I am currently pregnant after dealing with years of infertility. I heard the heartbeat for the first time about a month ago. It was reassuring but if I go to 20 week scan and something is wrong I will get an abortion. These people are insane.

It is the easiest way to appeal to their Christian base. It cost them nothing and it’s an issue conservatives are really stuck on. If you ask my conservative relatives what their number one issue is, they will say abortion, also because it cost them nothing and allows them to bask in their own self-righteousness. In…

Sooooooooo, questions: if I have an ultrasound at six weeks and there’s the “heartbeat” but I later miscarry, will I be tried for a crime? Will my OB be allowed to do a D&C? Or do I just die?

a million times. I faced a rude awakening in my last relationship when I broached the notion that if I was going to give birth to a child it would have my name. I am not with him anymore.

When I re-upped through training as a sexual assault crisis advocate, all the trainees were asked to go around the circle and say why they were involved. Most were much younger than I, and majored in social work or the like. They had various reasons, such as wanting to make a positive impact on our area, a friend or…

My parents came to the agreement that my mom would name girls, and my dad would name any boys. I was their last daughter, 3 of 3, so my mom let my dad name me, since she knew she was done and it was his last chance. I ended up with the best name, my sisters still will say how jealous they are of my name, I'm the only…

Mr. Inq relayed a story to me from during one of our moving (like, moving into a new house) experiences lately. He and his dad were at the new place (I was helping with patching nail holes and painting at the old place), and boxes and such were marked for what floor they'd be on since it's a three story townhouse. His…

There's also Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, with the lineage and name passing through the women (the Mayfairs) only...the men are mostly insignificant.

I might have slightly pissed my husband off years ago when I told him that since I will be gestating the fetus and breastfeeding it, all names will get final approval through me, and that I won't name a kid something I don't actually like for the sake of "tradition" or being polite. He gets it, but still. Tough pill…

I'm so insulated by my own relationship sometimes, that when I hear about the dynamic between other couples, I am often rendered speechless.....a haircut?? Really??

I feel like you say that as if it's a bad thing. If society at large says "You can't do X because you're a woman," then many women will just say "Fuck you, I can do X if I want to." That's human nature. The fact that women have something to be contrary in response to is really the heart of the issue. "You can't do…

This is a conversation I regret not having with my husband before Cheeze Slice was born. I hadn't really gotten into the feminist perspective as much, and thus went along with the status quo. I still haven't changed my name, though. First, out of laziness, and now out of principle.

My girlfriend and I absolutely hate the notion of needing "permission" from one another. One of her friends said to her after she got a new tattoo (I paid for it as a birthday gift) that her boyfriend would never let her get one, and nice of a guy I was for "allowing" her to get inked. I am certain I am a good…

if I can conceive, carry, and deliver a baby ... allowing him to participate in naming it is a courtesy I'm extending. I don't need his permission to do anything.

I wanted to say something longer or more emphatic. When the in-laws (or, God forbid, my parents) say something about how he won't "let" me do something, I feel the overwhelming need to show everyone that, if I can conceive, carry, and deliver a baby ... allowing him to participate in naming it is a courtesy I'm…

I remember reading a book set in a matriarchal society where one character commented to a foreigner, "We trace lineage through the mother's side. One can never be certain who the father is." It was a throw-away line, but it's stuck with me for decades.

That being said, I kept my name when I got married because I'm…

I once had a boyfriend who FREAKED OUT at my saying that I would want our kids to have hyphenated names. Like, really flipped his shit. Because he "always thought they would have HIS name because they were HIS kids." Remarkably, this same boyfriend liked to claim that he was a feminist. He was in point of fact a huge…

Yes! This one pisses me off no end. I was born with my surname; so was my father. So how come it's his name for him, but for me it's somehow still 'his' name?

what gets me is that people say her husband "allowed" her to do it. Fuck that noise. It is a decision you should make together, and decide what is best for both of you. But to insinuate that the husband has to have the final say, that he "allows" it? Fuck. If my boyfriend said he "forbid it" for our kid to have my…

I'll give my kids a last name when they fucking earn a last name.