February 2007 Archives

Check out this amazing piece by The Lovely Jaclyn Friedman at Women's eNews, "Drinking and Rape: Let's Wise Up About It."

USA Today reports that one in four U.S. women become infected with HPV, the virus which causes cervical cancer.

Researchers have estimated that 20 million Americans have some form of HPV. The study concluded that 26.8% of U.S. women are infected, a figure that is comparable to earlier estimates using smaller groups.

"We expected the prevalence of any HPV infection would be high and that's what we found," said CDC researcher Dr. Eileen Dunne, the study's lead author.

You can find the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Penthouse Steakhouse.

“Are you hungry?� one of these women said, making hungry sound like an X-rated word. “Ravenous?�

Yet another in an ongoing series of ads, eateries and comments that equate women and meat.

(Thanks to Erin for the link.)

Contributed by Courtney Martin.

As you might imagine, when I interviewed Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and current independent writer/speaker, I heard some pretty amazing stories in her still slightly detectable Texan accent. Gloria was behind planning the largest march in history on the Washington Mall in April 2004.

But what stuck with me most profoundly is what she told me about the moment her own life became, well, her own. In her young twenties, struggling with three kids, she had almost given up ever pursuing her own goals…and then she discovered contraception. The pill was approved for contraceptive use by the FDA in 1960 and the whole frickin’ world changed.

I recently read artist Ann Fessler’s amazing book, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade and it got me thinking all over again about how amazingly blessed I feel that, at 27, I have access to contraception—and as a result—access to my fullest life. I want to have children some day, but in the meantime, I’ve got a lot of shit I want to change in the world, a lot of stories I want to tell, and a lot of props to dish out. Thank you Margaret Sanger and Gloria Feldt and Estelle Griswold and William Baird and countless nameless others.

A heads up to all you New Yorkers: the fabulous Amanda Marcotte is coming into town! So get out your party hats and come to a super cool event on Saturday night to support Amanda.

Invite after the jump.

This pic always puts a smile on my face. And don't forget--tag your Flickr pictures with "feministing!"

Pic from JillNic83.

Is the feminist sisterhood more sorority than social justice?

A sorority at DePauw University in Indiana has recently come under fire for dismissing 23 sisters for being “socially awkward.� The women evicted from the Delta Zeta house included every woman who was overweight and the only black, Korean, and Vietnamese members.

The national officers of Delta Zeta claim to have booted the “undesirable� women because of their inability to attract new recruits to the sorority. As I read the unbelievably pathetic excuses given by the sorority for their actions, it occurred to me that in the same way Delta Zeta resorted to active exclusion as a recruitment strategy, mainstream feminists rely on passive exclusionary tactics to keep the movement “pure.�

Read the rest at TPMCafe.

UPDATE: Katha Pollitt responds to my post in Take the Movement--Please!

UPDATE II: E.J. Graff also weighs in.

From the acclaimed misogynist director of Hustle & Flow comes a new movie in which Samuel L. Jackson chains a skeletal Christina Ricci to his radiator and attempts to "cure her of promiscuity." I saw the trailer a few months ago and found it hard to believe. But seeing the film's website, which is up now, I realize they're completely serious. It's not even done in a pulp-y style.

Ricci told MTV her character is "a girl who suffers physical flashbacks to a childhood rape. Some women and young girls freak out, panic, and need to cut themselves. [My character] needs to cause herself the same kind of pain when she has panic attacks by having anonymous sex."

Sounds like being chained up in only her underwear and then preached to is exactly the kind of healing process this character needs.

The creepiest thing about the movie, or at least its marketing, is that it's not only about selling Ricci's body. It's about selling the idea of sex with a girl who's been abused and who's clearly got a lot of problems. There's even an interactive feature (if you click on "experience" in the upper left corner -- click here for a screenshot) that allows you to drag two pills across the screen and then watch a video of Ricci collapsing. Now she's yours for the violating! Plus, the "page loading" graphics that appear every time you click feature her silhouette struggling against the chain. A recurring image in the film as well, I'd imagine.

The fabulous Bill Scher introduced me to Tammy Faye Starlite years ago and I have been a fan ever since. Just hysterical.

One of the most embarrassing Sex and the City scenes was the one in which Carrie enlists Samantha's help to remove her diaphragm. Not because the situation seemed a little intimate, even for two close friends, but because it revealed that Carrie's chosen birth control method was the diaphragm. I mean, how retro was that? Despite conversations about ticking biological clocks and complaints about twentysomething women, the characters had always seemed pretty young to me. Until this talk of a retro method of contraception that doesn't even prevent most STDs.

Or could it? Last week at TAP Online, Beth Schwartzapfel wrote about how the diaphragm is being re-designed using more flexible materials so that one-size-fits-all. This might make it a more convenient option for women who can't or don't want to use hormonal birth control. But perhaps more promisingly, it could help curb HIV infection rates in Africa:

Because the cervix is much more susceptible to HIV infection than the vagina, cervical barrier methods like the diaphragm could be of great help. Beth writes,

Not only could it offer American women yet another contraceptive option, but it could prove a powerful tool in reducing HIV infection rates both at home and abroad. In a large-scale clinical trial that's the first of its kind, researchers are currently testing the impact that diaphragm use has on HIV infection rates in Africa -- where methods of protection that women can initiate without requiring their partners' consent are badly needed.

That's enough for me to consider the diaphragm on its way back to cool again.

A whole bunch of Islamic female students have been protesting the destruction of a series of illegally possessed mosques.

Several hundred female students from an Islamic seminary in the center of Islamabad have been holed up for the last month inside a public library, in an unprecedented protest that poses a dilemma for President Pervez Musharraf's government.

The young women's ostensible demand is the rebuilding of half a dozen mosques in the capital that the government tore down because they were constructed on illegally seized land. Dozens more are under demolition orders.

As the article mentions, the Western world is breathing down Musharraf's neck to see to it that he is cracking down on radicals.

But I am more interested in the role that women are playing in the move towards more fundamental forms of Islam. Not only are these women integral to building a nation, vision and future that is vastly different from Western democracy, they are willing to die for it. From our perspective it may seem that these women are fighting for their own oppression, to live under strict Muslim rule.

But the reality is they are fighting (alongside or sometimes without men) for what they believe in. Is this a moment of feminist empowerment?

via LA Times.

There's apparently hell to pay when you point out that there's no scientific or medical reason to deny women over-the-counter access to emergency contraception. Although the Bush administration and Congress requested and allocated a full $4 million in funding for the Office of Women's Health, the FDA plans to withhold more than a quarter of that money -- $1.2 million.

Martha R. Nolan, a vice president at the Society for Women's Health Research, a Washington advocacy group, said that big budget bites in Washington are often the beginning of the end and that she worries that this is retribution for the Plan B controversy.

"We fear this is the first step toward eliminating the Office of Women's Health," Nolan said. "We must not allow this office to be eliminated or reduced to an empty shell that has no program funding."

But if the funding cut becomes official, the office is going to be in a bind NOW, not just in the future. They've already spent or allocated the remaining portion of their budget for this fiscal year, which means that program operations will come to a grinding halt if they don't receive the additional $1.2 million they were counting on. That'll teach them to stand up to the FDA.

Steve Gilliard is having yet another round of open heart surgery. So send out those good vibes.

As health educators expand their focus in India, only 56% of all women know about HIV/AIDS in contrast to 80% of men.

The Indian government has focused its HIV/AIDS prevention efforts on high-risk groups, such as commercial sex workers and injection drug users, rather than on the general population, according to Reuters. An unnamed government official said that the government is "expanding prevention efforts among the general population in rural areas, especially women, over the next five years." Anjali Gopalan -- head of the HIV/AIDS advocacy group Naz Foundation India -- said the report "shows women don't have access to information, translating into more women getting infected." According to Reuters, women account for 40% of HIV cases in the country. Many women in rural areas contract the virus from their husbands, who travel to cities and visit commercial sex workers, Reuters reports. HIV/AIDS advocates are urging the government to train health workers and send them to rural areas in an effort to educate rural women about the virus (Zaheer, Reuters, 2/23).

via Kaiser Network.

Now my girl Neela just got back from India and was mentioning that she noticed much of the education about HIV/AIDS is targeted to poor people. So the question is how much of this education is reaching the middle class or is HIV/AIDS being seen in India as something only affecting marginal, disenfranchised or "high-risk" populations?

Suburban housewives dancing on poles! Everybody panic! What has the world come too?

Pole dancing, once exclusively the province of exotic dancers, has flared up as a much-hyped Hollywood exercise craze, and has seeped into the collective unconscious through shows like “The Sopranos� and “Desperate Housewives.� A variant called motorized pole dancing, which occurs in stretch limos, has raised eyebrows as far away as Britain, where some female university students pole-danced as a fund-raiser for testicular cancer. And mini-poles have even been spotted as dance props at over-the-top bat mitzvah parties in suburban precincts.

Now the pole — think ballet barre turned vertical — is the new star at racier versions of Tupperware parties in well-heeled (if high-heeled) areas like this one in the northwest hills of Morris County, about 33 miles from Manhattan. Billed as “femme empowerment,� such at-home pole dancing lessons are taking place in the realm of book clubs, with mothers — and grandmothers — learning slinky moves for girls’ nights in, bachelorette send-offs, even the occasional 60th birthday celebration.

The pole craze? Has mainstream culture embraced strippers in the name of "femme empowerment"?

Some say exercise that echoes the acrobatics done by women who take their clothes off for a living is exploitative rather than empowering. But Ms. Shteir and Joan Price, the author of “Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty� (Seal Press, 2006), see a clear difference between middle-class, middle-aged women choosing to give parties in their homes and women pushed by poverty into potentially dangerous or demeaning work.

Yeah I didn't think so. It is OK to pole dance if you are a suburban housewife, in fact it is even empowering! But if you do it for a living you are engaging in nasty, demeaning work that is dangerous (and well they may not say it but, you are also a bad person, who is slutty and probably doesn't even deserve basic human rights).

It just seems so hypocritical.

via NYTimes.

Yet another world leader calls women baby machines; it was only a month ago that Japanese Health Minister said the same. Looks like we got a best-seller.

German Bishop Walter Mixa tried to switch things up by saying that women are being degraded as “birthing machines� because of the existence of daycare. His comments were in response to new goverment proposals to expand daycare facilities, and asserted that "enticing" women to use daycare after giving birth so they can return to work was “harmful to children and families� and lowers women to being nothing more than babymakers.

In that case, what about you Sperminators a.k.a. working fathers? No "liberation" for y'all?

Anbumani Ramadoss, India's Health Minister and father of three girls, is requesting a ban on gender bias in advertisements, where depictions of families are typically daughterless. According to the minister, it reinforces sexism and often results in female infanticide:

An estimated 10 million baby girls have been murdered in India in the past 20 years because parents see boys as better future breadwinners.

Recent figures have shown the situation is getting worse, with the gender ratio down to 927 girls for every 1000 boys and falling, particularly in well-heeled urban areas where people have access to the technology that enables them to determine their child's sex.

Gender determination is presently banned, but more or less ignored. The goverment is also starting a new initiative to encourage parents to give their unwanted daughters to the state as an alternative to infanticide.

I know it's silly, but it brings a little joy to my dark, evil-doing heart to see far-right zealots searching desperately for a candidate with enough wingnut street cred to support for 2008.

Many conservatives have already declared their hostility to Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his efforts to make amends for having once denounced Christian conservative leaders as ''agents of intolerance,'' and to former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, because of his liberal views on abortion and gay rights and his three marriages.

Many were also suspicious of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts; members have used the council as a conduit to distribute a dossier prepared by a Massachusetts conservative group about liberal elements of his record on abortion, stem cell research and gay rights.

Yes, it must be tough when you don't have a dedicated puppet to force your hate on the American people from the White House. (Whoops, I guess I won't be getting a job blogging for a campaign now.) Even less well-known, more conservative candidates are not quite good enough. But never fear, insufficiently conservative candidates of the world. Grover Norquist has a solution for you. Secondary virginity. Or something. Wait, what?

He argued that with the right promises, any of the four could redeem themselves in the eyes of the conservative movement despite their past records, just as some high school students take abstinence pledges even after having had sex.

“It’s called secondary virginity,� Mr. Norquist said. “It is a big movement in high school and also available for politicians.�

So, you can pledge to abstain from caring about freedom, equality, and tolerance. Sweet. I wonder if Dawn Eden needs some help on her blog. I am so out of here.

Hey y'all, just wanted to remind you about our fabulous Feministing gear. We had a bit of a fight with our old vendor who did our shirts--they found them vulgar. We found them taking 90 percent of the profits vulgar. So we've found an amazing new company, GoodStorm, to sell our oh-so-fashionable shirts. And they even give us a fair cut of the proceeds.

