September 2006 Archives
Tamar McFarlane has worked with Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE), a multi-racial, women-led, membership-run organization based in Brooklyn, New York, for the last two years. While at FUREE, she has worked on welfare reform, youth empowerment, and the beginning of a pay equity childcare campaign. With a long history of youth activism under her belt, she’s onto gentrification and Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan to develop Brooklyn.
“Basically, at one point I was reading Patrice Lumumba [a former Congolese anti-colonial leader], and it just came down to this…even if I am able to move these young people, if their parents don’t have a place to live, or an affordable place to live, then they won’t be able to live as healthy, conscious human beings. And so people have to start thinking about each other and their communities. They can’t wait for their government or someone in office to. They have to start taking care of each other.�
Here’s Tamar…
It was pretty hard to miss this model's ribcage -- even amid all the blinding Pucci and Gucci prints -- in the NYT style section today.
Spain's decision to keep super-bony supermodels off the catwalk has been widely covered. But let's face it-- banning skeletal runway models won't really have much effect. The truth is that most young women see images of disgustingly skinny celebrities and models everywhere-- on billboards, in movies, in magazines and on television. And I don't think we should be passing legislation that mandates a minimum body weight for any woman who appears in the media.
Symbolically, though, I do like the fact that the Spanish government has publicly recognized that it's destructive to hold up this body type as an ideal. Now if only magazine editors and casting directors would agree, we might actually get somewhere.
I know, terrible title. But it's Friday and I'm beat, so give me some leeway.
Just wanted to say thanks to the lovely ladies at the Pro-Choice Public Education Project for such a fun time last night. Vanessa and I had a blast chatting about all sorts of feminist gossipy stuff. Make sure to check out their site; PEP does some really amazing work.
Thanks to Suzie for the pic.
A press release for Boobiethon '06 made its way into Feministing mailboxes this week. Wait, you ask, didn't we already participate in Boobiethon '06? But no, this is an annual event that "features bloggers showing their (covered and uncovered) breasts in order to raise money for charity during Breast Cancer Awareness Month."
There will be a separate, passworded "pay-per-boobie" page for bare-breasted photos, which will be available to donors of $50.00 or more.
At the risk of being labeled "anti-boobie" (which I'm definitely not), I say: Ugh. I'm no fan of breast cancer, and I'm certainly not ashamed of my body, but I won't be participating. Is this really the best way to raise money and awareness?
Broadsheet called it "objectification for a good cause." Then Boobiethon founder Robyn Pollman writes in comments, "I happen to think sending a message that "if our breasts are worth looking at, they're worth saving" is very empowering."
And I think that gets to the heart of what's unsettling to me about this campaign. I don't like the implication that certain parts of women's bodies are "worth saving" because they're sexy. Boobiethon is sending a message that breast cancer should be stopped because it claims beautiful breasts as its victims-- not because it's a horrible disease that's killing women. I'd almost prefer a website that featured women naked from the belly button up, and showed their faces. Because at least then you can see that this disease affects real women, not just disembodied breasts.
Then take a look at where the Boobiethon proceeds are directed. You'll note that the effort benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which lends its pink ribbon logo to help sell M&Ms, Kitchen Aid mixers, Yoplait, Lean Cuisine frozen meals, Avon products, on and on and on. The foundation also focuses its efforts on finding a cure rather than searching for and exposing causes of the disease.
This is a perfect opportunity to plug what looks like an amazing new book, Pink Ribbons, Inc., about the market-driven industry for breast-cancer survivorship. (Twisty is a fan. And you can check out an excerpt here.)
Public Health Students for Reproductive Freedom, in collaboration with Byllye Avery and the Avery Institute for Social Change, proudly present...
Sexual & Reproductive Rights: Moving the Movement Forward
Date: Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Time: 9am-5pm
Cost: $5 (Includes breakfast and lunch)
Location:Columbia University Health Sciences Campus
Russ Berrie Medical Pavilion
1150 St. Nicholas Avenue, near 168th St.
(take A, C, or 1 trains to 168th; Russ Berrie is located on the corner of St. Nicholas Ave and 168th Street)
Agenda: We will be discussing sexual and reproductive rights, past, present, and future, connecting leaders and novices in the movement and developing a strategic plan for the future.
Co-sponsored by the Black and Latino Student Caucus, the Global Health Forum, the Student Government Association, and the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health.
Featuring:
Jessica Arons, Center for American Progress
Ava Barbour, ACLU
Jennifer Baumgardner, SoapBox
Dr. David Bell, CUMC
Sylvia Henriquez, National Latina Institute
Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, CUMC
Loretta Ross, SisterSong
Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, Pro-Choice Education Project
James Wagoner, Advocates for Youth
Dr. John Santelli
If you have questions or would like to purchase tickets, email mkf2108@columbia.edu, or sph_reprofreedom@columbia.edu.
Isn't it amazing when articles in the Onion look exactly like the ones that appear in mainstream media outlets? Look for Forbes to reprint this column next week.
Acceptable behavior in a mate: Cheating with a prostitute.
Unacceptable behavior: Smoking.
Yet another fabulous female from Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s. Random: When Vanessa and I used to play, she would insist that only she could be She-Ra since she was the one with the blonde hair. Bitch.
That sounds fun. Ugh.
Britain's Channel 4 will show "Super-Skinny Me: The Race to Size Zero" early next year, as a group of female journalists film their attempts to drop to a size 2, equivalent to a U.S. size 00."This documentary will highlight the dangers of aiming for a super-skinny look, and expose the serious health risks of extreme weight-loss methods, all of which are already in the public domain," said a Channel 4 spokesman.
"At every stage of filming there will be continuous full medical support and expert guidance at hand."
The channel said it hoped the findings would provoke the same type of debate as Morgan Spurlock's documentary film "Super Size Me," which showed the health effects of a month long binge on fast food.
..."The documentary will also look at how the super-skinny American fad is spreading to the U.K. and question whether it is spawning an extreme, collective eating disorder," Channel 4 said in a statement.
OK, I'm all for highlighting dieting dangers--but do real women seriously have to do this to themselves in order to prove the point?
It seems even the experts think it's a bad idea. Britain's Eating Disorder Association says that "it could be very difficult to eat normally again after this experiment is over." Um yeah...that tends to happen when you starve yourself. Jeez.
A new study says that the length of a woman's ring finger "could be an easy way to tell if she has future sports potential." Obviously.
Researchers at King's College London conducted a study of 607 adult female twins in the U.K., comparing finger measurements with a woman's achievements in sports.They found that women with ring fingers longer than their index fingers — a trait commonly seen in men — performed better at running and sports involving running, such as tennis and soccer.
File this under...huh?
In honor of the recent NY Times article looking into the resurgence of "hysteria," go take The Hysteria Quiz.
You can see just how many leeches on your vag you'll need to cure you of your love of reading and bike-riding. Fun!
Apparently the translated ad reads, Flirt: Keep the memories. Um, thanks anyway.
Well I guess if you can't get into the board room, the living room works.
Nearly half of all U.S. businesses are run from home, and most companies owned by women are home-based, according to a government report released on Wednesday.The data, showing 56 percent of female-owned businesses are run from home, illustrates how women opt to work from home for an array of family reasons, workplace experts say.
Among businesses owned by men, less than half, or 47 percent, were home-based, said the U.S. Census Bureau report.
"A significant percent of women having businesses in the home are comprised of women who are doing it for family reasons," said Kathleen Christensen, director of the Workplace, Workforce and Working Families program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York.
The word "opt" always makes me nervous. I mean are women *really* opting to stay at home? Or is it because a) they can't afford day care and b) it is difficult for women to advance in the corporate world? Also, I think the internet has made at home businesses much easier to run, especially for women and people of color, who are historically excluded from the workplace.
I am not a fan of censorship, especially at the highschool level. I think young people should be allowed to express themselves how they feel. Repression is problematic, but what if how you are expressing yourself is detrimental to yourself or the people around you?
How do we feel about young girls wearing suggestive sexual slang on their shirts in highschool?
They're blatantly sexual, occasionally clever and often loaded with double meanings, forcing school administrators and other students to read provocations stripped across the chest, such as "yes, but not with u!," "Your Boyfriend Is a Good Kisser" and "two boys for every girl." Such T-shirts also are emblematic of the kind of sleazy-chic culture some teenagers now inhabit, in which status can be defined by images of sexual promiscuity that previous generations might have considered unhip.At Potomac Senior High School in Prince William, a girl recently wore a black T-shirt parodying the "Got Milk?" ad, with sexual slang replacing the word "milk." Steve Bryson, the school's administrative assistant, brought the girl into his office. "I asked her, 'Why would you wear something like that?' And she said: 'I don't know. My dad knows that I have it,'" he recalled. "So I called the dad, and, of course, he had no idea. He said, 'Throw it away.'
One popular merchant of suggestive shirts is Hollister Co., a chain owned by Abercrombie & Fitch. Its shirts say such things as "two boys for every girl" and "FLIRTING MY WAY TO THE TOP."
Asked about the messages his company markets to teenagers, Thomas D. Lennox, Abercrombie & Fitch's vice president of corporate communications, said, "Our T-shirts are sometimes controversial, which we're fine with." He declined to elaborate.
Yuck, I hate Hollister and Co. We can't really ignore the corporate motivation behind this notion of "controversial." I mean is it really still student self-expression if everyone is wearing the same shirts and an entire company dedicated to marketing to young people is endorsing it?
I don't necessarily know if the shirts themselves are so bad, as is the lack of sex education in most public schools. Are most young women getting the education they need around self-esteem and sex? Furthermore, an analysis of how corporate enterprise supports these shirts is impossible to ignore. How do companies like Hollister benefit from the "slutification" of young women?
This study found that some women do report symptoms of depression during their pregnancy.
The survey found that three in five women were surprised by how emotional they felt while being pregnant. Two thirds felt even more exhausted than they expected and more than half needed more reassurance than they would have anticipated.Current estimates in Britain suggest that one in 10 women suffer from depression during pregnancy, experiencing symptoms including low self-esteem, irritability and pessimistic thoughts about the future.
A recent study in the British Medical Journal found that of 9,000 pregnant women, 12 per cent were depressed at 18 weeks, rising to 13.5 per cent by week 32.
However, the study by the University of Bristol found that eight weeks after giving birth, depression rates fell to 9.1 per cent.
The study suggests that depression during pregnancy may be almost as common as post-natal baby blues.
Aren't we women lucky.
Bitch magazine is celebrating 10 years of bitchin’ existence and the release of the anthology Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine tomorrow in Chicago.
Here's the info:
Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia
9pm
10$ at the door
Click here for directions.
This event's lineup and production come courtesy of the folks at Chicago webzine Gapers Block and Northwest Suburban NOW.
And take pics--I've been stuck in the house overloaded with work, so let me live vicariously through you!
Check out this headline from ABC News: Do Women Really Need to Orgasm?
You know, cause we don't really like The Sex anyway. That's icky.
The article even comes with a poll: Do Women Think Too Much to Enjoy Sex? Who knew that thinking could actually hinder your ability to get off?
UPDATE: ABC just changed the headline to "When It Comes to Orgasm, Women Work Harder." Interesting.
Just in case you forget what the abstinence folks really think about women.
By the way, this picture has guaranteed me a nightmare tonight starring Leslie Unruh ripping off my "precious petals."
Check out this piece from CampusProgress on Plan B access. (Full disclosure: I'm quoted in it.)
Mourning After, by Wellesley's Emily Amick, focuses specifically on access to EC for younger women. And how cool is this?
