December 2005 Archives

I have to give some props to my boyfriend for getting me my favorite holiday gift this year: The Subtle Safety Defensive Ring.

This ring is so bad ass. It looks like a normal ring, but it actually folds out into a self defense device--kind of like mini brass knuckles. Awesome.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to kick some New Year's Eve ass.

This just makes me want to barf. Pottery Barn Kids has taken the initiative not only to perpetuate gender roles, but sell it for a shitload of money.

The company’s new “Retro Kitchen Sets” has done extremely well in sales this holiday season, even considering the pricing, which ranges between $250 and $650. (By the way, this kitchen is purely for play.)

The kitchen set is (of course) in their “girls’ rooms” section, which comes separately with a washer, dryer and vacuum; in short, they decided to gather every domestic household item they could think of and throw it into the girls' section of the site.

As for the boys, they have a number of different themed rooms to choose from, including the “airplanes bedroom,” the “trains playroom,” and the “thomas sports playroom.”

When asked about the kitchen set only being included in the “girls’ rooms” section, company spokesperson Lauren Nelson replied, “I think girls tend to be better at domestic play. Boys have tool sets and train sets.”

WOW. Is it just me, or do you hear the theme song from "Leave It To Beaver?"

While we’ve raised the issue of midwifery before and questioned how necessary hospitals really are when it comes to natural childbirth, a recent study has found that coaching during labor may be unnecessary, even possibly harmful.

The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published the study in their January issue, which was conducted in at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. It was there that they split 320 pregnant women into “coached” and “uncoached” groups. In the end, the only variation between the two groups was that the coached women endured thirteen minutes less of labor time than the uncoached.

So where does coaching become potentially harmful? Some months later, the women who were coached during childbirth had less bladder capacity and more overactive bladder muscles than the others. These symptoms may potentially contribute to incontinence.

While the researchers didn’t conclude that coaching is truly dangerous for women, they have said that letting them “labor down” -- otherwise giving them more control over the pace of the delivery -- may be used as a potential alternative.

The new A&E show Rollergirls is airing on Monday, and I’ll admit I’m very curious find out what the show will actually be about.

On one hand, the huge billboard ad I saw in the middle of Manhattan was pretty ridiculous; all of the rollergirls were lined up, looking like Miss “Punky Bruiser” above in their schoolgirl skirts and busty boobies. Just check out the website. On the other hand, these ladies look like some kick-ass bitches who I would normally be a number one fan of.

The thing is, can we really expect much from a show that comes from the same producers as Laguna Beach?

Side note: Make sure to check out the Gotham Girls Roller Derby, New York’s only all-female roller derby league. It’s interesting to see the pics on their site and the difference between what’s real and what’s marketed.

Check out this article from USA Today about women’s rivalry in the workplace: Are we conditioned to be catty or just as competitive as the next Joe? Here’s a snippet:

The feminist movement that took root in the 1960s embraced the concept of women as standing shoulder-to-shoulder in their effort to open new doors in male-dominated businesses.

But today, with the number of women in the labor force at record numbers, another question is being raised: In the workplace, are women sometimes their own worst enemies?

It's the topic of a book, "I Can't Believe She Did That! Why Women Betray Other Women at Work", which was released in October and has attracted articles in international publications. The book by journalist Nan Mooney, based on interviews with more than 100 women, concludes that women often shy away from direct conflict and instead engage in unhealthy competition — talking behind one another's backs, sabotaging success, feeling threatened by other women — that can be detrimental to all women in the workforce.

Calling all babymakers!

Due to the severe declining birth rates in Poland, the new government has recently introduced legislation that will compensate women -- in dough -- for each child that they bear. Lower-class women will receive even double the amount.

Women’s groups in Poland have said it will be unsuccessful and that the country should follow Sweden and France’s footsteps by providing better childcare facilities for working parents and increased paternity leave.

Thoughts?

That might as well be the title of Kate O'Beirne’s new anti-feminist book. Instead the former vice president of the Heritage Foundation (so you know it’s going to be good) decided to go with a slightly more verbose title: Women Who Make the World Worse and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports.

Oh is that all? Damn, ladies; we need to step it up! So many institutions to destroy, so little time.

The Ashton Kutcher-produced show Beauty and the Geek is wrong on so many levels, but it’s this promotional poster that truly disturbed me.

Any thoughts? (And be careful what you say; my boobs are watching.)

I’m all for making fixing your car fun, but this is a bit nutty. I mean, does this company really think that slapping some pink on tools will make women want them more?

My new favorite tech and product blog Popgadget hits the nail on the head:

They look more like ‘Barbie does tools’ than anything that you would want to seriously whip out in case of a car emergency. If you got caught using one of these things in public, wouldn't you be somewhat embarrassed?

But hey, if you really like pink go for it I guess. Just don't be surprised when someone laughs at the cutesy bag for the jumper cables.

A new survey by Podtrac says that 78 percent of people who have ever listened to a podcast are men. But women aren’t far behind--the 12 percent of women who had listened to podcasts were more likely to have listened to them recently.

Podtrac CEO Mark McCrery says “the fact that so many women who have listened to podcasts have done so recently signals the beginning of a trend toward a more balanced gender composition of the podcast audience. It's also reflective of the ever-increasing variety of podcast content with broadening appeal.”

Another recent study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that women are using the internet more than men, particularly young women.

The report, "How Women and Men Use the Internet," examined use by both sexes, looking at what men and women are doing online as well as their rate of adopting new Web-based technologies.

“I think the real interesting story is the young women, because that is the one age cohort where there are many more women online,” said Deborah Fallows, who wrote the report based on findings from surveys conducted over the past five years. “The younger women are just much more comfortable with the Internet.”

The study reports that 86 percent of women 18-29 years-old use the internet, compared to 80 percent of men the same age.

I have to admit, I don’t listen to podcasts more than a couple of times a month. Anyone know any good podcasts dealing with women’s and gender issues? (Besides the much-missed Sex Talk, of course. Sigh.)

No one likes a bad marriage (I hope), but it’s women who bearing the physical brunt of relationships gone wrong.

Researchers say that say long-term anger and hostility between partners is much more dangerous for women than men and can impair our immune system and put us at risk for depression, high blood pressure and even heart disease.

Ouch. The good news? Women in happy marriages are healthier.

Women in Jordan are increasing their efforts to get a 20 percent quota of seats in local councils reserved for women.

Mai Abu Samen, head of the Jordanian National Forum for Women (JNFW), said that “a quota for women will help increase their political participation and bring desired reforms,” and could potentially double women’s current political representation.

For more info on women’s political participation and the effectiveness of quotas, check out the Gender and Governance program at the Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

Not.

More than 25 percent of young women in the U.S. douche regularly. Why ladies, why?!

Douching is believed to raise the risk of bacterial infections and cause pregnancy complications. Plus it’s just gross.

Thankfully, new research shows that it’s relatively easy to educate young women on the dangers of douching and convince them to give it up.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that three quick counseling sessions with young women at their clinic were enough to persuade nearly half to give up douching.

...One year into the study, 49 percent of the young women who received information on douching said they had not douched in the past 3 months.

Now if we could just do something about that creepy “vaginal cleansing film” we’d be all set.

Please tell me this is a joke.

One of the greatest female sartorial dilemmas - 'does my bum look big in this?' - is to be answered by a team of researchers.

Experts are launching what is thought to be the world's first scientific study into how clothing can affect the appearance of the female rear.

The team from Heriot Watt University's School of Textiles and Design in Scotland believes the study could have major implications for retailers.

Female volunteers wearing hundreds of different types of clothing will have their rears photographed for the study.

I mean, I get that they’re design folks but don’t they have anything better to study? Ew.

Weird thing: While doing a Google search for the infamous Sir Mix-A-Lot song, I found this gem of a Christian spoof: Baby got Book. (Oh my goodness, Becky, look at her Bible...It is so big. She looks like one of those preacher guys girlfriends...)

A new reports shows that black women living in poor neighborhoods are less likely to get pap smears than women in more affluent neighborhoods.

"Even among women who were professionals or who were educated, they, too, had decreased screening if they lived in neighborhoods with high poverty," said study author Geetanjali Dabral Datta, a postgraduate fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The report appears in the Feb. 1 issue of Cancer.

In their study, Datta and her colleagues focused on the connection between socioeconomic factors and how they affected cervical cancer screening, most notably the Pap smear. They collected data on more than 40,000 black women from across the United States. These women all participated in the Black Women's Health Study of Boston University and Howard University.

What makes this report even more troubling is that black women have twice the mortality rate from cervical cancer as white women. This gap in cancer screening rates could be a contributing factor to this.

The reasons why certain women aren’t getting screened for cervical cancer remains unclear, Datta says. She speculates that it could be lack of access to transportation or child care. Datta also believes that the same trend might be seen in other kinds of preventative health measures like mammography and cardiovascular testing.

“There needs to be a focus on high poverty neighborhoods," she says. "We need to think of people's socioeconomic context when it comes to health behaviors.”

A new poll published in the Okaz daily claims that 60 percent of Saudis think women should be allowed to drive.

These results come two days after Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz told reporters that he believed it was fine for women to drive. (So long as their fathers, husbands and brothers approved, of course. Ugh.)

Ms. magazine announced their top ten news stories for women this year. Check them out here.

Agree or disagree? Any additions?

From the Abstinence Clearinghouse:

Want a unique giveaway item for your next class or abstinence presentation? These suckers, in cherry flavor, are a fun way to get the message to teens: Don't Be a Sucker! Save Sex For Marriage.

I realize this is slightly old news (that will teach us for taking days off!), but it’s too important not to post on.

Mattel—maker of American Girl products—has decided not to renew their partnership with Girls, Inc. when it ends this year. Girls, Inc. and American Girl caused quite the controversy with their collaborative “I Can” campaign. Because these people are ignorant assholes.

Pam at Pandagon has more.

New research from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that women who take oral contraceptives may be lowering their short-term risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

The study, published in Archives of Neurology, reports that the incidence of MS was 40 percent lower in those taking oral contraceptives compared to those who weren’t.

