Allison Yarrow
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Journalist and author of Birth Control and 90s Bitch. Wide awake. Unless napping.
Articles by Allison Yarrow
No duh! These audiobooks of and about the 1990s are the bomb
We're only now reaching a point far enough past the 1990s to have the context to understand how the era shaped our world. The '90s were a pivotal decade, full of big changes in technology, politics, entertainment, fashion, and literature. One of the best ways to retrospectively understand the decade, and its lasting impact on everyone who lived through it, is with a bit of listening. Bestselling books from the 1990s and narratives analyzing the time period offer fresh perspective and insight.
Our broken birthing system
Childbirth in the United States is broken. This is not merely an opinion, and the data keep adding up. The U.S. maternal mortality rate, already the highest in the developed world, has more than doubled in two decades, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 1 in 5 women experienced mistreatment in their maternity care.
The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America
H. Luke Shaefer is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. He also directs Poverty Solutions, a university-wide initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty. Kathryn Edin is the William Church Osborn Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America
H. Luke Shaefer is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. He also directs Poverty Solutions, a university-wide initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty. Kathryn Edin is the William Church Osborn Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
The Story of a Home Birth Original
Miriam and my husband whispered, as they began to fumble with the tub. I said nothing, though it was getting to be too late to move. Cori, my doula, arrived as I was in the middle of a contraction. The only illumination in the room was a string of tiny white lights. My friend Gwen, a filmmaker and birth photographer, snaked them into the inflated birth tub, expecting me to be there. By the time the tub had been inflated and filled with water, getting into it was impossible.
Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood
Allison Yarrow is an award-winning journalist and speaker. She was a National Magazine Award Finalist, a TED resident, a producer at NBC News and Vice, and a reporter and editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Below, Allison shares 5 key insights from her new book, Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood. Listen to the audio version—read by Allison herself—in the Next Big Idea App.
Why I Wrote the Book: Birth Control
Before becoming a mom, I wondered what birth was like. I wanted to know what actually happened in the body during labor, during a contraction, what it felt like to dive inside yourself and to push a baby out. Providers shared only the tests to take, what not to eat, and how to pack the hospital bag. Friends and strangers supplied what I actually hungered to know. One tore badly because her epidural was so strong that she couldn’t feel herself straining to push.
Why Can’t I Stop Reading Birth Stories?
Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. In this article: Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. Birth Stories Medical •5 seasons Why Can’t I Stop Reading Birth Stories?Art Nahpro/Paul Jackson "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." I’m obsessed with birth stories, but for so common an act, they’re hard to come by, which is telling in and of itself.
How Extended Breastfeeding Can Benefit Mothers Too
I’m not supposed to say that I breastfeed my 3-year-old because I like it. I’m supposed to say he needs it, he won’t quit. That I’m surrendering my body and time on the altar of attentive, attached motherhood. He enjoys it too, of course. He usually asks. I rarely offer. We do it a couple of times a day. More on weekends or when he’s hurt, sick, or just wants to. It also feels good. To me. It eases my anxiety. It is sentimental, sensory, and sensual. It fills me with love.
Why Are So Many Babies Born Via C-Section?
Picture the magic trick that features a man, a woman, a long box, and blades. She’s inside, but the audience can only see the crown of her head, hair cascading down. The magician inserts the blades through the box at her chest and stomach. Then he pushes the boxes apart. This is how LaToya Jordan describes the birth of her daughter in the spring of 2012. Lying in the box, chopped into thirds, her midsection extracted from the rest of her.
Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood
FORMAT Hardcover$30.00$27.90(English) Buy new or used from an indie through our partner Biblio: Price Condition Seller Description This "definitive book about the trauma and tragedy of the American childbirth experience" (Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her) exposes the dangerous misogyny that permeates pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood. Modern medicine should make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all.
Birth Control: A Reading List
These works of nonfiction and fiction were valuable resources while I researched and wrote Birth Control, and I recommend them to anyone who wants to better understand how birth and becoming a parent in America is broken and how we can fix it.
Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood|Hardcover
A shocking, revelatory account of the dangerous misogyny that permeates pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood in America Why are women more likely to die from pregnancy and birth in America than in any other developed nation? Why do more than a third of birthing people describe their experiences as traumatic? In Birth Control, award-winning journalist Allison Yarrow reveals the grim answer: sexism.
Birth Control
About the Author Allison Yarrow is an award-winning journalist, speaker, and author of 90s Bitch,a finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club book award. She was a National Magazine Award Finalist, a TED resident, a producer at NBC News and Vice, a reporter and editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and her writing and commentary have appeared in many publications. Learn more about this author
Mayor, unmask the little ones now: Stop forcing preschoolers to wear face coverings
As nearly a million New York City kindergarten-through-12th-grade kids unmask at school for the first time in nearly two years, livid, bone-tired parents gathered at City Hall to protest the city’s disparity-riddled new COVID policies yesterday. The ones permitting unvaccinated, unmasked adults to drink in bars while mandating toddlers mask in day-long preschool. My friends are posting photos of their joyful kids unmasked as if it’s the first day of school all over again.
'Pam & Tommy' re-examines the sex tape scandal through a different lens
This article contains minor spoilers. The first time viewers see actor Lily James as Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s new series “Pam & Tommy,” she is adorned in a spaghetti strap black dress, with her signature blonde curls tied in a perfectly tousled updo. In the scene, James' Anderson, clad with her infectious smile, is being interviewed by "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, who proclaims that he must ask her about her stolen sex tape with then-husband Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan).
Support for breastfeeding moms is already abysmal. The pandemic is making it worse.
After giving birth in Brooklyn in 2015, before I had even eaten, I phoned the hospital lactation consultant to beg for help feeding my daughter. She never called back or came, so I attended her weekly class. It consisted of bedraggled women wheeling their infants into a converted closet to watch a video. In it, a woman stroked her breast a couple of times and milk gushed out like Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, the only fluids exiting my body were the tears drenching my face.
Support for breastfeeding moms is already abysmal. The pandemic is making it worse.
After giving birth in Brooklyn in 2015, before I had even eaten, I phoned the hospital lactation consultant to beg for help feeding my daughter. She never called back or came, so I attended her weekly class. It consisted of bedraggled women wheeling their infants into a converted closet to watch a video. In it, a woman stroked her breast a couple of times and milk gushed out like Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, the only fluids exiting my body were the tears drenching my face.
Support for breastfeeding moms is already abysmal. The pandemic is making it worse.
Moms should know that it is OK to ask for help if they are struggling to breastfeed. After giving birth in Brooklyn in 2015, before I had even eaten, I phoned the hospital lactation consultant to beg for help feeding my daughter. She never called back or came, so I attended her weekly class. It consisted of bedraggled women wheeling their infants into a converted closet to watch a video. In it, a woman stroked her breast a couple of times and milk gushed out like Niagara Falls.
Cognitive labour of domestic life still burdens the modern career woman: Lee Ann Thevenet
AUCKLAND – There was no dearth of a female role model in the life of Lee Ann Thevenet while growing up in New Zealand. No wonder then, that she thought she could be anything she desired – from a film director to a fashion designer to a forensic scientist. She is currently the country manager for Australia and New Zealand at multinational market research firm Mintel. Her aspirations, however, were different from most people’s.
It's a scary time to have a baby in a hospital. Home births need to be more accessible to pregnant women., Business Insider
caption Due to coronavirus risks, many pregnant women are considering giving birth outside of a hospital. source Getty Giving birth at a hospital amid a pandemic means a new mother, her partner, and baby could be at risk of developing the coronavirus. Many laboring women may also have to go through the process alone, since some hospitals have banned support people or limit the amount of time they can spend there.
It's a scary time to have a baby in a hospital. Home births need to be more accessible to pregnant women., Business Insider
caption Due to coronavirus risks, many pregnant women are considering giving birth outside of a hospital. source Getty Giving birth at a hospital amid a pandemic means a new mother, her partner, and baby could be at risk of developing the coronavirus. Many laboring women may also have to go through the process alone, since some hospitals have banned support people or limit the amount of time they can spend there.