So please check out the shirts (and other products!), and be on the look out for new styles--I'm thinking of making one about vagina dentata..."Feminists have teeth!"

(A big thanks to Ray for putting the design together, especially the super cool option of having a left-handed or right-handed feminist.)

Ann mentioned this atrocious story of an Indiana sorority who booted all of it's "socially awkward" sisters--you know, the women of color and "overweight" women--in the Weekly Feminist Reader.

I just wanted to let y'all know that some folks have started a Facebook group to support the ousted women.

A South Dakota bill, which would have required hospitals to tell rape victims about the availability of emergency contraception—that’s right, just tell women about it, not dispense it—failed last week.

Supporters of the bill tried unsuccessfully in the House Health and Human Services Committee to remove a "conscience clause" from the measure. That would let any health care provider or facility opt out of giving the information.

…The amendment to remove the conscience clause failed on a 6-7 vote, and another amendment that would let just doctors or other health care workers opt out also failed.

Rep. Mark Kirkeby, R-Rapid City, said, "In all honesty, with [the conscience clause] being in place in this bill, there's no sense in even having this bill.�

Uh, yeah...I’d say so.

Ah, there’s nothing better than your run-of-the-mill sexist "women as meat" ad to start off your Monday morning.

Are mothers' movements finally gaining traction?

Yet more speculation on why models have gotten so skinny.

A U.S. soldier is sentenced to 100 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl.

Mississippi takes another step toward passing an abortion ban.

How male and female brokers perform differently.

In an effort to reverse their “socially awkward� image, an Indiana sorority kicks out several of its members who are minorities or deemed to be overweight.

Suburban housewives are into sexercising.

The frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination can't figure out how they feel about abortion rights. But that might not even matter in the end.

In the wake of the APA's findings on the sexualization of young girls, the Guardian ponders the actual effects of toys like Bratz dolls.

An Alabama man received probation for driving his car into an abortion clinic.

When a woman chooses to go bald, is she gaining or losing control? Plus, Rebecca Traister's plea to stop the Britney-bashing.

Facing a backlash against legislation in multiple states, Merck announces it will no longer lobby for mandatory HPV vaccination.

Colorado considers a bill to require comprehensive sex-ed.

The issue of work/life balance has simply dropped off the national agenda. It's time to bring it back and give it a name: the care crisis.

I've never wanted to be a mother, but I've always wanted to be a crazy aunt.

What we say about Hillary Clinton says a lot about American society.

Sexual assaults have sharply declined. (Thanks, feminism!)

Photo by Audrey Cho as it appeared in The Chicago Reporter.

Salome Chasnoff is executive director of the alternative media nonprofit, Beyondmedia. Salome is a video and installation artist, media activist and educator, whose work is dedicated to expanding media access for marginalized communities. She has been an arts educator for the past 20 years in university and community settings, and an artist-activist in the prison moratorium movement for 8 years.

Beyondmedia, for the most part, works with young women between the ages of 13 and 25. They also partner with many women’s and queer youth groups.

Here’s Salome…

These things are ridiculous, but a ban? Seriously?

"People are making a joke out of it," [Maryland delegate LeRoy] Myers said yesterday. "But I think it's a pretty serious problem. You have body parts hanging from the hitches of cars. We've crossed a line."

His bill would prohibit motorists from displaying anything resembling or depicting "anatomically correct" or "less than completely and opaquely covered" human or animal genitals, human buttocks or female breasts. The offense would carry a penalty.

Also good to know:

A hunter could still throw a freshly killed and uncovered deer in the back of his pickup, though, because the deer's body parts would be real, Myers said.

We can all recognize that Myers is semi-crazy (the man referenced deer balls in a serious manner), but I asked myself if I'd feel the same way if a female legislator was protesting plastic breasts hanging from bumpers. And I have to say, while I would in all likelihood find them distasteful, I wouldn't be interested in passing legislation to ban them. As Meredith Curtis of the Maryland American Civil Liberties Union said, "The solution to speech we don't like is more speech."

Plus, this is one of those items that serves to warn you away from guys that you probably don't want to be dating anyway.

Here's some cool news to start your weekend off with:

One of the most prestigious prizes in computing, the $100,000 Turing Award, went to a woman Wednesday for the first time in the award's 40-year history.

Frances E. Allen, 74, was honored for her work at IBM Corp. on techniques for optimizing the performance of compilers, the programs that translate one computer language into another.

Allen started working at IBM in 1957, around the time the company was recruiting women by using a brochure called "My Fair Ladies." Awesome.

Via Women and Tech News.

Our peoples at In These Times featured "A Politically Correct Lexicon" where they go over a number of terms, and experts give their perception of what the appropriate language is to use nowadays. But I have to admit I was extremely pissed to see that these folks believe the politically correct usage of the word "feminist" is pointless because the word itself doesn't really exist anymore:

Feminist: "A word that the younger generation doesn’t always embrace," is how Baim, 44, describes it. A lot of young women, she says, are "feminists but they don’t want to be pigeonholed." "Feminist somehow became a tainted word along the way," says Hill. "I have heard a lot of people say, 'this sounds feminist’ or 'I used to be a feminist.’ " (Emphasis mine)

What the fuck?!? I understand and respect that some women don't want to identify themselves as feminists, and I think these statements would be appropriate in a conversation about evolution of the word "feminism"; but for these two "experts" to suggest that the very term is being phased out of the younger generation is pretty misleading.

By the way, Wanda Sykes' Sick and Tired is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen.

The guy who wrote me this awesomely predictable email. Classic.

I randomly came upon your website and it made me laugh so much. What you fail to realize is that ALL WOMEN ARE PROPERTY. That's why your mothers took the last name of your fathers. That is because SHE BELONGS TO HIM. I love making fun of all the cute lil' feminists around the UM, College Park campus as other scantly clad female student contradict everything they are saying. ALL WOMEN were created to serve men, thats why you get pregnant and that why you have to look attractive with long hair and make up to attract a man. One day all of you will have an epiphany and realize your life's worth is in the kitchen. In closing, whats for dinner? With superiority, Sean

Someone wants attention real bad.

By the way, if you'd like to respond to Sean, here's his email address.

Related: Check out Amanda and Echidne on Stephen J. Ducat's The Wimp Factor. Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity.

When you get the chance, check out my latest article for WireTap, "Notes on Activism and Loyalty." Marisa Handler keeps it real, no matter the cost. She's also got a CD out, "Dark Spoke." She's on the road doing book readings and singing.

My colleague Kay has a post up over at TAPPED about the guilty pleas from the two U.S. soldiers who raped and killed 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. Their truly disturbing testimony comes at a time when Iraqi politicians are rushing to politicize the allegations by 20-year-old Sabrine al-Janabi that she was sexually assaulted by Iraqi security forces.

See also: Robin Morgan's Rape, Murder and the American G.I.

Amy Hoffman, editor-in-chief of the Women's Review of Books, recently reported that she attended a lecture at the Radcliffe Institute by Barry Gewen, an editor at the New York Times Book Review. In what even he described as a "Larry Summers moment" he explained that the reason so few women reviewers appear in the NYTBR is that they just can't write for a general audience about such topics as military history. He explained that NYTBR editors find reviewers by talking to colleagues and reading publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The New Republic, insisting that he and his colleagues are not overtly prejudiced people but admitted they might have subconscious prejudices.

In the Harvard Crimson's account, Gewen acknowledged his staff wasn't “doing the outreach they should� in order to recruit more women and minorities.

“Looking for reviewers of a certain ethnicity simply because of an ethnicity makes me a little squeamish,� Gewen, a 17-year veteran of the Book Review, said.

During the Q&A session, Hoffman suggested that it wasn't necessary for the editors to psychoanalyze themselves to find the source of the problem -- all they had to do was look at their process for finding reviewers, which guarantees that they'll find the same old guys to say the same old thing.

(Cross-posted at TAPPED.)

Wimbledon was the only grand slam tennis event not to pay men and women equally. Those days are over. Sweet.

On a somewhat (ok, not really) related note. I heart Paul Bettany SO bad.

You can have control of the tube and the girl! The bikini top also flips up so you can access the channel up and down buttons; it's very classy. Not only is this the tackiest thing I've ever seen, but I pity the person who actually owns such a horror of a device.

Via Gizmodo.

This is your technical maven reporting in: we're in the processing of moving our RSS feeds to the Feedburner service, so you might experience some weirdness over the next few hours. This is should eventually improve the quality of RSS life for all of you who've been experiencing errors and whatnot. If you don't see new posts in your feeds by the end of the day, or are getting error messages, please let me know! (My email is below.)

Not sure if you're using RSS? (hint: you use Google Reader, Bloglines or some other website or software on your computer to read the news.) Don't know what RSS is, but desperately wanting to find out? Ever see those little orange buttons all over webpages and wonder, "WTF?" MediaShift has a great explanation about the wild, wild world of feeds.

Problems? You can always drop me a line at sitehelp AT feministing DOT com (sorry that email address looks weird, it's a spam-blocking technique. Shazam!)

Here’s some awesome news! The proposed abortion ban in South Dakota—which now had exceptions or rape, incest and women’s health—was rejected yesterday by a committee vote of 8-1.

So much for trying to “tone down� the ban in an effort to drum up support. (Sorry, assholes!)

Via TalkLeft.

The American Psychological Association released a crazy huge report yesterday showing evidence that the sexualization and objectification of girls and young women in the media is mentally damaging for girls.

While you’d think most people would think this is, well, "duh", the APA’s report at least gives it some extra validation. While I was originally wary of the report and language used when talking about “sexualization,� (especially when others are saying the “hook-up� culture is stripping our daughters of self-worth at the same time), I think APA did a fine job in getting the message across without pushing some sort of case for chastity.

Here’s the full report.

In the largest poll on body image in which 25,000 people in the UK were questioned by BBC radio, half of the women said they would consider plastic surgery.

As part of our ongoing upgrade, we've added a fun Flickr feature in the right sidebar. If you tag your pics with "feministing" they're likely to show up on the front page--and make it easier for us to find pictures for our "Fun with Feminist Flickr" posts.

So pretty please, start tagging--because right now the only pics tagged with "feministing" seem to involve us doing shots!

We reported on these anti-choice ads last year, which had made appearances on trains in San Fran, Philly and DC. Put out by The Second Look Project, the ad tagline is "Have we gone too far?"

Looks like some pro-choicer after my own heart wasn't too pleased about the craptastic ads. Kudos.

Campus Progress has more.

This is interesting.

A new study found that -- when followed correctly -- the rhythm method may be just as effective in preventing pregnancy as birth control.

The research concluded that out of the 900 women studied, only one in 250 had an unplanned pregnancy per year when using the method.

I'm super curious to hear what people think about this or have any personal experiences with this to share; I've been off the pill for over a year now and prefer it, but am absolutely terrified of this method.

The ladies of the slope are finally taking the leap. Let’s hope that will soon be literally as well as figuratively.

Almost exactly a year ago, I covered the infuriating reality for professional women ski jumpers; ski jumping is the only Olympic sport that women aren’t allowed to compete in because it’s apparently not “appropriate for ladies� and could potentially (but not really) damage their ovaries and uterus. (And I thought it was the woman who controls her own body...) Well, it looks like women ski jumpers are finally mobilizing to get in the game.

They have filed complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission on the basis that not allowing them to jump is gender discrimination, which should be prohibited at a venue that’s being constructed with millions of Canadian money. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are now saying the reason is that there aren’t enough pro female ski jumpers to compete in the games, but female ski jumpers say it’s a crock.

While there are predictions that the complaint won’t amount to much considering the fact that the IOC had already made its decision, I have hopes; after all, it is Canada.

A program in Connecticut claims to have found the secret of teaching success in business to young women: tea parties. Yes, I'm serious.

Contestants in the Miss Hartford High Pageant are taught that in order to succeed in the work world, they need "proper" manners. And what better tools for teaching business savvy than biscotti and mini cucumber sandwiches?

Organizer Esther Thomas, who used to compete in pageants, said she chose to have a tea ceremony because corporations are increasingly replacing business lunches with teas. She said it's important for women entering the business world to know the social norms associated with such events.

Seriously? I know blogging and nonprofit work is worlds away from corporate lunches, but I'm pretty sure tea isn't quite taking over.

I'm not against teaching teens manners and professionalism, but when etiquette and business tips for women simply means telling them to keep quiet and look pretty, I get pissed.

During the ceremony, the girls also demonstrated the six elegant sitting positions they had learned.

"I used to be loud - not, per se, ghetto. But now I'm learning to be a lady and to wear makeup," Monique said before the tea...

"Elegant" sitting positions, not talking, wearing makeup: clearly the recipe for a lucrative career.

Via Broadsheet.

UPDATE: Zuzu at Feministe has more on these events, which are sponsored by Catholic Charities.