Researchers compared 106 women who had a new diagnosis of MS between January 1993 and December 2000 with 1,001 other women without MS. Information was taken from the British General Practice Research Database.

Women were also found to have a lower risk of MS during pregnancy, but a higher risk in the six months after having a baby - compared to those who were not pregnant.

Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, affects women twice as much as it affects men.

247Gay reports that Portia De Rossi has been voted one of the ten sexiest women on television.

The poll, which asks avid television viewers their opinions on several aspects of the medium, clocks De Rossi at number nine, a rare bright spot of news for the show given FOX’s recent announcement it was pulling [Arrested] Development from its line-up.

De Rossi, whose headline grabbing romance with Ellen DeGeneres peaked earlier this year with a cover story in The Advocate, made the list with a prestigious line-up of women, including Alias star Jennifer Garner and Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria, who topped the list.

Good for her. But then here comes the worst frat-boy quote ever to kill it:

Writer Mark Runyon further touted De Rossi’s sex appeal by saying, “Did I mention her affiliation with the lesbian party? Every guy knows that just multiplies a woman's sexiness, imagination running amok with possibilities.”

I’m sure all the lesbians out there will just squeal with delight when they hear that guys think they’re hot. (As long as they look like De Rossi, of course.) Ick.

Cause god forbid women have one goddamn place left to exercise their legal right to choose.

Anti-choice activists are attempting to completely eradicate any semblance of reproductive rights in their Mississippi--they are trying to shut down the state’s last women’s health clinic that provides abortions.

The Jackson Women's Health Organization, which treats more than 3,000 women a year statewide, said a setback would not mean defeat and may only put the issue back in front of a judge. The clinic, which is still operating, risks having to scale back the kinds of abortion it can perform.

"We have no intention of leaving and we intend to continue to provide the services that we're providing," said Susan Hill, president of the North Carolina-based National Women's Health Organization. "It won't be easy, but we're staying."

The clinic is waiting to heart if the Department of Health has granted them new certification; in the meantime anti-choice groups have been doing their best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

More from the Associated Press.

Feministing is off celebrating the season. We will resume posting on Tuesday, December 27th.

We all hope you have happy holidays and a peaceful new year.

Is to have these people shot.

Well, not really, but these definitely may be the most offensive and infuriating shirts I've ever seen. Just check out the new products on their homepage, and be prepared to gag.

What really pisses me off is that they seem to think that labeling the shirts as "offensive" somehow makes it okay for them to sell.

Thanks to Jen for pointing out this garbage.

A feminist sorority--you can’t make this shit up.

Salon has a piece today on Zeta Omega Eta, a feminist sorority at Connecticut’s Trinity College. I don’t know much about sororities--I think I was one of a handful of freshman girls who didn’t rush. But any kind of feminist group is cool with me.

But no matter how nontraditional this sorority is, there’s one thing about Zeta Omega Eta that seems all too familiar. Check out the pic that accompanies the article and you'll see what I mean.

since the tsunami. And according to this Sharia judge the tsunami hit because of women.

MARLUDDIN JALIL, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: “The tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.”

Thundering into a microphone at a gathering of wives, he made clear where he felt the fault lay: “The Holy Koran says that if women are good, then a country is good.”

A year after the disaster which many see as a divine punishment, emboldened Islamic hardliners are doing their best to eradicate sin — and women are their prime targets.

If we can get away from the hoo haa Muslims are eeeevil language of the article, this does give us something to think about. To update on last weeks post about how women are more affected by natural disasters, what have the local effects of the tsunami been on women?

Clearly in this part of Indonesia, not so good. Read the article.
via Times UK...

This is awful. At least they got the settlement.

Nine women with mental disabilities who were sterilized at a psychiatric hospital in British Columbia will share a $450,000 settlement reached with the provincial government.

The women were sterilized while they were patients at the Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in nearby Coquitlam between 1940 and 1968.

The case has been pending since 2001.

The lawsuit in B.C. alleged the sterilizations were done for the convenience of the hospital without any scientific evidence supporting the belief that children of the patients would inherit serious mental disabilities. It also alleged the sterilizations were a violation of each patient's sexual privacy and was considered an assault.

The public guardian operates under provincial laws to protect the legal rights and financial and personal interests of individuals who cannot protect themselves.

Um yeah, you think?

The lawsuit by former player Jennifer Harris filed in federal district court in Harrisburg accused Portland of discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation. The university and athletic director Tim Curley were also named as defendants.

Harris, who is black, said in the filing that Portland repeatedly asked her to change her appearance to look more "feminine."

"In pursuing her discriminatory policy -- known as 'no drinking, no drugs, no lesbians' -- Ms. Portland has particularly targeted players who are African-American," Harris' attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, according to a copy of the filing provided by one of her lawyers, Karen Doering, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Harris' attorneys have said that while the player is not gay, she was perceived to be gay by her former coach.

The University and the coach have declined comment at this point.

via Sports Illustrated (yeah I know...)

The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, has filed a lawsuit to stop Illinois from requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception.

Grrr.

The rule, imposed by Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this year, requires that pharmacies “must accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay.” Blagojevich also created a toll free number where women can report non-compliant pharmacies.

But the right-wing Christian organization is arguing that this violates pharmacists’ rights. (Women? Who are they?)

From the org’s website: Doctors, nurses and pharmacists should not be compelled to violate their conscience and participate in an abortion procedure.

Wow. I had no idea that women were looking for over-the-counter abortions! Please. (And don’t forget, a good number of these “conscience clause” pharmacists actually refused to fill prescriptions for birth control, not just emergency contraception.)

Women still live an average of four years longer than men, but it seems the boys are catching up. Or is that women are becoming more unhealthy?

Medical experts say women are working harder, smoking more and undergoing more stress, which leads to the No. 1 killer -- heart disease.

"We are getting equality in ways we may not want," said Dr. Sharon Brangman, a board member of the American Geriatrics Society.

...over the last 10 years, the average annual rate of improvement for men has been 2 percent; for women, it's slightly less than 1 percent, the index shows.

For the 22 years covered by the index, the expected average lifetime for men has gone up by 3.7 years; women's climbed only 1.7 years.

Why not a dildo cozy?

Via Nerve.

Don’t blame me; it isn’t my headline: Women seize power from lazy men

Women in a Croatian village have seized power from their lazy menfolk in local elections.

After their success, the women of Lozisca on the island of Brac vowed "to let the men back into our beds, but never back into politics".

They won all seven seats on the local council after deciding they were sick of seeing the village men doing nothing for the community.

Merica Bogdan, one of the seven women who was elected to serve on the local council, told local media: "The time has come for women to rule.

"We were not satisfied with the work the men did for the community and we launched a campaign to take political power and do something good for Lozisca.

Good for them; but damn are they harsh! And how do the men feel about the political coup?

Tonko Valerijev, whose wife Helena is the newly-elected head of the local council, said: "They are a lot more persistent in their work than their predecessors. Frankly, they're doing a great job."

Scariest headline ever on Alito from Bloomberg News: Alito Would Likely Be Religion's Best Friend on U.S. High Court

Great. Say bye bye to the separation of Church and State.

You gotta love Katha Pollitt.

In response to yesterday’s Broadsheet story about Saks Fifth Avenue’s less-than-classy shopping event, Pollitt sent the following letter to the store manager:

I am writing to express my shock and outrage at Saks Fifth Avenue’s “Shop with a Bunny” Day on December 7. To have these half-naked breast implantees taking men around to shop for their wives and other women is an insult to the women whose patronage has made your store prosperous and successful-- to say nothing of the women who work there and had to smile their way through this sexist spectacle, and the women who will be the recipients of Christmas gifts purchased not with love but with a frat-boy leer. I guess the joke will be on them. (Perhaps you are not aware that women are making fun of “Shop with a Bunny” Day on the Internet. Check out the item at www.salon. com.)

My mother and grandmother thought shopping at Saks was the height of elegance and style. I used to think that too. From now on I will take my shopping dollars to stores that respect the women who keep them in business.

You have lost me as a customer forever.

If you’d also like to write a letter, get the store manager’s contact info here.

The website that featured yesterday’s classy abstinence product of the day is clearly the funniest/most disturbing thing ever.

Geared towards teenage girls, Proknowledge.org touts itself as “helping woman of all ages get straight facts on relationships, sex, birth control, teen pregnancy, abortion STDs and more.” In reality the site is just a sneaky anti-choice, anti-sex group trying to appeal to what they think teen girls would like.

Pandagon and Feministe pointed out the scary though hysterical advice the site gives on relationships and sex. Outside of building your perfect guy (cause gays are just a myth), the most horrible feature on this pink-toned monstrosity of a website is the marriage section.

It was the True or False Marriage Quiz that really got to me. Here are just a few of the false and potentially dangerous messages the site is sending young women:

This is just creepy. Broadsheet reports that the upscale department store Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City launched a shopping event designed to get more men to spend big bucks--Shop with a Bunny. Sigh.

The store actually hired Playboy playmates to shop with the male customers. From Rebecca at Broadsheet:

According to Sun reporter David Lombino, it worked; a bunch of sharp-looking guys in pinstripes showed up to be led around the store by playmates. "We've got bankers and we've got construction workers here tonight," playmate Jennifer Wolcott from St. Louis told the Sun. And playmate/veterinarian Colleen Marie described a recent five-month bus tour of the nation as a whirlwind of "shopping and pajama pillow fights."

No kidding! Pillow fights! I wonder if they also gave each other massages and brushed each other's hair and licked a lot of lollipops and then made out?

Indeed. When did Saks turn into frigging Hooters?

I love the idea that someone would put this poster up in their teen daughter's room. Forget about being pregnant--I wouldn't want to tell my dad anything with bug eyes like that. It looks like lasers are about shoot out of those motherfuckers. And is that a halo around his head? Shiver.

Amazingly, the President still hasn’t answered this question.

38 members of Congress, led by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), sent President Bush a letter asking him whether he is for or against birth control.

This is the fourth letter sent to Bush on the subject since White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan refused to answer this question earlier in the year.

“I thought that in the 21st century, answering a straightforward question about birth control would be easy, but apparently it isn't for the Leader of the Free World," said Maloney. "I was hoping that the president would be able to answer whether or not he supports birth control in less than 165 days. Since we received no response, we have to ask again.”

