April 2006 Archives
ABC News fuels the "Mommy Wars." Meanwhile, more firms are staying in touch with prized workers who took maternity leave.
Some Bach works may actually have been written by his second wife.
Women cleaners are suing the NY Stock Exchange for sexual harassment. The $51-million lawsuit alleges one woman was told, "Baby, you need some beef on that ass and then you would be perfect for me."
A group of gay gun enthusiasts call themselves the Pink Pistols. Their motto? "Armed gays don't get bashed." (Has it come to this?)
Kenya considers passing its version of a Violence Against Women Act. It took female legislators to make this happen.
A sex worker (who's also a blogger and author) may be changing Brazilian attitudes toward sex.
Rick Santorum holds a forum for professional women, and manages not to mention he thinks they all should be stay-at-home moms.
After a judge denied a Department of Justice motion to reduce charges against three of four US marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina in November, the four accused refused to file a plea during their arraignment.
More than a third of American women are clinically obese.
NYPD cracks down on brothels in Queens, and undercovers a major sex slavery problem.
Many breast cancer survivors stop getting mammograms.
Prohibitively high prices for sanitary towels are forcing thousands of women in Zimbabwe to use old newspapers, rags, tissue paper or even leaves during menstruation. Vaginal infections have increased as a result.
Chastity jewelry makes the perfect present for Daddy's Lil' Virgin. Shudder.
The Duke rape case is being tried in the court of public opinion.
Womens E-News covers the REAL hot 100!
Headlines read: “Duke Lacrosse Stripper Cried Rape Before!� and “Duke Lacrosse Gang Rape Accuser Made Similar Claim in ‘96.� Shocker.
News has come out that the woman who alleges that three Duke students raped her filed a report ten years ago that she was raped by three men. Which clearly means she's lying. You know, because women can't get raped more than once.
The report was made ten years ago, the case was totally different from this one, and the woman said she didn’t press charges because she was in fear for her life--yet the defense will naturally use this as a way to discredit her accusation. (Rape shield laws may prohibit the information from being given to the jury.)
For continuing coverage, go to Justice 4 Two Sisters.
While we’re some years away from actually have male contraception on the market, it’s exciting to see some coming to reassuring conclusions concerning its testing.
Over 1,500 men have taken part in tests for male hormonal contraception, and on average, it took only about 3-4 months for men to gain their fertility back.
Dr. Peter Liu from the Los Angeles Research Biomedical Institute has looked at 30 studies on male hormonal contraception, and came to the conclusion that the two forms that have been tested, an implant and an injection, are both safe and effective.
"Our data provide strong assurance that the previously described efficacy of hormonal male contraceptives is coupled with highly predictable recovery to sperm characteristics that are compatible with fertility.These findings thereby increase the promise of new contraceptive drugs allowing men to share more fairly the satisfaction and burden of family planning."
Good shit.
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I happened to see a billboard a few blocks away from house the other day and almost barfed. While I’ve listened to New York’s 92.3 KROCK’s music here and there, I was a bit shocked to see a huge picture of the woman above, The RadioChick, and the two sentences that threw me for a loop.
“Built like a woman. Thinks like a man.�
Ew.
I checked out her site and it doesn’t get much better. The first program description I read was about The Chick on Chicks, where she assures men that she’ll help them with their “women� issues, including:
“Want to cheat on your girl and not get caught? She’ll tell you how. Maybe your girlfriend is pressuring you to get married, and you’re not ready...the chick will tell you how to string her along successfully.�
Other shows include Gay for a Grand, The Wheel of Wife Beaters, and The Flaming Stripper BBQ. While I haven't been able to find specifics of the programs, I’m anticipating that they aren’t too tasteful.
Has anyone heard this chick (ha, that was totally accidental) on the air?
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate has started a “Safe is Sexy� outreach campaign targeting teens and young adults in the Bay Area.
They’ve been kicking ass with this project, particularly with their “Safe is Sexy� ad, which is being featured on MTV. Click here to watch why power tools are a girl’s best friend. (I bet you were wondering what the pic above was about.)
On Monday, Lamba Legal filed suit with the California Supreme Court regarding a lower court decision that allowed doctors to refuse infertility treatment to a lesbian patient because of their religious beliefs.
The doctors have claimed that being fundamentalist christians allow them to not have to comply with California’s civil rights laws and refuse treatment to a lesbian, in this case, Guadalupe Lupita Benitez. Yet the case conflicts with a California Supreme Court decision in 2004 ruling that Catholic Charities, a social services agency, may not violate civil rights laws.
The lower court ruling has confused whether the Catholic Charities case applies here, which is pretty much the determining factor in the very request for review by the Supreme Court.
Lupita Benitez was clear with her feelings on the case:
“I trusted my doctors and then they humiliated my family and me by refusing to perform the insemination procedure after they’d been treating me and promising it to me for nearly a year. . . Doctors are supposed to treat their patients, not make religious judgments about them, and I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer the humiliating treatment by their doctors that I endured.�
I wonder if they knew she was a lesbian before or after the year that they gassed her into believing she was going to be inseminated? Either way, it looks like this “conscience clause� bullshit is evolving. The question is -- who will be the next victim?
So why didn't CBS choose a woman like Nina Totenberg, Lesley Stahl, Christiane Amanpour as its evening news anchor? They're too threatening.
But not Katie Couric. Columnist Valerie Takahama hypothesizes that Couric was picked not because she's an outstanding journalist, but precisely because she isn't. Or at least she isn't perceived that way. Apparently we Americans want to hear our news from a perky NewsMommy, not Tom Brokaw with lipstick and a wig.
Pamela Ezell, an assistant professor of English at Chapman University and a television producer, points to Couric's personal tragedy and the sense that she rose to the challenges of coping and recovery as central to her popularity."She's had the ability to weather that storm publicly. That gives us the sense, oh, we can trust her," Ezell says. "She seems very warm, and there's also this assurance that her kids came first."
Nevermind that she's interviewed world leaders like Kofi Annan, Tony Blair and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
...most viewers also see Couric as Katie, the mother of two young girls, the widow of a man who died at a premature age from colon cancer, [...] and a tabloid favorite who's been spotted out and about with a TV producer, a pop jazz trumpeter and others.
But what if that's a good thing? Should we be happy that Couric doesn't have to downplay her role as a mother in order to get ahead in her career?
"With Barbara Walters, you didn't even know if she had children. ... When these guys [Brokaw, Jennings, et al.] were coming up, you didn't talk about your families," [Kate O'Brian, director of ABC News in Seattle] said. (Walters [...] has one daughter.)
It's problematic, though, when a woman's role as wife/mother becomes such a huge part of her professional life and public persona that she commands less respect as a journalist. It's not just Couric who's been criticized for "lacking gravitas." Her fellow NewsMommies Meredith Vieira and Elizabeth Vargas have taken similar hits.
Outgoing CBS anchor Bob Schieffer said it all when he described Couric as "a wonderful person and wonderful mother who will be nurturing of our correspondents."
Not so much a "wonderful journalist who will challenge and improve our correspondents."
I’m so upset right now, I can’t even deal with writing. Just read.
Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl at a party in Spring, Texas, authorities said.The attackers forced the boy out of the house party, beat him and sodomized him with a metal pipe, shouting epithets "associated with being Hispanic," said Lt. John Martin with the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
And fucking assholes have the nerve to say that racism is an “ugly memory.�
Rio De Janeiro just started to run women-only subway cars this week...they’re pink striped.
How Brazilian women actually feel about the sex-segregated cars is something that remains to be seen. A Reuters headline screams Women applaud no-men, pink-striped metro cars, but another article says that women aren’t fans:
“Separation (of the sexes) is a throwback to my grandmother's era. It's a big step backward in the fight for women's equality," said Rogeria Peixoto, head of a Brazilian women's group.
I know I’ve said this before, but whatever: while I understand the need for immediate safety concerns, putting the responsibility on women not to get harassed rather than on the men to stop harassing is really problematic.
A California woman is seeking $1.2 million in damages after she was spanked in front of coworkers--as part of a team-building exercise.
What the fuck?
You know, I didn't even want to comment on Fox News pundit Tony Snow being tapped as the new White House press secretary. I mean, it's just too easy.
But then I saw this quote from Snow over at Pandagon:
“Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.�
Because seriously, who knows more about the prevalence (or apparently absence) of racism that Mr. Snow? What an idiot.
Sally Jacobsen, the Northern Kentucky University professor who was put on leave for encouraging her students to destroy an anti-choice display, has been charged along with her students with criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and criminal solicitation. Yikes.
Jacobsen is accused of encouraging her students to dismantle a display of 400 crosses that were set up by a campus anti-abortion group. The crosses were supposed to symbolize aborted fetuses.The six students were charged with criminal mischief and theft by unlawful taking.
Originally there was some confusion as to if Jacobsen took part in the destruction or just urged her students to do so. Apparently though, the student newspaper published pics of her destroying the display. Again, let’s leave the property destruction and harassment tactics to the anti-choicers. I know shit is frustrating, but we’re better than that.
Blac(k)ademic has a very articulate post up about a comment that she received when guest-blogging at Alas, A Blog and in my eyes really brings out how mainstream feminism is in fact still dominated by whiteness, despite so much work done by feminists of color, third world/black feminists and anti-racist white feminists. Mainstream understandings of feminisms (in many cases, far be it for me to essentialize here) still show to be obsessed with the reduction of issues, in this case the belief that gender could possibly *trump* race.
...it is ridiculous to lay claim to the idea that all women are oppressed on equal terms, simply because they are women. obviously, oppression is more complicated than that and i personally think that gender does not trump anything. instead, there are interlocking systems of oppression that women face based on gender, race, class, sexuality, religious background, nationality, citizenship status and so forth. it is very naive and very, very 2nd wave-ish to say, "well, gender trumps race." i can't even understand how one can come to such a conclusion.in the case of the current duke scandal, some folks feel that we must pay attention to the issue of gender before race since, she is a WOMAN and was allegedly attacked by MEN. however, i don't see how we can only pay attention to her as a woman, or as just a black woman, or even as a economically disenfrachised black woman, for that matter--all of her identities must be taken into account. her race is already determining who believes her and who doesn't, how bad of a parent she is (the myth of the bad black mother), and it's determining how she is misrepresented in the media. additionally, we must not forget that we exist in a media saturated world that continuously reproduces negative images that deem black womens bodies as disposable sex objects. it is all too impossible to deny that those images do not play a strong part in concluding how she was/is/will be treated by men of all races. furthermore, if one believes that gender trumps race in this specific situtation, then they deny the harm of the racial slurs that were hurled at the dancers, which i personally see as a form of violence towards these women--no matter what.
I couldn't agree more. And to add to it sexism and racism (among other issues, but this is not my dissertation) are not only intersected but they continually reinforce each other. Things like the feminization of poverty (that women of color are the poorest sector of our society) or the emasculation of men of color (black men being systematically raped in the criminal justice system asserting white male paranoia, anxiety and dominance over *them*) describe moments when issues of class, race, gender, sexuality are interrelating to create new types of realities, differing moments of oppression, that would simply go ignored if we are to look at singular categories of *oppression*. This type of thinking is useless for me. No one ever sees me and thinks "a woman!" they immediately see my race (fuck half the time they hear my race) and that could never *trump* my experience as a woman.
Furthermore, feminists of color are often (and continually, usually subversively) asked to put their race (among other) *issues* to the side to call for some kind of fictional universal sisterhood fighting towards a type of equality we may not even agree with (and an equality the men of "our" diaspora never had). This is in no way a new critique but one that has been discussed and hashed out several times over by many different feminists. But reading the comments to her post (and thinking about all the times I cringe to read the comments when I write about women of color) I realize little has changed...
Ultimately I have to wonder, what is the mainstream face of feminism? All the work we (women of color) have done, has it trickled to the mainstream? Or are people still under the belief that patriarchy functions in a vacuum and is the sole root of oppression? (clearly this discussion is for people that recognize that patriarchy is oppressive...)
Jessica and I were talking the other night about all the posts we have done on women of color and third world women and how ultimately the posts that get the most discussion, the most comments, the most attention are the ones about dating, or differences between men and women, or body image. Of course these discussion are important (and often humorous), but can they *really* be had without rigorous analysis and incorporation of class, race, sexuality etc. And is it still that difficult to engage in discussion about/with/around women of color or are we still strategically and instinctually left out of the dialogue of mainstream feminism?
This is just the tip of the iceburg but since we are a mainstream feminist blog and I am a woman of color writing for a mainstream feminist blog, I thought it was really important to bring this discussion here.
Thoughts?
A little last minute gender parity.
Last year, the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts blasted the Republican governor for what it described as a dismal record of boosting the number of women and minorities on the bench.
In response Romney has nominated four women to be judges with the hope that this will increase the diversity of his appointments to reflect the diversity of his constituents.
Kathleen O'Connor, president of Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts, praised Romney for the slate of women nominations, but said it seemed like an 11th-hour effort to boost his numbers during his last year in office."It does sound like catch-up," she said. "At least there has been enough attention brought to this matter and he has begun to pay attention. I hope he continues with the time he has left."
If feminism is dead, why do they have to keep trying to kill it?
Nathan Tabor at Renew America comforts other scared-of-girls conservatives with the promise that The feminist furor has finally passed. Whew. Finally.
In cities across the U.S., women are chucking the corporate world and embracing Barney's world instead. They have found fulfillment where their grandmothers did — in the home, raising their children, offering love and support to their husbands. Many do not consider domestic work a drudgery — rather, they see it as a comforting alternative to the 24/7 career life.
Definitely. I actually cuddle with my vacuum cleaner. Seriously though--since when is “career life� 24/7? But cleaning up after people, cooking, taking care of kids and all that shit is just from 9-5?
