If you’ve ever gone inside a large supermarket or pharmacy in the U.S., no doubt you’ve seen products labeled “feminine hygiene.” But have you stopped to ask what is supposedly unhygienic about women’s reproductive parts? It turns out, there are a lot of misunderstandings about vaginas and vulvas. Even the terms can be confusing: vagina […]
Jeana Jorgensen
FOXY FOLKORIST
Studied folklore under Alan Dundes at the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to earn her PhD in folklore from Indiana University. She researches gender and sexuality in fairy tales and fairy-tale retellings, folk narrative more generally, body art, dance, sex education, and feminist/queer theory. Her blogging seeks to make academic research and concepts more broadly accessible, with a focus on not only bringing folklore to the broader public but also making claims about identity, narrative, and culture in an increasingly secular world.
Posted inHealthcare, Reproductive rights
The terrible side effects of a post-Roe world
The side effects of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade are causing a ripple of issues that could cost people their lives. And I’m not talking about attempting a self-induced abortion, despite the popular clothes-hanger imagery, or about how an untreated ectopic pregnancy basically means death. No, I mean women who are being denied […]
Posted inFilm/TV, Sex & Gender
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ sends a terrible message about motherhood
Like any good nerd, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was at the top of my watchlist. And while it was an okay enough superhero film, the gender politics of it—especially given the current climate—were incredibly off-putting. You’ve been warned: Spoiler alerts ahead. Within minutes of the movie’s start, I whispered to my viewing […]
Posted inHealth, Reproductive rights
Abortion access is a disability justice issue
Pregnancy is dangerous even for mostly healthy, non-disabled people. According to the CDC, 700 women die a year in the U.S. from pregnancy-related complications; our maternal mortality rate is more than double that of similar high-income countries. And there are concerns beyond death. The threat of gestational diabetes among other conditions looms large. Even if […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Sexuality
The ‘A’ in LGBTQIA: It doesn’t stand for ‘ally’
The LGBTQIA+ acronym has taken multiple forms and inspired many debates over which identities should be included. But having the “A” (one of them, anyway) stand for “ally” is not the way to go. Typically, we sort the letters as such: L = lesbian G = gay B = bisexual T = transgender Q = […]
Posted inBooks, Racial justice
‘Minor Feelings’ by Cathy Park Hong is a book about anything but
Part of the task of fighting racism involves education: educating oneself about the many facets of white supremacy and racism, the many forms it can take, like a seven-headed Hydra. So when an antiracism working group on my campus got together for some reading and discussion this summer, I was all in. One of the […]
Posted inLGBTQ, Sexuality
Why we don’t want cops at Pride celebrations
June is Pride month, where we LGBTQ+ folks get to celebrate our resilience and survival. For some people, that looks like putting up a rainbow flag, while for others it means attending Pride parades and related events. Others are still in the closet and may cheer on their brethren from afar. Some of the largest […]
Posted inFilm/TV, Sex & Gender
Pirating gender in ‘Our Flag Means Death’
As a big fan of HBO Max’s “Our Flag Means Death,” I was very happy to hear that it’s renewing Our Flag Means Death for a second season. If you haven’t watched it, you might be asking: why the big fuss about this show? Well, first: pirates. Second: gay pirates. Then, throw in dashes of […]
Posted inHealthcare
The problem with removing travel mask mandates
I am profoundly disappointed in the sudden decision to one month ago remove mask mandates from public-facing travel arenas such as airplanes. I know some people like to pretend that it’s over, but it’s not. Infection rates and hospitalization rates are both rising, according to the CDC’s tracker. Anecdotally, I know people getting COVID who […]
Posted inReproductive rights, Sexuality, Taboo
In an era of reproductive justice battles, National Masturbation Month matters
Masturbation has been a taboo subject for much of Western history. Early Christians declared it a sin, while European medicine and psychology took it up in a pathologizing way. But we’ve come a long way from thinking masturbation condemns you to hell or that it causes hair to grow on the palms of your hands, […]