One of my final women’s studies courses was a topics in feminist health seminar on embodiment. This theme was interpreted in a vast number of ways over the course of the semester, during which we read and discussed books and articles all of which dealt in some way with the body. Among them were books like Our Bodies Ourselves, Feminist Queer Crip by Alison Kafer, Depression: a public feeling by Ann Cvetkovich, Blush: faces of shame by Elspeth Probyn, and many others. Throughout the course, we continuously drew connections between the texts we were reading and Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), specifically the way in which it compels readers to embody their experiences. The final assignment in this class was to draw on some of the theories put forth by authors we had discussed and to create a final project that demonstrated what kinds of effects the motivation and protocol that went into creating OBOS would have today.
For this project, I drew on Michelle Murphy’s book Seizing the Means of Reproduction which is concerned largely with the idea of feminist self help, specifically as it occurred in the late 20th century. Inspired by the movement and culture of feminist self-help, I began to envision what (a version of) a feminist self-help center would look like on the Hobart and William Smith campus. I chose to present it as a kind of poster presentation in the hopes that it could perhaps one day be helpful to (or even taken up by) someone with a similar vision on the campus. It includes a description of the impetus for the project, my general vision for the geography and function of the space, as well as the impact I believe it would have on the HWS student community.
For this project, I drew on Michelle Murphy’s book Seizing the Means of Reproduction which is concerned largely with the idea of feminist self help, specifically as it occurred in the late 20th century. Inspired by the movement and culture of feminist self-help, I began to envision what (a version of) a feminist self-help center would look like on the Hobart and William Smith campus. I chose to present it as a kind of poster presentation in the hopes that it could perhaps one day be helpful to (or even taken up by) someone with a similar vision on the campus. It includes a description of the impetus for the project, my general vision for the geography and function of the space, as well as the impact I believe it would have on the HWS student community.