First, a successful HPV vaccine... Now, they're working on a shot to prevent chlamydia (aka "The Clam," or "the silent disease"). Sweet!

Not only is chlamydia one of the most common STDs, it's one that primarily affects women -- men can transmit it but don't experience symptoms. (Though it may lower men's chances of conceiving. Check out this article with the best/worst punny headline ever.) So this is great news. One more step toward a world where there will be NO medical reason to abstain from sex as long as all your shots are in order! And this is one less scary-STD slide for the high-school wrestling coach to show during sex-ed week... Isn't that what conservatives fear about the HPV vaccine? Muhahaha.

If the scientific community continues to develop STD vaccines, abstinence-only programs are going to have to resort to their far-weaker arguments about the emotional/moral consequences of sex rather than the straight-up medical risks. Abstinence-only groups like Physicians for Life have said (falsely) that chlamydia might cause of cervical cancer. Popular abstinence-only curricula claim (also falsely) that chlamydia is linked to heart disease.

Hopefully we can soon scratch the Clam off the list of risks associated with having sex. And the abstinence-only folks will have less material to work with. Now which STD will be next? Can you imagine the awesome puns that will be possible if researchers develop a shot to prevent gonorrhea? I can see the headlines now... "Applause for 'Clap' Vaccine"...

Zil-e-Huma Usman, the Punjab Province Minister for Social Welfare and women’s rights activist, was shot and killed yesterday at a political meeting she was scheduled to speak at.

Mohammad Sarwar was immediately identified and arrested as the shooter, who is a known “fanatic� against the role of women in politics and was actually acquitted from at least six previous murder cases due to a lack of evidence. (Four of them being murders of sex workers.) After the third or fourth accusation, you’d think they’d start to catch on. Sigh.

Usman was elected as Member Provincial Assembly of Punjab in General Elections 2002, worked as Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Development from 2003 to the end of 2006, when she began working as a minister. She had been minister for less than three months.

Apparently from a KFC in upstate NY. What the hell?

From a friend of a friend.

Is this a joke?

So what is up with the so-called embracing of the round mound of brown woman-ness that is saturating pop culture? Similar to Broadsheet and Givhan at Wapo, I too have been reading and thinking about all the media hype that "full figured" women like Tyra and Beyonce have been getting and the problems associated with the a) mainstreaming of the voluptuous woman and b) the merging of sexulization with the black female body. Neither of these are a new phenomenon. The strategic sexualization and de-sexualization of women of color in the media is the foundation upon which white women's beauty is compared and usually strengthened.

So with this understanding I agree with what Tracy at Broadsheet writes. . .

Givhan argues that part of the reason for these disparate beauty standards is "the stereotype of the large black woman as the diva-like sexpot: strong, aggressive and entitled." As limiting and dangerous as that stereotype may be, it's that pervasive caricature that's paved the way for the idea "that big can be beautiful and desirable -- at least when it comes to women of color," she argues. I suppose on the flip side of that is the stereotype of white women as fragile flowers: passive, agreeable and unthreatening. Hence, the wilted look adopted by so many white actresses in Hollywood.

The nasty thing about stereotypes, though, is as much as they can create odd (and fleeting) chances at empowerment, they're, of course, deeply limiting. As much as the "diva-like sexpot" stereotype has opened doors for women of color in Hollywood, it also keeps that racial modifier constantly at arm's reach.

So as I was reading this I decided to scan some pics of Beyonce and I found the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. And I just have to say this whole conversation really ticked me off when I realized how small Beyonce is. If that is considered a full figured woman and we are excited about the entry of that (overtly sexualized and fetishized) image of the "strong" black woman into the mainstream, then count me out. That is such bullshit. The only reason she looks big is because we are used to seeing size 1's and shit. If she was sitting next to me you would tell her to eat something.

Furthermore, I got to thinking about the representation of black women on television and in the media and realized how much the way they look has been changed through the years by white standards of beauty. For example, take Louise Jefferson from the Jeffersons or Florida Evans from Good Times. Maybe I am totally detached, but you just don't see women like that on television anymore.

Thoughts?

One more guest post from a NAPW panelist! Miriam Zoila Pérez is an Advocacy Associate at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

For those of you who didn’t have the privilege of attending the recent National Advocates for Pregnant Women’s Summit, you missed out on an amazing and rather unique moment in the history of the women’s rights movement. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a panel presentation about immigrant women’s experiences with pregnancy and childbirth, along with four other fantastic women. But rather than getting into the issues I discussed in my presentation, I want to talk about why this conference was so important—and unique for the women’s rights movement.

During the pre-conference training organized by Be Present, Inc, I stood up and introduced myself as a radical doula. This was a designation that I came to assume for myself through an understanding that my beliefs (which seemed to me completely logical and altogether natural) placed me apart from a large part of what I have come to call the “birth activist� community (midwives, doulas and advocates who work toward changing the standards of care for birthing women in the US). This conference highlighted many of the ways my politics are a seeming contradiction: I’m a doula and I’m a pro-choice abortion advocate. I’m a doula and I’m a lesbian. I’m a doula and I may never have children. I’m a doula and I’m Latina. I’m doula and I’m not entirely comfortable with the gender/sex binary.

Our gal Priscilla Huang has a great piece up at TomPaine, "Which Babies Are Real Americans?" Check it out...

Sorry I couldn't resist. The Anglicans met and they have decided that Episcopal churches in the US are *doing too much* by blessing same-sex civil unions and consecrating gay bishops.

In a statement issued in the final hour of the tense meeting, the Anglican Communion gave the U.S. church until Sept. 30 to comply. Otherwise, the leaders said, its relations with other Anglicans will remain "damaged at best."

The Episcopalian General Convention, the church's governing body, responded yesterday by calling on U.S. church leaders to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration" of candidates for bishop "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."

Because being gay and the church never go hand in hand. But it is just better to keep it closeted so, well you know. . .

via WaPo.

All of this just fell into my lap at once so I thought I would lump it into one post about hip-hop and spotlight films, activism and music that is going down showing the changing face of hip-hop and responding to the hypermasculinity portrayed in mainstream hip hop today.

Firstly, I was reading over at New American Media about Byron Hurt's new documentary on manhood in hip hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture. In it he tackles what he finds as a formulaic presentation of contemporary rap artists. Vibe writes. . .

Hurt’s relationship to some of hip hop’s lyrical content shifted soon after college, when he was hired to educate high school and college athletes about gender issues. “I didn’t know anything about ‘gender awareness’ when they hired me,� he says. “It made me nervous. I was worried my friends would think I was soft for what I was doing.� The training he received on the job, though, changed his life. “I realized for the first time that sexism and violence against women were real issues. And I felt like I could make a difference.�

Then, while watching Rap City one day back in 2000, Hurt suddenly found himself noticing that “all the videos looked very … formulaic.� Thugged-out rappers, scantily-clad women, cash, and cars – it all seemed to be playing on repeat, and it all seemed to present the same message: these are the things you need in order to be a “man.�

Check out Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and not just because I have an essay in it. (As do Margaret Cho, Rachel Kramer Bussel and a ton of other cool ladies.)

I was really happy that Diane Mapes, the editor, wanted to put together something on single women and how they're portrayed in the media and elsewhere--and to let single gals speak for themselves. Word.

Our feminist bloggers/"potty-mouthed" friends talk about...well, you know.

Forbes reports that more young women are donating their eggs—mostly for the money.

In 1996, women in federally monitored programs donated eggs just over 3,800 times. That number has risen steadily, to more than 10,000 in 2004, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control has compiled data.

…The money is seen as compensation for time and trouble. Among other things, donors learn to inject themselves with hormones and, eventually, have a needle inserted through their vaginal wall so eggs can be harvested.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine recommends a compensation guideline of $5,000, with a limit of $10,000 for special cases—if prospective parents want a specific ancestry, for example.

But anyone who has ever done an “egg donation� Google search will find out that you can be paid much more than that. I was thinking about donating my eggs a couple of years ago, and hells yeah it was for the money. When I realized that my SAT scores and educational background could mean a significant sum, I have to admit that I was really tempted. I mean, I have some serious student loan debt going on. I quickly changed my mind after finding out about some of the health risks involved. But I’m still unsure about the ethical implications—I’m not comfortable with women’s eggs being commodities, especially when it means that certain women (in need of money) would be more likely to undergo the risky procedure.

Thoughts?

Now tell me again how it's women's responsibility to stop rape? The shirt says it all.

Civil unions begin in New Jersey today!

...the titties. Yet another effort to save breasts moreso than the women attached to them. I think this particular shirt says it all:

Fucking shocker.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned," the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

(Cough, cough, douchebag, cough.)

Women warned on rape drink risk

From Scotsman: "Women were today warned over the dangers of binge drinking as figures showed more than a third of rapes were linked to alcohol."

Which clearly means the onus is on women to protect themselves. Sigh.

Some alternate headline suggestions:

Men warned to stop raping drunk women

Stop getting drunk and raping women, asshole

Wishful thinking, I know.

Annoyed with eye-rollingly bad sex-ed videos, Oakland teenagers made their own educational film about condoms.

Why the new female president at Harvard is an exception to the rule.

Sign the petition to support the Healthy Families Act.

We should be granting asylum to domestic violence victims.

Lesbians rally in Santiago, Chile to speak out against homophobia.

The SF Chronicle had a great package of sex-ed stories last week. Highlight (lowlight?): "Mary had an STD, STD, STD / Mary had an STD, she had lots of discharge / It was really green and gross, green and gross, / It was really green and gross / No one wanted to kiss her."

As in many states, Florida women's prisons offer cosmetology and fashion design classes, while men's prisons offer carpentry or construction classes.

A Virginia bill attempting to define contraception (because you know how the antis love to conflate contraception and abortion) was unfortunately struck down.

A young nun defends The Vagina Monologues.

Our gal Courtney writes that who/how you love says a lot about your political conscience.

One survey shows girls who are into video games have more sex.

Watch Christina Ricci morph from curvy to completely emaciated.

Sex-ed for septuagenarians.

Safe2Pee.org keeps a list of gender-neutral bathrooms across the country.

The New York Times covers HPV, Gardasil, and mandatory vaccination.

The Catholic church blames "cultural mutation" for popular support for liberalizing abortion laws in Portugal.

More girls are becoming high-school wrestlers. (Reminds me of this book, which I loved as a kid.)

80 percent of sexually active 16 to 25-year-old Australian women have had unprotected sex.

How do we know what a president is "supposed to look like"?

John McCain hearts abstinence-only programs and their accompanying stereotypes, misinformation and heteronormativity.

Who you callin' a bitch? She's probably a smart, powerful threat to male privilege.

Rwanda considers legislation to limit families to three children.

On dieting and feminism.

The NBA won't tolerate gay-bashing.

A Newbery Award-winning children's book has sparked controversy because it mentions a part of the male anatomy.

Cleveland is cracking down on escort services, because "millions of dollars are exchanged, and police said at times the men who use these services are robbed, get sexually transmitted diseases or are assaulted." Clearly the johns are at the highest risk here.

Israeli women are fighting back against what one called "Taliban-like" Jewish fundamentalists who order women to sit in the back of the bus and to abstain from wearing "immodest" clothing on public bus lines.

Meanwhile, the U.S. modesty/chastity brigade marches on. Washington Post reporter Laura Sessions Stepp has a new book that claims young women are damaged by "hook-up culture." She writes, "Your body is your property. . . . Think about the first home you hope to own. You wouldn't want someone to throw a rock through the front window, would you?" That seems more like a rape analogy than a sex analogy. Of course I wouldn't want someone to throw a rock through the window. I'd want to open the door and let them in myself.

Slate claims women choke under pressure... and readers explain why this is bullshit.

A Florida bill would ensure EC access for rape victims.

And don't forget! Sign up for weekly Feministing update emails. (Just put your email address in the box at the top of the right-hand column.)

Some of the women who run Casa Atabex Ache.

Daynara Marte has been executive director of the “House of Womyn Power� Casa Atabex Ache in the South Bronx of New York for four years. She came to Casa in 1999 as an intern and has stayed and moved up in the organization ever since.

"Casa" in Spanish means house. "Atabex" is one of the many names for the Taino goddess or earth mother of Puerto Rico. Taino are the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, and other islands in the Caribbean. "Ache" means power in Yoruba, the language of a West African ethnic group.

Between 30 to 65 young women learn about self empowerment through cultural and indigenous rituals, spirituality, and social justice at Casa Atabex Ache at any given time. Currently, Dayanara is working on outreaching to the large Mexican immigrant community living in the South Bronx. Many fear entering community establishments and being asked for their immigration papers.

