On September 17th and 18th, Jeanne Flavin, author of Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America
Check out Prof. Flavin’s blog for her personal take on the experience:
One of my favorite parts was a discussion of how to get your parents (i.e., your mother) to talk to you about sex, when they don’t want to. (“Ask your mom, ‘Did you ever have a boyfriend? What was that like?'” “Tell your mom you have a friend who has a boyfriend and you want to talk about her.” “When they are watching television — and I speak from experience –really absorbed, stand in front of the television and say, ‘I think I want to have sex’ then grab the remote and run out of the room. Trust me, they will run after you.”)
The flipside of creating a safe space, though, is that you are going to learn hard things about their lives. You are going to hear from a young woman who became pregnant at age 14 and whose alcoholic father (whom she lived with) didn’t notice until the day she went into labour. You are going to have a young woman describe how she became pregnant one year when she didn’t want to. And then more recently, when she did. And had a stillbirth. You are going to receive notes that say things like “What would you do if your boyfriend beats you everyday at school?” “What if you have a boyfriend and you are a virgin but you like him and he promises you the world and I promised my parents that I will never have sex until I get to 21. Everytime I go to the guy’s house he want us to then I say no. What must I do?”
