By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

Join the #HandsOffMyBc twitter storm now! (though I may no longer believe in birth control)

Screen Shot 2013-11-26 at 4.21.45 PM

graphic h/t Senator @PattyMurray

Get thee to a twitteree! Because the #HandsOffMyBC twitter storm, about companies trying to deny contraception coverage to their employees, is on!

As we blogged about earlier, the Supreme Court announced today that it will hear two cases in which companies are asking for the “right” to deny contraception coverage to employees if it violates their religious views. This has inspired the twitter hashtag #HandsOffMyBC (hands off my birth control.) As Rob Robin Marty ‏@robinmarty tweeted, she’s “very shocked to see it’s all men trolling #HandsOffMyBC #waitnoimnotshockedatall.”

I have to admit, most of the trolls, some of whom are women, are making pretty unconvincing arguments which reek of misogyny and general hatred of human kind. But I did see one tweet that was so clever and astute, so nuanced and thought-provoking, so grounded in history and philosophy, that I have no choice but to respond.

Screen Shot 2013-11-26 at 4.24.18 PM

Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 11.13.50 PMKatie Halper started identifying as a feminist at the age of 5 when she attended her first pro-choice rally and began calling out the musicals she watched instead of cartoons for being “prejudiced against women.” She realizes this is a ridiculous photo.

nyc

Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

Read more about Katie

Join the Conversation