Since the age restriction is only at the point of purchase, women under 18 will be able to have a family or friend purchase the emergency contraceptive for them. There are already several underground Facebook groups of women over 18 who are willing to buy Plan B for high school students.
Word. Online grassroots action for birth control--I like it.
From my ongoing Flickr search for all things feminist (especially graffiti): a Danish political poster on feminism. Love it.
According to new research, black women with uterine cancer are more likely to die than white women.
Black women in the study lived a median of 10.6 months following treatment, compared to 12.2 months among whites. And they were 26 percent more likely to die than white women, Dr. G. Larry Maxwell and his colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. reported."When response to treatment was analyzed, blacks appeared to have lower tumor response to each of the chemotherapy regimens employed in the trials," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Cancer.
Researchers also noted that "while the causes of this survival difference remain to be elucidated, socioeconomic, biologic and cultural etiologies may be involved."
Uterine cancer kills 7,300 women a year in the United States.
Help the Campaign for America's Future in their quest to "get rid of the 'donut hole' in President Bush's Part D prescription drug disaster, and help prevent millions seniors from getting stuck with prescription bills many just can't afford."
You can take part in their petition and video contest (and win a prize!). And make sure to check out their latest report on the issue.
Plus, how could you possibly resist the very charming Christian Norton (featured in the above vid)? I know I can't. So hop to it.
Hey all, so I'm writing a piece for The Guardian on bois. Cool, huh?
So I'm looking to interview folks who idenfity as bois, who have dated a boi, or even those who think they have something cool and interesting to say about bois and the queer community--get in touch with me! I'd prefer to interview people in NYC as I'd like to meet in person.
And feel free to pass this call along to folks you know. Thanks!
I'll leave you today with this lovely headline from The New York Times: Is Hysteria Real? Brain Images Say Yes
It's a must-watch; it even contains the infamous Napoli interview where he says that only religious virgins who were raped and sodomized ("savaged") should be able to get abortions.
(Crooks and Liars had the video up a while ago, but I figure it's worth a replay.)
The House is set to vote today on The Teen Endangerment & Grandmother Incarceration Act, which passed the Senate in July.
The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (personally, I like our name better) would make it a federal crime to bring a minor across state lines to get an abortion. So even if a grandmother, aunt, or other caring adult is in a teen girl’s life—forget it. Jail for you!
According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Act “would impose an impossibly complex patchwork of parental-involvement laws on women and doctors across the country with the goal to curb young women’s access to private, confidential health services.�
The bill proposes a variety of new mandates on women, families, and doctors. Among other things:(1) The bill forces doctors to learn and enforce 49 other states’ laws, under the threat of fines and prison sentences.
(2) In many cases, CIANA forces young women to comply with two states’ parental-involvement mandates.
(3) In some cases CIANA requires a doctor to notify a young woman’s parents in person, in another state, before abortion services can be provided.
(4) In some cases, even if a parent travels with his or her daughter to obtain abortion care, the doctor must still give “notice� to the parent and wait 24 hours before providing the care.
Uh huh. This is about protecting teens? My ass.
I can’t say I’m too surprised.
A recent survey in Australia showed that lesbians have orgasms more frequently during sex than straight women.
I can think of quite a few reasons behind this. Thoughts?
UPDATE: Thanks to Amanda for creating this visual representation of the survey results.
Despite recent legislation domestic violence continues to be a huge problem in Georgia. Amnesty USA found in a recent study several reasons why.
"Women in Georgia suffer incredible violence in their own homes, violence that persists due to widespread impunity," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "It's the government's responsibility to end this scourge. There are signs of progress, but we'll be watching closely."The 28-page report, Georgia: Thousands suffering in silence: Violence against women in the family, outlines:
* the widespread impunity of perpetrators of domestic violence in Georgia;
* the insufficient measures and services to protect the victims of domestic violence, such as a deficiency in temporary shelters and adequate, safe housing;
* the absence of a functioning cross-referral system with regard to domestic violence cases between different agencies such as health workers, crisis centers, legal aid centers, and law enforcement authorities; and
* the lack of mandatory government training programs for police, procurators, judges and medical staff.
Working Mother did a study to find the 100 best companies for working mothers to work in. Their methodology included,
The list of companies selected for the 2006 Working Mother 100 Best Companies was based on an extensive application completed by each company. The application includes detailed questions about the workforce, compensation, child-care and flexibility programs, leave policies and more. The application checks the usage, availability and tracking of programs, as well as the accountability of managers who oversee them. That means it's not enough to have a great program if no one is using it.
Check out the list via Business Week Online.
And let's not forget, all moms work. Being a mother is WORK.
There are several organizations working in Ghana currently that are focusing on women's empowerment. The Center for Responsible Democracy is launching a new program called the National Women's Forum to discuss issues specific to Ghanaian women. This particular initiative is also receiving support from the the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC).
The initiative, which is designed for women of different professions, capacities and capabilities, is expected to serve as platform for them to merge their various ideas that would contribute significantly towards national development.Additionally, the programme is also aimed at enhancing the socio-economic and political status of women and to promote gender equality among them to increase gender mainstreaming.
Also, I can't write about Ghana without a quick shout out to my friend Mawuli's organization WISE (Women's Initiative for Self Empowerment) that he helped to start and develop.
The New York Times had a piece yesterday about the sixty-five women who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Jane, Ye Hardly Knew You Died.�
The article also discusses the debate on women in combat as well as the number of physical and mental effects on women who survived the war. My favorite sentence on this:
“A whole crop of veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress and lost limbs, circumstances that sometimes prove more difficult for women who often fill the role of nurturers to their families.�
Forget about working women, who will take care of the babies??
As far as women not being allowed in combat, check out Jill's post on how they essentially are in combat, just not getting the credit for it.
Because only a woman with three boobs is worth more than a brewsky.
Safia Annajan, Director of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kandahar, was killed today. She was shot as she left her home this morning.
According to the BBC, Annajan had made requests for "secure official transport and personal bodyguards" but was denied.
From Forbes: How To Land A Rich Man
I guess that will make it easier not to be one of those horrid "career girls."
The Slate advice column is always ripe with feminist fodder. This latest one may take the cake though.
A woman writes in to columnist Prudie about her "honest" and "loving" boyfriend who had sex with a prostitute in Asia while on a business trip.
What makes things more confusing is that while he was away, my mom spilled the beans that right before he left, he visited her to ask permission to propose to me. He had even purchased a ring. My mom said they were both so happy they cried. I wasn't surprised to hear about my boyfriend's impending proposal, because we had been talking about marriage for a while now that we have finished our graduate schooling and gotten jobs. How could he do such a thing to me, especially when we were on the verge of starting a bright new life together? My boyfriend is extremely remorseful, telling me that he is shocked as well at his own behavior and has never felt so low in his life.
She asks if she should bail or stick it out. Prudie's advice in its entirety:
Did he use a condom? Even if he did, he should get screened for sexually transmitted diseases. Assuming he didn't bring any new microbes into your relationship, he did introduce doubt. However, his brief encounter with a poor, nameless woman should not be a threat to your future. He slipped, and felt sick enough about it to confess to you what he certainly could have gotten away with. His shame is so thoroughgoing that it sounds like he will be the most faithful and devoted of husbands. To atone, he should make a contribution to an organization that fights international sexual exploitation—International Justice Mission is one. Then you and he should get on with that bright, new life together.
The "most faithful and devoted of husbands?" Seriously?
Ok, I have mixed feelings on people who have cheated--I think if you're building a life together, forgiving someone for cheating is understandable. But that's not what we're talking about here. The big question isn't whether he's remorseful about betraying her trust. To me, it's about whether or not you really want to be with someone who is fine and dandy about buying sex and commodifying women. Personally, there ain't no fucking way I would stay with someone who bought sex.
But then, after saying this to myself out loud as I read the column, I felt conflicted. Because I support sex workers' rights. How do I reconcile my belief that it's morally wrong to commodify sex with my support of women who do sex work? But then I realized that I don't have to. I can want to ensure the safety and rights (health, work and otherwise) of sex workers while still believing that buying bodies isn't right.
While I was working through this, I had some IM conversations with Jill and Amanda. And they both pointed out the fact that this all happened in Asia is super relevant as there's a much better chance (rather than say in Amsterdam) that the woman was coerced or at the very least in a precarious economic situation. As Amanda said to me, "I think men should avoid prostitutes, but I find it much easier to understand slipping up with someone who's got health care, freedom, etc."
Thoughts?
A report has been released this morning by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union which reveals the prevalence of abuse and neglect of girls within New York’s juvenile prisons.
Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls describes the treatment that girls are subjected to in the two higher-security juvenile facilities in New York, Tryon and Lansing.
The report calls for the facilities to refrain from their “restraint� procedure, which means to seize them from behind, pushing them to the floor, and pulling their arms up behind them to hold or handcuff them. While that technique would be appropriate in an emergency, there’s evidence that staff use restraint to punish girls for minor acts such as not properly making their bed or not raising their hand when they talk. Additionally, the violence of the procedure often leaves them with bruises faces, cuts, and even an occasional broken limb.
There’s also been evidence of sexual abuse. The ACLU also documented three cases of staff having sex with the girls in the last five years, as well as staff humiliating the girls by publicly talking of their sexual history, sexual abuse or infection with an STI.
Jamie Fellner, Director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch, said:
"New York says it locks these girls up for their own good, but then they end up battered and bruised. There's no way staff violence against girls can help them get their lives together, particularly when so many of the girls already have personal histories full of violence and abuse."
Here is the full report.
If you’re in New York City this week, the Pro-Choice Education Project is having their 10th Birthday Party and Fundraiser. Yes, fundraiser means you have to buy tickets, but it’s open bar and this spot spins some great music.
PEP essentially links big-name reproductive rights organizations with the voices and interests of young women, women of color and low-income women. They’re a great force in the reproductive rights movement, so come and support, or just spread the word!
To buy tickets in advance, call 1-800-253-CHOICE.
The new Nepalese constitution recognizes reproductive rights.
Alabama approves a few more TRAP laws.
Colombia's most popular telenovela is called "Without Breasts, There's No Paradise," and is about a flat-chested girl who gets implants to improve her life and ends up committing suicide.
Pregnant inmates face serious health risks.
There are more health warnings associated with the birth control patch.
Take action to repeal the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
A New York abortion provider is being sued for "masquerading" as a crisis-pregnancy center.
Pennsylvania considers a bill requiring hospitals to offer EC to all rape victims.
Following Spain's lead, India's health minister speaks out against super-skinny models.
Michelle Bachelet speaks out in favor of EC access for Chilean women of all ages.
“Fighting discrimination with facts, humor and fake fur!�—that’s the motto of the internationally acclaimed anonymous activist artist group, The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls celebrated their 20th anniversary last year, and have no plans of stopping.
I spoke with Frida Kahlo, one of the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls, one early morning this summer. We also caught up a bit over email. The Guerrilla Girls are extremely busy with a lot of projects. Their next sighting will be at the Istanbul Modern Museum in Turkey, October 17 and 18.
Here’s Frida…
A recent study in the UK showed that women who attended single-sex schools have higher incomes than those from co-ed schools.
Because there wasn’t a significant difference in students’ exam results from both groups of women, the researchers suggested that the contrast in income was a result of girls in single sex schools not being subjected to gender stereotypes.
Researcher Dr Alice Sullivan said, "Single-sex schools seemed more likely to encourage students to pursue academic paths according to their talents rather than their gender.“
While the issue of single-sex education is pretty complicated, this study can simply be a reminder that gender discrimination in co-ed classrooms still exists, and shapes the outcomes of girls’ and boys’ futures.
