ColumnReading my 2nd grade diary, I was confronted with myself navigating girl world—and I have some words for Libby, Age 7.

I write a lot about the world today’s American girls are growing up in and how they are navigating girl world. The Disney princess-ification of girls’ toys, what advertising like Dove’s Real Beauty campaign tells them about femininity, what the dangers are of being a woman, slut-shaming and rape, to name a few. I usually don’t think about my own feminist views in terms of who I was as a girl.

However, on a recent trip to my parents’ house, I unearthed my 2nd grade diary, The Ramona Quimby diary. Based on the popular series of books by Beverly Cleary,  the diary was designed for young kids. It featured bits of the Ramonastories and fill-in-the-blank Q+As along with blank pages. 

Thankfully, my spelling has improved since I was a kid (or maybe it’s that spell check was invented), but, reading my own words, I can see that the core of who I am is kind of the same even though girl world is now, more or less, a woman’s world. I liked my friends, reading, writing, tumbling and drawing. I hated math and mentioned that a food I never even wanted to try was mayonnaise. All still true.

In the All About Me section, I reported that I had brown hair, green eyes, was 4’1” and weighed 48 lbs. Half of those things are still true. I said that if I could have a pet it would be a dog—and that I would name it Today. I can’t be sure if I meant that I would hustle to give the pooch a name quickly, or if I thought Today would be a good name for a dog. Given that I named our current dog Bucket, I feel it may be the latter.

When asked what I like about myself, I wrote that I am nice to people (piple) and that in the coming year I would like to be even nicer—and meet Cyndi Lauper (spelled correctly and the first of MANY Cyndi references).

A month later, I report that I get mad when my friends don’t do what I say, and that I spit in someone’s face after she spit in mine. I answered the question: Sometimes I feel sad because: Jess starts a fight. And responded to the prompt: When that happens, I cheer myself up by: Killing her. Yes. I really wrote that about Jess, a girl in my class who, in modern day times, I’d describe as a frenemy.

I see the mean girl version of myself emerging in these pages, replacing the nice kid I was at seven. I see myself being bossy and starting to rank friendships. I can also see how others were mean to me—and, thankfully, that on many days I was actually nice to people. My friendships were essential and ruled my emotions every single day. And 29 years later, my friendships with women are still central to my world.

I also found my favorite shirt. Thanks to the fact that we all wore giant clothes in the ’80s, it still fits—and goes well with the Dancin’ hat I often paired it with.

If I could talk to the second grade girl that I used to be, I’d tell her to take the bitchiness down a notch because if she doesn’t, others will do it for her in junior high and she’ll find herself friendless and lonely. I’d tell her that putting people down doesn’t bring her up. I would tell her to be more confident and do things even when she sucks at them—and to start yoga sooner rather than later. I would tell her that supporting other women is an important part of being the feminist she will become.

I would also mention that in 1993 she touches Cyndi Lauper’s hand, and though she just misses the chance to interview Cyndi in 2006, she hasn’t given up hope for a true meeting someday.

It’s an odd feeling to a glimpse into my own tiny head and realize that what I wanted then was pretty simple and matches up with what I still want: time with the people I care about, cookies and for people to be nice.

At the end of one month, the diary asks: What do you want next month? I wrote: A good month. At the close of another, the question is: What do you want to do next month? I wrote: I hope I do good. Still sounds about right.

Images: Libby Lowe

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A new feminism is raging in America and the modern woman is embracing it.

Marketing Manager Anna Brones and I were busy doing what we do at EcoSalon when I pinged her:

“Are we becoming in your face feminists?”

Anna shot me back: “What are we supposed to do? Not be feminists?”

It got me thinking, why does feminism have a bad name?

After a while Anna sent another message: “As women, we have to rally together because we have no choice and it’s not because we hate men. I also think it’s bullshit that as soon as we start talking about women and rallying together we quickly get attacked.”

Her comments stayed with me on Tuesday when a female neighbor talked feverishly about a female DPW worker who needed to “stop wearing her cutesie heels and skirt and be a man,” so she could get things done.

