December 2007 Archives

If you want to buy one (they're $10 each), please click on the donate button and put "Magnet" in the subject line...don't worry, we'll have an easier payment method in the new year.

Have a great night everyone, and happy-almost-New Year!

The New York Times reports today on a Mexico City policy that mandates children born in prison stay with their mothers until they're 6 years-old--rather than being raised by relatives or foster parents.

Fifty-three children under the age of 6 live inside the prison with their mothers, who are serving sentences for crimes from drug dealing to kidnapping to homicide. Mothers dressed in prison blue, many with tattoos, carry babies on their hips around the exercise yard. Others lead toddlers and kindergartners by the hand, play with them in the dust or bounce them on their knees on prison benches.

...A debate continues among Mexican academics over whether spending one’s early years in a jail causes mental problems later in life, but for the moment the law says babies must stay with their mothers. So the prison has a school with three teachers.

This is a hard one. I cringe at the idea of children being taken away from their mothers, but I also doubt that a prison is the healthiest place for a child. Women who lack the financial resources to care for their kids in prison say that their children are often sick because of the poor condition of the cells and can't afford to buy the prescriptions given to them. I'm especially wary when there are women who want their children raised elsewhere.

Ms. Rendón, however, said she sometimes wished she could give her daughter to relatives to raise. No one gives her money, so she makes a living selling snacks to visitors. Her child is delicate and gets sick frequently with chest colds, she said. She said she considered the prison food unhealthy, so she buys food for the girl from a grocery store the prison allows to operate inside its walls...“I think the best thing for my daughter would be for her to be outside with her grandmother,� [she] said.

For more information on women in prison (in the U.S.) check out the Women's Prison Association. For organizations that work with women in Mexico, look to MADRE and Amnesty International.

Monty was very happy to be home after spending a week in the country (Woodstock muddiness above), especially since he got to play with his bestest friend Phoebe the Pug. Check out their reunion after the jump. Also making a cameo after the jump is Teddy, who kept me company while I was in Santa Rosa over the holidays.

The oh-so-enlightened show Wife Swap is featuring a "fanatical feminist" (cue scary music) in their season premiere.

Dahlia Lithwick has the Bush administration's 10 dumbest legal arguments of the year.

ColorLines conducted a national investigation of fatal police shootings in America’s 10 largest cities. The findings will probably not surprise you.

Rebecca Traister recounts the year in sex.

Sudy delves into the not-always-pleasant world of feminist blog comments.

The New York Times Magazine's latest is the "The Lives They Lived" issue. If anything, read it for the piece on blogger Steve Gilliard who passed away this year.

And Hoyden About Town is collecting nominations for the best feminist blog posts of the year...go put your two cents in before tomorrow's deadline.

Cara points us to this great anti-rape campaign from several years back which was put out by Peace Over Violence. Like Cara, my only criticism would be that most of the ads seem to feature white women, but the messages are right on point.

Check out a few more below the jump and on the site.

Katha Pollitt asks WTF is up at the New York Times.

What the word "Latina" means online.

Is the Pill going over-the-counter in the UK?

Yet another report confirms that even minimal sex ed is better than abstinence-only.

The man accused of slipping his girlfriend the abortion pill against her will has jumped bond.

Students protest the birth control price hike.

Police arrested two men in connection with the Albuquerque clinic arson. One of the men reportedly wanted to burn down the clinic because his girlfriend had scheduled an abortion there.

A woman is threatened with discharge from the Air Force for wearing her hair in cornrows.

Womens eNews counts down the top stories of the year.

There's been a whole lot written about Juno and Jamie Lynn Spears, but I like Carol Joffe's take.

Violet Blue has the top 10 sex memes of 2007.

RH Reality Check talks with Planned Parenthood about its list of the top women's health stories of the past year.

Stay tuned, we'll have our own 2007 wrap-up post tomorrow.

And as always, leave other links in comments.

Sorry we're a little light on the posting, I'm still a bit jet lagged and catching up on emails. Have a great weekend everyone, and enjoy a little bit of the most crush-worthy boy band ever. (Ad Rock...swoon.)

Because then when someone makes an asinine comment, I could just silently point to the wall.

Asinine comment via Chicagoist.

You know, I'm aware that gross people can make all sorts of ridiculous things on Cafe Press, but this struck a cord with me. Because it's so telling. The vitriol directed at Hillary Clinton's run is so mired in misogyny that it's exhausting just keeping track of it all. But I think the message on this shirt gets to the heart of those who are so incredibly incensed that a woman (and a powerful woman, at that) would have the audacity to run for president: It's not enough to say that she shouldn't run--she should be killed. And not just killed, but murdered via domestic violence. If that's not fucking transparent, I don't know what is.

What better way to send the message that women who dare to seek power deserve to have it (and their lives!) violently taken away from them.

Thanks to Kayla for the link.

You know, sometimes they just make it too easy. The charming picture above is a billboard from CoolVirginity.com, a project of yet another crisis pregnancy center.

Also from the site: "Abstinence helps to ensure a more successful future, avoid STDs and to avoid possible life-long dependency on the welfare system." And here I thought it was the lack of well-paid jobs that make women poor--turns out it's just the absence of a hymen. (Does that mean if I get hymen restoration surgery that my income will magically increase? Nice!)

But seriously, I just lurve the idea that these folks think that promoting sexuality and women's bodies as a gift is a fantastically moral idea. Are hymens the new graduation watch?

Jamie Lynn Spears must be so pleased that her decision to have a baby meets with the approval of a republican presidential hopeful that she's (likely) never met.

"Apparently, she's going to have the child, and I think that is the right decision, a good decision, and I respect that and appreciate it," [Mike Huckabee] told CBS News.

"I hope it is not an encouragement to other 16-year-olds who think that is the best course of action. But at the same time I'm not going to condemn her..."

You know, unless she decided to have an abortion. Then I'd call her a sinning whore. I realize that Spears herself has made her pregnancy public (though given her celebrity it seems unlikely she had any other choice), but I don't see how this means that random men she doesn't know have the right to comment freely on her situation and its moral implications. Of course, antis like Huckabee think that it's their right to judge all women and their reproductive decisions so I suppose I shouldn't be shocked.

In a way, Spears has come to represent an anti-choicers dream--the universal American teen they can wax misogyist about. She's a pretty white teen who is being "responsible" by keeping her baby. But she had premarital sex, which makes her ripe for chastising. And the anti-choicers swoon! (I wonder how giddy they'd be if it was a young woman of color who was in the spotlight....just saying.)

The point is, Spears is a person--difficult to fathom, I know--and perhaps people should treat her with a little dignity, rather than as a political argument.