This is awesome.
Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who became a renowned women’s rights activist after was sentenced to be gang raped by a tribal council because of a crime her brother had committed, has started her own blog.
She’s been writing the blog through BBC’s Urdu website since July, which serves to inform not only about the violent crimes committed against women in her home of southern Punjab, but also about the daily struggles that the women have to face.
Let’s hope that this will also bring more attention to the Hudood Ordinance mess that’s been going on recently.
The tabloids' celebrity baby bump craze has apparently left its mark on the advertising industry. Agencies are now using "perfectly pregnant" models to sell cars and non-alcoholic beer.
There's nothing real about these women, who look about as airbrushed as Britney on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. And if these women are really expecting-- not just regular models with a belly photoshopped on-- then I wonder about the health of the fetuses they're carrying. Yikes.
The first campaign ads on the South Dakota abortion ban have started to air, and they're a good reminder that it's time to start raising money to counter the ban.
Pro-choicers across the country will be hosting potlucks the weekend of September 29th to show their support and raise money for the women of South Dakota. According to Planned Parenthood, there are already more than 100 potlucks organized -- now they're trying to get people to turn out. So dig out your aunt's recipe for cheesy potato casserole, and show up to support the campaign!
"Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world. ... It would be a much kinder, gentler, more intelligently run world. The men have had millions of years where we've been running things. We've screwed it up hopelessly. Let's give it to the women."
Essentialist garbage or fantastic idea? Discuss amongst yourselves...
A new Norwegian law says that all public corporations there have a year to put women in 40 percent of boardroom seats.
Listen to the story here.
I guess Maxim wasn't happy with just judging who the hottest 100 women are; they needed to up the frat-boy ante with another list. And this one's a kicker: TV's Least Appealing Ladies.
How lovely that a crew of grown men decided to create a nation-wide slam book.
The list includes CNN"s Christiane Amanpour, Pam Grier and Tina Fey, of whom the magazine says, "If Fey is truly the thinking man’s sex symbol, then we humbly hand over our library cards."
I think Maxim has proved who the really ugly folks are, and it's not a bunch of women.
Am I the only person who never found this show funny?
According to the Violence Policy Center (VPC), Alaska ranks #1 in the rate of women murdered by men. That's not a #1 you want to be...
The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2004 Homicide Data. This annual report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender....Alaska ranks first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men. Ranked behind Alaska are: New Mexico, Wyoming, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
54 year-old Danielle Cornwell was fired last year after she told her employer she planned to undergo gender-reassignment surgery.
Originally known as David Michael Cornwell, she had realized while working for Intermountain Testing Co. that she was a transgender woman, according to the ruling. She began assuming a feminine appearance, and also told her employer she planned to change her name and dress in women's clothing.The company, which uses X-rays and other methods to test materials for the construction and manufacturing industries, argued Cornwell was fired because of a decline in business and because she had a low performance rating.
Yeah, sure.
But in a recent decision, the head of Colorado's civil rights agency ruled that Cornwell was fired because she was a woman and because of trans bias.
The ruling means Cornwell and representatives of her former employer will meet in October to try to agree on a resolution, her attorney, John Hummel, said Thursday. Cornwell said she would not seek her job back.
Wonder why.
We are so on a first name basis.
I saw a special screening of the film sherrybaby recently, which was hosted by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (who did a fantastic job, by the way) and featured a Q & A session with Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The movie itself was great; it showed a pretty realistic portrayal of victims of sexual abuse and the struggles that women have to deal with after serving time in prison. Gyllenhaal’s character, Sherry, had to work twice as hard to attempt to redeem herself from her life before prison; between a brother who ignored her father’s sexual abuse, the lack of solidarity among the women in her life, and the lack of trust by her family to be a fit mother, she had little support to help her work towards a better future with her daughter. Sounds pretty depressing, right? While I can say it didn’t end quite as gloomy as it seems, it still kept the reality of her situation at the forefront.
However, the most depressing part of the screening was the Q & A session with Gyllenhaal. The very first question was from a woman who seemed to think that Sherry’s character was “narcissistic� and “self-centered,� and really didn’t seem to have the normal “passive� qualities that a victim of sexual abuse should have. (I didn't know there was proper sexual abuse victim behavior.) Another commenter was almost hostile in her declaration of dislike for the film and the character, demanding to know why a woman would “sexually objectify� herself by giving the job recruiter a blow job in order to get the position she wanted.
Well, let’s think about it. She just got our of prison, doesn’t have a dime, and can’t get a job to take care of her child. So she did what she had to do to get the job she needed. It doesn’t seem too hard to figure out. The lack of understanding of the film and Sherry’s position from these women was just outrageous to me. This particularly hit me hard because in the film, Sherry had a real lack of support from the other female characters. It seemed that was the case outside of the film as well.
As for Gyllenhaal, her super-pregnant self handled it really well, and simply replied that she thought Sherry was well-intentioned and that someone should have compassion to understand why she had made some of the choices she made throughout the movie. She also discussed a bit of her experience in prepping for the role, like visiting women’s half-way houses and her time with the incredibly talented child actress that played her daughter.
I definitely recommend seeing sherrybaby; there’s a lot to be said for it, but in short, I would simply say it’s a necessary film to be out there.
Not so much on the candidates.
Yemen goes to the polls on Wednesday to elect a president and two levels of local government - governorate and district - but with fewer women candidates. Analysts and Yemeni female activists blame all Yemeni political parties for this, saying that they only pay lip service to the empowerment of women....Compared to some 18,760 men vying for political posts, there are only 137 women running in Yemen's local elections, according to Elham al-Akil, head of the women's department at the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum (SCER). Almost half are being fielded by political parties, she said, and the rest are running as independents.
"We have noticed that women's candidacy is backsliding. In the first local elections of 2001, the number of women who ran were 150, and 38 of them won."
Women are not too pleased about the lack of lady candidates--some even protested in a recent march, demanding a 15 percent quota in local elections.
Huriyah Mashhoor of the Women's National Committee says that "men in Yemen want women as voters only, rather than strong challengers."
The whole article is an interesting read, so check it out. And for more info on women's political participation, check out WEDO's 50/50 campaign.
I'll just give you the first sentence of this article..it's all you need.
A man accused of fondling home health care nurses while posing as a mentally retarded person who needed diapers changed has been sentenced to a year on home confinement.
I don't think there's anything left to say.
I'm at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting this week, so I'll do my best to live blog (kinda) the goings on.
This year, the CGI is focusing on Energy and Climate Change, Global Health, Poverty Alleviation and Mitigating Religious and Ethnic Conflict.
The opening session--which was attended by almost 50 current and former heads of state in addition to over a thousand others from the business, government and NGO worlds--started this morning with comments from President Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush.
President Clinton said, "CGI tackles big global challenges with the conviction that, regardless of size or scope, they will yield to concerted action and innovative partnerships that include individuals, NGOs, businesses and governments...There is no better time to forge those partnerships or to take that action than right now."
Laura Bush, well, it hurts to hear her speak. Jill and I traded some rolling eyes more than once during her remarks.
The first panel was interesting stuff though. It featured Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and Thomas Friedman of The New York Times as moderator. More on this shortly. (A girl has got to eat!)
If you want to catch the event live, by the way, you can check out podcasts and webcasts of the sessions here.
UPDATE: Jill has (much) more.
Thanks, Jessica, for the warm welcome. Since there's not much top-secret DC insider info to share right now (not that I'd hear it anyway), I'll tell a little story about me.
Last Tuesday was primary day in Washington. There's a polling place right next to my office, so I ended up walking through a gauntlet of signs and supporters of various candidates. I was talking to one of my coworkers about two of the mayoral candidates. When we passed one volunteer, I mentioned that she was "also good." The volunteer overheard and said "she's the best." We kept walking. Then he (middle aged white man) raises his voice and starts telling me (young black woman), in a remarkably condescending tone, "I'm trying to empower black women." Seriously, that's what he said. I said something smart-assy about being plenty empowered to vote for another candidate, and kept going.
The experience bugged me enough to send off an email to the campaign. And I did get an apology. I doubt this one guy was enough to lose the race for her, but it didn't help. So, as election season kicks into high gear around the country (it's always election season in the District), here's a tip for campaign volunteers: Don't be an ass to potential voters. That is all.
That's right. The Biting Beaver shares this infuriating blow-by-blow account of her (repeated) attempts to get emergency contraception.
I was told by every urgent care I called and every emergency room that I was shit out of luck. I was asked my age. My marital status. How many children I had. If I had been raped and when I became uncomfortable with the questions I was told, "Well Ma'am, try to understand that you will be interviewed and the doctor has 'criteria' that you need to meet before he will prescribe it for you."
Her story makes it clear that this isn't only about pharmacists flat-out refusing to fill EC prescriptions. No, this proves there are many shades of gray. Find the one doctor or pharmacist who will indeed dispense Plan B, and you may still have to meet his criteria-- i.e., be either married or a rape victim. It's so important to hear the details of stories like the Biting Beaver's and realize what women have to go through to get EC.
I found that the more hospitals and clinics and doctors I called the more ashamed I became. Yep, you heard right. I was feeling ashamed at being such an unworthy dirty whore. Well, at least in the eyes of all these hospitals and doctors and clinics. I cried, then I sweated, then I cried some more, then I called some more.
Plan B won't be available without a prescription until at least January 1. And even then, because of the age restriction, you won't be able to buy it from any old store clerk even if you're over 18. Nope, you've got to find a licensed pharmacy that's opened. And you've still got to ask a pharmacist-- who, in most states, can refuse to give it to you. Good things to keep in mind when national women's rights groups are calling the FDA's Plan B decision a victory.
Go read the whole post. Then find something constructive to do with your anger.
The very fabulous Jen Moseley has agreed to join Feministing to write about what's going on with women on the Hill (or anything else she wants to for that matter). I assume because she lives in D.C., she's qualified. Just kidding.
Jen, a 27-year-old who works for NARAL Pro-Choice America, has been involved with repro rights forever and quite possibly one of the funniest women I've ever met. So say hello. I already know what she's writing her first post on, and it's priceless.
The Women's Media Center recently posted a (brief) opinion piece calling for old-guard feminist groups to get with it already and beef up their web presence.
Let’s be real. The Internet, with all of its possibilities for connection, still does not a movement make. Women have to make the connections. Those who would expand and solidify the feminist movement in this new century need to draw on the grassroots activism that built and sustained the movement in the last. And to keep moving forward, organizers can use what technology offers: social networks, blogs, email and all the tools of the Internet.
True that it's probably a bad idea to ignore traditional grassroots activism. But I hate hearing older feminists complain that younger feminists are not as active or aware because we aren't showing up to monthly meetings and pickets. We may not be taking to the streets every week, but we're definitely not disengaged. We're waging web-based protests of things like the Forbes "career girls" article, and meeting with ex-presidents, and supporting pro-woman political candidates, and calling attention to a whole slew of feminist issues. And we know how to use the web to promote plenty of real-life feminist events.
I don't want to hate on the feminist establishment, but the article makes a good point. Where is the Feminist Majority's MySpace page? What's up with NOW's site design? Why are the Ms. Magazine blogs always down and never updated? The feminist generation gap isn't going to be bridged with some fancy HTML. But a bit more web-savvy certainly wouldn't hurt.
Qiao Qiao, the first out lesbian artist in China, has just released her first single: Ai bu fen (爱�分), which means “love does not discriminate.�
Qiao Qiao, 28, is already well-known for running a popular girl bar in Beijing.
