Category Archives: health

Catch up on the latest health legislation, honest discussions about our bodies, and “I Have” essays from women’s personal experiences. Whether mental or physical The Frisky discusses each disease, concern, or condition to encourage open conversation.

The Right To Protected Sex: Bill Introduced To Decriminalize Condom Possession

Sarah GrayApril 23, 2013 //

The Red Umbrella Project helps sex workers write their truth. Read More »

Military Trafficking

The military's dirty human trafficking secret. Read More »

Backpage.com Sued

Teen girls sue Backpage.com over sexual exploitation. Read More »

wrap it up!

Anti-trafficking advocates, LGBT organizations, lawmakers and public health advocates have gathered in Albany, New York today to push for new legislation about condoms. Yes, condoms.

Currently 39 million male condoms and two million female condoms are distributed for free in New York State. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, “Consistent and correct use of the male latex condom reduces the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV transmission.” If used correctly, rubbers can also prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Yet having pockets full of condoms could also lead to a potential prostitution arrest by law enforcement, or even be used as incriminating evidence by prosecutors in trial. If trafficking victims, sex workers, LGBTQ persons and others are targeted by law enforcement, what is the incentive to have safe sex? Keep reading »

This Creepy Real-Life Barbie Infographic Makes The Doll Ideal Very Unappealing

Rachel KrauseApril 23, 2013 //

In case you had somehow forgotten just how bizarre and unrealistic the Barbie ideal actually is, this new infographic makes the whole crazy thing very, very clear. Check out all of the statistics at the source. [The Fashion Spot via Rehabs.com]

Human Barbie Dolls

These women personify Barbie. 7 Photos »

Barbie Without Makeup

A "real girl," just like you and me! Read More »

Black Barbie Party Line

A mom appeals to Mattel to make party supplies featuring a Black Barbie. Read More »

El Salvador Will Not Allow Lifesaving Abortion For Young Mother

Jessica WakemanApril 18, 2013 //

A 22-year-old mother of one in El Salvador faces jail time for seeking an abortion on a nonviable pregnancy because her fetus is developing without a brain. The woman, identified as Beatriz, cannot get an abortion because terminating a pregnancy is illegal in El Salvador under all circumstances, even though the pregnancy is posing a threat to her own life. Beatriz’s hospital asked for permission to legally perform an abortion on her over one month ago, but authorities have not yet responded. She’s now appealing for help from El Salvador’s Supreme Court. [Salon]
Posters reading “Stay Strong And Support The Boys” have been posted in the neighborhood of Rehtaeh Parsons, a young woman in Nova Scotia who committed suicide recently after a photograph of her alleged rape was distributed around school and police did nothing to punish her alleged rapists. [Think Progress]
Well, it didn’t take long for that Dove Real Beauty Sketches video to get parodied! [YouTube]
Carla Hale, a gym teacher at a Catholic high school in Ohio, was fired from her job for being a lesbian after Hale’s mom died and the obituary listed the name of Hale’s partner. Disgraceful. [NBC4i] Keep reading »

West Virginia Student Katelyn Campbell Stands Up To School’s Abstinence-Only Sex Ed

Sarah GrayApril 18, 2013 //

Ab Only Sex Ed Sucks

Every teenager in Mississippi is pregnant, basically. Read More »

Give Teens EC?

Pediatricians urged to discuss, prescribe Plan B to teenagers. Read More »

"Gateway" Sex-Ed?

Ohio wants to ban sex-ed that might be "gateway" to sexual behavior. Read More »

Meet Katelyn Campbell, a high school student council vice president, Wellesley College-bound senior, and sex education rabble-rouser who is filing an injunction against her principal for threats he made after she boycotted and spoke out against an abstinence-only sex-ed assembly at her school.

According to ThinkProgress.org, Principal George Aulenbacher at George Washington High School in West Virginia threatened to call up Wellesley College to complain that Campbell had “bad character” because she refused to attend the abstinence assembly and filed a complaint with the ACLU because the public school event was hosted by a conservative religious organization.
Keep reading »

Take Two Tylenol For Your Existential Crisis And Call Me In The Morning

Ami AngelowiczApril 17, 2013 //

Angst Advice

Ami has advice for these angsty celeb teens. Read More »

Goth Hate Crimes

In Manchester it's considered a hate crime to harass a goth. Read More »

Angsty Youth Of TV

All the goths, punks and club kids on 80's day time talk shows. Watch »

Hot Goths

These films goths were the hottest. Read More »

Tylenol Can Help

In what might be the most wonderful study about existential angst to ever be performed, researchers at the University of British Columbia discovered that the same pill that helps soothe your stress headache may help mitigate the sense of doom you feel when confronting the meaning of life. That’s heavy. Let that sink in. Tylenol may be the antidote to the human condition. My inner Goth is doing the pain dance right now. If only I had known about the magic of Tylenol from the age 14 to 30. Maybe things would have been easier. But enough about me. Back to the experiment, the methodology of which was straight out of a Kubrick film. Keep reading »

Anti-Abortion Activists Hold First “Leave The Abortion Industry Day”

Jessica WakemanApril 16, 2013 //

My Son & Abortion

Avital is teaching her son about reproductive justice. Read More »

Tiller Clinic To Reopen

The Kansas abortion clinic operated by Dr. George Tiller will reopen. Read More »

Generation Roe

Q&A with Sarah Erdreich, author of the book "Generation Roe." Read More »

Anti-abortion activists have many approaches to stopping abortion. One is to spread lies about the science around reproductive health. Another is to pressure women to feel guilty for terminating pregnancies, regardless of their reason. Another is to restrict abortion access through the courts. And yet another is to target the employees and property of abortion clinics, which includes harassment and violence towards abortion providers and damage to their buildings.

