About Alison Reiheld

Alison Reiheld is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville and co-President (with Perry Zurn) of the Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST).

Bathrooms, Binaries, and Bioethics: Jamie Nelson takes on the American debate over gender and bathroom access
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With a blogpost over at Michigan State’s Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, feminist bioethicist Jamie Lindemann Nelson has dipped her toes into the acid bath that is the American debate over gender and bathroom access.  Nelson has … Continue reading

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On The Costs of Simplistic Thinking: Reproductive Health Clinics Aren’t Just For Abortions
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The purpose of this post is not to argue against anti-abortion protesters. It is to narrowly and briefly explore what the harms done by principled, committed anti-abortion protesters when they assume that Reproductive Health Clinics, and procedures they perform, are … Continue reading

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Gendered Medicalization of Sexual Desire?
A Medical Sociologist Reflects on How “Women’s Viagra” Isn’t Like Viagra at All

The medical humanities have long drawn attention to the way that social power structures and value judgments affect diagnoses and the very disease categories on which those diagnoses are based. Peter Conrad famously discussed medicalization—the process by which a human … Continue reading

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When Does a Plea Become Pathology?
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NOTE: this author uses captions to describe the content of images so that visually impaired persons can have some access to the content of images through their audio readers. Readers with typical visual acuity may find some of the content … Continue reading

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A new generation of feminists are calling on popular feminism to adopt the rhetoric of action over identity

As Director of the SIUE Women’s Studies program, I am fortunate to come into contact with young feminists with a wide variety of ideas about what feminism means to them, and the shape it should take to be most effective. … Continue reading

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Where can I go? Conscientious Objection, the Catholic Church, and Patient Access to Care

Catholic hospitals control 1 out of every 9 hospital beds in the United States, either through direct administration or mergers with other health care systems; in eight states, they control more than 30% of beds. According to a 2013 article … Continue reading

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The Ethics of Work Actions: When are work actions by HC providers acceptable, or even desirable?

The reader is forgiven for some small disappointment in learning that I am not going to definitively answer the question in the title of this piece. The scope of a blog entry simply can’t handle it. However, I will consider … Continue reading

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You won’t believe this one easy trick for doing your part for health care justice for transgender patients!

The Institute of Medicine has long acknowledged that transgender patients have difficulty accessing care due to a combination of stigma and lack of coverage. Want to do something to help trans folk get health care from the insurance plans they … Continue reading

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Not All Objectification Is Sexual:
The Return of the Fetal Container

PJW Note: This post originally appeared on October 28, 2013. Yet, as a recent Op-ed in The New York Times, “Pregnant, and No Civil Rights,” clearly demonstrates, the problems Reiheld addresses have only gotten worse. With over 2,000 hits in the past three days, … Continue reading

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Not All Objectification Is Sexual: The Return of the Fetal Container

PJW Note: This post originally appeared on October 28, 2013. Yet, as a recent Op-ed in The New York Times, “Pregnant, and No Civil Rights,” clearly demonstrates, the problems Reiheld addresses have only gotten worse. With over 2,000 hits in the past three days, … Continue reading

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Women and Responsibility for Health:
Food, Physical Activity, and Feminism

Consider a Kitchen Aid ad from 2013.  In between glossy images of the mixer itself, the ability to make your own healthy food—made of quality ingredients and preservative-free—is emphasized, as is preparation skill and social activity: “…new knife skills… a … Continue reading

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Women and Responsibility for Health: Food, Physical Activity, and Feminism

Consider a Kitchen Aid ad from 2013.  In between glossy images of the mixer itself, the ability to make your own healthy food—made of quality ingredients and preservative-free—is emphasized, as is preparation skill and social activity: “…new knife skills… a … Continue reading

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