“The first time you hear it you might think it’s sappy,� she says. “But then when you listen again and again it grows on you.�“Ai bu fen� was released over the Internet last month, tagged as “a song of brave love.� Two stick-figure girls holding hands under a heart make up its icon.
You can watch the music video here.
Says the guy wearing a toilet seat around his neck. (He has a ton of other "interesting" insights; stay through the weird video blips to see.)
HP digital cameras are now offering a "slimming" feature. No gratuitous Photoshopping necessary!
A Chicago woman was awarded $2.4 million in damages, to be paid by the man who sexually assaulted her.
The suit, filed by the firm of Morris Hoffer Karns P.C., was one of the first to be filed under the Illinois Gender Violence Act, and was filed on behalf of a Chicago area college student against a classmate for a sexual assault that took place in their dormitory, according to attorney Liz Karns.On Wednesday, Aug. 30, Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Mary Rochford awarded the plaintiff more than $600,000 for costs including past and future treatment expenses, and lost wages and earnings, according to a release from the law firm. In addition, the judgment included an award of $1.8 million for emotional distress and punitive damages, attorney Kaethe Morris Hoffer said.
The rapist, who was found guilty of misdemeanor battery, was sentenced to just one year of "non-reporting supervision."
Hoffer said, "This award makes clear that the enormous financial consequences of rape can be placed squarely where they belong: on the shoulders of those people who engage in sexual assault."
Thoughts?
From macho-man Harvey Mansfield's book, "Manliness." (I can't believe I didn't catch this until now.)
“To resist rape a woman needs more than martial arts and more than the police; she needs a certain ladylike modesty enabling her to take offense at unwanted encroachment.�
Uh huh.
Holy shit. Brad alerted me to this incredibly creepy upcoming film, Children of Men. And not creepy in a sci-fi dystopia kind of way. No, more in the crazy fundamentalist kind of way:
Children of Men envisions a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world's youngest citizen has died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction.
"Really, since women stopped being able to have babies, what's left to hope for?" Clive Owen's character asks in the trailer.
Their only hope is a group called The Human Project, which is working to get women reproducin' again. Or something. (The trailer doesn't really make it clear.) Then a miracle is discovered-- a silent, pregnant woman (she's probably barefoot, too, but the trailer doesn't show her feet). They must rush her to The Human Project in an attempt to save the baby.
"For our future" flashes across the screen. The film's tagline is "NO CHILDREN. NO FUTURE. NO HOPE." The moral of the story? Start having more babies! Or the total breakdown of civilized society will ensue.
Was this movie written by the religious anti-contraception movement? "Children of men" is, after all, a biblical synonym for "mankind." But no, it was actually adapted from a book by British writer P.D. James (who sits in the House of Lords as a conservative).
There would seem to be some upsides to a world where everyone is infertile. For example, no shrieking infants on airplanes. No strollers clogging your favorite brunch spot. And what about pleasurable sex without the risk of pregnancy? Oh, no! At least according to the book, people have barely any interest in non-procreative sex, and women are punished for their infertility with "painful orgasms."
One might think that in 2021 sex has become some sort of national pastime, what with hardly anything else to do and no danger of unwanted pregnancies. However, people have lost interest in sex, and the state has had to open "pornography centres". Apart from phantom pregnancies, more and more women have what they describe as "painful orgasms", i e the muscular contractions without the accompanying feeling of pleasure.
Just look at what happens when you allow women to control their fertility. They'll STOP HAVING BABIES altogether. And they'll stop having orgasms. And the world as we know it will crumble.
If you’re in NYC and feel like hearing some open mic poetry while supporting a great cause, check out the Bowery Poetry Club on Wednesday for “Rockin’ the Mic Against Rape.�
The event was organized by NOT IN OUR CITY, a grassroots project of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, and will be hosted by performance artist Piper Anderson. I can assure that you won’t be disappointed; Piper performed at Girls for Gender Equity’s Festival for Gender Equality this summer and can certainly get her mic on. Here’s the info:
Wednesday, September 20th
6 - 7:30 p.m.
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
All ages welcome - 21+ to drink alcohol - free - donations appreciated
It looks like a new book on brain differences between the male and female sexes has been written, but this time with a bit more focus. The Female Brain tells its readers that women are hardwired to be emotional, talkative, nurturing -- basically all of the stereotypical characteristics of a woman you can think of.
The kicker? The author claims she’s a feminist.
Funny, right? Not really. Neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine wrote the horror of a book which essentially says that women are slaves to their brains and hormones. In fact, she says that hormonally, we derive actual physical pleasure from taking care of others.
And what about women who don’t necessarily want to be mothers or are unemotional? She conveniently covers herself on that argument with the “overlap rule,� which means that 10% of women behave like men, and 10% of men behave like women.
Additionally, meonpausal women end up divorcing their husbands due to the lack of happy housewife hormones (assuming all menopausal women are straight and married, of course), while the ones who end up taking hormone replacement therapy turn back to their old “nurturing� selves again.
This op-ed piece from the New York Times yesterday talks about the book and insists that this new “progressive� theory is changing the way that people see human behavior:
“Now the prevailing view is that brain patterns were established during the milleniums when humans were established during the milleniums when humans were hunters and gatherers, and we live with the consequences...Once radicals dreamed of new ways of living, but now happiness seems to consist of living in harmony with the patterns that nature and evolution laid down long, long ago.�
Time to face reality, radicals. Now get back in the kitchen like your hormones told you! (Sigh.)
Check out this lovely ad campaign from SportsNet New York. It's a parody of a plastic surgery site, touting "head enhancement" surgery for women.
By replacing regular heads with TVs that play all things New York Sports, Dr. Rosen has introduced a vanguard medical technique that gets results.Described by some critics as "crazy", "morally repugnant" and "macabre", Dr. Rosen's Head Enhancement Procedure is actually none of the above. It's a safe, ethical solution for women wanting to get noticed.
You know, I understand this is supposed to be funny. But the whole decapitation theme is just too creepy for me.
Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist, said in a recent speech that "instead of bringing democracy with cluster bombs, we should support women fighting for democracy."
In a speech at Meredith College, Ebadi spoke about the feminist movement in Iran and its successes.
She said the feminist movement has been successful in changing some custody laws in Iran, but that women need more victories. Iranian women hold high-ranking social and political positions yet the court testimony of one man is equal to testimony given by two women, she said."Although they (feminists) were always told these laws were the laws of Islam and could not change, they have been able to change laws," she said.
Ebadi was the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
And thank god, it's not about my breasts.
I'm still waiting on the transcript, and when I get it I'll go into the more substantive stuff--even though others have covered it pretty well.
But I did want to say something about the lack of bloggers of color at the meeting. I waited this long to post about it because I wanted to get the scoop from Peter Daou, who organized the get together.
I was painfully aware of the lack of the diversity while at the meeting, and this pic is, no doubt, hard to look at. So I can understand why people got as upset as they did. But I know Peter, and I know how much diversity is a priority to him, so I was guessing that the invite list wasn't all white. And it wasn't.
But as Pam said, "Peter has been an advocate of linking up to women and minority bloggers, including me...Nevertheless the picture speaks a thousand words."
No joke. Number of invites aside, I think that it's all of our responsibility to ensure that the blogosphere is represented accurately, especially when it comes to high-level meetings. The public face of the liberal blogs has to be as diverse as we actually are.
Make a t-shirt. I figured something funny should come out of this whole thing. And since there's been so much boob-hating going on, we're going to donate 20% of the profits we make from this shirt to Breast Cancer Action, "the bad girls of breast cancer."
Also, the lovely Ann has created some new Feministing merch at Cafe Press.
Thanks to Ray for the shirt design.
The Advocate has released a guide to the country’s best 100 campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
A female soldier goes AWOL-- not to avoid war, but to avoid sexual harassment.
The FDA's Accutane registry tries to ensure that teen girls are on birth control, but the "message is that contraception goes with Accutane, not that contraception goes with preventing unwanted pregnancies."
Operation Rescue no longer has tax-exempt status. Yay!
After 15 years the Michigan Womyn's Folk Festival is allowing transwomen to purchase tickets. The bad news? A festival spokeswoman later said, "If a transwoman purchased a ticket, it represents nothing more than that women choosing to disrespect the stated intention of this Festival." One step forward...
Rebiya Kadeer, a Muslim Uighur leader and former political prisoner, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. (via Matt.)
The Detroit crisis pregnancy center protest was a success.
Girls Gone Wild (aka "male privilege on crack") founder Joe Francis pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating federal laws designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and was fined $2.1 million.
A 19-year-old woman in Maine was kidnapped by her parents and nearly forced to have an aborion. This is something both pro- and anti-choicers can agree is rephrensible. But I'm personally proud not to be on the side that's advocating for more parental involvement in teens' decisions on abortion.
Portugal considers legalizing abortion.
So, wow. Who knew that simply having breasts in the presence of a former president could turn into such a disgusting spectacle of sexism, vapidity and downright meanness? Way too much time has been spent on this, so this will be the only post I write on it.
As Althouse and her ilk backpedal and try to claim that this whole thing started because they wanted to know why a feminist blogger would meet with Clinton given his history with women, I would just ask that people not forget what this was really about. It was a nasty personal attack - one that's ridiculously indicative of the way that young women are treated, especially by conservative assholes.
While Althouse repeatedly says that this wasn't about attacking my appearance and my behavior as assumed by one photo - I'd just like to remind folks of the following gems:
Then, when she goes to meet Clinton, she wears a tight knit top that draws attention to her breasts and stands right in front of him and positions herself to make her breasts as obvious as possible?It's obvious that you're bending over backwards -- figuratively and literally -- to keep the attention on your breasts.
Jessica should have worn a beret. Blue dress would have been good too.
Jessica's breasts are definitely a distraction!
Jessica looks like Paula Jones (check her profile photo: she does)!
Look closely at that picture and try to adopt the posture Jessica's in. I did. It's not natural.
(And these are all from Althouse herself, never mind the disgusting crap that came from some of her readers.) So, yes, clearly Althouse is all about reviving "real feminism," as her latest post claims.
And this whole boobgate bullshit isn't just about Althouse and her mean-spirited attack. It's about how young women are routinely reminded that they're only good for one thing - consumption.
Zuzu put it best:
Althouse wasn't the only one trying to put Jessica in her place; as I also mentioned, there were any number of commenters across the progressive blogosphere that made comments about Jessica's fuckability. They didn't know who she was, or why she was there, but they sure as hell felt free to speculate that it had something to do with sex.Even those defending Jessica have often focused on the appropriateness of her posture, her pose, her clothing and her smile, as if those were really the issues. They're not. The issue is that Jessica was invited to that lunch because of her accomplishments and her intelligence, but people like the commenters discussing her fuckability and Althouse criticizing her for having breasts are reminding her that no matter how much she's accomplished in her life, no matter how smart she is, she doesn't really belong in that group.
In other words, they smacked her down for being so uppity as to think that she had the right to be there.
This kind of incident is a perfect example of how so many people see women - especially young women. We're there to be ogled or ridiculed. We have nothing else to offer.
But I don't want to end (cause damn do I hope this is the end) on such a depressing note. I've gotten a ton of supportive emails and comments since yesterday, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate them - they really meant a lot to me. And a big thanks to everyone who blogged about this and called it out for the bullshit it was.
Pandagon, Feministe, Echidne, Emboldened, Broadsheet, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Booman Tribune, Feminist Law Professors, Ilyka Damen, Eschaton, The Mahablog, TGW, Steve Gilliard, The Heretik, Talk Left, Majikthise, Mad Kane, and everyone else whose links I wasn't smart enough to bookmark: you guys fucking rock and I thank you profusely.
