Belabored, Lyz Lenz
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Belabored
A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women

Author: Lyz Lenz

Narrator: Natalie Peyser

Unabridged: 6 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/11/2020


Synopsis

In Belabored, Lyz Lenz will "make you cry in one paragraph and snort-laugh in the next" (Chloe Angyal, contributing editor at MarieClaire.com).

Written with a blend of wit, snark, and raw intimacy, Belabored is an impassioned and irreverent defense of the autonomy, rights, and dignity of pregnant people. Lenz shows how religious, historical, and cultural myths about pregnancy have warped the way we treat pregnant people: when our representatives enact laws criminalizing abortion and miscarriage, when doctors prioritize the health of the fetus over the life of the pregnant patient in front of them, when baristas refuse to serve visibly pregnant women caffeine. She also reflects on her own experiences of carrying her two children and seeing how the sacrifices demanded during pregnancy carry over seamlessly into the cult of motherhood, where women are expected to play the narrowly defined roles of "wife" and "mother" rather than be themselves.

Belabored is an urgent call for us to trust women and let them choose what happens to their own bodies, from a writer who "is on a roll" (Bitch Magazine).

Author Bio

Lyz Lenz has been published in the New York Times, Buzzfeed, Washington Post, the Guardian, ESPN, Marie Claire, Mashable, Salon, and more. She is the author of God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America. She also has an essay in the anthology Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay. Lenz holds an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University and is a contributing writer to the Columbia Journalism Review.

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