Marilyn Monroe’s Ovaries, Crazy Things Gynecologists Say, and other Weekend Links
When Marilyn Monroe had her appendix removed 28 April 1952, she was quite nervous. She was so worried that her surgeon would remove her ovaries while he was operating that after she was sedated and the doctors pulled back her gown, they found this note taped to...
“Lives will be saved” – the FDA decision not to ban Bayer’s birth control pill
Guest Post by Holly Grigg-Spall How many of us read the inserts included in a packet of pills? How many decide not to take the pills on the basis of the information enclosed? The rapidly reeled-off list of side effects stated at the end of a televised advert...
When Menstrual Talk Comes Home
For the last decade or so, like so many others who read and write for this blog, I have been researching, reading and writing about how we think, talk and act (out) about menstruation. My particular interest is the various interventions that some brave activists make...
Sync Your Cycle, Bleach Your Vulva, Lose Your Virginity, and More Weekend Links
Cycle Harmony offers instructions for syncing your menstrual cycle with the cycle of the moon. Need more racism in your misogyny? Jezebel reports on products for vulva bleaching. An open letter, as only McSweeney's can do an open letter: To the tiny white man the...
Top five reasons not to talk about the menstrual cycle
In last month’s blog post, I was thinking through why we weren’t supposed to talk about our bodies, and by the end of the post, it did seem to me that talking about our body-lives was a normal, sensible, useful, appropriate —just a big yes— thing to do. And, then it...
Shit I Say
Guest Post by Alexandra Epstein A series of videos on YouTube have taken stereotypes to a whole new level. Not only is ‘Shit Girls Say’ sexist, but it has created an empire of homemade ‘Shit (insert proper noun here) Say’ videos stereotyping hundreds of categories....