P.S. Who thinks I should make a "These boobs are made for blogging" shirt?
UPDATE: Apparently Althouse is so "bored" by boobs that she's made a podcast about the kerfuffle. Not that I should be surprised, but she lies about the content of Feministing, saying we feature pictures of women in bras and other such nonsense. Sigh.
Toronto-based queer Sri Lankan writer, spoken-word artist, and teacher Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha released her first published book of poems in April 2006, Consensual Genocide.
Leah spoke with me from Toronto about her new book, her poetry, and the re-emergence of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Clashes over the past month have been the deadliest encounters between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels since the 2002 ceasefire that ended Sri Lanka’s 21-year civil war.
Here’s Leah…
There's a lot I want to write about the Clinton lunch, including the concerns about the lack of bloggers of color. I will get to all of it. I promise. But right now I'm super pissed and just wanted to know what people thought of this.
I found a couple of other posts like it--talking about the way I looked--and it was really upsetting on a personal (and political) level. But this thread in particular turned kind of nasty.
You know, I was psyched to be invited to this lunch and was feeling pretty honored. But then things like this remind me that no matter what I do or accomplish, because I'm a young woman all I'm good for is fodder for tacky intern jokes and comments that I don't "represent feminist values" because of the way I posed in a picture.
What's worse is that this comes from other women, other progressives, and other supposed feminists. How are we supposed to move forward as a movement if we're busy bashing each other with this ridiculousness?
UPDATE: Althouse has another post up about Feministing being "one of those blogs that are all about using breasts for extra attention." Yeah. Because we don't write anything but stories on titties all day long.
Contributed by Courtney E. Martin
It is creepy enough that The Harlem Club, “a private membership organization established by African-American and Hispanic investment bankers, corporate lawyers, and doctors,� sent an email far and wide soliciting nominations for women to invite to upcoming cocktail parties. What is just out-and-out offensive are the criteria (“NO EXCEPTIONS!�) that they list:
1) Single;
2) 35 years and younger;
3) Childless;
4) College Educated;
5) Very Sexy In Great Shape!
Can you imagine the shit that would go down if Black Career Women, a national organization, were to advertise for muscular, CEO boy toys for their upcoming shindigs?
Thomas Lopez-Pierre, author of this offensive invitation, writes that “interested women are required to email resume and recent full body photo to: HarlemClubNYC@aol.com.�
Let’s fill the ol’ boy’s inbox with some sass instead.
Is this a joke or something?
Apparently some assholes are claiming that this study shows not only that men are smarter than women, but also that this superiority in intelligence is the reason behind the glass ceiling.
But what kills me the most is that Professor Alan Smithers, featured in the article who ‘slams’ the study, said:
"Intelligence is hard to measure. The fact women have not progressed so far in their careers is down to lifestyle choices.�
Geniuses, I tell you. The person in the article who serves to challenge such a bullshit theory is just as clueless as the first one. Sigh.
Note from Jessica: This "study" comes from a guy who once argued that intelligence is influenced by race. Nice.
A big welcome to a fantastic blog on women’s health that’s recently been launched, Our Bodies, Our Blog.
Created by “Our Bodies, Ourselves,� the blog serves as a daily news source of analysis on women’s health issues, and it rocks. I’d like to also mention that it especially rocks because it’s written by the well-loved Christine of MsMusings.
I’m a regular already; the above pic is from a recent post I particularly enjoyed on vintage drug ads for women. Creepy stuff.
"Now it is difficult to find the male who values virginity, purity and innocence when females dress like babes and perform oral sex and intercourse without even having to be fed dinner... Who cares about vows - after all, why buy the cow when the milk is free."
--Dr. Laura
My question is how a woman who posed nude (out of wedlock, no less!) and has confessed to dating a married man can get away with saying shit like this.
That's comedian Cathy Carlson's catchphrase. She uses it in all of her standup routines, and has had it printed on a whole line of clothing and stickers.
I actually really like the message. It mocks the old "You fight like a girl/play like a girl/etc." adages. And it boldly says, 'Hey! Women like to get off, too.' (Sadly, that's still a pretty radical message.)
Carlson recently tried to trademark the phrase, but was denied because the law says trademarks cannot be granted for "immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter," says Patrick Shanahan, the investigating US patent attorney.
Citing Section 2 (a) of the Trademark Act, Carlson’s application to register the phrase “You cum like a girl� had been refused on the grounds of being “scandalous� and “vulgar,� with the phrase’s offending verb defined as a “vulgar slang term for ejaculation at the time of orgasm.� Shanahan provided examples of similar rejections and explained why other attempts to register phrases with “cum� passed muster and Carlson’s didn’t. He also suggested why the word “orgasm� might make a suitable PG-13 replacement.
Yeah, but "You Orgasm and Ejaculate Like a Girl" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. The government has approved trademarks for other phrases with the word "cum," including Cum Partay (bumper stickers) and Cum Together (adult DVDs). They're acceptable because "those are just different spellings of the word 'come,' and don't refer to somethng explicitly sexual. Riiiight.
It's also worth noting that the government, apparently in an effort to make her understand why the phrase was offensive, emailed Carlson's personal account with dozens of photos of women covered in ejaculate-- with no letter of explanation.
“What does this have to do with my shirt?� Carlson remembers thinking.
Clearly US patent attorneys can't read the phrase "You cum LIKE a girl," without mentally switching it to "You cum ON a girl." Ann at Feminist Law Profs highlighted this problem with prepositions:
Carlson is correct that Shanahan’s inability to conceptualize “cum� in any way other than a male ejaculating on a woman is disturbing, especially since cumming like a girl suggests an absence of semen altogether.
Absolutely. My savvy lawyer pal Erin also reminded me that Dykes on Bikes was involved in a long-running trademark battle for similar reasons. (Apparently the government considered the word "dyke" offensive.) But other phrases that I find immoral/offensive -- sports team names like the Redskins, for example-- are trademark-protected. Not okay.
Former Texas Governor Ann Richards has died; she was 73.
Richards was one bad-ass lady:
Richards was the quintessential Texas woman, with a sassy homespun charm, sharp wit and tough pioneer spirit. With bright silver hair, a weathered face and an affinity for cobalt blue suits and pearls, Richards was instantly recognizable to national television audiences.As a Democratic politician, Richards' 1990 race for governor against Republican cowboy oilman Clayton Williams became a battle of the sexes. Her victory symbolically broke down gender barriers for a generation of Texas women who were seeking professional careers.
Richards labeled her administration the "New Texas," appointing more Hispanics, blacks and women to state boards and commissions than any previous governor. She pushed for increases in public education funding and promoted business expansion in the state.
...Late in her term as governor, the Houston Chronicle asked Richards how she viewed her gubernatorial legacy.
"How about, 'She changed the economic future of Texas,'" Richards replied. "And that really beats what I feared my tombstone was going to say, and that was: 'She kept a really clean house.'"
Richards also is responsible for one of my favorite quotes (ever): "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."
For more, check out Broadsheet's Ten reasons we already miss Ann Richards.
Globalization tends to have rather detrimental effects on the lives of women, especially working class women. Generally speaking, as women in developing countries increasingly work outside the home, (albiet often for low wages, inability to unionize and poor working conditions) we see a shift in the part that women play within the economy and culture.
According to this article, migrant women are sending more money home to their country of origin then men, thusly contributing more to the economy.
A recent United Nations Population Fund report shows that Gutierrez is not alone. Although female immigrants generally earn less than men, they tend to send home a larger portion of their earnings, playing an important role in poverty reduction and development in their countries of origin and upending many traditional mores.According to the report, titled "A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration," they send up to three-quarters of their income home, contributing substantially to the approximately $232 billion the World Bank estimates was transferred last year to immigrants' countries of origin.
The question is, is this really a good thing? Migrant women tend to be working in abusive conditions and are almost always underpaid. I mean it is great that they are able to work and send home money. But the deeper issue of why these women are so poorly treated and underpaid, remains unanswered.
This is great.
MPs in Spain have drawn up a marriage contract for use in civil ceremonies which obliges men to share household chores and the care of children and elderly family members.The new law, which will be introduced this summer in Spain, promises a revolution in a country where nearly half of all men admit to doing no housework at all.
Check out this more in-depth piece in the NYT about what happened with the Pakistani government when a bill was proposed to challenge the Hudood Ordinance.
As this has been an on-going discussion here, I think this is really interesting.
Some lawmakers are accusing General Musharraf of trying to push the bill through before his trip to the United States and pandering to Western values. “He is pushing himself as a liberal moderate, despite being a military dictator,� said Imran Khan, the former cricket star who is a member of Parliament.The religious coalition has opposed any changes to the Hudood Ordinance, and refused to participate in an all-party select committee on the issue.
I mean I am sure Musharraf's intentions are complicated. But let's not ignore the countless women's activists that have been pushing for reform of the Hudood Ordinance.
Now this is interesting. Girlfriends and wives of gang members in Pereira, Colombia are calling for a "strike of crossed legs" as a call to disarm gangsters in a very violent part of Colombia. I have never heard anything like this and I think it is really interesting for a variety of reasons. First of all, to de-link the connection with sex and violence and to say, no violence is not sexy, is profound. I only hope that such a strike doesn't create more potentially violent circumstances.
"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some were not handing over their guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a vigil or a sex strike," the mayor's spokesman told Reuters news agency."The message they are giving them is disarm," he added.
Studies found that local gang members were drawn to criminality by the desire for status, power, and sexual attractiveness, not economic necessity, Colombian radio reported.
One of the girlfriends, Jennifer Bayer, told Britain's Guardian newspaper: "We want them to know that violence is not sexy."
Ms Bayer said the women had come up with a strike anthem rap song that included the lyrics: "As women we are worth a lot. We don't want to fall for violent men because with them we lose too much."
I do have to say it is interesting that women lobbying against gun violence isn't enough. And that in some way our sexuality/body has to be the site of resistence to get these men to *listen*. What do we think about that? Is this a misguided attempt at de-naturalizing the connections between sex and violence?
Or is this a wise move to truly end gang violence?
via BBC and Broadsheet.
Yesterday the LA Times wrote about "cultural orientation" for Somalian refugees on their way to the US. The lesson plan included a primer on gender in the US:
Immigrants also heard about U.S. laws. Beating your wife and children is illegal, they were told, and so is chewing khat, the leafy amphetamine-like stimulant popular in Somalia. Performing genital excision on young girls is prohibited."If I can't beat my wife, how will she know that I love her?" Abrone asked, seated next to his silent teenage bride.
I was really curious to read how and whether the "instructor" addressed these issues, but the article only quotes the immigrants.
The second day of class began with an exercise in equality. Students broke into teams and were asked to identify which potential U.S. jobs — taxi driver, hairdresser or doctor, for example — were held exclusively by men and which were held by women. It was a trick question, designed to spark a discussion about gender equality.In one group, Abdi Ahmed Mohammed, 56, a former Mogadishu shopkeeper, grabbed the worksheet and began dividing the occupations by gender.
"Wait," Yussuf complained. "Why is 'housekeeper' female?"
"It's woman's work," Mohammed snapped, checking the box for "female."
As the instructor began calling on students to defend their answers, it became clear that, at least in the U.S., the correct answer for all jobs was "both." Mohammed began discreetly erasing his worksheet, and when the instructor asked for his answer for "baby-sitter," he covered the paper with an arm and answered confidently, "Both."