I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Federal researchers say that more American women are having children they didn't want--women surveyed in 2002 said that 14 percent of their recent births were unwanted. In 1995, only 9 percent were unwanted.

The reason behind these numbers is unclear. Of course anti-choice groups are claiming the survey as a victory, saying that the research indicates a “pro-life shift” in the nation. (Leave it to anti-choicers to think unwanted kids are a good thing.)

Others--like myself--believe that the research reflects the rollback of reproductive rights and decreased access to contraception and abortion. For example, the Guttmacher Institute says that the number of abortion providers in the U.S. has fell steadily in the last ten years, from 2,400 in 1992 to 1,800 in 2000. Lawrence Finer, Guttmacher’s associate director for domestic research, noted in the LA Times that the increase of government restrictions have made it more and more difficult to provide abortions.

Oh and get this:

The proportion of unwanted births at time of conceptions was highest among girls under 18 -- 25.4 percent. It was lowest among women 30 to 44 -- 10.4 percent.

I’m sure that has nothing to do with abstinence education, limited access to contraception and the almost impossible hurdles teens have to jump to get abortions. Nah, they must have just run into the Fetus Tree or something and went through a “pro-life shift.” Sigh.

Germany is clearly expecting a hell of a lot of sex work going on during the 2006 World Cup.

Prostitution is legal only in designated areas in Germany, hence the oh-so-helpful "no prostitutes here" signs. The signs are supposed to stop fans from bothering women who aren't sex workers and stop sex workers from moving out of the legal areas.

Working girl or not, I think we can all agree with the sign's sentiment that thigh-high boots are not acceptable under any circumstances.

<img src="http://feministing.com/imageStorage/imageStorage/imageStorage/imageStorage/herpeskills" > <br />

<a href="http://proknowledge.org/" TARGET=NEW>Herpes kills!</a> (Kiss, kiss.)

New research says that many seven to 11 year-old girls maim and destroy their Barbie dolls. Duh.

Many girls thought it "cool" to mutilate Barbie because she was just a "plastic" doll, according to the Bath University study of 100 youngsters.

Dr Agnus Nairn said: "It's as though disavowing Barbie is a rite of passage."

I certainly have memories of cutting of my Barbie dolls’ hair into buzz cuts and twisting their heads and bodies into unnatural positions. I believe I even gave one a black eye with some nail polish. I never fucked with any of my other toys or dolls--just Barbie. Curious.

Any other Barbie-maimers out there?

Cause nothing says holidays like a tree decorated with plastic fetuses.

A women-only gym in Kansas, Body Boutique, is causing quite the uproar after putting up a fetus tree in the gym lobby. Yeah, you heard right. The tree was put up along with informational pamphlets from a local anti-choice organization, Birthright of Lawrence.

The tree contained a dozen blue and pink stockings, each stuffed with a plastic figure and attached card that labeled the dolls as being “between 11 and 12 weeks old.”

The tree also held coupons for Birthright videos, pamphlets and children’s clothes. Other coupons included savings on a video titled “After the Choice,” another video showing abortion procedures, a brochure on the morning-after pill and a card that offered quart-size, press-and-seal plastic bags.

Birthright of Lawrence intended that people take a figure home in exchange for a $5 donation.

Gym co-owner Lorinda Hartzler said she is unsure if she will keep the tree up; several women have already canceled their memberships in opposition.

Seriously--working out isn’t enough of a pain in the ass without having to stare at creepy tree-fetuses? Ugh.

...when it starts like this:

We’re comfortable enough in the workforce that women are choosing to stay home with their children. Wildly popular seminars are held to teach people how to make us orgasm. Given these developments, it’s not unreasonable to wonder about the purpose of a unified feminism in today’s society.

Yeah, ladies! Now that a small group of elite women can stay at home with their kids and pay for sex seminars, the fight is over. Whew, I'm glad that someone told me. Thanks, Harvard!

Hundreds of poor rural women in Bangladesh descended on the capital Dhaka on December 7 to say 'no' to the WTO negotiations currently being held in Hong Kong.

Supported by Christian Aid partner, UBINIG, women from the countryside carrying earthen pots and bamboo winnowers were joined in Dhaka by garment workers, professionals, artists, singers and housewives.

The protestors called on governments to be more accountable to people when signing WTO agreements perceived by many in Bangladesh as being ‘anti-people’, but especially ‘anti-women’.

‘We are against unfair and unjust WTO Agreements. We do not understand whose agreements these are which have such negative impacts on our lives and on the lives of our future generation.’

Hells yeah! Issues include land rights, seed patents, corporate take over of rice crops/fields, pesticides and chemical fertilizers that are running off into water supplies, garment worker rights and conditions and water privitization.

Basically nothing about agreements with the WTO are good for the local people, especially women who bear the brunt of a gendered division of labor since they are the ones working on the fields and in the factories. These women rock.

via Reuters.

This is terrible.

Eight women sued the state Health Department on Friday, alleging officials received complaints about a gynecologist for years but did not suspend his license until after he had abused scores of other patients.

A jury convicted Charles Momah last month of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent liberties. He faces up to 23 years in prison when sentenced next month.

The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court seeks class-action status, saying at least 60 and perhaps as many as 500 women were abused by Momah and his twin, who has been accused of posing as the doctor. No criminal charges have been brought against the brother, who has denied the allegations.

I can't believe it took this many incidents of abuse to get people to investigate. Fucking typical.

via AP.

Global Fund for Women just released a report looking at the aftermath of several natural disasters world wide this year to find that women have been disproportionately affected.

Women face a variety of hardships during and after natural disasters, according to the report, "Caught in the Storm," released Tuesday by the San Francisco-based Global Fund for Women, an international human rights group. These include increased incidence of rape and domestic abuse, insufficient focus on women's health needs by disaster relief groups, and the exclusion of women from critical rebuilding and reconstruction efforts.

"We know that in the best of times, women have a hard time ensuring their economic security and protecting their livelihood," said Kavita Ramdas, president of the Global Fund, in a phone interview. "In the context of disasters, that vulnerability gets exacerbated."

The report's findings were based on firsthand accounts provided by women in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Guatemala, Pakistan and the U.S.

NARAL Pro-Choice America has just issued a new report on Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito’s record on reproductive rights.

The report maintains that if Alito is confirmed, it is likely that he will have (and possibly take) the opportunity to dismantle or overturn Roe v. Wade. NARAL President Nancy Keenan states:

This report outlines why our cherished rights depend on judges who share our values: freedom and personal responsibility, and a legal philosophy that government and politicians shouldn't insert themselves into our most personal, private decisions. . . Samuel Alito has tried to ensure that without explicitly overturning Roe, Roe is no longer understood to be a guarantee of reproductive freedom and justice. The nomination of Alito tests whether Roe will be a mantelpiece memory, or a meaningful part of our Constitution. Americans know that Alito's legal philosophy would result in an America in which 'the constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.'

Click here for the full report.

In order to weaken your opponent in this game, you apparently have to take a picture of her underwear. I wonder how many real photo-snapping pervs this one will produce.

Not too long after the decision was made to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the House and Senate have developed a finalized bill to be approved by the year's end:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) today announced a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The agreement is expected to be approved by the Senate today and the House soon thereafter. The VAWA reauthorization is included in H.R. 3402, which authorizes Justice Department programs for fiscal years 2006-2009 and implements much-needed reforms to the Department's grant programs.

Chairman Sensenbrenner commented, ‘The reauthorization of VAWA will continue the tradition of changing attitudes toward domestic violence and will expand its focus to changing attitudes toward other violent crimes including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This legislation reauthorizes important core programs such as 'STOP' grants and grants to reduce campus violence that have been successful in combating domestic violence and sexual assault.’

Click here to check out the highlights of H.R. 3402.

A new study has found that tea-drinkers may reduce their risks of developing ovarian cancer by almost half.

The Karolinska Instutite conducted the study, revealing that middle-age women who drink two or more cups of green or black tea every day are likely to cut their chances of developing epithelial ovarian cancer by 46 percent. And each additional cup could lower the risk by another 18 percent. In other words, enough tea could almost vaccinate your ass.

While Dr. Susanna C. Larsson and her colleagues do admit that additional factors come into play, (ex. tea drinkers were also more prone to be more health conscious in general) the prevalence of the findings are too significant to simply dismiss. “The dose-reponse relationship for tea consumption with ovarian cancer risk makes chance less likely.” says Larsson.

Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death for women in the U.S. Only 30 percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer survive beyond five years. I think it's time to break out the kettle.

Only a week after the depressing news was released that Ford had pulled advertising from gay publications due to pressure from the American Family Association, we were thrilled to find that the motor company has, to put it simply, changed its mind.

After an obvious uproar by gay rights groups, Ford met with a number of them on Monday and has written a letter stating that it will resume buying corporate ads in gay media, reports The Guardian. It will also now feature all of the company’s brands. (Only Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo ads were run beforehand.) Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, stated:

“Ford’s action is a positive outcome and win for equality and fairness. . . Ford has sent a powerful signal that corporate America values its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees and consumers.”

Let’s hope they stick with this decision.

Check out the second letter down for a good laugh.

A pregnant woman in Arizona was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane. She plans to challenge the ticket by arguing her fetus was a passenger in the car.

Is this what "fetal rights" legislation has wrought?

Frank Valenzuela, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said a vehicle can't occupy the high-occupancy vehicle lane unless two or more persons are in it. The statute doesn't define what a "person" is.

"However, I think we could all agree that for traffic enforcement, a person is another individual, not an unborn child," he added.

Agreed.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Check out these holiday tampon crafts; too funny.

The site shows you how to create Angels, Snowflakes, Silver Bells, Lights and a Menorah all from materials that you can find in your period stash. And think how fun it will be to explain the ornaments to visitors...

The Menorah and Snowflake are after the jump.

If you thought women were getting a better deal at the workplace, think again. Women make up only 6% of India’s workforce and the numbers get more skewed as you go up the corporate ladder.

There are only 4% women at senior management levels and almost none in a leadership role.

