Our Bodies Ourselves Today

Our Bodies Ourselves Today is building a world-class online platform to provide up-to-date, trustworthy, and inclusive information about health and sexuality to women, girls, and gender-expansive people. Our Bodies Ourselves Today integrates LGBTQIA+ perspectives and leadership in all levels of the organization, and will serve members of LGBTQIA+ communities throughout the world. In fact, Our Bodies, Ourselves was the first mass-readership nonfiction book in US history to center lesbian lives and sexuality, in a chapter called "In Amerika they Call Us Dykes" (1970). Our information on sexuality is especially queer-focused, although all aspects of our site will be LGBTQIA+ inclusive. 

We plan to launch in the next year with these core content areas: 

ABORTION & CONTRACEPTION | AGING WELL | CHILDBIRTH | GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE | HEART HEALTH | MENARCHE TO MENOPAUSE | MENTAL HEALTH | SEXUAL ANATOMY & COMMON GYN PROBLEMS | SEXUALITY

Where We’ve Been

For almost 50 years, the book Our Bodies, Ourselves provided clear and accurate information on women’s health, sexuality, and empowerment. What started as a self-published booklet created by a collective of women’s health advocates grew into a vital resource, continually updated in new editions, selling millions of copies, and translated into 34 languages.

Where We Are

In 2018, the Our Bodies Ourselves organization reluctantly ceased updating and publishing Our Bodies, Ourselves. 

Unfortunately, in today’s political climate of political onslaught against reproductive freedom, in the context of a broken, for-profit healthcare system, with “abstinence only” masquerading as sex education, amidst an ever-worsening gun violence crisis, it’s not easy for women, girls, and gender-expansive people to maintain our health and sovereignty over our bodies and our lives. 

Although health and sexuality-related content is widely available on the internet, much of it is flawed—a morass of haphazard web searches, celebrity health trends, porn, and Pharma-funded “women’s wellness” sites. These resources are often slanted, inaccurate, overly narrow, sexist, and profit-driven. They do not fill the void left by Our Bodies, Ourselves. 

Where We’re Going 

The Center for Women’s Health & Human Rights at Suffolk University, with the blessing of the Our Bodies Ourselves organization, will launch Our Bodies Ourselves Today, a website that will enable the unique contributions, approaches, and functions of the groundbreaking book to live on in an online format, while adding new features and connecting with new audiences across the globe. 

This website will be curated and continually updated by panels of leading health experts drawn from the fields of medicine, public health, academia, consumer advocacy, reproductive justice activism, policy, and media. The carefully vetted information we provide will be accurate, evidence-based, holistic, and user-friendly. In each area, our experts will combine personal stories with the most current and intersectionally feminist information.

We are committed to voicing the perspectives and addressing the needs of women and girls (cis and trans), trans men, and non-binary people across racial and ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, class, age, ability, immigration and carceral status, gender, belief, and other differences. Women and people all over the world will benefit from content and analysis grounded both in diverse lived experiences and current political and cultural contexts. 

Your Role 

You can contribute to this project strategically as a valued donor, as we work to ensure that queerness and LGBTQIA+ issues are integrated into all of our core content areas and throughout the site. Your donation will support $50 gift cards for members of the LGBTQIA+ communities who share their personal stories with Our Bodies Ourselves Today about their health and sexuality, showcasing the importance of bringing LGBTQIA+ voices to the forefront. With your help, people throughout the world will continue to have ready access to trustworthy information that is crucial to their health, sexuality, and empowerment. Your generosity will continue the important service that Our Bodies, Ourselves has provided for the last half-century. 

OUR BODIES OURSELVES TODAY WELCOMES YOUR SUPPORT!