It's an interesting idea. Sure, it's easy to check the correct box in a classroom setting. But it's a lot harder to come to terms with a foreign culture's ideas about gender. I mean, I suppose they can teach the "ideal" gender situation (like it being perfectly socially acceptable-- and equally common-- for both genders to work as fulltime babysitters and housekeepers), but all too often that isn't the reality. There are lots of people born and raised in the US who would say unequivocally that some occupations are for men and others are the domain of women. Whether they need it or not, they're not made to go through a cultural reorientation course.
I'm also left wondering about Abrone's "silent teenage bride." Was she given the pop quiz on gender roles, too? Or was she completely disengaged from the whole process?
Yesterday, along with a group of other bloggers, I got to meet President Bill Clinton. Crazy, I know. The meeting was informal and conversational and pretty surreal. I mean, there's just something weird (awesome weird, but still) about sitting across from Bill Clinton.
The other bloggers included folks from Firedoglake, Eschaton, Daily Kos, AmericaBlog, MyDD, LiberalOasis, Seeing the Forest, The Carpetbagger Report, Mahablog and TalkLeft. (I think that's everyone...)
A transcript of the on-the-record portion of the meeting should be available soon; in the meantime check out what some other bloggers had to say about the meeting. I'm in transit, but when I'm back home I'll write a bit more about it...
A big thanks to Peter Daou for the invite.
Two former waitresses are suing a Manhattan bar for sexual harassment--their boss forced female employees to be weighed. Cute.
"They told me I needed to get on the scale," said one of the women, Kristen McRedmond, about her humiliating experience in a manager's office at Sutton Place Bar and Restaurant in July."I told them I'm not going to be part of your sick game," recalled McRedmond, 27, who said she physically resisted when a beefy manager tried to pick her up to get her on the scale while another manager looked on.
The male servers weren't subject to the weigh-ins. One question, did the headline really have to say "weightress outrage?"
Volkswagen is putting out a Barbie car. Battered self-esteem and body issues not included.
Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, both of Women's Media Center, have founded an all-women talk radio station.
Steinem said the network [Greenstone], which is run by women, aims to provide an alternative to current radio talk, which she describes as "very argumentative, quite hostile, and very much male-dominated."This network "has a different spirit. It has more community. It's more about information, about humor, about respect for different points of view and not constant arguing," Steinem told Reuters in an interview.
...The network's broadcasts have aired since July in selected stations, such as on WIIN in Jackson, Mississippi, WXCT in Hartford, Connecticut, a station in Flint, Michigan, and is launching a broadcast in Albany, New York. It is trying to partner with some satellite radio outfits.
Could be cool shit. You can listen here.
Not suprising, but still disappointing.
via Echidne and Broadsheet.
Check out this spread from Vogue Italia. Abuse chic?
This is disturbing. In light of increased security to get on airplanes one woman, a breast cancer survivor, was told she could not fly with her gel filled bra on.
Humiliated cancer survivor Jean Hand claims a travel company told her she could not fly wearing her fake breast – because it posed a security risk.Mrs Hand was close to cancelling a flight to Majorca after she was told by First Choice holidays that her gel-filled breast would need to be checked in with baggage.
The matter was resolved by airport officials, but the 57-yearold was left feeling 'horrified and humiliated'.
'The thought of having to go for hours looking like a lopsided freak filled me with horror,' she said.
As we have discussed before, these security measures are very uncomfortable and offensive for people with disabilities.
I mean at a certain point, enough is enough. Perhaps instead of being so focused on increased security (like asking people with prosthetic limbs and gel bras to take them off) we can start to look at what is causing all of this *terror*. Oh wait, then we have to figure out how the US and Britain are implicated. Well that would be a crappy hero story. *sigh*
These finding are a little too convenient for me.
Childless women run the risk of earlier death and poorer health in later life. A new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) finds that not only childless women but also mothers of five or more children, teenage mothers and mothers who have children with less than an 18 month gap between births all have higher risks of death and poor health later in life.Findings are based on a study of three separate datasets of women born from 1911 onwards in Great Britain and the USA.
The study reveals that partnership and parenting experiences are important influences on later life health. "We show, for example, that having a short birth interval of less than 18 months between children carries higher risks of mortality and poor health," Professor Emily explains. "That finding is particularly interesting because, to our knowledge, it's the first time that later health consequences of birth intervals have been investigated in a developed country population."
Okay, I don't know about all this. I mean I really don't, but I am just going to put in here that it could be possible that this so called poor health is in some way connected to feelings of being isolated and alienated by society for not living up to your ideals as a *woman*. Just a thought.
The study also found that marriage kept both women and men happier. Don't even get me started, but I just feel like there are so many variables here how could they have possibly come to such general conclusions. Furthermore, I don't deny that having people around you in supportive roles could definitely be good for your health. But what does marriage have to do with that?
I mean what were even the motives of this study. Now see here you crazy independent women that don't want to get married or have kids, you are going to end up with health problems too!
Thoughts?
I totally snore and I don't personally have any of these side effects, but I could see how in general not being well rested can affect your sex drive or *function* as the article so clinically puts it.
A new study shows that undiagnosed sleep apnea , a common disorder associated with snoring, may decrease women's sexual function by reducing sexual desire, sensation, and lubrication, as well as negatively affecting their relationship with their partner.Sleep apnea occurs when breathing regularly stops during sleep for 10 seconds or longer due to an obstruction or narrowing of the airway in the nose, mouth, or throat. This causes symptoms including snoring and loss of sleep.
I found a great picture from a Feministing party we had earlier this year. Too funny. Check it out after the jump.
At a seminar in India, women's activists discussed the impact of strict interpretations of Muslim law on women's lives in South Asia.
They argued that the gender development index (GDI) -- a measurement used by the UN and other organizations -- as well as other indicators of gender empowerment are low in areas with entrenched patriarchal interpretations of Islam.The indicators commonly used to measure women's welfare are life expectancy, literacy, schooling, participation in the labor force, participation in parliament and other forms of governance, and professional accomplishment.
The situation, she said, has been worsening with the issuance of 41 sharia-inspired bylaws in several regions that discriminate against women and limit their activities. Supporters of the bylaws argue they are designed to protect women and bolster morality.
Indian activist and scholar Haseena Hashia said that while Indian women in general faced many difficulties, Muslim women suffered more. Of India's total population of about 700 million, 13.4 percent are Muslim, making it the second largest religion after Hinduism.
The challenges faced by Indian Muslim women, she said, included very low literacy and education rates, no political participation and no role in policy making, poor health conditions, polygamy and trafficking.
Activists also said that the situation for women in Pakistan is made worse due to the Hudood Ordinances that have been quite the heavy debate as of late.
This is interesting and I take it more seriously as women activists from South Asia are speaking out about issues that affect their own lives. You know as opposed to when George Bush talks about women's right's issues in Muslim territories to justify military aggression.
Because little girls shouldn't want for anything, inlcuding boobies. This is seriously so gross:
Breast-enhancing added bras for girls as young as six are being sold in Victorian shops....Tiny matching lingerie sets of lacy bras and knickers in many children's brands including Bratz, Saddle Club and Barbie, have hit the shelves aimed at girls who are barely old enough for school.
The Herald Sun last week revealed the latest Bratz Babyz range included sexually provocative baby dolls dressed in leather and lingerie.
The padded Bratz "bralettes" were among more than 30 different junior bra styles starting at size six on sale at a city Target store visited by the Herald Sun yesterday.
...Bratz distributor Funtastic defended the range.
"The idea of the padding is for girls to be discreet as they develop," a spokeswoman said.
Huh. The only pics I could find when I did an image search for Bratz "bralettes" was the one above. It doesn't look like these are padded, but I could be wrong. Now, the idea of padded bras for little girls is beyond nasty to me--discreet my ass. If you need to cover up a six years-olds' non-breasts in order to feel like she's being "discreet ," there's something wrong with the way you look at six year-old girls.
That being said, Vanessa and I used to sport little bikinis when we were around four- and six years-old. I found pictures recently of us at the beach wearing them and we got a good laugh about how they rode up to our shoulders for lack of boobage to keep them in place. We saw the bathing suits more as silly and not very practical rather than sexualizing. (Though interestingly enough, my mother says she would never have bought us bikinis--an aunt bought them as gifts.) While I think bikinis are a world away from padded bras, it still made me think...
Women's eNews is accepting nominations for their 21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2007 awards, so hop to it!
Women's eNews would like nominations of women or men of all ages, heritages, countries and professions who have made a positive impact on the lives of women. These leaders will be honored at the annual Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century gala to be held in May 22, 2007 in New York City.Former 21 Leaders have embodied the breadth and depth of women's leadership worldwide--from Pakistan to Iran to Rwanda to Afghanistan from New York to San Francisco, from Wall Street trading floors to the union halls, from the world of philanthropy to the inner sanctums of religion, from global business initiatives to invitation-only fairs of venture capitalists, from research and advocacy for women and girls to ground-breaking support for women of color.
Last year was a little light on younger women, so if you know any worthy gals (and I'm sure you do) make sure to nominate away.
I was glad to see that The Associated Press is covering the growing popularity of roller derby, but I was kind of annoyed by one thing...
“Girls in skimpy outfits crashing into each other has an appeal,� said Emily Rems, the managing editor of Bust, a women’s pop culture magazine in New York. “There is a kind of Amazonian aspect to it, and the new roller girls enjoy that and embrace it. They’ve taken control of their image.�
Couldn't they have gotten a better quote from BUST? I mean, the rest of the piece talks about the sport in a more serious way, but the one quote from a feminist magazine has to talk about skimpy outfits? I know, there's no pleasing me these days.
My lovely friend Gwynn has just posted the "official" pics from the REAL hot 100 party last month.
Everyone looks super fancy so check them out.
Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, had a really interesting piece in Alternet last week, The High Cost of Manliness.
Jensen says that the idea of masculinity has to go.
That dominant conception of masculinity in U.S. culture is easily summarized: Men are assumed to be naturally competitive and aggressive, and being a real man is therefore marked by the struggle for control, conquest and domination...If masculinity is defined as conquest, it means that men will always struggle with each other for dominance. In a system premised on hierarchy and power, there can be only one king of the hill. Every other man must in some way be subordinated to the king, and the king has to always be nervous about who is coming up that hill to get him. A friend who once worked on Wall Street -- one of the preeminent sites of masculine competition -- described coming to work as like walking into a knife fight when all the good spots along the wall were taken. Masculinity like this is life lived as endless competition and threat.
No one man created this system, and perhaps none of us, if given a choice, would choose it. But we live our lives in that system, and it deforms men, narrowing our emotional range and depth. It keeps us from the rich connections with others -- not just with women and children, but other men -- that make life meaningful but require vulnerability.
I often find myself arguing with guy friends about feminism, trying to explain the whole “patriarchy hurts men too� thing. And while they’re open to it—and they generally do agree with me—I’ve always felt like they would be keener on the conversation if it were with, well, a man.
After all, in a society that hates women, men aren’t very likely to look to us as experts in much of anything—let alone masculinity. So I think it’s really important that men like Jensen start this discussion. (This isn’t to say that I think women should abandon talking to men about feminism and the patriarchy, I just think that pro-feminist men may be our best allies in this particular venture.) Thoughts?
UPDATE: Hugo has more.
...and lord knows I can't, Alternet has republished an interview that Pop and Politics did with her a couple of months back. So read away.
It's hard to mark the fifth anniversary of September 11 amid the spectacle it's been made by some.
Today is emotional for me on both personal and political levels, and I just don't know that I have it in me to write about it. So please go read some other folks' thoughts, share your own, and support those working for peace.
Skeletal models are no longer allowed to walk the runway during Spanish fashion shows. Australia is also trying to ensure than runway models look more like real women.
Chile now offers birth control free of charge to all women age 14 and over. Without parental consent. Awesome.
