11 Comments

It's so important to identify the connections between things as you do, Jessica: all the things in the system that combine to take power from women and give it to men. Who can fight for change when she has to work four jobs to barely manage to support a child she had to drop out of uni to raise, or if she's got several children she didn't want with a man who terrorises them daily? A girl or woman in the US could be in a position where she didn't have access to birth control, a man raped her, she was then forced to bear his child, then further forced legally to parent that child with him because he has parental rights...it's obscene. Giving any and all men (rapists, priests, fathers, husbands, child abusers, all of the above) more rights over girls and women, is what these shitheads are all about.

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Jul 27, 2022Liked by Jessica Valenti

You are so spot on and have put into words so much of how I feel. Thank you for these updates. It’s so important.

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Amen, they feed on our rage and tears.

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Thank you for your commitment to provide daily updates on the fight for women’s rights. The suffering that will continue as a result of abortion bans is horrific and tragic but needs to be spoken out loud so people understand the far reaching consequences. I share this blog with others in hopes they will keep the chain of information flowing and inspire more people to fight back.

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It makes me rage to read women’s lived experiences, but I think it is important that we all witness the suffering that is being thrust on them. I totally accept the psychology of entitlement that is driving all this, but I also wonder, without any facts to back me up if another contributing factor is money. Would an earlier abortion have been less profitable than the treatment likely needed to detoxify her system after holding a rotting corpse in her body? Also it seems likely to me that her subsequent chances for a successful pregnancy must be slim to none now. Thus is so evil and twisted.

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Having marches and parades won't help us a bit. The Enemy has to be made ineffectual. We have to find the best ways to control them. Beat them at their game.

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Jul 26, 2022Liked by Jessica Valenti

I idea of being forced to pack up up a sample of your vaginal discharge made me retch. No one should be made to go to such lengths for medical care.

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Why are your pieces not being published more widely?

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author

Ah you are so kind! Honestly, I've written for places like the NYT and WaPo and I probably still will in the future - but one of the reasons I started this newsletter was so I could write as candidly as I'd like. A huge downside of having a column run at a big mainstream publication is that your stuff gets watered down like you wouldn't believe. Also, it usually takes them days to weeks to publish something that you know needs to get out THAT DAY. Which is a long way of saying: I want it this way! But always appreciate efforts to spread the word :)

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Jul 26, 2022Liked by Jessica Valenti

“Gaetz and men like him believe that the rights they are born with and entitled to are privileges that women have to earn. If not by being fuckable, then by some other metric deemed useful to patriarchy.” This core belief is pretty close to “all men,” I’d wager, even if they don’t realize it.

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author

YUP

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