Jill
Jill has been blogging for Feministe since 2005.
The brutality of reproductive control
A must-read op/ed in the New York Times about the dangers in state control of reproduction:
...read moreShameless Self-Promotion Sunday
Promote yourself.
...read moreShameless Self-Promotion Sunday
Promote yourself.
...read moreI definitely want to pet your dog.
But I still think Farhad Manjoo is correct here when he says that many dog owners are a little too lenient with their pets. Not everyone likes dogs; a lot of people (me included, actually) are allergic to dogs. A lot of people are scared of dogs — yes, even your cute one.
...read moreShould you speak out at a wedding of a friend marrying an abusive man?
That’s Cary Tennis’s advice to a woman who witnesses her friend being subjected to a variety of abusive behaviors from her fiance. He beats up her dog. He monitors her phone. He violates her physical boundaries. I like Cary’s explanation — that silence is enabling — but I wonder if what amounts to a public humiliation will only marginalize the friend more.
The letter-writer should absolutely take that dog to the vet, though, permission or not.
...read moreShameless Self-Promotion Sunday
Promote yourself.
...read more
Spotlight on Haiti
Last weekend, I was in Haiti. The organization JCI sent me down there so I could learn about one of their projects: A community center for Haitian youth. I only spent four days in the country, but they were full of meetings and conversations and discussions, and I came away with the sense that the JCI community center is exactly what sustainable development is supposed to look like.
...read moreWhat if everything you knew about adoption was wrong?
Writing about adoption and Kathryn Joyce’s The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption
Welcome to a pro-life world
In El Salvador, a young mother pseudonymously called Beatriz is pregnant and dying. She has lupus and is facing renal failure; the fetus she’s pregnant with is anencephalic, meaning it has no brain and will not survive once born. If she dies, she will leave behind a husband and their toddler. With each passing day, she gets sicker and sicker, and the chances of death increase. She needed a termination weeks ago; more delays could pose significant hardships, as the probability increases that she will have to be on dialysis for the rest of her life — not a reasonable possibility for a poor woman living in rural El Salvador. But because El Salvador outlaws abortion under any circumstance, Beatriz cannot terminate the pregnancy that’s killing her.
...read moreIs Michael Pollan a sexist pig?
A great piece about blaming feminism for our current food issues, and how romanticizing a false past is bad for food cuture. A bit of it:
...read moreThe University of Arizona needs a new student code of conduct
Content note: Rape threats.
Dean Saxton, a student at the University of Arizona, is hanging out on campus with a “You Deserve Rape” sign. Because you’re dressed like a whore, of course, so you’re asking for it. The University says there’s nothing they can do, because he hasn’t violated the student code of conduct. I would suggest that maybe it’s time to rewrite the student code of conduct?
...read more
Purity Culture and Sexual Assault
Caperton covered the Elizabeth Smart speech about abstinence already, and my Guardian column this week is on a similar topic: How an emphasis on purity is bad for women, bad for men and bad for rape survivors:
...read more