On May 7th, REVEAL's, fabulous, ferocious & fiery heat
will be warming NYC.
Join the she-force on May 7th. Enter the code DIVA
and get $20 off registration at revealconference.org!
Can't wait to see you there!
05/05/2011
REVEAL YOUR SOUL
03/09/2011
03/08/2011
12/29/2010
MTV Abortion Special "No Easy Decision" Addresses Abortion with Compassionate Integrity
I have had time to process last night's show and I must say, I'm still in awe of the surprise we received from MTV. We have a long way to go, but yesterday's special and the sisterhood and communion so many women are gaining as a result inspires me. What a good way to look forward to 2011. Check out my blog about MTV's first abortion special here.
12/22/2010
Show Some Pro-Voice Love: Tune In to "16 and Loved"
For the first time in three seasons of MTV's popular series "16 & Pregnant," and one season of "Teen Mom." MTV is debuting their first coverage of teens who choose to have abortions, called “No Easy Decision.” The WMC team and I are embarking on a watch-in, in solidarity with Exhale, an abortion talk-line that is partnering with MTV’s “16 & Pregnant” series (ranked #1 in its time period with 12-34 yr olds versus all television) which, on December 28th, will be venturing into new territory with a special that features three young women telling their abortion stories.
It is time for MTV to give coverage to a perspective that has largely been left out of the 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom discourse. When a woman terminates an unintended pregnancy, that is one of several options she may elect to choose. A woman must be allowed to make that choice if that is the best option for her individual situation–without government intervention. She should be allowed to make her decision and afforded her right to privacy. This very personal decision is one that is made between a woman, her doctor, and her conscience or God. We must defend each woman’s right to have a child or to choose NOT to have a child. Women deserve access to comprehensive sexuality education so that they can prevent unintended pregnancy, but also to ensure that they know about all of the safe options they can consider when faced with this deeply personal decision.
Please show solidarity with Exhale and TUNE IN TO SEND A MESSAGE TO MTV THAT WE NEED CONTINUED, BALANCED COVERAGE ABOUT ALL OF THE OPTIONS AND SUPPORT TEENS HAVE WHEN FACING UNINTENDED PREGNANCY - And to show support for the brave teens who shared their stories for the show.
It is also important that we work dilligently to combat any racism that will surely emerge when the anti-choice hardliners start their chatter about the show. When Entertainment Weekly released their piece about the show, I read some troubling racially-driven comments about Markai, an African American woman featured in both the original series and the special.
Markai's decision to terminate her pregnancy has received a lot of racially-tinged comments and judgment from the public. Its imperative that we ensure that we are putting positive comments out there and protecting her from racist vitriol as well as the sexist, classist, and anti-choice attacks. I am also concerned about some problematic stats some trolls in the interwebs have been throwing out about black women and abortion—i.e so-called “black genocide” commentary as well as ideological nonfactual drivel about black women having more abortions than any other race.
I hope you'll join the conversation. Clearly our voices need to be heard. I will be live-blogging and tweeting the “16 and Loved” special along with a team of bloggers including Jessica Valenti and Lynn Harris. Join our conversation live on December 28th at 11:30PM EST.
Follow the conversation live on Twitter with the hashtags #16andloved, #WMCwatchin, and #provoice.