The Philippines Bureau of Customs seized several sex dolls from PETA, who have been using the dolls to protest against KFC in Thailand, Japan and the red light districts of the Philippines with a banner reading, "KFC Blows."

Wow.

I'm sure it was just lovely for two Planned Parenthood clinics in Albuquerque to be attacked on Christmas Day. One office's roof was set afire and the other's windows were broken into.

This is just weeks after a fire at another abortion clinic. There's an ongoing investigation; let's hope they find the culprits.

Check out Cecile Richards' statement.

I want one.

The producer of Superman Returns (of all movies) is being sued by two women for sexual discrimination and harassment.

The most recent case was made by a couple who worked for Jon Peters; when informing Peters of her pregnancy, he recommended she have an abortion or her husband would be fired, in which he was shortly after she refused.

The other pending lawsuit was filed in 2005 when an office assistant claims she was harassed daily and physically threatened by Peters.

What a guy.

Pakistan's former prime minister and leading contender to serve for the third time was killed today in a suicide bomb attack. Bhutto was the first woman to lead a Muslim country, and served as an inspiration for many.

This was not the first attempt on her life; 134 people were killed in a previous attack just a few months ago. During today's campaign rally, she was shot in the neck and chest immediately before a man blew himself up, killing at least 20 others.

It is a very sad day.

I feel like I’m way late to this party (or is it a roller derby match?) but nonetheless, I wanted to put my two cents in on Katha Pollitt’s Learning to Drive.

When the book initially launched in September, Pollitt got some nasty reviews claiming that the essays only amounted to undignified groaning and moaning. I smelled an anti-feminist rat then, but the stench was totally confirmed when I read this moving, hilarious, brave collection over the last week.

First of all, these are personal essays not political manifestos. There is political content, and of course Pollitt is known for her biting systemic analysis in The Nation, but why would any reader be so inflexible as to not give her room to play?

And play she does. This is a beautiful example of a brilliant woman being unafraid to be self-effacing, birthday suit honest, and still exhibit her trademark wit and sense of humor.

After talks last spring in New Jersey of making HIV testing mandatory for pregnant women, we find that the state has decided to move forward and enforce new legislation.

The law requires health care providers to make the test a part of routine prenatal care, with an "opt out" exception. However, newborns will also be required to be tested if the mother is HIV positive or her HIV status is unknown.

We had some really good discussion here around the issue, where commenter Sassygirl pointed out the ACLU's position with some background information on mandatory testing for pregnant women and newborns, which explains that the testing of newborns is more or less senseless. It also features an example of a HIV-positive woman (from New Jersey, no less) whose child was taken away from her because she refused to give her newborn AZT treatment and was deemed an "unfit" mother. The baby ended up being HIV negative.

And while having the option to refuse testing is a good thing, studies show that many women who live in states that have mandates didn't feel comfortable refusing testing, and almost one in five didn't even know they were even tested for that matter. So how much of "an option" really is it?

It's a complex issue and obviously prevention should be the priority, but do women's private medical decisions need to be sacrificed in the process?

Haven't you ever wanted society's unwavering insistence that all women have babies be combined with some good old fashioned diet mania? No? Well too bad. Enter The Fertility Diet.

Okay, okay. I realize that there's probably some truth to the idea that what you choose to eat has some bearing on your fertility. But I can't help but find the idea of women dieting for every fucking reason in their life - from losing baby fat to gaining baby! - hilarious (in a sad way).

We've written before about "Choose Life" license plates, which several states offer to benefit anti-choice groups. Well, it turns out Florida is raking in money from the "Choose Life" plates faster than they can spend it. Why, you ask?

Women can’t receive help from the program if they plan to parent their children. It was established strictly for women who plan to give their babies up for adoption and need financial help during the pregnancy.

Wow. So despite the fact that the number of single mothers is on the rise, the state of Florida is won't use the "Choose Life" cash to help them out. These license plates should really say "Choose Adoption."

Arnall said she’s frustrated by the amount of money that’s gone unused. With the economic downturn, hundreds of families are flooding her department for emergency help. What’s more, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows an uptick in teen mothers who are typically financially needy, but who often choose to parent their children, according to some local experts who work with young mothers.

“We don’t have enough women who want to place� children for adoption, said Becky Towner, the coordinator of Project Gabriel, a pregnancy counseling program at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Fort Myers. The county contracts with Project Gabriel to administer the Choose Life money.

Wanna bet that at Project Gabriel "pregnancy counseling" equals "pressure to have a baby and give it up for adoption rather than parent it yourself"? Once again, "Choose Life" proves to be a total misnomer.

I find this to be odd. Apparently, the MPAA has rather inconsistent guidelines for what is considered inappropriate verse appropriate imagery for movie promotions. Via Think Progress, the poster for Alex Gibney's new documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, has been rejected because it is not "suitable" for all audiences. The poster shown here, is an image of two soldiers walking a hooded person away. Censorship is usually fickle and inconsistent, but for some reason it appears that when torture is fictitious, graphic imagery is appropriate. It is when it represents reality, it must be censored.

For example, can we forget the lovely image for the movie, Captivity?

Amanda at Think Progress has a few more images that also show torture and were approved by the MPAA and frankly they are much more graphic than the above poster that was censored. So I guess, it is OK to show women tortured in movie posters, mainly because we are used to seeing it, but in this case perhaps because it is fiction. However, when images are shown that display the atrocities done by US military forces that are inhumane, unjust and illegal, WELL, that is just too much for the American public to handle.

According to U.S. researchers, a gene known to give many Jewish women a higher risk of cancer may also put U.S. Latina women at high risk.

They found that 3.5 percent of Hispanic women entered in a Northern California breast cancer registry had the BRCA1 genetic mutation, compared to 8.3 percent of Ashkenazic Jews and 2.2 percent of non-Ashkenazic white women.

Ashkenazis are members of the group of Jews that settled in central, northern, and later eastern Europe and developed Yiddish as their spoken language.

The BRCA1 gene mutation raises the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, with the risk of developing breast cancer by age 70 put at 65 percent, the researchers said. Women who find out they have the mutation are advised to be vigilant, and some opt for preventive chemotherapy or surgery.

I don't know much about breast cancer genes, so if anyone wants to enlighten a bit - I'm all ears. Also, if you want to know more about breast cancer and Latina women, check out this 2007 study which showed differences in types and stages of cancer in Latina women despite equal access to care. And as always, feel free to drop knowledge in comments.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season and are looking forward to a fun new year. And New Year's Eve! (I'm going to my favorite wine bar for a ridiculous eight course dinner thing. Yum.)

Enjoy the feminist goodness above and I'll bring you posts as often as I can--considering I'll be on a plane back to New York for much of the day. And if anyone has any favorite feminist graffiti--point us to them in comments please! They're my current obsession.

