Feminist Current

 

The pill has long been heralded as a win for women — a path towards freedom, a woman’s right, a pivotal aspect of the sexual revolution — but is hormonal birth control really all that? The Business of Birth Control, a new documentary from the creators of The Business of Being Born, takes a critical look at the connection between hormonal birth control and women’s health and liberation. Is the pill really a win for women?

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with filmmaker, Abby Epstein, and Holly Grigg-Spall, author of Sweetening the Pill: Or How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control and a producer of The Business of Birth Control, about why they made this film, what they learned, and why women should be more wary of getting on the pill.

Get 50% off your rental of The Business of Birth Control using the code FEMINISTCURRENT.

FEMINISTCURRENT and is valid for all screening options of The Business of Birth Control and The Business of Being Born. You can also get 50% off the Business of Birth Control Masterclass using the FEMINISTCURRENT coupon code.

Find The Business of Birth Control on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

Most feminists don't think of guns as means to empower women — rather, we tend to see them as a danger. Antonia Okafor Cover, the founder and president of EMPOWERED, sees things differently. Antonia is the National Director of Women's Outreach and a national spokesperson for Gun Owners of America. She founded EMPOWERED in order to educate, train, and equip young women in the use of firearms for protection on college campuses, as well as to help women advocate for their Second Amendment rights.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Antonia about her life, politics, and why she decided to take up arms.

Purchase tickets for "Women Leaving the Left: Breaking the political binary" at Eventbrite.

Earlier this month, Julie Jaman, an 80-year-old resident of Port Townsend, Washington, was banned from her local community pool. Her crime was to ask a male to leave the female change room. Just moments after she told Clementine Adams to “get out of here,” she was told by YMCA aquatics manager, Rowen DeLuna, “You’re discriminating and you can’t use the pool anymore and I’m calling the police.”

There was no signage indicating women and girls should be prepared to encounter males in their change room, though Julie was later informed that “Pride posters” should indicate as much.

Erin Hawkins, communications manager for the pool, claimed Julie was “permanently suspended from the Mountain View Pool due to her repeatedly violating our Code of Conduct, specifically, using disrespectful words or gestures toward YMCA staff or others; using abusive, harassing and/or obscene language or gestures toward YMCA staff or others.”

None of this is true.

Meghan Murphy speaks with Julie from her home in Port Townsend.

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In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Julie Jaman, the 80-year-old woman who was banned from her community pool for asking a man to leave the woman's change room.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Louise Perry, author of "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution," about how modern sexual and relationship norms hurt women.

The sexual revolution is generally understood to have been liberating for women — we could enjoy sex free from social consequences as well as outside the context of marriage and reproduction. Women no longer need to marry or have children if they don’t want to. They can have sex before marriage. They can have casual sex. They can divorce if they are unhappy in marriage. They can, in theory anyway, have sex "like men." This is what we are told, in any case. But is this a good thing?

Louise Perry doesn’t think so. Her book, "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution," asks whether all this liberation was actually, well, liberating for women.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with her about hookup culture, pornography, marriage, casual sex, and the pill. Louise Perry is a new mother, a columnist at New Statesman, and the Press Officer for the campaign group We Can’t Consent To This.

Her book is available now in the UK and scheduled to be released in the US in September.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Norwegian feminist Christina Ellingsen, who is being investigated under hate crime charges for saying that men can't be lesbians or mothers.

Norwegian feminist Christina Ellingsen is facing a prison sentence of up to three years for saying that men cannot be lesbians or mothers. Country contact for Women’s Declaration International (WDI) in Norway, Christina is being investigated under hate crime charges for tweets she made between February 2021 and January 2022, directed at Christine Marie Jentoft, a representative for Norwegian trans activist group, Foreningen (FRI), such as, “You are a man. You cannot be a mother.”

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Christina about the charges, feminism in Norway, and what the implications of these kinds of hate speech laws have.

Donate to support Christina's legal fund here.

In this episode, Meghan Murphy speak with Katherine Deves, the co-founder of Save Women's Sports Australasia, who ran as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Warringah in 2022.

Katherine Deves is a Sydney-based lawyer and mother of three daughters. In 2020, she realized no one was standing up for female athletes in Australia, so joined forces with women in New Zealand to co-found Save Women's Sport Australasia. Katherine gained national prominence during the 2022 Australian federal election when she ran, ultimately unsuccessfully, as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Warringah. She was attacked viciously for her efforts to defend girls' and women's sport, arguing against allowing male athletes to compete with and against females.

Meghan Murphy speaks with her over the phone from her home in Sydney.