IMAGE PROVIDED BY THE BOSTON WOMEN'S HEALTH COLLECTIVE
In my last post, I mentioned that I grew up with The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective’s OUR BODIES, OURSELVES as a coffee table book. OBOS and HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON are the two books I first remember reading. The HAROLD books are about a little boy who draws himself into adventures when he’s supposed to be in bed. Besides that as a more typical early reader, I regularly examined the pictures, diagrams and drawings, and then sounded out what I could in OUR BODIES, OURSELVES, which seemed just as magical a book as HAROLD. I discovered that adventures and explorations were not just outside, but also inside our bodies.
While my mother is responsible for leaving the book out for my exploration, I creditOUR BODIES, OURSELVES with my development into a critical thinking, socially engaged woman. My women friends cannot believe how precocious I was as a teenager. They were not raised to be self-advocates or to feel empowered in their sex or sexuality. By the time I began menstruation, explored my sexuality in a relationship or gave birth for the first time, I learned to demand answers to my questions, to stand up for myself and be a partner only to mutually fulfilling relationships. (Yes, I had my share of “bad boyfriends” as everyone does. However, the difference is that I did not remain in these relationships nor did I repeatedly make the mistake of getting involved with the “same” type of partner.) I spurred the offices of condescending physicians in favor of care providers who would be partners in my health care.
OUR BODIES, OURSELVES, written by a collective, is a model of feminist collaboration. It values individual women’s lived experiences, and allows women to share their stories in their own words. The authors offer information and let women who have experience of a topic speak about it. Subsequent publications have been updated so that new voices grace the pages and new topics are added to the table of contents. OBOS has been in print for over forty years and has been translated into over twenty-six languages. Some of the topics have been expanded into sister publications, such as the teen-oriented CHANGING BODIES, CHANGING LIVES and OURSELVES, GROWING OLDER, which focuses on women’s lives at or near menopause. The authors promote civic engagement and social justice as well as self-advocacy. They take to heart the idea that the personal is political, which can sometimes be merely a “buzz” phrase. Long before “think globally, act locally” became the mantra of the environmental movement,OUR BODIES, OURSELVES was telling women this essential message.
When each new edition of the book has been published, it has met with sharp criticism in well-respected publications such as THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE ATLANTIC. As I re-readOBOS for this article, I developed some criticisms, as well. As a choice-in-birth advocate, I read blogs and medical journal articles about birth on a regular basis. A recent blog post about choice in birth addressed the fact that those of us in the natural birth camp often continue to place words and choices in the mouths of other women. We believe that “if” women just knew the complications associated with epidural, that they would never choose it. We assume that if doctors educated women about c-sections, women would do everything they could to avoid them. What we fail to recognize is that even knowing all of the risks that appall us about epidurals or c-sections, there are women who will choose to avail themselves of these options. Who are “we” to deny them these choices, especially if we advocate so strongly for choice?
This line of thinking is exactly the issue I have with OBOS in its most recent publication. I am a staunch defender of abortion rights. That right is also linked to a right to choose an alternative to abortion as an individual. The voices we hear in the abortion chapter in OBOS all release a sigh of relief at having obtained an abortion. What of those who experience remorse, or make a decision to give a child up for adoption or raise their child? I cannot stress enough that I am for the choice to exist and for abortion access to be widely available, in ways it is definitely not and has been declining from being accessible in the United States. I also believe that any frank discussion of abortion needs to include voices of women who have made other choices, so that if we pick up a publication, such as OUR BODIES, OURSELVES, we are aware of all sides of the issue. This same tack exists in the section on birth.
I believe that OUR BODIES, OURSELVES deserves a spot on the bookshelves of our homes, if not on the coffee table. As a mother of a teenage daughter and son, the book cannot take the place of conversations about each of the issues presented in the text. As theATLANTIC claimed in a 2005 review, the book glosses over issues that need further discussion and consideration, examples of which I’ve stated herein. The reviewer criticizes the stance that everyone wants to have sex all the time that the book’s sexually transmitted infections section takes. She regrets the emphasis on makeshift dental dams created from latex gloves, the entire description of which renders the reader as far from sexual passion as possible. Why not a discussion on why one might not choose to have casual sex partners in a time of sexually transmitted diseases run rampant? Discussions such as these might bring the book into a more up-to-date viewpoint.
Equality and women’s rights still face an uphill battle. In the United States, we’ve lost ground in the past few weeks, when our legislature moved a measure forward that redefined rape in a way not favorable to women, the most frequent victims of this crime. Pundits believe the next vote will lay this misogynist bill to rest or that President Obama will veto it. Even as our political environment attacks women, if a book wants to speak intimately and truthfully to women, it should present conflicting viewpoints when women’s voices are heard and their stories are told. I planned on this article as a love letter, of sorts, to a publication that I believe in and that I believe shaped me as a woman. While I revere OUR BODIES, OURSELVES, I hope that voices from all viewpoints will be included in a future update of the book. The text can advocate for a way of thinking and acting without condemning those who personally choose otherwise. For if choice is really what we’re advocating for, if autonomy and self-advocacy are what we believe make for equality, then we must accept the choices of each individual woman.
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