Here’s Dayanara…

Check out this disturbing Indian commercial for Fair & Lovely skin whitener (made by Unilever, which also manufactures Dove's "real beauty" products... and Axe). Here's a synopsis:

One TV commercial aired in India (often referred to as the Air Hostess advertisement) “showed a young, dark-skinned girl’s father lamenting he had no son to provide for him, as his daughter’s salary was not high enough – the suggestion being that she could not get a better job or get married because of her dark skin. The girl then uses the cream [Fair & Lovely], becomes fairer, and gets a better-paid job as an air hostess – and makes her father happy�.

Sexism, classism and racism, tied up together in a neat little 60-second spot! A similar ad for a whitener made by Pond's -- also a Unilever brand -- drew criticism a few years ago:

"Those ads are incredible," says Malaysian social activist Cynthia Gabriel, referring to the Unilever ads. "Whitening creams are capitalizing on a market that's quite racist and biased toward people who are lighter."

Responded a Unilever rep:

"Our TV commercial was never intended to suggest any correlation between skin color and beauty. We leave that to each individual to interpret according to his or her culture, background and education."

High-end whiteners are also sold by Chanel and Shiseido in the U.S. But they're huge in countries like China, India and Malaysia, where they help perpetuate the idea that whiter skin = more respect = success in life. They also pose health risks.

As Salon points out, the popularity of Fair & Lovely (the best-selling whitening cream in the world) provides fodder for a debate about whether marketing to lower-income populations helps or hurts them.

Not surprisingly, [manufacturer] HLL claims Fair & Lovely is doing good by fulfilling a social need. They argue that 90 percent of Indian women want to use whiteners because it is “aspirational…. A fair skin is like education, regarded as a social and economic step up� (Luce and Merchant, 2003).

But Fair & Lovely isn't a step up or solution; it only enforces the prejudices that contribute to economic and social inequality.

Via Nerve.

Our gal Courtney Martin has an article over the The Christian Science Monitor, "The messy relationship between bloggers and politicians." Check it out.

Lately I've heard many friends rave about the NuvaRing as a method of hormonal contraception. No more remembering to take a pill everyday! The down sides? It's not covered by many insurance plans. And you MUST remember to replace it once a month.

Soon that may not be the case. The Population Council is currently conducting clinical trials of a vaginal ring that only needs replacing once a year. Researchers hope this could reduce failure rates.

Testing should be complete in 2009.

I guess we shouldn't expect better from Axe. I'm sure it makes watching internet porn feel so much more like the real thing. This is one of those products that is a clear signal to RUN if you see it in the home of someone you're dating.

Via.

(Also, this isn't the first time the mouse has been compared to ladyparts...check out this ad for Playboy online.)

Camel's new brand of cigarettes, Camel No. 9, are marketed towards women. So of course they are pink and have cheesy taglines:

...Camel No. 9 signals its intended buyers with subtler cues like its colors, a hot-pink fuchsia and a minty-green teal; its slogan, “Light and luscious�; and the flowers that surround the packs in magazine ads.

Light and luscious? Enough said.

We're frigging psyched. Feministing is getting a Spirit of Communications Award from Choice USA! Congrats to the other awardees, including our contributor Courtney Martin and one-time guest blogger Priscilla Huang...

Literally.

What this means, I don't know. What the accompanying picture has to do with the article is an even bigger mystery.

Any theories?

I just had to give a shout out to Feministing's fave cartoonist Mikhaela Reid; I just got a print of the above shipped to my house and it totally made my day. (Remember all the pre-pregnant nonsense?)

Pic from M1khaela.

This is just lovely. Proposed legislation in Tennessee would require death certificates for aborted fetuses—creating public records that identify women who have had abortions.

Rep. Stacey Campfield, a Republican, said his bill would provide a way to track how many abortions are performed. He predicted it would pass in the Republican-controlled Senate but would have a hard time making it through the Democratic House.

The thing is, the number of abortions performed is already reported to the state’s Office of Vital Records. So the only purpose of this bill is to identify women having abortions—it would even include their social security numbers!

House Judiciary Chairman Rob Briley called this "the most preposterous bill I've seen." No fucking joke.

More at Women's Health News.

"Hey honey, need a date?"

Via ACSBlog, we find out that sex toys are like prostitution. Seriously.

The Eleventh Circuit held yesterday (on Valentine’s Day, of all days!) that the Alabama ban on selling sex toys is not unconstitutional.

According to the Eleventh Circuit, Lawrence, which struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law, limited its holding to "private" activity between sexual partners. The Alabama law, on the other hand, prohibits the sale of sex toys--a "public, commercial activity." Reasoning that the sale of sex toys was more similar to "prostitution" than to private, consensual sex, the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Alabama law.

Right, because clearly there's nothing private or consensual about masturbation.

... please stand by. Typekey is giving out an error when yas try to sign in; I'm working with our hosting provider and Typekey to get them to play nice. We'll update you when it's working again.

So very sorry for the inconvenience!

So you may have noticed our new nifty little sign-up box in the right column. Please use it! We are going to be sending out a weekly e-newsletter with links to our top stories, the Weekly Feminist Reader, and other info and commentary not necessarily found on the site.

And don't worry, we won't be selling your email addresses or doing anything else dodgy with them--we just want to bring lots of feminist goodness to your inbox.

The newsletter is part of a larger upgrade we're doing to the site, so we're pretty psyched about it. (And props to Deanna, our heaven-sent web maven!)

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be on a panel with Cristi Hegranes the founder and president of the amazing Press Institute for Women in the Developing World. I have been slow to shout out about the amazing work they are doing, but better late then never and they have a new round of articles up.

What do they do? According to their mission statement:

The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World is an international nonprofit organization and citizen journalism initiative. The Institute was founded on the belief that journalism is an empowering tool that can bring voice, strength and light to issues that are hidden and people who are oppressed. It is in this vein that the Institute trains women in developing countries to serve as reporters and writers in their own communities. Our journalists are dedicated to telling untold stories and empowering themselves and others through education and journalism. The Press Institute emphasizes reporting on six core issues that most affect women in their communities: HIV/AIDS, violence against women, poverty, reproductive rights, political oppression, and community development.

Check them out.

Yale students recently rallied in support of Connecticut legislation that would require all licensed emergency rooms in the state to offer the morning-after pill to sexual assault victims. Awesome.

My column is up over on TAP online, all about conservative groups' plea for a "return to chivalry" (AKA a return to traditional, restrictive gender roles) on college campuses.

What I felt weird about addressing in the column is some of my own ambivalence about the Vagina Monologues. Let me say that I wholeheartedly believe that V-Day -- both a celebration of female sexuality and a declaration that violence against it is unacceptable -- is a good thing. But it also bears mentioning that many feminists feel conflicted about the play, which is perhaps unavoidable given that it unites two such sensitive subjects: sex and violence.

Although the V-Day site says its initial letter stands for "Victory, valentine and vagina," the tagline, "Until the Violence Stops," throws another "V" into the picture. Feminist sex educator Betty Dodson, who is often quoted out of context by conservatives critics of the play, wrote in 2001, "Ending violence is a worthy cause and I'm all for it, but consistently equating sex with violence offers no real solution." Dodson argues that women have enough negative messages about their bodies, feminists should be hosting Valentine's Day events that present female sex in an unequivocally positive light. V-Day, she says, should be about women's bodies, pleasures, and experiences. In other words, rather than "Until the Violence Stops," we need a tagline of "Until the Orgasms Start." Something to think about. I found her entire sex-based critique pretty interesting.

For my part, I've never really felt like many of the monologues spoke to (for?) me. But really, given that women's experiences of their bodies and their sexuality vary so greatly, that's probably just as well. The format could be greatly improved, though, by encouraging women to submit monologues about themselves. (This is how the Queer Monologues operates. People can either read their submissions themselves, or they can be read anonymously by someone else. It makes for a much more intimate event, as you know these are the stories of people in your community.) For smaller productions, or ensure diversity, there could be a common pool of monologues, from all over the country, that groups could choose to perform in addition to the local submissions. I've always chafed at the idea that the Vagina Monologues are all filtered through Eve Ensler. The prose may be less than perfect if it's submitted by non-professional playwrights, but it could be infinitely more powerful.

Over at Campus Progress today, Ashwini Hardikar has another feminist critique of the play, making the very valid complaint that the monologues from the point of view of women of color all seem to be the ones about violence and victimization. She plugs the awesome-sounding Yoni Ki Baat, an annual performance by South Asian Sisters that "encourages women to speak out against violence and end the stigma around our bodies and our sexualities."

Also, watch Jess single-handedly maim and kill Cupid in this commentary video on AlterNet.

McCain to campaign at Sugar 'n Spice social, abstinence-only event

Though it sounds like this is one event, they're actually two different things. South Carolina keeps its wiener roasts separate from the abstinence rallies.

I'm super late on posting about this, so apologies.

The opinion editor of the campus newspaper at Central Connecticut State University wrote an article last week called, “Rape Only Hurts if You Fight It.� Yeah.

Here's a snippet from The Recorder:

Most people today would claim that rape is a terrible crime almost akin to murder, but I strongly disagree. Far from a vile act, rape is a magical experience that benifits society as a whole. I realize many of you will disagree with this thesis, but lend me your ears and I’m sure I’ll sway you towards a darkened alley.

...Rapes glorious advantages are not, however, exclusively found from 2,000 year old examples. In actuality rape advantages can very much be seen today. Take ugly women for example. If it weren’t for rape, how would they ever know the joys of intercourse with a man who isn’t drunk? In a society as plastic-conscious as our own, are we really to believe that some man would ever sleep with a girl resembling a wildebeest if he didn’t have a few schnapps in him? Of course he wouldn’t–at least no self-respecting man would–but there in lies the beauty of rape. No self respecting man would rape in the first place, so ugly women are guaranteed a romp with not only a sober man, but a bad boy too; and we all know how much ladies like the bad boy.

Cute huh? Naturally after the folks on campus and elsewhere expressed some very warranted outrage, writer John Petroski and The Recorder's Editor-in-Chief Mark Rowan said that the piece was meant to be satirical.

You know, I would be more inclined to believe this if it wasn't for other opinion pieces Petroski has written that show a clear disdain for women. Feministe dug up a piece called "Abortion: A Father's Take," where Petroski writes that women don't have any right to control their bodies and women's "right to privacy should not overrule a father’s right to see his child live." He goes on to note that "women have a completely unfair and unreasonable stranglehold on the fate of a father’s unborn child." Uh huh.

And even if this piece was meant to be satirical (cause rape is SO funny), it just plain sucked. It's possible to write satirical articles about serious issues without being a total asswipe. Case in point: The Onion's "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion!"

Both Petroski and Rowan have issued apologies, but kind of lame ones where they complain about the protests against the article.

File this under: assholes who just don't get it and probably never will.

Via MilbyDaniel.

Woo hoo!

A Senate committee split along party lines to kill a proposal Monday that would have banned most abortions in Colorado.

…The proposal (Senate Bill 143), modeled after one passed in South Dakota last year but later rejected by voters, would have banned abortions except to save the life of the mother and in cases of incest, rape and a medical emergency.

It’s so nice when we actually get good news about repro rights.

A Girl Like Me is a short documentary by teenager Kiri Davis. It's great stuff, but it totally made me cry.

In an ridiculously juvenile attempt to call out gay activist students who had written smack about him on facebook.com, Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) went off on a less-then-appropriate tirade during a speech he gave at Philip Regional High School last Thursday.

Apparently some commenters on a facebook page dedicated to a gay rights history teacher made negative remarks about the Senator, who is opposed to same sex marriage. Comments included statements such as “I hate Scott Brown� and “scott brown ascends from the underworld.� Others were a wee more harsh and included insults towards his daughter, a former American Idol finalist.

So because kids will be kids (which is no excuse for inappropriate language about someone on the internet, but whatever, it’s facebook), Brown felt it necessary to “loudly and pretty angrily� read aloud the comments to the school, curses included, as well as call out some of the students’ names who had commented against him.

In his defense, he said, “What I was doing was reading from what they had written about me and my family. I actually called them on it. I said ‘Now there’s hate speech and then there’s respectful proper speech.’�

You are SO tough, Senator Brown. What an ass. He might as well yelled, “Na-na-na-na-boo-boo! I know your naaaames!! Wanna mess with me now?? Huh? Huh?�

And yeah, it’s real appropriate to go off on a narcissistic rant because some kids talked smack about you. And these are our country's leaders.

I guess you guys will do. Happy Valentine's Day.

Yes, yes, I know. Valentine's Day is a consumer-based, heteronormative, evil/silly holiday. And there are way too many vaginas involved these days. But I'm feeling festive.

So being I'm solo this year, I figured I would send all of my love and V-Day wishes to you, the lovely readers and supporters of Feministing. Sorry I can't give you all boxes of chocolates and construction paper hearts. Xoxo.