North India leads the way in this discrimination — 1% senior management posts are held by women and none at the top. These facts were revealed in the first-of-its-kind study by the Confederation of Indian Industry on women empowerment in the workplace.

I can't believe that. I will try and find more info on this when I get a chance. I was seriously under the impression that there has to be more "officially" employed women then that.

via India Times...

I felt like we HAD to say something about the situation with Tookie, so this was contributed by our very own notorious commenator puckalish.

Peace to all those who've passed and may they give us guidance...
Give thanks for all that we've got...

I'm in a totally surreal space right now. Stanley Tookie Williams was put to death last night by lethal injection. I told my sister Sami that I would write something about it right now and I will. However, I just want to take a minute and ask for some guidance that we'll find a way out of all this senselessness. I have to share that a woman I work with just found out a good friend of hers in Thailand was just executed as well - on the street, not necessarily by the police, left hanging from a tree by a seatbelt.

I walked back to the train from hearing this to suddenly find myself surrounded by cops in riot gear - because of the impending NYC transit strike, I figure. There were huge screens on 42nd Street and Lexington with angry people shouting and then there was Bob Marley's voice pumped over speakers, distorted, bouncing of the monolithic skyscraper walls. I feel like this all must be a dream - I hope I wake up soon.

I want to get back to Mr Williams for a minute, though. I could go through a story or a list of facts connected, but you can just check out a little background here.

A little summary is that Mr Williams was one of the founders of the Crips. He was involved in all kinds of mess. In 1981, he was accused of a crime he insisted he didn't commit til his last moments. Whatever the truth about what happened in a burglary turned murder, Williams' case was severely mishandled. The key witnesses were all criminals themselves, people of color were deliberately removed from the jury, the list goes on and some key points are noted in this discovery motion by the defense.

Injustice aside, Mr Williams was a pretty exceptional person. In 1989, he began to turn his life around. Tookie Williams was a four-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for his extensive work against gang violence. He's penned childrens' books, negotiated gang truces, counciled young people involved in the life in person and over the telephone. Earlier this year, Mr Williams was awarded the President's Call to Service Award for doing over 4,000 hours of dedicated community service.Late last night (12:35am Pacific Time), Stanley Tookie Williams was put to death. No stay of execution was granted nor a presidential or gubernatorial commutation despite a huge outcry. Personally, I don't think the death penalty is warranted in any case, but that's not what this is about. This is about moving forward. This is about trying to find some ground, trying to find some peace.

I just don't know where to find it anymore.
Please read more under the cut...
Thanks Puck!

Russian pop star Valeria is speaking out against domestic violence in Russia as part of a movement to try and raise awareness and increase help for victims.

NOT even fame and fortune as one of Russia’s leading pop stars could save Valeria from her husband’s fists. For ten years she endured his beatings, threats and rages, assuming, like so many abused women, that it was somehow her fault. But now, divorced and happily remarried, she has broken a taboo by speaking out about her experiences as part of a campaign to get the Kremlin to clamp down on rampant domestic violence.

On average one woman is killed every hour in Russia by a partner, former partner or relative, according to a report released by Amnesty International yesterday. In Britain the figure is two per week. The report estimates that 70 per cent of married women in Russia have been subjected to violence by their husband.

via UK Times...

South Dakota's abortion task force has completed its report. Its introduction states that "the unborn child from the moment of conception is a whole separate human being."

And it gets worse. Because, of 17 task force members, only two were pro-choice (State Sen. Stan Adelstein and Planned Parenthood's Kate Looby). Among the other members are a representative of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, seven anti-choice state legislators, and a chiropractor whose wife runs the largest "crisis pregnancy center" in the state. The pro-choicers were not allowed to submit a minority report.

So what does the task force recommend the state legislature do to reduce the number of abortions?

* Amend the State Constitution to provide the unborn child, from the moment of conception, with the same protection of the law that the child receives after birth and also provide protections for the mother-child relationship. (In other words, criminalize abortion.)

The comments section has been screwy for a while now--we're working to fix the problem now. Things will be probably be a little weird for the rest of the day; thanks in advance for your patience!

This week the Pittsburgh city council passed an ordinance that would keep protesters at least 15 feet away from any health care facility. If a client is within 100 feet of the clinic doors, protesters can't come closer than 8 feet of her without her consent.

Anti-choicers are crying that the ordinance infringes on their freedom of harassment-- er, speech. But the ordinance was proposed in the first place because of a series of escalating confrontations, and even fights, outside women's health clinics in the city. (Due budget cuts last spring, the city removed police it had stationed at clinics to keep protesters from harassing patients.)

[Council member Doug] Shields said police have been called on several occasions in recent months to bring order to situations involving protesters at clinics in East Liberty and Downtown. He said protesters were "touching and shouting" and "getting right in the faces" of people near the facilities.

Sure sounds like "peaceful speech" to me.

The Pittsburgh ordinance goes a step further than the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, under which it's illegal to threaten, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure somebody who provides or is obtaining reproductive health services. FACE also punishes anyone who damages or destroys a clinic. It's been effective in reducing clinic violence:

Before FACE, in 1993, according to The New York Times, the National Abortion Federation counted 3,429 acts of "violence and disruption" related to reproductive health services. In 1994, the year FACE was passed, that number dropped to 1,987, and in 1995 there were only 1,815. Since then, FACE ... has been instrumental in convicting anti-choice felons in many states.

Pennsylvania anti-abortion groups have vowed to challenge the buffer zone in court. But similar laws have been upheld and, if the mayor signs the ordinance, I'd say the odds are good it will stand.

Just in case you needed some feminist-minded gift ideas for the holiday season (or if you're like me and find the mall terrifying right now).

Feel free to add suggestions in comments. Happy shopping!

For the smartypants in your life. Smart Women products are awesome. I have a bunch myself. Plus, a lot of their Smart Women Vote stuff is on super sale.

This is just disgusting.

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts is urging the state's Roman Catholic hospitals to defy the state's new emergency contraception law.

The church group said the state's Catholic hospitals should refuse to comply with the law that takes effect Tuesday.

The law requires hospitals to offer the morning-after pill to rape victims.

Sweet, huh? So now when rape survivors go to the hospital--thinking that this recent law will ensure access to complete care, including emergency contraception--they’ll be turned away or sent to another hospital. How Christian of them.

My menopausal worries are some years off, but I thought yesterday’s NY Times piece on hot flash pajamas was pretty cool.

The various inventors of this new sleepwear all seem to have had essentially the same eureka moment - on a night when they started getting hot flashes of their own. They were all active and fit women, with years of experience with perspiration. And they realized that the temperature fluctuations of menopause called for the same wicking fabrics as running, hiking or exercising in the gym. "When I first had hot flashes, I would change my T-shirts through the night," said Wendy McClung, a co-founder of HotCool Wear, in Toronto, which began making Hot Mama pajamas in 2000. "One night I grabbed one of my running shirts, and I thought, 'My goodness, this is what it is like to sleep.' "

Hot Mama sleepwear is made of CoolMax, a polyester fabric used in workout clothes, finely milled to make it light and soft, like cotton flannel. Wicking J. Sleepwear, from a company in Evergreen, Colo., uses a similar fabric called Intera. And Wildbleu, a Seattle brand, uses one called Dri-release. The polyester fibers are designed to lift sweat from the body and allow it to evaporate quickly, said Helen Rockey, the founder of Wildbleu.

Now if we could only get some cramp-pajamas...

In this crazy, modern world where some straight men wear body spray and tight jeans, and some gay men are hairy with beer bellies, how can you tell if a man is straight?

Certainly not by asking him. Apparently you need to gauge his knowledge of duct tape and then see how many Oprah magazines he can tear at once.

Only the straightest will be crowned... Mr. Hetero! ("A Celebration of God's Creation." Because God didn't make the queers.) I'm guessing the winner doesn't get a sash and a tiara.

A Christian radio host in Massachusetts is holding the contest because he's "just looking for tolerance for heterosexuals." Those straight people are so persecuted these days!

I want to know when they're holding the Ms. Hetero competition. As a woman who likes to cook, sew, and wear skirts, I think I could be a contender. Until we got to the Q&A portion of the event... at which point I'd be outed as a homo-loving, godless heathen who thinks for herself.

Via Shakespeare's Sister.

A judge in Santa Clara, CA is setting up a "girls' court" within the county's juvenile division. The court will have a female judge, female probation officers, and female attorneys.

According to The Recorder, a California legal newspaper:

The court, which [Superior Court Judge Katherine Lucero] hopes will open by next summer, will be equipped to address "dual-diagnosis" or "high-end" girls who are in custody and may be pregnant or have mental health issues, Lucero said.

Lucero got the idea from San Mateo County, which already has a girls' drug court where teenage girls in custody are brought to court together so they can hear the cases involving their peers.

I couldn't find any updates on how the San Mateo girls' court has fared compared to regular juvenile courts. But an American Bar Association report, "Justice by Gender" has some interesting statistics on girls in the juvenile justice system, and notes that:

...the nature and causes of girls’ delinquency is often different from that of boys. Research demonstrates that girls in the delinquency system have histories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, have family problems, suffer from physical and mental disorders, have experienced academic failure and succumb more easily to the pressures of domination by older males. Girls also are developmentally different from boys and girls’ involvement in delinquency is often connected to conflicts in familial and social relationships.

Gender-specific (or just gender-sensitive) court programs are proven to work for adult women. For many of the same reasons, it sounds like they'd also be good for girls in the system. But I'm not so sure about staffing the court with women only. I think male attorneys and judges who are sensitive to gender issues would be fine, too.

Thanks to Erin for the article, which I've pasted below because the site is subscription only.

A new Norwegian study says that women who have had abortions experience more long-term feelings of guilt and shame than women who have had miscarriages.

Women who had miscarriages suffered more anxiety and depression immediately after the event and six months later. But abortion was associated with more stress and anxiety two years -- and even five years -- after the event.

...Women who had abortions had fewer problems early on, and [researcher Anne Nordal] Broen says their long-term issues did not approach the level of trauma. But these women were also twice as likely to feel guilt about the event five years later and 60 percent more likely to feel shame, as measured by psychological testing.

