Stories by Amanda Marcotte

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the blog Pandagon. She is the author of It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments.

10 Worst States To Be a Woman

Posted on: May 9, 2011, Source: AlterNet

State Republicans have introduced nearly 1,000 laws restricting women's reproductive health access. Here are 10 of the worst states to be a woman between puberty and menopause.

Do Red State Republicans Want More Divorces, STDs and Abortions? Their Policies Suggest "Yes"

Posted on: May 5, 2011, Source: AlterNet

At the state level, the GOP's attacks on reproductive rights may widen the already huge gulf between red and blue states in health, family stability, and education.

The Heartless Way Conservatives Treat Young Women Who Choose to Have Babies

Posted on: May 1, 2011, Source: AlterNet

If you get pregnant outside of their very narrow parameters of what's acceptable (middle class, married, white), conservatives simply want you to suffer for it.

The Authoritarian Agenda Behind Attacks on Contraception

Posted on: Apr 25, 2011, Source: RH Reality Check

As the right's crusade against abortion becomes a war on contraception, its viciously misogynistic agenda becomes ever more clear.

Now the GOP Is Going After Sexual Health and the Pill -- And the Battle Is Just Beginning

Posted on: Apr 13, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The war on contraception and general sexual health care is just heating up, and liberals best be prepared for more battles over contraception access and funding in the future.

10 States With the Most Shocking Anti-Woman Legislation

Posted on: Apr 6, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Anti-choicers are trying to destroy Roe v. Wade by a death from a thousand cuts.

Christian Intruders: New Law Will Force Women to Listen to Religious Lectures Before Getting an Abortion

Posted on: Mar 23, 2011, Source: AlterNet

South Dakota hit a triple, attacking reproductive rights, privacy rights and religious freedom with a law aimed at the state's one remaining abortion clinic.

Woman Arrested for Thinking About Abortion? How Insane 'Personhood' Laws Are a Direct Assault on Pregnant Women

Posted on: Mar 15, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Women are being assaulted by attempts to establish fetal rights.

What Kind of Sick Culture Blames an 11-Year-Old for Being Gang-Raped?

Posted on: Mar 10, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Recent coverage of a young girl's rape in Texas reveals our twisted assumptions about sexual violence.

Female Sexuality Still Terrifying to Conservative Lawmakers

Posted on: Mar 8, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The dusty old argument that female sexuality is a subversive force that needs to be strictly controlled is alive and well in the GOP.

GOP War on Women: If You Have Sex, Republicans Want to Pry In Your Private Parts

Posted on: Feb 28, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The GOP seems to think that a woman forsakes the right to basic privacy the second she makes the choice to have sex.

Will the GOP Blackmail Dems into Defunding Planned Parenthood?

Posted on: Feb 23, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Republicans hate the organized pro-choice world so much because they believe pro-choicers have the power to win elections.

GOP's Newest Anti-Choice Plans Would Deny Rape Victims Abortions

Posted on: Jan 31, 2011, Source: RH Reality Check

If you're forcibly impregnated along with being raped, then you have to get medical care. A new bill pushed by Republicans would deprive many rape victims of access to abortion.

How Flashers and Other Street Harassers Get Their Cues from Conservative Churches and Politicians

Posted on: Nov 30, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

Street harassers don't come by their utter disrespect for women's autonomy and humanity by accident.

Irrational Phallus Worship: The Missing Link That Helps the Tea Party Make Sense

Posted on: Nov 1, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

Guns, womb patrol, war and fear of emasculation. The Tea Party's motivation is not about any kind of freedom, it's about male anxiety of the Freudian variety.

Anti-Choicers Hide Their True Aim: Jailing Women Who Have Abortions

Posted on: Oct 21, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

Chances are that if an actual ban were to be instated, anti-choicers would eagerly seek to punish women caught having abortions.

Susan Faludi Tackles Feminist Generational Rift in Harper's -- Critic Marcotte Responds

Posted on: Sep 29, 2010, Source: Pandagon

Marcotte argues that the Harper's article, examining the generational battles in feminism has some unfair assumptions and biases against young women.

"Mad Men" Gets Abortion Right

Posted on: Aug 17, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

We're closer to 1965 than we care to admit, where women with resources still have access to abortions, but women without face a gauntlet of obstacles.

Christian Fundamentalists Fight for the Right to Discriminate Against People Whose Sex Lives They Don't Like

Posted on: Aug 3, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

The words "religious freedom," in the mouths of social conservatives, mean protecting the right of fundamentalist Christians to persecute others.