Black women have been braiding hair for generations, and until recently they didn’t need a license to do it for a living in Illinois. Now the state is requiring braiders to spend thousands of dollars on beauty school.
The Governator is considering a bill to distribute condoms in California prisons. Is it a good way to curb prison STD infection rates, or will it encourage rape?
Biography TV's celebrity and politician profiles fit the "Great Man" mold. Except when they're profiling a woman.
Even if chauvinism is dressed up lke chivalry, it's still offensive.
A new Greenpeace report says your sex toys may contain dangerous chemicals.
Most New York Democratic voters don’t realize that Hillary Clinton co-sponsored an amendment to ban flag-burning, is against marriage equality for gays and lesbians, supports the death penalty, votes consistently for Star Wars appropriations and has served on the board of Wal-Mart for six years. And that's not even getting into her support for the war in Iraq.
Some companies are eliminating the "mommy track" by offering women a chance to advance on a schedule that allows them more time at home.
The Association for Women in Psychology is accepting submissions for their March conference. Check out the conference blog here.
· “A college-educated woman with one child can easily pay a ‘Mommy tax’ (lost lifetime earnings) of $1 million.�
· “Consider that in the Army a family that makes below $28,000 annually pays no more than $43 per week for childcare, or around $2,000 annually. And then compare that to the national average cost of childcare, which can rise to $10,000 per year or more.�
· “In terms of infant mortality rates, the U.S. tied for 38th in the world with Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Arab Emirates in 2003.�
These are just some of the harsh realities Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and Joan Blades researched and discuss in their book, The Motherhood Manifesto: What America’s Moms Want—And What to Do About It.
I spoke with Kristin from her home in Kirkland, Washington. Here’s Kristin…
The horrendous title, We've Gone the Wrong Way, Baby: Feminism's Proud Destruction of Mankind, is worth mentioning alone.
I just had to throw this piece into the anti-feminist boiling pot. Apparently, we're now turning our children into gangbangers and drug users. Sweet!
"Female Empowerment" was the shameful fantasy. Now for the harsh reality. Sisters, your babies are killing each other. They are having babies at younger ages and in record numbers in a desperate search for that unconditional love they couldn't find in the myriad of minimum wage babysitters and daycares they had growing up. They are turning to gangs and drugs to ease the pain of loneliness and the longing for Mommy-a longing which is innate, necessary, and good-and it is our fault. Our children are suffering; their tender feelings have waxed cold and all signs of humanity are dying off in agonizing death throes, and we women are the cause. Women. The givers of life have turned against their own offspring in a vain quest for self-fulfillment. It is madness.
Madness, indeed.
NOTE FROM JESSICA: My favorite part of her bullshittery:
My all time favorite saying about the power women possess was revealed by author Samuel Johnson in the 18th century: Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little. Now before feminists start ripping tendons and ligaments with their typical knee-jerk reaction to this example, look again. This is a statement and recognition of the power and strength men recognize within women-power they envy, strength they admire, and tenderness they crave. This is a statement of respect and recognition for women, not belittlement.
See ladies, you don't need any political power because you're naturally powerful. Women shouldn't vote cause, hey, we already have uteruses.
UPDATE: Jill points out that our friendly anti-feminist author has some, uh...interesting, opinions on race.
The Washington Post had a piece this week on a strong correlation between children with autism and older fathers. I must admit, it’s refreshing to see older mothers getting a break from blame for once.
Children born to fathers of advancing age are at significantly higher risk of developing autism compared with children born to younger fathers, according a comprehensive study published yesterday that offers surprising new insight into one of the most feared disorders of the brain.With every decade of advancing age starting with men in their teens and twenties, the new study found, older fathers pose a growing risk to their children when it comes to autism -- unhappy evidence that the medical risks associated with late parenthood are not just the province of older mothers, as much previous research has suggested.
And let’s not forget that despite previous research (and the typical slew of anti-older mommy rhetoric), other studies have shown that waiting to have kids may can actually be more healthy for the mother and child. Who woulda knew?
Check out this ABC News article from yesterday that connects the Forbes madness with the gender pay gap in the U.S. and asks its readers, “Is there a war on women who work?�
I love it. ABC News has actually done quite a bit of Forbes ass-kicking since this story emerged. Kudos!
A Chinese survey reports that 90 percent of respondents thought that women who dress provocatively at work were "inviting harassment." Sweet.
Sexual harassment is widespread at workplaces in China and women who are provocatively dressed are to blame, state media has said, citing an online survey.According to a survey of more than 4,000 professionals conducted by a job-hunting company, 43 percent of the respondents think sexual harassment is "widespread" and 54 percent say it happens occasionally, the China Daily said.
Something kinda funny about the survey: "The paper did not say how many of the 4,000 respondents were male or describe how the survey was carried out."
So it was real scientific.
The United Arab Emiratesgovernment will legalize abortions for "vaild reasons." What constitutes a valid reason is somewhat uncleaer.
“Abortion will be allowed in the country but under tough conditions,� said Dr Ali bin Shukar, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health (MoH). “Applicants must have valid reasons.�He said his ministry has broadly reached a consensus with the Ministry of Justice and General Awqaf Authority to sanction abortion.
“We have reached an agreement in this regard with the Ministry of Justice and Awqaf Authority that observes all the values and Islamic legislations as well as clinical conditions,� said Dr Shukar.
“Invalid excuses for abortion like wanting to get rid of the baby because they think they have had enough children or not wanting to keep the baby because they feel tired will not be considered genuine and sufficient reasons to go for abortion,� said the official. The abortion rule will be stipulated in the federal law on medical liability which is being contemplated by the two ministries before being forwarded to the cabinet for endorsement.
So yeah...unclear.
Thanks to Neha for the link, and for having maybe the best blog name ever.
Before I even begin an entry on popular hip hop culture I have to shout out that I went to see Lupe Fiasco and Talib Kweli last night and it was fantastic. It reminded me of the amazing work some rappers are doing in the face of 'pimp' and 'ho' culture, to keep hip hop tied in to what it has always been about, liberation through beats and rhymes.
So while bopping my head to some educated lyrics, including critiques of the Iraq war to that crazy notion of respecting women, I was forced to ask, what the hell is up with this 'pimp chic' business and what impact is it having on young women and men today. Is there anything empowering about young men calling themselves 'pimp' or trying to be a pimp and young women acting like 'hoes'?
Kira Cochrane from the Guardian says. . .
When did the verb "to pimp" become a positive thing? What it means is "to exploit and degrade women" - to sell them for sex and take the profits.It's this attitude that, in recent years, has allowed the term pimp to become a hugely successful marketing hook, with the rapper Nelly hawking the drink Pimp Juice, The Pimp Watch becoming a timepiece of choice; It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp winning last year's Oscar for best song, and pimp Halloween costumes (big hats, bling and exotically-lapelled suits) being marketed to pre-teens.
I think we can agree glamorizing sex trafficking is just not okay. But I am also cautious to evaluate the racialized underpinnings of the movement. We see pimp chic culture playing out in young communities of color and naturally the blame goes on their shoulders. But are young *urban* youth to blame? And are they the only consumers? Hell no.
'Pimp chic' is a capitalist commodity that is carefully assembled and distributed as a product to be consumed. What makes it dangerous is that it is a cultural commodity, so it is not just about buying pimp juice, but actually acting out the parts and believing that it is cool to do so. In a culture that values consumerism as a basic tenet, it is no wonder that something so clearly not empowering to communities of color, can be distributed and consumed with such success.
Cochrane continues. . .
The mainstreaming of the word pimp obviously does damage with its disregard towards women and its degradation of male and female relationships. It also does damage to young black men. Every mainstream stereotype we have of young black men is negative, and the pimp stereotype - pimps are usually portrayed as being black - is perhaps the most prominent and the most negative of all.In popular culture, powerful black men aren't generally lawyers or doctors or politicians - as they are in real life - but men who beat and control and steal from women. As film director Spike Lee has said: "We are bombarded by these gangsta images again and again and again ... [and] they do make a difference to human behaviour. No one gets upset any more that pimpdom gets elevated on a pedestal." Perhaps it's about time that we did.
And to just add to that, who is responsible for the circulation of these images? And how does white America benefit from youth of color internalizing these images?
Anti-choice, pro-chastity blogger Dawn Eden...sings.
Generally I wouldn't poke fun at someone for putting themselves out there creatively, but shit--this is someone who accused me of being a threat to minors among other things. So you'll have to excuse me if I take some perverse pleasure in this. (Plus it's just plain funny.)
So go take a listen to Dawn Eden's song of love and (virginity?) loss, You Did Me Wrong. Maybe in her next song, Lil' Markie can sing back-up.
Thanks to Jill for the heads-up.
I just wanted to give a big old shout out of congratulations to our very own Ann Friedman on her new job as Alternet's Managing Editor. (Hence the very professional photo.)
Ann was always fancy, but now she's Alternet-fancy. Whole new ballgame.
Well I should say upper middle class, probably white, British female managers are making more money, then they have before. But overall, they are still making less than men.
A study of more than 22,000 managers by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found that average earnings for women rose by 6.7% last year.That was more than the average 5.6% rise for male managers.
But despite a decade of bigger pay increases, the women managers were still being paid on average £5,147 a year, or 12%, less then the men.
A study of 6 million births has found that voluntary C-sections have a higher risk of death to newborn babies.
Researchers have found that the neonatal mortality rate for Caesarean delivery among low-risk women is 1.77 deaths per 1,000 live births, while the rate for vaginal delivery is 0.62 deaths per 1,000. Their findings were published in this month’s issue of Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care.The percentage of Caesarean births in the United States increased to 29.1 percent in 2004 from 20.7 percent in 1996, according to background information in the report.
Mortality in Caesarean deliveries has consistently been about 1½ times that of vaginal delivery, but it had been assumed that the difference was due to the higher risk profile of mothers who undergo the operation.
Does anybody know more about this?
This is disgusting. Several lawmakers in Pakistan have said they are going to leave their seats in the Parliment if current rape laws are changed. The current rape laws in Pakistan demand that for a woman to prove that she has been raped, she must have four witnesses, which is next to impossible in most instances.
A woman who claims she was raped but fails to prove her case can be convicted of adultery, punishable by death.Maulana Fazalur Rahman, a leader of the Islamic coalition, said Tuesday that lawmakers in his group would vacate their seats in the National Assembly if the government tries to get the assembly's approval to change the law.
"We will render every sacrifice for the protection of the Shariah (traditional Islamic) laws," he said at a news conference.
However, the ruling Pakistan Muslim Party — which has a majority in the assembly — has praised Musharraf for taking steps to amend the law and end the four-witness requirement.
Given Musharraf's track record, this is the least he could do.
Remember former governor of Maryland and current State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer? You know, the charming 84 year-old who harassed a 24 year-old administrative aid by watching her ass as she brought over a cup of tea and instructed her to “walk again.� (He later said that “this little girl� should be “happy that I observed her going out the door.�)
Well Schaefer is back and as classy as ever.
Schaefer told Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher in comments published yesterday that [opponent Janet S.] Owens, the Anne Arundel County executive, is a "prissy little miss" who wears "long dresses, looks like Mother Hubbard -- it's sort of like she was a man." Schaefer made similar comments in a taped interview with NewsChannel 8. "She's got these long clothes on and an old-fashioned hairdo," he said. "You know it sort of makes you real mad."
The insults are bad. The fact that the dress- and hair-style of an opponent could make him him “real mad� is hilarious/baffling.
A new study says that a big reason behind the pay gap between men and women scientists in the UK could be discrimination. You don’t say.
