Meet Amy

I am a feminist ethnographer engaged in critical interdisciplinary research at the intersection of performance and sexual health. I summon the literature and methods of gender studies, performance studies, (medical) anthropology, and public health to examine inequities in reproductive health and to identify potential strategies.

I focus on how activists use the performing arts, paying particular attention to humor, to destigmatize taboo health topics and advocate for social justice.

I believe the university classroom is a key site for feminist praxis. My pedagogy seeks to apply feminist theory to students’ lived experiences. To achieve this, I emphasize concepts such as community building and reciprocal learning through arts-based activities. Based on my multi-disciplinary training and research background, I am equipped to teach courses on gender and performance, gender and health, as well as LGBTQ studies and health.

More About Amy
Articles

ARTICLES

2023 | DISSERTATION

UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Terror at the Clinic: Remembering, Performing, and Confronting Antiabortion Terror at Independent Clinics

Amy E. Alterman-Paradiso


“Terror at the Clinic: Remembering, Performing, and Confronting Antiabortion Terror at Independent Clinics” analyzes the obstacles, resiliencies, and support networks associated with independent abortion clinics. In the United States, more patients access abortion through independent clinics than through any other portal. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and countless other barriers, independent clinics across the United States have become increasingly threatened, with many shuttering their doors. The many arms of the antiabortion movement are primarily responsible for this. For decades they have terrorized clinics—providers and patients alike— evoking fear, inflicting violence, and catalyzing abortion stigma. With the impending peril of independent abortion clinics and increased difficulty in accessing their services, understanding their challenges, strengths, and needs emerges as a top priority.Using my ethnographic engagement with the nonprofit organization Abortion Access Front (AAF) as an entryway, my research demonstrates how the antiabortion movement terrorizes abortion clinics, providers, patients, and their communities. Drawing from feminist and performance theory, it explores the many ways clinics respond to this terror. By examining the work of AAF, I demonstrate how an arts activist nonprofit organization leverages humor to meet the needs of independent clinics and shift abortion discourses in the United States. To investigate the relationship between abortion stigma, fear, and comedy, I address the following questions: (1) How does terror characterize abortion access? (2) What is the experience of providing and accessing abortion at independent abortion clinics like, and what are the cultural implications of these experiences? (3) In addition to legislative advocacy, what are some of the ways in which activists and advocates in the public arena can confront/interrupt/mitigate the terror surrounding abortion? And, (4) more broadly, how can performance theory and practice help us better understand abortion access? Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork from over eighteen independent abortion clinics across the United States and countless AAF arts activist events and comedy shows (from June 2018- January 2020), my dissertation explores these questions in three parts. In Part One: Remembering Terror, I investigate the histories of violence at the clinic, ask how they compose the collective memory of terror, and explore the ways in which independent providers respond to them. In Part Two: Performing Terror, I address performances outside of the clinic, drawing primarily from my ethnographic experiences as a clinic escort. And in Part Three: Confronting Terror, I take a deep dive into how Abortion Access Front uses humor to confront antiabortion terror and support independent clinics. What results is a theory of terror in the clinic landscape: terror infuses everything regarding abortion access, and it needs to be understood in order to move forward and expand equitable access.

2020 | Peer-Reviewed Article

Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture

“The Ripping Apart of Silence”: Sonic Patriarchy and Anti-Abortion Harassment

Rebecca Lentjes, Amy E. Alterman, and Whitney Arey


This article explores the gendered sound world of anti-abortion protests outside U.S. abortion clinics. These clinics are spaces of dissent where, on a daily basis, protesters congregate to vocalize their opposition to abortion. We employ the concept of sonic patriarchy, the sonic counterpart to the male gaze, to explore how anti-abortion protesting dominates the aural space surrounding abortion clinics and is used as a vehicle for controlling gendered bodies. Protesters use megaphones, speakers, and yelling to infuse the soundscape of the abortion clinic with an overwhelming cacophony that people must enter to receive care. This article reconceptualizes how we think about sound and violence by emphasizing how the everyday sounds of anti-abortion protesting are perceived and experienced as violence by people seeking abortion services. This domination of the sound world engenders a form of nonconsensual listening, in which it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to ignore the sonic performances of protesters. We also discuss the additional labor that clinic staff and volunteers must provide to shield patients against this volume of sound, as well as the affective and physical consequences of entering this sound world to receive healthcare. Furthermore, we describe the inherent difficulties in regulating sound and the importance of understanding the intent and context of sound-making in identifying certain sounds as violent. We argue for a more rigorous regulation of sound-making outside of clinics, as it perpetuates not only abortion stigma but also gendered sonic violence on all people who enter abortion clinics.