I’m sure that has nothing to do with assholes telling women they’re murdering sluts. Please.

But as Rebecca at Broadsheet points out, it’s important to recognize the feelings women have after the end of a pregnancy--whether it’s an abortion or a miscarriage. But that doesn’t mean this study will be useful to women.

...studies like this get easily manipulated by antichoice groups anxious to demonstrate that women naturally feel guilt and emotional trauma about getting an abortion, when in fact what they may feel is sadness, relief or nothing at all.

Word. Not to mention, the study itself sounds a bit dubious. The preexisting mental health of the women in the study who had abortions was poorer in general than that of the women who miscarried. The researchers admit as much:

Broen says it is not clear from the study if having an abortion contributed to the higher anxiety scores or if the women who had abortions were more anxious to begin with.

“These women may have had poorer psychiatric health, which would make them more vulnerable.”

Shakespeare’s Sister does a great job breaking down the troubling aspects of the researchers’ methodology:

So the mental health of the participating women who sought an abortion was almost statistically significantly poorer than the participating women who had a miscarriage, and the complexity of the abortion issue may account for discrepancies. That’s the problem with poor controls; you can end up with a study that has a completely meaningless conclusion.

Women’s eNews has an article today on how in the midst of holiday shopping madness, women are protesting against retail giant Wal-Mart. Between the company’s blatant sex discrimination, refusal to carry emergency contraception and lack of contraceptive coverage for female employees, women activists have plenty to be pissed about it.

Ho ho ho.

A women's organization in Colombia has brought a lawsuit forward challenging the country's anti-choice law--women can't even have abortions if they're raped.

The group, Women's Link, had originally brought a lawsuit which asked that abortion be legalized if the women's life is at risk. Colombia�s highest court decided not to rule on the case, so Women's Link took their most recent lawsuit a step further--it asks to legalize abortion in general. Take that.

Some young women in Ireland went a less traditional route to get their point across:

Seventeen young pro-choice activists have mounted a protest...calling for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.

The activists have imprisoned themselves in a cage fashioned from coat-hangers to represent the 17 Irish women they say are forced to travel to Britain for an abortion every day.

Damn. Talk about bad-ass activism.

And just when you thought the feud was over...

Several years back, Moby called out Eminem for promoting homophobia; now he’s accusing the rapper of misogyny. (Duh.)

Moby’s outrage stems largely from a recent case in which an Eminem fan and impersonator recently was convicted of murdering a woman and stuffing her in a suitcase. The man had just finished a karaoke performance singing Eminem’s music. In his video, “Stan,” Eminem murders a woman he put in the trunk of a car.

“If a musician made a record wherein he talked about killing blacks and Jews would he get covered in the press and played on radio and MTV? If the answer is ‘no’ (as it should be), then why is radio and MTV filled with music that has lyrics about killing and brutalizing women and gays?” Moby asks on his Web site. “Any employee of a record company or journalist or radio programmer or MTV employee who has promoted and celebrated misogynistic or homophobic music should be ashamed. You have blood on your hands, and you should be deeply, deeply troubled at the culture that you’ve helped to create.”

I’m not a fan of censorship, but he does have a point about the way Eminem’s music is promoted--particularly on MTV. Is it that violence against women and gay people is somehow more acceptable?

New research says most teenage girls who visit family planning clinics do talk to their parents about sex.

Sixty percent of young women indicated that a parent knew they were at the clinic for sexual health services. Among these, 66% had voluntarily told parents, and 40% were there at a parent's recommendation.

As for the teens who didn't tell their parents, the research suggests that they would be more likely to have unsafe sex if parental notification were mandatory. Also:

Fifty percent of young women indicated they did not talk with parents at all about how to use condoms, making it the least commonly discussed of the seven issues.

Hm. So maybe we should start encouraging parents to talk to their kids about proper contraceptive use-- not only about STDs and condom failure rates.

Still searching for a holiday gift for the special someone? I'm sure she'd love a "motorized version" of 50 Cent's "manhood."

The rapper is apparently too busy to have sex with every woman who wants him, and so created this waterproof, vibrating model of himself. Sounds like a must-have for fans:

"Blue is my favourite colour so it will probably be blue. But I don't know how big - I don't know if big is better because I'm not sure a man wants his woman playing with a really big dildo."

He is quoted in Britain's Mirror as adding: "But I want to do something like that, to create something popular and exciting for women."

As long as what's "popular and exciting" isn't also emasculating their boyfriends.

OK. I'm going to throw up now.

Thanks to Anna for the link.

Could these girls get any cooler?

The local teen organizers of a "girlcott" that led Abercrombie & Fitch to pull two T-shirts from its shelves will visit the company's headquarters today to pitch their own designs.

Fourteen girls from Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers will take a bus this morning to the clothier's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, near Columbus, for a 90-minute afternoon meeting with company executives and managers.

The young women are keeping mum about what designs they have in mind until they can make their pitch, and there is no guarantee Abercrombie & Fitch will use their designs.

This is so bad-ass. One of the girls, 16 year-old Emma Blackman-Mathis, says “I'm really, really excited to think about the fact that in a year these empowering T-shirts will be in pop culture mainstream stores, and that's mindblowing.” Yes it it.

If you’re feeling innovative, Broadsheet is collecting slogan suggestions that they plan to send to A&F and the young women.

Make sure to check all the fab new nominees for the REAL hot 100.

We're getting such amazing entries--from a woman who opened the first woman-owned sex toy store in Chicago to a young woman studying Space Physics and working with NASA.

Don't forget to nominate a REAL hot woman you know!

Check out the latest comic genius from Mikhaela Reid, It's Not Easy Being a College Gay-Hater!

While you're at it, pick up a signed copy of Reid's new book! It's only $3 and features 40 pages of her best cartoons.

Who knew?

Lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in San Francisco have won their fight to trademark the name "Dykes on Bikes," a lawyer for their group said on Thursday.

Apparently the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had originally denied the women's application because they thought the phrase was disparaging to lesbians.

However, the National Center for Lesbian Rights says the word "dyke" isn't necessarily derogatory anymore (depending on who is using it). Shannon Minter, a lawyer for the Center, said "Within the lesbian community that term has been reclaimed as a very positive term that denotes strength and pride and empowerment."

Thoughts?

Just in case you have an aversion to scrolling down.

Don't forget to check out the fourth Carnival of Feminists.

Also don't forget to join the Feministing groups on Myspace and/or on Friendster.

Oh yeah.

You might have come across several newspapers writing on the plight of women, but have you ever heard about a paper run by women, for women and to women?

If not, then come to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to read through 'Mahila Paksh', India's first women centric newspaper, covering issues and subjects ranging from atrocities on women to their achievements in various fields.

With reporters filing stories from across India, the paper helps women in not only getting the justice, but it also treats them as members and not customers or readers. The paper provides a sense of duty, belongingness, respect and sensitivity for all women related issues.

The editor Samanvay Kumar said, "Our main purpose is to create awareness in the women not about the social issues but awareness for the self. They don't understand themselves and realise their potential. We want them to recognise their potential, caliber and capability. They can take their own independent decisions."

Right on! We had written about this before, but looks like they have gained some momentum. I couldn't find any info about distribution etc. if anyone knows anything.

Speaking on the 71st anniversary of granting Turkish women the right to vote and stand in parliamentary and local elections, parliament speaker Bulent Arinc said on Monday, 'Turkish women are exposed not only to gender discrimination and honor killings but also to discrimination because of their clothes, beliefs and thoughts.''

Arinc also said that although Turkey was one of the first countries in that region to grant women's rights, they are still behind in many ways.

Meanwhile, Cubukcu said that 17 women parliamentarians were elected after Turkish women had been granted the right to vote and stand in parliamentary and local elections in 1934, ''today there are 24 women MPs and 18 women mayors. Our women are represented symbolically in the politics.''

"Symbolic representation" is NOT enough.

via Hurriyet.

A record number of women will take up seats in the Palestinian parliament following January’s legislative elections, including the wives and widows of notable political figures.

It guarantees them a greater level of participation in political life at both local and parliamentary levels.

via Daily News.

New research shows that for every year a woman in her 20s waits to have children, her lifetime earnings increase by 10 percent.

Part of that is because she'll earn higher wages—- about 3 percent higher—- for the rest of her life; the rest is because she'll work longer hours. For college-educated women, the effects are even bigger. For professional women, the effects are bigger yet—- for these women, the wage hike is not 3 percent, but 4.7 percent.

It isn't exactly news that women benefit financially when they decide to have a career first and children later. But the new study makes it easy to calculate exactly how much ground you're gaining or losing depending on when you choose to have kids.

Surprisingly, the research also shows that the availability of paid family leave has no effect on the "postponement premium." This contradicts other things I've read about family leave:

Research shows that leave policies covering childbirth and infant care significantly increase mothers’ return to work. Providing wage replacement during leave also has a significant effect on women working later into their pregnancies and returning to work faster. This increased time at work leads to higher earnings, both by avoiding periods without income and by keeping women on a career development track.

I'm not an economist or an expert, so I'm not sure what to believe.

But this was also surprising: Women who bore their first child after age 30 accumulated more wealth by age 60 than earlier child-bearers and childless women.

So if you want to make a lot of money, have children, and have them after age 30. Of course, if you're relying on someone else to pay the bills, none of this matters. Feel free to "opt out."

We have been getting a lot of emails about events, topics etc., so we decided let's make it a group thing, hehe.

For those of you that know what the bottom links are, use them. For those of you that don't, we learn something new everyday, welcome to the world of online social networking.

Join our Myspace group.

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Both groups are called Feministing.

Find us, love us, don't ever leave us, seriously.

But this is some fucked up shit. Reuters reports:

“A banned Islamist militant group blamed for a series of bombings in Bangladesh has threatened to kill women, including non-Muslims, if they do not wear the veil, a statement said.

The statement by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen came hours after Thursday's suicide bomb attack in a northen town that killed at least eight people, the latest of a series of blasts blamed on militant groups in their campaign for an Islamic state.

‘Women will be killed if they are found to move around without wearing burqa (veil) from the first day of Jilhaj,’ the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen said in the statement sent to a Dhaka newspaper office.

