Bodies

Our Skin Does Not Protect Us from the Climate Crisis

I used to think the border between me and the world was formidable, unyielding. I didn’t yet realize the ways that the earth was acting on my body.

In Writing and Skating, It Hurts More Never to Try At All

Because I tolerated constant injury, I’m better than I ever was.

Dec 12, 2022
Menopause Is More Than Just a Punchline

Menopause is still treated more like a throwaway joke than an experience that deserves to be explored with any kind of artistic or emotional depth.

Nov 22, 2022
Divining New Models of Femininity from the Tarot

There are many ways to be a woman, many ways to be a mother, many ways to be a whore.

Oct 12, 2022
The Two Sides of American Health Care

This dichotomy in American health care is well-known to patients with chronic illness.

Aug 29, 2022
Buying My Girlhood Is Putting Me In Debt

Each time I used my credit card, I rationalized my ballooning debt by imagining a future in which I was satisfied with my transition.

Aug 01, 2022
I Thought I’d Never Find Love After My Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosis

When you love someone with dissociative identity disorder, you are not building one healthy relationship—you are building many.

Jul 19, 2022
The Price of Admission for Fat Bodies

Anyone who has lost and subsequently gained weight back can tell you that you will be treated differently in real, material ways. The difference is at once alluring and painful.

Jul 14, 2022
Medical Care Needs More Space for Patient Narratives

I want medicine to meet me where I am, not where it wants me to be.

Getting Famous On Tumblr Ruined My Relationship to My Body

In the time since being an active Tumblr user, I’ve seen our cultural standards for what is “desirable” shift so much.

May 17, 2022
Little Girls Get to Be Ingénues—What About Big Girls?

Make me thin, I told God. Make me pretty. I added to the list: Make me Annie.

Learning to Live in a Body That Fights Itself

I have spent most of my life hating the fact of having a body. It makes sense that my body would eventually start to hate me back.

Apr 05, 2022
On Playing Risk and Studying the Maps of Colonialism

Soon after I bought the game, I began to obsess over another map, one that also didn’t fully exist.

Mar 31, 2022
In the US Health Care System, You’re Not a Patient. You’re a Consumer

On some level I know the system is designed to break me down, but I feel guilty because I am good at letting it.

Mar 28, 2022
All the Things I’ve Loved to Death

Am I ever going to know where I hope to escape to? I understand that I’m trying escape from reality, but I’m still not clear on what the destination is.

Jan 25, 2022
Scarlight

I wanted one too, from the very beginning. I don’t have any scars, I insisted. I don’t have anything to show for it.

After Childbirth and Prolapse, I Turned to Weight Lifting

As a mother, feeling strong requires different abilities than the ones I had before becoming a parent.

Jan 05, 2022
Giving My Plants—And Myself—Just Enough Care

The Lexapro were small and white; the generic was free under my insurance. More expensive were the plants.

Nov 15, 2021
Searching for a Safe Place to Swim

The idea that a place exists where trans people are free to be in and around the water fills me with joy.

Oct 14, 2021
Going from Other to Local in Mumbai

I was certain my appearance would mask my secret: that I didn’t belong.

Sep 29, 2021