Targeting the ‘symptoms’ of autism sounds a lot like ‘curing autism’—but autism is not a disease, it does not need curing. Read more
Why A European Autism Research Program Has Sparked Fears Of Eugenics
Brain+Body
Ode To My Clumsy: The Feminism Of The Awkward Body
To be clumsy is not to be fragile: it is to know that one is breakable, and to live (speak, interact) knowing this. Read more
The Misogynist History Of Natural Birth
I was doing what I thought I needed to do to bring a child into the world purely and unharmed. I had come to believe that my body was designed to give birth, so giving birth should be easy and, if I just studied hard enough, could be painless. Read more
To Uphold My Feminist Values, I Went Vegan
I never thought I’d go vegan. But I realized it’s one of the most feminist things I’ve ever done. Read more
‘It’s Not About Sex, It’s About Power’ And Other Lies
What’s insidious about this phrase is that it assumes we have stable and agreed upon definitions of fraught terms like “sex” and “power.” The phrase ushers us past the physicality of sex and violence all together in favor of an abstraction. Read more
What Happens When Self-Harm Becomes Invisible?
I did not cut myself, but was it fair to say I had not hurt myself? Without the physical marks, no one was aware anything was amiss. My self-harm had not gone away. It had become invisible. Read more
What’s So Scary About Disability?
Quite frankly, we disabled people are everywhere right now, but not in the way many of us would like. If we’re not wielding chainsaws and going on murderous rampages, then we’re plotting world domination from our wheelchairs and reveling in a variety of gruesome deaths. Read more
I Had No Idea How Much Medicaid Would Cost Me
We did our research and weighed the pros and cons alongside our specific circumstances. While I had lived paycheck to paycheck throughout my professional career, my husband had managed to put away a significant “nest egg” while working during and after graduate school—but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the expense of the transplant I needed. Read more
Tattoos, Pain, And Incurable Illness
I wasn’t so focused on the painful bite of the needle anymore, or wondering when the session would end. I started to look forward to the distraction of the hurt. It was a hurt I could opt-into, one I could select. Read more
Power To The Vulva: Author Liv Strömquist On Shame, The Female Body, And Art
“If we don’t have the words we cannot understand what the vulva is or how it looks and works. In many languages there isn’t even a proper word for the female sexual organ—one that isn’t an insult.” Read more