Her comments stayed with me on Thursday when a friend said “I don’t want to wear lipstick to the supermarket to call attention to myself.”

I could go on. I bet you could too. Here are five more stories that should clearly show you, in 2011, women are still not out of the woods as equal members of society.

Fact. In the U.S., women still hold only 14.4 percent of executive officer seats and 15.7 percent of board seats in Fortune 500 companies. Why is that? You could blame it on life, women having babies and leaving the work force but you also could blame it on “Good Girl” syndrome. In her story Women Learn How to Fail at Work in Grade School, Andrea Newell, Senior Editor at EcoSalon says “After spending their formative years of learning the ‘nice’ girl code of behavior, women discover that the workplace demands different behavior and has a new set of rules.”

Sometimes you have to scratch your head and wonder what century we’re living in. Could it be possible that in 2011, women are still fighting for the right to choose? In her article Barely Legal, writer Libby Lowe talks about H.R.3, a bill known for finally defining rape as “forcible.” Lowe says the bill is now aimed at punishing women and private insurers who provide coverage for rape victim abortion. “And, as if your taxes aren’t complicated enough, if H.R.3 passes, the IRS will be looking to get in your pants. ‘Under standard audit procedure, a woman would have to provide evidence to corroborate facts about abortions, rapes, and cases of incest.'” Hello Big Brother.

In The Top 15 Feminist All Stars, we get a Hollywood breakdown of strong actresses who have played kick ass women in supporting and lead roles.

Miss Representation is a documentary that explores the misrepresentation of women in culture and media and how that influences the under representation of women in other realms, like politics and business. In an interview with the film’s writer and producer, Jennifer Siebel Newsom says “It’s sort of a chicken and the egg, both the media and our culture don’t value women enough,” she says. That leads to an image that, as Siebel Newsom puts it, is “disparaging and hyper-sexualized and ultimately relays to the culture that that’s what women are.” Miss Representation aired just this past week on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

So, today, at this very moment, if you were to go out in Tucson, Arizona, you couldn’t wear a pair of pants. Nope. Not kidding. A real law in the city. Who knows what happens to women who defy it, but in 7 Ridiculous Laws Against Women, we get a pretty traumatizing look at backwards places still holding true to women being the lesser sex.

And for these injustices we have to laugh and cry at the same time.

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It’s time to talk about physician-assisted suicide as a conscious choice.

We’re used to talking about choice. The choice to have a child, eat meat, recycle, marry. As responsible, conscious people we make decisions every day. But when it comes to end of life choices, as a society we’re a bit behind.

Jack Kevorkian’s recent death brought back a flood of memories for me. He was my grandmother’s hero. While she was admittedly—and quite proudly—a touch twisted, I happen to agree with her and Jack: We should have a choice when it comes to end of life decisions. Growing up with her in my life, it was impossible not to see suicide as an option. Our first conversation about this took place when I was four. She explained to me that it would be up to her, that made sense to me then and it makes sense to me today.

In my early twenties, well before I met and married my husband, I made my own plans for when I get old. They involve: assisted living, water aerobics and my best friend of 30+ years, Bevin. We have since opened the circle, inviting our men, our hairdresser and other friends to join us. We have scoped out a facility—we haven’t gone so far as a tour, which I assume would raise some eyebrows—it’s close to the lake, a movie theater, Walgreens and a grocery store. These are the things we assume will be important.

Bevin and I took ballet together. We learned to swim together. We take yoga together. We were married in a Jewish ceremony at a square dance—and while I stepped on a PBR tallboy at the end, the state of Illinois doesn’t recognize our union. The idea that if our spouses die before us—or better yet, they don’t—I may be lucky enough to spend my old lady years with her and members of my circle of people is comforting.

The stats on women outliving men support the idea that when the shit comes down, many of us might be relying on female friends as we age. It’s not pleasant to think about, but if you consider the popularity of The Golden Girls and articles like Jezebel’s recent “Are Friends the New Husbands?” it’s clear that women out there are thinking about aging differently than earlier generations, which, I think, means it’s a great time to talk about assisted suicide as a real, legal option.