But what has brought about this seismic shift in American life? Feminism may, in fact, be responsible. Young women have seen the fallout from feminism and, as a result, they want no part of it. Public opinion polls generally show that younger women flinch at the thought of being called "feminists."
Two for flinching!
They may have been raised in the broken homes spawned by the nation's divorce culture, and they don't want their own children to suffer the fate that they did. In essence, they suffered parental loss early in their lives because their mothers were rarely home long enough to be a nurturing force. Instead of tugging on their mothers' apron strings, they were left to tug on the telephone cord that connected them to their working mothers' offices.
What a writer! See how he turned the whole “tugging� idiom around on you? Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Genius. (Yeah I'm just filled with the spirit of snark today.)
So ladies, I guess we’re just going to have to pack it in and get our asses back in the kitchen. But before we do, make sure you thank Mr. Tabor for clueing us in on what young women are thinking.
This the first video that comes up when you do a search for "women" on YouTube. Just saying.
The Drinking Liberally Memphis chapter held a Keep Your Hands Off My Dildo party this past weekend in response to legislation proposed in Tennessee that would ban sex toys.
The legislation, which is almost identical to bans in other states, would have made it a criminal act to “knowingly sell, advertise, publish, or exhibit to another person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed to be used primarily for the stimulation of human genitalia.�
Luckily the Tennessee bill died in committee, but that didn’t stop the Drinking Liberally folks from raising awareness around the anti-sex legislation by throwing a party and selling some sex toys. Great stuff.
To find a Drinking Liberally chapter near you, click here.
Today is the National Day of Silence, "the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression."
A project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the United States Student Association, the National Day of Silence was created in 1996. Participating students (high school and college) take a day-long vow of silence to protest anti-LGBT discrimination, violence and harassment.
More than 450,000 students participated last year. Sounds great. Too bad assholes had to ruin it.
Pam at Pandagon points us to the Alliance Defense Fund's The Day of Truth event:
The Day of Truth was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective...It is important that students stand up for their First Amendment right to hear and speak the Truth about human sexuality in order to protect that freedom for future generations.
Students are encouraged to pass out cards and wear shirts denouncing the Day of Silence. Lovely.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is suing to force the FDA to approve over-the-counter access to emergency contraception, Plan B.
As part of the case, Lester Crawford and deputy operations commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock have been ordered to testify in depositions to be taken by CRR lawyers. The lawyers plan to specifically ask about a bizarre 2004 memo:
In the memo released by the FDA, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an agency medical officer, wrote: "As an example, she [Woodcock] stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B." (Emphasis mine.)
Sex-based cults. Well it’s nice to know that the FDA had such a good reason for all the stalling.
Sublime Stitching has pretty bad-ass Roller Derby embroidery patterns for those who like being all artsy.
Unfortunately I am neither crafty or athletic. So I'll just have to get into Roller Derby from the comfort of my couch.
Too cool. Richard Roeper featured the REAL hot 100 in his Chicago Sun-Times column today, Beyond Smart Hot: It's not all about the look.
The best part? Roeper found out about the campaign from reader Alan Robinson, who just happens to be the proud papa of Madeline--a REAL hot 100 co-founder.
"I couldn't agree more with your ideas on 'Smart Hot,' and I guess we raised our daughter right. She, along with several of her friends, have a Web site taking nominations for a list to counter Maxim's Hot 100...At www.therealhot100.org, you will find photos and bios of women nominated as 'young women of accomplishment.' The short bio of my daughter, Madeline Halperin-Robinson [is included]. I am flush with pride over her accomplishments and progressive work toward change."
Too cute. Thanks, dad!
Don't forget, the REAL hot 100 will announce the final 100 women next month (with a big ass party to follow.)
Michigan’s initiative to change the state constitution to legally define life beginning at conception is getting some help from a national anti-choice leader.
Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, was in Michigan this week campaigning for the proposal, which Brown and Michigan Citizens for Life hope will eventually challenge Roe v. Wade.
Interesting/weird fact: “The state's largest anti-abortion organization, Right to Life of Michigan, is not supporting the Michigan Citizens for Life campaign.�
Looks like I forgot to mention that yesterday was Equal Pay Day. My bad.
Check out Amy Joyce's Washington Post column, Now It's Time For Women To Get Even for inspiration and to debunk the myth that the pay gap doesn't exist:
So let's just get this straight right now, says [economist Evelyn] Murphy: That 23-cent differential is not because some women take time off to give birth or raise children. The pay-gap figure measures only women and men who work full time, for a full year. It does not include women who took time off during the year or worked part time.But don't women earn less over time because they might more often take time off to give birth or raise a child? According to Murphy, that's an incredibly lame argument. Most women who can take time off and go back to work full-time earn more in the first place. Any drop in salary they might experience would not pull the average down, she argues. (Emphasis mine)
Murphy is the author of of "Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men -- and What to Do About It." Get more information on the pay gap and action you can take at Murphy's website, the WAGE project.
I was totally remiss in forgetting to wish the very fabulous Gwynn Cassidy a happy birthday last week. Gwynn is the founder of Girls in Government, co-founder of the REAL hot 100, and an all-around great gal.
For her birthday celebration (scary close-up after the jump), a bunch of Gwynn's friends were treated to a cheese and wine class at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center. Yeah, she's all classy and shit.
I digress. The class was amazing, so I wanted to point out (for those in NY) that Artisanal is hosting a class this summer called Femmes Fatale: Women Cheesemakers, in which some of the top women cheesemakers guide you through a tasting. I'm totally there.
If you're in San Fran, stop by and say hi to the gals at Bitch magazine.
Independent Press Spotlight - Bitch Magazine
446 Valencia (btwn 15 & 16)
San Francisco, CA
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
7:30 pm
$5-15/sliding scale
All Ages
I meant to post on this yesterday, thanks to Broadsheet for the reminder.
Apparently Germany is uber-resistant (sorry, couldn’t help myself) to the idea of working mothers. They even have a name for those so selfish as to have a career: Rabenmutter. I know it’s supposed to be an insult, but damn does that sound bad-ass.
It means raven mother, and refers to women who leave their children in an empty nest while they fly away to pursue a career. The phrase, which sounds like something out of the Brothers Grimm, has been used by Germans for centuries as a synonym for bad parent. Today, it is at the center of a new debate on the future of the German working woman, prompted by the first woman to lead the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The piece focuses on Merkel’s newly-appointed minister for family affairs, Ursula von der Leyen. Von der Leyen, a doctor and mother of seven, is using her position to work on policies that encourage working women to have children and to challenge anti-working mom beliefs.
Good shit.
Phyllis Schlafly’s latest, Does Feminism Control The Bush Administration?, will have you rolling.
Is President George W. Bush a feminist, or is he just a typical gentleman who is intimidated by feminists and unable to cope with their unreasonable demands, tantrums and rudeness? When it comes to public policy and personnel appointments, the result is the same.
Yeah, feminists are so intimidating. We rule politics with an iron fisting...I mean fist.
I know pointing out that Schlafly’s anti-feminism is definitely one for the duh-files, but I couldn’t help it. This reoccurring theme of all-powerful feminists pulling the strings of national policy is just too funny.
I didn’t like Caitlin Flanagan before. Now, I’m just terrified by her. Check out snippets of her appearance on The Colbert Report from Salon's Video Dog. Trés creepy.
Jennifer Pozner at the brand-spanking-new WIMN’s Voices blog has more.
An Op-Ed in The Baltimore Sun today, Women as bait, takes issue with a local bar’s version of ladies’ night:
During "Ladies Lockdown," held twice a year from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on a Saturday night, only women are admitted - mostly the University of Maryland students who are the principal clientele of this popular hangout - and they can drink virtually for free.…young women are encouraged to drink as much as possible until 11 p.m., when young men arrive expecting to find them in an accommodating state.
Whatever the motive, hosting such evenings is an irresponsible business practice that at best encourages binge drinking and at worst has predatory overtones.
Irresponsible, yes. Predatory? I don’t know. The whole ladies’ night thing is something I gave a lot of thought to back in my SUNY Albany days. Dear lord, was a lot of drinking going on there.
Clearly ladies’ night is a way to get more gals to the bar because the reasoning is the guys will follow. And I agree that encouraging binge drinking (which is so 1998) is kind of gross. But when the argument shifts to the idea that bar owners are trying to get women drunk to set them up as “bait� or easy targets for sexual propositioning (or assault), shit gets a little complicated. I mean, as much as folks may not like it, alcohol is used by young and older people alike to help move things along socially.
Unfortunately, there are many alcohol-related rapes—especially on college campuses. So binge drinking is a real concern. But positioning any woman who is out having fun as a potential victim just because she’s drunk is really problematic. First of all, it assumes that we’re all victims-in-waiting who shouldn’t be drinking:
Here's a suggestion: Don't single women out, ply them with beer and shots, and turn them loose late on a Saturday night.
Turn us loose?
This kind of thinking also uses alcohol as a diversion—the real focus should be on perpetrators and the culture of rape. Once the argument is about being out drinking, you get the whole women-should-know-better nonsense. But then again I have friends that would argue that ladies’ night is not just an innocuous bar promotion, but a way to facilitate women getting more than a little buzzed—but dropping down drunk—for easy targeting. Thoughts?
The prize money at Wimbledon this year will be to $1.17 million for the men’s champion and $1.1 million for the women’s.
Wimbledon is the only grand slam tennis event not to pay men and women equally.
(Somewhat late this week, I know...)
Missouri wants to force Planned Parenthood clinics to give back state family planning grant money that's already been spent. The state also just approved tax breaks for crisis-pregnancy centers.
Equality means better sex. (Liberals do it better, indeed!)
Apparently the operating room is an old boys' club.
Gwen Ifill says it's not easy breaking barriers in TV news.
Ohio considers making it a felony for a woman to have an abortion... even if she goes outside the state to get the procedure.
Saudi women pose for a Wahhabist pinup calendar.
Australian cheerleaders are told to cover their midriffs. Not because they look like sluts, but because they "encourage eating disorders."
Jamaica may be the most homophobic nation on the planet.
A Pennsylvania teacher was suspended for discussing her anti-abortion views with students in her social studies class.
Anti-choice pharmacists stoop to a new low by refusing to dispense abortion-related antibiotics.
Has Madeleine Albright been hanging out with Maureen Dowd?
It has become a cliché to say that powerful women scare off husbands and lovers. Do you think it is true?
I don't think I ever would have been secretary of state if I had stayed married. But I loved being married. I was married for 23 years. I was very sorry when it ended.Will you marry again?
I doubt it.Why not?
Why?Companionship?
I have lots of companionship. I am about to be 69 years old, and I have three daughters, three sons-in-law and six grandchildren. I am not looking to meet men. I also truly can't imagine who is out there who might be interested in someone like me. I'm intimidating, don't you think?I wouldn't want to have to arm-wrestle you.
I work out three times a week, and I can leg-press up to 400 pounds.
The fact that she doesn't see any need to get remarried? Awesome.
The fact that she doesn't think anyone would be interested in her because she's a powerful, accomplished woman? Sad.
Just so you know, that’s an actual headline.
An online study says that British women just love love love to do housework:
In an age when women are making economic strides and excelling in the workplace, the one thing that gives the majority a sense of empowerment is a good go around the house with the vacuum cleaner - followed by some cleaning and dusting....One-third of all women claimed "cleaning gives them more satisfaction than sex."
Cause who needs love, sex, or a career when you have a vacuum cleaner? (Insert hose joke here.)
The “study� was commissioned by Discovery Home and Health TV for their new series, Cleanaholics.
I’m super late on this one, but boy is it worth writing about.
On the April 11 edition of MSNBC's The Situation, host Tucker Carlson asserted that the testimony of a woman allegedly raped at an off-campus party hosted by members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team "is to be taken ... a little differently" from that of "an ordinary person" because she is "a crypto-hooker" who "hires herself out to dance naked in front of and ... sometimes sleep with ... strangers."
Is it just me, or does the term “crypto-hooker� sound like something out of Total Recall?
Watch the video here. (I think Wendy Murphy's face says it all.)
Broadsheet has more on the media coverage of the case.
A U.S. appeals court ruled last week that public schools can ban clothing that have hateful slogans. The case was originally brought by a student who wore a shirt that read: Homosexuality is shameful. The Poway High School student wore the shirt in response to a “Day of Silence�—a protest organized by the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
School officials made him take off the shirt and he subsequently sued, claiming they violated his free speech rights.
Writing for the panel's majority, Judge Stephen Reinhardt affirmed a lower court's decision against an injunction against the school and said schools may bar slogans believed to be hurtful.Students "who may be injured by verbal assaults on the basis of a core identifying characteristic such as race, religion, or sexual orientation, have a right to be free from such attacks while on school campuses," Reinhardt wrote.
"The demeaning of young gay and lesbian students in a school environment is detrimental not only to their psychological health and well-being, but also to their educational development," Reinhardt added.
Good stuff, but it’s upsetting that this shit was an even an argument. The outcry among conservative Christian groups is that the kid should be able to wear the shirt because being anti-gay is part of his religious beliefs. Please. What’s truly shameful is using religion as an excuse to hate. Would this case have come so far if the shirt had carried a racist message instead of a homophobic one?
While reading a column in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the anti-choice movement’s opposition to birth control, I came across this great piece of information:
Also, [Christina] Page suggests we ask ourselves why one of the biggest supposedly pro-family groups in the country, Concerned Women for America, doesn't offer maternity leave to its employees. If having and cherishing babies is its foremost agenda, why wouldn't that group?
Good job, gals. Nice to see how “concerned� you really are.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has said that women should be allowed into sports stadiums because their presence will “promote chastity.�
Women have been barred from attending matches, such as national soccer games, in big stadiums and have long complained, particularly when female fans of visiting foreign teams were allowed in.A state television announcer reported that Ahmadinejad "ordered the head of the sports organisation to provide facilities in the stadiums to watch national matches."
