Joycelyn Elders

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In January 1994 in the context of abortion, Elders said, "We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children." [9]

Later that year, she was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "As per your specific question in regard to masturbation, I think that is something that is a part of human sexuality and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught. But we've not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel that we have tried ignorance for a very long time and it's time we try education." [15]

Resignation

Elders' comments on masturbation caused great controversy and resulted in Elders losing the support of the White House. Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta, remarked, "There have been too many areas where the President does not agree with her views. This is just one too many." [1] In December 1994, Elders was forced to resign by President Clinton. [1] [16] [17] This led sex-positive retailer Good Vibrations in 1995 to proclaim May 28 as National Masturbation Day in honor of Elders' advocacy. [18] [19]

A collection of Elders' professional papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. [20]

Post-governmental activities

The Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health at Philander Smith College Philander Smith College Harry R. Kendall Center.jpg
The Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health at Philander Smith College

Since leaving her post as Surgeon General, Elders has returned to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as professor of pediatrics, and is currently professor emerita at UAMS. [21] She is a regular on the lecture circuit, speaking against teen pregnancy. She has appeared on TV in Penn and Teller: Bullshit! during the episode on abstinence, where she says that she considers abstinence-only programs to be child abuse and discusses her opinions on teenage sex education, masturbation and contraceptives. In 2009 Elders teamed up with the University of Minnesota to establish the nation's first chair in Sexual Health Education, a fund to attract and retain outstanding tenured sexual health education faculty in the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School. [22] She is interviewed in the 2013 documentary How to Lose Your Virginity on her opinions regarding comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only sex education. [23]

Elders was inducted into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame in 2016. [24]

In 2015, Philander Smith College, Elders' alma mater, established the Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health. [25]

In an October 15, 2010, article, she clearly voiced support for legalization of marijuana: [26]

I think we consume far more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarette smoking, nicotine and alcohol ... I feel they cause much more devastating effects physically. We need to lift the prohibition on marijuana.

In 1997, Elders published a memoir. [27]

She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1991. [6] She was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as an honoris causa initiate at SUNY Plattsburgh in 1996.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Duffy, Michael (December 19, 1994). "Getting Out the Wrecking Ball". Time. Archived from the original on August 12, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Joycelyn Elders, MD, 15th US Surgeon General". University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Biography: Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders". NLM/NIH. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Joycelyn Elders". Encyclopedia of World Biography. The Gale Group Inc. 2004. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  5. ↑ Dreifus, Claudia (January 30, 1994). "Joycelyn Elders". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  6. 1 2 "Chronicle". The New York Times. June 26, 1991.
  7. ↑ "Poor Mothers, Poorer Babies". New York Times. November 6, 1989.
  8. ↑ "M. Joycelyn Elders". Changing the Face of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 2003-10-14. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  9. 1 2 Dreifus, Claudia (January 30, 1994). "Joycelyn Elders". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ HEARING OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES, UNITED STATES SENATE ... ON M. JOYCELYN ELDERS, OF ARKANSAS. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1993. p. 50. ISBN   9780160446702 . Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  11. ↑ Cynthia Cotts (October 30, 1995). "The Crucifixion of Kevin Elders". Albion Monitor. Archived from the original on July 7, 1997. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Top Doc's Son Gets 10 Years". Time. August 29, 1994. Archived from the original on February 2, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
  13. ↑ "After the Storm, Still No Calm". New York Times. October 10, 1996. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  14. ↑ Elders v. State, 321 Ark. 60, 900 S.W.2d 170 (1995).
  15. ↑ Cannon, Carl (December 10, 1994). "Clinton fires surgeon general". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  16. ↑ Mitchell, Alison (November 6, 1996). "President Clinton Makes a Celebratory Return to His Starting Point in Arkansas". The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
  17. ↑ Dash, Leon (January 1997). "Joycelyn Elders: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
  18. ↑ "Clinton Fires Surgeon General Over New Flap". Los Angeles Times. December 10, 1994.
  19. ↑ Silver, Matty (April 14, 2015). "Make time for yourselves during National Masturbation Month in May" . Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Jocelyn Elders Surgeon-General Speech Collection 1992–1994". National Library of Medicine.
  21. ↑ Ambrose, Susan A. (1997). Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal Constants . Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN   1566395275.
  22. ↑ Program Human Sexuality (2016-07-15). "Joycelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education". Program in Human Sexuality − University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  23. ↑ Gray, Emma (May 7, 2012). "Therese Shechter, Director Of Film 'How To Lose Your Virginity,' Talks Female Sexuality, 'Purity' And The Virgin-Whore Complex". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  24. ↑ "Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders". Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  25. ↑ "Philander Forward". Philander Smith College. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022. Established August 27, 2015
  26. ↑ Nagourney, Adam (October 15, 2010). "U.S. Will Enforce Marijuana Laws, State Vote Aside". The New York Times .
  27. ↑ Joycelyn Elders, Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America, Harper Perennial (1997)
Joycelyn Elders
Joycelyn Elders official photo portrait.jpg
15th Surgeon General of the United States
In office
September 8, 1993 –December 31, 1994
United States Public Health Service (seal).svg
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