Whew, WisCon Part One
Ah, WisCon. Here's hoping I can write about it.
Sadly, I had been feeling some sort of weird intestinal distress Thursday, and it did not go away all weekend. No, not a bug, just some irritating sequelae of diet change and nerves. Here's an example. A small group of us went to one of the Nepalese restaurants Sunday evening, before the awards ceremony. Now, y'all know I love food. I LOVE FOOD. I love curry, I love lamb, I love tofu, etc, etc. I took a look at the menu, and thought about size portions, and how I'd likely be feeling afterwards, and I ordered a side dish of jasmine rice, with a delicate little glass of Reisling. (Yeah, I know Reisling is a dessert-ish wine, but I don't care, I like it.) And I could not finish it, I was so miserable. So the food portion of WisCon was not (with one exception), sadly, stellar.
Everything else was, though, either stellar or amusing or moving me to tears.
I got in around noonish on Friday, got my gear, got my room, double checked my panel stuff, and promptly passed out. I may be forgiven this as Thursday night (actually in the wee hours Friday morning) I had slept a grand total of NINETY MINUTES. So I was kind of wiped out. I did manage to rally and trot up the street to the Triangle Market to get myself a 12 pack of diet Coke. Thank God for in-room fridges.
I had a panel at 9 o'clock that night, so I did some prepping for that--writing out some notes to myself, points I might want to make. I was fairly nervous--this was my first panel EVER.
Here's the description: America Without Roe v Wade. It's not an alternate history novel: It's the the reality of America today for many women. The increasing number of anti-choice legislation has made abortions more difficult to obtain. As of 2010, 88% of US counties have no abortion provider. 97% of rural counties have none. Three states in the country have no abortin provider at all. Physicians have retired, been murdered, or have been legislated out of practice. Women are going to jail for miscarrying. For many women, the fact that Roe v. Wade is still on the books means nothing. Is it in the anti-choice folks' best interests that Roe v. Wade remain extant while they nibble away accountabilityt? How did things get to this point, and what can be done to continue to protect women's reproductive freedom?
Jacquelyn Gill, Holly McDowell, Jackie M, and I were on it. Attendance was really good. Jacquelyn had never moderated before, and I have to say she did a perfect job. She kept us on track and was courteous.
The four of us were all coming from slightly different areas in the abortion debate. Y'all know my history. Holly, we learned came from a southern baptist background and had originally been pro-life. Now she writes specfic and is particularly interested in reproductive themes. Jackie is an astronomer who comes from a pro-life Catholic background and who writes poetry with specfic themes. Jacquelyn Gill is also a scientist and is strongly engaged with feminist issues.
A few days before, Jacquelyn had emailed us an eye-opening work by Jeannie Ludlow, "Sometimes, It’s a Child and a Choice: Toward an Embodied Abortion Praxis," published in Feminist Formations, Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2008. In this paper, Ludlow examines current discourse in American politics with regards to abortion issues, language, narrative. Reading this piece and talking to a variety of people--not just staunchly leftist prochoice folks--is really convincing me that the abortion discussion in this country needs to change. I believe Jacquelyn felt the same way that I did. So after talking about our backgrounds, and about the current state of abortion rights in this country, we started talking about personal and public narratives. We talked about how the public narrative in media seems to go only one way, that abortion is no longer mentioned as an option. (So glaringly in Knocked Up, where a character actually says "I won't say the A-word, but it rhymes with shmashmortion.")
My favorite part was when we got to comments from the audience. Out of deference to privacy (and memory) I won't go into all that they said, but I will say there were no disenters in the audience with regards to abortion rights. One person brought up the idea that perhaps body autonomy might be a better term than reproductive rights, as an umbrella that includes the choice to have babies--so many women are judged not only for having abortions, but for having children. So we talked about that a little bit. Another passoinate young woman brought up the point of view of the child who grows up knowing they weren't wanted--that for the kid, the "happy ending" isn't always a happy ending, and who talks about that? She was a wee bit weepy, and some of us got a bit weepy with her. Hugs were promised.
One of the most important things to come out of this panel and discussion was the concept of a safe place to talk about abortion. people are hugely reluctant to talk about their abortion experiences. Those who do are targeted, sometimes quite viciously, with enormous consequences well past just some nasty comments from anonymous trolls. Ideas were bandied about, from a website to perhaps facebook badges to idicate that someone is a "safe person" to talk about abortion matters with. We'll see where this goes.
