Chloe Angyal | The Nation
A Pill for Equal Abortion Access
Stigmatization of abortion, along with factors such as high cost, complicates the process of having an abortion. (Courtesy of Flickr, CC 2.0.)
The Australian government announced today that it will most likely add RU-486, the abortion pill, to the list of drugs that are heavily subsidized under the country’s universal healthcare system.
Fat-Shaming All Around Us
The sign outside a cafe in West Village that sparked debate over fat-shaming. (Courtesy of Chloe Angyal.)
Earlier this week I blogged here about the thinspiration community—which encourages anorexic and bulimic behaviors and insists that eating disorders are not mental illnesses but admirable “lifestyle choices”—and its use of Twitter to share tips on how to be “better” at your eating disorder.
The 'Thinspiration' Behind an Impossible Ideal of Beauty
Anorexia is the deadliest of mental illnesses. (Courtesy of Flickr, CC 2.0.)
Ever heard of thinspiration? Google it—actually, on second thought, don't, unless you want to fall down a rabbit hole into the deeply disturbing world of explicitly pro-anorexia, pro-bulimia blogs and websites.
Chrissy Amphlett's Pleasure Anthem
Chrissy Amphlett performs as Judy Garland in the musical “The Boy From Oz” in 2006. (Reuters/Will Burgess.)
Decades before Britney Spears danced through the hallways of a high school in a little plaid skirt, Chrissy Amphlett was making a scene on stage in a school uniform and fishnet stockings. Long before Rihanna sang about the appeals of S&M, Amphlett was crooning about the fine line between pleasure and pain, asking us to please not ask her how she’s been getting off. And years before rappers like Missy Elliott and Nicki Minaj were rhyming about taking their sexual pleasure into their own hands, Amphlett was serenading the object of her affection with “when I think about you, I touch myself.”
Sexual Assault Survivors Are Telling Their Stories—Are We Listening?
The documentary The Invisible War profiles survivors like Ariana Klay, who was raped in the Marines. (Courtesy of The Invisible War).
"So, what's it like to be sitting in a room with so many people who have been sexually assaulted?" My friend was asking because yesterday, I spoke at the Service Women's Action Network conference, the Truth and Justice Summit on Military Sexual Trauma. I scoffed grimly and texted him back: "Look around the room you're in now, and ask yourself the same question."
Punishing Students For Who They Are, Not What They Do
A student reads at a school in New Jersey. One in four black students were suspended in 2009-10, compared to one in fourteen white students. (AP Photo/Jose F. Moreno.)
Until last month, I had never seen a stop-and-frisk happen. Despite the amount of attention devoted to the controversial New York City policy in the last year, despite the protests, and despite having lived in the city for almost four years, I had never witnessed a stop-and-frisk. And then, a few weeks ago, I watched as two policemen stopped middle-aged black man on 98th Street, and frisked him. I wondered, not for the first time, what it would take for those same policemen to stop and frisk me. Controlling for all other factors—location, time of day, behavior—what would it take for the cops to stop and frisk a pretty white lady on the Upper West Side?
After Boston, One Foot in Front of the Other
Runners compete in the 2013 Boston Marathon. (Photo courtesy of Sonia Su, Wikimedia, CC 2.0.)
In a few weeks' time, my friend Anthony is having a party. It's not his birthday, but he is celebrating the fact that he's alive. He and his friends will get together to mark the one-year anniversary of the day he almost died, but didn't: an Alive Day party. Among wounded vets, such celebrations aren't uncommon ("It sounds like pretty much every Jewish holiday," I joked to Anthony when he told me about his plan. "They tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat").
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