(Not sure if this is the appropriate circle, but I especially value the perspective of women with a biological sciences background!)
My sister recently announced she's pregnant (I'm going to be an auntie!! :D), and I'm looking for some books to gift her since she'll be lacking older people to be experiential resources (our parents have passed, and her in-laws live on a different continent and speak a different language).
We both hate the woo that often infects anything woman-related or health-related in regular times, and in regular times it might be easy to just shrug off nonsense sections... but she's a doctor and her specialty is infectious disease so she's especially short-tempered with nonsense right now, for obvious reasons. Anything that implies doctors are all clueless white men in the pocket of big pharma and therefore an unlicensed facebook doula's homeopathic herbal teas are superior to medical science is getting chucked straight into the garbage to a stream of colorful cursewords.
So, if anyone has recommendations for books/guides on the experience of pregnancy for a first time mother that isn't too "woo," I'd love suggestions!
I have a few minor problems with this but here's where I really take issue.
Rape is functionally decriminalized. Saying that it being illegal doesn't change anything isn't telling the whole story. I don't know a single acquaintance or friend who has been raped who even bothered contacting law enforcement. Often there's a bunch of reasons for that, but "what's the point?" is a HUGE one. I remember the Stanford rape trial, I remember the girl who was raped by a dorm neighbor at Harvard, high profile cases with sympathetic victims where literally nothing happened to the rapists. (I mean I guess the Stanford rapist got a tiny slap on the wrist but it was a fucking joke.)
A victim who goes to law enforcement is usually treated like garbage and for what? Cops to not even bother bringing the rapist in? Oh, maybe it actually goes to trial... just for the rapist to get praised for his sport abilities in open court?
Rapists don't think twice before raping because they know that even though it's illegal there are no actual consequences. There need to be more Larry Nassars, more rapists who are actually punished. And the punishments need to be swift and severe.
If someone steals my car, that really would suck for me, it might be a horrible inconvenience and screw things up a lot, but I wouldn't have nightmares for the rest of my life about it. Why is the punishment for stealing a car harsher than rape? Why should teenage girls have to bear some weird conservative burden on having safe, healthy, age appropriate sexual interactions (and not pornsick ones - I agree that is something that also needs to change) because we refuse to lock up and actually punish men that feel like they have a right to rape?