Pic from mhug.

And what a great way to teach our gals about finance during this holiday season o' debt - a credit card that doesn't run out.

Thanks to Amy for the link.

On December 26th. Until then, we'll be posting on a (very) limited schedule. In the meantime, let us know what you're up for the holidays in comments. Me, I'm in Santa Rosa, CA with the boyfriend and without Monty -- who is spending time with his brother in Woodstock, NY.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!

Nancy Northup is the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization that uses constitutional and international law to secure women's reproductive freedom. The Center has won groundbreaking cases before federal and state courts, U.N. committees, and regional human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights. Working at the state, national, and international levels, the Center has built the legal capacity of women's rights advocates around the world, working in over 45 countries.

Nancy is an attorney with extensive experience in constitutional impact litigation, criminal law, and reproductive rights advocacy. Here's Nancy....

Go watch this video immediately--it reveals the scare tactics and intimidation used by anti-choicers in Denver who are trying to shut down the construction of a Planned Parenthood clinic. For folks who are so "pro-family," they certainly seem to like scaring neighborhood families. Disgusting.

You know what's hilarious? Two guys holding down a woman screaming for help and cutting off her underwear with pocket knife. Oh, you don't think that's funny? You must me one of those humorless feminists...

Michael S. Puhalla, 39, and Russell J. Baumgardner, 40, are accused of holding down a woman against the bar in Sartell, Minn., and cutting off her underwear with a pocketknife and placing it on a fan in the bar.

[B]oth told authorities that they viewed the incident as a joke, according to the charges.

...She yelled for help several times and asked for the bartender to intervene, but he said, "I can't or they will make things worse for me." She said there were up to six other men in the bar at the time, and none of them came to her aid either.

...Police, when meeting with the woman, detected bruises on her arms and an abrasion in her groin area.

Apparently the woman knew these men, who later said to police that it was time for her "to take one for the team." Just...terrifying. Even more so is that in a statement to police Baumgardner said he had participated in similar "jokes" in the past.

Thanks to Kim, Erin and Elizabeth for the link.

I have a piece up at Alternet which is essentially my way of actually making the argument I would have liked to make on O'Reilly the other week. One of the things I've found most frustrating about doing television (besides having my face airbrushed with make-up, literally) is the lack of actual dialogue or substantive conversation. I wonder why we put so much energy into making media that doesn't actually make us smarter?

I just thought I'd link to it here since the feministing family were such great supporters. Thanks to everyone.

Not to be competitive, but the DC happy hour kicked ass. Huge thanks to everyone who came out. And yes, we'll be doing it again. I was thinking a daily Feministing happy hour, but apparently that's unwise.

Highlights of the evening for me included the extensive signage, one soul brave enough to ask half a dozen strangers if they where looking for us, Ann trying to sneak out early, and of course, meeting all those great people. Those of you who attended, what did you like best? And where should we go next time?

It seems that not everyone is pleased that Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is pregnant. Check out this amazing letter to the editor that ran in the Post Star:

First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?

And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.

Ms. Gillibrand's current pregnancy makes a strong case for my opinion. Ms. Gillibrand was elected to serve her constituency, and while she is away from her elected office she cannot perform those duties. The taxpayers who were duped into voting for her will have to pay for her medical benefits. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, Ms. Gillibrand receives excellent health benefits, courtesy of her constituents. We will be without representation in Congress for a time leading up to and following the child's birth. There will be times when she and the new baby will visit doctors. You can add those days to the total that she will not be serving her constituents.

The current base salary (2006) for members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year. I wonder if Ms. Gillibrand will do the right thing and reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $452.60, her daily salary, for each day that she is unable to perform her elected duties. For some reason, I doubt it.

Ron Blachut
Queensbury

Yeah, I doubt it too. Much in the same way I doubt that male politicians will reimburse their daily salaries when they have to go to get prostate exams or prescriptions for their Viagra. You really have to love dudes who unabashedly argue that someone having a uterus (ick, lady parts!) means that they'll be more concerned with "women problems" than politics. It's pathologizing women's bodies in the worst way. But at least it makes the assholes easy to pick out.

This video is dedicated to Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, who has just come out with a study saying that men are naturally funnier than women. You know, because they have testosterone--which is apparently the funny-maker. Oh, and how did Shuster conduct his research? He rode a unicycle through the streets and documented people's reactions. Nuff said.

My friend Sara becomes the unwitting poster girl for Feministing Happy Hours.

Thank you so much to all the folks who came to Wednesday's Holiday Happy Hour (almost 50 of you!)--Vanessa and I had a fantastic time and it was incredibly fun to meet everyone. I met women doing work on creating safer campuses, women who were standing in solidarity with the people affected by Katrina, women who work with abortion providers and doctors, and even women (and men) who just came by to say hi and have a drink. It was fab.

We're hoping to make these a monthly event, so if you didn't come last night but would like to come in the future--email Vanessa and she'll put you on our NY list. We'd also like to encourage readers to start meet-ups in their own towns. (Hopefully the upgrade will facilitate this kind of thing also!)

Oh, and I totally heard a rumor: NY rules, DC drools.

Update: The person who took this photo asked that we remove it from the site, so we have. But I think the below statement is still worth commenting on...

We are feminists. We call ourselves "Sluts Against Rape" because we believe that a woman should have the right to be sexual in any way she chooses and that she is never at fault for rape. We choose to focus on sexual promiscuity-straight or queer-as a positive assertion of sexual identity and to focus on women as sexual agents as opposed to sexual victims. We remember that this embrace of sexuality in the public sphere has been particularly difficult for people of color, women-especially sex workers-and queer women. Each of these group's "supposed" inability to sexually control themselves has been used as justification for violence. At the same time, each of these groups have continued to explore and refine the place of sexuality in their lives and insist that public spaces remain open to them.

You can read the rest of the group statement here. Thoughts? (I know, a little heavy for a Friday morning, but interesting nonetheless.)

As 2007 comes to an end, how poetic that our very own president would give the Sexist Quote of the Year. In People magazine's end-of-the-year review with George Bush, he is asked:

Q: Tell us about your future son-in-law, Henry Hager. Did he do right and ask for Jenna’s hand?

The President: “He kind of sidled up to me and said, ‘Can I come and see you?’ We were sitting outside the presidential cabin here, and he professed his love for Jenna and said, would I mind if he married her? And I said, ‘Got a deal.’ [Laughter] And I’m of the school, once you make the sale, move on. But he had some other points he wanted [to make]. He wanted to talk about how he would be financially responsible.�

How lovely. Nothing like your traditional daughter-for-sale language from the leader of our great nation to get me all warm and fuzzy this holiday season. And shame on the magazine (not like we should expect much from them) to say that "asking for a daughter's hand" is the "right" thing to do. This isn't the fucking '50s, People.