2020 | PEER-REVIEW ARTICLE

Contraception

Seeking the female (internal) condom in retail pharmacies: Experiences of adolescent mystery callers

Ruth Hsu, Paula Tavrow, Jasmine Uysal, and Amy E. Alterman


Background: Female (internal) condoms could be viable alternatives to male (external) condoms. Our objective was to describe barriers that adolescent mystery callers encountered when trying to access female condoms in U.S. pharmacies.

Methods: In mid-2016, university students seeking "condoms for girls" called retail pharmacies in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah. We evaluated differences in product availability and callers' experiences by pharmacy type.

Results: Of our final sample (n=1475), only eight outlets (0.5%), all national chains, definitely stocked female condoms. Of those not (or probably not) stocking female condoms, 11% tried to be helpful (e.g., offered to special order), 59% made no substantive comment, and 30% were unhelpful (e.g., dismissive, rude, gave wrong information). National chain employees were significantly more unhelpful (34% vs 22%, p< .01).

Conclusion: Almost no pharmacies in four southwestern states stocked female condoms in mid-2016. Pharmacy staff frequently were unhelpful, which could deter adolescent use of female condoms even if new types become available.

2019 | PEER-REVIEW ARTICLE

Journal of Adolescent Health

Availability and Accessibility of Emergency Contraception to Adolescent Callers in Pharmacies in Four Southwestern States

Jasmine Uysal, Paula Tavrow, Ruth Hsu, and Amy Alterman


Purpose: To evaluate the availability and accessibility of emergency contraception (EC) to adolescents in U.S. pharmacies across four Southwestern states, 3 years after the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed age restrictions for over-the-counter sales of levonorgestrel-only pills.

Methods: Using a mystery-caller approach, we trained male and female data collectors to phone pharmacies posing as 16-year-olds who wanted to prevent a pregnancy after recent unprotected sex. From April to May 2016, they called 1,475 randomly selected retail pharmacies in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Utah and completed an online survey about their experience. Caller data were analyzed by state and pharmacy type (i.e., national chains, regional outlets, and individually owned outlets).

Results: Of pharmacies contacted, 80.6% had EC available at the time of the call. Availability of EC varied by state (p < .01) and pharmacy type (p < .01), but not by rural/urban location. Even where EC was available, pharmacy personnel often hindered youths' access to EC by mentioning incorrect point-of-sale restrictions, keeping EC in restrictive store locations, or asking personal questions. Individually owned outlets presented significantly more barriers than larger chains. Overall, EC was completely accessible to an adolescent caller in only 28% of pharmacies. Lower EC accessibility was found in states with higher teen pregnancy rates.

Conclusions: This study found that EC is still not sufficiently available or accessible to adolescents in Southwestern states. Differences in accessibility vary significantly by state and pharmacy type and may be a contributor to teen pregnancy rates.

2018 | PEER-REVIEW ARTICLE

Queer Cats Journal of LGBTQ Studies

Performing Research in the Closeted City: One Lesbian Researcher’s Autoethnographic Journey toward LGBTQ-Inclusive Sex Education in Atlanta, Georgia

Amy E. Alterman


Amy E. Alterman’s “Performing Research in the Closeted City: One Lesbian Researcher’s Autoethnographic Journey toward LGBTQ-Inclusive Sex Education in Atlanta, Georgia” traces her experiences as an ethnographer in the field to examine how performances of silence inform sex education in Atlanta, GA. Using Eve Kosofsky Sedjwick’s theorization of the closet, Alterman explores the many silences simultaneously operating around sex education and LGBTQ-inclusive topics in sex education to consider abstinence-centered advocates as closeted professionals who are reluctant to engage in public dialogue about sex education.

2021 | WEB BASED ARTICLE

UCLA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN

Abortion AF: Introducing Abortion Access Front’s Comedy-based Health Intervention

Amy E. Alterman


Meeting AAF

June 22nd, 2018, Columbus, Ohio. It’s my opening night in Abortion Access Front’s traveling comedy show “Abortion AF: The Tour.”[1] No, I am not a performer in the show, but researchers have opening nights too. The members of Abortion Access Front (AAF) describe themselves as a pro-abortion[2] “coven of hilarious badass feminists who use humor and pop culture to expose the haters fighting against reproductive rights.”[3] “Abortion AF: The Tour” is their annual multi-city, stand-up comedy show that celebrates independent abortion providers while strengthening their local community support networks….

2020 | WEB BASED ARTICLE

MEDIUM

We won. Now what? Support Indie Clinics

Amy E. Alterman


Waking up on June 29th to 15-plus text messages linking to the SCOTUS decision in June Medical Services v. Russo was thrilling. After immediately jumping up-and-down shouting “yes, yes, yes,” I exhaled a hefty sigh of relief. Like many, I’d anxiously awaited this decision for months, pessimistic that Lousiana would be the first state without an abortion clinic…