Jilhaj refers to the Arabic month beginning early January.

‘Women, including non-Muslims, are hereby advised not to go out of home without burqa. Seclusion has been made compulsory for you,’ said the statement in Bangla language, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday.

The group, which wants the introduction of sharia laws in mainly-Muslim Bangladesh, also ordered women students at Dhaka University not to step out after sunset, prompting police to increase security around the campus.”

On the same day of the attack, it was announced that Turkey will soon be hosting a conference on women’s rights by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. We can only hope that the conference will find some potential solutions to this horrific situation.

The fourth installment of the Carnival of Feminists was posted yesterday, thanks to Happy Feminist and her great assemblage of feminist bloggers this time around.

Make sure to check it out!

After partaking in a blogger conference call organized by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) the other day, I was happy to see that they have made an official public statement declaring their opposition to Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), reports Ms. magazine.

Co-president of the NWLC, Marcia Greenberger, stated:

“[Alito’s] record is too clear, the stakes are too high, and a series of mounting inconsistent statements and evasions are too serious to accept Judge Alito’s assurances of an open mind on rights women of this country rely on and hold dear.”

All 42 House members of the CBC voted unanimously against Alito’s nomination. Congresswoman and the Judicial Nominations Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said, “The stakes for Black people are as high as they can get, and for that reason, how senators vote cannot and will not be forgotten.”

Maybe I’m just a big dork, but it lifted my spirits a bit to read the remainder of Ms.’s long list of constituency groups who oppose the nomination. Perhaps it will do the same for you:

The Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, the National Council of Women’s Organizations, People for the American Way, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Alliance for Justice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Council of Jewish Women, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Abortion Federation, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and a partridge in a pear tree!!!

If you haven’t already, click here to take action against Alito’s nomination.

Conservatives and anti-abortion groups are peeved about the FDA's decision to keep Mifeprex (the medical abortion pill) on the market.

I'm all for getting this drug off the market if it really is dangerous when used correctly. But it doesn't sound like that's the case:

According to a report published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the deaths of the women were linked to toxic shock caused by the bacterium C. sordellii, but the researchers found no direct link among the deaths of the four women and concluded that the risk of infection in conjunction with taking the drug is "low." CDC has said the one factor that ties the four cases together is that misoprostol was administered vaginally instead of orally, which is considered "off-label use."

The FDA has issued a health advisory on how the drug should be administered, but hasn't restricted access to Mifeprex.

Says Focus on the Family's bioethics "expert":

[It] "does make you wonder if they are taking this as seriously as they would if it were another substance," Earll said... Earll said that she believed that the career staff at the agency was predisposed in favor of abortion rights and that advocates for abortion rights held sway over FDA decisionmaking.

"Another substance" like Plan B? Not like we've been waiting years for all of those rabid "pro-choicers" at the FDA to accept the science on EC. If they'd approve Plan B for over-the-counter sale, fewer women would need to take Mifeprex. But it would appear Focus on the Family hasn't quite made that connection...

and women's groups are pissed about the special treatment they felt he has recieved in court because he is a high profile politician.

Significantly, the ANC Women's League effectively turned against Zuma, saying it was saddened that he was implicated in a rape, given that people had put their confidence and trust in him.

Seriously.

I know most of us don't need convincing that police and corruption tend to go hand in hand, but I had to write about this. And it went down in a neighborhood that I used to work in called Bay View Hunter's Point, SF and trust me they don't need cops like this, they have enough shit going on.

About 20 San Francisco police officers will be suspended because of their alleged involvement in what the mayor and police chief describe as videos that mock minorities and treat women as sex objects, the officials said Wednesday night.

An officer at the department's Bayview station, who is among those ordered suspended, produced the videos over the past two years using other officers and acquaintances and intended them as morale boosters, he and his attorney said Wednesday night. The officer denied he had done anything wrong, and his attorney said the suspensions were a politically motivated attack on free speech.

[One] video depicts an officer ogling a woman he has stopped for a traffic violation. One shows two officers doing Tai Chi to vaguely Asian music. The two later head into a massage parlor and radio dispatchers try unsuccessfully to reach them -- the suggestion being the two are having sex with masseuses.

They published it on a website which is just stooopid, but really this is so silly. It sounds like Reno 911. Although this may not be a HUGE (even though I do think it is) deal, I think it does reflect the morale of the police department and way deeper issues about the kind of people that are policing and potentially what the impact of an unjust criminal system does to both the "offenders" and the cops. These people need therapy.

via SFGate.

Thanks Rebekah for the article! Any thoughts? Break it down for us.

I am just all about the local today. But Women in Games International announced that they are having a women gamers conference in San Francisco.

Scheduled on Saturday, February 18 from 1 pm to 6 pm at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco, this conference addresses the myth that women don't "do" games by discussing statistics, game genres and careers in game development.

The San Francisco Bay Area is a hotbed for gaming technology companies, making this an ideal venue to bring together the best in the business. This seminar will provide useful information for women and men, as well as new and veteran game developers, with topics including marketing to women and designing games that appeal to both genders.

via gamesindustry.biz

I think the fact they have to have a conference like this (which assumes a Gamer Conference is gendered male) says enough. This is cool, even though a huge part of it is marketing to female audiences. It is just always about capital flow. I mean imagine they had someone come in and have a discussion about sexist content in the games themselves! Maybe they will. If you know more, spill it.

Most Islamic fundamentalists don’t consider women deserving of the honor of religious martyrdom. On the other hand, women sure are easier to sneak past security checkpoints. And explosives can be completely hidden under a billowing chador.

What’s a modern jihadist to do? Use women as "weapons of choice," of course. Newsweek explores this not-exactly-new phenomenon:

"...American soldiers in Iraq may become ever more suspicious about women, particularly pregnant women. But in traditional Muslim societies, the need to search women meticulously—"invasively," as [Prof. Mia] Bloom puts it- is sure to create popular anger. "It's a win-win proposition for the terrorists," says Bloom.

I certainly don't condone suicide bombing, but this sounds like a winning strategy for jihadist men. So what about fundamentalist women’s reasons for becoming suicide bombers?

Academic leaders at nine universities--including women-suck-at-math Summers--pledged to increase support for female professors in an attempt to close the gender gap.

The schools may consider such programs as allowing faculty to work part time as family needs arise, expanding on-site childcare centers and offering employment assistance programs for spouses, the presidents said in a statement.

Family responsibilities may be putting women at a disadvantage in the early stages of their academic careers. While almost half of Ph.D. recipients in the U.S. are women, they only make up about 25 percent of professors, the statement said.

“Helping our faculty balance the demands of their careers with family responsibilities is critical if our universities are to attract the brightest young people to the professorial ranks,'' Stanford University President John Hennessy said in the statement.

Summers, Levin and Hennessy were joined by California Institute of Technology President David Baltimore, Susan Hockfield of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President Shirley M. Tilghman of Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, President Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan and President Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania.

Sweet.

What was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill confirmation of an interim police chief in Fargo, North Dakota turned into a pretty gross display of anti-choice wackiness recently.

Before Assistant Police Chief Keither Ternes was confirmed as interim chief on Monday, anti-choice activist Martin Wishnatsky asked the commission to reject Ternes because 15 years earlier his girlfriend decided to terminate her pregnancy.

Thankfully the commission confirmed Ternes unanimously, but what kills me is that city officials--including Ternes--felt the need to respond to this ridiculous shit.

Ternes, a 19-year veteran of the police department, said “Although it's the issue in my personal life that I regret more than anything else and am ashamed of more than anything else, I would hope that my professional track record and the things that I've done within the community since that time certainly speak for themselves.”

Perhaps it is something Ternes regrets--but why give credence to the idea that he somehow did something wrong?!

Even worse was what Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness had to say: “It was an error in judgment, and he has expressed contrition.”

So rest easy, folks. Ternes won’t be aborting any fetuses on Furness’ watch. Sigh.

Via Broadsheet.

Former Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt has a great editorial in Women’s eNews today on Supreme Court case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood.

Feldt reminds us what Ayotte is really about.

Don't mistake Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England--the abortion case now before the Supreme Court--for a run-of-the-mill case about minors' access to abortion.

Think of it as two poisonous arrows aiming straight for the heart of Roe v. Wade.

Scary image, but an accurate one.

The two arrows Feldt refers to are issues central to women’s reproductive rights and health:

The questions the sections in the law put before the court are whether protection of women's health--the so-called health exception--can be absent from laws that restrict abortion, and whether the standard for challenging laws restricting abortion will be lowered to the point that a woman would have to actually be harmed before the law could be challenged.

If the high court upholds the New Hampshire law, poof, there goes Roe's health standard that has continued to protect women even as states and Congress have chipped away at access to abortion. And poof, there goes the legal standard allowing us to immediately prevent these laws from being enforced when a court deems they are likely to cause harm to women.

Truly terrifying. Make sure to read the whole piece.

Yesterday marked the 16 year anniversary of the “Montreal Massacre” that left 14 women dead.

On Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lepine opened fire at Montreal's École Polytechnique, targeting the female engineering students. He screamed, “I hate feminists.” He then turned his gun on himself.

At yesterday’s memorial ceremony, organizers called for an end of violence against women:

"We're asking for a 10-year campaign to raise awareness, and change behaviour toward women," Michele Asselin, president of the Quebec Women's Federation...

Organizers distributed white ribbons and candles at the Place du 6 decembre 1989, and called for a minute's silence in honour of the women killed at the engineering school.

Most of the women killed in 1989 were in their 20s--blogger Shaky remembers them by name.

In case you’re still looking for holiday gift ideas, why not go with a torso table? Sigh.

Holland cabinet maker Mario Philippona has designed “erotic” furniture using female anatomy as his inspiration.

If you think the above is creepy, wait till you see the Boobycase (yes, that's what it's called) and a cherry wood torso table where “the drawer opens through a springlock button in the virgina.” I don’t know about you, but my ‘virgina’ wants nothing to do with springlocks.

Rebecca Traister has a great piece up today about a new magazine, Total 180, which is targeted towards the always-controversial population of women who have “opted-out” of work. (Cause they can.)

