美国国家公共电台 NPR Feminist Health Guide 'Our Bodies, Ourselves' Will Stop Publishing

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LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

At some point somewhere, you or a woman you know has likely looked through a copy of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." The book was revolutionary when it was first published in the early 1970s. It taught women about their own reproductive systems at a time when talking frankly¹ about sex was considered unladylike. Now "Our Bodies, Ourselves" has announced it's ceasing publication. NPR's Neda Ulaby tells us why.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE²: You could have seen this coming. After all, we're talking about a book and a tiny not-for-profit devoted³ to women's health.

JULIE CHILDERS: We've never had a big budget.

ULABY: Julie Childers is the executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves.

CHILDERS: It became harder and harder to make ends meet, harder and harder to ask staff to do the work that was required to publish this amazing book.

ULABY: The book sprang from consciousness-raising courses held by feminists⁴ in Boston about then-taboo topics like masturbation and birth control, which, at the time, was illegal for unmarried women in Massachusetts.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "SHE'S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE'S ANGRY")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I remember that after the first session...

ULABY: The original members of the Boston Women's Health Collective in a documentary called "She's Beautiful When She's Angry."

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "SHE'S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE'S ANGRY")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Then we said this is going to become a book. We each took the subject that most involved us personally.

ULABY: Those topics became chapters on nutrition, pregnancy⁵, menopause, sexual identity. Verna Brocks (ph) ran across a copy of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" at a Detroit hospital in the 1970s.

VERNA BROCKS: At that time, I worked for General Motors - clerical person.

ULABY: She took a copy with her to work. And at lunchtime, she says, she and her female co-workers would pore over the book and talk about what they learned.

BROCKS: I can't believe I just learned about this, and here I am already with children. The make-up of the woman's body - you know, those things that your mother forgot to tell you.

ULABY: Or that maybe your mother didn't know. Brock said before she read "Our Bodies, Ourselves," she never knew she could ask a doctor questions.

BROCKS: But with the book in hand, I mean, that book was a godsend.

ULABY: One of the founders⁶ of Our Bodies Ourselves told me that women have thanked her over the years for explaining the signs of an ectopic pregnancy, which can kill you if not properly diagnosed. But women's well-being⁷ in "Our Bodies, Ourselves" is broadly defined. Jessica Halem got a copy in the 1980s from her mother.

JESSICA HALEM: So it's, like, one of those books where you literally⁸ leaf through it and discover things about yourself you didn't even know.

ULABY: Like what?

HALEM: Like the clitoris.

ULABY: Halem took her copy to college and passed it around until it fell apart. Now she advises students at Harvard Medical School. There's nothing else, she says, like "Our Bodies, Ourselves'" friendly, authoritative⁹ tone that mixes real anecdotes¹⁰ with professionally vetted¹¹ facts. The book has sold more than 4 million copies, been updated eight times and translated into 31 languages from Polish...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Polish).

ULABY: ...To Vietnamese.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Vietnamese).

ULABY: And maybe now is the time to stop, says Dr. Paula Johnson.

PAULA JOHNSON: I applaud them.

ULABY: Johnson's the president of Wellesley College in Massachusetts and an advisor¹² for Our Bodies Ourselves. She says the organization plans to scale down and collaborate¹³ more with other groups.

JOHNSON: They have had an enormous impact. And they have made an active decision not to replicate¹⁴ but to refocus their work.

ULABY: Before the internet, "Our Bodies, Ourselves" was someplace to find out information that was not then common knowledge. Now it's easy to find trustworthy websites that teach about women's health, reproductive options and sexual identity. And that, says Johnson, is "Our Bodies, Ourselves'" direct legacy¹⁵. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.