Jill's Writing

Jill Zimmerman Rutledge M.S.W., LCSW is the author of several articles on women, the media and body image, as well an article on breast cancer survival. Her writing has been featured on Stop-Bullies.com, The Humanist magazine, Mothering magazine, and The Chicago Tribune. Jill's articles have been reprinted in numbers books and magazines, including Perspectives on Women’s Health, 1st Edition (Coursewise), Eating Disorders: Contemporary Issues Companion (Greenhaven Press), and Be a Body Wise Woman (Melpomene Institute).

Articles about Body Image

An Image to Heal
printed in the January/February 1997 edition of The Humanist.

The idea that we can--and should--accept our natural body types is a relatively new concept. For over a century, newspapers and magazines have been deluging Americans with images of ideal beauty, and only strict emulation of these ideaels has been sanctioned as attractive. Read More...

Our Bodies, Our Daughers
printed in the spring of 1997 in Mothering magazine.

In this day and age, raising daughters is a big responsibility, and perhaps because I am the mother of sons as well as a psychoterapist for young women, I can both stay objective and feel the heat of this burning point. Burning, because despite the feminist gains of the 20ths century, girls today are in danger of having their wings singed as they navigate their way to womanhood. Read More...

Articles about Breast Cancer

Masecotomy is a Personal Decision
Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1999

Is the increased incidnce of breast cancer due to better detection technology, a decreased age of menarche, or a diet too high in fat? We don't really know for sure. What we do know is that breast cancer is treatable if it's caught early, and is often a death sentence if it's not.

How do you guarantee early detection? As I was getting my roots touched up at the salon last week, the woman sitting next to me shared this sobering story: A friend with a strong family history of breast cancer got mammograms every six months. Even with all that diligence, her breast cancer had spread to lymph nodes before it was finally detected. Should this woman have been counseled to have had a preventive mastectomy? Perhaps it would have made her chemotherapy ordeal a lot easier, and her prognosis a lot more positive.

Read More...