The magazine seems terrifying from Traister’s description, kind of like it’s run by a bunch of depressed Stepford wives.

Whatever studies tell us about whether privileged women are or aren't opting out, this magazine, produced by women who have, suggests that some stay-at-home moms are in a dark, dark place. As a woman who is neither married nor a mother, but who someday hopes to have children with a partner, I was left petrified by Total 180! and its vivid depiction of the inequities of domestic life that I -- apparently naively -- had assumed were a thing of the past in a post-feminist world.

An editor's letter by Erika Kotite kicks off by describing pizza joints where groups of "stay-at-home moms 'let out' by their husbands" huddle "for a once-weekly session of lamenting, venting, laughing and girding for the next week of chaos." Let out? Yikes.

There's also a message from Total 180! founders Debbie Klett, Kirstie Zamboanga and Andrea Bandle, who write, "We hear what you're screaming because we're screaming it, too!" Can you hear them, Clarice?

The first item in a section about goods "that no stay-at-home mom should do without" is a big bottle of Rodney Strong Chardonnay. A photograph illustrating a piece called "Martha Doesn't Live Here" depicts a crazy-eyed woman wielding a turkey-carving knife...

In addition the less-than-desirable descriptions of what stay at home life is like, the magazine’s editors seem to have a bit of a 50s fetish.

Check out Katha Pollitt’s Ho-Ho-Holiday Donations, Early Edition at The Nation.

Give generously. Cause seriously, wouldn’t the folks on your gift list prefer a donation made in their name over a boring pair of socks?

Ugh. After a boycott by the American Family Association, Ford has pulled advertising from gay publications.

The AFA is claiming a victory, but Ford says it was strictly a business decision.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker came under fire from the AFA in May for its longtime efforts to increase LGBT workplace diversity and support gay rights causes. Ford has long been a regular advertiser within gay media, including The Advocate, and has donated significant sums to LGBT causes and nonprofit groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.

Threatened with a boycott by the Mississippi-based AFA, Ford and some of its dealers agreed to negotiate, and the AFA announced in June that it would hold off on its planned action. On Thursday, AFA announced the boycott would be canceled altogether.

...When first contacted, Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions. In a second conversation he confirmed that the company would no longer advertise Jaguar and Land Rover products in the gay media, saying that the decision was strictly "business."

This is so depressing. Let’s hope American Girl doesn’t fold so easily.

I’m all for new kinds of contraception, but this one not only seems sooo unsexy, but a total pain in the ass as well. The Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (tell me that doesn’t sound like something Superman should use) is basically a condom-in-a-can for women.

The contraceptive is an antiseptic foam spray that “forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.”

The company also says that “It can remain in the vagina for a long time without destroying the vagina's chemical balance.”

Excuse me if I don’t run to the store. Spraying an “antiseptic foam” up my coochie doesn’t exactly appeal to my sex-sensibilities.

Via Nerve.

The Center for Women’s Business Research reports that more women are starting businesses in traditionally male-dominated fields like construction and transportation.

Susan Sobbott, president, OPEN from American Express (one of the reports’ underwriters), said “Women business owners in nontraditional industries are challenging the perception that they are a business anomaly when in fact, they are a growing and increasingly influential part of our economy...Between 1997 and 2004 the number of women-owned firms in nontraditional industries grew 18%, outpacing the 12% growth in the number of women-owned firms in traditional industries such as retail and services. This study sheds light on the tremendous strides that women are making in all areas of business.”

A press release from The Center for Women’s Business Research also reports that 30 percent of women owners in nontraditional industries plan to pass their business onto their daughters--as opposed to 11 percent of male owners.

This is one of the most upsetting stories I’ve come across in a long time.

A municipal judge found a 19-year-old woman guilty Friday of filing a false police report after she said she was raped by three young men.

Even though the woman never said she lied or recanted her story, city prosecutors say they took the unusual step of filing charges against her because of the seriousness of her accusations.

The woman's attorney and advocates for rape victims say the prosecution sets a dangerous precedent and could discourage others from reporting sexual assaults.

"This will have a huge chilling effect on men and women across the board," said Erin Ellis, executive director of the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Washington County. "We're sliding backwards."

After a day-and-a-half trial, Municipal Judge Peter A. Ackerman on Friday convicted the woman of filing a false police report, a class-C misdemeanor. Ackerman explained his decision, saying there were many inconsistencies in the stories of the four, but that he found the young men to be more credible. He also said he relied on the testimony of a Beaverton police detective and the woman's friends who said she did not act traumatized in the days following the incident.

I cannot even begin to relay how disgusted I am. I used to volunteer as an emergency room advocate for sexual assault victims, and there is no typical or “appropriate” response to rape. Some women are visibly upset. Some are not. I even met a woman who cracked jokes during her ER stay--because that was how she dealt she with the trauma. Who the fuck has the right to tell someone how they should act after a violent attack?

It’s bad enough that rape survivors have to contend with a justice system that will likely never prosecute or convict their attacker--now women have to worry about being prosecuted themselves if they’re not convincing enough victims?

For more, check out Shakespeare's Sister, The Heretik, American Street and Alas, a Blog.

Wow. I’m all for fighting sexism, but this is a bit extreme.

There has been some criticism in the Central African Republic of a ban on misogynistic songs which came into force over the weekend.

Communication Minister Fidel Ngouandjika threatened action against the broadcasting of songs that portrayed women as inferior to men.

He said they undermined the role of women and contravened their rights.

Women only got the vote in the former French colony 20 years ago and men are allowed to marry up to four wives.

The BBC's Joseph Benamse in Bangui says the minister has been condemned by many for acting beyond his authority.

However, he says, most people feel it will help reinforce women's rights in the country, where they are still subjected to abuses, violence and ill-treatment.

I’m glad the minister wants to battle misogyny, but I don’t think censorship is the way to do it. Seems to me that a ban on songs is more likely to cause anger than a change of heart about women.

A lesbian teen can sue her school district and principal for outing her, says a federal judge.

17 year-old Charlene Nguon filed a suit claiming violation of privacy rights after her principal told her mother that she was gay.

Nguon’s mother, Crystal Chhun, said “The person to decide when and how to talk with our family about this should have been my daughter, not her principal.”

The school tried to argue that because Nguon was affectionate with her girlfriend on school property, she didn’t have an expectation of privacy. Yeah right. The lawsuit is also alleging discrimination, arguing that Nguon was suspended several times for refusing to comply with the principal’s orders to stop hugging and kissing her girlfriend. Hetero couples were never asked to stop the PDAs. That's a real shocker.

In collaboration with the Younger Women’s Task Force and Girls in Government, Feministing is launching the REAL hot 100--a project to highlight the work that young women are doing and change perceptions (hopefully) about why young women are “hot.”

What is the REAL hot 100?
We’re tired of the media telling young women how to be "hot"! The REAL hot 100 shows that young women are "hot" for reasons beyond their ability to pose provocatively in a magazine. REALLY hot women are smart. REALLY hot women work for change. REALLY hot women aren’t afraid to speak their minds. And while some REALLY hot women might look awesome in a bikini, they know that’s not all they have to offer.

The REAL hot 100 will compile a list of young women who are REALLY hot, and publish it in magazine format in June 2006. Anyone can nominate a young woman who is REALLY hot, and the REAL hot 100 selection committee will choose 100 women that best represent the intelligence, drive and diversity of young women in the U.S.

By nominating a REALLY hot woman, not only will you help battle the popular notion that all young women have to offer is their ability to appeal to men, but you are also helping highlight the important--but often overlooked--work young women are doing are doing for their communities and the nation as a whole.

I’m really excited about this project, so please go visit www.therealhot100.org today and nominate a woman you know. (If you have a blog or a website, feel free to download the above pic and link to the REAL hot 100.)

Okay I should really write this 15 page paper due on Tuesday, but one more quickie.

They still haven't passed the women's reservation bill in India. I feel like we have been writing about this for a year. Oh wait, we have been
and they have been working on getting the bill heard and passed for ten.
via the Hinduonline.

Conservatives are pedophiles and Jennifer Annistan has decrepit boobs. Wha?

Just to add to Broadsheet'stake on the "expiration date" issue found on Amazon this is an elaboration on what that is exactly, just in case were wondering...

Anyone who was wondering when that expiration date kicks can now turn to National Review's The Corner for an answer, where John Derbyshire helpfully sets us all clear on the conservative vision of human nature and female attractiveness:

--Garance Franke-Ruta

via American Prospect online.

Just another reason to hate the National Review. It is incredible the amount of shit (despite all the *excellent* feminist critiques)that has come out around Dowd. Just plain doo doo.

Thank you Kris for the article.

Several Muslim women (mostly in Turkish villages) living in Austria are fighting back against forced marriage.

Fatima and thousands of other Muslim girls living in Austria and neighboring Germany are fighting back thanks to the emergence of support groups that help them find lawyers, housing and new identities. Muslim Turks comprise the majority of Austria's 400,000-member Islamic community and 2.8 million of Germany's estimated 9 million foreigners.

Fatima turned to Orient Express, a Vienna nonprofit agency of mostly Turkish women that has helped 28 victims of forced marriage in recent months. The group hired a lawyer, who won an annulment by invoking a new penal code in Turkey that increased the minimum age of marriage for women from 15 to 18. Now 16, Fatima lives in a safe house in Vienna beyond the control of her father, who she says remains enraged by her defiance.

I think this is a good example of how women can work together cross-culturally to fight sexist oppression. I just wish it wasn't called the Orient Express(it is not okay to use the word orient?).

But seriously check out the article if you are interested in this issue because it gives two really narly stories of women that were forced into marriage. One of them got shot in the head by her brother for getting divorced, dating, and living alone.

RU486 has been illegal in Australia since 1996. Women are being forced to go outside the country to places like New Zealand and England to get it.

The ban was the result of a deal between the Government and pro-life senator Brian Harradine that enabled the Health Minister to override the Therapeutic Goods Administration approval of the drug's importation.

But some doctors are saying it is being safely used elsewhere, why can't we have access to it?

Australian women are travelling to New Zealand to access the banned medical abortion drug RU486 to avoid invasive surgical terminations.

