Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

Gender Across Borders

Welcome to Gender Across Borders’ series on stigma, shame, and sexuality, cross-posted with Rewire and in partnership with Ipas.

This series addresses stigma. The bulk of the series focuses on abortion, but there are also pieces on sex work, queerness, sluttiness, and more. They are as follows:

Tuesday, 9/20

The Fence, Wendy Ortiz
Stigma, Shame, and Sexuality: A Reflection on Abortion, Leila Hessini
The Hegemony of ‘LGBT,’ Judith Avory Faucette
A Day in the Life of a Web Cam Model, Eva Rivera
A Pastor’s Daughter, Taonga Lisulo
Studying Down: Thoughts on Sex Work, Steinem, and Self-Representation, Melissa Petro

Wednesday, 9/21

Abortion, Small Towns, and Young Lives, Paige Johnson
Oh, The Things These Socks Have Seen, Lindsay Smith
Ester’s Eyes: Returning from Uganda’s War a Bush Wife, Lauren Wolfe
The “H” Word, Sarah Elspeth Patterson
Pivotal Positions: Transforming Abortion Provider Stigma, Jennifer Coletti
Navigating Sin and Karma in Thailand, Santi Leksakun

Thursday, 9/22

An Open Letter to My Mother, Jessica Borusky
Late One Night, Gemma Mason
What We Can Learn From “Pro-Life” Patients, Kate Cockrill
Abortion On Demand and Without Apology, Sunsara Taylor
Institutionalized Stigma in Ghana, Jessica Mack
Abortion in Malta: When Silence Kills, Marie Anne Zammit

Pivotal Positions: Transforming Abortion Provider Stigma

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

Few of us would sign up for a job that would pose risks to our personal safety and our family’s safety. Yet that is exactly what many—if not most—health-care providers sign up for when they decide to deliver abortion care in the United States.

Navigating Sin and Karma in Thailand

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

Sex for young girls in Thailand is a very controversial topic, obstructed in discussion by the belief that a girl should be extremely careful about her manner, behavior, and reputation.

The “H” Word

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

It would seem that no one enjoys being called a “hooker,” whether you are a sex worker or not.

Abortion in Malta: When Silence Kills

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

The family ideal may place restrictions on abortion in Malta, but it doesn't stop women on the island from resorting to abortions on their own. Those women who can't afford to leave the island do it illegally putting their health at risk.

Institutionalized Stigma in Ghana

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

A confluence of cultural, religious and geographical factors in Ghana create a sensitive environment where issues of sexual and reproductive health, especially abortion, have remained highly taboo for decades.

In Defense of Abortion On Demand and Without Apology

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

There is nothing wrong with a woman terminating her pregnancy at any point and for whatever reason she chooses. Fetuses are not babies. Women are not incubators. Abortion is not murder.

What We Can Learn From “Pro-life” Patients

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

To me the abortion experiences of prolife women can offer us insight into understanding internalized stigma. They remind us of the empathy we must harness to improve abortion care for all women, especially those with the least access to social support.

Late One Night

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

I realize that for years I've been thinking that every loud woman in a bar who gets drunk or laughs about showing her underwear is stupid. Stupid why? If you want to have sex, that can be a very effective way of going about it. Have I been implicitly assuming that women don't want to have sex?

An Open Letter To My Mother

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

So, Mom, the reason why we may feel this anxiety, this pressure prior to revealing ourselves, is due to the fact that we were born into a social culture that does not approve of the ways in which we are different.

Ester’s Eyes: Returning from Uganda’s War as a Bush Wife

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

Ester Abeja wants to show her face as a victim of gang rape, of abduction, of torture and daily violence, to be the image of a woman who has been forced to kill her own child and her own people.

Stigma Shame and Sexuality Series

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