Wendy Sanford on Our Bodies, Ourselves

In this special interim episode of Quakers Today, host Peterson Toscano (he/him) talks with Wendy Sanford (she/her,) one of the original creators of the groundbreaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Wendy shares her role in writing the first edition and reveals how each subsequent edition reflected the input from diverse voices. She discusses the importance of addressing issues of race, class, sexuality, and gender identity in the evolving landscape of women’s health and activism. This episode also includes insights from her memoir, These Walls Between Us, a story of friendship across race and class.

Featured Segments:

• Wendy Sanford and the Evolution of Our Bodies, Ourselves
  Wendy Sanford reflects on the book’s origins in the 1970s when it sought to provide trustworthy health information for women. Over the decades, the book has expanded to include voices from diverse communities, addressing issues such as sterilization abuse, prenatal care, and transgender health. Wendy discusses how the book’s evolving content reflects the shifting landscape of feminist health activism.
• Memoir: These Walls Between Us
  Wendy recently published her memoir These Walls Between Us, which explores her friendship across race and class and the deep personal transformations it sparked. You can find more about Wendy’s work on her website.

Quotes:

• “The work is needed as much as ever. The questions are still there: Is it trustworthy information? Is it from a woman’s point of view?” – Wendy Sanford
• “We were a group of white middle-class women. Our book said it was for all women, but the critiques taught us otherwise, and that was a real wake-up call.” – Wendy Sanford.
• “Each time we redid the book, we widened the understanding of who ‘we’ meant.” – Wendy Sanford.

How to Follow Wendy Sanford:
You can learn more about Wendy and her work by visiting her website: wendysanford-thesewallsbetweenus.com. Her memoir These Walls Between Us is available delves into her experiences with race, class, and social justice.

Friends Journal reviewed Wendy Sanford’s memoir These Walls Between Us in August 2022, in a double review alongside another book. You can read the review here: These Walls Between Us review.

Friends Journal published a personal essay by Wendy in January 2006. Titled “Musings of a Universalist Friend: Towards Deeper Communion across Our Theological Divides,” the essay reflects on her and her partner’s decision to marry in 1999. It discusses her views on the tie between Christian Scripture and antisemitism. You can find it here: January 2006 essay.

Announcing Season Four:

After this special episode, Quakers Today will return with Season Four on December 17, 2024. Expect more inspiring guests and thought-provoking content. Stay tuned for special features and announcements in your podcast feed in October.

Question of the Month:

What novel, film, or television series changed your relationship with the world? Fiction has the power to alter the way we see ourselves and the world around us. What story has shifted your perspective?

Leave a voice memo or text with your answer at 317-QUAKERS (+1 if calling from outside the U.S.), or respond via Instagram, X, or TikTok.

Transcript for Wendy Sanford on Our Bodies, Ourselves

SPEAKERS: Peterson Toscano, Wendy Sanford

Peterson Toscano

In this special interim episode of Quakers Today, writer Wendy Sanford discusses the groundbreaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves. She reveals how each subsequent edition reflected input from a diversity of voices. 

Hi, I’m your host, Peterson Toscano. We are in between seasons here at Quakers Today, which allows us to share content from other podcasts with you. Today, I will share an excerpt from the podcast Bubble and Squeak. The show is my audio playground, where I feature guests, radio plays, random sounds, and personal stories. For this episode of Quakers Today, I will share audio from the episode entitled “Female Body.” 

Wendy Sanford is one of the original creators of Our Bodies, Ourselves, a pioneering work in women’s health and feminist activism. First published in 1970, this book has been an essential resource for women seeking accurate, trustworthy information about their bodies. It has continued to evolve with each edition, incorporating feedback from women, men, and gender non-binary people of different races, classes, and backgrounds. They provided feedback about critical issues such as sterilization abuse, prenatal care, and transgender health concerns. Today, Wendy shares her journey, insights from her work on this iconic book, and how it has shaped the feminist health movement.

Wendy Sanford

Yeah, I’m a writer, you know, if it’s pertinent, I’ll say that I was involved in writing with the book, Our Bodies, Ourselves. I’m a Quaker. I’m cis-gendered, white. I am a lesbian. I’m married to Polly Atwood. I’m a Democrat, which was new in my family. An editor, I edit things even when people don’t ask me to. A dog lover, a cook, and also a mother in a relationship that’s been somewhat difficult over the years, and a grandmother of three young women whom I don’t see much. 

Well, back in the 1960s and early 70s, there was no information that was trustworthy for women about our bodies and particularly our sexual health, our reproductive health. A group of us got together and started researching that and taught a course called Women in Their Bodies. People were so interested in it that they contacted us. They heard about it, and they contacted us from New York City and other places where they were starting to be groups of feminist women wanting to take charge of our health care and make some changes. So we printed up our monographs on various topics, and that eventually became Our Bodies, Ourselves. 