More than just the specifics of the Old People Dorm Plan, the idea that I will have a say in my own fate is, at the core, what is appealing.

Suicide, assisted or otherwise, is a hard sell. I’m in no way saying it should be mandatory, based on one’s ability to afford care or based on anything other than personal choice. It’s about asking the big questions: How much pain can I endure? How much of myself, or my freedom, can I stand to lose? Has my life been fulfilling? Does the good outweigh the bad? What does my God say about suicide?

For many people, religion might be the deciding factor. And that’s fine. I’m not saying that anyone should break from a religion that has filled their lives with tradition, comfort and joy.

End of life decision-making should be intense and it should be personal. But it should be a decision.

Author Libby Lowe’s grandmother in the prime of youth

In the U.S., Oregon is the only state where assisted suicide is not a crime. The Death With Dignity Act, passed in 1997, allows terminally-ill adult Oregonians to obtain and use prescriptions from their physicians for self-administered, lethal doses of medications. Meaning, the assistance is defined as the ability to write a prescription. How and when to use the medication is up to the individual. In 2010, 65 people—of the nearly four million residents in the state—chose to end their lives.

In the rest of this country we have DNR orders (do not resuscitate) and hospice care for those deemed terminally ill, but we have no legal, dignified way to choose to die. Well ahead of his time, Jack Kevorkian fought to change that. His work on death and dying started back in the 1950s when he presented a paper suggesting that death row prisoners have the right to choose to die by anesthesia so that their organs could be harvested to save lives. It didn’t go anywhere in the 50s, or in the late 80s when he revisited the idea. I still don’t get why.

In 1987 Kevorkian studied in Netherlands, focusing on how Dutch physicians assisted in the suicides of terminally ill patients without interference from the legal authorities. During the 1990s, he assisted in about 130 suicides, ultimately spending eight years in jail. He was released in 2007 and died earlier this month in a hospital.

The progress he made is, in tangible terms, small. But the conversations he started are essential to our country becoming a place where conscious living extends to become conscious dying.

My end of life plan is, in theory, fairly sunny: Me and Bevin and our husbands walking to Walgreens and taking in a movie before going back to the home for 4pm dinner. I realize I may not be that lucky, or that even if I am, I may end up very sick and alone at the end. I can’t say for sure that I would choose assisted suicide if I had the option, but I know I would want the choice to talk honestly with my doctor and my loved ones and then make an informed decision.

The choice to end her own life with dignity is a luxury my own grandmother didn’t have, but it’s one I feel is fundamental to creating a conscious, kind society.

Top image of author Libby Lowe with her grandmother

Update: Libby Lowe (@LibbyLowe) is sharing this post as part of XX in Health Week 2013, a celebration of gender diversity in health leadership.

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A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Like wearing statements on your chest? In The Best Graphic, Organic T-Shirts, we give you a plethora of opportunities to choose from. From small indie brands in the U.K., to names you know here stateside, we guarantee you’ll find something you like.

People ask us what we read to get so much interesting information. It’s not just our super powers that help us think outside the box, we’re also inspired by others. In Our Big Fat Conscious Reading List: The Best Websites Of 2011, we break it all down for you by our section sites. Happy reading!

Does the term “Homesteading” inspire thoughts of pioneers? Did you know you could become one no matter where you live? It’s true; keeping bees, chickens and a compost can be done with ease and in her article Making Homesteading Approachable, writer K. Emily Bond will give you some ideas on how to personalize it.

We’re not perfect humans, but we are what we eat. That might mean many horror-inducing things to you if you’re a Doritos freak or a cupcake hound. Consuming junk, or even semi-healthy foods in moderation, allows for toxins to build up over time. Is it time to cleanse? In her article Do Cleanses Really Work?, writer Libby Lowe explores not just different cleanses but why we think we need them.

