Steph Herold
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stephherold.bsky.social
Steph Herold
@stephherold.bsky.social
6.3K followers 1.2K following 340 posts
Researcher studying abortion on TV & film. Studying Jewish texts, autism, motherhood whenever I can. Indiscriminate dog lover. She/ her. All views are mine.
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stephherold.bsky.social
Quite a contrast to Hollywood's liberal reputation. Anyway, if you want to read more, our paper is open access and has a lot more (shocking! fascinating!) detail:

academic.oup.com/ccc/article/...
October 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
Love it! Here’s our very modest NYC backyard sukkah #zmansimchateinu
October 6, 2025 at 11:57 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
In my continued search to understand this parsha and this part in particular, I found this passage in Talmud - mascheket Chagigah 5a18 that seems to be saying - if you haven’t experienced God’s hiddenness, you aren’t really Jewish?? Which tracks but also 🤯 #parshachat
September 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
Finally reading Loretta Ross’s book on calling in, and thinking deeply about all the call outs I’ve instigated or participated in over the last decade+. Feeling deeply remorseful — not sure any of it led to positive change, and was absolutely from a place of pain/anger. Grateful for this framework.
A photo of an orange hardback book with black and white writing on it. The book is Calling In: how to start making change with those you’d rather cancel by Loretta Ross
September 7, 2025 at 5:54 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
I maintain than bullying Jews on the internet, or anywhere, will not free Palestine. This cruelty is not “collective liberation.” It’s antisemitism.
Screenshot of an email from an anonymous email address. Text reads: “Centering your white rich lady feelings when millions of people are being forcibly starved is disgusting. You should go cry about it in your million dollar house with your kids you hate and emotionally abuse, Steph.”
July 23, 2025 at 12:30 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
Closing out pride month with some gay Talmud. Thanks My Jewish Learning and happy pride to emperor Antoninus and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi!
A screenshot of an email about a section of Talmud in Masechet Avodah Zara that has some gay adjacent shenanigans between Emperor Antoninus and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi
June 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
It's hard to explain structural abortion stigma (esp in a way nonacademics can understand) --
@andreabeckerphd.bsky.social, @ushma.bsky.social, @leahrkoenig.bsky.social & colleagues don't just explain it, but share an intervention to disrupt it: telehealth!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Screen shot of the front of an academic article with the title, authors, and abstract. The title is: “It Was So Easy in a Situation That’s So Hard”: Structural Stigma and Telehealth Abortion Abstract: For decades, sociological research has examined the role of stigma in contributing to health disparities, yet such research seldom grapples with the interplay between individuals and structures. There is a particular paucity of research on abortion that concurrently examines individual experiences with stigma and structural barriers. In this article, we use telehealth abortion as a case, which now accounts for one in five abortions in the United States. We conducted 30 interviews and approach the data using a structural stigma framework in tandem with conceptualizations of felt, internalized, and enacted stigma. Findings advance a sociological theory of structural abortion stigma: a combination of structural barriers, internalized beliefs, and interpersonal shame. Telehealth reduces structural barriers to abortion and mitigates internal and interpersonal experiences of stigma. The latter is achieved by the ability to avoid the traditional abortion clinic, which many interviewees view as the site where stigma is produced and experienced.
January 9, 2025 at 4:12 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
Love this book (Subway by Christoph Niemann) for many reasons including this hilarious 1 train shade.
Illustrated page of a children’s book: black background d with a red subway line depicting the 1 NYC subway train. Three white stick figures yawn while looking at the train, saying “Boring!” The “o” in “boring” is the 1 red subway circle.
November 17, 2024 at 11:41 PM
stephherold.bsky.social
Still thinking about this delicious piece of Talmud that I saw on the other website a few days ago, in which the Rabbis say: no dude, you’re not entitled to sex with anyone. Please go die.
Text from the Talmud, Sanhedrin 75a: § Apropos the discussion of the obligation to allow oneself to be killed rather than engage in forbidden sexual intercourse, the Gemara notes that Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: There was an incident involving a certain man who set his eyes upon a certain woman and passion rose in his heart, to the point that he became deathly ill. And they came and asked doctors what was to be done with him. And the doctors said: He will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not engage in sexual intercourse with him. The doctors said: She should at least stand naked before him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not stand naked before him. The doctors suggested: The woman should at least converse with him behind a fence in a secluded area, so that he should derive a small amount of pleasure from the encounter. The Sages insisted: Let him die, and she may not converse with him behind a fence.
November 15, 2024 at 12:28 AM
stephherold.bsky.social
Relatable on every level. My sisters and I joke that this is us:
Meme that says: “When u have 2 do all the work in a group project” With headshots of Lin-Manuel Miranda as writer of the book, music, and lyrics “When u also have 2 present it” Another headshot of LMM starring as Alexander Hamilton
November 11, 2024 at 5:58 PM