Leading obstetrician Caroline de Costa, from James Cook University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said several pregnant women had travelled to Auckland and Wellington for medical abortions and one woman had travelled to Britain.

So not okay.

This was circulating around livejournal and I thought it deserved another repost.

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
If a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
If your step-daughter is watching tv, don't rape her.
If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.
Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.

Obviously not all-inclusive. Please feel free to add to it in the comments.

Right on!

If you're in or by the NYC area, make sure to stop by The Knitting Factory tomorrow night for the First Annual Rock n’ Roll Auction to benefit The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.

We’ve been avid fans of the organization for quite some time; Jessica is even on the host committee for the auction. It’s a $10 admission fee, and you get a paddle to bid on a number of fantastic items to be auctioned. Food, drinks and musical performances by the rock camp bands Hellish Relish and The Curses will follow.

Can't go wrong with good times for a good cause. (Not to mention seeing the girls rock out!)

South Africa’s highest court ruled yesterday that marriage laws are to include same-sex couples within the next year. It will be the first African nation and the fifth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.

In the ruling by the Constitutional Court, Justice Albie Sachs stated: "The exclusion of same-sex couples from the benefits and responsibilities of marriage...signifies that their capacity for love, commitment and accepting responsibility is by definition less worthy of regard than that of heterosexual couples.” Amen.

As long as parliament doesn’t act against the ruling, the legal definition of marriage will soon be changed to include same-sex couples.

South Africa is said to have one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and continuously supports gay and lesbian rights, despite the fact that many African nations are thought to scorn homosexuality.

Random note: A really good book on LGBT issues in Africa is Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities by Stephan O. Murray and Will Roscoe -- I highly recommend it.

This actually reminds me of a recurring childhood nightmare I used to have.

NBC4.com has a story on a new attraction that Mervis Jewelers has been displaying in their windows for the holidays: live models. That’s right, instead of displaying mannequins with the bling, they thought real women would catch more attention.

Over a dozen models will alternate shifts, taking six hours a day to stand in front of the window and pose for the onlookers.

"We wanted it to be fun, we just wanted to have fun . . . so we're going to do it," said owner Ronnie Mervis.

Yeah, I’m sure the models are having loads of fun. It’s one thing to walk down a runway, but to be a display in a window? That shit gives me the creeps.

I know we've trashed the cover of New York magazine's sex issue, but it's what's inside that counts. Like this article and survey on teen sex.

The poll wasn't broken down by gender, but the quotes from teens are really telling about the sexual double-standard. Take, for example, these statements about "regrettable" sexual experiences:

"When I lost my virginity. I did it for the wrong reasons. I thought I could get him back that way." -Girl, 15

"Fingering. That really wasn’t very fun." -Girl, 15

"Having sex with a girl during her period." -Boy, 17

"I feel a little bit tainted, especially if it’s a random hookup. I feel slutty." -Girl, 15

It looks like the Museum of Television and Radio is celebrating the most influential female creators in television and radio in their newest display, “She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio.”

Among the honored are Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, the late Julia Child, talk-show hosts Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey, producers Marcy Carsey and Diane English, and executives Geraldine Laybourne (Oxygen) and Judy McGrath (MTV).

Any others you can think of worthy of recognition?

While we’ve posted before on the “Opt-Out Revolution” -- the lingering claim over the past few years that more highly-educated mothers are supposedly “opting out” of the workforce to raise the babes at home -- a new and super interesting study says that the decline of women in the labor market is actually due to the weak economy, not babies.

“Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth” by Heather Boushey, which contends that the crappy economy is the reason behind this change, not because of women’s desire to fulfill their motherly duties and abandon their career:

The impact of having children in the home on women's labor force participation (the ‘child penalty’) actually fell last year compared to prior years.

The report, which analyzed Current Population Survey's Outgoing Rotation Group data (a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey), found that the child penalty on labor force participation for prime-age women, aged 25 to 44, was 20.7 percentage points in 1984 and has fallen consistently over the last two decades, down to 8.2 percentage points in 2004. This means that in 2004, labor force participation by women in this age group with children at home averaged 8.2 percentage points less than for women without children at home.

The early 2000s recession led to sustained job losses for all women - those with and without children at home - and the labor market only just returned to its 2000 employment level in January 2005, nearly four years after the recession began. During this recession, women experienced their largest employment losses in decades and once this is controlled for, the presence of children at home plays a smaller role in women's labor force participation than it did in previous years, going back to 1984.

The argument has been made that highly-educated, older mothers are increasingly opting out. However, between 2000 and 2004, 30-something mothers with advanced degrees saw no statistically significant change in the effect of children on their labor force participation rates. The child penalty is smallest for this group of mothers and they are more likely to work than other mothers.

While I do believe feminism is about choices and that work at home is just as valuable as work in the paid economy, this study could explain a lot. Click here to read the whole report.

With over 100 journalists from 14 countries, a new group dedicated to addressing gender issues within journalism has been launched. Sweet.

The International Network of Journalists with a Gender Vision’s mission is intended to serve as “a forum to which journalists may come as individuals or collectively, from all over the world, with the purpose of promoting journalism with a gender perspective." IPS reports:

Although women account for more than half of the global population, they are the protagonists in only 18 percent of the news, according to an international survey of the media in 102 countries carried out in February.

The International Federation of Journalists indicates that there are some 300,000 women in the profession worldwide. However, they rarely reach decision-making positions, nor do they often influence editorial policy.

In response, the founders are devoting themselves to improve the status of women in editorial positions, creating labor exchanges for female journalists, and implement training in gender issues and new technologies.

Since all 100 journalists in the network are women, they've made it clear that they wish to include men who hold the same vision. "To exclude men won't be an advantage for us, it won't get us any further or faster along the way," said Cuban reporter Mirta Rodríguez Calderón.

So what about bloggers??

Today is World AIDS Day, and international day of action on HIV and AIDS. Worldwide this year, approximately five million people became infected with HIV and more than three million people died.

Shira Saperstein at the Center for American Progress has written a must-read piece on how the Bush administration is failing miserably in the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic:

...the amount of funding going to abstinence-only programs continues to rise, both in the U.S., where it has more than doubled since 2001, and overseas, especially within the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Much of the new funding is going to support unqualified “faith-based” supporters of the Bush administration, who actively undermine condom use and take money away from more effective comprehensive programs. Since its inception, a portion of PEPFAR funding has been earmarked for "faith-based" organizations, and according to the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, over $82 million – nearly a tenth of federal AIDS funding – went to such groups this year.

Saperstein also notes that Bush is now trying to apply the Global Gag Rule to PEPFAR funding, despite promises not to.

Also check out Dawn Turner Trice at The Chicago Tribune, who reminds us that black women in the United States are disproportionately affected by the disease:

...experts say the increase in HIV among black women is particularly striking because this group is so hard to target when getting the word out about HIV prevention and treatment.

Back in the day, safe sex campaigns targeted gay men at risk for contracting HIV. Clean needle campaigns targeted intravenous drug users.

"But it's far trickier to get to black women at risk," said Christeller. "Women most at risk often have partners who are infected. We tell women that marriage isn't a protector against HIV. Neither is a boyfriend who says, `You don't have to worry, I don't have a disease.'"

Women have to take charge of protecting themselves. Black women, especially, have to understand that AIDS is not just a "gay" disease or one that only affects women who are drug abusers or prostitutes.

The World Health Organization has recently released its first-ever study on domestic violence, and it’s truly scary.

The WHO reports that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women, that partner violence is still a “hidden” problem, and that the effects of this violence on women is enormous.

"This study shows that women are more at risk from violence at home than in the street and this has serious repercussions for women's health," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO at the study release in Geneva. "The study also shows how important it is to shine a spotlight on domestic violence globally and treat it as a major public health issue."

The study is based on interviews with more than 24 000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

...The study finds that one quarter to one half of all women who had been physically assaulted by their partners said that they had suffered physical injuries as a direct result. The abused women were also twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before.

...Domestic violence is known to affect women's sexual and reproductive health and may contribute to increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In this study, women who were in physically or sexually abusive relationships were more likely to report that their partner had multiple sexual partners and had refused to use a condom than women in non violent relationships. Women who reported physical or sexual violence by a partner were also more likely to report having had at least one induced abortion or miscarriage than those who did not report violence.

A major problem is that women still don’t report partner violence. At least 20 percent of the women in the study who reported physical violence had never told anyone before being interviewed. Terrifying.

It just gets worse and worse with this guy!

A recently released memo written by Alito in 1985 shows that the Supreme Court nominee has been working to undermine choice for years.

The memo, written during Alito’s tenure in the Reagan administration, says that the Justice Department should aim to overturn Roe, and until then, should weaken the law through state restrictions.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, “Alito’s memo is a litany of legal strategies designed to undermine women’s reproductive health. He even confuses birth control with abortion and advocates additional restrictions on women’s access to contraception.”

Nice huh?

Of course, Alito's supporters say he was just doing his job:

"He was by no means suggesting the formulation of a policy here -- he was simply acknowledging and proceeding from a common premise from within the Justice Department" that Roe v. Wade was a flawed decision, said Chuck Cooper, a former assistant attorney general who worked with Alito in the Justice Department.

Wendy Long, chief counsel for the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network and an Alito supporter, said she believes Alito would be restrained as a jurist by a respect for legal precedent. Even if Alito personally opposes the legal reasoning or the impact of Roe v. Wade, he could still vote to uphold abortion rights, she said.

"The memo is more about inside baseball and tactics" rather than Alito's own views, she said.

Sure. That must be why he refers to doctors as "abortionists" and suggests telling women that "certain methods of birth control are 'abortifacients.'"

This one boggles the mind.

A group of female firefighters in Florida have filed a discrimination complaint after they were temporarily banned from entering burning buildings.

The saddest thing about this story? The women weren’t banned from doing their job because of the run-of-the-mill discrimination that assumes women aren’t strong enough to be firefighters.

Fire and Rescue Chief Jamie D. Geer ordered the women to stay away from burning buildings after male firefighters threatened that they wouldn’t protect or help the women should they need it. Nice, huh?

I guess Geer didn't consider banning the assholes who said they wouldn't help their colleagues.