Sara Connolly, of UEA's school of economics, has undertaken research that reveals for the first time what proportion of the pay disparity is due to women being younger, more junior or employed in different types of institution or subject areas. Her preliminary results suggest that almost a quarter (23%) of the pay gap is "unexplained" and may be due to discrimination against women.
Nah, it must be cause math is hard for us silly girls.
Connolly also found that women only make up 29% of permanent academic staff and 16% of professors in the sciences.
Connolly says that her research "provides sound facts and figures, rather than anecdotal evidence and hearsay, which I hope will be used to develop and implement effective policies to tackle this problem."
She will be presenting her findings at the British Association Festival of Science.
So we're late on this one, but it's still worth putting up. In an interview with Essence magazine, Secretary of State Condi Rice equates those against the Iraq War to those who would support slavery. Seriously.
I'm sure there are people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War to its end and to insist that the emancipation of slaves would hold...
Wow.
This is too great. Remember that Stirring the caldron of radical feminism article Vanessa wrote about last week? Well it seems that Townhall has reposted it, and damn has it brought out the loonies.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Having been raised by increasingly leftist parents myself, I associate feminism with abandonment. In contrast, when I spent time at my girlfriend's homes, I experienced mothers who spent time with their kids, simply chatting warmly over tea...If a conservative woman wonders how she can change the world, I suggest that this is it: Be a great homemaker.
Fuck political participation and the fulfillment of a career. A little tea and cookies will change the world.
Feminism is losing ground. On campus we still have the lunatic ethnic studies, womens studies, homosexual/bisexual/transgender studies idiots. Faculty jobs in academia is probably all they can do. They are too crazy to make itin the real world.
You know--the real world where there are no women, people of color or queers.
I am not defending radical feminism, which I consider to be a minor mental illness...
Cuckoo!
In times when our nation is truly threatened, feminism will be forgotten and it will be our men who will lay their lives on the line in defense of our way of life, our country, our women and our children. Yes, there will be *some* exceptional fighting women too, but human nature (not the evil patriarchy) dictates that these will be rare and few. This (the open blood debt in life and limb to be called in at any time) is the reason men and only men are due the right to participate directly in our national government (i.e., vote and stand for national office).
Yeah, we're the crazy ones.
These far left feminists really have no clue as to what is really important in life - people, and especially one's own families. Too bad most of them will never know what's it's like to have a family, and true love.
Take that, spinsters!
Check out all of them; they're priceless.
Deborah Solomon, who I was in a huff about recently, interviewed Gloria Steinem on Sunday in The New York Times Magazine.
Despite my general pissy-ness about Solomon's interview with Andi Zeisler (of Bitch magazine), I must admit I was pleased as punch to see two feminists featured in one month. Sweet. And yes, I know giving folks a hard time is Solomon's thing, so I'll eat my words (well some of them) concerning the Zeisler piece.
Fashion never ceases to amaze me. But honestly, I don't need fake hair sewn on. I have enough of the real stuff, OKAY?!
The answer awaits at HuffPo.
This is from a few years ago but still pretty funny and a little scary, considering they are actually real guns. I don't really think the combining of *male* and *female* things, likes guns and leopard print is that cutting edge. Butch lesbians have been doing it for generations.
Fay Weldon, well-known as a feminist writer, has a new book out that seems to be making some very unfeminist suggestions. In What Makes Women Happy?, Weldon suggests that high powered career women shouldn't expect happiness in their loves lives and that women should fake their orgasms, for the benefit of men. WTF?
'Eighty per cent of women only sometimes - or never - experience orgasm. Facts are facts and there we are. Deal with it,' she writes in What Makes Women Happy?, to be published this month by Fourth Estate.According to Weldon, sensible members of the sisterhood should, therefore, follow the example so graphically set by the actor Meg Ryan in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally, and fake orgasms whenever necessary.
'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'
This ladies is what we call BAD ADVICE. In case you didn't realize that. As the Guardian article mentions, this is indeed a bad message to send to young women (I don't really know how many young women are even going to read this book, but still. . .).
Outside of the orgasm situation, this idea that career women end up alone is so ridiculous. I can't think of a single woman I know that is not on some type of career path. Are you really telling me, they are ALL going to end up alone?
In fact, Weldon's views are surprisingly similar to those of Michael Noer, the news editor of Forbes.com, who caused his own furore last week by advising male readers to steer clear of ambitious women or face a lifetime of misery and discord.The American feminist Camille Paglia lauded the book and its author for its courage. 'It's an important point that the career woman may often end up alone,' she said. 'That scenario needs to be put to younger women as they begin making their choices about life.
'Faking orgasms is not a good idea. But what she's actually talking about is trying to be supportive of men, whose psyches are delicate and need to be protected. Men have a tremendous drive and are victim to all sorts of self-doubt and it may well be that it's a wise woman who realises that.'
Camille Paglia would say that. First of all, faking orgasms reinforces regressive sexual behaviors. Furthermore, the idea that women who work will end up alone is ridiculous. Quite frankly, I would rather end up alone then have to sacrifice my passions for someone that can't handle them.
Thoughts?
New Delhi continues to have the highest percentage of crimes against women for an urban city in India.
The alarming data, part of a report by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), include crimes such as rape, dowry deaths, molestation and incest. Delhi is followed by Andhra Pradesh which reported 26.1 per cent of such crimes.Among the 35 mega cities in the country, those having more than 10 lakh of population and above, Delhi alone reported 33.2 per cent (562) of the total 1,693 rape cases.
The report further added that out of total number of 2,409 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women, Delhi recorded 37.4 per cent or 900 cases.
That is unfortunate. Delhi is a very beautiful city. One project in India against violence against women is The Blank Noise Project or as Ann mentions in the Weekly Feminist Reader, India's version of HollaBackNY.
And you thought Abercrombie was bad? Check out the latest from Delia's. And yes, I know "tight" is slang for cool. But I think we all understand the double entendre here. And it's fucking nasty--especially considering Delia's clothing is primarily marketed towards pre-teens.
Kitchen Tables has the corporate contact info; go let them know that sexualizing little girls is never in style.
Since it's a long weekend and all...
See you tomorrow.
Breast-feeding mothers who are well-paid professionals face minor inconveniences. But for lower-income mothers who work in restaurants, factories, call centers and the military, pumping at work is close to impossible.
A British study shows women would earn less than men for the next 150 years if discriminatory and ineffective government policies continue.
Crisis-pregnancy centers aren't the only faith-based establishments that claim to be health care centers.
The director of the new teen thriller The Quiet is a self-identified feminist.
Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett dismantle the Forbes article on "career girls." And check out this annotated version of the Forbes article that points out the flawed and misleading research cited.
Marriage isn’t under attack by gay activists — hell, they’re its biggest fans these days.
Many women fear that their financial security could disappear in a heartbeat. (This is news?) This article condescendingly calls it "bag-lady syndrome."
Police officers in Philadelphia (and elsewhere around the country) have been extorting sex. Most police departments do little to identify the offenders, and even less to stop them.
Conservative columnist Fred Barnes argues that "personal experience has motivated the views of noted pro-lifers." The punchline? All of the pro-lifers with "personal experience" that Barnes references are dudes.
Apparently it takes more than the HPV vaccine to avoid cervical cancer.
WNBA coaches are predominantly male.
Condoleezza Rice is no longer considered the most powerful woman in the world.
At Emma Goldman clinic (one of the last feminist women's health clinics left in the country) in Iowa City, Iowa, a "pro-lifer" grabbed a female employee by her neck outside the clinic, pushed her against a vehicle... then smashed a second-floor window to get inside." A judge just sentenced him to probation.
There's an Indian version of HollabackNYC! Check it out.
August 29 marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,700 people in the Gulf area and left hundreds and thousands of people displaced.
One year later in New Orleans: 17 percent of city buses are running; 54 percent of restaurants are still closed; 3 out of 9 hospitals with emergency rooms are open; and rent has jumped 39 percent.
In St. Bernard Parish, east of the ninth ward, 7 percent of public schools have reopened.
Jazz vocalist and pianist, Monica N. Dillon, was born in New Orleans and raised just outside the city in a town called Kenner and Metairie. I spoke to Monica on her way back to her home in Kenner, one day before the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Here’s Monica…
The Texas Medical Board has adopted rules for minors getting abortions requiring written parental consent forms that must also be notarized, officials said.
Lovely. Perhaps next, they'll have to jump through a flaming hoop with the notarized parental permission slip and land in a perfect split.
Watch a great movie, support an awesome organization, and meet Maggie Gyllenhaal. I told you it was the best thing you could do!
The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault is hosting a benefit VIP Screening Party of SherryBaby, a movie that provides an “unusually realistic portrayal of the cycle of trauma that often afflicts victims of childhood sexual abuse.�
Maggie Gyllenhaal will be on-hand to answer questions from you following the performance.
Here is the info:
IFC Films and the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault invites you to theAdvance VIP Screening of "SherryBaby"
starring Maggie GyllenhaalBenefiting the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault…
Thursday, September 7th,
7:00 pm-10pmMagno Theaters
729 Seventh Ave
(Btw. 48 & 49th Street)
VIP Cocktail Reception from 7pm-8pm drinks sponsored by Martini and Rossi.Movie Screening 8-9:30pm & panel discussion with Maggie Gyllenhaal following screening.
Tickets: $40
(All contributions made are tax-deductible)
Purchase tickets here.
I will definitely be there--it looks like an incredible movie and the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault does amazing work. So please, show your support!
Contributed by Jess Wakeman.
Broadway revived the musical comedy The Fantastiks recently, the story of young lovers Matt and Luisa and the rogue El Gallo. The original 1960 song version featured a song titled "The Rape Ballet," which is not actually about rape [or ballet], but about El Gallo's abduction of the fair maiden, Luisa.
If you read 18th century poem "The Rape of the Lock" in high school or college English, your professor likely explained to you that Alexander Pope's piece is about a man surreptitiously snipping a lock of his beloved's hair. Etymologically speaking, "rape" also can mean abduction of a female.
But songwriter Tom Jones no longer felt comfortable using the word so glibly and changed the lyrics, so the song is now titled, "The Abduction Song." Last week, he told NPR, "my consciousness was raised."
Here's part of the original lyrics:
"Rape! R-a-a-a-pe! Raa-aa-aa-pe!
A pretty rape! A literary rape!
We've the obvious open schoolboy rape,
With little mandolins and perhaps a cape.
The rape by coach; it's little in request.
The rape by day, but the rape by night is best.
Just try to see it.
And you will soon agree, senors,
Why invite regret,
When you can get the sort of rape
You'll never ever forget.
You can get the rape emphatic.
You can get the rape polite.
You can get the rape with Indians:
A very charming sight.
You can get the rape on horseback;
They'll all say it's new and gay.
So you see the sort of rape
Depends on what you pay.
It depends on what you pay."
Gee, why would anybody have a problem with that?
This is just sickening.
The Colombian Catholic Church has excommunicated all of the people involved in obtaining an abortion for an eleven-year old rape victim. This includes the girl’s parents, the doctors, nurses, judges and politicians who were involved in the decision.
Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Colombia, spoke out against the Court’s decision to allow abortion involving rape or incest cases, saying “The child is innocent…the criminal should be punished and put in jail for a long time, but the child should not have to pay for the sins of another. He is an innocent baby.�
Forget about the innocent child that was brutally raped.
Salon and The New York Times both have reviews of Kirby Dick's latest film about the ratings system, censorship, and the Motion Picture Association of America.
Sounds fab, but let's not forget the unfortunate movie poster. (After the jump.)