Statistically, women make less money. Outside of "official" statistics, I can honestly say, almost all of my girlfriends are BROKE. They are amazing, brilliant and successful and they don't have any money. Whether it be for doing jobs that don't pay much but are meaningful or for being in school. The truth is women are often painted as overspenders, but we are rarely given credit as being EXTREMELY resourceful as most of us live off of very small amounts of money. Statistically smaller incomes coupled with more external pressures on how we should look (and as we all know looking good costs MONEY) it is quite the unfair dilemma, innit.

This woman is successfully living off of 12,000 dollars a year. Could you do it?

Pic from "Welcome to America, Senator!," a piece at the American Prospect.

Drew Gilpin Faust is Harvard's 28th President and first woman. And she sounds cool as hell. She chaired the women's studies department at Penn for 4 years, not to mention being quite the radical as a child.

NYT reports. . .

Catharine Drew Gilpin was born on Sept. 18, 1947, and grew up in Clarke County, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley. She was always known as Drew. Her father, McGhee Tyson Gilpin, bred thoroughbred horses.

Dr. Faust has written frankly of the “community of rigid racial segregation� that she and her three brothers grew up in and how it formed her as “a rebellious daughter� who would go on to march in the civil rights protests in the 1960s and to become a historian of the region. “She was raised to be a rich man’s wife,� said a friend, Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard. “Instead she becomes the president of the most powerful university in the world.�

If sexism is a thing of the past, why is it that some people are still (still!) fighting so hard to block the Equal Rights Amendment?

Just last week, for example, an Arkansas legislative committee prevented the ERA from moving forward for a floor vote.

The reason? Apparently an amendment mandating equality between the sexes would mean, you know, equality.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission called the ERA “subterfuge,� and an “abortion Trojan Horse� because sex discrimination laws have been used in the past to argue that abortion should be treated the same as other medical procedures (the horror!). Other opponents to the ERA whined that the amendment could be used to argue for the legalization of same sex marriage.

Lifelong antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly was even in Arkansas, arguing against the ERA:

Why all the brouhaha in Arkansas? Because ERA supporters argue that they just need three more states to approve the amendment in order for it to move towards constitutional ratification. New ERA resolutions also have been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Virginia.

By the way, just so you know what all the complaning is about, here is the oh-so-controversial text of the ERA: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.� Radical, I know.

For more information on how you can support the ERA, click here.

In case you've been living under a rock this morning...

I think Bill Donahue may want to watch his back. Just saying.

UPDATE: Melissa has resigned as well.

As someone who runs a Equity in Health and Fitness Program at a nonprofit in Central Brooklyn, I thought it was necessary to spread the word on this one.

Check out more on Opportunity Agenda. It looks like they're doing some great stuff.

Recent studies have shown that among teenagers, cell phones can be a very useful tool for abusers to control their partners. Abusers can have their partners constantly accessible to them, whether it be via text or by simply calling them. According to some findings:

20 to 30 percent of teens who had been in relationships said their partner had harassed, insulted or made unwanted requests for sexual activity via cell phones or texts.

One out of four reported hourly contact with a dating partner between midnight and 5 a.m. -- in some cases, 30 times per hour.

One out of 10 received physical threats electronically.

This also includes Instant Messenger. Scary stuff, but I had a problem with this snippet:

As communication technology has become pervasive, 'teen dating abuse has skyrocketed,' says Jill Murray, an author of several books on the subject and a psychotherapist in Laguna Niguel, Calif. She's seen a case of a teen logging more than 9,000 cellphone calls and text messages monthly. The attention seems flattering at first, she says, but later a girl or boy 'feels smothered and doesn't know how to get out.'

Dr. Murray says parents have an obligation 'to limit cellphone and computer use to something reasonable.' She advises blocking the computer and taking away cellphones overnight.

I don’t know if restricting a victim from using their phone or computer is going to stop abuse. In fact, that could exacerbate a situation where an abuser could see it as a lack of response and decide to take physical action against the victim. Obviously no form of abuse is okay, but you can’t just take away a victim’s phone and assume the abuse will cease (especially when it could make it even worse). Thoughts?

Sex-related anti-feminism generally falls in two categories: the argument that feminists are anti-sex (and by proxy anti-porn and anti-male) or, more recently, the idea that feminists are responsible for all the girls gone wild.

Much in the same way that the Independent Women's Forum claims that raising money for anti-violence organizations through the Vagina Monologues promotes a "hook-up" culture, some folks are arguing (poorly) that feminism makes girls slutty.

Take this piece by Masha West, Radical Feminism: The Kiss of Death. (Yeah, someone's a bit of a drama queen.)

Daughters and granddaughters of the women who started the sexual revolution of the 60s have tossed aside what remained of sexual taboos. Gloria Steinam [sic] must be tickled pink. Just check out what's going on with the younger generation and you''ll get the picture. Only the picture is not a pretty one.

West goes on to talk about Britney Spears' and Lindsay Lohan's partying ways and pantyless pics, arguing that while feminists are pissed about the girls gone wild-ness, we're the ones responsible for it.

Radical feminism...has given women the kiss of death.

Obviously something has gone terribly awry. Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles, ordained by God as part of the created order, have been blurred. Men have become un-masculine, thus unattractive to women; women have become un-feminine, thus unattractive to men. Granted, some women have a feminine appearance. But don't let that fool you. In the blink of an eye, females spew obscenities that would make a bull rider blush.

And also, they dance!

Another trend among the younger generation is "freaking." At student dances all across America (including middle schools) kids are dirty dancing. Teens are simulating sex to the beat of the music, usually with, but not limited to, a partner. Young people's creative minds have come up with expressions like "dog dancing," "lap dancing," doing "the grind," "the nasty," and "the wax." I won't explain. Use your imagination.

Didn't anyone tell West that imagining minors doing "the nasty" isn't a very Christian thing to do?

So how is all of this related to feminism? I don't know. West never really seems to make the connection. But it's not just rambling anti-feminists who are talking about the feminist/slut relationship. Too often, I'm seeing third wave feminism conflated with vapid consumerist-types of sexuality, from the Pussycat Dolls to Girls Gone Wild--even by other feminists.

Yes, young feminists talk about sex. They write about it. They even have it from time to time. But let's not confuse politically-informed and thought-out feminist perspectives on sex with drunken tit flashing. It's insulting.

Only this good cop jerked off on a "slutty" stripper, but didn't get nailed with anything in court, because, you know, stripper's shouldn't have any recourse when they are sexually violated, because they are "slutty." Apparently, the logic follows that if you are an exotic dancer, you are a slut and if you are slut, you have no rights in a court of law.

I guess that is what happens when you have 11 men and 1 woman on the jury.

No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.

When the case went to trial, however, defense attorney Al Stokke argued that Park wasn’t responsible for making sticky all over the woman’s sweater. He insisted that she made the married patrolman make the mess—after all, she was on her way home from work as a dancer at Captain Cream Cabaret.

“She got what she wanted,� said Stokke. “She’s an overtly sexual person.�

A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s—agreed with Stokke. On Feb. 2, after a half-day of deliberations, they found Park not guilty of three felony charges that he’d used his badge to win sexual favors during the December 2004 traffic stop.

Not only was he found not guilty, but this was in light of a huge list of shady behaviors prior, like calling her and letting her go with a bag of drugs. What the hell.

via LAist and OCWeekly.

Fucking IWF. But kudos to our gal Jennifer Pozner for calling out "Take Back the Date" for the sham that it is.

Contributed by Courtney Martin

Linda Hirshman’s recent Washington Post article alleging that women are not only irrational voters, but apathetic about politics in general, really got me going.

First of all, I can’t let Ms. Hirshman, an experienced journalist, get away with calling a few of her wealthy, white friends and then passing that off as enough ethnographic research to warrant a conclusion about the entire American female voting bloc. The list of interviews had me wincing, especially when women admitted to getting the majority of their political information from their husbands. 1950s much?

Hirshman does include some compelling studies by some very reputable sources, like the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, who reports that 2 million more men than women read the New York Times or Newsweek, and more men listen to political radio and read newspapers in general. How can this be explained? Are more women relying on alternative sources of media (ahem, blogs for instance)? Would a study surveying younger women and men look different?

Finally, I have to take issue with the criticism of female voters as “irrational.� It seems like a much more complicated question being buried in spuriously simple language. What is “rational� when it comes to voting? Hirshman claims that women pay more attention to “character,� but again, what is “character?� If ethics are “character,� than I’m one of those women. If notions of international responsibility are “character,� than I’m one of those women. But if “character� means the president’s sex life or religious affiliation or what designer makes her suits, count me out. Of course Hirshman didn’t call me in the first place, because I’m not one of her friends.

At least eight states are using public funds to support anti-choice “pregnancy centers� (you know, the kind that lie to women) and other sketchy organizations.

As a condition of the grants, counselors are often barred from referring women to any clinic that provides abortions; in some cases, they may not discuss contraception either.

Because why try to prevent pregnancy? That would just be silly.

The Daily Show had a segment on self-described feminist hater Steve Horner and his crusade to end the horrible source of men's oppression that is ladies night. It's just priceless.

Not everyone can be a "career girl."

Check out this old board game, What Shall I Be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls. Lucky little girls who played this game got choose from six (yes that's it) exciting jobs: teacher, actress, nurse, model, ballet dancer or airline hostess.

But of course, your ability to be a "career girl" depends on your skill set. Like not being "overweight," being good at "hairstylying," and not wearing makeup that is "too sloppy." Vintage sexism. Love it.

Via BoingBoing.

Despite a low voter turnout at the polls, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates has vowed to change the current outlaw of abortion to give women the right to choose.

While at least 50 percent of voters are needed to make a ballot valid (the turnout was only 44 percent), almost 60 percent of the voters approved the referendum to legalize abortion. Socrates said the bill will still be passed in parliament, in which his party holds the majority.

Abortion has been outlawed in Portugal with the exception of rape, fetal malformation or if the woman’s life is in danger and the pregnancy is within only 12 weeks of conception. With the expectation of parliament passing the law and approval of the President, abortion will be legalized for all women, but only up to the 10th week of pregnancy.

As a country with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, this will be a huge step up.

A brief cultural history of breasts and bras.

What Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have to say about feminism.

Canada wants to prosecute violent "pro-lifer" James Kopp because of a shooting he committed across the border in the 1990s.

California legislation that purports to help women inmates is actually just a way to hand out private-prison contracts.

A new book by Egyptian feminist Nawal al Saadawi is being recalled because it supposedly "offends religion."

Brazil plans to install condom machines in schoools.

The Urban Institute examines the effect that caring for an elderly relative has on women's careers.

Sterva ("bitch") schools in Russia teach women how to be successful in life and land a man. The reporter claims that "these classes are very much about feminism," but it sounds nothing like feminism to me. The lessons include "all Russian women are lonely," "the more a man boasts, the more he should be praised," and "omen have lost their femininity during decades of pursuing careers." But do they teach you how to land a man who won't bet you in a game of poker?

Why does Diane Keaton -- who is truly awesome -- end up in such crappy movies?

Jennifer Baumgardner writes about Purity Balls in this month's issue of Glamour.

The National Women's Law Center just released "Don't Take No for an Answer" (PDF), a guide to pharmacy refusals, policies and practices. It's a great resource.

Bush's budget is requesting another $28 million for abstinence-only education.

Cardio-striptease workouts make their way to China.

Why you should only see doctors who are pro-choice.

The politics of sex selection.

Gloria Steinem points out yet again that women won't vote for Hillary just because she's a woman. Also, of course we're ready for a woman president.

Female athletes are at higher risks for developing eating disorders, so a debate is underway over whether their weight should be made public.

Harvard plans to name its first female president.

A Canadian breast cancer organization refused a donation because it came from a group of exotic dancers.

Virginia Postrel on Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty."

This year's New York Fashion Week featured a symposium on eating disorders.

Donatella Versace tells Hillary Clinton to stop wearing trousers and dress more feminine. Now can somebody please advise Donatella to put down the bottle of platinum dye and step away from the tanning bed?

Photo by Kaya Nati

Hanifah Walidah is a hip hop artist, playwright, actor, music video maker, and filmmaker. Her list of accomplishments goes on and on, literally. Here are just a few of them: Her first LP, “A Headnadda’s Journey to Adidi-Skizm� was released in 1994 under the name Sha-Key. In the early 90s she was co-founder of two poet/performance collectives, The Vibe Khamelons and The Boom Poetic, both recognized as groundbreaking for fusing a hip hop approach to traditional beatnik rhythm. In 2002 she wrote and performed her one-woman show “Straight Black Folks Guide to Black Folks.� In 2006 she was the musical director of “What It Iz,� a hip hop/spoken word adaptation of “The Wiz.�

And thankfully, Hanifah is at it again. Hanifah’s new album, “Once Upon It Is� debuted this month. Check out her new song and music video, “Make a Move� on her website. Or better yet, vote to make it #1 on LOGO’s [LGBT-focused channel] “Click List.� It’s the first video that depicts gay women of color in a positive and celebratory light.

