Among the many treasures in the archives of Glasgow Women’s Library, the six issues of the 1990s menstruation-themed zine Heavy […]
Women’s Liberation, Beauty Contests, and the 1920s: Swimsuit Edition
For several years, I’ve had a wall decoration in my office: a panoramic photo of a 1920s beauty contest. I […]
The Weight of the Presidency
In early January, President Trump had a physical exam at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a periodic rite for US […]
Strange Pain, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Womb: A Teacher’s Reflection on Bodies in History
[gblockquote source=’Bettina Judd, patient.‘]HOW TO MEASURE PAIN I In the woman it is a checklist: Can you imagine anything worse […]
Venus Revisited
“Creepy.” “Weird.” “Messed. Up.” Such are the visceral responses of my women’s history students to an admittedly bizarre and complex […]
Feminist Bodies, Feminist Selves
I have never known a person who was 100% content with everything about their body, 100% of the time. The […]
Enforcing Death Rituals after Miscarriage is Just Plain Cruel
The Indiana legislature claims it wants to protect unborn children and their parents. Last week Governor Mike Pence gave his […]
Flowers and Lady Charlotte: Talking about Menstruation, Past and Present
In some ways, 2015 was the year of the period in social media. Thinx panties, which claim to absorb menstrual […]
The Language of the Brag
Unless we’re toiling away in an English PhD program, most of us don’t pause in our daily lives to read […]
“The Only Menstrual Murderess”: Blood, Guns, and a Theory of Female Crime
[gblockquote]Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her father forty whacks And when she saw what she had done She […]
