✨A few things✨
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Hi Dear Readers,
The Supreme Court has done what many of us knew they would do—overturn Roe v. Wade. I’m not going to say too much about this, because I’m sure you’ve been hearing/reading about it everywhere. I think many of us are struggling with information overload right now.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people sharing their despair and hopelessness. I feel these things as well. I also know that so many people have been organizing around abortion access for decades and help is out there. We can’t rely on our government to keep us safe or allow/disallow us our freedom and rights.
In times like these, I look to Mariame Kaba. I look to Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. I look to comrades near and far. I focus on what is within my scope of control in any given moment. Currently, for me, this means donating to local abortion funds and checking in on my community.
We depend on each other. We help each other. We are a constellation of mutual aid and support. Safe abortions will continue. We keep each other safe.
xL<3
Reading List 🔖
A Few Questions You Can Ask Yourself on Hopeless Days - Garrett Bucks
What would it feel like to live in a country where you never doubted that you were cared for, protected, valued and seen? What would it feel like to live in a country where every single person you loved felt that same care, that same visibility, that same protection? When did you first realize that you didn’t actually grow up being taught to care for and love every member of your community equally?
We’re Not Going Back To The Time Before Roe. We’re Going Somewhere Worse - Jia Tolentino
The mainstream pro-choice movement has largely ignored the growing criminalization of pregnancy, just as it has generally ignored the inadequacy of Roe. (It took Joe Biden, who campaigned on making Roe the “law of the land,” more than a year to say the word “abortion” on the record after he became President; the Democrats, given the chance to override the filibuster and codify Roe in May, predictably failed to do so.)
Digital Safety Tips: For Providers of Abortion Support and For People Seeking an Abortion - Electronic Frontier Foundation
We are not yet sure how companies may respond to law enforcement requests for any abortion related data, and you may not have much control over their choices. But you can do a lot to control who you are giving your information to, what kind of data they get, and how it might be connected to the rest of your digital life.
Why Is No One Speaking About Covid-19’s Disruption Of Periods? - Bella Mackie
Even without Covid or the vaccine, several studies carried out during the pandemic showed that many women reported their cycles were disrupted. It’s not just illness that can do this, but stress, anxiety and depression. Three things that most people have inevitably felt at some point since January 2020. So it’s fair to say that many of us will have experienced some unwelcome changes recently.
‘Final Fantasy XIV’ Taught Me About Care and Connection During the Pandemic - Adrian De Leon
With morbid bitterness, I realized the privilege that my Warrior of Light had that I did not: He could bury his comrades in person, with the company of those closest to him. Throughout the first year of the pandemic, I lost neighbors and friends to Covid, and the best we could do was hold virtual services on Zoom.
A Brief History of Women’s Eyebrows in Art - Isabella Segalovich
I started wondering: Have people always been this weird about eyebrows? As the most easily mutable facial feature, women’s eyebrows have often been sites of intense scrutiny and have gone through seemingly endless, rapidly changing trend cycles around the world. So let’s take a quick tour of how these ideals have shown up in art across civilizations throughout history: from bushy, to bold, to completely bare.
For Women Fleeing Ukraine, Social Media Is a Lifeline - Carole Rosenblat
It’s difficult to overstate how important the groups have become during this humanitarian crisis. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has declared the Ukraine situation a Level 3 emergency, the highest level in their system, with over 6.5 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries since the war began on February 24. Of these, 90 percent are women and children. In addition, they estimate 7 million internally displaced people as of May 22, 2022.
We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice - Edited by Natalie Adler, Marian Jones, Jessie Kindig, Elizabeth Navarro, and Anne Rumberger
*FREE* e-book from the editors of Lux Magazine: about how we can rebuild the movement for reproductive freedom and justice in the aftermath of Friday’s Supreme Court decision.
Librarianship 🌻
Alternatives to the Dewey Decimal System - Mara Franzen
The Old and the Prudish: An Examination of Sex, Sexuality, and Queerness in Library of Congress Classification - Tiffany Henry, Rhonda Kauffman, and Anastasia Chiu
Books of Note 📚
Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be - Marissa R. Moss (nonfiction)
Mirror Made of Rain - Naheed Phiroze Patel (fiction)
The Chosen One: A First-Generation Ivy League Odyssey - Echo Brown (young adult)
Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers - Uma Mishra-Newbery, Lina Al-Hathloul (children’s book)
My Body is a Junkyard - Aitch Alexandar (poetry)
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole - Susan Cain (self-help)
[If you order any of the books above or any listed on my Bookshop site, a percentage goes to local bookstores and I get a small commission. Thank you for not ordering from Amazon!]
Playlist 🎵
“Baby Don’t Cry” - Sunflower Bean
”Killer” - FKA Twigs
”New Person, Old Place” - Madi Diaz
”Ivy” - Lady Lamb
”He Needs Me” - The A’s”
Mood Board 💓
Self-Care + Good Things ☕
Donating what I can to local abortions funds. Crying when I need to. Talking to people who I have known for over a decade. Walks with mom. Witnessing (through pictures) my nephew’s joy of life. Experiencing everything fully and completely—the bad, good, and in-between. Looking at dreamy snowy locales. Dreaming of living in Duluth.
💖 An Ask:
If you have the money, please donate to the following abortion funds in Wisconsin: Women’s Medical Fund (Southern WI), Freedom Fund (North & Central WI), and Options Fund (Eau Claire). If you’d like to donate to another state, here’s a large document of abortion funds by state.
We Keep Each Other Safe
Thank you Lachrista. This is all so helpful. I know the post Roe world we’re navigating is a horrific reality for so many- particularly marginalized folx, and Black & Brown poor people. My brother Jack Santana rightly pointed out Roe was about privacy, between a pregnant person and their medical provider. And this hyper surveillance cyber deep state we’re all living in is pretty terrifying. Your words, this post has so much helpful information, and I completely agree we’re in that information overload modus operandi. Thank you for curating so much useful information in a loving way.