Thanks to reader Jennifer for the heads up.

You have got to be kidding me.

This is right up there with PETA's oh-so-tasteful ads.

Via Nerve.

I'm glad Slate is calling on Congress to address the birth-control price hike. But WTF is up with yesterday's homepage teaser for the article? (Left.) As if all Slate readers are straight men, and they're the ones most affected by this issue? Yes, I want men to realize that they too have a stake in affordable, accessible contraception. But this language is just annoying.

And in other birth-control-is-all-about-dudes news, Glenn Sacks has this gem of an op-ed claiming that women love complaining about bearing the burden of contraception -- they love it so much that they're actually opposed to the male birth control pill. Which is funny, because most women I know cannot wait for the advent of the male pill. In fact, we've put up a joyful, hopeful post every time there's news that a male version of the pill may be hitting the market within our lifetime.

So what's the hold up? I recall an interview with a scientist who said they stopped working on developing a male pill because men were resistant to using it.

I know, you’re already sick of holiday gift guides, but I promised (and a feministing reader suggested) so I’m delivering. These are my top five books to buy your feminist gals and guys:

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
This is an oldie but a goodie. Northrup—both an MD and a feminist guru—elucidates the links between our bodies, minds, and hearts in a way that makes even the most devoted of western medicine fanatics go “Ooooooooh, so that’s why that happens.� A great gift for a little sister or mentee, or even a mom who doesn’t seem to realize why she gets super sick every time the holidays hit (um, she’s taking care of everyone else but herself.)

Composing a Life
Another oldie but goodie. In this little book, the whole darn complicated world of women’s lives are laid bare. Bateson—an anthropologist and the daughter of Margaret Mead—follows the lives of a few fascinating friends to uncover the day-to-day choices, feelings, and struggles that women face. I wish someone would write an updated version…

The Daring Book for Girls
This is the buy for the little gals in your life. Feminist moms and downright cool ladies, Peskowitz and Buchanan, wrote this response to The Dangerous Book for Boys. It includes all kinds of activities for daring girls, including everything from how to put your bun up with a pencil to negotiating a fair salary. Word.

The Complete Stories Flannery O’Connor
People don’t read enough short stories. Period. O’Connor is the master of them—funny, surprising, the guts of humanity laid out in 12 pages. Don’t let your favorite reader sleep on the old masters.

The Dispossessed
If you don’t think of yourself or your beloveds as people who can get down with science fiction, think again. Ursula K. LeGuin is an amazing, feminist writer who creates wild imaginary worlds that make for perfect consideration of our contemporary gender politics.

*Jess and I won’t be mad if you buy our books for someone special: Full Frontal Feminism and Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, respectively.

Next up, Learning to Drive by Katha Pollitt and then Trappings by Two Girls Working.

While federal funding for abstinence-only education is being extended for another 6 months despite extensive reports showing its ineffectiveness, a new report shows that comprehensive sex education is doing its job.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report, which was also published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, revealing that teenagers who have received sex education in school are far more likely to put off sex than those who haven't. Who would have thought.

They found teenage boys who had sex education in school were 71 percent less likely to have intercourse before age 15, and teen girls who had sex education were 59 percent less likely to have sex before age 15.

Sex education also increased the likelihood that teen boys would use contraceptives the first time they had sex. . . But sex education appeared to have no effect on whether teen girls used birth control, the researchers found.

Additionally, black teenage girls who received sex ed in school were 91 percent less likely to have sex before age 15. Trisha Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC who led the study, said it plain and simple which actually made me laugh out loud: "Sex education seems to be working."

Indeed, Trisha. Indeed.

Shortly after a Texas woman came forward stating that she was gang raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Baghdad, we find that (shockingly) she may not be alone.

Three other women have come forward with testimonies of sexual harassment and rape by co-workers, including one who was fired shortly after making it clear she felt uncomfortable that her rapist was still able to work alongside her.

While Jamie Leigh Jones, the first woman to come forward, and others are suing the company, they have to comply with a statement they signed at hiring that forces them to settle disputes through private arbitration. Jones stated:

"What is to stop these companies from victimizing women in the future? . . . The U.S. government has to provide people with their day in court when they have been raped and assaulted by other American citizens. Otherwise we are not only deprived of our justice in the criminal courts but in the civil courts as well. The laws have left us nowhere to turn."

Check out TortDeform's Kia Franklin's take on this bullshit and the legal ramifications for women of mandatory binding arbitration.

So after the excitement from last week's win has settled we are faced with a city council meeting tomorrow that will determine the fate of the demolitions of public housing in New Orleans. According to the Times-Picayune, things are not looking good.

The New Orleans City Council appears poised to approve the demolition of the city's "Big Four" housing complexes despite continuing protests, with four of its seven members signaling approval.

In approving the demolition of federally financed public housing units, the Council finds itself in a new, powerful and controversial role. HANO wanted to begin demolition of 4,500 units on Dec. 15, but a state judge agreed with the Loyola Law Clinic's attorneys that the council must approve the permits first for each of the four sites slated for the wrecking crews: Lafitte, C.J. Peete, St. Bernard and B.W. Cooper.

Though highly public protests from activists continue this week, some council members nonetheless stood firm in their support for tearing down the aging and often delipadated complexes to make way for new, mixed-income developments.

So let's make a final push and keep the pressure strong. Here is the list of demands and actions you can take right now from the People's Hurricane Recovery Fund. And you can take action here via Katrina Action Network and Color Of Change and sign an open letter to New Orleans city hall.

The latest crap online journalism trend? Playing dress up and writing a really offensive piece about your time spent as "the other."

First up, Danielle Crittenden wears a niqab around Washington for a Huffington Post series called "Islamic Like Me." Muslimah Media Watch points out that this title is a grammatical horror, and goes on to do the definitive take-down:

Ms. Crittenden’s bias against Muslims, the Middle East, and Islam itself are readily apparent throughout the entire series of posts. Whenever she refers to her niqab, she uses her Orientalism megaphone, choosing adjectives that paint the niqab as so alien that it’s not even from the same time period as we occupy: it arrived in what “looked like a package someone had shipped 400 years ago…� and doing laundry makes her feel like she lives in “a Victorian household,� making her realize that she won’t be able to live “a normal life� because of it.

She also sees fit to equate everything in her life to something related to the Middle East: her kitchen, which is being remodeled, looks like “a blown-up house in Baghdad� and she has become an “al-Jazeera version of the Black Ranger.� Wow. You know why all this is funny? Because al-Jazeera doesn’t have any female anchors who wear niqab! And because likening your remodeled home to a war zone is completely hilarious! Now she knows how Iraqi women must feel when they lose loved ones to sectarian violence or land mines!

