Tag Archive for "Young People"

Posts Tagged Young People

The next Prop 8? Opponents submit signatures to repeal transgender students’ rights in CA

In August, California passed a law to protect public school student’s rights to participate in activities like sports and use facilities based on their gender identity. This is an important and groundbreaking step to make sure trans and gender non-conforming students have full access to the public education that is there right. So of course religious conservatives are trying to repeal the law, because coming after our children is clearly the Christian thing to do.

By Sesali B. • 10 years ago

Polyamory: we’re not doing it wrong

I’m 25, and I identify as polyamorous. It’s an important identity for me because it helps me deconstruct and contextualize the relationships I’ve had in the past, and acknowledge the relationships that I currently have. A recent title by Julie Bindel, “Rebranding polyamory does women no favors”, caught my attention. It was a well informed piece that successfully conveyed Bindel’s skepticism with the practice’s newfound popularity. But as a young person, among other things, I had some serious issues.

Bindel makes her point early on when she asserts:

“…the co-opting and rebranding of polygamy, so that it loses its nasty association with the oppression of the most disadvantaged women, is as irresponsible as suggesting that because some women chose to ...

By Jos Truitt • 10 years ago

Breaking: Appeals court allows over the counter access to some but not all emergency contraception

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today granted the Obama administration a stay on access to one-pill forms of emergency contraception. But the court also ruled that two-pill variants should be available over the counter immediately and without harsh age restrictions. So Judge Korman’s important ruling that EC should be available over the counter should at least partially go into effect. This is another blow to the Obama administration’s attack on young people’s reproductive rights, and another victory for access to EC.

I happen to believe that when a presidential administration consistently acts to block access to reproductive health care, that means they’re demonstrably anti-feminist. I don’t care how well you talk the talk or how many feminist parties you ...

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 10 years ago

Will the teen mom shaming ever stop?

May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, which basically means it’s the season for teen mom shaming. And damn if the Candie’s Foundation doesn’t deliver! On May 1 they revealed their new celebrity-endorsed PSAs, which include lots of messages that provide the super useful combo of shame and no actual helpful information whatsoever. I want to throw up all over these: Did you know being a mother totally sucks??? What’s interesting to me about that one is that it’s actually not specific to young people at all – infants have to eat every couple hours regardless of how old their mother is. Does the Candie’s foundation think that motherhood just sucks in general? And OMG, this one:

A lot of ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

New poll finds the majority of women voters consider themselves feminists

I’m sorry, what was that you were saying about how young women are afraid to call themselves feminists these days?

A poll commissioned by Ms. conducted just after the election found that 55 percent of women voters and 30 percent of men voters consider themselves feminists.

These results are generally 9 points higher than they were in 2008, when the same question was posed to voters, and this upward trend is likely to continue given the strong identification with feminism by younger women and women of color.

Speaking of younger women, a solid majority of them (58 percent) identify as feminists—as did 54 percent of older women, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Democratic women and a respectable ...

I’m sorry, what was that you were saying about how young women are afraid to call themselves feminists these days?

A poll commissioned by Ms. conducted just after the election found that

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Why is the Obama administration endorsing a virginity pledge-based abstinence-only program?

Recently, the Obama administration quietly updated its list of “evidence-based programs” that “met the effectiveness criteria” for preventing teenage pregnancy and are therefore endorsed by the Department of Health and Human Services. This list includes the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education program. Which is weird because, like basically all abstinence-only programs ever, it doesn’t work.

According to RH Reality Check, a 2007 study found that the program “had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity.” But that makes it sound like Heritage is just ineffective but harmless. In fact, while it “contains little or no information about puberty, anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, or sexual behavior,” it does teach kids some stuff. Here’s a sample:

“Males and females are aroused ...

By Gwendolyn Beetham • 12 years ago

The Academic Feminist: Transforming Sex Education with Mimi Arbeit

Welcome back to The Academic Feminist, the series that bridges the blogging/academic divide by linking discussions in feminist academia to those taking place online. Today’s interviewee is Mimi Arbeit, a doctoral student in Child Development at Tufts University. You can learn more about Arbeit’s work on her blog. All comments and suggestions for The Academic Feminist can sent to the editor here or on Twitter @gwendolynb.

Can you talk a little about your main research interests, and what led you to choose this area?

I study adolescent sexuality using a positive approach, which means I believe sex and sexuality are important, meaningful, and potentially positive elements of adolescent development. I’m interested ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Michele Bachmann’s daughters aren’t allowed to ask boys out

Michele Bachmann didn’t go to her senior prom and she’s determined to ensure that her daughters won’t either. Or, at least, that’s what I gathered from this interview with Sean Hannity about Bachman’s new book. (Listen to the audio here.)

BACHMANN: People do find out [in my book] that I did not get asked to my senior prom.

HANNITY: Well, neither did I. And nobody would go with me.

BACHMANN: Well, in my time, girls didn’t ask boys to prom. If you didn’t get asked, you didn’t go.

HANNITY: Yeah, well let me tell you, I have a 13-year-old son. Those days have changed big time.

BACHMANN: And our girls are not allowed to do that in our house. They have to wait ...