It's a scary time to have a baby in a hospital. Home births need to be more accessible to pregnant women.
GettyDue to coronavirus risks, many pregnant women are considering giving birth outside of a hospital. Giving birth at a hospital amid a pandemic means a new mother, her partner, and baby could be at risk of developing the coronavirus. Many laboring women may also have to go through the process alone, since some hospitals have banned support people or limit the amount of time they can spend there.
It's a scary time to have a baby in a hospital. Home births need to be more accessible to pregnant women.
Business Insider Giving birth at a hospital amid a pandemic means a new mother, her partner, and baby could be at risk of developing the coronavirus. Many laboring women may also have to go through the process alone, since some hospitals have banned support people or limit the amount of time they can spend there. Journalist Allison Yarrow argues that the pandemic is an opportune moment for women to consider giving birth at home, where they might feel safer and more in control of the experience.
The Surprising Reason Why Women Are Hiding Their Pregnancies
Kacper Kasprzyk At five months pregnant, single mom Melinda Duncan applied to work at a makeup counter at a Macy's store in a Georgia mall. The job entailed painting brides' faces, selling fragrances, and advising women on skincare. Even though the 31-year-old was in her second term, thanks to a tall and broad physique, she was not yet showing. She decided to keep the bump under wraps.
Lawmaker Banned From Speaking After Referring to Her Vagina In Abortion Debate
Two female state representatives were banned from speaking on the Michigan House floor Thursday, one for invoking her “vagina” in an earlier floor debate about abortion. “Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested my vagina, but no means no,” Rep. Lisa Brown said Wednesday as she argued against the 45-page House Bill 5711, which later passed the chamber and would regulate abortion and provider clinics so stringently that Brown says many will simply close.
Opinion | One Hospital’s Plan to Reduce C-sections: Communicate
Fixes There might be fewer unneeded cesarean sections if doctors learned to keep mothers informed at every stage of labor. By Allison Yarrow Ms. Yarrow is a journalist. June 5, 2019 Image Kelsey Mooseker holding one of her babies in the operating room after delivery. Erica Rice calls her 2017 V.B.A.C., or vaginal birth after cesarean, “a herculean team effort.” Not least of which because she delivered twins.
I Had Lunch With Lorena Bobbitt. She Ordered the Swordfish.
SHE HAD THE SWORDFISH When we met for lunch last year, the imperfect victim made clear she wasn’t just the punchline to a joke. A new documentary drives that point home. BEAST INSIDE Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Shutterstock In June 1993, Lorena Bobbitt sliced off her husband’s penis with a kitchen knife and threw it out her car window. It was recovered, iced in a hot dog bag, then reattached to John Wayne Bobbitt in an implausible, hours-long microsurgery.
When Your Student Loans Could Cost You Everything, Even Motherhood
Karen Teague feels like she’s drowning. The 29-year-old policy analyst in New Park, Pennsylvania, owes $259,600 in student loans, on which she pays the monthly minimum of more than $1,300. “My debt causes me to put off thinking about children,” she told Bustle. “I want children, but realistically I don’t know how I’m supposed to bring a child into this world. Kids are expensive, and some weeks I can barely afford to feed myself. It’s hard because I really want them.
How the 90s planted the seed for the Kavanaugh-Ford conflict
Just as the Senate Judiciary Committee is still comprised of some of the very same (white, male) senators who heard Hill’s charge on the record in 1991, so too is the news media populated with some of the very same (white, male) arbiters of content. Let’s not forget that media titans like Harvey Weinstein, Les Moonves, Matt Lauer, and Charlie Rose controlled storytelling in the 90s and for years, long before it was revealed that they had abused their power, threatened women and broken the law.