“However you see the relative attractiveness of human bodies, it is a cultural idea, not an inherent truth, that women are more beautiful than men,” writer Starre Vartan says in her article The Beautiful Man.” A woman’s curves are used to entice consumers “to buy toothpaste and batteries,” because society dictates that “it’s just that women are so much more lovely, you see. Implied is the idea that if men’s bodies were somehow less visually unfortunate, their bodies would be used, too. I call bullocks,” says Vartan.

Image: deltaMike

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Clean, sometimes green and definitely mean, three cleanses push a writer to the limit.

As I sipped my fourth green juice of the day, I couldn’t imagine why I thought this was ever a good idea.

If we are being honest, we don’t always “cleanse” for the right reasons. Proponents claim that cleanses allow your body to remove toxins built up over time. You’ve seen those disturbing photos of gross things that come out of people while they’re cleansing. These toxins might be environmental (pollution), or self-inflicted (too much wine and too many cookies). But I didn’t care so much about all that. I was scared that without a massive intervention, my no-longer flat tummy would turn into a full-blown muffin top. I wanted to drop some pounds without eating better, drinking less or working out more. Even though I knew this wasn’t a solid, long-term plan, it seemed reasonable to me.

And Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, CSSD, LDN, American Dietetic Association Spokesperson and author of The Flexatarian Diet, says that my expectations were reasonable. She says that while cleanses don’t do much good physically, or harm for that matter, they can provide a mental jump start.

“When people string together a few healthy days where they are doing the right thing, that can be great. But it’s important to remember that this isn’t a magical pill. What you do for three days or even 30 days won’t make up for what you do the rest of year. You have to use common sense,” she says.

A magical pill would have been nice.

“In a nutshell, our bodies don’t need cleanses,” Blatner says. “We have all of the organs we need to detoxify out bodies. Our skin is a detox organ, so are our liver and kidneys. They work to detoxify our bodies every second of every day. Many dietitians freak out and say cleanses are terrible, but for most people they’re really not a big deal. All over the world people cleanse for religious reasons, and for most of us a few days without food isn’t so bad.”

Here are three cleanses I’ve personally road-tested. Let’s look at their impact.

I began with the Beyonce-approved Master Cleanse. My friend Heather and I went to Whole Foods and bought a massive supply of lemons, organic maple syrup grade B, cayenne pepper powder and distilled water. I had a whole cart-load of feeling stupid. I mean, everyone knows what those items are used for and, I worried, has seen those poop photos. I bought a magazine and some dish soap in an effort to distract attention. On day three, Heather called and asked how much I had finished because she was ready to re-up on supplies. I had only consumed about 32 ounces because I thought the stuff was nasty. In other words, I was just starving myself. Despite Blatner’s point that we can live without food, I was feeling crazy. Heather came over, declared that I had gone bad, dumped the rest of my mixture and made me eat a sandwich.

Health: The Master Cleanse book claims that the lemon acts as a purifier and provides potassium, the cayenne pepper adds B and C vitamins and aids in circulation, and maple syrup, a sugar, provides energy and minerals. Blatner was neither impressed or disgusted by this particular cleanse, but did suggest that if you’re going to have a liquid lunch, an organic juice cleanse provides more nutrients.

Weight loss: A few pounds that I regained the moment I ate the aforementioned sandwich.

Green factor: You can easily make this at home using fairly inexpensive organic ingredients, so the green factor is pretty good. And because I was starving and my body was in survival mode, I didn’t go to the bathroom a lot – so, hey, I saved water and toilet paper.

A few years later, I tried the four-week Ejuva cleanse. I was smarter about this one and worked with a group led by a cleansing expert so I had support and advice all the way through. On this cleanse you progressively cut the stuff you know is bad for you: alcohol, sugar, meat, dairy, white flour, and so on, taking bushels of herbs and drinking a stomach-churning shake once a day. I cannot stress how disgusting the shake was. Urine-soaked hay comes to mind. Each week, you cut out more food and add herbs and shakes until the final week when you’re either food-free or on liquids only – cleansers’ choice. First, a month is a very long time. Second, this was really expensive. Third, Blatner isn’t thrilled about the herbs. “Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe for you. This brings up all kinds of questions about interactions with other medications or supplements.”