The president was quoted as saying: "The best stands should be allocated to women and families in the stadiums in which national and important matches are being held."
Iranian women have been fighting for the right to attend games for some time now, they’ve even had problems with the police when they tried to enter dressed as men or snuck in with foreign fans.
Because when the rest of the world is on the internet you are teaching second grade and you miss things like this.
Blog Against Heteronormativity Day!
Check it before you wreck it.
via Blac(k)ademic (the blog with which I am beginning to have an inappropriate relationship with, ahem, anyways..)
Woah.
A safe and effective gel allowing women to protect themselves from the AIDS virus may be available by 2010 if current trials involving thousands of women are successful, researchers said Sunday.Gita Ramjee, director of the HIV prevention research unit at South Africa's Medical Research Council, said microbe-killing vaginal gels offered huge potential for stemming the epidemic, especially in societies where men are reluctant to use a condom.
Ramjee said that five separate clinical trials were underway involving 12,000 people in South Africa and thousands in other countries. Results should be ready in the next two years, she said.
via AP.
Does anyone know anything else about this?
What will happen for the women that fought for Hamas to get into power? Since their coming to power in January, Hamas has been very concerned with running the government. But several women's activists in Palestine are wondering and fearing that a loss of women's rights is near.
Will the fundamentalist women who conducted a successful grassroots campaign that spurred women in their homes to vote and helped Hamas to their stunning victory become dominant while secular women are marginalized?While Hamas officials say no, some women's rights activists worry about the movement's long-term influence and see hints of a more restrictive attitude in an increasing number of signs posted by Islamic organizations on Palestinian buses urging Muslim women to dress modestly and wear the veil.
Obviously, coverings are the tip of the iceberg and only one issue. Some bigger issues include inheritance, divorce, family and marriage law and women are wondering which way the newly formed government will choose to go with this. It has happened in the past in Palestine (and almost every other place in the world) where women have lost rights by the same government they fought for and as we know history does often repeat itself.
Sheikh Mohammed Abu Teir, who was elected as Hamas' No. 2 candidate on its electoral slate, agreed. "Women can do whatever they want," he told Women's eNews during an interview in his elegant East Jerusalem home. "Hamas is not holding swords."But secular activists worry about the new minister of women's affairs, Maryam Salleh, an Islamist who will be working closely with Islamic women's groups.
"She will favor women Islamists, and she will also develop and promote the programs to convert women" to a more Islamic lifestyle, said Walid Salem, the Jerusalem director of Panorama: Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development.
Thoughts?
Soulforce, a Christian gay rights group, is on a 19 school tour to spread their message that homosexuality is not a sin. Their latest stop was Wheaton College (Billy Graham's alma mater, ha) and they were welcomed by students and faculty.
Soulforce, a Christian gay rights group, says it uses tactics borrowed from the 1961 Freedom Ride for civil rights. The goals are to seek equality for gay students at Christian colleges and raise a new generation of gay activists.
But some really fucked up shit.
"Wheaton College not only expels students who practice homosexuality but who also affirm homosexuality. We do not believe that students should have to face this kind of discrimination.""Sexual intimacy belongs with the confines of marriage," Jones said. "We don't single out homosexuals. But we do stand on historical and biblical Christian beliefs that have remained the same over the centuries."
College officials say Soulforce won't have an impact on the "community covenant" that students must sign that forbids all sex outside of marriage and says homosexuality is a transgression against God.
"Religious institutions have certain boundaries," said Gary Burge, New Testament professor at the college. "We believe that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin."
Snore. When will these freepers quit? What a scary environment to be gay in. I thank goddess everyday I live in the Bay Area, I am telling you...
Read about the equality ride here.
You know because we are robots. No but really, a new study has found that women and men are neurologically different and thus feel emotions differently. Because we need more studies to support this hypothesis, really...
The study focused on activity in the amygdala, a cluster of neurons found on both sides of the brain and involved for both sexes in hormone and other involuntary functions, as well as emotions and perception.Mr Cahill and his co-author Lisa Kilpatrick scanned the brains of 36 healthy men and 36 healthy women. The subjects were told to relax with their eyes closed during the scan, so that differences between the sexes could be studied at rest rather than during ‘heavy lifting’ such as accessing memories.
The study found that...
For men, the cluster “talks with� brain regions that help them respond to sensors for what’s going on outside the body, such as the visual cortex and an area that co-ordinates motor actions.For women, the cluster communicates with brain regions that help them respond to sensors inside the body. These areas tune in to and regulate women’s hormones, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and respiration.
This is a pretty small sample size so clearly these are not generalizable findings. But I have to question the cultural beliefs that surround these types of findings. I have to question a study that finds women and men are made differently as opposed to how environmental, cultural and social factors have affected these brain patterns (thoughts and actions). Can something learned change brain chemistry?
Many feminists and cultural theorists have found that it is cultural and environmental factors that support women in internal thinking, acting, responding and support men in external thinking, acting and responding, etc. So then how valid is this study? How can a study like this be valid without a consideration of surrounding factors?
I fear that studies like this just add to archaic ideas of inherent differences between men and women that are biological, as opposed to recognizing the way patriarchy functions to create these differences.
Just saying...
I don't know, I actually prefer women only gyms too. These women in Dearborn, Michigan had joined Fitness USA because they promised certain days would be women-only (many of them don't feel comfortable working out in their headscarves, but feel more uncomfortable working out without them in front of men, understandably). They have recently taken issue with the gym's new policy that no longer provides gender segregated days to work out.
So far, about 200 Muslim women with Fitness USA memberships have signed a petition asking the chain to return to gender-specific days for the entire gym or to put up a divider so men and women can't see each other while working out.Though Islam is guiding their concerns, Saidi and other Muslims stress that people of other faiths, including Christians and Orthodox Jews, share similar concerns. Moreover, with the Islamic population growing, Muslims argue it makes good business sense for local companies to accommodate their faith.
Like other local Muslim women, Saidi said she joined Fitness USA last year because managers repeatedly made verbal promises that there would be gender-specific workout days at some of the facilities.
I would be pretty pissed if I was on contract based on an agreement that was not upheld, especially if it was a religous or cultural belief. I could just see the gym folks being like, "what's the big deal?"
South Dakota's got everybody speculating about what a post-Roe America would look like. Conservative pundit Ramesh Ponnuru makes some predictions about how that might come about. And sadly, I think he's spot-on.
As much as complacent (mostly male) pro-choicers would like to believe overturning Roe would create groundswell of public support for legislation restoring abortion rights, Ponnuru makes the case for why that's unlikely to happen. While Americans aren't quite as crazy as the leadership of the anti-abortion movement, they don't exactly favor the kind of broad abortion rights that many of us believe women are entitled to.
Strong majorities think that abortion should be permitted in cases of rape, incest, threats to the mother's life, and severe fetal abnormality. But there aren't clear majorities for any other types of abortion. Indeed, polls have regularly found that small majorities of the public--including small majorities of women--believe that abortions for other reasons should be prohibited.
Much of the debate about the death of Roe v. Wade focuses on a scenario in which the Supreme Court clearly reverses the ruling. But the "chipping away" tactic isn't only the domain of state legislatures. It's likely to happen in the courts, too.
... it's more likely that the Supreme Court would repeal Roe in installments. The current Court might be willing to allow prohibitions on partial-birth abortion, for example. A future Court, with new anti-Roe appointees, might later conclude that its abortion jurisprudence was unworkable and get out of the inherently subjective business of deciding what constitutes an impermissible "undue burden" on the right to abortion.
And that's a strategy that isn't likely to backfire on anti-choicers. After all, there wasn't exactly rioting in the streets when the Casey decision came down.
...state legislatures would regain lawmaking authority over abortion bit by bit, probably starting with the ability to impose the most politically popular regulations. In such circumstances, the pro-life movement would hardly lose its fervor and political raison d'être.
Are there any active pro-choicers out there who still think that letting Roe fall would be a great strategic move?
While I’m not big on authority in general, this is good news.
Shortly after women voted this month in Kuwait’s elections for the first time, Kuwait’s Ministry Interior is intending on recruiting and training women to become police officers starting this fall.
Female police cadets from Jordan and other states may come to Kuwait to train as well.
Good shit.
I must say this is pretty funny. UCLA is conducting a workshop on gender in computing, and this is their ad for it. While I don’t doubt the workshop itself will kick ass, what better exemplifies gender in computing than Barbie and Mortal Combat?
Via Nerve, who says, “Isn’t this ad for it just so sex-and-death?�
In a class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a U.S. court has ruled that Kansas laws don’t require healthcare workers to report sexual activity of people under 16 to authorities. Whew!
U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten ruled against the 2003 opinion of our favorite attorney general Phill Kline, saying that such a requirement would discourage them from seeking medical care.
One of CRR’s lawyers said this is the first declaration of constitutional protection for adolescents to communicate to health care workers.
This is great. Now if we could just keep anti-choice propaganda out of Kansas classrooms...
Shortly after the horrific Duke rape, the NYC Rape Crisis community is scheduled to hold a rally aimed against rape myths starting at noon today in Union Square Park.
Following the kick-off will be a 24-hour vigil where NYC survivors will tell their stories of rape and the Sexual Assault Yearly Speak Out will attempt to dispel misconceptions surrounding rape in New York City. SAYSO says so:
An average of 1,700 rapes are reported in New York City every year. But we know that reported cases only make up about 16% of rapes that occur. Police rape reports are misleading. The city’s rape crisis programs tell quite another story: In one year alone, 2003-2004, NYC rape crisis programs received more than five thousand calls, with more than a thousand children receiving services for sexual assault.
So if you’re in the area and want to support, head over to Union Square Park today and help break the silence.
Uprising Radio has an interview with Lucinda Marshall, founder of the Feminist Peace Network and author of the article Ending Terrorism Against Women Begins at Home.
Marshall discusses the importance of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and why it's so important that it receives full funding. Interviewer Sonali Kolhatkar also brings up the backlash against VAWA among "men's rights" groups.
Listen here.
Who knew the Pill could be so damned great for guys, too?
Economist Heinrich Hock of Florida State University says that women’s use of the birth control pill has increased men’s educational level (as well as women’s.)
Hock examined education data collected by states during the 1960s and 1970s when the Pill became widely used....The surprise came when he looked at college completion rates among young men during the same time period. Guys, too, indirectly benefited from the Pill because it allowed them to complete their educations rather than have to drop out and get a job to support a baby.
Cool shit. I wonder if the same could be said for other forms of birth control--though I suppose nothing compares to the popularity of the Pill. Oh, Ortho Tri-Cyclen. You slay me.
Eww. Eww.
A 45-year-old Oklahoma man has posted a sign in his yard saying he'll pay $1,000 for a virgin bride between the ages of 12 and 24. Shockingly, the neighbors are not pleased.
"I'm just somebody who is getting up there in years, and I'm looking for a born-again, God-fearing virgin between the ages of 12 and 24 who can bear me children," said [Michael] Thelemann, who was divorced in 1989. "What's the problem? I just think I have some wicked neighbors."
Clearly. I feel like I need a shower. Ugh.
Looks like South Dakota is the new black. A Louisiana bill that would ban almost all abortions passed a Senate committee and is on its way to the Senate floor.
Senate Bill 33 by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, cleared the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare after the provision was added. The bill would allow abortions only to save the life of the mother. But Sen. Diana Bajoie, D-New Orleans, said she wanted to "make it more pro-life" by not allowing any exceptions.
So banning abortions for rape and incest victims isn’t quite enough. She also wants to do away with the exception that would save a woman’s life. Yeah, that’s sounds really “pro-life� to me. Lovely.
I just had drinks (non-alcoholic thank you very much) with some awesome independent media folks and I wanted to give them props. Among the attendees were Brian Awehali from the very cool LIP magazine (which went to print today and we all got new copies of literally hot off the presses, thanks Brian!), Lisa Jervis former editor of Bitch and Editor at Large at LIP and rad as hell (made my night to meet her, I have been reading Bitch for years!), and of course my lovely darling best friend, poet and writer Neela Banerjee who arranged the meeting (thanks girl) and her New American Media partner in crime and education editor Daffodil Atlan. Let the revolution continue.
I go to bed inspired.
Now go read read read some quality journalism, mkay!
A new state panel has been assembled to find ways to decrease the number of women and girls being incarcerated in Alabama. The number of female inmates has jumped 53 percent since 1995.
The rise in women sent to the Department of Corrections has been the most dramatic, but the Department of Youth Services also is getting more girls from juvenile courts. DYS admitted 606 girls in 2004, up from 450 in 1996, according to its annual report.State Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, who sponsored the resolution that created the commission and serves as its co-chair, said she hopes the state's focus on punishment and retribution can shift to rehabilitation and restoring women to society.
What is this madness she speaks? Rehabilitation and restoration in the American criminal justice system? C'mon now!
But really 1 in 6 inmates are female nationally, yet women are among the most ignored, mistreated and underrepresented groups out of prisoners. If anyone has relevant stats, please add to the comments.
Because the US needs another excuse for the coming apocalypse.
Iran's Islamic authorities are preparing a crackdown on women flouting the stringent dress code in the clearest sign yet of social and political repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.From today police in Tehran will be under orders to arrest women failing to conform to the regime's definition of Islamic morals by wearing loose-fitting hijab, or headscarves, tight jackets and shortened trousers exposing skin.
Offenders could be punished with £30 fines or two months in jail. Officers will also be authorised to confront men with outlandish hairstyles and people walking pet dogs, an activity long denounced as un-Islamic by the religious rulers.
Because what a women is wearing and what she looks like is a representation of that state/government/society. Her body becomes a visual map of the state of affairs (whether it be gross displays of capitalist fetishism or conservative fundamentalism). Everywhere.