How the Sexism and Racism of “Bitch” Undermines Women
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Why Choosing Single Motherhood Still Means Breaking All The Rules
For the second year in a row, Bustle is bringing you Rule Breakers, a celebration of women and non-binary individuals who defy expectations at every turn â and are making the world a better place for it. As a lead-up to our Rule Breakers 2019 issue launching Aug. 27, weâre bringing back some of our favorite pieces by and about those who refuse to do what theyâre told. Because challenging the status quo isn't just a once-a-year thing, it's an ongoing mission. These stories prove it.
The Media’s Nasty Treatment of Monica Lewinsky Shaped a Generation of Women
I had never heard the word “intern” before Monica Lewinsky became a news fixture. I was 15 years old when the story broke. Kids in Macon, Georgia, spent summers working in food services, playing baseball, or going to camp. We weren’t pursuing careers. I assumed “intern” was a bad word, because of the way it was being used to describe Lewinsky. A pseudonym for bitch or slut, not somebody who worked for free.
Why Was 90s TV Full of Violence Against Women?
One of the most popular, sought-after women on television in the 90s was a new mainstream television character: the Woman in Jeopardy. The “Woman in Jep”—or just “Jep” to her network honcho friends—was victimized or put into life-threatening situations in countless made-for-TV movies. She was a perennial hit and commanded huge ratings. Often, Women in Jep were versions of the “damaged girl,” which made it acceptable, somehow, for them to be savaged by their abuser or torturer.
How the Riot Grrrl Movement Sold the World on Girl Power
The “angry woman rocker” label that stuck to musicians like Paula Cole, Alanis Morissette, and others may have originated with the Riot Grrrl movement. Riot Grrrl began in the early ’90s, when women musicians and activists stormed the punk rock stage to espouse feminist values and protest violence against women. Riot Grrrl–affiliated bands—such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy—forcefully reclaimed girlhood and female anger with howling vocals and blatantly political lyrics.
Author Allison Yarrow on her book, 90s Bitch
From Hillary Clinton to Anita Hill to Monica Lewinsky, even those of us who were born in or after the 90s know that these women were infamously skewered by the media in that decade, their categorization as “bitches” at the time persisting far past it. But why were these women, and so many others, maligned by the media, vilified by popular culture, and objectified in the marketplace during this decade? Feminist writer Allison Yarrow seeks to answer that very question in her new book 90s Bitch.
The ‘90s Were Not That Great for Women—Just Ask Lorena Bobbitt
Twenty-five years ago this Saturday, Virginia manicurist Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband’s penis and threw it out of a car window. (It was subsequently located and reattached.) The story became a news sensation focused almost exclusively on that act: Newsweek called it “the handiwork of a bedroom vigilante,” and it was repurposed as endless comedy fodder. “Every guy in America is sleeping on his stomach now,” late night host Jay Leno cracked.
'90s Bitch' By Allison Yarrow Examines How Brands Like Lisa Frank Diluted The Feminism Of The Riot Grrrl Movement - Read An Excerpt!
You probably already know that '90s culture has been making comeback in a big way for the last few years: Crystal Pepsi was briefly re-released in summer 2016; Full House was rebooted by Netflix and people inexplicably began wearing scrunchies again; just the other day, Kylie Jenner posted an Instagram photo of the most '90s food of all: Lunchables.
Allison Yarrow - 90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality - in conversation with Garance Franke-Ruta - at Politics and Prose at The Wharf | Politics and Prose Bookstore
As #MeToo goes head-to-head with a culture of anti-feminist backlash, Yarrow revisits the 1990s to show how we got here. Often perceived as a breakout period of “girl power,” the decade of Anita Hill, Marcia Clarke, Courtney Love, Roseanne Barr, and Hillary Clinton was notably hostile to women who defied social expectations.
90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality
90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality by Allison Yarrow To understand how we got here, we have to rewind the VHS tape. 90s Bitch tells the real story of women and girls in the 1990s, exploring how they were maligned by the media, vilified by popular culture, and objectified in the marketplace. Trailblazing women like Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, Marcia Clark, and Roseanne Barr were undermined.
