February 2010

February 26th 2010

Womb Service — Is It Really Okay to Skip Periods?

- Provider Perspective

A number of birth control methods hold the promise of lighter periods, fewer periods, or none at all, namely the Mirena intrauterine device, the Depo Provera shot, the single-rod implant Implanon, or continuous use of the pill or NuvaRing. To some of us, the idea of effective contraception and no periods sounds like menstrual nirvana. But for others there is a niggling worry: is it really okay to skip periods?

February 26th 2010

Stefanie Sees Everything – Or At Least Everyone

- Stefanie

It’s time for another story from Lydia. She had taught me to both use the force and resist the dark side. She is my blogging Yoda.

Before you read this story you should know a couple things.

1) My life is very awkward- but I’m pretty sure you already knew that.
2) I run into people I know everywhere. Want me to prove it? I ran into a friend from camp in Ireland, a guy from college in Prague, and a friend from California at an airport in Washington, DC.
3) There is a pretty good chance we know someone in common.

So without further ado.

I Spy

"Oh my god," began Stefanie, "I think I went on a date with that guy."

February 24th 2010

Circle Circle, Dot Dot – Cooties, Gender, and Building Better Relationships

- Brad Perry

Think back to kindergarten. How did girls and boys relate? My own experience is that, overall, us boys got along pretty well with the girls in our classes. The only memorable rift between girls and boys at that age was the dreaded, omnipresent threat of “cooties” - a mythical condition transmitted across genders via touch, but easily cured by tracing two circles and two dots on the forearm of the infected individual (a “cootie-shot” for those of you not familiar with this epidemic). Cooties were basically a way to upgrade games of tag with a richer, zanier context of infectious disease. Cooties were also understood by both boys and girls to be a fantasy – something we created to make recess a bit more interesting.

February 22nd 2010

Dating Violence: Not Just “Their” Problem

- Laura Sessions Stepp

Last week, the University of Oregon’s highly-touted running back, LaMichael James, was charged with strangling, assaulting and harassing his girlfriend.

Misdemeanor charges.

That’s all?

Pushed her down in a public parking lot.

Didn’t anyone see it?

We don’t know. Because from what I can tell from news clips and blogs, no reporter asked.

February 19th 2010

I Should’ve Known When He Said Latitudinarians…

- Stefanie

The other night I received a call from Sunshine Girl.

Me: “How was your date?”

Sunshine Girl: “Uhhh. . .it. . .was. . .good.”

Me: “Are you okay? When I sent you the ‘first date check-in text’ you said everything was fine.”

Note: As I have mentioned before, sometimes when a girl is going out on a first date one of her friends will text or call an hour in to see on how it is going. If it’s going well, she will ignore it. If it’s not going well she will answer the call or text and learn there is some kind of emergency and that she needs to leave right away.

Sunshine Girl: “I’m just confused.”

Me: “Why?”

February 16th 2010

Fantasy Match-Up: Delilah Rene and Hannah Seligson

- Laura Sessions Stepp

I’d pay good money to see Delilah Rene, 50, and Hannah Seligson, 25, sit down over a bottle of Bordeaux and talk about love. Here’s why:

Delilah, whose nightly radio show by the same name is heard by 8 million listeners a week, calls herself the “Queen of Sappy Love Songs.” Her world, said Ellen McCarthy in last week’s Washington Post, is “a schmaltzy, airbrushed place where love is all that matters….”

February 16th 2010

Teen Mom, 20s Dad

- Lauren Mann

MTV’s Teen Mom has followed four of the original 16 & Pregnant girls during their first year as mothers, welcoming an eager audience into their lives to witness the challenges they face as young parents. We’ve seen sacrifices on the part of the girls--from earning a high school diploma to attending college to having a social life--as well as the impact that having a child has had on their relationships with friends and family. But those girls don’t get pregnant on their own; what about the dads?

February 12th 2010

Well...It's the Thought That Counts...

- Stefanie

I was snowed in at my apartment for a week (just emerged today). This gave me a chance to cross some movies off of my “watch when your roommate is gone so she doesn’t mock you” list. This is code for bad romantic comedies. I’ve noticed one major theme in all of them: the grand gesture. In the movies, the grand gesture is always followed up by “they lived happily ever after.” But in real life, the grand gesture can go horribly wrong and be downright awkward.

Exhibit A (and the only one you’ll be seeing here): Hippie Chick and The Overachiever.

February 8th 2010

Science and Sense in the Abstinence Wars

- Laura Sessions Stepp

News organizations carried a story last week about a successful, experimental sex ed curriculum focused on abstinence. What follows is my blog post about the study, which ran in The Huffington Post, and a short sample of reaction to the post.

*****

When I read the lead paragraph of last week’s news story on the success of an experimental, abstinence-only sex ed curriculum, my first thought was: “Yes, but…”

February 5th 2010

What's a Girl Got to Do to Get Birth Control?

- Stefanie

The other night I was having dinner with Polly Pocket.

Me: “Sorry I didn’t call you back last night. I was on my way to a birthday party.”

Polly Pocket: “No problem. I was just calling to vent anyway.”

Me: “Is everything okay?”

Polly Pocket: “I’m in a fight with the pharmacy and my lady doctor for holding my birth control hostage.”

“Have you called in the FBI negotiator?” I giggled.

Polly Pocket: “We are not in the joking place about this.”

Me: “Oh, sorry. Okay, tell me what happened.”

The story goes like this: