Moving Forward
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Stella.20.Woman.
College student.Feminist.Abolitionist.
Believes in the power of love, hope, and people.
Will never stop learning, informing, fighting.

"One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star."
gardensgrey: “And so what we’ve done is to force the Republicans and their conservative allies to reveal their true agenda. They don’t just want to wage a war on choice, they want to wage a war on contraception. They are against family planning. In the 21st Century, they want to prevent women from having access to the tools they should have to determine their own reproductive futures. And I think it’s important to continue pointing that out. We cannot let them hide behind their positions without making it clear what their real agenda is. Because the fact is, today, the United States has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates in the industrialized world. Half of all pregnancies are unintended and nearly half of those end in abortions. Anyone truly committed to reducing the need for abortions should be committed to doing whatever it takes to reducing unintended pregnancies—regardless of politics and regardless of ideology. And we know who’s paying the price for these policies–women around the world suffering because they no longer have access to reproductive care; women right here at home who want to plan their families and who want to prevent unintended pregnancies but no longer have access to contraception. This is not just an affront to women’s rights—it is an affront to human rights, to our most fundamental values as a nation.” Hillary Clinton, 2007
23:53

b-k-o-b:

“Slut” is just the weirdest insult ever.

How does it even work?

“You do the thing that is responsible for not only both of our lives but collectively our entire species and many of the species of life I can think of right now. Not only that, but you do this act often. And you like it.”

Did you…..did you win? 

(via face-down-asgard-up)