Sadly, I had been feeling some sort of weird intestinal distress Thursday, and it did not go away all weekend. No, not a bug, just some irritating sequelae of diet change and nerves. Here's an example. A small group of us went to one of the Nepalese restaurants Sunday evening, before the awards ceremony. Now, y'all know I love food. I LOVE FOOD. I love curry, I love lamb, I love tofu, etc, etc. I took a look at the menu, and thought about size portions, and how I'd likely be feeling afterwards, and I ordered a side dish of jasmine rice, with a delicate little glass of Reisling. (Yeah, I know Reisling is a dessert-ish wine, but I don't care, I like it.) And I could not finish it, I was so miserable. So the food portion of WisCon was not (with one exception), sadly, stellar.
Everything else was, though, either stellar or amusing or moving me to tears.
I got in around noonish on Friday, got my gear, got my room, double checked my panel stuff, and promptly passed out. I may be forgiven this as Thursday night (actually in the wee hours Friday morning) I had slept a grand total of NINETY MINUTES. So I was kind of wiped out. I did manage to rally and trot up the street to the Triangle Market to get myself a 12 pack of diet Coke. Thank God for in-room fridges.
I had a panel at 9 o'clock that night, so I did some prepping for that--writing out some notes to myself, points I might want to make. I was fairly nervous--this was my first panel EVER.
Here's the description: America Without Roe v Wade. It's not an alternate history novel: It's the the reality of America today for many women. The increasing number of anti-choice legislation has made abortions more difficult to obtain. As of 2010, 88% of US counties have no abortion provider. 97% of rural counties have none. Three states in the country have no abortin provider at all. Physicians have retired, been murdered, or have been legislated out of practice. Women are going to jail for miscarrying. For many women, the fact that Roe v. Wade is still on the books means nothing. Is it in the anti-choice folks' best interests that Roe v. Wade remain extant while they nibble away accountabilityt? How did things get to this point, and what can be done to continue to protect women's reproductive freedom?
Jacquelyn Gill, Holly McDowell, Jackie M, and I were on it. Attendance was really good. Jacquelyn had never moderated before, and I have to say she did a perfect job. She kept us on track and was courteous.
The four of us were all coming from slightly different areas in the abortion debate. Y'all know my history. Holly, we learned came from a southern baptist background and had originally been pro-life. Now she writes specfic and is particularly interested in reproductive themes. Jackie is an astronomer who comes from a pro-life Catholic background and who writes poetry with specfic themes. Jacquelyn Gill is also a scientist and is strongly engaged with feminist issues.
A few days before, Jacquelyn had emailed us an eye-opening work by Jeannie Ludlow, "Sometimes, It’s a Child and a Choice: Toward an Embodied Abortion Praxis," published in Feminist Formations, Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2008. In this paper, Ludlow examines current discourse in American politics with regards to abortion issues, language, narrative. Reading this piece and talking to a variety of people--not just staunchly leftist prochoice folks--is really convincing me that the abortion discussion in this country needs to change. I believe Jacquelyn felt the same way that I did. So after talking about our backgrounds, and about the current state of abortion rights in this country, we started talking about personal and public narratives. We talked about how the public narrative in media seems to go only one way, that abortion is no longer mentioned as an option. (So glaringly in Knocked Up, where a character actually says "I won't say the A-word, but it rhymes with shmashmortion.")
My favorite part was when we got to comments from the audience. Out of deference to privacy (and memory) I won't go into all that they said, but I will say there were no disenters in the audience with regards to abortion rights. One person brought up the idea that perhaps body autonomy might be a better term than reproductive rights, as an umbrella that includes the choice to have babies--so many women are judged not only for having abortions, but for having children. So we talked about that a little bit. Another passoinate young woman brought up the point of view of the child who grows up knowing they weren't wanted--that for the kid, the "happy ending" isn't always a happy ending, and who talks about that? She was a wee bit weepy, and some of us got a bit weepy with her. Hugs were promised.
One of the most important things to come out of this panel and discussion was the concept of a safe place to talk about abortion. people are hugely reluctant to talk about their abortion experiences. Those who do are targeted, sometimes quite viciously, with enormous consequences well past just some nasty comments from anonymous trolls. Ideas were bandied about, from a website to perhaps facebook badges to idicate that someone is a "safe person" to talk about abortion matters with. We'll see where this goes.