Why “personhood” is a fuckin’ CROCK and how it can be used to arrest and harass women far outside the realm of conversations about abortion:
The principle at the heart of contemporary efforts to end legal abortion is that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are persons or at least have separate rights that must be protected by the state. In each of the cases we identified, this same rationale provided the justification for the deprivation of pregnant women’s physical liberty, as well as of the right to medical decision making, medical privacy, bodily integrity and, in one case, the woman’s right to life.
Many of the pregnant women subjected to this mistreatment are themselves profoundly opposed to abortion. Yet it was precisely the legal arguments for recriminalizing abortion that were used to strip them of their rights to dignity and liberty in the context of labor and delivery. These cases, individually and collectively, highlight what is so often missed when the focus is on attacking or defending abortion, namely that all pregnant women are at risk of losing a wide range of fundamental rights that are at the core of constitutional personhood in the United States.
Jazmine Hughes talked to a bunch of cool women about Imposter Syndrome:
To be honest, I felt like I didn’t deserve my PhD and it took me awhile to even acknowledge my own self as a doctor, a title I had earned after 6+ years of doing research. I’m getting better at trusting myself and my abilities to do the kind of work I want to do. I finally switched my Gmail signature to read Sabriya Stukes, PhD. There are definitely still times when I can feel “the Impostor Syndrome” creep in but I’ve slowly learned how to deal with it. Every time I feel that self-doubt rising I allow myself the space to recognize it for what it is: a choice, a choice between believing a destructive voice inside my head, or choosing to quiet it with a much louder voice that says “you are going to fucking slay it,” do a Beyoncé hair flip and face the next challenge.
Sabina Stuykes, PhD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
I honestly cannot remember a better headline than “Buy Your Daughter All the Butch Dolls You Want, She Still Won’t Be Able to Get an Abortion in Texas”:
What I know now, as a grown woman who made Barbies kiss each other, was that the sort of toys I played with has ZERO effect on my life as a woman. The toys I played with didn’t prevent a transvaginal ultra sound when I wanted an abortion. It didn’t close the $8,000 pay gap between a former male co-worker and I with the same level of experience.
So should you buy your daughter a GoldieBlox? Sure. Why not? Or don’t. Shut up.
The Canadian literary scene joke book:
Q: What dogs keep the best time?
A: Sarah could hear her old Labrador barking, but she didn’t think twice about it. While her northern Ontario town was quiet, she lived right on the main strip, meaning anyone going to the main shop would have to pass by her place, waking up Bruno. Even as he aged, his ears were still sensitive, although his eyes were looking cloudier each day.
A cinematic history of white people crying in space.
WHY DO WE LOVE CONNIE BRITTON SO MUCH?
