2021 Favorites

In chronological order by category:

On abolition, policing and gender

• How President Biden Can Change Title IX to Protect Sexual Assault Survivors in Teen Vogue: As organizing for abolition and decarceration has continued since 2020, I reported on how Title IX and college campus sexual assault policy can be ground zero for abolitionist and restorative justice practices;

• Arkansas and the long history of cops involved in abortions in Rewire: I wrote about police involvement in pregnancy outcomes/abortions extending from the War on Drugs, which continues with policies like a new Arkansas law requiring rape victims seeking abortions to report their rapes to police;

• "Britney does not need to be protected from herself": How society treats those perceived as disabled in Salon: I also talked to reproductive and disability justice advocates on Britney Spears’ testimony about being forced to keep an IUD against her will, and the ways the reproduction of people with or perceived to have disabilities is policed and controlled by the state.

• Treated as a "criminal mastermind”: Black women athletes punished for mental & reproductive health in Salon: During the Olympics this summer, I talked to Brianna McNeal about being forced out of competing shortly after her abortion, and the many ways Black women athletes are disproportionately policed and punished especially for seeking reproductive care;

• The Policing of Native American Pregnancies Has to Stop in Jezebel: I reported on the disproportionate risk of criminalization Native American people face for their pregnancy outcomes, extending from the enduring legacy of colonization and state policing of Indigenous families.

A changing abortion access landscape

• Telemedicine options for abortion are here to stay in Salon: Despite concerning legal threats to self-managed abortion, I reported on how telehealth options for abortion pills have been vitally important during the pandemic, are highly safe, and can even bridge distrust of the health system in marginalized communities;

• "Religious leaders should be asking for your forgiveness" on abortion – not the other way around in Salon: I talked to abortion storytellers at We Testify who shared their powerful stories of Christian faith and their abortions, contrary to misleading narratives that place religion and abortion at odds.

• The cost of the GOP's war against abortion is adding up — and taxpayers are footing the bill in Salon: I reported on the continuously growing Republican-led legal war to end abortion rights, and how despite anti-abortion politicians’ self-identification as fiscally conservative, taxpayers are largely paying for this legal war;

• Abortion in the Surveillance State in Jezebel: I reported on the disturbing ways digital surveillance is used to put people seeking abortions at risk of criminalization amid rising threats to abortion rights;

• Violence From Self-Proclaimed 'Pro-Lifers' Increased 125% Last Year in Jezebel: I wrote about coordinated violence, intimidation and dehumanization as instrumental to the anti-abortion movement’s operations.

Reproductive coercion and gender-based violence

• When Your Partner Wants to Control Your Reproductive Choices in Rewire: I spoke to a domestic violence lawyer and advocate on how DV and both legislative and interpersonal reproductive coercion—ie. abortion bans, or a partner pushing you to get pregnant—are inseparable from each other;

• Abortion Bans Are a Form of Gender-Based Violence in Dame Magazine: I wrote about the inherent violence of the nearly unprecedented barrage of abortion bans/restrictions introduced in state legislatures in 2021;

• Why the Hyde Amendment and other barriers to reproductive care lead to more domestic violence in Salon: I also wrote on how barriers to reproductive care, on top of forced pregnancy and birth already inherently amounting to a form of state-sanctioned abuse, make pregnant people more vulnerable to interpersonal domestic violence.

Misc. culture

• Asian Americans need more than just Hollywood representation to address anti-Asian racism in Salon: I wrote about the hollowness of #StopAsianHate activism that focuses exclusively on media representation;

• We never needed rape scenes to tell stories of sexual assault – finally, movies and TV are catching up, and Netflix's "Maid" shows all the ways that our society – and the men in it – enable abusers in Salon: I wrote about Maid, Tuca & Bertie and how new shows are capturing the many, nuanced forms of sexual/domestic abuse beyond the gratuitous gender-based violence we’ve usually seen on-screen often from male writers;

• Whether Anthony Mackie likes it or not, there's always been a need for queer "shipping" in media in Salon: I wrote about Anthony Mackie’s response to Marvel fans shipping his character with male characters, and the importance of more actual on-screen LGBTQ representation, and just letting queer fans enjoy themselves;

• Inside the media debate between using “sexual assault” and “rape” in Salon: I wrote about HBO’s Catch & Kill on the investigations that ousted Harvey Weinstein, and how legal definitions and media can weaponize language to police survivors' experiences;

• “Being emotionally closer to stories isn’t weakness”: Inside Post reporter's bombshell lawsuit in Salon: I wrote about how harmful media “objectivity” standards single out and punish journalists who are sexual assault survivors, and talked to the lawyer representing Felicia Sonmez in her critically important lawsuit against WaPo;

• This Survivor Comedy Duo Wants You to Know ‘Rape Victims Are Horny Too’ in Jezebel: I talked to survivor-comedians about creating survivor-centric comedy, and disrupting myths about rape survivors with jokes about rape culture;

• Amy Coney Barrett Could Be the Final, Dystopian 'Girlboss' in Jezebel: I wrote about the twisted misogyny and white supremacy of Amy Coney Barrett possibly being the Supreme Court Justice who will put the nail in the coffin of abortion rights in the US;

• ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Is the Antidote to the Superhero Genre’s Copaganda Problem in Jezebel: I wrote about the Spiderverse, superhero movies, copaganda and restorative justice.