Our Bodies Ourselves hosted an open house at Suffolk University to encourage students and faculty to explore their health and sexuality resources Feb. 10.
OBOS is a feminist movement, defined by its website to be “center[ing] the needs, voices and perspectives of women and gender-expansive people in our content.”
Laura Prieto, the program director and scholar-in-residence, highlighted OBOS’s dedication to this definition.
“People use ‘feminism’ to mean a lot of things, they use it to mean TERF [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist] feminism and they mean it to mean white feminism,” said Prieto. “So we like to be very clear that our feminism is intersectional. Our feminism is trans inclusive.”
The OBOS website provides a library of free health and sexuality resources that uphold its definition of feminism.
Program Associate Grace Koch, emphasized the level of scrutiny that resources go through in order to be published on the website. Koch said that OBOS has about 100 volunteers who review the content. She introduced Anne Dufault, a Suffolk graduate student and content expert for OBOS who specializes in gender-based violence.
Alongside the content experts, OBOS currently has approximately 10 Suffolk students in work study positions who participate in preliminary content reviewing. They check citations and inclusive language in research and ensure OBOS sources are up to date.
Work study students also bring their own knowledge to OBOS. For example, one work study student specifically focuses on resources in Spanish.
Koch explained that not only does OBOS compile research, but it has begun conducting its own research to fill content gaps. She said that women’s heart health is an understudied area that they are looking to conduct interviews with experts about.
OBOS was initially founded in 1970 with the publication of its book “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” The book has currently been translated into 34 languages and counting. Prieto noted the book’s worldwide impact.
“It’s actually a global movement in women’s health that the book helped to start and then kept participating in,” said Prieto.
Prieto spoke about the early success of the book. It outgrew its small independent publishing company, so it looked towards the New England Free Press, a printer and publisher from 1967 to 1981, which specialized in radical literature.
“At first they didn’t want to publish this because they’re like ‘How is that political? How is that radical? It’s about lady parts, what are you doing?’” said Prieto. “But [OBOS] explained it and I guess the New England free press understood because then it became their runaway bestselling book.”
The book has gone through several editions and adaptations, many of which are available for the public to read on the Boston Public Library’s website.
Prieto connected OBOS’s original values to the need for feminism today.
“[OBOS] has always been very critical of capitalism, which now means being critical of big pharma and insurance companies and influencers who are only there to sell you wellness products, which is what a lot of women’s health unfortunately is,” said Prieto.
Prieto noted that the OBOS office are located on the 10th floor of 73 Tremont and emphasized that the office is always open for any student with any question.
“I just answered a question from a student who popped in and had a question about sex work laws in Massachusetts and why they are the way they are,” said Prieto. “They were asking why is it legal to sell sex but not legal to buy it?”
OBOS’s office at the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights is staffed Tuesday through Friday. The OBOS website has multitudes of resources available online for free.
