Our United Fight for Bodily Autonomy With Imani Barbarin

Together, throughout United Bodies, we’ll explore how different components of our health—mental, physical, social, and spiritual—interplay with one another and intersect with the whole of our identity. When we understand these forces in our lives, we can meet both ourselves and others with more empathy and maybe even realize our fights for equity, justice, freedom, and accessibility are united.

The first half of our season is focused on addressing and navigating the world we have. The second half will be focused on envisioning and building the world we need. There will be a new episode each week and some of the topics and guests will surprise you. With that, let us begin!

One of the most present themes in our lived experience of health in the past few years is the war on bodily autonomy, whether it’s the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the loss of legal abortion for millions, or the repeated pernicious efforts to ban gender affirming care for trans and nonbinary people. But the origins of the ideology driving these attacks is not new. It lies in the history of eugenics, racism, and ableism. And in many ways, it’s experienced in the everyday lives of disabled people. Think of us as canaries in the coalmine. Disability activist and creator Imani Barbarin says none of this is surprising. We’ve been dealing with this for a long time.

Imani Barbarin is also famously known as Crutches and Spice everywhere online—including her blog where she has amassed nearly 1 million followers by delivering the truthiest takes on culture and politics as it pertains to Black and disabled people. She joins United Bodies to discuss.

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript and more.

For more, follow:
Imani @Crutches_and_Spice
@KendallCiesemier
@Ms_Magazine