Hanifah will also be releasing an accompanying documentary to the video, U People, this June for Pride. The documentary features behind the scenes discussions on the video and a closer look at the women who make up the video. It will be debuting on LOGO.

You can also catch Hanifah on a European tour this spring. Here’s Hanifah…

I'm having a party this weekend at my new place...this was just what I needed to put me in the right frame of mind. Have a good one, kids.

For more of the amazing Salt N' Pepa, click here and here.

Angela King, 68, died this week from of complications from breast cancer. King, a Jamaican diplomat, was a leading advocate for women in the United Nations and was the first special advisor to the Secretary-General on women's advancement.

More at UN Dispatch.

The only appropriate female astronaut.

The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), who is busy busy busy trying to battle campus feminists’ efforts to combat violence against women, hit a new low recently.

A post on the recent charges against Capt. Lisa Nowak bashes women astronauts and makes me wonder, as I often do, how the fuck these women get funding.

Referring to women astronauts as “astronettes,� Charlotte Hays reminisces about the good old days:

Remember when we just had guy astronauts? It would be hard to imagine Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn as a love triangle. Hmmmm. Does this stir any thoughts for those who oppose women on submarines?

You’ve got to love a “women’s� organization that takes such joy in misogyny.

For a look at women in space that doesn't reek of woman-hating, check out this timeline of women astronauts from NPR.

The Hoohah Monologues has been changed back to The Vagina Monologues. Now back to non-cooter related news...

Via Nerve, I discovered the Vagina Institute (NSFW), a site dedicated to informing you of the myriad ways you can feel insecure about yourself -- then encouraging "vagina enhancement."

Feministing fave the Vagina Lady (source of one of Jess's favorite pics ever) stumbled across this website nearly two years ago. She received some seriously angry emails for suggesting that the Institute, while seemingly pro-vag and pro-woman, is really just about the worst thing ever. A front site for a plastic surgeon, maybe? In any case, the Vagina Institute definitely wants you to hate your body (highlights mine - click to enlarge):

The Vagina Lady had an appropriate response:

I bet the semi-literate prick who penned this has something unsightly about his wanker, some deformation of angle or curvature, the pulsing flaw of a too-prominent vein, an offensive variation in skin tone, an asymmetricality of the glans, perhaps simply an inadequacy of size… or perhaps just the dull ache of an unsatisfied penis, and the empty blackness in his heart, made all the more prominent by his long lonely nights when none of his vagina models would go home with him, not even one with labial deformation.

Well said. If all the Institute's vag-hating depressed you as much as it did me, cheer up by checking out photos of the Vagina Lady's roadtrip. Or buy yourself something nice.

UPDATE: It looks likely the Institute is selling books and info about DIY "vagina enhancement", not actual surgery -- kind of like the female equivalent of penis enhancement spam. Gross.

You gotsta love a headline like that. Gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn't it?

A former youth pastor was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a teenager and her fetus in what is believed to be the first such order in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Adrian Estrada, 23, was convicted Friday of one count of capital murder for the death of Stephanie Sanchez and the fetus, of which he was the father.

"This is a significant case," said Bexar County prosecutor Susan Reed. "This is significant for the state."

A 2003 Texas law amended the definition of the word "individual" to include an "unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth."

The death sentence is Texas' first in the death of a fetus, said Dave Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which monitors capital cases.

Sanchez, who was 17 years-old, was three months pregnant when she was killed. I'm all for punishing murderers, but instead of using this woman's death as a political tool for anti-choice nonsense, how about folks start talking about why murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told students this week that the high court will eventually have an equal amount of women justices. You know, after you're dead.

Alito, who replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when he was confirmed last year, was answering a student's question on why the court has just one woman — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Alito noted most law schools today have enrollments of at least 50 percent women, and that a greater number of women lawyers and judges will advance to higher courts within a generation.

"You don't get there when you're young," he said. "There's a considerable amount of lag time."

So no worries, little ladies. Just be patient. Cause that's worked so well in the past.

If I look at this picture for too long, I'm pretty sure I'll get spontaneously knocked up.

Pic from jessie_shagena.

The Guardian has an interesting piece up about how beauty pageants "are being crushed by their own internal contradiction, that the women involved should look sexually available at all times, but never actually be sexually active." (Vanessa has already written a great post on the subject.)

Bonus: The article quotes one of our favorite "prominent young US feminists," Jess.

NOT a hoohah.

Oh how I wish this one was a joke.

A theater in Atlantic Beach, Florida changed the name of The Vagina Monologues on its marquee after a complaint that the title was offensive.

"We got a complaint about this play The Vagina Monologues," said Bryce Pfanenstiel, of the Atlantic Theater.

The Hoohah Monologues is a replacement title for The Vagina Monologues -- a well-known play about that part of the female body.

"We decided we would just use child slang for it. That's how we decided on Hoohah Monologues," Pfanenstiel said.

They did this after a driver who saw it complained to the theater, saying she was upset that her niece saw it.

"I'm on the phone and asked 'What did you tell her?' She's like, 'I'm offended I had to answer the question,'" Pfanenstiel said.

Yeah, jeez, how offensive it is to have to explain what a vagina is. Just a thought—if this woman’s niece is old enough to ask about the marquee, than perhaps it’s time she knows what a vagina is.

What shocks me is that this kind disgust surrounding women and female anatomy is exactly what the play takes on! Isn’t it ironic? Dontcha think?

I wonder if Eve Ensler knows about this…

Check out video news coverage of the story here.

Good news!

Here are the official statements from Edwards, Amanda, and Melissa.

Sweet. A new report says that more than 90 percent of women between 15 and 24 years-old think emergency contraception, or the “morning after pill,� is safe and effective.

To evaluate the acceptability of emergency contraception among young women, Dr. Corinne H. Rocca, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues analyzed survey data from 1,950 women who participated in a study that evaluated access to emergency contraception through advance provision, pharmacies or clinics.

The results show that 92 percent of the women believed emergency contraception to be safe and 98 percent considered it effective, according to the report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study also showed that accessibility to EC influenced whether the drug was used promptly. EC is more effective the sooner you take it, so obviously access is kind of a huge deal. (Tell that to asshole pharmacists.)

Here’s some great news for you.

The biggest sexual discrimination case in U.S. history advanced against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday when a top court ruled that more than a million women could join a suit charging bias in pay and promotions.

The plaintiffs estimate they could win billions of dollars in lost pay and damages and that as many as two million women who have worked for Wal-Mart in its U.S. stores since 1998 could join a class-action lawsuit.

Hot damn that makes my day.

Related: Liza Featherstone's Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Worker's Rights at Wal-Mart

I just lurve women that call themselves things like “equality feminists.� Or “conservative feminists.� These are ladies who doth protest a bit too much about how they trust and respect women—all while bashing the hell out of them. (Or as the ever-brilliant Ms. Marcotte said recently, “’equality feminists’ are for equality if you think ‘equality’ is synonymous with ‘looks good with the boot on her neck.’�)

Case in point, Bridget Johnson.

Johnson has a whole article dedicated to the idea that folks who are excited about the possibility of a woman president are the sexist ones. You see, unlike holier-than-thou Johnson, feminists who support women candidates actually don’t trust women’s capabilities.

It doesn't make me feel personally empowered that Pelosi is the first woman speaker of the House or Clinton is running for president; I already knew women were capable of as much.

Well that’s lovely. And while I think most would agree with Johnson when she later says women candidates shouldn’t be supported just by virtue of having ovaries, the first few paragraphs of her article make it difficult to take her seriously.

Check out her description of a women’s studies class she took:

It was every bit the granola-breath nightmare I'd been warned about by fraternity guys. The teacher, not the most feminine-looking lady, wore woolly stockings with comfortable loafers; her intellectual husband lived on another continent. In step with the greatest bra-burning stereotypes, the star student was a girl who always wore shorts and never shaved her legs. And since we had to arrange our desks in a circle in order to foster our sense of community, we were forced to look at this teacher's pet as she expounded on the subject of oppressive men. The dearth of cute male eye candy in the class was tragic, but the guys who had no choice but to fulfill the graduation requirement sat slumped in their seats like they'd rather be playing Russian roulette.

I think that’s the most feminist stereotypes I’ve seen in one paragraph ever. But seriously, something tells me that Johnson is still desperately trying to please “fraternity guys� by bashing women—hence her gig at the National Review.

Nothing disgusts me more than someone who sells out other women for little more than a pat on the head from the guys.

That’s all…I just needed to rant this morning.

My co-worker triumphantly informed me earlier today that our employer's insurance plan will cover the cost of HPV vaccination. We both agreed to call and set up appointments... and then she was told the vaccine is sold out at every CVS pharmacy in the Washington, D.C. area.

Has this happened to anyone else? This was a reported problem back when the shot was first made available, but I guess I was under the impression it was readily available now. Nope, sold out! Proof that there are a LOT of sluts out there who want to have sex without the risk of dying of cancer.

Also, my co-worker's gyno told her that the vaccine (were it actually in stock) would be administered by a pharmacist, at the pharmacy -- not by the doctor. This is the first I've heard that, but I guess it makes sense. They give flu shots at the mall and in offices, etc. Just seemed kind of weird to me to go get a shot at CVS.

I'm speechless.

Check out Condi after the jump.

Although its members are indeed Catholic, Bill Donohue's extremist group is not synonymous with "Catholics." So it's, uh, more than a little misleading to write a headline implying that a large religious group is pissed off that Edwards hired Shakes and Amanda.

Writes the NYT:

Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

The fact that the Edwards campaign appears to be taking Donohue seriously is an indication that currying favor with an extremist conservative group is more important to them than standing by their own staffers. Ugh.

"John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots," Donohue wrote in a statement. "He has no choice but to fire them immediately."

Actually, he already made his choice -- to hire them -- and he should stick with it. If he finds Donohue's opinions so persuasive he should have hired the Catholic League's blogger.

More from Shakes, Zuzu, Brad, Evan, Liza, Sheelzebub, Glenn Greenwald, and pretty much everyone else.

UPDATE: Say it ain't so.

Shocking, I know. Women of color and poor women know less about heart disease, according to a study out by the American Heart Association. They also have less access to education and health care, so I would imagine those factors would have something to do with it.

The new survey, published in the January/February issue of the Journal of Women's Health, highlighted several trends:

* Overall, women's awareness that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death has almost doubled over the past decade (57 percent vs. 30 percent).

* The disparity in awareness of heart disease among black and Hispanic women (31 percent and 29 percent, respectively) compared to white women (68 percent) had not changed in the past decade.

* Women know more about the risks and symptoms of heart disease than of stroke.

* Many women are unclear about the best ways to prevent CVD, such as the role of aspirin, hormones and supplements in prevention or the best diet for heart health.

Via Healthy Day News.

Although, the overall rate of women's mortality from heart disease has gone down.

Step left, step right.

Dan Riehl, the classy blogger who argued that Amanda wasn't hot enough to blog for Edwards, is trying to make amends for his dumb post. By writing a dumber one.

You see, Riehl assures readers that he wouldn't "throw" Amanda--or me, it seems--out of bed. Way to prove you're not a misogynist, Dan!

Oh and also, apparently I probably suck in bed because of that pesky Masters degree in Women's Studies. Yeah.

Via Feministe.

I watched Veronica Mars (for the first time ever), because I read about how tonight's episode, titled "There's Got to Be a Morning-After Pill," was supposedly about how a woman miscarried after someone slipped her EC. The CW network's promotional material said:

Veronica is hired by Bonnie, a promiscuous classmate, to find out who secretly slipped her the morning after pill, causing her to have a miscarriage.

Well, that's not quite how it went. While the title of the episode and the promotional language conflate morning-after contraception with medication abortion (RU486), it's only called "RU486" in the actual show. But that doesn't mean the scriptwriters got all of the reproductive health details right. Far from it.

The "promiscuous classmate" in question (apparently "sexually active" = "promiscuous"), Bonnie, tells Veronica, "I got pregnant and someone slipped me RU486. It caused a miscarriage, and I want you to find out who it was." Bonnie says she developed a rash and her hands and feet felt numb, so she went to a doctor, who told her that the rash and numbness were an allergic reaction to RU486. This is how she knows she was slipped RU486, which apparently caused the miscarriage.

This is SO frustrating. First of all, it seems unlikely that she could have miscarried if she was given RU-486 (mifepristone) alone. While mifepristone ends a pregnancy, you need to take four misoprostol pills, either orally or vaginally, to expel the contents of the uterus. Health professionals, please correct me if I'm wrong. But as far as I understand, it's unlikely that she could have taken only RU486 and completely miscarried without getting sick or needing to see a doctor to complete the abortion.