Health: The dietary part of this cleanse was great – it’s the common sense stuff we should all do anyway. The herbs were distasteful and taking that many every day was a chore. Mentally, this was very challenging. While you cut foods out in stages, you’re cutting out a lot, including joy.

Weight loss: I gave up four days early and broke the cleanse by scarfing down a grilled cheese with fries from Friendly’s (not recommended and not unnoticed by my digestive system). I’d had to travel suddenly to central Maine and I had no access to a blender, organic foods or self-control. Overall, this cleanse was expensive (both the herbs and all the food), required more cooking and less takeout than I’m comfortable with, and wasn’t worth the misery (and I was miserable, as was my husband). Which brings me to another point: cleanses can ruin relationships. Beware. You will be a Skinny Bitch, and your person will notice the bitch part more than the skinny part.

Green factor: Not great. This requires delivery, as well as the manufacturing of the herbs and packaging. That said the products themselves are natural and organic, as is the food you’re supposed to be eating.

This brings us to the start of 2011. In January, I did the Green Corner‘s three-day organic juice cleanse. This was by far the most reasonable, and successful, of the three. Despite a hamburger freak-out on the last night, it really wasn’t that bad. And I did feel like it was good for me.

Health: You get 1,200 calories a day from fresh squeezed, organic juice. For anywhere from three to five days you have grapefruit juice in the morning, four green juices throughout the day and evening, and a beet/carrot combo mid-day. It was a little boring and I could do without drinking beets again – ever. I learned that green juice is rather awesome and I have incorporated organic grapefruit juice into my daily routine. For me, this was a great post-holiday jumpstart. It got me back on track and I didn’t feel like I was suffering through it or testing out life as a functioning anorexic (see The Master Cleanse).

Weight loss: I have kept off four pounds. I realized I was eating way more than I needed to on a daily basis, and while I happily added solid food back into my life, I didn’t go wild and eat a whole pizza.

Green factor: There are mail-order juice cleanses, but if you can, go local. It’s better for the environment, the juice is fresher and you support your community. Green Corner sources fruits and veggies locally when possible, and while it was winter and I did drive there, I stopped in on my way to yoga and I drive a Prius so I feel fine about it. (It’s practically a Stuff White People Like blog post come to life.) All in all, this was a solid green choice and the best of the cleanse options.

Part of me wants to discourage cleansing and say: If you’re into suffering, or want to make your burger-loving husband hate you, by all means, give a cleanse a whirl! But part of me (the part wearing pants that fit), is totally aware that I haven’t had my last adventure in self-deprivation.

Considering a cleanse? People who have had an eating disorder should talk to their whole medical team if they are considering a cleanse, says Blatner, and most companies don’t recommend cleanses for people who have ever suffered from anorexia. Additionally, she cautions that those with diabetes, kidney disease, digestive issues and heart disease should avoid cleanses, as should pregnant women, children/teens and the elderly. For people in these groups, extreme change to diet can result in anything from dizziness to fainting or coma because of the impact diet has on electrolyte and blood sugar balance. She also says that following any of these plans long term can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies and muscle breakdown. Proceed with caution.

Images: Dan Zen, Rachel_titrilga, Matt Lavin, Green Corner

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New legislation is chipping away at a woman’s right to choose.

In college, I took a class called “The History of Reproductive Rights.” Growing up in a liberal community – and with the kind of parents who agreed that a class called “The History of Reproductive Rights” was a solid part of my academic growth – I remember being amazed by both the amount of abuse women took and the lengths they went to ensure they got the sexual health care they needed.

At that time, a group of Chicago women, collectively known only as Jane, became heroes of mine. Jane was an underground abortion service run by women in the Hyde Park neighborhood from 1969 to 1973. A doctor taught the women how to do the procedure, and over those four years, until the passage of Roe vs. Wade, Jane provided more than 12,000 safe (and totally illegal) abortions in the city.

Reading about these women as an 18 year-old in the time of Clinton (Bill, that is), I was sure there would never again be the need for a group like Jane. Was I ever naive.

