Gardasil and Women’s Experience

It seems that the vaccination against HPV, Gardasil may have contributed to paralysis in one 13-year-old girl and has had a number of complaints filed against it (from here and here).

Gardasil has faced a great deal of resistance (most vocally from religious groups – it turns the teenage girls promiscuous!), but despite has been approved by the FDA.

The reaction from here is that this is primarily an attack on women’s sexual health and freedom. It’s an attempt to spread fear.

However, in the context medicine regulating and shaping women’s reproduction it’s hardly unusual for procedures to be done for ‘women’s good’ without adequate testing and fully informed choice (examples include forced sterilisation, early IUDs, Depo-Provera and Norplant amongst others).

Futhermore, it is usually disadvantaged women such as disabled, poor or minority women that are targeted ‘for their own good’ and in clinical trials.  (h/t blackamazon). The price of sexual freedom for a few women came at the cost to these groups.

“Britain’s Missing Top Model”

 

Stoat posted on a beauty pageant in Angola with  contestants who were victims of landmines.  A similar idea appears to have gotten a lot of attention for BBC3.  Let me strongly recommend the post at our friends, What Sorts of People.  There’s a video, so one gets an idea of what is happening.  I think mine is the only comment so far, and the post certainly deserves more discussion.

Do female academics have fewer kids?

This study (of anthropologists) suggests that they do– as compared to women in other professions with similar training times. Many interesting puzzles to be found in the data, but I’ll never get this book written if I get started on them here! (Thanks, Sally!)