Leila Easa (she/her)
@leilaeasa.bsky.social
CCSF Women’s and Gender Studies + English faculty | PUBLIC FEMINISM IN TIMES OF CRISIS w/ Jennifer Stager | MFA @SFSU_CW | grad studies @UCDavisEnglish PhD
As our final post in celebration of this cluster, we extend our deepest gratitude to all of the contributors and especially for the amazing work of Tyler Tennant in production and artistry and Michael Dango in brilliant editorial. Many thanks @asap_journal! Read: asapjournal.com/cluster/from...
“Taken together,” this cluster “suggest[s] that artistic representation can reveal what is often hidden. In the case of abortion—often illegal, shameful, known more through whisper networks than official archives—so much is concealed.” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“What would our resistance look like if we thought more about aesthetics? What new kinds of resistance might emerge if aesthetics were central to our conceptualization of reproductive resistance?” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
"Beyoncé’s version of motherhood—one that draws from cultural history while responding to the present and looking toward the future—represents a version that is deeply needed during this time of great reproductive restriction..." Read: asapjournal.com/node/house-m... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“There is, unfortunately, an unironic similarity to Happy the Elephant’s quest for freedom and the continued fight for bodily and reproductive autonomy of human beings..." Read: asapjournal.com/node/her-bel... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“Those without access to power—to master discourse, whether because of race, gender, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, or other forms of identity that those with power seek to exclude—use code." Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“It is hard to describe abortion as a form of sexual freedom. Writing of art and abortion in 2009, when abortion was still legal across the country, Jennifer Doyle expressed this difficulty with eloquence...” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
From the Gaps / Political Representations / Samuel Alito’s Witch Hunt, Lydia Nobles’s Pleasure Trophies - ASAP/Review
It is hard to describe abortion as a form of sexual freedom. Writing of art and abortion in 2009, when abortion was still legal across the country, Jennifer Doyle expressed this difficulty with eloque...
asapjournal.com
"The enduring presence of the image of the Virgin Mary in art about abortion illuminates a crisis in representation." Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“Comstock’s network made regular headlines as they hounded those who aided and abetted bodily autonomy seekers. These laws limited discussions pertaining to bodily autonomy, which became tenuous at best and litigious at worst..." Read: asapjournal.com/node/aiding-... @asapjournal.bsky.social
"...alongside Milton’s descriptors, led me to ask questions about the biological function of the human uterus. And in that process, I discovered striking similarities between Milton’s warring chaos and a uterus during pregnancy." Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in childbirth...” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
From the Gaps / Con/textual Representations / Stand and Deliver! Experiencing Epitaphs of Roman Midwives in Funerary Contexts - ASAP/Review
In Ancient Rome, male doctors were summoned during childbirth only if labor proved difficult. Instead, it was midwives who played the literal and figurative role of a physical and emotional support in...
asapjournal.com
Paula Rego is often called a remarkable storyteller as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative—sometimes personal, entangled with family & childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings & emotions” Read: asapjournal.com/node/embodim... @asapjournal.bsky.social @jmss3.bsky.social
“By staging the abortion as a crime scene scattered with the abortionist’s dubious tools & techniques, [the work] also functions as a grotesquely ruinous parody of the artist’s studio—& thus positions Kienholz as the abortionist.” Read: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
Delighted to have written a brief comment for this collection! Thx @leilaeasa.bsky.social and Jennifer Stager for putting it together and much else.
Leila Easa (she/her)@leilaeasa.bsky.social · 6mo ago“In light of these...attacks on abortion access concomitant w greater restrictions on women’s rights to make choices about their bodies, this cluster takes up the politics surrounding abortion as it threads through art & activism." asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“Sontag’s description of the fascist seduction as a process of “purification” that transformed “sexual energy into ‘spiritual force’ for the benefit of the community” aligns with the self-described pro-life movement in America.” Read here: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“But Munch’s selection of impression for the Armory show suggests that the work could also be topical, implicated and even intervening—or not—in debates over abortion, contraception, & women’s rights in Europe and the U.S." Read here: asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
“In light of these...attacks on abortion access concomitant w greater restrictions on women’s rights to make choices about their bodies, this cluster takes up the politics surrounding abortion as it threads through art & activism." asapjournal.com/node/from-th... @asapjournal.bsky.social
"Portuguese painter Paula Rego is often called a remarkable storyteller, as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative. Her stories are sometimes personal, entangled with family and childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings, and emotions." asapjournal.com/node/embodim...