Her sensitivity extends to her third post, “Islamic Like Me: Why Don’t You Just Take It Off?� She explains that the Iranian women’s volleyball team looked like “a squad of bandaged mummies leaping and spiking� when they competed in the Asian Senior Women's Volleyball Championship last September.

"Blown-up house in Baghdad"? "Bandaged mummies"? Did anyone edit this stuff?

And elsewhere in "dress up" "journalism," Emily Yoffe (who's really on a roll) writes about her foray into drag king culture. She assures her readers that most DC drag kings are "nice girls." And then later in the piece:

Hope you can make it! See after the jump if you're in DC...

Britney Spears' teen sister Jamie Lynn Spears has just announced that she's pregnant. The 16 year-old Spears is the star of Nickelodeon's show "Zoey 101."

Now, without getting into the celeb culture and role model issues and all that jazz--there's something about this story that really irked me. When Jamie Lynn announced her pregnancy, Nickelodeon released the following statement: "We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being." (Emphasis mine)

Couldn't Nickelodeon support Spears without making a judgment call? (Cause that's what it seems like to me.) Wouldn't she be taking "responsibility" if she had an abortion or decided on adoption? And why is the notion of "responsibility" even being discussed at all?

First came the news that the Democrats axed a provision to repeal the Global Gag Rule (because Bush said he would veto the entire appropriations bill if it was included). Then today I get the news -- in an Abstinence Clearinghouse email, no less -- that Title V abstinence-only education funding is likely to be renewed for another six months. The additional six months of funding is buried in the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP extension bill. That means federal dollars will have been flowing to abstinence-only programs for a full year since Democrats announced they were cutting off funding. Aaarrgghhh.

Of course, I'm happy to see funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP extended. But it is SO frustrating to watch these terrible provisions buried within bigger bills continue to pass the Democratic-controlled Congress. It is really, really frustrating.

I've never been much of a boat person, and now I'm pretty sure I never will be. Say hello to the Butt Buoy, a lovely way to float relaxingly on the water and appeal to your inner misogynist. Good times.

Thanks to Katie for the link.

In his 1998 book, Kids Who Kill, Mike Huckabee wrote, "It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia." But don't worry, Huckabee's director of research, Joe Carter, clarified Huckabee's stance: "He's saying there's a range of aberrant behavior. He considers homosexuality aberrant, but that's at one end of the spectrum. Necrophilia is at the other end." Oh, well that's better. Ugh.

Citing Bush's guaranteed veto, Democrats stripped out language repealing the Global Gag Rule from a spending bill recently passed by the House Appropriations Committee. We all know Bush hates women -- especially poor women -- and would have vetoed the bill, but it's incredibly frustrating that Democrats preempted him.

In the end, the legislation did not even include an exemption to allow the U.S. to distribute contraceptives rather than funding for family planning services. (That would have put Bush, our supposedly pro-contraception president, in a tough spot...) Too bad, because in addition to the many other excellent reasons to broaden contraceptive access in the developing world, new research shows birth control works better than antiretroviral drugs at curbing the spread of HIV in Africa.

But I suppose it's futile to even point these things out. Bush cares way more about pushing the abstinence agenda than the fact that women are dying.

Like Emily Yoffe, Anne Applebaum needs to learn how to use Google.

But I'll make it easy for her, and link to some "feminist silence" on this issue right here.

One more thing: It's way too easy (as Applebaum acknowledges) -- and completely unfair -- to judge all feminists on the basis of NOW's website. NOW is only a slice -- and often an unrepresentative slice -- of the feminist movement. And especially if Applebaum is doing her "research" online, there is absolutely no excuse for failing to mention that nearly every major feminist blog has a post on its homepage criticizing the Saudi government. Maybe it was ok in the 1980s and earlier to give NOW's take (or lack of a take) on something and use the term "reigning feminist ideology." Not anymore.

After being described as a stay at home dad, science blogger David Munger, decided to take on whether or not being described as a stay at home dad verse a stay at home dad, hurts ones credibility and reputation in their careers. A question many women have known the answer to for a long time, or simply put, the work women do at home is not a respected part of the capitalist economy. It is invisible, unless you are a wingnut and believe that women belong in the house, and your ideal woman is June Cleaver. So he did a little experiment to prove his hypothesis.

The trick to the study was that readers saw one of four different versions of the story. Jordan was either a "father," a "stay-at-home father," a "mother," or a "stay-at-home mother." Then readers were quizzed on several aspects of the story. Did they have a different attitude towards Jordan depending on gender and "stay-at-home status? Over 1,200 people responded, and this graph shows the most dramatic results:

Guess what?

Reading the relationship advice column on Askmen is like taking a trip down the dark and windy road inside the head of an emasculated and insecure man. It makes one wonder why men that read this type of advice on how to tame and train women bother dating women. It is clear they hate them, because you wouldn't treat your enemy the way that they are suggesting you treat your girlfriend.

When you first start dating a new girlfriend, you want to be on your best behavior. Sure, you want to make a good impression, but what you're really doing is catering to her to get sex.

The problem is, the power base shifts to her right from the outset and she knows it. She's in charge of access to the zipper and she counts on you bending over backward to gain entry. So she's got you.

OK pinch me if I am dreaming here, but who does that? I have, let's see, NO friends that don't have sex with a guy within the first week of dating him. It is a myth that men are more into sex than women in relationships. If anything, from what I have experienced and heard from my friends is it is quite the opposite. But clearly a magazine like this can only function if we believe certain innate things to be true about men and women, so for them, men are horny, control freak, man beasts and women are virginal prudes that must be conquered. I get the colonization metaphors.

But then it just gets nasty. Listed under "common obedience problems."

Aggression She's out of control and constantly acts up. Brainwashed by a steady diet of Oprah and "feminist" propaganda, she's now "empowered," meaning that her thoughts run somewhere along these lines: "Men have been holding me back, I want mine now, and I don't care what pair of testicles I have to step on to get it." Since a girlfriend's brain is unable to distinguish emotion from logic, this kind of fantasy thinking will prompt her to act in self-destructive patterns and will cause you undue stress around the house.

Perhaps this is a joke, but as I have said before--I have no sense of humor for this kind of crap--so I am not LOLz. But even if it is a joke, I am sure this site is heavily trafficked, so why is it OK to say virulently violent, misogynistic things about women and the rights they may have earned or the power they might have? Would this be funny if they were talking about an ethnic minority? And let me say, I don't think this publication would be above that by any means, but it wouldn't be funny at all. It would be fucked up and racist. It is amazing to me how certain men's magazines tap into the paranoia that men feel from women having power and couch it in tired recycled metaphors of slavery and submission. That to me is much more humorous then the same joke laughed at over and over by insecure, pathetic, grown-ass men.

