billion
Today, according to projections from the United Nations Population Fund, the global population hit 7 billion—a number that continues to grow by more than 200,000 a day. As Ms. reported in the latest issue (on newsstands now or available here), the increasingly steep climb in the Earth’s population raises serious concerns about sustainability. The Feminist […]
Have a Hunk Remind You to Feel Yourself Up
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that usually manifests in the bombardment of sexist and demeaning awareness campaigns like “Save the Ta-tas.” Don’t even get me started on the useless and idiotic Facebook memes. But there’s one surprising and, er, “exciting” new breast cancer awareness campaign this season. Rethink Breast Cancer, a Canadian […]
Can We Have the HPV Vaccine Without the Sexism and the Homophobia?
I respect that some of you are anti-vaccines–or just anti-Gardasil—but I hope that some Ms. readers will join me in cheering what I consider a better-late-than-never decision by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It has officially recommended that boys and men ages 13-to-21 be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted disease HPV (human papillomavirus) […]
Mississippi Blues
Folks, we’ve got a situation in Mississippi. In September, the state’s Supreme Court decided to allow a so-called “personhood” amendment to appear on the ballot this November 8. In addition to electing a governor, a secretary of state, an attorney general and members of the state legislature, voters will be asked to decide whether to […]
The Problem with Pink
Breast cancer awareness efforts have been wildly successful in one way and, research suggests, a great failure in another. On the success side, the movement has mobilized a truly stunning range of companies to brand their products in ways that raise awareness of breast cancer. Here are a few examples. Fresh cookies (with pink chocolate […]
Hot Chicks, Cold Sexists and Occupy Wall Street
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, students of magic battle a boggart, a creature that manifests itself as your worst nightmare. With a flick of their wand and the word “Riddikulus,” students disarm the boggart by turning it into a joke, thus rendering it powerless and nonthreatening. This is exactly what Steven Greenstreet, […]