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Oct 31, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
Tony Hinchcliffe’s categorically unfunny appearance at Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Madison Square Garden leaves me wishing that whoever discovered him left him sleeping in his car behind The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. (It’s how he opens the 12-minute set.)Most of the ensuing backlash targeted Hinchcliffe’s infantile reliance on racism as humor.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
Content warning: This piece discusses the topic of suicide. If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is available 24/7. The name Helen Palmer means little to most people. But you’ve certainly heard of Dr. Seuss, born as Theodor Geisel. The death of Geisel’s first wife, Helen Palmer, is a lesser-known episode in his life. Over their 40-year marriage, Helen, a children’s author herself, tirelessly supported her husband’s career.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
Rage often conceals hurt. The collective female rage in response to Sen. JD Vance using the “childless cat lady” archetype as an insult is driven by shared hurt at the mockery that reduces us to our reproductive capacity in a political context where women are already devalued. It demeans our dreams and aspirations outside motherhood. It seems small—but those three words carry so much emotional weight for us.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
The other woman helped me leave. I could have hated her. I only knew her from the texts I saw on his phone and photos I frantically scanned on Instagram: glossy black hair, bright eyes and caramel skin. Pensive in one picture, laughing and carefree in the next. A beautiful image of young womanhood that I was not. Shameful envy consumed me, magnifying my innermost insecurities, as I stared tearfully at her photos.
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Jun 6, 2024 | 
thewellguardian.com | Chloe Lee
The quest for an elixir of youth isn’t limited to the human realm. Dogs, our beloved furry companions and a popular model for studying aging, are now at the forefront of clinical trials for life-extending compounds. As the pet care industry booms, the race is on to develop longevity solutions that could keep our canine friends healthier and more youthful for longer.
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May 29, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
As the daughter of a more traditional Asian family, I am no stranger to smug comparisons between patriarchy in Asian cultures and Western progressivism. I recall my college professor saying: “Luckily, we’re not in China, where they just throw away all the girls.” Admittedly, we have strongly patriarchal tendencies in both China and India, where my forebears lived. Still, the patriarchy is just as alive in the United States as it is in Asia.
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Apr 30, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
My first year as a psychiatry resident has reinforced my longstanding belief that past behavior predicts future behavior. In the last few weeks, I’ve had an unusual load of suicide risk assessments post-suicide attempt, in which I delve into the devastating crevices of patients’ lives after one of the most horrific events they can experience. My suicide risk formulation looks something like this: understanding chronic (things we can’t change) vs.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
I hold many other identities than “Dr. Lee.” I once taught Sunday School. I love reading and community artwork. And I want to be a mother. Sublimating my excess maternal energy into my preschoolers, I tried to make my classroom feel cozy and fun. We made bracelets, colored beads representing different verses of the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father, who art in heaven,” pale blue). We played Memory Match to learn the 10 Commandments using homemade cards.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
The best thing that we as physicians can do is to believe women, holding their hands and offering our unconditional support as we guide them through the pain and connect them to the healthcare resources that suit their best interests. This includes access to safe, legal abortion, a narrow avenue for recourse that recent and current GOP candidates threaten to narrow further. But I am one doctor. There is only so much that I can do. I cannot single-handedly change our society.
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Feb 1, 2024 | 
msmagazine.com | Chloe Lee
In Roman mythology, the Trojan princess Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen of Troy, is cursed with making true predictions that no one believes after she rejects the sexual advances of the god Apollo. She tells the truth, but her family dismisses her as insane, locking her away. She is kidnapped during the fall of Troy, raped, forced into sexual servitude and later murdered, despite accurately warning everyone of these events.