There are a number of ways anti-choice groups and legislators are currently battling the right to choose:

On March 24, South Dakota became the first state to implement a 72-hour waiting period between the time a woman requests and gets an abortion. The bill also mandates that she get what amounts to anti-choice counseling from a crisis pregnancy center (CPC), even in cases of rape and incest. Governor Dennis Daugaard (R), signed the bill into law and it goes into effect July 1. Just for comparison, in 2009, the state voted to repeal the 48-hour waiting period to purchase a gun.

In addition to the legislative implication that women are flighty, rash or are simply not smart enough to know what they want, this is a huge problem logistically – especially in South Dakota. There is but one abortion provider in the entire state. If you don’t live close to Sioux Falls, or can’t afford to travel there on multiple occasions (which means you probably can’t afford a baby, but there’s nothing to indicate that the Governor is worried about that), you won’t be able to get an abortion.

Then there’s the CPC. Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, explains, “They’re not licensed, they’re not regulated, they’re not accredited and they’re openly ideological.” According to Ms. Stoesz, CPCs are often run by anti-choice activists who aren’t licensed to practice medicine. Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) plan to take legal action.

Earlier this month, Senator Mark Christensen of Nebraska decided it would be good to legalize killing doctors who perform abortions – he got the idea from his cohorts in South Dakota – so he introduced a bill allowing murderers to use the “justifiable homicide” defense for killings intended to prevent harm to a fetus. The South Dakota version, which didn’t pass, would have only applied to a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents or her children, while the Nebraska legislation would also apply to any third party. If this bill passes, anyone can go ahead and walk into a Planned Parenthood and kill a doctor without consequence. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, it remains illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license. Christensen claims that he didn’t intend the bill to allow for or encourage murdering doctors and is reportedly revising the language.

In Ohio, a fetus took the stand. State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann’s heartbeat bill would “prohibit women from ending pregnancies at the first detectable fetal heartbeat,” which can come as early as 18 days after conception, a time when most women don’t even know they are pregnant. The groups, Ohio Right To Life and Faith2Action, put on quite a show when they gave two pregnant women ultrasounds while lawmakers listened for fetal heartbeats. One March 24, the vote was postponed; Watchmann said the bill “wasn’t quite ready.”

Nationally, things aren’t much better. On February 18th, the House voted to cut off all funding to Planned Parenthood, using language to imply that federal money is being used to fund abortion – which hasn’t been the case since the passing of the Hyde Amendment in 1976. Luckily, the Senate defeated the bill allowing Planned Parenthood to continue providing preventative care including STI testing, HIV testing, breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer tests and access to birth control to more than three million women a year.

But the fight isn’t over. Meet H.R.3. The bill known for finally defining rape as “forcible,” is going after private insurers. Here’s how it works: If a company provides health care benefits and that plan includes coverage for abortion, the company becomes ineligible for the federal tax deductions and credits usually granted to companies that provide benefits. This will impact 87% of private insurance plans. Meaning, more employers will seek the coverage that doesn’t specifically exclude abortion coverage and fewer women will have insurance that covers this legal procedure.

And, as if your taxes aren’t complicated enough, if H.R.3 passes, the IRS will be looking to get in your pants. “Under standard audit procedure, a woman would have to provide evidence to corroborate facts about abortions, rapes, and cases of incest,” Marcus Owens, an accountant and former longtime IRS official told Daily Kos. If a taxpayer received a deduction or tax credit for abortion costs related to a case of rape or incest, or because her life was endangered, then “on audit [she] would have to demonstrate or prove, ideally by contemporaneous written documentation, that it was incest, or rape, or [her] life was in danger,” Owens says. “It would be fairly intrusive for the woman.” Yes, fairly.

2011 is already a newsworthy year in the history of reproductive rights. I’m doing what I can: emailing and calling my legislators, donating to Planned Parenthood and talking about this with anyone who will listen. But, I’m from Chicago. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, I may be calling Jane to learn a new skill.

Photo via u2canreed

The post Barely Legal appeared first on EcoSalon.

