Lynne Murray says: In August of 2010, I posted here about feminist artist Brenda Oelbaum’s work turning diet books into papier mâché models of the Venus of Willendorf. Now Brenda is bringing her vision to the larger stage with “a national ad campaign to take down $66 BILLION Diet Industry.” She calls her project “DUMP [...]

Debbie says: A couple of months ago, Jessa Crispin at Bookslut was very actively recommending Depression: A Public Feeling by Ann Cvetkovich. I’m not prone to depression and I had never heard the phrase “public feeling,” but Crispin’s comments made me curious, and I picked up the book. [the] idea that depression can come from [...]

Debbie says: One of the many good things about Nicholas Day’s article in Slate about the science of breast milk is that, pretty close to the beginning, he goes out of his way to say that “conversations about lactation always seem to require disclaimers,” and his is that lack of breast milk has never been [...]

Debbie says: Before I get to the point, let me give you a treat from the amazing Molly Crabapple, whose article I’m going to write about in a moment. Now, back to Body Impolitic. (I only knew Crabapple as an artist before I found this post.) Condoms, it appears, are “legitimate” evidence for sexual wrongdoing [...]

Lisa Freitag says: (Dr. Lisa Freitag is a former pediatrician in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her most recent guest post on medical advertising and the meaning of caring is here.) I’ve always had trouble thinking of myself as a body. I mean, I know that I exist in space, visible to other people as a discrete solid [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME. ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION One billion women are rising tomorrow, all over the world. On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 14 February 2013, we are inviting ONE BILLION [...]

Lesley A Hall is an archivist at the Wellcome Library, London and a historian who has published extensively on issues on gender, sexuality and bodies in the nineteenth and twentieth century UK. Her most recent publication is Sex, Gender and Social Change in Britain since 1880, 2nd edition (Palgrave, 2012). Check out her website and [...]

Dr. Lisa Freitag is a former pediatrician in Minneapolis/St. Paul (the “Twin Cities”), in the north midwest of the United States. We hope to feature some of her thoughts and observations in this space from time to time. Lisa Freitag says: All along the highways leading to the Twin Cities, a billboard advertising North Memorial [...]

Debbie says: Earlier this week, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about how people who’ve had weight-loss surgery (or “bariatric” surgery) are much more likely to show up in the hospital with acute liver failure due to acetaminophin poisoning. Acetaminophin, more commonly known as Tylenol in the U.S. and as paracetamol in Europe, is [...]

Debbie says: Tomorrow, December 1, 2012, is the 24th Day without Art, in commemoration of World AIDS Day. For the first eight years of the Day without Art, many museums and galleries would shut their doors to honor and remember the artists who have died of AIDS. In 1997, however, the initiative shifted to a [...]