“Leave The Abortion Industry Day” on April 8 is one such effort towards that goal — and thankfully, an effort not involving violence. It’s a project of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned anti-abortion activist; “abortion industry” is a term used by anti-abortion folks to describe people who work in the women’s health field in regards to abortion. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: On The Stigma Of Mental Illness In The Asian Community

Kelly KanayamaApril 12, 2013 //

I Have Depression

Jessica has struggled with depression all her adult life. Read More »

GT: Antidepressants

Going off antidepressants made Julie feel worse than depressed. Read More »

How To Deal With Anxiety

Worried? Anxious? Panicked? Here are 10 ways to deal. Read More »

It was a workday of minor annoyances. Everything at my temp job had gone normally, except for a snippy email from IT and a laminator malfunction that forced me to dig out a half-laminated page with a fork.

So why was I crouched in a bathroom stall, hyperventilating, sobbing, and trying not to scream?

A coworker insisted I see a doctor, who said my meltdown was probably due to anxiety and depression. I was shaken – but not entirely surprised.

I was born and raised in a majority-Asian community in Hawaii, where mental health issues are not discussed. Granted, since most of the people in that community are second- to fourth-generation Asians, there are some exceptions, although these exceptions are determined by an unspoken code. (It has to be an unspoken code. If you can’t discuss mental health, you can’t discuss discussing mental health, either.) As far as I can figure, you get a pass if you’ve tried to kill yourself or at least been hospitalized. Anything else is something that you just get over eventually. Don’t dwell on your emotions all the time. We must endure. That was the message. Keep reading »

Arkansas State Senate Passes Bill To Defund Sex Education

Sarah GrayApril 10, 2013 //

Arkansas Abortion Bill

Arkansas advances abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest. Read More »

Free BC, Fewer Abortions

Free birth control means fewer abortions, says study. Read More »

Funny Sex Ed

This sex ed PSA is kind of hilarious. Watch »

No Arkansas!

Abortion foes in the Arkansas State Senate passed a bill yesterday to ban certain funding grants to Planned Parenthood. The chosen grants heading to the chopping block? Sex education. Which sucks, because Planned Parenthood provided the state’s sex ed.

According to Think Progress, Arkansas lacks a codified set of sex education requirements, which is why Planned Parenthood stepped in to do HIV/AIDS and STD/STI education in the state. A Republican health education teacher, and assistant football coach, Darrell Seward, told the Huffington Post over the phone:

“I would challenge any legislator or politician in the state of Arkansas or higher to set foot in my classroom and listen to the curriculum and walk out and say it’s a bad program. This program has been one of the most well-received programs that our students have ever been engaged in. I am a Republican, but this is one issue I feel very strongly about, because I see the benefit for our kids.”

So why take away these funds? Well because the bill’s sponsor doesn’t like any state funding to go to any organization that has anything to do with abortion or abortion referrals. Keep reading »

Oh, Good: Alabama Restricts Abortion Rights Even More

Jessica WakemanApril 9, 2013 //

Alabama’s governor signed legislation placing more restrictions on abortion providers, including requiring them to have admitting privileges at the local hospital. [Yahoo]
Michigan lawmaker House Rep. Tom McMillin, a Republican, said transgender protections “violate the privacy rights of women and children,” saying that bathrooms should have to post signs saying “woman and girls may be confronted there by men who think they are women.” [Think Progress]
On feminist porn and Toronto’s recent Feminist Porn Awards. [The Week]
On why everyone needs to stop overanalyzing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s hair (if it’s not obvious already). [Slate] Keep reading »

Judge Strikes Down Age Limit On Morning-After Pill

Jessica WakemanApril 5, 2013 //

I Took Plan B

Our writer took the morning-after-pill to thwart unwanted pregnancy. Read More »

EC On Drugstore Shelves?

FDA considers putting the morning-after pill on drugstore shelves. Read More »

FDA Overuled

The government says the morning after pill cannot be over-the-counter. Read More »

Fathers, lock up your daughters: the government is going to be forcing slutty slut pills down their throats!

That will be the Fox News version of events. But here in Reasonable, Common Sense-land, the story is different: a federal judge — a man! — has struck down the age limit on the morning-after pill, meaning sexually active young women age 16 and younger will be able to access it. Ruling on a lawsuit by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Judge Edward Korman decided that the government’s refusal to lift the age restriction is “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable” and said the FDA’s feet-dragging has been an “obstruction.” He ordered the FDA to lift the age restriction within 30 days.

Reproductive rights activists pushed the FDA for years to make Plan B accessible to all and in 2011, they finally did. But it never happened: Health and Human Services Secretary swiftly overruled the FDA recommendation to make Plan B accessible to everyone, citing alleged concern about its safety for young teens — but in reality, kowtowing to a game of keep-conservatives-happy hardball. Keep reading »