Potential for Change: Interning at OBOS

by Jessica Planos

When I came for my interview, Wendy Brovold (OBOS Communications and Marketing Manager) asked me why I wanted to intern for Our Bodies Ourselves. It had seemed so obvious to me—it’s important. Yes, I’m an architecture major college student, but that doesn’t make me less of a human being. (I mean, it does, but not related to this.)

Growing up, I never considered myself a feminist or otherwise enlightened. I just had all the really good books—Our Bodies, Ourselves being the first, followed by new classics like The Vagina Monologues and I [heart icon] Female Orgasm. I lent one to a friend, who lent it to a friend and all of a sudden I was the feminist lending library for my high school! I didn’t see the books as radical, because it had never occurred to me that any rational person would disagree with women’s equality or the importance of body awareness.

It has started to sink in that not everyone is as blessed as I was with access to these writings and therefore this consciousness. Women’s magazines, which hold more influence over my generation than the books published during the last wave of feminism, are still espousing obedience to men’s needs, men’s sexuality and heteronormative social hierarchies. I’m interning with Our Bodies Ourselves because I know my generation has great potential for change, yet can’t seem to get it together. I hope that more youth involvement in this cooperative effort will encourage the simple practice of picking up a good book that tells you all that you’re capable of.