Female soldiers serving overseas are denied their legal right to choice.

There isn’t a much more intrusive and demanding employer than the United States Military. If you enlist, you give up a great deal of personal freedom and accept the strong likelihood of being placed in harm’s way. In return, you receive many benefits: the honor of serving your country, superb on-the-job training, job security and reportedly the best health care benefits in the country. But it may shock you to learn that service women don’t have the same access to legal reproductive healthcare that their civilian counterparts enjoy.

The trouble began with the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, which ensures that federal money is not used to fund abortions – on military bases, in Planned Parenthood facilities or anyplace else.

Anti-choice politicians and activists have spent a lot of time over the last few months making sure that there’s confusion about how government dollars are used to fund abortions. Here’s the quick answer: they’re not. See Hyde.

Think about what this means for an American service woman overseas.

Female soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries where abortion is illegal have to get special, unpaid leaves of absence and – using their own money – fly to a country where it is legal to get an abortion. Because of Hyde, they can’t get one on base.

Other than cases in which the life or health of the woman is in immediate danger, female soldiers cannot get an abortion – a legal medical procedure in the country they are serving and risking their lives for – on a military base, where they are supposed to receive health care because said health care is government-sponsored. Talk about a Catch-22.

For many years, servicewomen and military wives were able to use their own funds to access abortion care on military facilities overseas. In 1988, an internal Department of Defense memo took away that right. In 1993, President Clinton signed an Executive Order lifting the ban, but then in 1995, an anti-choice Congress passed a law reimposing it. And here we are.

“Abortion is essentially illegal on base and it puts servicewomen into a pre-Roe situation: If you have money, if you know who to ask and if your commander lets you leave the base, you have a choice. If not, you don’t,” says Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

On a foreign military base, there’s usually a treaty or agreement with the host country and stipulating rules and regulations apply. Saudi Arabia is the best example. Servicewomen there are allowed to drive on base, but can’t drive in the rest of the country. The same is true with veils, which they must wear if they leave the base.

Given these examples, it would seem that even if abortion is illegal in the host country, U.S. laws would apply on base. But common sense doesn’t apply and the consequences are dire.

“I heard a story about a soldier was stationed in the Philippines. His wife was pregnant and the baby had fatal problems. The closest place to go to terminate the pregnancy was Japan, but they couldn’t afford the trip. She was forced to carry the pregnancy to term,” says Kolbi-Molinas.

People in the military, she explains, do have fewer privacy rights than the rest of us, and you’d need your commander’s permission to leave the base for any reason, including medical procedures. What goes too far is that the facilities ban requires disclosure to the officer, sometimes to the whole unit. There are serious repercussions. Unsurprisingly, a woman leaving active duty to get an abortion isn’t good for a unit’s cohesion, and has shown to be damaging to women’s military careers.

According to the ACLU, more than 365,000 women presently serve in the military. If, while they are deployed, they happen to get pregnant – either because they had consensual sex and the birth control failed or they are raped – they are unable to do anything about it. And rape isn’t a small issue. According to a 2003 study of female veterans, 30 percent were raped or suffered a rape attempt during their military service. Uncle Sam, I’ll do the math: thirty percent of 365,000 is more than 109,000 women.

And abortion isn’t the only reproductive health service that is compromised for active servicewomen. “During the first Gulf War, I heard about a soldier in Kuwait who was having issues with her IUD. None of the doctors she had access to there had a speculum, so they had to use spoons,” says Kolbi-Molinas.

Their lives are on the line for ours, and we can’t do better than spoons?

The first way to protect servicewomen on our bases is to ensure that full reproductive health services are legal, just as they are at home – for now. If the right to choose is compromised or lost in the States, active duty women don’t stand a chance.

On February 18th, the House passed H.R. 3 and voted to cut off all funding to Planned Parenthood. If it passes the Senate we’re all in a lot of trouble. Far more than an abortion provider, Planned Parenthood offers STI testing, HIV testing, cancer screenings and access to birth control to women who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

As Candace Straight, co-chair of the Republican Majority for Choice, wrote: “Beyond the title’s hypocritical and not-so-subtle taxation, H.R. 3 would disadvantage an entire spectrum of women and families. From the brave women serving in our military overseas to federal employees and the poorest of our citizens, this bill directly aims to restrict access for those in need.”