Suspecting that Bonnie's boyfriend slipped her the pill, Veronica goes to the local clinic to see if that's where he could have obtained the RU486. She questions the doctor:

Veronica: Is there any scenario in which a guy could come in and say it was for his wife or girlfriend?
Doctor: Not on my watch.
Veronica: Is it possible for a girl to palm it or hide it under her tongue?
Doctor: It's possible.

Near the end of the episode, it's revealed that Bonnie's roommate is the one who slipped her the RU486. The roommate supposedly went to a clinic, told them she was pregnant and wanted a medication abortion, then pretended to take the pill -- which she later slipped to Bonnie.

Except for the tiny detail that clinics will not administer RU486 to any woman who has not had a pregnancy test and an ultrasound. They don't just hand this stuff over to any woman who asks. In real life, in order to procure RU486 and then give it to another woman, Bonnie's roommate would have had to be pregnant herself.

I realize it's just a crappy TV show. But this is the sort of propaganda the antis love to spread about abortion providers -- that they are so careless in their provision of abortion that any woman can waltz into a clinic, simply tell them she's pregnant, and walk out with RU486 in her pocket.

Despite these errors, the show takes a few nice jabs at anti-abortion extremists. In the episode, a conservative Christian group has a photographer stationed across the street from the women's health clinic who takes pictures of every woman that enters. They get a shot of Veronica, who has gone there to interview the doctor, and they mail the picture of her father. As Veronica says, "I can't believe these people. They sit on top of a building with a telephoto lens and take pictures of people in their most private moments? That's disgusting." Nicely put. She also says the anti-abortion group's tagline should be, "Harassing Women in Crisis since 1973."

The final touch? A major advertising sponsor of the episode was First Response pregnancy tests.

we didn't know already?

Enlighten me.

Need I say anything else? This is my girl, locally/self produced, diva songstress and aspiring film-maker. Just wanted to share.

Writer-filmmaker, Single Beige Female, human alter ego of extraterrestrial singer-songwriter-conceptual
designer, micropixie has made a cool "micro-fillum" on nationality, citizenship and skin colour called "My Beige Foot"which was recently screened at the 2006 Third I International South Asian Film Festival.

Check it.

And she is making more of them. . .

Colorado is considering legislation that would make sure EC is available to rape victims in emergency rooms. During debate on the issue, Republican state Sen. David Schultheis asked:

...how doctors "determine that a person actually did incur that sexual assault. Are they going to take the word of that individual? You could see individuals coming in that just wanted to make sure that last night's stand didn't result in a pregnancy and basically say that they had been a sexual assault" to get the contraceptive.

Wow. Maybe, just maybe, our pal David is aware of how hard it can be to obtain EC, with pharmacist refusals and stores failing to stock it? ...Mmmmm, no. Don't think so. I'm going to go with a winning combo of ignorance and misogyny on this one.

The sponsor, Sen. Betty Boyd, told Schultheis to "have more confidence in the integrity of a woman that she's going to be truthful." A shocked Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D- Longmont, scolded Schultheis, saying, "I think the suggestion that a person is going to feign being raped in order to get emergency contraception is mildly insulting ... more than mildly."

I'll say.

A group of (pro-)gay-marriage activists are pushing a ballot measure in Washington that would only grant marriage licenses to hetero couples who say they are willing to have children. And if those married couples fail to pop a few out by the time three years have passed, the state would automatically dissolve their marriage.

Gregory Gadow, of the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, said the group hopes to make a point by parodying a state Supreme Court ruling last year that denied gays the right to marry because, among other reasons, such unions don't further the purpose of procreation.

The group even has a sweet anti-gay name! This is a great rhetorical argument against the point of view that the primary purpose of marriage is to create children, therefore gay couples shouldn't be granted the right. From the group's website:

Absurd? Very. But there is a rational basis for this absurdity. By floating the initiatives, we hope to prompt discussion about the many misguided assumptions which make up the Andersen ruling. By getting the initiatives passed, we hope the Supreme Court will strike them down as unconstitutional and thus weaken Andersen itself. And at the very least, it should be good fun to see the social conservatives who have long screamed that marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation be forced to choke on their own rhetoric.

Most gay-rights supporters in the state say they're unlikely to support the parody measure, saying "I don't think anybody in the gay community wants to take someone else's rights away." They may be taking it a little seriously, but who can blame them? While I, as someone strongly pro-gay-rights, understand it's a PR move to expose the lunacy of the anti-gay crowd, it also lends credence to the classic hetero-marriage-only argument that granting gay people the right somehow "reduces" the rights of straight people. (Hence all the conservative talk of "protecting marriage.") The antis don't really have a sense of humor, and I can see them trotting this out as proof that gay men and lesbians really do want to take away YOUR rights as a good, upstanding, heterosexual Christian citizen.

But the gay-marriage group shouldn't despair. If they're lacking signatures on this initiative, they can always hit up conservative Catholics. The ballot measure seems perfectly aligned with church doctrine.

(Thanks for the link, Darin!)

The fact that this lubricant ad looks like a nightmare I had once about the gynecologist, or the idea that having cars drive through your empty-space vagina is somehow supposed to be arousing.

Via Talkabout Design.

More guest posts from NAPW panelists! Priscilla Huang is Project Director of the Reproductive Justice Program and the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellow at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

Immigrants have become the new scapegoat lately for everything from budget shortfalls to taking Toys ‘R Us prize money away from “real� Americans. As a result, immigrant women of childbearing age are increasingly becoming the target of unjust immigration reform policies. Under our current citizenship laws, persons born on U.S. soil are automatically considered U.S. citizens. But anti-immigrant groups such as the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) believe immigrant mothers are to blame for the country’s so-called “illegal immigration crisis.�

Groups like FAIR think immigrant women enter the U.S. solely to give birth to “anchor babies� –kids that are automatically eligible for various public benefits and who, upon reaching the age of 21, can permanently anchor the family in the U.S. by sponsoring the immigration of other relatives. Immigrant mothers and their anchor babies are seen as financial vortexes that drain the U.S. of its social welfare funds despite the fact that tons of studies have shown over and over again that immigrants access these services at disproportionately lower rates than U.S. born citizens. (BTW- Is anyone else seeing parallels with the ‘welfare queen’ image—you know, the lazy, single black mother who breeds children just to fatten up her welfare check—that was touted by the Clinton administration to justify the passage of the 1996 welfare reform act?)

Unfortunately, Congress is listening to these anti-immigrant groups and proposals to change our birth citizenship laws have already been introduced. There have also been reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are targeting pregnant immigrant women for deportation. One woman, an immigrant from China who had lived in the U.S. for 11 years, miscarried her twins after ICE officials shoved her into a van during a routine interview and drove her to JFK airport for immediate deportation.

Feb 6th, 2007
Wendy-O Matik
Radical Love and Relationship Workshop

At a time when our nation is determined to keep us on the warpath, what better time to raise our voices against intolerance, hatred, and violence? At a time when our government propels us into a new dark age of fascism, what better time to talk about radical love, or the right to love who we want, how we want, and as many as we want? Loving openly and freely in these times, whether you are straight or queer, is a brave political act. We have been conditioned by outdated social norms that limit our perceptions and shackle us to unhealthy cycles of dissatisfying relationships. Yet we also live in a time when we can choose our gender and redefine our sexual identities. Don't we then have the right to decide what kind of relationship best suits our lifestyle? Declare yourself a revolutionary of the heart. Find out how you can expand your potential to love, transform your lifestyle, and together we can threaten the social forces of patriarchy!

This looked interesting to me. I have actually tried polyamory and sheeeet it is complicated. But I support any attempt at fighting heternormativity as long as it is healthy and constructive. Other stories from the field?

More info on the workshop here.

Anti-war feminists in Austin, Texas. Swoon. I also love this one.

Pic from feministforpeace.

Newsweek has a piece out, "Girls Gone Bad," on young female celebrities who may be turning our young girls into "prosti-tots." No, I'm not kidding. "Prosti-tots."

Specifically, the article uses teen idols like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton as examples of these immoral lifestyles of debauchery that will lead girls to having sex at an early age and "partying" (excessive drugs and alcohol) like their admirees.

Honestly, I found the entire piece to come off as very confusing. For example, while it notes that the average age for (heterosexual) sex among women is still 17 (showing that sex trends have stayed pretty much the same) they begin the stat with, "Sex surveys are notoriously unreliable, but..."

I stopped taking the article seriously when the discussion seemed to shift towards Dan Kindlon's Alpha Girls which contends that, "Girls born after 1990 live in a world where they have ready access to organized sports, safe contraception and Ivy League colleges." HA!

The history of scrutiny that famous women have been subjected to due to their "immoral behavior" such as dating/marrying multiple men (or any other behavior which male stars do as well but are barely acknowledged) was discussed, but there was no analysis of these findings or merely a "WTF?"

Now does this mean I think Paris Hilton is an adequate role model for girls? Helllll no. The thought sort of disturbs me, particularly the class issues involved with so many girls' obsession with Paris and Prada. (Which the article does touch on.) But I still have a wee problem with an article that denies gender issues exist but can discuss the moral issues involved with teen girls having a sexual identity.

In short, any piece that seriously uses the terms "the Brit Pack," "Alpha Girls" and "Prosti-tots" is a bad sign.

I never really looked to Miss World 1996 and well-known actress Aishwarya Rai for feminist leadership. I mean, she was "the one" South Asian woman to break into the US mainstream and although, I can't relate to her as much as say Harold and Kumar or Parminder Nagra, I took her success for what it was. Clearly, recognizing that for an actress from India to (begin to) make it in Hollywood (and Bollywood), she would naturally have light skin, light eyes and flowing hair.

But now she has Indian feminists upset along with women's activist in the states by supposedly marrying a tree to overcome a curse, after being proposed to by another Bollywood actor.

Via New American Media.

Abhishek, also a film star, proposed to her last month in New York, following the release of their film, “Guru,� there. The wedding is expected to take place later this year.

But Ash is reportedly blighted with what in astrological terms is described as “manglik dosh,� which means that the planet Mars (mangla) and possibly even the planet Saturn are in the seventh house. People with manglik dosh are prone to multiple marriages, according to San Francisco Bay Area Vedic astrologer Pandit Parashar. That means Ash’s marriage to Abhishek could either end in divorce or his death.

Multiple marriages? Imagine the blasphemy! No but really, we all read a little astrology no? (I read a lot.)

In Hindu tradition, in order to offset the evil influence of manglik dosh, a woman should marry a peepal or banana tree before she ties the knot with her fiancé. Or she could even marry a clay urn, which should be broken soon after the nuptial ceremonies, signifying that the bride has become a widow, and the manglik dosh problem has been solved.

Er. Yes it is an old tradition. So the question is, do we expect that Rai, since she has had all this Western success, will no longer follow what she believes is her Hindu traditions? Or that she is somehow absolved from familial pressure?

Probably not. Some Indian feminists however believe that she is setting women back.

Meanwhile, Ash’s actions have invoked the wrath of feminists and women’s rights activists in India. Shruti Singh, a Patna lawyer, filed suit against the two families, saying such ceremonies are in violation of the Indian Constitution and offensive to women.

“I agree with her,� says India-born Berkeley resident Shobha Hiatt, a women’s rights advocate. “It is shocking that people as forward thinking as the Bachchans should engage in such archaic practices. It is like moving back in time.�

Thoughts?

Republican Governor Rick Perry issued an order last week requiring girls entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.

Good shit. Amanda points out that the media coverage Perry is getting seems to infer that his support for the vaccine is at odds with his pro-lifery. I guess Perry isn’t a good Christian conservative unless he’s in the better-cancer-than-sex camp.

South Carolina also has a bill requiring the vaccine for 12 year-old girls, but the state’s Silver Ring Thing is arguing that (what else) the vaccination will make girls whorey. By the way, this is the organization that had its federal funding taken away because of their penchant for pushing religious messages in their abstinence-only curriculum.

Make sure to get the DVD, I watch it constantly.

For Super Bowl Sunday yesterday, Susanna Gagnier pitched her new book titled Putting on the Blitz: The Football Book for Women, which seems more like advice on how to impress men rather than actually learn the ins and outs of the sport.

It includes ways to make watching football “romantic,� and claims that knowing about football will create a serious bond between your man and yourself. (Given that you’re straight and that he actually likes football.) Single? You’ll better understand how the “big tough male psyche� works and land yourself a man!

One thing I found interesting was her contention that football allows men to actually step out of their gender role rather than breed what some believe is a hyperaggressive, heteronormative masculinity:

In fact, Suzanna reports that research studies have found that although society requests men to be tough and emotionally unexpressive, one of the few places a guy can express his emotions is during a football game.

‘Yes, it's true,’ she says, ‘on the football field and when watching a football game, men can hug, and dance, they can cheer and jump for joy, and even cry tears of sadness. It's remarkable to watch. It turns out, during a football game, whether a man is playing the game, watching it from the stands, or watching it in his own living room, men are free to express every emotion possible.’