Today, there’s so much information out there and yet, but still, the question still is, is it trustworthy information? Is it from a woman’s point of view. Is it put out by the drug companies? What are the politics of access to health care for women at all levels of economics and social class and race? And so the questions are still there. The work is needed as much as ever. 

I wasn’t openly lesbian at first. We were all heterosexual women, which was so funny because the press thought we were, you know, feminists were bra burners and lesbians and all of that. And we were just; we were just this group of women who happened to all be heterosexual at the time, or thought we were. So it was wonderful when I finally came out. Well, was wonderful for me that I came out because I ended up with Polly for 42 years. But it was also wonderful for the group because finally, we had a lesbian in the group. 

We had this chapter called “Our Changing Sense of Self,” and even the title would be a warning today. Who’s this we? Who’s saying our changing sense of self? Who can proclaim what our changing sense of self is? Right away, we got feedback from African American Women’s Health activists, Native American Women’s Health activists, and Latina Women’s Health activists that we couldn’t say we were a group of white middle-class women. Our book focused a lot on our issues and said it was for all women. 

Some of the critiques were, why don’t you talk about sterilization abuse? Why do you focus on abortion totally to the exclusion of sterilization abuse? When sterilization abuse is something that is really, really affecting Latina women, for instance, in Puerto Rico, particularly at the time, what about the right to decent prenatal care? We just kind of assume it, but in fact, for women living in poverty, that’s a right that’s never recognized and back then as sadly, well, criminally, today, the rate of mortality for African American expectant mothers is much higher than for white women. That was true at the time, and as I say, criminally, it’s true today. So people were saying, you say we, you say you’re speaking for all women, but you’re not, and that was a real wake-up call for me. 

I had some struggles in the group over the years because there were some people who were really attached to that moment of excitement that we could say we and mean all women, that we were what we were learning in our lives, and our consciousness-raising groups were relevant to other, to women all over and that was very heady and very exciting. It just was only partially true. Well, we redid it, I think 10 or 11 times over 40, 50, years. And each time, we widened the understanding of We, of the we. 

We added a chapter that was written by women with disabilities, by lesbians. The lesbian chapter was, was a great enterprise. The first lesbian chapter that we added actually was by a collective of lesbians in the Boston area. They wouldn’t let us touch their chapter. They had to just put it in the way they thought it should be. And so we agreed to do that. It was all very exciting. And in our meetings, I was always very shy and nervous because I felt like they’d look at me and see something, which a few years later, I saw it in myself. I realized I was lesbian too, and I actually worked on the first redo of that lesbian chapter. 

Each time, we included more experiences from a wider range of women and more concerns from a wider range of women all over the country. Women’s groups were tackling different issues, becoming active and organizing around creating women’s clinics, researching des the drug that women took mid-century that had led to birth defects in the children, particularly female children, vaginal issues. There was so much activism going on, and we wanted to reflect it. So the book got bigger and bigger.

And then in later times, I, like the most recent one I worked on in 2011, one of the big changes in the book at that point was that we had always had a lesbian chapter and a heterosexual relationships chapter, and we looked at each other, those of us who were working on and said, “This is ridiculous.” The issues in relationships there may be one or two things that are different if you’re a heterosexual or a lesbian couple, but not many. So now there’s a relationships chapter. 

There was no one in our group that identified as trans at the time, but I had done some reading and realized that trans women, also gender-fluid people, was that they also had really significant issues that needed to be present in a book. I had been putting more and more about trans issues in for the past decade or so, but in 2011, we actually had several trans and gender-fluid people who helped write the sections that were pertinent to them. 

Um, yeah, I’m a writer, you know, if it’s pertinent, I’ll say that I was involved in writing with the book Our Bodies Ourselves.

Peterson Toscano

That was Wendy Sanford, a writer who is also a Quaker living in New England. If you’re interested in following Wendy Sanford, just do a Google search for Wendy Sanford. Writer, Wendy has also written a memoir titled These Walls Between Us. It’s a powerful story of friendship across race and class. In it, she explores her experiences and insights on social justice and connection. The book is available in bookstores, on Kindle, and has an audiobook, or visit the website. WendySanford-thesewallsbetweenus.com. 

The audio you heard in this episode of Quakers today comes from the podcast Bubble and Squeak from an episode called Female Body. Bubble and Squeak is available wherever you get podcast, or just search for Peterson Toscano bubble, you’ll find the show. 

Before we wrap up, I have a question for you to reflect on, and you can give me a response. “What novel, film, or television series changed your relationship with the world? Fiction can shift how we see ourselves, others, and even the larger world?” We’d love to hear what stories have had this impact on you, and we can share some of your responses with our listeners. When we come back in full session in December, leave a voicemail with your answer at 317, Quakers, or respond via our social media, on Instagram, X, or TikTok. 

Thank you for listening to this special episode of Quakers Today, a project of Friends Publishing Corporation. For updates on Season Four, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and X, and visit our website, where you will find show notes, transcripts, and resources. That website is quakerstoday.org. Thank you, friend. I look forward to being with you again soon.

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