By the way, we all know it is not just men who support these myths but often both genders complicit in the same cycle, so read comments carefully. They are offensive and may trigger you!

Thanks to Julia for the link.

Mom...sweater off!

I'm so crazed in preparing for the holidays that I completely neglected my Monday Monty Blogging. My bad. Monty's Daddy has been very anti-clothing for the dog, but because it's been so frigging cold in NY recently...I won. Witness poor Monty's humiliation above and here. (I also kind of think that he looks like he's going through a werewolf transformation of some sort.)

The Associated Press asked the front-running presidential candidates about their most prized possession. Some went with a family memento or collector's item (pocketwatches, baseballs), some went sentimental (a photo of the place where mom's ashes were scattered), some declined to answer.

Fred Thompson's answer? "Trophy wife."

Ok, I know it was supposedly tongue-in-cheek -- a joke to draw some attention to what is clearly a failing campaign. Still It really says something that this candidate is willing to tell the public that he married his wife for her looks. You know there are dudes out there who not only took that answer seriously, but admire Thompson for it.

Date rape should be treated differently from attacks on women by strangers, John Redwood has said.

The former cabinet minister - now a senior Tory party adviser - suggested rape accusations made by women against their partners should be treated as "disagreements" between lovers.

This is in the context of the tightening up of rape laws in the UK. He actually says,

"They [Labour] decided to set date rape alongside stranger rape.

"None of us want men to rape women, but there is a difference between a man using unreasonable force to assault a woman on the street, and a disagreement between two lovers over whether there was consent on one particular occasion.

"Labour's doctrine of equivalence has led to jury scepticism about many rape claims, in situations where it is the man's word against the woman's and where they had agreed to spend the evening or night together."

Oh no, rape apologists are everywhere apparently. That's right, if you agreed to hang out with him then he can rape you, according to this definition. That should play out awesome in the courts.

via Daily Mail.

Belated edition!

On the systemic execution of gays and lesbians in Iraq.

A truly terrible headline: "Scandal reveals women love to steal-- then shop"

The German government calls on the fashion industry to regulate itself and portray more than super-skinny body types.

Women have got the spine for pregnancy, apparently.

A new sterilization method provides an alternative to the tubal ligation by creating scar tissue in the fallopian tubes. (via.)

Female characters as comedic killjoys.

At least 40 women were murdered in Basra in the past year.

The recent Albuquerque clinic fire was indeed arson.

On the death of Pakistani-Canadian teenager, and what the hijab has (and doesn't have) to do with it.

Thank Bush for the teen birth rate.

There's a new book out on Bella Abzug.

This is just ridiculous.

The Wall Street Journal on golddiggers.

Hillary Sexism Watch: Drudge edition. (Shocking, I know.)

Abstinence programs are flailing in the states.

Sexual assault victims in Wisconsin will no longer have to pay the bills for their hospital exam and treatment after the assault.

Two women who married in Massachusetts have been barred from getting a divorce in their home state of Rhode Island.

On Hillary's pantsuits. (eyeroll.)

Leave your other links in comments.

This makes me want to have a feminist board game night. Who's in?

Pic from acoustic_punk_sound.

Earlier this year, we reported that states were starting to refuse abstinence-only funds. You know, because they don't work. Well, it seems that the trend is catching on: 14 states are now straight up refusing federal funds for abstinence only education. (Two more states are applying for funding but saying that they'll use it for comprehensive sex ed--making them ineligible.)

The reasons given for refusing the funds are what you would expect--the programs don't work, they contain misinformation, and they limit schools' ability to talk about contraception. So I had to laugh when I saw this quote from Stan Koutstaal of the Department of Health and Human Services: "My greatest concern about states dropping out is that these are valuable services and programs. It's the youths in these states who are missing out."

Yes, truly. We certainly wouldn't want American youth to miss out on these gems:

“AIDS can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.�

“Abortion is not the best choice…because it unfairly penalizes the baby for the bad decision the baby's parents made.�

“A guy who wants to respect girls is distracted by sexy clothes and remembers her for one thing. Is it fair that guys are turned on by their senses and women by their hearts?�

“Each time a sexually active person gives that most personal part of himself or herself away, that person can lose a sense of personal value and worth. It all comes down to self-respect.�

And goodness knows we wouldn't youths to miss out on abstinence "educators" telling them how lipstick is made from aborted fetuses. Or how (if you're a woman) "your body is a wrapped lollipop" and if you have sex you're just a "poorly wrapped, saliva-fouled sucker." And we definitely wouldn't want young people to miss out on the fact that gay people don't exist and that condoms cause cancer.

I mean, what kind of people would we be if we let young people "miss out" on all that?

The Institute for Social and Economic Research has released a study showing that mothers who work outside the home tend to be significantly happier than moms who stay at home.

The Job Satisfaction and Family Happiness survey also found that job satisfaction for women with partners is greater when they work part-time, irrespective of how small or large these jobs are.

It points out that women overall may be working as many hours as men, when the time spent on household tasks like cooking and childcare is taken into account, but a smaller proportion of their time is spent in paid work.

It's not exactly surprising that women who have paid jobs are happier than their unpaid stay-at-home counterparts. But this is the kind of study that just pisses conservatives and anti-feminists off to no end; they'd rather believe that women are pleased as punch to pick up socks and change diapers at home all day. You know, because it comes natural to us. (Though you have to wonder why women would need classes on how to be a good subservient wife if we were so inclined towards the domestic sphere.)

I'm sure this study will bring out the whole "most women want to stay at home but can't afford it" argument. The thing is, I have no doubt that most women (and men) would like more time with their children and more flexible schedules and workplace policies to facilitate that being possible. That's definitely what feminists want. But when it comes women who are stuck at home with no outlets for public productivity, less financial security and--as Amanda points out--less ability to be social--it's not exactly shocking that they would be less satisfied and happy. Thoughts?

Via Broadsheet.

I was so thrilled when I read that the United States Sentencing Commission finally voted, 7-0 I might add, last week to reduce retroactively sentences for crack-cocaine offenses, bringing them more in line with the equivalent punishment for powdered cocaine.

The disparate sentencing of the two forms of essentially the same drug has long been evidence of our justice system's racist and classist underbelly; statistically, those who are found with the crack form of cocaine tend to be black and poor and those who are found with the powdered form tend to be white or Hispanic and of higher economic status.

