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Domestic Violence & LGBTQ History Month: 5 Uncomfortable Truths

Oct 04, 2013 / Nick / Our Folks Blog
Who hasn’t seen the “Don’t Be That Guy” posters around campus? My personal favorite features two males in the poster highlighting the intersectionality of domestic violence and queer relationships. Domestic violence and LGBQT visibility are both serious issues, but when looking at the intersection, the result can be quite damning. In honor of Domestic Violence … Read More

CBS’s ‘Elementary’ is Back to Break New Ground

Oct 03, 2013 / Kayla / Our Folks Blog
Last week, season two of CBS’s number one drama, Elementary, premiered. I, of course, was sitting attentively on my sofa, blanket around my shoulders and snacks in my hands, ready to greet one of the best, most progressive, and aggressively pro-women television programs I have ever seen. Read More

Navigating Masculinity on the Fence of the Gender Binary

Oct 02, 2013 / Choice USA Staff / Our Folks Blog
I got up this morning and left my house, fully intending to get to the office and start working on a development plan for the new year. That’s what I should be doing right now. I should be working on a development plan. Instead I’m writing this thing. I’m writing this thing because sometimes, for … Read More

“We Wont Go Back Rally” at the Ohio Statehouse

Oct 02, 2013 / Diana / Our Folks Blog
Today in Columbus Ohio at 11:30am, women and men from across the state will meet at the Statehouse to hold a rally. The “We Won’t Go Back Rally” is a speakout against “all the extreme attacks on women’s health” that have been happening in Ohio. For those of you who don’t know, the budget that … Read More

Support the Troops, Repeal Hyde

Sep 30, 2013 / Allie / Our Folks Blog
What does it mean when you say, “support the troops?” As a whole, the US has many supportive organizations for those who serve in the military and their families, everything from national campaigns for job placement to the USO providing services for families. But what about abortion and reproductive care? Read More

Young, Broke, and Denied Abortion Access: Millennials and the Hyde Amendment

Sep 30, 2013 / Katherine / Our Folks Blog
Is there ever any end to the parade of articles decrying Millennials? Judging by the sheer volume that the media churns out decrying my generation as one self-absorbed, lazy, and curated within a bubble of indulgent vapidity, you can say there’s a perception that Millennials are the bane of the United States. Which is funny, … Read More

“Orange is the New Black”: The Pornstache Problem

Sep 27, 2013 / Nick / Our Folks Blog
Note: Spoilers ahead I’m going to first give “Orange is the New Black” credit where it’s due. This show has had extremely positive reviews with a main female cast, highlighting different walks of life, and showing genuine personality traits the audience can relate to. It’s centered around Piper Chapman, a woman who is doing time … Read More

I Am A Woman

Sep 26, 2013 / Kayla / Our Folks Blog
Trigger warning: this post contains references to sexual assault and victim blaming.  It was in the back pew of a church where I first learned the universal truth That because I am a woman I am made to be raped, whether it’s with a wine bottle, or that thing between your legs, or even by a state … Read More

On Being A Woman and Afraid

Sep 24, 2013 / Summer / Our Folks Blog
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them.  Women are afraid that men will kill them.” – Margaret Atwood I’m pro-choice. I believe in a woman’s right to choose all kinds of things, things like: what she wants in a partner what she wears what she studies (or if she wants to study at … Read More
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“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them.  Women are afraid that men will kill them.” – Margaret Atwood

I’m pro-choice. I believe in a woman’s right to choose all kinds of things, things like:

I believe in her right to these choices without obstruction at the hands of oppression in the form of shame, violence, or laws that affect her because of her sex or her gender, not to mention her sexuality, her beliefs, her race, her ethnicity, her body, her choices, her history, her location, her performed femininity or lack thereof.

I especially believe in her right to these choices without facing the oppression rooted in fear that dominates the lives of so many women and girls I know, invading our days and diminishing our choices and our freedom. When I am afraid, I am not free. When women are afraid to leave the house at night or wear a certain outfit or leave a certain partner or report a certain assault or talk to certain people then: We. Are. Not. Free.

Women all over the world are locked up; we are locked up by social norms, violent partners, violent media and the internalized misogyny pushed upon us every day.  We are locked up because we are afraid of the world that wants to belittle us, starve us, assault us, rape us, and kill us.  This fear is not unmerited.

Between 85 and 90% of those suffering from eating disorders, which have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, are women.

One out of every five women in the United States has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

One in four American women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.  An average of three American women are murdered by an intimate partner every day.

I could go on.

The fact is we all know women who have starved themselves, who have been assaulted, who have been beaten.

Being born a woman is a dangerous business.  Being born a woman of color or a woman living in poverty is especially dangerous.  The feminist social justice movement isn’t about swooping in and saving low-income women, women of color, or young women. It’s about giving all women freedom from fear, access to choices.

When me or you or our sisters or our mothers or our friends are afraid we are not free.  Women deserve freedom.  Women deserve better.

I am pro-choice and I hope that someday women will have the choice to set themselves free.

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