Perspectives

Dolly Parton once told her sister, “We’ve got more important things to do than worry about their silly asses.” It may be one of the wisest statements ever made about time, attention, and the difference between caring deeply and being endlessly consumed by foolishness.

Dolly Parton was sweet and sexy, plainspoken and bedazzled, deeply feminine and strong as a steel trap. Perhaps we loved her because she never asked us to choose which version was real. All of them were.

From girlhood onward, women learn that their bodies will be noticed, judged, compared, desired, criticized, and sometimes controlled. This essay explores the cultural expectations women absorb about beauty, sexuality, aging, safety, and bodily autonomy—and asks a larger question: who should hold authority over a woman’s body?

When the unthinkable becomes ordinary Lately, I have been wondering how much cruelty a person can witness before it begins to feel normal. Not acceptable, exactly. Most of us would still say that cruelty is wrong. So are dishonesty, corruption, violence, greed, and the casual humiliation of other human beings. We know this. We learned it when we were children, or at least we were supposed to. Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. Don’t make fun of peo

by Janet K. Nash, MSW, LISW-S, CCTP, C-IAYT, RYT500 Fifty years ago, Roe v. Wade solidified a woman’s Constitutional right to obtain a legal abortion. This week the Supreme Court completely shattered the principle of stare decisis—the legal doctrine that courts will adhere to precedent in making their decisions. In Latin, stare decisis means “to stand by things decided.” My question now becomes, “What other legal precedents will the Supreme Court overturn? And how can precede