Anyone who isn’t a homophobe, that is. Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, currently making its way through the Senate, not only outlaws homosexuality but also punishes “individuals who witness, celebrate with or support couples involved in homosexual relationships.�
Violators of the law face a mandatory sentence of five years in prison.
Black Looks on the consequences of the act:
LGBT activists and organisations working in the area of sexuality as well as HIV/AIDS organisations are in a perilous position as under the law they will all be criminalised. As the law institutionalizes the discrimination of lesbians and gays, they will have no redress either morally or under law if they are physically attacked, raped or discriminated against. They will no longer be human beings but illegal beings.
Black Looks also points out that the bill violates the Nigerian Constitution and international law.
Scary stuff.
Unless it's for marriage. Then it's virtuous. Duh.
This is just so bad-ass. 19 year-old Idan Halili has sparked quite the debate in Israel after she sent a letter to the army asking for exemption based on her feminist values.
"The army is an organisation whose most fundamental values cannot be brought in harmony with feminist values," she wrote in her request for exemption. Halili argues that military service is incompatible with feminist ideology on several levels: because of a hierarchal, male-favouring army structure; because the army distorts gender roles; because of sexual harassment within the army; and because of an equation between military and domestic violence. Her arguments galvanised media attention in Israel, with Halili on prime-time TV news and bringing sidelined feminist arguments against militarism into the public arena for the first time.
Halili was originally refused a hearing with a conscience committee and was sent to military prison for two weeks when she refused to serve. The decision was later reversed when her lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, argued that “although Halili's case against serving was 100% feminism, her ideology of feminism also meant she was a pacifist, objecting to any military system.�
But the decision wasn’t reversed on the basis of conscientious objection, says Ben-Natan: "The committee said that her feminism, not pacifism, seemed more dominant and that, on the basis of holding such views, she would be unfit to serve."
Halili, who hails from a a kibbutz in north Israel, says that "the army, in essence, does not square with feminist principles." Love her.
For more on feminist perspectives of militarization, check out the work of Cynthia Enloe.
Check out this piece in the Albany Times Union by Sens. Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton on the importance of prevention. Great stuff. They specifically tout their Prevention First Act.
...This legislation would help to reduce the rates of unintended pregnancy in our nation, decrease abortions and improve access to women's health care.Our proposal includes common- ground, common-sense policies.
It makes family-planning services more accessible to low-income women. It improves awareness and understanding of emergency contraception, a poorly understood yet highly effective form of contraception.
It ensures that government-funded sex education programs provide medically accurate information about contraception.
It also ends insurance discrimination against women. Right now, many policies cover Viagra, but not prescription contraceptives. That is wrong, and our legislation will change it.
Reid and Clinton also point out that those who are the most opposed to abortion often are also against contraception. (Shocker.)
For more information check out NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Prevention First Challenge for Common Ground.
Some good news out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: seven soldiers who were charged in the rape of 119 girls have been sentenced to life in prison. In addition, the state has (somewhat) admitted responsibility in the attacks and will be compensating the victims.
A new study from Consumer Electronics says women gamers who are between 25 to 34 years-old outnumber men.
The CEA study found that 65 percent of women in the 25-34 age bracket play video games, while only 35 percent of men in that group said that they play video games. Apparently, the key factor involved with these findings is the increasing popularity of casual games, especially among women.Women were found to be slightly less likely than men in the 25-34 bracket to play traditional console games on systems like the PlayStation 2 or Xbox, while they gravitated more heavily towards simple types of games like Tetris or other puzzle games and card games like solitaire. These casual titles are typically found on web portals like Yahoo!, AOL Games, PopCap Games, EA's Pogo.com and elsewhere.
Ok, now I have pretty much zero knowledge about gamers and video games and that whole area. But what is all this “casual� video game stuff? Women don’t like “real� games?
A senior analyst at CEA went on to say that women like casual games because they are "nonviolent, and are not necessarily supercompetitive against other players."
Again, I don’t know much about gaming--but this women-aren’t-competitive argument seems to crop up everywhere. Any girl gamers want to fill me in? Is this bullshit sexist stereotypes or do the ladies really not want to get their hands dirty with big-boy games?
Sounds fucked-up, but that’s basically the message Wall Street Journal writer Naomi Schaefer Riley is sending with her opinion piece, Ladies, You Should Know Better: How feminism wages war on common sense. Of course.
On the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen, Riley says that while it was a tragedy, she “was last seen in a bar, alone and drinking at 3 a.m.� and “that a 24-year-old woman should know better.� Naturally. Wasn’t Guillen aware of the woman-only curfew and alcohol prohibition? Please. Are we seriously back to the blame-the-victim game?
If you have attended college any time in the past 20 years, you will have heard that if a woman is forced against her will to have sex, it is "not her fault" and that women always have the right to "control their own bodies." Nothing could be truer. But the administrators who utter these sentiments and the feminists who inspire them rarely note which situations are conducive to keeping that control and which threaten it. They rarely discuss what to do to reduce the likelihood of a rape. Short of re-educating men, that is.
Right. Because re-educating men and teaching them the difficult-to-comprehend lesson that rape is wrong is just silly. Much better that women live in constant fear and steer clear of public places after dusk.
This part of Riley’s article also struck me:
But just as sociopaths exist on the Lower East Side, they exist on college campuses. One or two might even be playing lacrosse for Duke University.
I don’t think most rapists aren’t sociopaths. Unfortunately, they’re “normal� guys. That’s why the whole creepy-rapist-jumping-out-of-the-bushes is, for the most part, a myth. Rape is part of our culture; it’s normalized to the point where men who are otherwise decent guys will rape and not even think that it’s wrong. And that’s what terrifies me.
Riley also goes on to call women who get raped big dummies, so it’s an all-around fun read.
Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, both players on the Duke University lacrosse team, have been charged with the rape and kidnapping of a North Carolina Central University student. FYI: Finnerty has a history of assualt--the gay-bashing kind.
The Smoking Gun has the full story.
It seems abstinence-only ed wasn't crappy enough with its bad science and sexism. The Bush Administration just had to add little more stupid to the pile.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced new guidelines for organizations that want funding for their abstinence-only ed programs. May I present...uber-abstinence (for straights only, please):
Abstinence curricula must have a clear definition of sexual abstinence which must be consistent with the following: “Abstinence means voluntarily choosing not to engage in sexual activity until marriage. Sexual activity refers to any type of genital contact or sexual stimulation between two persons including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse.�...Throughout the entire curriculum, the term “marriage� must be defined as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as a husband and wife, and the word ’spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.� (Consistent with Federal law)
So if you're gay, you get no sex. Ever. Not even some rubbing action, sorry. In fact, in our happy abstinence-only world, you don't even exist. (Lalalala...I can't hear you!)
PEEK, Via Think Progress.
Oh dear. Sally Jacobsen, a professor at Northern Kentucky University, was put on permanent leave for encouraging her students to destroy an anti-choice display.
Jacobsen acknowledged leading graduate students on Wednesday to a grassy area near the University Center to rip up about 400 crosses. The crosses, temporarily erected a week earlier by a group called Northern Right to Life, were meant to represent a cemetery for aborted fetuses.It was unclear whether Jacobsen took part in dismantling the display.
I’m about as pro-choice as it gets, but that’s just fucked up. Seriously, leave the property destruction and harassment tactics to the anti-choicers--that’s their thing, not ours. If Jacobsen really wanted to do something productive, she could have taken a cue from Princeton. The pro-choice group there organized a counter-display to the gross anti-choice “Class of 2010: 347 didn't make it� flags put up on campus.
Eew. Do you really need your computer to look like this? (I know, nothing hotter than a chopped-in-half woman. Very Boxing Helena.)
IZ Reloaded calls this a "sexy piece of work." Well, it's certainly a piece of something.
Via Boing Boing.
Women members of the parliament in Pakistan are speaking out about the sex discrimination they’re facing from male colleagues and from the National Assembly (NA) speaker and Senate chairman.
Most of the women MPs complained that women were ignored during debates on important national issues, saying that they were allowed to speak only at the end of debate only for two to three minutes with repeated interruptions to ‘wind up’ from the chair.They said that they were also not taken seriously during standing committee proceedings and private members business and that their bills, motions and call attention notices were ignored.
There are 90 women members in the NA and the Senate--most are there for the fist time on reserved seats. A downside of using quotas to increase women’s political participation? For more on increasing women in decision making, check out WEDO’s Gender and Governance program.
Pamela Paul-- whose book, Pornified, alerted us to this phenomenon called "Girls Gone Wild" and to the fact that college guys like porn-- has favorably reviewed Caitlin Flanagan's book.
The Internet bristles with animosity toward Flanagan's written opinions and personal choices. Familiar charges of elitism hound the well-heeled, former stay-at-home mom for judging others' household decisions. Holes in her arguments are pried open to ridicule. She is called an amateur, a know-it-all and a nobody unjustly handed perches at both The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.
Yep, that covers most of it.
But here's what I think really bothers Flanagan's critics: No matter how vociferously they disagree with her on some things, they find themselves agreeing with much of what she writes. One suspects that were such readers to open Flanagan's essay collection, "To Hell With All That," without knowing its provenance, they would page through it eagerly, nodding and sighing and chuckling to themselves. Flanagan writes with intelligence, wit and brio. She's likable.
Well, I haven't cracked Flanagan's book, but considering "To Hell With All That" contains reprints of several of her pieces for The New Yorker and the Atlantic (of which I've read a substantial amount), I'd have to disagree on her likability. After reading her Hawaiian family vacation puff piece, I wanted to hold her head (and her editor's) under the two feet of water in the kiddie pool. Also, I don't find friendly profiles of Dr. Laura too likable.
As it stands, sensitivities are so attuned to the slightest insult of any one of women's myriad work-life choices that Flanagan's simplest observations — for example, when a woman works something is lost — are taken as an indictment of working women. Yet any working mother can see the truth in such a statement: time spent working = less time with children = something lost. What's appalling is that pointing this out raises such ire.
Except that studies show working mom's don't spend markedly less time with their kids... but I digress. Flanagan claims to have been deeply upset as a child when her mother went back to work. Fine. But what really raises ire is that she fails to get into the social/cultural/political forces that impact the choices made by women like her mother. And women who, unlike her mother, don't have the financial security to choose whether to work.
Paul faults Flanagan on this front, too:
It's not so much what Flanagan says, but what she fails to mention. No faulting an economy that demands overwork and skimps on child-care benefits. No questioning that Mom's the one who cooks. No challenging the idea that kids must be scheduled to the max in order to make the Ivies.
Flanagan is guilty of this again and again. For example, compare her piece on the wedding industry (originally published in the Atlantic in 2001) to a far better, more critical take on the same subject that The New Yorker published two years later. (Sigh. Why couldn't they have hired another staff writer like Rebecca Mead rather than Flanagan?)
Recently there have been some great critiques of Flanagan's work. I suggest reading a few of those if Paul's review isn't harsh enough for you.
One for the duh-files, I know.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has just released a report, “Evaluation report on General Situation of Women in Afghanistan.�
The AIHRC reports, among other things, that 38 percent of women were “wedded off against their will and consent" and that more than 50 percent have been victims of domestic violence.
Check out Mikhaela Reid's comic ode to Harvey Mansfield, Mansfield's Manliness Manual. (The pic above is a cropped version. Obviously.)
According to Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), the federal government is falling short on its promise to give 5 percent of contracts to women-owned small businesses.
In 2004, the government met its overall small-business goal, with small businesses receiving 23 percent of federal prime-contracting dollars, [House Small Business Committee spokesperson Rich] Carter said. Women-owned businesses, however, received 3 percent, falling short of the 5 percent goal, he said.
Rep. Velazquez, member of the House Small Business Committee, says that “when it comes to women business owners, the federal government is getting worse...Women-owned businesses are the fastest-growing sector in our economy. They need to be represented within the federal market.�
Check out the full article at The Chicago Tribune for more.
I love that flashing your goodies is now grounds for serious academic inquiry. (Though it is quite the phenomenon.)
Check out this exchange between Cyndi Lauper and interviewer Deborah Solomon:
I think of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" as the first feminist-backlash song. It came out in the 80's and goes against the preachy and high-minded tone of 70's feminism.That's not true! It's totally feminist. It's a song about entitlement. Why can't women have fun?
Indeed.
What better way to cover an alleged gang rape then to talk about “groupies who want to date athletes.�
Is this seriously a real fucking article? With all of the complex issues surrounding the Duke case, this reporter is really focusing on this?
They're on every college campus where sports teams succeed: groupies who want to date athletes -- or at least have sex with them.At Princeton University, where the men's lacrosse team is regularly ranked as one of the best in the nation, the women are known as “laxtitutes� or “lacrosstitutes.�
...Sometimes it's just a matter of prestige, the allure of being associated with someone cool. “I think that there are girls that are more inclined to sleep with a lacrosse player or an athlete based on their status,� said Joey, a junior who is friends with lacrosse players. He also didn't want to give his last name. “The success of the team matters.�
See?! Girls are dying to fuck athletes (translation: they don’t have to rape anyone). I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Oh but don’t worry, reporter Adrienne Mand Lewin brings it all back to the Duke case:
...But in light of the rape allegations at Duke University and the cancellation of the men's lacrosse team's season there -- while a separate issue -- players' behavior and the impact it can have on a team are now at the forefront of many college students' minds.Alex, a sophomore athlete who didn't want to give his full name or sport, said the Duke case had been discussed with his team. “Our coach has given us a huge talk about how easy it is to screw up and jeopardize the whole program for one night,� he said. “Just an accusation can ruin a whole program.� (Emphasis added)
Yeah guys, so if you can’t help it, try not rape those nutty “lacrosstitutes.� It could totally ruin the season.
