No Kidding
No Kidding: Do You Still Have Your Uterus?
After I got my tubes tied last year, I got a lot of questions from friends (and strangers) about what a tubal ligation actually means. It's not a common procedure for a young (under 30), relatively... Read more »
No Kidding: Can You Compare Human and Animal Children?
Before I launch into talking more about sterilization and permanent birth control next week, I want to quickly touch on (and probably later come back to) something that's been on my radar the last week or so. You no doubt realize I read tabloid gossip if I'm able to come up with a photo montage... Read more »
No Kidding: Fit to be Tied? Talking with Dr. Rebecca Kluchin
Does the history of sterilization have links to modern consent forms? How has forced sterilization intersected, if at all, with the fight for women's right to be voluntarily sterilized? Rebecca M. Kluchin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of history at California State University,... Read more »
No Kidding: Putting Voluntary Sterilization in a Historical Context
If we're going to talk about voluntary sterilization—or even the simple act of opting to have few or no children—we've got to get everyone on the same historical page. While I tend to take for granted that people understand the history of forced sterilization in the U.S., as well as countries such... Read more »
No Kidding: How We Talk About Choice and Intentionally Small Families
As someone who writes about choosing to not have children, what I seek are equitable conversations about honoring and giving space to all sorts of reproductive options—in a way, I suppose I want "choice feminism" to extend to us all. In the end, I simply want Bill McKibben's... Read more »
No Kidding: Dozens of Children (and Counting)
Reality TV tends to focus on and highlight extreme behaviors and choices—sometimes with the intention of normalizing them. For me, nothing has been such an obvious statement about our culture's obsession with parenting and procreation as the "we have a million kids" shows that have sprung up over... Read more »
No Kidding: I Didn't Know You Didn't Know I'm Not Pregnant
On Saturday night, my partner and I were walking out of a local grocer when he decided to buy one of the newspapers being sold by the homeless couple on the corner. I was holding our grocery bag as Andreas paid for the paper, and as the woman... Read more »
No Kidding: Barbara and Oprah Admit it Ain't Always Easy
Oprah and Babs talk about how tough it is to have kids as a working woman—or in Oprah’s case, the unambiguous lack of regret in regards to opting out. Skip to 7:30 in the video, where the discussion about having kids starts. Transcript after the jump.
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No Kidding: Where's My "No Baby" Shower?
When I think about the idea of celebrating children, I come back to the same question again and again: Why shouldn't an intentional choice be celebrated? When feminists talk about reproductive justice, it's often within the context of not just the ability to, say, have an abortion, but to raise a... Read more »
No Kidding: Jillian Michaels is Not "Doing That" to Her Body
Last year, Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels got into some natalist hot water when, in an interview with Women's Health, she was quoted out of context when she said, "I'm going to adopt. I can't handle doing that to my body. Also, when you rescue something, it's like rescuing a part of... Read more »
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