The ruling will make it possible for as many as 19,500 inmates to apply for sentence reductions. 3,800 could be eligible for release as early as next year. Now if we can just make sure those prisoners have the support they need to appeal, so that this doesn't just become a symbolic gesture on the sentencing commission's part.

To read more about this issue check out The Sentencing Project.

For reminding you that people like this exist.

H/t Amanda.

The Saudi woman who was raped and subsequently sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail has been "pardoned" by King Abdullah. (Pardoned is in quotes because I can't bring myself to repeat rhetoric that frames this woman as somehow guilty of something.)

The Saudi king frequently pardons criminals at the Eid al-Adha festival which takes place this week, but correspondents say that is usually announced by the official press agency.

The BBC's Heba Saleh says the king's decision to pardon the woman victim is already arousing controversy with some contributors to conservative websites, who say he has breached the rules of religion in order to appease critics in the West.

I guess some folks forgot that the criticisms of the sentence hardly came form the West alone. Women activists in Saudi Arabia took to the streets recently to protest the sentence. Regardless of the controversy, at the end of the day it's just nice to get some good news.

Today's ugh headline comes from 23/6, HuffPo's comedy site...

Yeah, nothing funnier than a nice racism-sexism combo. Happy Monday, folks.

Thanks to Cynthia for the link.

Katori Hall is a playwright, performer and journalist from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play, "Hoodoo Love" received its world-premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre November 1, 2007. Her other plays include: "Remembrance," "Hurt Village," "Saturday Night/Sunday Morning," "The Mountaintop," and "Freedom Train."

She is a recipient of numerous writing awards including the 2007 Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, 2006 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, 2006 Royal Court Theatre Residency, 2005 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Recently, she was nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

As a journalist, her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Essence, Newsweek and The Commercial Appeal.

These are just some of the highlights of Katori's career. Here's Katori...

This one is the best. Perhaps my favorite hate mail ever, in fact--just because it's so telling.

Dear Jessica,

There is absolutely no reason for you to have an opinion or talk, because all women are insignificant pieces of meat. The only thing you femme cunts are good for is cooking dinner and remaining quiet while getting fucked in your tight asses.

If you were my wife, I wouldn’t let you out of your cage to do anything other than cooking, cleaning, and blowing me while I watch porn. Really disgusting porn to - the kind that degrades and objectifies women, because women are only put on this earth to clean and get fucked.

To recap: Women are not as smart as men, are not capable of using logic, and therefore must be treated like dirty little whores. Go back to fucking your smelly vagina with plastic dicks, because you can’t get a guy to fuck your femme cunt ass. You and all your girl power sisters can gargle my balls.

Quite the romantic, yes? To recap: Someone is very, very afraid of women. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go gargle. Have a great, anti-feminist free weekend everyone!

Amex not accepted.

Are vaginas shaped the way they are so you can slide a credit card through them?

You know it took him hours to think of that one. Also, it seems someone needs a closer look at a vagina.

Renee Morgan-Saks is a 24 year old native of Washington Heights, New York and a member of NOW-NYC. She is currently working at a women’s rights legal advocacy organization and plans to attend law school to study public interest law.

Don Imus is back on the air. Not that I need to remind you, but here’s a little recap of what lead to the Imus debacle:

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and—
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos...
IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there…. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute…
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing…
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.

“That movie that he had� is School Daze. In the film, the Wannabees, like “the girls from Tennessee,� are considered good-looking because they are light-skinned with “good hair� (read: straight or wavy, most likely from being chemically processed). The Jigaboos, on the other hand, who have darker skin and natural hair (“nappy�), are considered less attractive.

Jessica, I am surprised your husband allowed you to take time away from the stove and your other household duties to start this ridiculous email about the "offensive" panties. By the way, SANTA IS NOT REAL!!! You have set the bar extremely high for the next hypocritical idiot who talks out both sides of their mouth. Did you mention to anyone at Wal*Mart that you have a web site that can be accessed by anyone of any age (such as the young girls who I am sure have now turned to prostitution because of these horrible panties) that advertises VIBRATORS in big colorful ads? You need to get barefoot, naked, pregnant, and back in the kitchen where you best serve a damn good meal.

Santa isn't real?!!!! (Cries into coffee.)

via AP.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Demolition of three public housing complexes, slated to start this weekend, was halted Friday amid complaints about the scarcity of housing for the poor after Hurricane Katrina.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans agreed to postpone the start of demolition pending a hearing Thursday before City Council. Opponents of the tear-down plan had filed a lawsuit contending that the council's consent was required by the city charter.

Sometimes activism works! Feel proud people, this is a win, but we must persist!

Dude, Sherri Shepherd just pisses me off.

You bunch of whiney ass babies always take the easy shots. The ones you know are sure wins. Go play the Mohamed (sic) game. Chicken. You femmes ain't got the guts...I don't see you raising issues about the magazines that turn our children into little women at age 10 or less. Gee I'm wandering but there are so many things that you need to be more concerned about than hitting the home runs on sure things and I pity you in the coming years when you won't even matter.

Does anyone know what the "Mohamed game" is? Is it like Parcheesi? And can one really "wander" in an email? He's so...deep.

Check out Meghan O'Rourke's piece on Knocked Up and Katherine Heigl's recent statement that the movie was "a little sexist." O'Rourke delves into the whole women-as-killjoys trend--it's good stuff. What do you think?

Women, Action and Media 2008 is open for registration, so get to it!

There's a great line up of presenters including Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, Carmen Van Kerckhove of Racialicious, Andi Zeisler from Bitch magazine and Feministing's own Courtney, Ann, Samhita, and Jessica.

We had an amazing time last year are looking forward to getting our WAM-on again this year. (The feminist dance parties that ensue late night are quite a scene as well.) Come join!

I suppose this is what happens when Fox News links to you on their website and mentions said site on television. But I must admit, it was totally worth it. I've collected a few of my faves and will be posting them throughout the day.

Women constantly use their vagina to make their lives easier. Hell, who wouldn’t? If your a woman it doesn’t matter if you are not talented, skilled, nice, personable, intelligent or even very attractive; men will still pander to whatever you say in the hopes that they might get in your pants. And even if a woman does have some of those qualities it is likely that 90% of people are still just going to be interested in the sex. I mean seriously what can you talk to a woman about? They have to be the most uninteresting creatures in the world because somehow they have been given as status in society that all they need is a vagina to get by, not a personality. Maybe if women quit being so goddamned boring, and in the case of these bloggers, uptight anal bitches, men would be interested in more than whats between their legs.

In fact, we're so boring that crazy misogynists are way too busy and interesting to waste their male energy writing a raving email to us. Oh, wait...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going off to use my vagina to make my life easier. She's making me coffee.

