Letter from the Editors

A Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court cases that upheld the constitutional right to choose abortion. To the Court, women do not have a right to their own bodies and, instead, are at the whim of the states. In light of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, we at Feminist Spaces are reminded that the work that we and our contributors do for feminism is ever important. Because this recent redaction of reproductive rights has been on our minds, this year’s issue critiques and discusses motherhood, pregnancy, and sexuality and their e ects on oppressed individuals. e fight for reproductive freedom retains relevance not only to people in America but also to feminists everywhere. e overturning of Roe v. Wade might a ect Americans directly; however, challenged bodily autonomy, restricted health access, and archaic views of motherhood are not exclusive to the United States. In this issue, we present international works that tackle these topics, including Tallulah Costa’s essay “Women of the Surveillance State,” a discussion of anti-abortion surveillance and women’s loss of privacy and Sasan Me ahi’s artwork e Body Has Been Looted, a visual challenge to the societal condemnation of motherhood in Iranian culture.

is year, we received triple the number of submissions than what we have received in the past. We are especially grateful to our international readers and contributors for allowing us to maintain the worldwide scope of our journal. We value and recognize those voices of global feminists and womanists and hope to hold this space for all critical thinkers and marginalized people to analyze and/or critique the social implications of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and class. Feminist Spaces values this inclusivity, and without these writers and artists, we would be unable to expound upon or elucidate feminist issues such as the underrepresentation of asexuality as discussed in Maria Markiewicz’s “Is Sex Dead?”

We owe a huge thanks to the University of West Florida’s Department of English. In particular, we would like to express our appreciation for the department chair Dr. Kevin Sco for his continued support in our creation of the second annual issue a er Feminist Space’s hiatus. We would also like to thank our advisor Dr. Robin Blyn for her dedicated and thoughtful guidance, the TAG Design Team for their creative journal design, and Emily Nye for her assistance copyediting.

Although much of this issue considers the complexity of motherhood, you will also find essays and art pieces that highlight feminism’s diversity, including a discussion of the liberation and expression of black women through Nina Paley’s and Beyoncé’s uses of blues music and visual media. e media-exacerbated expectation for women to appeal to the sexual preferences of white men increases with the frequent distribution of internet content, and included in this issue is a visual exemplification of this male gaze and a deconstruction of pornography’s expectations of female sexuality through film. On our cover, you will find a painting by Joan Cox that explores female sexuality and sapphic intimacy. We hope you will enjoy browsing this issue and will consider submi ing work of your own in support of future Feminist Spaces issues.

If you wish to contribute or just want to stay up to date with our latest publications, you can follow us on Instagram @feminist.spaces. You can also keep in touch with us through email (feministspacesjournal@gmail. com) or by checking out our website.

anks for reading,

Feminist Spaces Editorial Board