Letters to the Editor: Joan Michel

Letters to the Editor: Joan Michel

Marge Piercy Pens Poem on Heroines for New Issue

It’s a great story, but I’m bothered by the fact that women …. particularly feminists …….are still using the word “heroines.” The “ine,” the “ess” and other such attachments to a word to make it be “female” are wrong wrong wrong, Those attachments are diminutives, subsets of the word, defining such as heroine as “a female hero.” Aside from in this case Hero being a woman (Leander the man), why are we still being defined as subsets of men? I’m cc-ing Rosalie Maggio on this because she’s written marvelous books on the subject of sexist vocabulary and I’m hoping we can get the word out…. maybe she’d write an article on the subject …. We’ve won lots of battles and lost a few. Language may just be our last uncharted frontier. best wishes and thanks for such an excellent publication.

Posted by: Joan Michel

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Merle Hoffman's Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

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“Merle Hoffman has always known that in a democracy, we each have decision-making power over the fate of our own bodies. She is a national hero for us all.” —Gloria Steinem

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade and a country divided, Merle Hoffman, a pioneer in the pro-choice movement and women’s healthcare, offers an unapologetic and authoritative take on abortion calling it “the front line and the bottom line of women’s freedom and liberty.” 

Merle Hoffman has been at the forefront of the reproductive freedom movement since the 1970s. Three years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion through Roe v. Wade, she helped to establish one of the United States’ first abortion centers in Flushing, Queens, and later went on to found Choices, one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities. For the last five decades, Hoffman has been a steadfast warrior and fierce advocate for every woman’s right to choose when and whether or not to be a mother.