I didn’t read the linked article so maybe I’m missing something, but... foreskin? Wat? If this is indeed a bar mitzvah, and not a brit milah, I’m not sure what a foreskin has to do with anything. But why am I questioning? I think I’ll just embrace this as a thing that has happened in order to preserve my sanity.

You seem to have been sufficiently piled onto by the commentariat, but holy shit, it’s almost as if you didn’t read the article.

This is so true, and so bizarre. It reminds me of the whole Taylor Swift/Apple Music controversy - not that Taylor herself is some kind of starving artist, but there was an obvious sentiment from so many people that she shouldn’t be upset about essentially providing her music for free. Musicians and actors provide a…

Yes, thank you! That’s the problem with another of their tactics, the tried-and-true “what if YOUR MOM had aborted YOU?!?!” They don’t seem to understand that this is equivalent to asking, “What if your parents had used BC?”, or, “What if your mom had a migraine and they didn’t have sex that one time?”, or even, “What…

That’s actually an interesting question - if it is a common attitude, we certainly don’t hear about it as much as we hear about “turning” lesbians. Of course, in real life, there’s performative bisexuality (for lack of a better description), where sex between women is treated as something that’s done for men’s viewing…

That must be so frustrating. I can’t imagine having people constantly make false assumptions about my orientation. I hope having an open relationship is working out well otherwise, though! It’s not my jam, but I have a lot of respect for people who make that work in a society that tries so hard to wedge everyone into…

Oh, yeah, I was using that example specifically because I know how common it is. :( Which is awful. I just tend to assume that anyone I talk to on Jez (except trolls of course) is better than that.

Yeah, this seems well-intentioned, but no. I don’t think you’d ever dream of telling a lesbian that the right dick will ‘turn her straight’ (even just sex-wise, not relationship-wise), so I’m not sure how it’s different to turn around and tell straight women that their sexual preferences are somehow wrong. If you’re…

This is what I hate *so much* about all these people who are pro-life activists because of some variation on “I could have been aborted”. Especially those conceived through rape. Somehow the fact that their mother was either bullied/cornered into carrying to term, or had a caring support system that gave her the…

Legal abortions are extremely difficult to obtain in Northern Ireland; they are only permitted in the case of life endangerment

Yeah! I wish they could have done Juno more justice by giving her a more measured, thought-out reason to carry to term. Ellen Page has talked about how she’s pro-choice and the movie just represents one of many legitimate choices, which I respect, but come on. The fingernails scene was infantilizing and ripped from…

“Does that sound like choice?” This fucking argument, though! Do they honestly believe that women are being forcibly strapped down and subjected to abortions against their will every time they go into a Planned Parenthood? (With, I guess, 10% of them being turned away so it doesn’t look *too* suspicious? What even is…

That’s the perfect illustration of how ridiculous those arguments are. The troubling thing is that I’m not sure an anti-choicer would even make the connection. Playing “what if” with people’s births doesn’t lead to any logical conclusions, but I guess when fetuses are involved, logic goes out the window.

How awful to have to deal with that from your own family. It really does show you how screwed we are; if people can’t even muster basic compassion for their own family members, how do we get them to care about the struggles of people they’ve never met? And good on your mom. To go to such measures for a baby that isn’t…

Precisely. You know they don’t have any good points when all their arguments revolve around hypothetical births, hypothetical abortions, and all the hypothetical people who would or would not have been born under hypothetical circumstances. You can’t rely completely on “what if” scenarios! Like you said, having an…

YES, thank you. Nothing gets me more than “what if your mom had aborted you? Huh? What then?” Um, if my mom had aborted me, then I would never have existed. That’s like asking, “What if your parents had decided not to have sex on the night you were conceived?” Then I wouldn’t be here! Big fucking deal! And anyway, if…

Wow. The fact that somebody could meet you, look you in the eye, (assuming these conversations weren’t over the Internet) and not only still have no problem with forcing you to die in childbirth, but actually SAYING IT to your face, is making me rethink my last ounce of faith in humanity. Everything you’ve said here…

I agree. It really is terrifying to see the contempt some anti-choicers hold for women; you get those that try to pretend they care about women, but then there are those who drop the facade and outright say that they don’t care if women die from unsafe, illegal abortions - that’s what those sluts get for murdering…

That would be Gerri Santoro, and the photograph is absolutely horrific. It became a symbol of the pro-choice movement when it was published in the 70s, and honestly, I think we need to start bringing it out again. It might help anti-choice politicians feel the tiniest flicker of empathy for the women whose bodily…

Yes, exactly! Anti-choicers don’t seem to care that banning abortion is just sweeping a whole lot of underlying problems under the rug. Besides the small failure rate of birth control, why do we have abortions? Because of poverty, because of our shameful state of parental leave and childcare, because of misinformation…