Elizabeth Banks: I Thank Birth Control Pills for My Son Just over a year ago, my son Felix was born via gestational surrogacy. He came out of me nine months early and because of my broken belly, his babycake was baked in a wonderful angel’s oven and now — I can’t believe it — he’s a year old and walking. He has expanded my capacity for joy a thousand-fold. His life would have been much harder to come by if not for the birth control pill. How’s that, you ask? Well, it’s a simple fact: The pill is used for many situations that have nothing to do with the prevention of pregnancy. The pill was prescribed to me when hormonally induced migraines kept me locked up in dark rooms for days at a time. It was prescribed to me to regulate insanely painful cramps every month — cramps so painful that I often vomited. And here’s a little secret I am happy to blow the lid off of: The pill is often prescribed during the IVF (in vitro fertilization) process to help MAKE BABIES! That’s right, women dealing with infertility are often put on the pill to help regulate a cycle so that they might have a more successful IVF. The pill is used to manage ovarian cysts, endometriosis and other conditions too. Not to mention, it helps couples plan for wanted children. Obviously, I’m not a doctor. I’m just a woman grateful for my necessary and very helpful medication. And I’m sure glad I don’t have to discuss any of these conditions, including infertility, with my employer. A girlfriend and I recently wondered what would be more mortifying: having to tell her male employer she needed birth control to mitigate a heavy flow or just bleeding all over herself in the office? So with that image in mind, I encourage all women — and the men in their lives — to protect access to birth control, and encourage our politicians to take women’s health issues out of the political process. For more information, please visit the most comprehensive and willing advocates for women’s health in America: www.plannedparenthood.org.
kileyrae: Planned Parenthood Branches Vote to Merge The boards of three regional Planned Parenthood branches — North Texas, Central Texas and the Capital Region — have voted to merge, forming a $29 million-per-year mega-organization with 26 clinics up and down the Interstate 35 corridor. The merger vote, in the works for more than a year, creates Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, the eighth-largest affiliate of the nation’s most ubiquitous reproductive health and abortion provider. “The timing is right, in terms of looking ahead at the challenges we will face politically, and from a health care standpoint,” said Leslie MacLean, board chairwoman of Planned Parenthood of North Texas. “We felt like it was an obligation to look at all of the options to make us smarter and more efficient.”
15:22
Dear All Women Who Live in Arizona: I am so so sorry. We’re all supporting you and we’ll do whatever we can to make this right again.
TRIGGER WARNING gordon-crisp: curiousgeorgiana: babstheartist: themindislimitless: tw: abuse, rape, domestic violence feministblackboard: A few weeks ago my mom stapled pages of a story in one of her women’s magazines together and handed it to me. She gave it to me pretty much with the tag lines “for your feminist blog” and “something new to consider.” Indeed it was; she knows me well. The story is titled “I was forced to be pregnant.” With a title like that, reading it was actually not on the top of my to read list. I thought it was about women not exercising their right to choice. I was very, very wrong on that one. Have you ever heard of Reproductive coercion? It is a term that was quite recently coined by the advocates against domestic violence to describe a certain type of abuse some women face. It occurs when a man pressures their partner to have kids and/or impregnates them against their will. Reproductive coercion comes in three different types:1. Emotional pressure that turns into verbal and physical abuse.2. Sabotaging birth control3. Marital rapeOver 75% of women 19-49 who reported once experiencing domestic violence also endured some type of reproductive control by men. It’s all about control and domination over a woman’s body. The first story in the magazine is about a woman who got married around 36 years of age. After a few months of dating her boyfriend talked excitedly about having children. After he proposed he began calling her “The Babymaker.” She then confided with him that one of her fallopian tubes was blocked. He in return insisted she see a fertility doctor. She recounts, “I had finally met a great guy who was eager to start a family with me. What woman wouldn’t fall for that?” Soon after her honeymoon he persisted on in an obsessive manner, but his efforts had to be temporarily halted as she had to get emergency back surgery. Alas, 6 months into recovery he was back to pressuring her again. She was in much pain at the time due to her back, but she agreed to In Vitro Fertilization. She then became pregnant, but soon miscarried. In response, her husband grabbed her by the neck, choking her. He apologized, blaming his outburst on his grief and had her sign up for another round of IVF. And then a third round. She tried to put him off with the excuse that she needed to weigh more before she could take treatments, her husband forced her to get on the scale often and filled the fridge with fattening foods. “It hurt that all I was good for was getting pregnant.” She recounts. At the end, he screamed at her, threatening to replace her with a maid if she couldn’t get pregnant and she told him she no longer wanted to have his child. He destroyed bedroom furniture, pushed her down the stairs and threatened her with a gun. She fled to a domestic violence shelter. The second story was about a woman who faced marital rape. This woman was 40, had a then boyfriend and two children from a previous marriage. After telling her boyfriend she did not want any more children, her boyfriend refused to wear a condom and began to rape her.  She then became pregnant with her third child. Birth control was never an option for her because she couldn’t hide pills anywhere for he went through all of her belongings. Three months after giving birth, he raped her again, impregnating her with twins. She lost the twins in a physical fight with him, but soon became pregnant again. During her recovery she begged her obstetrician to remove her ovaries and devise a lie to tell him; that she had cancer. After a decade of sexual abuse and violence she was able to get a job that kept her out of the house and often times traveling. One in four callers to the National Domestic Abuse hotline said that their partners had tried to force them to become pregnant. Why? As one woman stated, “Its like he wants to own me from the inside out.”  Having a baby is the perfect tie that binds. These type of abusers want to create a circumstance in which their partner is dependent on him. WHAT’S THAT HAVE TO DO WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD? Many voters never consider how defunding these clinics could hurt victims of domestic violence who turn to them for counseling as well as pregnancy prevention. Abused women will turn to health care providers long before they will turn to domestic abuse hotlines and organizations. Many women in abusive relationships rely on life saving, affordable care programs such as Title X. It is critical that such places are open and operation when women and children need them so desperately. holy fuck im crying. I know I’ve told this story before, but my abusive ex refused to let me take birth control.  I was on the pill until he found them in my purse.  I went to the Student Health Center—they were completely unhelpful, choosing to lecture me about the importance of safe sex (recommending condoms) instead of actually listening to my problem. Then I went to Planned Parenthood. The Nurse Practitioner took one look at my fading bruises and stopped the exam. She called in the doctor. The doctor came in and simply asked me: “Are you ready to leave him?” When I denied that I was being abused, she didn’t argue with me. She just asked me what I needed. I said I need a birth control method that my boyfriend couldn’t detect. She recommended a few options and we decided on Depo.  When I told her that my boyfriend read my emails and listened to my phone messages and was known to follow me, she suggested to do the Depo injections at off hours when the clinic was normally closed. She made a note in my chart and instructed the front desk never to leave messages for me—instead, she programmed her personal cell phone number into my phone under the name “Nora”. She told me she would call me to schedule my appointments; she wouldn’t leave a message, but I should call her back when I was able to. And that was it. No judgment. No lecture. She walked me to the door and told me to call her day or night if I needed anything. That she lived 5 blocks from campus and would come get me. That I wasn’t alone. That she just wanted me to be safe. I never called her to come to my rescue. But I have no doubt that she would have come if I had called. She kept me on Depo for a year, giving me those monthly injections in secret, helping me prevent a desperately unwanted pregnancy.  I cannot thank Planned Parenthood enough for the work they do. This is something I definitely see with my clients.
14:58"Modern American standards require that the ideal feminine body be small. A woman is taught early to contain herself, to keep arms and legs close to her body and take up as little space as possible….Men are under no such size restrictions and are allowed - often encouraged - to take up as much space as they can get away with. But when a woman’s stature or girth approaches or exceeds that of a man’s, she becomes something freakish. By becoming large, whether with fat tissue or muscle mass, she implicitly violates the sexual rules that place her in physical subordination to the man." — Cecilia Hartley, “Letting Ourselves Go: Making Room for the Fat Body in Feminist Scholarship” (via wewantrevolutiongirlstylenow)

(Source: wretchedoftheearth, via thechocolatebrigade)
blodwynnn: Seemed fitting for today. 
sparkamovement: International Anti Street Harassment Week is March 18-24
22:39
21:19"

And that brings me to one final reason to continue to observe International Women’s Day, no matter how many snarky Facebook statuses inquire as to why there isn’t an International Men’s Day. The 51st reason that we must continue to observe IWD: to ensure that the fantastic progress that has been made by women all over the world in the last two centuries continues, for ourselves and our posterity (girls and boys). The fight for gender equality isn’t over in any country, and the only way we’ll keep winning battles is to fight them together. We must fight inequality in all of its forms so that men and women everywhere can lead fulfilling lives freely.

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone. Let’s do it again next year.

" — —50 Reasons We Still Need International Women’s Day (via stfusexists)
barackobama: It’s International Women’s Day. Happy ceiling-shattering.
14:22
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