From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Embodiment, power, and political engagement: the case of Paula Rego’s Abortion Series - ASAP/Review
Portuguese painter Paula Rego (1935–2022) is often called a remarkable storyteller, as her work is deeply ingrained with narrative. Her stories are sometimes personal, entangled with family and childhood memories, individual politics, experiences, feelings, and emotions. But…
asapjournal.com
"Equally disturbing is the threat of censorship, not just regarding abortion, but also pregnancy, miscarriage, and contraception, subjects typically seen as common knowledge but are increasingly suppressed, forbidden, and in extreme cases, criminalized." asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Artist as Abortionist: Ed Kienholz’s The Illegal Operation (1962) and the Limits of Representation - ASAP/Review
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, access to reproductive care in the United States is under severe threat, with procedures once considered routine now illicit in many parts of the country. Equally disturbing is the…
asapjournal.com
"Sontag’s description of the fascist seduction as a process of “purification” that transformed “sexual energy into ‘spiritual force’ for the benefit of the community” aligns with the values of the self-described pro-life movement in America." asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Fascinating Fetalism: of Man and Fetus - ASAP/Review
In 1972, Susan Sontag identified the seduction of “fascinating fascism” in American culture. Here, I look to the allure of the image of the fetus as fascinating fetalism. While “fetalism” is a medical term describing the…
asapjournal.com
"But Munch’s selection of impression for the Armory show suggests that the work could also be highly topical, implicated and even intervening – or not – in debates over abortion, contraception, and women’s rights in Europe and the U.S. around 1900 and beyond." asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps / Aesthetic Representations / Edvard Munch and “The Great Cause”: Abortion, Eugenics, Whiteness - ASAP/Review
Madonna (1895/1902), one of Edvard Munch’s most famous and heavily reproduced works, depicts a nude woman surrounded by a distinctive red border with spermatozoa and a worried looking infant or fetus in the lower lefthand corner…
asapjournal.com
"In light of these unprecedented attacks on abortion access concomitant w greater restrictions on women’s rights to make choices about their bodies, this cluster takes up the politics surrounding the history of abortion as it threads through art practice & activism." asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps: Art, Literature, and Abortion: Introduction - ASAP/Review
On May 2, 2022, a draft decision leaked from the US Supreme Court confirmed what many had feared: that the highest U.S. court was set to overturn the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade and roll back…
asapjournal.com
"Taken together," this cluster "suggest[s] that artistic representation can reveal what is often hidden. In the case of abortion—often illegal, often shameful, at times known more through whisper networks than official archives—so much is concealed." asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps / Responses / What the Women Knew - ASAP/Review
What can paint and marble tell us that trips to the archives might not? As a historian, I was prompted to ask questions such as this while reading these essays exploring representations of abortion in art…
asapjournal.com
"What would our resistance look like if we thought more about aesthetics? What new kinds of resistance might emerge if aesthetics were central to our conceptualization of reproductive resistance?" asapjournal.com/node/from-th...
From the Gaps / Political Representations / The Aesthetics of Reproductive Justice: Finding Hope in Feminist Mini Golf - ASAP/Review
I have been thinking a lot lately about what reproductive justice looks like, especially in this moment. I mean this question quite literally. What would our resistance look like if we thought more about aesthetics? What…
asapjournal.com
Three years in the making, this cluster is out in the world!
ASAP/Review@asapjournal.bsky.social · 6mo ago//a very special february cluster// FROM THE GAPS: ART, LITERATURE, & ABORTION out now!!! Eds. Leila Easa & Jennifer Stager &&Feat. A Morehead E Legge J Gosse M Oliveira A Graham L Perry J M Nader M Saunders C Schopp B Wright S Cannon C Thomsen M Fissell asapjournal.com/cluster/from...
Celebrating Women’s History Month at CCSF with a talk (open to the public and on zoom at ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/81402940934).
THR 17.1, with Jennifer Stager and my special guest edited folio “Locating a Collective Lyric ‘I,’” now open access via Project MUSE thru 2025. We’re celebrating with a week of free events at & near Johns Hopkins. 🙏🏻 @hopkinsreview.bsky.social 💕 muse.jhu.edu/issue/52008 hopkinsreview.com/171-folio
In a very special poem for the #CollectiveLyricI folio, "Ours," former Young People’s Poet Laureate & Palestinian American poet Naomi Shihab Nye (@YPPLaureate) captures collective grief & protest. Pls share this powerful, beautiful, important poem: hopkinsreview.com/features/ours 1/
Ours — The Hopkins Review
A poem of collective grief and protest by former Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye.
hopkinsreview.com