Sooo creepy. Adrants points out this ad for birth control (generally a good thing) in Bangkok. Now, I don’t know if “baby dumping� is something that happens a lot in the city, but a drug company has decided it’s the perfect tragedy to help advertise their birth control pills:
Drug company Schering has co-opted the horror and turned it into an ad campaign for its birth control pill. The ad is an outdoor installation in the form of trashcans - placed near universities in Bankok - with motion sensors that, upon sensing the motion of a passerby, deliver the sound of a baby crying. Once the top of the trashcan is opened, the passerby is presented with Schering's message.
I’m am totally freaked out.
We're all aware that the Bush administration loves to fund abstinence-only education programs that provide high school students with all sorts of misleading information about sex and contraception. But why stop there? Now they've moved on to medical students.
A group called the Medical Institute for Sexual Health has scored $200,000 from the CDC to "develop a sexual-health curriculum for doctors in training." Who's leading the project? None other than Feministing favorite Dr. David Hager, whose hobbies include raping his wife and denying American women over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.
The institute objects to being called "abstinence-only"... Yet the institute mainly discusses condoms to disparage them and sexually transmitted diseases to assert that only abstinence offers reliable protection. Its core message is that "the behavior choices necessary for optimal health are sexual abstinence for unmarried individuals and faithfulness within marriage."
Their language is couched in health and science rather than morals, which might make them more palatable than conventional abstinence-only groups. (They say "nonmarital" pregnancy instead of "out-of-wedlock," for example.) But the message is the same: stay pure if you don't want to die and go to hell.
The Medical Institute secured CDC backing for its med school curriculum by way of a Congressional earmark. (It won't say which members of Congress intervened on its behalf, and they're not jumping to take credit, either.) ... When word got out about the curriculum, sexual-health experts affiliated with the CDC were taken by surprise. The agency had posted no request for proposals. It had put on no competitive bidding process.
While this may be common practice for publilc transportation projects and military projects, it's almost unheard of to award a non-competitive public-health grant.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't detail exactly how or what the Institute will be teaching medical students, or give much background about the importance of CDC curricula in med school. (Any med students out there who know?) But whatever the curriculum looks like, my hope here is that medical students are far too knowledgeable about the facts of life to be swayed by conservative propaganda about condoms and "unhealthy" sex.
Women's health expert Felicia Stewart, who brought emergency contraception to the attention of some key physicians and medical officials before the pills were widely available, died Thursday.
That same day, Colorado Governor Bill Owens vetoed a bill that would have enabled women to get EC directly from a pharmacist. (Meanwhile, both candidates for Colorado governor are anti-choice.)
The number of women murdered in Guatemala is rising steadily, and has more than tripled since 2000. Authorities have devoted scant resources and spotty attention to the crisis.
While gender parity may take decades, women continue to move into corporate America’s executive ranks. (Ahem, "Thanks, feminists!")
The South Dakota legislation banning abortion also allows people to donate anonymously to a state fund bankrolling a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade. But the SD attorney general announced this week that the names of donors are required to be public record.
Victims of domestic violence face an uphill battle in retaining custody of their kids.
Housework, apparently, is still women's work.
Director Nicole Holofcener on capturing the female experience in her movies.
A Portland police chief who has "spoken out against sexual discrimination and criticized officers who treat women as inferior," was recently slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit.
How to decrease HIV rates in India? Organize the sex workers.
Another study shows that fetuses can't feel pain.
Woah. According to one NGO, women were treated better and their rights more respected prior to the US invasion and the supposed new *democratic* government.
"We interviewed women in the country and met with local NGOs dealing with gender issues to develop this survey, which asked questions about the quality of women's life and respect for their rights," said Senar Muhammad, president of Baghdad-based NGO Woman Freedom Organisation. "The results show that women are less respected now than they were under the previous regime, while their freedom has been curtailed."According to the survey, women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights.
And so it goes. As we have written about this before, military interventions almost always mean losses for women's rights. I love that there was so much talk of *helping* women by the US government in justifying invasion and war.
You can also read more about this at Global Voices.
My dad called me today. He is an accountant and called to tell me he had filed my taxes and that I would have had a fortune if it were 1906 (don't know why he picked that year). Gotta love dad. Anyway, Broadsheet breaks down a particular tax code that is good to know.
...if you're married and you have any reason to suspect that your spouse may be a deadbeat, don't file a joint tax return. That's because if he (and usually it's a he; the dire scenario I outline here mostly affects women) cheats on his taxes and then leaves you (because that's just the sort of scumbag he is, and you should have listened to your mother all along), the IRS will make you pay back taxes and penalties on his income. This is what's known as the "joint liability" provision of the tax code. As the IRS explains it on its Web site, "One spouse may be held responsible for all the tax due even if the other spouse earned all the income or claimed improper deductions or credits."
Read more at Broadsheet...
If you haven’t already heard about the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy, I suggest you go to the site immediately and start to prepare for some serious mobilizing.
It's scheduled for Saturday, April 29th in New York City, and is being organized by United for Peace and Justice, RainbowPUSH Coalition, National Organization for Women, Friends of the Earth, U.S. Labor Against the War, Climate Crisis Coalition, Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, and Veterans For Peace.
The march will begin in the morning and end at Foley Square by early afternoon, where the Peace and Justice Festival will be held. The organizers were happy to recently make an agreement with city officials concerning the event as well, so hopefully all will go as planned.
So get thee to the site and donate, volunteer, or just spread the word.
It seems that girls are getting more violent, or at least getting more shit for being violent. The real question is, does the media really care which is true?
As of late, there has been a significant amount of attention put on the topic of “bad girls�; while headlines and book titles read “Violence raging among teen girls� or “See Jane Hit,� the perception that girls are getting increasingly violent may not exactly be the case.
While the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) that arrests of juvenile females for assaults and violent crimes from 1980 through 2003 rose from 20 percent to more than 30 percent of the total, others point out that violence prevention policies have become more strict in the past 20 years.
Additionally, a new study that reviews data from the Monitoring the Future and National Risk Behavior Surveys and the National Crime Victimization Survey, girls accounted for 20 percent of crimes in 1980 and only 19 percent in 2003. Darrell Steffensmeier, a professor of sociology and criminology at Penn State and the author of this study, says:
"Some commentators have blamed the perceived change on greater stress in girls' lives, more cultural promotion of girls' aggression and breakdowns in family, church, community and schools. But today, police are more prone to arrest girls because of a crackdown on less serious forms of 'violent' crime that is seen as a way of warding off their escalation into more serious violence. . . Girls are more likely to be arrested today than yesteryear for fighting with their parents or stepparents, teachers or other supervisors, and with other girls. Police files show that actions such as a girl throwing a dish at her mother or pouring a carton of chocolate milk on a girl at school for 'talking about her,' now result in arrests."
That’ll work just great. Fuck trying to figure out what pushed these girls to use aggressive behavior, let’s just help them become more violent in the shitty juvenile detention centers that they’re thrown into. Sigh.
Thoughts?
Check out this interview that Sonali Kolhatkar from Uprising Radio did with Barbara Palmer, the co-author of a new book, “Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling: Women and Congressional Elections.�
The authors did research on every election between 1956 through 2004, attempting to find how women won (when they won), and why they didn’t win (when they didn’t). They found that the answer to the latter question is that most incumbents are men (and most incumbents win).
Before I start to confuse y’all and myself some more, just go listen to the interview. Interesting stuff.
This has absolutely nothing to do with feminism and is totally random and unimportant, but I totally played pool against Seann William Scott (a.k.a. Stifler from American Pie) last night. And kicked his ass.
Hilarious.
This story is a wee old but too infuriating not to bring attention to.
The city council of Black Jack, MO is currently directing the city’s planning and zoning commission to review a law that prohibits more than three people from living together unless they are related by “blood, marriage or adoption.�
The review was called by the council after couple Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving were denied an occupancy permit because Fondray is not the biological father of one of their three children. In response, they filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who is also investigating the case.
Black Jack’s Mayor Norman McCourt insists the law has nothing to do with marital status and is merely used to prevent overcrowding, including fraternities, sororities and group homes. (Gots to keep those dirty brothels out of our town!)
In February, Black Jack sent their city attorney to review a number of other St. Louis communities’ definition of “family.� Many have similar laws as Black Jack, but also have broader definitions of the term.
There's something wrong when the term “family� even has to be defined in the first place, let alone who's allowed to be one and whom isn't.
This is too much. David Usher, President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, writes what he feels about the Duke rape allegations and what the problem with feminist ruling all college thought is (because feminists are ruling college thought? This is not my memory AT ALL).
Some excerpts...
As the story unfolds, I predict we will find out that the stripper made a blackmail threat in the bathroom – something like – “you give me a lot of money or I will say you raped me�.
My prediction: The case will be quietly TUA’d and quickly replaced with a tremendous civil suit against the University (buffered by Duke-educated “experts� from the local women’s abuse center).
This is exactly what the University deserves for allowing feminists to run the campus in the first place, while stifling the healthy political and social views of heterosexual men. Organized feminism is about women and trial lawyers using sex to make money from a pedestal of feigned Victorian purity. And, Duke has about as much money as the state of North Carolina has.
Organized feminism? What is this the next HBO special? "Healthy" political and social views of heterosexual men? This guy is so out of touch, feminists have taked EXTENSIVELY about rape laws, the whole idea of the virgin/whore dichotomy etc, the supposed healthy views of heterosexual men. What freaks me out is that people will read this and agree...
Oh there is more...
My recommendation to Duke: When they file the civil suit, do not back down. File a countersuit against the woman and the local abuse center for double the amount they are asking. You cannot stop the Pink Mafia by paying it off.
My message to men and real women on college campuses everywhere: Stay away from feminists and strippers. The last thing you want to date is a girl who studies feminism. Be sure she believes in equal rights for men to be in the family. Make certain she rejects feminism before even asking her out on a date. Get to know her previous boyfriend to find out why they broke up. If she says he is a jerk but he isn’t, you probably have a feminist on your hands.
Start a men’s rights group on your campus. Insist on equal rights for normal heterosexual men to be politically organized and to have their views on social equality heard. Demand the creation of a men’s studies program that operates completely independently of the women’s studies department. Real women will support you in this. Be sure to include them in your work.
That is great advice, really. This is so ridiculous and I want to laugh it off (like I am laughing off his hairstyle, sorry) but actually this is just scary. Does he really believe that women have so much to gain from "phony" rape suits that there is actually a conspiracy to do it? Does he really believe that feminism has taken over colleges?! Does he really believe that organized feminism is engaging in mafioso activity to use sex as power?
My head just exploded (and I am laughing my ass off).
I was going to respond to Annalee Newitz’s Alternet piece, The Down Side of Slashdot, which deals with sexism in the tech world. (It has the best subtitle ever: Slashdot has become the hub of the tech world. So why do many of its users seem like sexist dicks?) But I’m not really familiar with the tech world, so I figured I’m better off pointing to someone who is. Alice Tiara, who has a blog on feminism and technology, goes past the arguments of the article and goes straight to the comments section--which is where shit gets truly revealing. As expected, it’s of the sexism-doesn’t-exist-get-over-it variety.
Alice's argument--and it’s something I think about a lot--is that there comes a point where you just can’t engage in that kind of conversation.
I’m not interested in debating whether sexism exists. We live in a patriarchy. Sexism is a dominant force. I am not going to engage in any dialogue to the contrary, because it’s not productive. I’ve been studying gender politics for more than a decade, and I want to talk about feminist issues on a fairly high level, which is not possible when you are constantly having to repeat yourself to men who don’t see sexism because of male privilege. (One of the privileges of male [white, straight] privilege is not having to see sexism [racism, homophobia].)That’s the problem with trying to analyze sexism in the tech industry. (Obviously it’s not all sexist. Blogs like BoingBoing and Wonderland are explicitly feminist and really awesome.) But very, very frequently, if you try to point out sexism, you are told that it doesn’t exist, that you are imagining things, that you are trying to create trouble and piss people off, and that there is no subject position in the industry because it is based on merit (skills, whatever criteria you use). I am not interested in this discussion. Let’s accept that sexism does exist in the tech industry, like it exists everywhere else, and move on to how to change that.
I couldn’t agree more. I used to spend a lot of my time talking to brick walls--and it's just a waste of time. But I have friends who say that engaging people like this is integral, that these are the people who need to hear it most. But is it my job to talk to people who will never get it in the hope that a little something manages to resonate with them, or should I be focusing on working towards something bigger and more productive? Thoughts?
In These Times has Feministing’s fave cartoonist Mikhaela Reid interviewing the very cool Stephanie McMillan. McMillan is the political cartoonist who created the “ask Bill Napoli� strip.
If you need a reminder: South Dakota senator Bill Napoli said that the only women who should be able to have abortions are religious virgins who were "brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it." Nice, huh?
Well it looks like McMillan’s cartoon did the trick--Napoli was flooded with calls asking him things like “Tampons or pads?� Amazing.
McMillan auctioned off the cartoon and gave the proceeds to pro-choice orgs in South Dakota.
Wow. These are just getting crazier and crazier. The Arizona House just passed a measure that would require teens to get notarized written consent from a parent in order to obtain an abortion.
What’s next? Jumping through flaming hoops? Writing “I will not get myself pregnant� on the school blackboard a hundred times? Jeez.
Is this some sort of bad dream?
DNA evidence released today cleared 46 Duke lacrosse players from an accusation that three of them raped a dancer at a party four weeks ago, the players' defense lawyers said. They asked the Durham County district attorney to drop the case that has riveted and divided this city.None of the students' DNA was found on the woman or on any of her clothing or possessions or under her fingernails, the lawyers said. They said the accusation was false and based on the testimony of the one woman, a 27-year-old student, mother of two and a dancer who had been hired to perform at a party held by members of Duke's men's lacrosse team.
