Registered: Jul 2000
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Posts: 4501

The Great Yogurt Conspiracy

just a little cultural literacy for everyone

In September 1972, two founders of the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers, Carol Downer and Colleen Wilson were arrested for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. Their Los Angeles Self-Help Clinic was raided by the California Department of Consumer Affairs and the Board of Medical Examiners. The Self-Help Clinic presented the local medical establishment with competition. Concerned with the potential loss of revenue for the local physicians, one doctor, three uniformed police and several plainclothes investigators confiscated four truckloads of supplies and equipment, in order to shut down operations of the women-controlled clinic. The reason for the arrest? Downer had inserted yogurt into the vagina of a women's center staff member.

The trial became known as the, "Great Yogurt Conspiracy" and was a crucial turning point in the women's health movement. Downer was found not guilty by arguing that applying yogurt as a home remedy for an ordinary yeast infection is not practicing medicine. The verdict reinforced women's control over their own bodies and established that at-home methods of self-care are, indeed, lawful.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: 54.60°N 5.70°W
Posts: 1950

I'm scared.

I'm scared because since hooking up with you folks back at SPF, my head has become full of cultrual / historical / literary etc. trivia, and I'm worried that my brain can only hold a finite amount of information.

One day, one of you is going to tell me something particularly trivial that I never knew before, and the inclusion of that piece of knowledge is going to force out an earlier piece of stuff from my brain. Like how to talk or walk.

Damn. Stop telling me stuff!

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There is no music any more.
Music was assassinated on the 8th December 1980

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