BDSM versus Sex, part 2: How Does It Feel?
Every once in a while, someone will ask me a question about something BDSM-related that I feel “done with”; I feel like I did all my thinking about those topics, years ago. But it’s still useful to get those questions today, because it forces me to try and understand where my head was at, three [...]
...read moreUnhelpful Thought or Basic Truism?
I’ve been trying to get my post traumatic stress disorder under control lately, and one of the things I’m trying is an online course you can do from home. I had the first session yesterday. It took me through what PTSD is, including outlining what it called “Unhelpful Thoughts” that can be caused by PTSD. [...]
...read moreWhat could possibly go wrong?
Well, this sounds like a well-made piece of television heading our way: MTV is debuting a new reality show in October in which a small town girl moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams in the fashion industry. The twist? She’s fat. (Note: the linked article actually lists her weight, so if that’s triggering [...]
...read more12 Steps to Institutional Neglect and Compounded Violation
I feel like there should be a trigger warning for “just so generally horrible it makes me lose what little faith in humanity I had left,” but I will go with this: This story concerns sexual abuse of an intellectually disabled middle-schooler. If you can keep reading without cringing, you’re a stronger person than I. [...]
...read more“I Can Handle It”: On Relationship Violence, Independence, and Capability
[This piece may contain triggers on relationship violence.] I. In early 2001, a group of friends who had introduced me to my then-boyfriend sat me down at a kitchen table. “We’re worried about you,” one said. “Has he hit you?” The answer, at the time, was no. Ten months later, I stumble into the emergency [...]
...read moreMental illness, Disclosure, and Emergency Services
Disclosure is an issue that most people with mental illnesses struggle with. Stigma against mental illness is widespread, and can range from ideas that we are unreliable through to beliefs that we are downright dangerous. Mentally ill people can be characterised as liars, as unbelievable, or as unreliable witnesses, which is something that becomes an [...]
...read moreJailing women who try to commit suicide
Bei Bei Shuai tried to kill herself with rat poison last year. She survived. But she was pregnant, and her fetus died. Now she’s being charged with murder and attempted feticide. Shaui’s downward spiral began in late December, when her boyfriend blindsided her. It turned out the man who had fathered her baby and promised [...]
...read moreCompassion Fatigue
I’m in a clinic. It’s dirty. There are lots of other women there, women who look like me. The room is rectangular and the chairs squeak when you get up. I’m there to have an abortion. I’m 14 weeks pregnant. I’m on an operating table. I see the doctor. I’m filing charts. I’m calling patient [...]
...read moreSending mentally ill people to Siberia
“He’s really really old and has therefore earned the right to say what he thinks” doesn’t really apply when the old person in question suggests sending mentally ill people to Siberia so that they can die of exposure, and when he says that Hitler did something right. Especially when the person in question is a [...]
...read moreBoosting the Signal on Scarleteen’s Find-a-Doc
I’m signal-boosting Scarleteen‘s new Find-a-Doc service. For those who are not familiar, Scarleteen is a wonderful organisation aimed at educating teens and other young people about sexuality, and it’s very much worth looking at and passing on to other people – and supporting if you can. From Scarleteen founder Heather Corinna’s blog post: We all [...]
...read moreOn mental illness and crime
I’m hoping to write more about this in the coming days, but this article in Slate is a good look at the connection between mental illness and crime — that is, that people with mental illnesses are much more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators, and our culture so thoroughly ties [...]
...read moreSweet Serendipity
Funny that my spiral into self-reflection (and slight self-blaming) coincided with my time as a guest blogger here at Feministe. Actually, it isn’t funny at all – things in my life usually tends to work in an oddly serendipitous manner and having you all here to help me reflect has been incredible. From what’s been [...]
...read more
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