"There is no DNA evidence that shows any of these boys were touched by her fingernails," Cheshire said. "There is no evidence other than the word of this one complaining person that any rape or sexual assault took place in that house that evening."
An emergency room physician and sexual assault nurse specialist, who examined the woman on the night of the incident, said they had found injuries consistent with rape. The police application for a search warrant stated, "Medical records and interviews that were obtained by a subpoena revealed the victim had signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted."
"One complaining person," is he serious?
HOW THE FUCK ARE THEY GETTING AWAY WITH THIS?! Take two really old white institutions (Duke U and the cops) and walla, we get no evidence! It is moments like this that put me in despair. As blackademic asks, how can there be evidence that she was raped, but no DNA?
via NYT.
In light of Bush's bullshit ploy to distract us from everything else that is jacked right now by creating a potential nuclear crisis with Iran, women from both Iran and the US have come together to launch a campaign for peace.
Ebadi was reborn as a human rights activist, published 14 books and founded three nonprofit organizations. In 2003, she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now she and other women Nobel laureates are launching a campaign to promote a peaceful solution to U.S.-Iran tensions. Jody Williams, an American who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to outlaw the use of land mines, has teamed with Ebadi to spearhead the initiative."Shirin and I feel a particular responsibility to let the world know that the people of Iran and the United States do not support violent resolution of this crisis," Williams said.
"No more military attacks. No more war," they said in a written statement. "We demand a nonviolent world where human security is the basis of our common global security. We pledge to create such a world ... "
What is this madness they speak of? Puh-eace?
We're officially toddlers; today marks our two-year anniversary since the official Feministing kick-off.
Yay!
You know you remember this shit. Click on the pic to watch. So nice to know we've come such a long way. Oh, wait.
UPDATE: I seriously could watch this all day. I need to be stopped.
Joan Walsh at Salon has a great piece on famed anti-feminist Caitlin Flanagan and her latest book, To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife.
Walsh takes her to task for most of her feminists-ruined-everything arguments, but it’s Flanagan’s faux stay-at-home mom status that gets most of the article’s attention. And for good reason.
Caitlin Flanagan isn't a stay-at-home mother, she's an accomplished writer who plays a stay-at-home mom in magazines and on TV.
Anti-feminists touting the virtues of “traditional� motherhood and femininity while actually being one of those “career gals� that they seem to hate so much isn’t exactly new. Remember Beverly LaHaye? (Go to #23 on the page) But Flanagan certainly has seemed to make her lie of stay-at-home motherhood as artful as her anti-feminism.
Check out the whole piece, you’ll see what I mean.
“Recognize your strength. Recognize your power. Recognize your potential. Take care of yourself.�
The Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP) has just launched their Recognize! campaign which aims to raise awareness of reproductive rights and health issues surrounding women of color.
The Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP) is dedicated to engaging young women on their terms around the critical issue of reproductive freedom. Historically, the reproductive rights movement has marginalized young women, women of color, and low-income women, among other groups. PEP works to bridge the gap between organizations and diverse young women by both listening to young women's stories, and by working with organizations to help them meet young women where they are.
The Recognize! campaign is focusing on three issues: community and the control that a woman has over her own body in relation to the people around her; maternal health and well being, and highlighting motherhood as a positive and inspiring responsibility; and the recognition that young women see their reproductive health on a spectrum with other concerns such as lack of healthcare, HIV/AIDS and general well-being.
Also check out PEP’s new research report, "She Speaks: African American and Latino Young Women on Reproductive Health and Rights."
Take some of your South Dakota-based rage and put it to good use. Create a state motto.
The newly crowned Miss Iraq decided to step down just four days after she won the pageant due to death threats.
During her acceptance speech, 23 year-old Tamar Goregian said, “Maybe beauty is the final step to end violence and preach world peace after all.� Huh.
The pageant director said of Goregian stepping down, “I respect her decision. The country is undergoing rough times, and we understand her desire to protect herself and her family.�
I’m freaked out by this on so many levels.
Because why should protecting yourself from disease and pregnancy be easy?
The Washington Post reports that almost half of CVS pharmacies in DC have their condoms in a locked case--to get the condoms out, you have to press a buzzer and wait for a pharmacist to get them out. If they come at all.
Sindy Dominguez, 17, of Hyattsville already had a baby, and didn't want another -- at least not until she'd established a home and a career. Three months after her daughter was born, she and her boyfriend went to the CVS pharmacy near their apartment to buy a large box of condoms. They found them locked in a case equipped with a button that read "push for assistance."They pushed, and heard a call for help for a pharmacist, but no one came. They pushed again. And again.
"My boyfriend said, 'Do you want to just leave?' and I said, 'Yes, let's just go,
Way to go, CVS! But apparently the pharmacy isn't alone in its modest contribution to increasing STD rates.
Some Safeway and Giant stores in the District also lock up condoms, as do most Shopper's Food & Pharmacy Warehouse stores in the nearby suburbs.
(I have never seen this. Anyone know of other stores that lock up condoms?)
Naturally, the abstinence-only folks are pleased as punch. Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, says "I'd rather see them locked up...It's a lie that condoms prevent all sexually transmitted diseases anyway." Of course. Much better that people are discouraged from safe sex and just end up going home to screw unprotected.
No, it's not an alarm clock. It's a digital menstrual cycle tracker shaped like a compact. It even comes with a mirror so you can check out those pre-period breakouts. Yeah...I don't get it either.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women released the first-ever study of violence against women in Syria. The study found that nearly 25 percent of married women have been beaten.
"In Syria there was simply no data on violence against women; formal studies hadn't ever been done before," said Shirin Shukri, a manager of the project at the United Nations Development Fund for Women's regional office in Amman. "The issue of violence against women was kept silent here for many years. But we're making people in Syria aware that this is something that happens everywhere in Europe, in Asia, in the United States, and this is opening up discussion."A spokeswoman for the General Union of Women, Hana Qaddoura, said that breaking the silence on domestic abuse was an essential first step in combating violence against women in Syria. Many Syrians, she said, do not believe that violence in the home "counts" as violence.
Experts say that while the silence being broken is a good first step, the challenge will be taking action on the ground.
For more information, check out UNIFEM's Arab States Regional Office.
In an attempt to lure women from the World Cup in neighboring Germany, Switzerland has launched a 'Mr. Switzerland' ad campaign.
"Dear girls," starts the television spot, to run in France, Germany and Switzerland beginning in May."Why not escape this summer's World Cup to a country where men spend less time on football, and more time on you?," the advertisement, says over images of a strapping farmhand, a sexy train conductor, a fit mountain climber, a dapper ferryman and a brawny lumberjack.
So the guys get "sex garages" and we get this. Who knew the World Cup could be so bizarre?
Across the country yesterday, people participated in the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. In Los Angeles, organizers estimate that over 500,000 people rallied against anti-immigration laws; in New York there were over 100,000 people.
IndyMedia has photos, videos, and reports from the ground in LA.
Maria Luisa Tucker from Alternet reports from NY in Defining the Melting Pot.
Salon's Katharine Mieszkowski reports from San Fran in We're here. We're not going anywhere.
Feel free to use comments to add article links from other cities and towns.
I meant to point this out yesterday...Jack Hitt has an amazing (though upsetting) article in the latest NY Times Magazine on abortion in El Salvador, Pro-Life Nation.
It really is a must read--this is where we are heading. A future where women are jailed for 30 years for having an abortion, where your uterus needs a forensic expert, and where there is no such thing as a lifesaving abortion.
Also, don’t forget to check out Air America's Rachel Maddow interviewing Hitt about the article.
Apparently rape isn’t about power relations at all--it's just bad manners.
David Brooks’ Sunday column, Virtues and Victims, sets it all straight for us silly lasses who had the audacity to think that rape was about anything else than the loss of chivalry. (You know, cause back in the “chivalrous� days rape didn’t exist.)
I came to this horror of a column a bit later than most, so rather than repeat what’s already been said, I’m going to point you in the direction of four very smart ladies and their take on this nonsense:
Echidne, The Good Ole Boy Pines For The Good Ole Chivalry
Pandagon (Amanda), Bobo writes a rape apology
Feministe (Jill), Those Duke Boys Just Needed A Dose Of Chivalry
Majikthise (Lindsay), David Brooks on the Duke lacrosse gang rape
So long as they’re spending money of course.
Revlon Inc. is looking to recapture its glory by chasing after an untapped market: women over age 50.As part of a turnaround effort, the New York-based cosmetic company unveiled its biggest launch in more than a decade, Vital Radiance, a line of makeup formulated for older women. Largely forgotten as Revlon and other competitors such as L'Oreal SA have focused on age-defying beauty products for women in their 30s and 40s, the segment is becoming a hot new opportunity.
Makeup for older women? What a radical concept.
Due to regular complaints of sexual harassment on public transportation, authorities in Tehran are introducing women-only minivans.
The new 11-seater minivans will also only be driven by women, Tehran bus chief Mohammad Ahmadi Bafandeh told the Etemad-Melli newspaper, promising that "women will have easier transport conditions" when the service starts in June.City buses in Tehran and the rest of the country are already segregated to a certain extent, with women placed at the back and men at the front.
Japan did something similar recently with train cars. While I’m glad that women’s safety is a concern, I don’t know that sex-segregated transportation is a real answer. Thoughts?
Today is the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice, organized by local grassroots organizations across the country.
For more information on how you can get involved and find events in your area, check out www.April10.org, a website hosted by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).
New legislation introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) would secure women’s right to choose. Lord knows we need all the help we can get.
The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) states that “a woman's decision to commence, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy is one of the most intimate decisions an individual ever faces...As such, reproductive health decisions are best made by the woman, in consultation with her medical provider or loved ones, without governmental interference.�
Sen. Boxer said, “The Freedom of Choice Act says that we will not turn back the clock on the health and rights of women. And it says that we will take steps—as a Congress and as a country—to safeguard the dignity, privacy, and health of women now and for generations to come.�
Nice. NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan noted that the timing of FOCA couldn't be better. “After years of quietly chipping away at Roe v. Wade, the South Dakota ban on abortion exposed the anti-choice movement's true agenda: to overturn Roe...Today, a woman's right to choose hangs by a very thin thread.�
The first edition of Playboy magazine launched in Indonesia recently, causing quite the controversy.
Although the pictures inside showed less skin than U.S. issues 50 years ago, copies were being passed from desk to desk in Jakarta offices, high demand was reported, and newspapers and broadcasters dwelt at length on the Indonesian issue.A leader of one militant Islamic group threatened to use force, if necessary, to get the magazine withdrawn.
The Indonesian edition of Playboy is much like the American version in terms of articles and such, but unlike its U.S. counterpart, this magazine doesn’t even come close to having full nudity pics. It remains to be seen whether the magazine will be banned under the country’s anti-pornography laws.
Caryl Rivers (who I had the pleasure of hearing speak at WAM) and Rosalind Chait Barnett have a piece in yesterday’s Washington Post that debunks the myth of the educational boy crisis. Thank god someone is taking this shit on.
The boy crisis we're hearing about is largely a manufactured one, the product of both a backlash against the women's movement and the media's penchant for continuously churning out news about the latest dire threat to the nation.
Honestly, there’s too much good stuff in this article to only focus on one thing. So go read it and judge for yourself.
In just two weeks, pro-choice volunteers have already collected a third of the signatures they need to get the SD abortion ban on the November ballot. Nice!
The volunteers--mobilized by several organizations including NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota--are saying that they are getting more support than they expected:
Spotting three teenagers with clipboards as he walked up to the Sturgis post office, Jack Hoel, 74, broke into a grin."I can't wait to sign," he said. "I was going to go out looking for this petition."
..."I have renewed faith in the people of South Dakota," said Serri Graslie, 18. "This is turning out much better than I thought."
A statewide poll commissioned by abortion rights activists last month found that 57% of voters want to overturn the ban.
I certainly hope so. To find out how you can help with the effort in South Dakota, click here.
Also check out the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.
Oh dear. A new report links silicone breast implants--which the FDA is set to allow back on the market--to high levels of platinum in women.
The platinum, they concluded, was in a form that made it a potential source of severe allergic or toxic reactions. Their findings were immediately challenged by chemists associated with implant makers and are at odds with the longtime conclusions of the FDA, which has determined that the platinum used to make silicone gel implants is inactive and unable to cause harm.While the possibility that some silicone implants might release a harmful form of platinum has been debated since the early 1990s, the metal has not been at the center of the long and contentious debate over the safety of the implants. And the possible health problems that could come from platinum — severe allergies, asthma, nerve damage and reduced immune responses — have not been the focus of the many lawsuits against implant makers.
Researchers Ernest Lykissa and Susan Maharaj report in the journal Analytical Chemistry that they not only found high platinum levels, but also found (for the first time ever) platinum in an oxidized state which could make it more dangerous.
So pretty please, ladies. If you must must must increase your bust, try to stick to saline.
CBS decides Katie Couric has the "gravitas" necessary to anchor the news.
Young women have a hard time transitioning from the classroom to the workplace.
The Bible Belt is the domestic destination for sex tourists. In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study. Most youths caught up in the sex trade are runaways.
Amnesty International reports on police abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US.
AlterNet profiles the South Dakota pro-choice activists Cecilia Fire Thunder.
More than 80 percent of college women are on diets.
Makers of children's toys are having a hard time marketing to girls.
The NBC Nightly News investigates pregnancy discrimination at work. Today, more than 70 million American women work and almost three-quarters of them have children — which makes pregnancy discrimination cases seem so 1980s. But in fact, claims are increasing, up 31 percent from 1992 to 2005, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Nation takes a look at events that led to the South Dakota abortion ban-- including the state's Abortion Task Force (which we discussed back in December).
Lawmakers in Illinois are considering a measure that would allow sex workers to sue their pimps or customers who attack them.