How the ’90s Tricked Women Into Thinking They’d Gained Gender Equality
As the 90s dawned things were looking up for women. Daughters of second-wave feminism came of age and chose new paths unavailable to their mothers: delaying marriage and children, pursuing higher education, joining the workforce, and assuming independence and identities outside of the home. The gaps between men and women in education “have essentially disappeared for the younger generation,” declared a 1995 report by the National Center for Education Statistics.
These Are the Childbirth Photos Instagram Didn't Want You to See—And They're Breathtaking
Katie Vigos decided that she’d had enough. It was December 2017, and the Los Angeles-based nurse and doula was ready to take action. Three years earlier, she’d launched an Instagram account called the Empowered Birth Project to help demystify birth for other women. Now she was battling the social media platform over her account. The birth of Vigos’s second boy in 2010 had been an incredible, ecstatic experience.
These Are the Childbirth Photos Instagram Didn't Want You to See—and They're Breathtaking
Katie Vigos decided that she’d had enough. It was December 2017, and the Los Angeles-based nurse and doula was ready to take action. Three years earlier, she’d launched an Instagram account called the Empowered Birth Project to help demystify birth for other women. Now she was battling the social media platform over her account. The birth of Vigos’s second boy in 2010 had been an incredible, ecstatic experience.
These Are the Childbirth Photos Instagram Didn't Want You to See—and They're Breathtaking
Katie Vigos decided that she’d had enough. It was December 2017, and the Los Angeles-based nurse and doula was ready to take action. Three years earlier, she’d launched an Instagram account called the Empowered Birth Project to help demystify birth for other women. Now she was battling the social media platform over her account. The birth of Vigos’s second boy in 2010 had been an incredible, ecstatic experience.
These Are the Childbirth Photos Instagram Didn't Want You to See—and They're Breathtaking
Katie Vigos decided that she’d had enough. It was December 2017, and the Los Angeles-based nurse and doula was ready to take action. Three years earlier, she’d launched an Instagram account called the Empowered Birth Project to help demystify birth for other women. Now she was battling the social media platform over her account. The birth of Vigos’s second boy in 2010 had been an incredible, ecstatic experience.
Red Lipstick - Rachel Felder - Hardcover
A unique, full-color compendium that celebrates and explores the enduring power and allure of the world’s most iconic lip shade, jam-packed with entertaining stories, anecdotes, little-known facts, quotes, and more than 100 gorgeous images culled from fine art, photography, and beauty and fashion editorial and advertising.
Why do we understand so little about breast-feeding?
Placeholder while article actions load By now, you've likely heard that breast-feeding is good. Women hear the mantra "breast is best" practically from the moment they conceive - both the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusively breast-feeding babies for six months. With this kind of endorsement, which any nursing mother will tell you requires a mammoth commitment, you would think we know everything there is to know about the practice.
Tonya Harding is having her moment of redemption. Now Nancy Kerrigan deserves hers
Tonya Harding, the champion skater best known for her association with an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, is finally having her moment. The villainess is being recast as victim: of class, abuse and misogyny. The edgy new biopic I, Tonya, which won a Critics’ Choice Award for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harding, mostly takes her side. (Harding has said she loved the film.) Harding headlined a two-hour 20/20 special that aired last week.
Commentary: The rise and fall of Nancy Kerrigan - Portland Press Herald
Tonya Harding, the champion skater best known for her association with an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, is finally having her moment. The villainess is being recast as victim: of class, abuse and misogyny. The edgy new biopic “I, Tonya,” which won a Critics’ Choice Award for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harding, mostly takes her side. (Harding has said she loved the film.) Harding headlined a two-hour “20/20” special that aired earlier this month.
Tonya Harding has been redeemed by a sympathetic film. But what about Nancy Kerrigan? She was vilified, too | Miami Herald
Tonya Harding, the champion skater best known for her association with an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, is finally having her moment. The villainess is being recast as victim: of class, abuse and misogyny. The edgy new biopic “I, Tonya,” which won a Critics’ Choice Award for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harding, mostly takes her side. (Harding has said she loved the film.) Harding headlined a two-hour “20/20” special that aired last week.
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