Here Comes Season 4 of Mad Men -- What Will Don Draper Do Without His Wedding Ring?

Posted on: Jul 23, 2010, Source: AlterNet

AMC's 'Mad Men' starts this weekend. Will Don Draper finally pursue the kind of relationship that makes him happy, and what about Betty Draper's remarriage?

Why Sarah Palin's Conservative Anti-Choice "Feminism" Is Total B.S.

Posted on: Jun 23, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

The argument underpinning anti-choice "feminism" is one based on the very un-feminist belief that women are simply too stupid to know their own minds.

How Dare Sarah Palin and Other Anti-Woman Conservatives Call Themselves Feminists

Posted on: Jun 14, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The new crop of conservative women will happily gobble up the rights won for them by others, while blocking efforts to improve the lives of all women.

How Christian Moralizing Drives Kids to Dangerous Sex

Posted on: Jun 8, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

Sexual shaming can dramatically increase the likelihood that an individual will look for excuses and rationalizations for not using contraception.

How the Latest Abstinence Findings Could Turn Into a Classic Sex-Ed 'Bait and Switch'

Posted on: Feb 9, 2010, Source: RH Reality Check

The religious right is rallying around a study that supposedly proves their legitimacy. In reality, the findings just demonstrate how important comprehensive sexual education is.

Anti-Choice Zealots' Latest Bizarre Ploy

Posted on: Sep 23, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

The one good thing about these extremists is that they help reveal the anti-woman, anti-sex agenda of the anti-choice movement.

"Abstinence Plus": Soothing to Parents, or Still Lying to Teens?

Posted on: Jul 18, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Will abstinence-only programs continue to get funding to misinform kids about sex?

For Many, Marriage Is Sexless, Boring and Oppressive: Time to Rethink the Institution?

Posted on: Jun 30, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Marriage is failing many, many people. Why do we still idealize it?

The Dangerous Lies of Anti-Choice Extremists

Posted on: Jun 4, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Every person who trots out vicious nonsense and misinformation about abortion played a part in the murder Dr. George Tiller.

"17 Again" Pushes Sexist Abstinence Message

Posted on: May 4, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

The message of the film is clear -- only bad people use condoms to have sex for pleasure.

Conservatives Love Porn -- Surprised? You Shouldn't Be

Posted on: Mar 11, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Lots of porn dovetails nicely with the conservative view on sex: that good girls dislike sex and bad girls who get down don't deserve respect.

Domestic Violence: "Why Doesn't She Leave?" Is the Wrong Question to Ask About Rihanna

Posted on: Mar 4, 2009, Source: Pandagon

Abusers often taunt their victims with just this question, because they grasp the psychological power and the self-esteem erosion behind it.

'Sex-Crazed' Evangelicals Talk Spanking and Anal Sex

Posted on: Feb 24, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

There is a growing movement of 'sex-positive' evangelicals, who bluntly talk about how to have better (married) sex.

If Women Do Have Lower Libidos, It Would Make Sense

Posted on: Feb 17, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

The word slut describes women, not men. We still live in a world where Good Girls Don't. No wonder many women have trouble being sexual.

Anti-Sex League Favors "Purity" Over Women's Health

Posted on: Jan 28, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Hostility to women perceived as "sexually loose" cripples efforts to protect women's rights and health.

Health Care Reform: Good for Patients, Good for Workers, Good for Women

Posted on: Jan 5, 2009, Source: RH Reality Check

Health care reform would give us the opportunity to create jobs that pay us back tenfold.

HIV: Still Not Just a "Gay Thing"

Posted on: Dec 14, 2008, Source: RH Reality Check

What does it take to kill a right-wing myth? Garlic, sunshine, wooden stakes, silver bullets?

Access to Birth Control, Under the Next President

Posted on: Oct 21, 2008, Source: RH Reality Check

What Obama and McCain's positions on contraception and health services would mean for Americans.

The "Tex-Mex" Theory of Contraception

Posted on: May 23, 2008, Source: RH Reality Check

We're lucky to have the Pill, but a wider variety of contraceptive options would do womankind good.

Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language

Posted on: Apr 6, 2008, Source: RH Reality Check

Describing immigrants in dehumanizing terms like "illegals" turns immigrant women into targets for sexist oppressors, from anti-choicers to rapists.

Anti-Choice and the Woo Factor

Posted on: Mar 27, 2008, Source: RH Reality Check

It's time for rational people to cast an eye of skepticism on the unscientific and wholly irrational claims of the anti-choice movement.

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