Men perform the Penis Monologues.
This is such crap, but because I love to deconstruct, I will have to engage with this (potentially mock if anyone knows?) piece on why women are not meeting men. You know we at feministing love advice on how to meet a man. Because that is the only reason I am even writing this blog, in the vain hope that I will somehow meet a man while doing it. mwahahahaha.
DC Bachelor gives us 7 tips (shortened) on what straight women are doing wrong trying to meet a man. (ignoring the fact that *trying* is the wrongest of them all)
1. Stop turning down social invitations.
2. Always be prepared with lipstick and business card, because you never know.
3. Don't dress comfy, dress fancy.
4. Stop being a bitch.
4a. Quit trying to act like you are the hottest shit on the planet.
5. Go to places where you will meet men you like.
6. Read a book, go to the movies, *develop* yourself.
7. Don't read into things.
Oh dear, so so wrong.
1. I am a working lady, going out to just meet guys is a total waste of my time. I have interests, musical tastes, FRIENDS, an appetite, a personality.
2. I always have lipstick and business cards. Lipstick because I like to be diva when debating politics and business cards to turn people onto blogging. But guys aren't usually turned on by the fact that I write for a feminist blog. But that is no doubt their loss. Everyone knows feminists do it better.
3. Your style should reflect your personality. Why be something you are not? If you want to wear comfy shoes, wear comfy shoes. Back problems, foot problems etc, not worth a second glance from a dude. Plus it is easier to step on a guys arms with sneaks on, when sitting on his face.
4. NO, stop being an asshole. I have a reason to be a bitch (and I am proud to be one), what is your problem.
4a. I am afraid not thinking I am the hottest shit on the planet would be impossible.
5. See answer to number 1. I am too busy to waste time trying to meet a man. Best place I meet guys is in gay bars, because gay men know how to treat women and not use word, thoughts, sex, emotions as power (most of the time;). Plus, most places that are for singles play BAD music. I hate bad music.
6. Develop yourself, for yourself. Give me a break. I am more well read than half the men I know (and I know some damn smart men).
7. This totally reminds of "he is just not that into you" crap. Yes ladies, support men in saying that they are just a certain way. They don't have feelings, thoughts, or planned actions, just words. They are producing words in a vacuum with no meaning or cultural references, no power dynamics. This is definitely a way men and women can work together to perpetuate gender difference and cross gender understanding. Nice one. Give him an excuse to be able to continue his implicit and subversive power over you. And his silence in his own construction of masculinity.
What DC Bachelor is failing to realize is that many straight women don't go out to meet men, they don't try and they bitch because it is a total waste of time. There is no alternative narrative telling women, it is okay if you don't want to go out there and find a man. So we are caught in the middle, recognizing something is not right about the inherently sexist structure of dating, but feeling pressure to do it anyway.
How about a dating guide for that? "How to debunk patriarchy while getting laid."
What ticks me off the most is if you identify or are identified as a straight woman and you are not devoting your life to meeting a man, something is wrong with you. Now, today in 2006, women are still told/taught that all this other stuff (taking over the world with beauty and brilliance) they are doing is cute, but the goal is to meet a manses.
I would take DC Bachelor's advice if you have no self-esteem and would like to re-cycle patriarchy, over and over and over. Or if you are interested in meeting guys that don't like women, they like puppets, acting, playing, believing they are something that doesn't exist. A social construction of how women should be, not a recognition of what/who they are.
I realize this post was an easy target, as is this blog, but I had to. There are people that really feel this way.
After a recent trip to Pakistan, Cherie Blair (wife of Tony) reported that women in Pakistan are advancing. And in order for us to believe it, we need someone from the West to tell us. Anyway,
She was speaking at a seminar on ‘entrepreneurship - way to women’s empowerment’ at Lok Virsa on Saturday. She said women’s participation was highest in Pakistan’s health sector ranked 33 in the world, which was ahead of India’s 34.In political empowerment of women Pakistan ranked 37 out of 58 countries. Women’s empowerment has given them a new voice and better opportunities in business and industry. She also referred to programmes initiated to involve rural women in different economic and development activities.
Furthermore, the advisor to the PM on Women's Rights said that several government initiatives have been enacted to scaffold women's advancement.
Advisor to the PM on Women’s Development Nilofar Bakhtiar said the government believed in equal rights and empowerment of women. She said the government had created new opportunities for women. She said that women could be empowered through economic independence for which various projects and programmes had been initiated in the country including the remote areas of Gwadar, Tharparkar and Wana.
This is great, but as always I must criticize a model of women's advancement simply based on a Western (2nd wave) notions of feminism. Not only do women need to be given access to business, government and education, but their particular resistances need to be noticed. What are the women in Pakistan doing that are serious moments of feminist resistance (practice), that go unoticed by *authority* both Western and local?
A new study shows that female life expectancy exceeds that of men in all but 6 countries. Before I could start “na-na�-ing at my male friends, I read the second part of the article -- one of the reasons for this differentiation is because men “tend to take more risks than women.�
Of course the explanation they have to give behind our better health is that we’re big wusses.
The UK's Equal Opportunities Commission has released a report showing that the unemployment rate among black women is almost twice that of white women, with Asian women not that far behind.
The report also said that black and Asian women are more likely to have jobs in which they are overqualified, and working in less secure forms of employment. (Which means to be on fixed-term contracts or in temp jobs.)
Click here for more details on the report.
Who would have known that such a gross-looking food could possibly be used in the fight against cancer.
Recent tests have shown that -- in a laboratory -- ginger kills ovarian cancer cells. It may also prevent tumor cells from being resistant to treatment, which is a common problem with chemotherapy.
I’m actually not too surprised about this; the root has been used as treatment for a number of less severe medical conditions as well.
On Wednesday, the Arizona state Senate approved a bill that will require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the fetuses may experience pain during the procedure. Sigh.
"The measure was passed earlier by the House and goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano, an abortion-rights supporter who since taking office in 2003 has vetoed several measures supported by abortion opponents.Supporters said the bill would help ensure that women could make informed decisions about their health.
Critics said the bill is intended to erode abortion rights."
No shit.
Any physician who violates the requirement would be engaging in "unprofessional conduct" and subjected to a license suspension or revocation.
Lovely. It's all you, Janet.
For those of you who are interested in doing some, um, do-gooding, check out the 6th Annual Visions in Feminism Conference that’s being held in Washington, D.C. on April 22nd.
I’ll be there representing Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) and Feministing (as always). There’s a kick-ass group of organizers, and workshop descriptions will be posted soon enough. Mobilize and Organize! (Yes, I’m a big feminist dorkus.)
That's right. Forensic. Vagina. Specialist.
Air America's Rachel Maddow interviews journalist Jack Hitt on this Sunday's NY Times Magazine cover story, Pro-Life Nation. It's terrifying.
Wow. Even I was surprised by this one:
A new survey shows four out of 10 city kids say they have had intercourse before age 14, and have engaged in oral and even anal sex by 17.“This study makes clear that urban young adults engage in a variety of sexual behavior beyond vaginal intercourse,� said Dr. Danielle Ompad, who authored the survey for The New York Academy of Medicine.
The researchers surveyed over 2,000 kids in Baltimore for the report. Ompad said, "I don't think other cities would be too different.� It must be all the smog--makes for foggy romantic walks and such.
The latest Carnival of Feminists is up at Written World. It's definitely otherworldly.
Like the image? Somehow I thought the 'ball toss' was a really funny visual for a feminist carnival. Then again, I do have the sense of humor of a ten year-old.
An update on the Duke rape allegations. This shit isn't for the faint of heart. Via Broadsheet, we find out that the authorities have released the search warrant used in a search of one of the player's dorm rooms. Along with a description of the attack, the warrant cites an email it seized that was written by one of the players, Ryan McFayden (team number 41):
To whom it may concern:tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond
41
And they say romance is dead.
Now check out the reaction from McFayden's lawyer:
"The e-mail's language is vile," said Ekstrand, who is representing more than 30 of the lacrosse athletes. "It is also perfectly consistent with the boys' assertion that no sexual assault took place that night. The time stamp on the e-mail of 1:58 a.m. -- shortly after the party -- is more evidence of a lack of a guilty mind."
Page from Broadsheet hits the nail on the head: "Because anyone who could be party to a brutal gang rape couldn't possibly write such deeply scary and gorily misogynistic garbage afterward, right? Right?"
I love my home state for so many reasons...but its history with access to emergency contraception is making it more and more difficult.
After Gov. George Pataki’s veto last year of a bill that would have made EC available over-the-counter (so teens couldn’t get it, which made no sense), new legislation came out that was said to address the governor’s concerns.
But, of course, it looks like nothing is really going to change:
"I don't want to squeeze the governor, but if he keeps the same pattern that he has, I'm not optimistic that he will do anything different than he did last year in the veto," said Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, Orange County."In all probability it will happen next year," he told the audience at Family Planning Advocates' annual conference.
Blah. I thought NY was supposed to be ahead of the game on choice?
In the Weekly Feminist Reader on Sunday, I linked to an article about romance novels getting dirtier... which prompted me to ask, "When will all these women just start reading erotica?"
An AP story this week (and a re-reading of last week's article) answered my question: They already are.
Two authors make the observation that it's taken erotica so long to go mainstream because both men and women have traditionally been uncomfortable with women admitting their are sexual beings with their own set of fantasies and desires.
"Erotica legitimizes the female sexual experience," [author Tina] Engler says. "Women read these books and it makes them feel normal about their own fantasies."
While I bristle at reading that anything "legitimizes the female sexual experience" -- as if it weren't already legitimate-- I understand what Engler is getting at.
[Author Liz] Maverick thinks that since men have always had outlets for their erotic fantasies, such as movies and magazines, women are finally coming around to creating their own.
It's true-- nearly all of these novels are written by and for women. Although it seems like there could be a little (ok, a lot) more diversity in the sort of heroines and scenarios they portray, it's a start. If you're looking for a diverse selection of erotica, stay away from the romance section at Barnes and Noble. Try Toys in Babeland or Good Vibrations.
I hate reading studies where I can't find the abstract, but according to a study published this past Wednesday, women are more into finding a man based on what he looks like, as opposed to what his bank statement says.
Hmmm.
"We are seeing that women who have control over their finances are less concerned with the fiscal status of their potential mates and look more as to how attractive they may be," said one of the authors, Fhionna Moore from University of St Andrews.Moore, a research student, found that as a woman's level of "resource control" changed, so did her preferences.
"It is the control and the independence the money gives rather than the absolute income level that appears to be the key predicting variable," she told Reuters.
An analysis of questionnaires returned by 1,851 heterosexual women aged between 18 and 35 showed women were able to change their attitudes relatively quickly in reaction to their changed financial status.
I don't understand the purpose of these studies. Basically they are saying since women are becoming like men (because being a man means you earn money) that their dating/mating preferences are becoming like men (because men only care about what women look like) so now women only care what men look like. Seems like a rather simplistic and dated idea to me. There are SO many other factors at play when choosing a mate or even a date. Furthermore, what kind of questions would even get at this kind of data? "How much money do you earn and do you like ugly dudes or good-looking ones?" Gimme a break.
Plus your preference in partner is different based on your race, gender, class, historical background, sexual preference and personal preference (a lot of variables that couldn't possibly have been stablized for in this study). I don't know a single woman (okay maybe one) that gives a rat's ass about how much money a potential partner earns or just what they look like. What they DO for a living, maybe. They should rename this study, what straight, white, historically wealthy/middle class women feel about finding mate.
I have a piece up on Alternet today on women, work, and welfare--A Good Job Is Hard to Find:
President Bush is betting $500 million that poor women are better off having a man than holding a job.American women are 40 percent more likely than men to be poor. In fact, 90 percent of welfare recipients are women. While the Bush administration pours money into ineffective marriage-promotion programs, it ignores what may be the best bet for women to lift themselves out of poverty -- "men's work."
Check it out, if you're interested...
Students from Ripon College in Wisconsin are selling “I heart birth control� shirts in response to anti-choice madness--the recent South Dakota abortion ban and a bill that would prohibit all University of Wisconsin campuses from dispensing emergency contraception. Love it.
Jordyn Rush, public relations chair for the Ripon Democrats and communications chair for the state party, is spearheading the shirts' sales on campus."What I've told a lot of people is that I agree with Bill Clinton's stance on [abortion]-that abortions need to be safe, legal and rare," says Rush. "If we promote birth control use then abortions will become more rare, but everyone still needs to have that option."
Rush hopes the shirts will increase the campus pro-choice message, one she feels has been voiced too softly this school year.
Good for them!
The proposed EC-ban comes from Rep. Daniel LeMahieu (Mr. Birth-Control-Makes-Girls-Whores) who started this nonsense after a UW-Madison health clinic ran ads in campus newspapers for emergency contraception.
Apparently abortion restrictions aren’t quite enough for Kansas (home state to show-me-your-medical-records-Phill Kline).
The Kansas House has just passed a bill that would let high schools include “graphic� descriptions of abortion procedures in sex ed classes.
When the bill was debated Thursday, Rep. Jan Pauls amended it to say any discussion about abortion must include a description of all methods of abortion, including what state law calls partial birth abortion. The information must include "the probable physical sensations of pain a fetus feels or detects" during the various procedures.
This isn’t about teaching teens the facts of life--it’s about inundating them with anti-choice propaganda while they’re young. What kind of valid sex ed class could teach so-called partial birth abortion? The procedure isn’t even medically recognized! (Click here for more on this rhetorical bullshit.)
The results of yesterday’s Kuwaiti election came out, and sadly--women lost out.
Official results released on Wednesday showed ex-lieutenant colonel Yousef al-Suwaileh got the final seat in the Municipal Council, beating seven other candidates including two women. The other 15 council members were elected or appointed last year...."The outcome won't depress us," women's rights activist and writer Laila al-Othman told Reuters.