See where your Senators stand and then contact them voicing your support or disgust, depending. And, if you can, float a little money at Planned Parenthood – the organization really is on the frontline protecting reproductive freedom and it needs all the help it can get right now.

In honor of International Women’s Day, let’s extend the laws of this land to our courageous women in uniform, whether they’re standing on its soil or not.

Image: Familymwr

The post Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…and Don’t You Dare Get Pregnant appeared first on EcoSalon.

When your celebrity crush doesn’t share your political and social values.

When I was a kid, my favorite movies were Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I chalk that up to being an only child. With thanks to my dad for enduring The Care Bears movie, most of the time I was outnumbered.

Jane Russell, co-star to Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, passed away last week and I was instantly saddened. At a young age, I was well aware that I was never going to be a Marilyn, but certainly I could aspire to be a Jane. She was known for playing saucy, smart, forward-thinking ladies with just a hint of alpha flirt (her character in Gentlemen hits on an entire Olympic swim team), and her breasts’ appearance in The Outlaw appalled the Roman Catholic Church so thoroughly, they fought the movie’s release. Yet despite her sex appeal, she was attainable, the Dorothy to Rue McClanahan’s Blanche, if you will.

But I’ve since learned that Jane Russell the woman wasn’t much like the characters she played. My fascination with Jane started in my tender years, well before the likes of Gawker, E! and Perez. Today, we know more than we want to know about our favorite – and least favorite – celebrities, and sometimes choose to admire them more for their off-camera work than for what they do onscreen. We can pick our favorites based on how they align with our own conscious values. We can easily see who supports what charity, who donates and who doesn’t – or who thinks global warming is a conspiracy.

To wit: I am forced to like Pamela Anderson now because of her work with PETA. I still find it a little surprising, this admiration. And while I’ve never even seen Dawson’s Creek (or most of her acclaimed movie roles since then), I love Michelle Williams. First, she’s a fellow short-hair. But more importantly, she recently started a non-profit to provide free yoga – complete with babysitting – to single mothers.

Then there’s Cyndi Lauper. It is without irony and with pride that I say I have seen her in concert three times during this decade. Yes, I still like her music, but I love what she’s about. She started The True Colors Fund, which advocates for homeless Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth, and this year is helping to open The True Colors Residence offering permanent housing for LBGT youth in New York.

Then there’s Jane. After a botched abortion before she married, Jane Russell became a vocal opponent of choice. And according to her obituary in the New York Times, she said the following to an Australian newspaper in 2003: “These days I’m a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist.” Bigotry, she added, “just means you don’t have an open mind.”

It’s clear that Jane and I wouldn’t have seen eye to eye.

As a kid, I naively assumed that people I liked on screen agreed with me and that we’d be friends if we met. But it’s also reflective of a world without the internet, a world in which no matter how hopped up on pills she may have been, I never would have seen Marilyn Monroe’s crotch in a limo.

Had I known about Jane Russell’s politics before I met the character Dorothy Shaw, would that have taken something away from the movie that I cherish so much? Maybe knowing more about her beliefs tarnishes a bit of the love, but when I hear her name I will always think of her eyes flashing as she unleashed my favorite line: “Nobody chaperones the chaperone. That’s why I’m so right for this job.” She was feisty to be sure, but I know now that I wouldn’t have liked much of what she had to say outside of a motion picture.

There’s both good and bad that comes with knowing what your favorite celebrities are up to in their personal and political lives. Unlike some who hold that celebrities should just can it (usually applied to celebrities holding views opposite their own), I love that so many people use their fame to speak out about their beliefs. But I do miss my six-year-old’s assumption that after the double wedding at the conclusion of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, my hero Jane Russell and her BFF Marilyn Monroe went home and lived happily ever after.

Image: pinkmoose

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