This is an awesome guide by Christine Stansell (who wrote one of my favorite books, City of Women) to books about the history of abortion in the US, a subject I’ve written and presented on.
This past Sunday’s Modern Love (NYTimes) was particularly touching.
Suddenly Spock has a soft spot for the social acceptance of obese women.
And unfortunately fewer women are getting mammograms.
Is It the Woman Thing, or Is It Katie Couric? Oh no her ratings are down!
Punishing the woman for her abortion. Television helps determine how gender roles are portrayed in culture and vice verse. It’s a subject I’m particularly interested in regarding women and feminism. Abortion is a controversial issue that sparks debate and strong feelings. When it’s depicted on TV, all sorts of feelings fly. These feelings usually don’t sit along the seemingly rigid lines of pro-choice and pro-life.
Unfortunately storylines that feature abortions are portrayed in black and white ways. One storyline that is recycled concerning abortion is that women who have them are continually punished for having the procedure. Women who have abortions often find out they are sterile after having the procedure.
This pattern was revisited on last week’s Grey’s Anatomy when the character Addison discovered she couldn’t have children after a trip to a fertility clinic. It was revealed earlier this season that she aborted a pregnancy that the result of her relationship with an unreliable womanizer.
When another character on the same show, Christina, considered an abortion, she ended up having a tubal pregnancy that cost her one of her fallopian tubes and her chance to become pregnant in the future. Grey’s Anatomy is sending a mixed message to its viewers. It seems to unapologetically feature women who are not afraid to show their sexual sides yet when the consequences of sex are brought up, characters are permanently scarred.
Exploring a woman’s decision to choose is a realistic scenario, yet by not showing that a woman is unable to become pregnant after an abortion is medically unrealistic. Funny for a show about medicine but then again Grey’s Anatomy is known for its sex and drama NOT its accurate portrayal of the medical world.
I’m at my quirky hotel in Boston. I’m sitting here trying to figure out the T. My hotel has some strange features. There are Trojan condoms in the mini bar. I think great for safe sex and the best place if you need them in the hurry. I’ve just never seen them anywhere beside on an RA’s door or a store or bathroom vending machine.
And the hotel charges .29 cents per page to print in the business center. BAH! I got hit by an urge to cut things out of my paper, so I needed a new copy. Would I have done that if I knew my print out would have cost me roughly $2.00…I don’t know?
I got to Boston at 5:30 and went by the conference location to catch a 6:00 panel entitled:
Composition & Rhetoric VIII: Oprah, Dr. Phil, & Letterman:
Inviting Popular Culture into the Composition Classroom
It really deserves a lot more of a detailed description than I can give it right now. It made me go back and think over my talk in my head because the panelists were all talking about teaching composition.
‘’It’s terrible, because these are students who are working very hard to pay for their tuition and books at a time when tuition costs are edging up as well,'’ said Linda Lekawski, director of the university health center at Texas A&M, where the old price for birth control pills of about $15 per month is expected to triple. ‘’This is one thing they’ve been able to benefit from for years.'’
According to a International Herald Tribune article:
Rome has found a way for mother to abandon babies they can no longer care for in a safe way:
The baby, who is white, was deposited in a small structure equipped with a heated cradle and life-saving instruments, including a respirator. As in bygone days, it is possible for a woman to leave a baby without being seen, but the moment the child is abandoned an alarm goes off in the hospital’s emergency room, ensuring that the baby receives immediate first aid from a team of specialists.
I think this is a great idea to ensure that women won’t get stigmatized while knowing their infant ends up in safe hands.
It would be great if we started something like that here so we could avoid some headlines like:
Baby found dead at Shreveport apartment
Baby Found Dead In Bed With Parents
Police look into infant’s injury
Just a thought…
Two stories that provide a fascinating parallel:
From the article Pressing to look closer at blood clots and the Pill:
“Originally there was some hope that third-generation pills would be more effective,” said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, which filed the petition. “In fact, they turn out to have unique risks and no benefit over second-generation contraceptives.”
Learning that more recently developed birth control pills offer more risks and NO benefits over slightly older pills enrages me. I also learned that several tests that looked into potential side affects and effectiveness of the drug usually only include women who are considered average weight and are of a younger age than 40.
Perhaps more important, the panel wants the F.D.A. to ensure that it gathers data on the safety and efficacy of oral contraceptives from real women — older, overweight, forgetful even — living in a real world where contraceptive choices have real consequences.
A very alarming part of the research that the University of Washington found was that overwight and obese women were 60 percent more likely to become pregnant than women who weighed less on low dose pills.
Another article about sexual health that appeared the day before concerned popular pharmacies in the UK. Pharmacies to sell Viagra to patrons without a prescription on Valentine’s Day. Don’t get me wrong I think men who suffer from ED deserve to have medicine to help them. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing but the vibe I am getting from the media is that the development and marketing of drugs that enhance sexual desire takes precedence over drugs that inhibit women’s ability to become pregnant.
A few years ago I saw a pharmaceutical advertisement that said men could receive their third prescription of Viagra for free. Near that same time, I heard many stories of young women having a hard time securing birth control pills for an inexpensive co-pay price from their insurance companies. Attitudes toward pills intended for sexual use differ drastically between those inteded for men than for women.
Clearly, women suffering from potentially life threatening problems from birth-control pills isn’t considered sexy news, but it is real news that deserves to be heard. Attitudes toward women and birth-control have always confused me. Pharmaceutical companies are quick to market them and present a world where women who take the Pill are carefree and fun-loving BUT without proper media coverage and assertions that is ok to discuss the Pill’s benefits and drawbacks many women will suffer needlessly.
(1) Nothing gets a woman off like a sweaty man!
Rev. Tim Ralph spoke up for his buddy: “He is completely heterosexual,” Mr. Ralph told The Post, adding that Mr. Haggard’s homosexual activity had not been “a constant thing.”
(3) Mel, Kramer & Isaiah: My question is who going to be the Woman Bashing celeb?
AND I met to post this a few posts ago but my AWESOME web master had to install some sort of application on to my site…so here we go
(2) Dangerous birth control pills?!
Read about it here (yes a Public Citizen plug.)
I didn’t know there were “generations” of birth control pills. The FDA needs to get their act together or one of these days we will all freak out and die of evil drugs or paranoia.
(3) Very thorough article on the history of Black History Month and current attitudes toward it.
(1) According to a report, teenage pregnancy is at an all time low.
But it doesn’t seem like older women are practicing abstinence outside of marriage.
Also from the report (click here for link):
But many American regions still claim teenage pregnancy is a huge issue.
A news station clails that teenage pregnancy “remains a big issue in East Texas.”
Also in Texas…
(2) Texas Gov. Mandates HPV Vaccine for all girls beginning at age 11 or 12.