"We're full of hope, ambition and determination for women to have a role... this is the first political experience for women and it's a harbinger of good things to come."
While the female candidates and activists were hopeful about future elections, they said the loss was due in part to low voter turnout among women.
Oh dear.
A Delaware teen got dozens of students at a girls’ school to sign a petition “against women’s suffrage.�
...Will Albino and Brian Giarrocco, both of Salesianum School in Wilmington, took their video camera to the campus of nearby Padua Academy to ask students there to sign their petition calling for an end to women's suffrage.Time and again the girls eagerly grabbed Albino's pen and spiral notebook to sign their names against their own future voting rights. One girl responded by claiming "But it already ended .. for the most part." Another shrugged indifferently as her friend told her "that's your right to vote!"
The boys submitted the video for their own school's morning newscast, but administrators suppressed the damning footage.
First of all, these guys get no points for originality. Comedy Central’s The Man Show pulled this stunt a couple of years back. And truth be told, I don’t know what to be more distressed by--the fact that young women had no idea what “suffrage� meant, or the underlying message of the prank: that women really are too stupid to deserve to vote.
I hate to mention the same organization twice in one day, but this campaign is too interesting not to point out.
WEDO is starting up a web-based campaign called MisFortune500, which aims to "expose how corporate activities violate women's human rights, workers' rights and the environment and highlight what women worldwide are doing about it."
You can get involved with the project (it hasn't launched yet) by sending in stories, testimonies, case studies and articles that address the impact of corporate practices on women's lives, stories about women's resistance and actions, or related publications and advocacy tools.
Women voted and ran for office for the first time today in Kuwait. Awesome.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time) for the vote to fill a single seat in the 16-member Municipal Council. The rest of the members were elected or appointed last year."Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for more than 40 years," Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female candidates, told Reuters at a polling station in Salwa suburb.
"This is the first time Kuwaiti women can show the men that we are capable, it is important that we do our best and leave the outcome of the polls to God," added Khadher, wearing a conservative black Islamic-style dress.
For more information on women's rights in Kuwait, check out WEDO's West Asia section of global monitoring report, Beijing Betrayed. (And I'm not just recommending it because of my involvement with the publication.) The information in the book was contributed by regional, subregional, and local women's groups--shockingly, the information they provided often contrasted sharply with the official reports of their governments.
This is just lovely. From Media Matters:
On the March 31 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, Neal Boortz said that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) "looks like a ghetto slut." Boortz was commenting on a March 29 incident in which McKinney allegedly struck a police officer at a Capitol Hill security checkpoint. Boortz said that McKinney's "new hair-do" makes her look "like a ghetto slut," like "an explosion at a Brillo pad factory," like "Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence," and like "a shih tzu." McKinney is the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Georgia.
Classy guy, huh? Nothing like racist, sexist banter to make for a good radio show. Jesus.
MY BAD: Boortz has since apologized, but I'm underwhelmed.
Here’s the contact info for Boortz if you’re you’d like to give him a piece of your mind:
Neal Boortz
E-mail form
1-877-310-2100
The Neal Boortz Show
1601 W. Peachtree Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
This is pretty amazing. 70 year-old Dr. Miriam McCreary has come out of retirement--she’ll provide abortions when no one else in South Dakota will. Several times a month, Dr. McCreary flies from Minnesota to South Dakota--to the last clinic in the state that performs abortions.
"I want every child that's born, to be born into a family that wants a child. I don't want children to be born into a family where they are not wanted and can't be cared for carefully. That's the tragedy," McCreary said.
Now just think, this grandmother who flies in to help women could be charged with a felony when the South Dakota abortion ban goes into effect. Sigh.
Jamaica's first female prime minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, was sworn in on Friday.
From her inaugural speech:
Today is a truly historic day in the life of this nation. A girl from Wood Hall in deep rural St. Catherine has become Prime Minister of Jamaica, a true manifestation of the Jamaican Dream. This indicates that any child, regardless of circumstances, can rise to the top.
Moving Back to Jamaica says that "her election has brought a whiff of possibility," and the Pan Collective says that "it is her matronly persona that won over even the most sexist of men, who will always have a soft space in their heart for their mamas."
I interviewed author Erica Jong about her new book Seducing the Demon for Salon recently. The piece is up today if you want to check it out.
New York magazine talks to the subway pervert who was captured, uh, doing his thing, by a woman with a cellphone camera. He's raw foodist Dan Hoyt (whose name, appropriately, is an anagram for "hand toy"), and he's disgusting:
As for his R-train exploits, Hoyt says, “I’ve met women who enjoy it. After this incident happened, I had a woman tell me, ‘You know, that sounds exciting to me.’ She wouldn’t mind being on the other end.�
Uh, maybe Kirstie Alley would be into it. But Thao Nguyen certainly wasn't. Her photo of Hoyt-- and the wide publicity it garnered-- spurred other women to take photos, and inspired some fab feminists to create HollabackNYC, which amounts to public shaming for men who harass women on the street.
This is the first time I've seen a man's response to being "featured" on Hollaback:
In [Hoyt's] account, the perpetrator is Nguyen, who misread his intentions ... and then humiliated him by posting his picture on the Web... “Even so, I wouldn’t imagine somebody throwing it up on the Internet for millions of people and destroying your life like that,� he says. “It’s one thing to take it to the police. But on the Internet, I read a lot of people saying, ‘That was not too cool of her. That was really screwed up.’ �
Actually, masturbating on public transportation is really screwed up. This is why HollabackNYC is such a great idea. Most harassers are totally comfortable saying (or doing) lewd things to women on the street -- but wouldn't want those comments published for the world to see.
I snapped my first-ever photo for the website this weekend (after a group of five guys with a video camera made comments about my ass), and have to say it was incredibly satisfying. Look for my picture of the creeps on Hollaback soon. Let the humiliation begin!
Not that I expect so much from MSN’s Dating and Personals site, but this was too gross not to post.
Supposed relationship experts and real men (hear that, ladies--real, live men!) speak out on the myth that men don’t want powerful, “career-oriented� women. Apparently, it’s all true; time to break out the aprons, gals!
The whole piece is a doozy, but here are some fantastic one-liners to get you in the mood:
Steve Nakamoto, author, Men Are Like Fish: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Catching a Man: The traditional male role is to be the provider and protector. If a guy loses that, he may feel like he’s losing his pride...Successful women tend to work really long hours. Some men may feel like the woman is too busy and doesn’t have time for them.
“Real Man� Craig: Many men do get intimidated by a woman who earns more or is more successful.
“Real Man� Andy: I wouldn't say a woman should "dumb down" her achievements when meeting a guy for the first time, but she doesn't need to emphasize them, either.
Diane Mapes, author, How to Date in a Post-Dating World: “...no one likes to sit down at a table with someone who goes on and on about their accomplishments.�
The word emasculating comes up a lot. Almost as if your paycheck alone could papercut their balls right off.
Just when you thought he couldn't get any dumber.
Keanu Reeves told an interviewer he learned something filming a rape scene with Hilary Swank for "The Gift" - "that some of the ladies don't mind it . . . Hah, that's awful to say."
Yeah, dude. It is.
Blac(k)ademic is hosting the third edition of the Radical Women of Color Carnival.
This carnival's theme is women of color and sexuality. Given the recent Duke rape case, Nubian also shines a spotlight on posts discussing sexual violence against women of color. Go check it out...
Though the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized by Congress in December, for the fifth year in a row President Bush hasn’t requested full funding for VAWA. In addition, because VAWA wasn’t passed until late last year, no funding has been proposed for new VAWA programs.
Stop Family Violence has the full story, and ways to take action.
You have got to be kidding me with this shit. Click on the above image for the full nonsense at Drudge Report.
A year after a Kathmandu-based women's rights group filed a case against a law allowing men to divorce wives who were unable to conceive, the law was thrown out. Nice.
Activists said the court verdict was a milestone towards scrapping laws that were discriminatory towards women.The court has issued a number of rulings on women's rights recently.
...The group said that the law did not consider the fact that men can also be responsible for a couple not being able to have children.
Nepal has been on a roll lately, throwing out a number of discriminatory laws, including one that said women had to ask permission of from family members before selling inherited property.
Check out this mini-interview with Maria Hinojosa, senior correspondent for NOW on PBS and anchor and managing editor of NPR's Latino USA.
Meeting all these amazing women this weekend, one thing was definitely a trend--we are all fucking exhausted, mentally and physically. Working for change ain’t easy!
Killer B at Shooting full force finds out how Hinojosa keeps it together in this video blog. (Keynotes are nice and all, but sometimes it’s really cool to find out random personal things about folks.)
Women's E-News dismantles the "happy homemakers" study.
Phyllis Schlafly has terrible taste in upholstery. Apparently single-handedly destroying the ERA wasn't enough-- she's got to assault us with awful floral prints, too.
The reality of polygamy? Yeah, it's a little different than what's shown on HBO's Big Love.
Two pieces at AlterNet take on the myth of the perfect, overachieving girl-- who kicks ass all over the place, but still struggles with her self-worth and has to work harder to get into college.
Britain is reducing taxes on contraceptive products.
Restraining orders often fail to curb domestic and dating violence. But that's because they aren't properly enforced.
South Dakota lawmakers should look to Latin America if they want to see how abortion bans work. Er, don't work.
Filmmaker Mary Harron discusses "The Notorious Bettie Page," her upcoming biopic about the pinup queen.
Romance novels are getting dirtier. When will all these women just start reading erotica?
Elle Magazine has a surprisingly good, critical take on anti-feminist Caitlin Flanagan.. which prompted me to wonder, if only 21% of writers at The New Yorker are women, why does Flanagan have to be one of them? Ew.
Apparently, women lack the "gravitas" to be successful TV network news anchors. "It is essentially a chauvinistic word," Connie Chung said.
Can TV change public perceptions of women? Maybe if we start seeing more realistic female characters.
Oprah puts manly-man Harvey Mansfield on the cover of her magazine. The writer of the piece has also written a breathy tribute to "American maleness."
What will it take for pro-choice Republicans to leave the Republican Party?
I split with the ladies for a much needed cup of coffee and decided to sit in on the panel Building a Better Noise Machine. This panel is discussing the problems of progressive or leftist media and how we can work together to network progressive media and create a cohesive voice to enter (and change) the dominant narrative of politics.
Mainly, it is highlighting the problems of mainstream media and what Jessica Clark (who I got to meet yesterday!!!) and Tracy Van Slyke from In These Times and Deanna Zandt from Alternet are doing to begin a progressive media collaboration. You can check out their work here.
More notes on different media collaboration models after the jump.
I'm at Teenage Riot: Generation Y, Media and the Future of Feminism, which has some women from Jane magazine, Teen Voices, and the authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time.
Honestly, it sucks. We're supposed to be talking about feminism in teen media, and basically it's a clique of girls in teen mags talking to each other (leaving out the Teen Voices folks) about how cool Sassy was, etc. Yeah, it was. That was a million years ago. What now?!
I just wish there was more of a discussion of what we should be doing for the future of teen media, and how to incorporate feminism. The Teen Voices folks are pretty bad ass, though.
From The Guardian: The third wave - at a computer near you.
I'm too tired to write anything substantive on this. We're quoted. Cool feminist blogs are discussed. Read it.
Now, I sleep.
This conference rocks.
Lynne d Johnson and Angie Colette Beatty are giving a a panel called More Than Shadows and Whispers: Hip Hop Feminists Battle Sexism, Harassment, and Violence. Looks like Rachel Raimist didn't make it. Damn.
They're speaking about a great Vibe article that Samhita covered a while back, Love Hurts, that spoke about domestic violence in the hip hop community.
Lynne also points out a fab hip hop magazine, Verbalisms, whose tagline reads: no tits. no ass. just women representing hip-hop. lovely.
If you're interested in women in hip hop, also check out the Progressive Women's Caucus: The Voice of Women of the Hip Hop Generation.
UPDATE: Both Samhita and I have noticed that the conversation has drifted a bit from hip hop. The note that Samhita just slipped to me across the table says it all:
It is interesting how it is a panel on hip hop but all questions seem to be about "all" things black.
After wiping up my drool from getting to meet Cynthia Enloe I am struck by the quality of the rest of the presenters at the "Coverage of Women and War" panel. Beena Sarwar, a peace activist from Pakistan just presented on the amazing peace activism by women in Pakistan on the historically, highly militarized struggle between India and Pakistan.
I feel like I have written extensively about the role of women in revolutionary/war movements and the diverse ways in which women are empowered and disempowered. But my question to the panel and in general, as I continue to cover and analyze (other people's coverage of) "women in war" is, how do we write about women and their diverse roles in war and revolutionary movements in a way that spurs activism, reaches diverse communities and is not from an explicitly Western view? As opposed to supporting the Bush Administration in their military aggression currently justified through the appropriation of feminist lingo.
Just that little bitty question.
Samhita and I are at a panel on media coverage of women and war--it's great stuff.
Lakshmi Chaudhry (who apparently is on all the cool panels) just spoke about the sometimes problematic way that the media fact checks their pieces. For example, considering the State Department a reasonable source or using previously cited stats just because they were previously cited.
Gloria Jacobs, Executive Director of The Feminist Press, is talking about a book she collaborated on--Women, War and Peace.
Cynthia Enloe (who I've said before is just awesome) is moderating. You're jealous. Admit it.
Samhita and I are here at the very fab WAM conference, listening to keynote speaker Caryl Rivers who fucking rocks.
She is pretty much debunking media myths about women (opt-out revolution, smart women can't get a man) left and right. All of a sudden, the nasty five hour drive here seems worth it.
More to come. Our panel is at 11AM...
UPDATE: I met Echidne. Day is made.
