The fury I felt on Norma Jeane Mortenson’s behalf kept me tossing and turning all night — Joyce Carol Oats wrote the novel Blonde in 2000. It quickly became an award-winning best-seller. Oats made it crystal clear that her novel was a work of fiction: While many characters portrayed here have some counterparts in the life and times of Marilyn Monroe, the characterizations and incidents presented are…

Feeling Small in the Wake of Political and Religious Misogyny As a self-proclaimed and active feminist, I’ve been having a lot of complicated feelings lately. Let’s give them some context first. Afghanistan: Erasure of Women In August 2021, Afghanistan was once again taken over by the Taliban. From my cozy one bedroom apartment in Europe, surrounded by fluffy pink pillows and walls full of…

Sanna Marin’s overnight international stardom — and its curious timing. — Sanna Marin was an unknown to most until last week. Unless you follow international politics, you might not have known much about the Prime Minister of Finland. Today, she’s one of the most interesting women in the world: just because she was ‘caught dancing’. The so-called scandal, as well as…

I completed my challenge and I’m ‘back on the sauce’. I went to the supermarket. I knew it was risky. I had already started spotting and the pressure of the seatbelt against my uterus on the car ride over made me nauseous. Normally, I wouldn’t dare go shopping in this…

Did you know that your period is a major pollutant? Of course, it’s not your actual period that is a pollutant —but the products you use to “handle it” most certainly are. The Math An average menstruating person has between 450 and 500 periods in their lifetime. In a lifetime, it’s expected…

The birds and the bees and endometriosis People undertake reproductive surgery for various reasons. This article is about recovery after laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis, but contains advice for any person with female reproductive organs who feels just about ready to get back out there! Some women* decide on surgery hoping…

It was a challenge worth taking! I made only one New Years’ resolution for 2021: I was going to commit to reading exclusively female writers the entire year: contemporary, and in all languages that I can speak (English, German, Serbo-Croatian). (Yes, there is a list at the end of my…

…and finding out it’s not unusual at all. I was fast asleep one night when an uncanny feeling slid into my dreams. As I slowly started coming to, I realized I was peeing myself. …

Everyone always says you should be proud of them, but… — After my surgery, I was in a daze for almost two days. It seemed like every couple of hours someone would come in and give me a shot in the arm, a shot in the bum, change my IV. …