So now it’s a safe haven for masculine-free behavior? I dunno about that. Thoughts?

The evolution of the mammalian vagina.

The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls rocks on.

Connecticut rape victims still aren't getting EC.

A new book blames women for failing to have satisfying sex lives.

What is being hyped as the "definitive abortion documentary" recently premiered.

Victims of domestic abuse have significantly more health problems than other women, even long after the abuse has stopped.

The truth about fetuses.

A Florida Catholic women's groupus is pushing tampon makers to include an anti-trafficking hotline on their packaging.

The South Dakota House approved a bill requiring women seeking abortions be shown ultrasounds. It's sponsored by Rep. Roger Hunt, who is in trouble for shielding the identity of the largest contributor to last year's abortion ban effort.

Joe Biden: "We are all in love with the idea of a black or woman president. I never thought I would live to see the day. But their support is thin, even if it is widespread."

Tina Fey brings the awesome on her new show 30 Rock.

Why Kate Michelman is supporting John Edwards in '08.

Midwives are speaking out about the increased number of C-sections being performed in America.

Why wizarding school should include sex ed.

It's lonely being the only woman on the Supreme Court.

How the western media and conservative Islam ignore Islamic feminism.

Sara at F-Words on why HPV vaccination is necessary for herd immunity.

Remembering Molly Ivins.

More cheerleaders gone wild! The mainstream media (especially Newsweek) just can't get enough.

And in related news, schools are hosting programs to reform "mean girls."

A reading by pro-choice author Krista Jacobs at an Iowa bookstore was cancelled after the store received threats about the event.

Sarah Silverman's got her own TV show. Makes me wish I had cable...

Wyoming rejects a 24-hour waiting period for abortions. And the crack journalists over at LifeNews covered the Wyoming legislation by... quoting themselves extensively.

ABC News says the 2008 Democratic presidential contenders are pretty quiet on choice issues.

Pauline Park was the first openly transgendered person to be grand marshal of the New York City Pride March in June 2005. Currently, she is an active chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA). Its mission: “to advocate for freedom of gender identity and expression for all.�

Pauline also blogs regularly at www.bigqueer.com.

I caught up with Pauline on the phone and over email. Here’s Pauline…

Many of my girlfriends have joked that when they have kids, they're going to instruct their little tykes, "Now fetch mommy a cocktail!"

Well, the Today Show wasn't kidding around when they put together this "trend" piece more or less alleging that mothers who have a glass of wine while their kids are playing nearby are bad caretakers. The story implies they don't just drink, they get drunk: "There are safety issues to consider. Who would drive to the hospital if a child were hurt?" (Um, don't know about this reporter, but I can have a glass of wine and still be under the legal blood-alcohol limit, perfectly fine to drive or watch children.)

One of the women featured in the "momtini" story recounts her experience with NBC, exposing how the TV reporters framed the story. The producers' goal: Portray desperate moms who opt out of the workforce and opt in to alcoholism!!! Psst-- Who's watching the kids??

In the beginning they wanted to come and film my playgroup for the piece. Since our kids are now all in school full time, we don't have a weekly playgroup anymore so this was problematic. I suggested a more 'happy hour' gathering where we'd meet after school and our husband's would swing by after work for our usual family pizza night. Alicia [the NBC producer] said the mixing of dads would 'taint' the story (Read: "Make the subject more palatable because men keep their women in line and they have an auxiliary liver in their penises.") So I told Alicia it just wasn't going to work out.

But she ended up appearing on the portion of the segment that was taped in the studio, and basically asked to defend alcoholic moms rather than those who sip a single drink during a playdate.

Mommybloggers have been up in arms over this, and rightly so. At least they're keeping their senses of humor...

I happen to know that I'm more fun when I'm one-sheet-to-the-wind. And I give a damn good impromptu puppet show.

At least the Today show will be allowing some of the mothers to respond.

Via.

Good for her.

I loves me some good news before the weekend. Nazanin Fatehi, who was sentenced to hang for killing man who was trying to rape her and her niece, was released this week after two years in prison.

Emotions ran high at the entrance gate of Evin prison, where 19-year-old Nazanin Fatehi was greeted by supporters and reunited with her family. Nazanin had a very emotional reunion with her family members. She could not believe that this day had arrived. She cried in her mother's arms and embraced her siblings and father. After she finished greeting her family, Nazanin's lawyer, Mr. Mostafaei, said that she told him that she now wants to go to school and study hard to get her life back.

Most of the bail was raised by HelpNazanin.com, a site created by human rights activist (and former Miss Canada) Nazanin Afshin-Jam.

This is, well, just horrible.

Two Kansas City police officers repeatedly ignored a pregnant woman’s claims that she was bleeding and needed medical help, a police videotape released today shows.

Sofia Salva told officers nine different times during the first five minutes of the stop that she was bleeding or wanted to go to a hospital. After the ninth request, a female officer asked: “How is that my problem?�

Salva requested help at least 12 more times during the 30-minute encounter nearly a year ago. The officers arrested her for traffic violations, including a fake temporary license tag, and outstanding city warrants.

The next morning, after finally being released, she delivered a premature baby boy who lived one minute, according to a lawsuit Salva filed Friday.

The two police officers have been suspended indefinitely with pay; Salva is suing for wrongful death. That first link has the video--I can't bring myself to watch it.

In the comments to yesterday's post about HPV vaccination, ForbiddenComma pointed out that HPV is also linked to cancer of the PENIS.

Talk about a compelling argument for universal vaccination! I'm calling my legislators with this important information right now. If we can get the word out, the mandatory vaccination bill is sure to pass with flying colors... and full funding.

Nothing funny to say, really...I just love this.

Pic from Pink Sushi.

Because patient rights don’t exist if you got yourself knocked up—duh.

…in addition to a woman's age, race and marital status — which the state health department already collects — it would mandate that doctors collect and report information such as the reason for the abortion, who referred the woman to the clinic, the weight of the aborted fetus and other intimate personal information about the woman.

The bill could also mandate that a report be filed when a woman uses emergency contraception.

Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona, says the bill “singles out a single medical procedure and imposes some incredibly onerous and burdensome requirements.� Of course it does—that’s the point.

Via.

Artist Ming Yi Sung is showing her awesome nudie knitted art at the Nevin Kelly Gallery here in D.C. (Details below the fold, for those of you in the area. But you've gotta act fast! The exhibit closes at 8pm tomorrow...) A great example of "recasting traditional “women’s work� for the post-riotgrrrl era." Her stuff is awesome.

In 2005 when Sung exhibited her art in an office building, she was asked to cover up the knitted titties and crocheted cooches. Happily, there seems to have been no opposition this time around.

It's also a good time to plug the "Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting" exhibit going on now at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. (Again, details below the fold.)

I've got a piece up at TAP today about why states should follow the CDC's recommendation and make the HPV vaccine mandatory for all sixth-grade girls. Here's the deal: HPV-related cervical cancer is a disease that usually only proves deadly if it isn't caught early. So women who get regular pap smears are likely to receive early treatment and survive the disease. But lower-income women are more likely to be out of contact with regular reproductive health care, and are much more likely to die from cervical cancer.

This is a really expensive vaccine. So how do we make sure that everyone -- not only wealthier girls -- receives it? Mandatory vaccination. At least 15 states and D.C. are currently considering compulsory vaccination legislation, but only a few of those have introduced companion bills that would allocate funding or ensure the vaccine is covered by state health insurance plans.

If you want to make sure that ALL women have access to this potentially life-saving vaccine, ask your state legislature to approve mandatory vaccination AND allocate funding so that lower-income women can get the vaccine.

And what great timing! Today World Net Daily continues to bring the crazy with this column from Jill "abortion providers eat fetuses!" Stanek: "There is only one good reason a virtuous young woman should consider getting the HPV vaccination. That is if the man she plans to marry has had sex with other women, meaning he could be infected with HPV or an array of other STDs. I don't know why a virtuous young woman would want to marry such a man, but there you go." The rest of you dirty sluts deserve to die of cervical cancer! (Of course, this argument is nothing new... )

In totally unrelated (but hilarious) WND news...

Here's some not-so-hot news.

A trial testing the effectiveness of microbicides in preventing HIV in women has been stopped because of a higher number of infections among women taking the microbicide cellulose sulfate compared with those in the placebo group.

Get the full story at UN Dispatch.

Contributed by Courtney Martin.

You’ve heard the hype—working women without kids resent moms who bail out of meetings early to see their kids’ soccer games, older women are disappointed in younger women “opting out� of the workforce so they can stay home and get manicures and bake cookies they won’t eat, welfare queens sap good hard-working people’s taxes instead of getting a job. It is all, of course, rooted in –isms (sexism, racism classism, ageism) and all serious bullshit.

Such was the message, in not so many words, from a gathering of activists and journalists at the Women’s Media Center yesterday who are launching a campaign to stop all the hyperbolic reporting that is so often plastered on the covers of major news magazines. Instead of creating catfights out of thin air, this crew who call themselves the “mother’s movement� argues, why doesn’t the media actually devote some airtime and copy to talking about this country’s pathetic track record in terms of work/family policy? Unlike bickering women, the unrest associated with inadequate health care coverage, social security losses, meager parental leave policy, and inflexible workplaces is very real. (For example, the U.S. is one of only five countries in the world that doesn’t require paid maternity leave. The others are Australia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea. WHAT?)

Learn more by going to some of the sites of the organizations represented: The MOTHERS Initiative, The National Association of Mothers’ Centers, Momsrising, The Mothers Movement Online.

A note: I asked a question about the presence of men in the movement. Shouldn’t this be a “parents movement� instead of a “mother’s movement�? The answers ranged, but I boil them down to this: men haven’t been doing this work historically and they’re not doing this work now. I can’t help thinking that they won’t until we EXPECT them too—classic tyranny of low expectations. I can attest that the young men I know are really into the idea of being present fathers without insane work schedules. Thoughts?

Landmark Legal Foundation Nominates Rush Limbaugh for 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Seriously.

A reader sent me a link to this story, and the quotes were just priceless.

A 72 year-old New York man accused of stabbing his wife to death testified yesterday. He's claiming self-defense--that his wife stabbed him first as they were arguing over a separation agreement. The prosecution argues that he killed his wife because she wanted to divorce him (and that there was a history of abuse), and that he then turned the knife on himself.

But it's his explanation of how she went "crazy" that really got me:

She never allowed him to return to her bed, he said, and she rebuffed his advances, even when he brought her flowers.

Although he cooked, she refused to pick up his plate after dinner, complaining, “I’m not your maid.�

“I’m telling you, this was the house of hell,� he said.

I mean seriously, can you imagine the horror of having to clean your own plate and not having sex on demand? Clearly, a good stabbing was in order. Ugh.

Give our newest Feministing editor Jen a big old Happy Birthday shout out, cause today she's all old like me. And by old I mean super fabulous, of course.

For those of you who don't know Jen, I think she can be described in three words: smart-ass, drinky, Buffy.

Happy 28th, my dear!

Molly Ivins, the bad-ass columnist from Texas, died yesterday after a battle with breast cancer.

From her obit in the Dallas Morning News:

The 62-year-old writer was a rare commodity in Texas – a liberal – who wrote a twice-weekly column that appeared in at least 300 newspapers. Based in Austin, her commentary appeared in national magazines from Harper's to Playboy, and her Texas drawl was heard parsing events on shows ranging from 60 Minutes to The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.

She did not confine her humorous skewering to Republicans. She aimed it at wherever she perceived pomposity or wrongdoing.

Of the Gore-Bush presidential race in 2000 she said, "It's like having Ted Baxter of the old 'Mary Tyler Moore' show running for president: Gore has Ted's manner and Bush has his brain."

Of ultraconservative U.S. Rep. Jim Collins, R-Dallas, in the early 1980s, she said: "If his IQ slips any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day."

Sigh, so awesome. In a world where smarts and humor aren't always appreciated in women, Ivins was a hero to many. Me included.

If want to see Ivins in action--check out this video with her talking about Texas' ban on sex toys.

Also, NPR has a segment on the columnist; listen here.

Sex trafficking is indeed no joke, and when I read stories like this I can only cringe.

She was sold to a brothel by her parents when she was 5. It is not known how much her family got for Srey, but other girls talk of being sold for $100; one was sold for $10. Before she was rescued, Srey endured months of abuse at the hands of pimps and sex tourists. Passed from man to man, often drugged to make her compliant, Srey was a commodity at the heart of a massive, multimillion-dollar sex industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"It is huge," said Mu Sochua, a former minister of women's and veteran's affairs who is an anti-sex trade activist.

The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations -- such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children -- say that anywhere from from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say.

Words that come to mind: economic imperialism, slavery, racism, sexism, abuse, pedophilia. . .