To update from my post on Tuesday about the demolition of four housing projects in New Orleans, activists (including my homies at Ruckus--raise the roof!) yesterday stopped the bulldozers with a 30 person blockade.

via AP.

Protesters wielding bullhorns and shouting "housing is a human right" stopped demolition at a massive public housing complex Wednesday in this hurricane-ravaged city in dire need of homes for the poor.

More than 30 protesters blocked an excavator from entering the fenced-off area of the B.W. Cooper complex. It was the first of what likely will be many standoffs between protesters and demolition crews that are tearing down hundreds of barracks-style buildings so they can be replaced with mixed-income neighborhoods.

Sara Kelley is an intern at NOW-NYC and is currently completing her bachelor’s degree in sociology and peace and justice studies.

Equal marriage is so hot right now. In the way of LGBTQQ issues, marriage is probably one of the only ones your average Joe or Josephine could pinpoint. Media won't stop covering it, politicians can't stop debating it. Now don't get me wrong, equal marriage is an extremely important issue but it's not the only LGBTQQ issue out there.

Flashback: It’s the summer after sophomore year, and I have finally gone through the arduous process of coming out. I naively breathe a sigh of relief as I pictured my new, easy life as a member of the lesbian community. Back at school I joined our gay/straight alliance. It was mainly a social club, and I was having fun until one of our members was threatened by a football player in her dorm. Claiming to be sent by God to kill gay people, he threatened to bring a knife to school to harm her and her friends. Our school was under-responsive; they moved the football player to a different dorm (next door!), but waited to do so until the following semester, so as not to "disturb him during finals."

I was incensed. Besides awakening in me an anger I did not know I possessed, the incident put me on the alert for LGBTQQ issues, especially at my school. I found that for most students, marriage wasn't the top issue. Rather, the attitudes and behaviors of our school community was a pressing issue. I find that very few students at my school are familiar with the words "heterosexist" or "unearned privilege." And somehow the word gay is now a synonym for stupid ("that's so gay"). These are small, everyday things that can have a BIG, everyday impact on the community.

Now this is an awesome campaign.

The New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence is running a campaign developed by the Family Violence Prevention which is attempting to redefine the meaning of "manhood," by raising young boys to become leaders in the fight against domestic violence. In a society where notions of masculinity has become so distorted and, to a degree, contribute to violence against women, making "manhood" (as much negative connotation may come with the word) into something positive is all good with me.

One of the UK prime minister's leading surgeons announced that a new pilot program may be put into effect which allows women to obtain the pill from pharmacists and nurses without having to go to a doctor for a prescription.

However, it wouldn't be without an assessment process that the women would have to undergo at the pharmacy, which would be similar to getting a prescription but a helluva more convenient. Thoughts?

Unbelievable.

Sometimes doing feminist activism can feel isolating--like you are standing in the middle of Times Square, dwarfed by towering skyscrapers draped in objectifying build boards, trying to shout above the hustle and bustle, "Yo! The dehumanization and exploitation of women is not coooooool!"

Women Who Light The Dark is a resounding, restorative chorus of women shouting right back: "Word! This is what we're doing about it!" Photojournalist Paola Gianturco is able to silence the hustle and bustle of this misogynistic, corporatized world with the exquisite beauty of her photographs and the gentle wisdom of her prose. She visits grassroots organizations in 15 countries across the world, seeking to capture a snapshot of what girls and women are doing to heal one another, create community, and end injustice.

Nothing like some good old victim-blaming. A judge ruling a Canada rape case called the 18-year old survivor "stupid" and "naive" for getting into a car with the offender, who then brought her to a cemetary to rape her.

With 8% of rapes reported in Canada, I'm sure this incident will help improve the numbers. Asshole.

Thanks to reader Dora for the link.

While everyone is asking why it took so long for Jodie Foster to come out of the closet (maybe because it's none of our damn business), it's great to see she's gone public regardless.

I also want to take this opportunity to give Foster props for playing such strong feminist characters in her movies (The Accused, Panic Room, and her most recent The Brave One). What's your favorite Jodie Foster flick? (I think mine is Contact.)

For anyone who is in the New York area and looking for an communications internship for next semester, please apply for a gig I have open at NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health. I need someone to help me with a number of different online needs for the organization, as well as assist with press operations. It's a great opportunity for anyone who wants to get involved in online work down the line.

Note: Send all inquiries and resumes to Debbie Johnson, not to my feministing email. And keep in mind, this is not an internship for Feministing.

The holidays are upon us, and even if you're not celebrating anything at all--it's fun to give gifts, especially when they're super cool feminist ones! Here are some ideas we've put together; feel free to leave your own in comments.

For the ironic feminist

Sticks and Stones Clothing has shirts that make light of your typical anti-feminist insults--and reclaims them!

Speaking of reclaiming feminist stereotypes, what better way than to wear a bra-burning shirt?

And, of course, nothing says subversive like a our very own bird-flipping mudflap girl, available on shirts totes and mugs.

For the charitable feminist

There are a ton of organizations that you can donate in a friend's name to; just a few of our favorites...

The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls , where you can rock out, donate and buy shirts.

Girls Write Now, which pairs up at-risk high school girls with professional writers to develop a mentor relationship for a school year.

Pretty Bird Woman House, a woman's shelter on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota needs to raise money in order to stay open: show them some holiday cheer!

If you want to give internationally, check out MADRE, which supports community-based women's organizations worldwide and advocates for women's rights as human rights.

For the horny feminist

Toys in Babeland always has a great selection of naughty holiday fun, including this schmancy spherical vibrator which both baffles and intrigues me.

On Our Backs is a fun read for the girl who likes girls, buy a subscription for someone you love (or lust)!

And don't forget Feministing friend Rachel Kramer Bussel, who has a bevy of erotic books, from Crossdressing: Erotic Stories to Sex and Candy.

For the smarty-pants feminist

Not that buying vibrators and shirts aren't smarty-pants, of course. But if you're looking for some cool books, why not start by seeing what other Feministing readers like.

Or, if you're more into the pictures, pick up Mikhaela Reid's new cartoon collection. I have a copy and it's bad-ass.

Oh, and here's a list of my fave feminist books (just a few, I'll be adding more tonight!).

And, naturally, don't forget to support feminist magazines! Buy gift subscriptions to BUST, Bitch, make/shift, or ColorLines.

For all feminists

Okay, these are just things that I happen to think are cool--but I bet you will too!

Wanda Sykes' DVD, Sick and Tired. Just...hilarious.

The Douche Card. Because when you're a feminist, you know you'd like to hand these out daily.

Feminist Chicks Dig Me shirt. I've given one to a boyfriend and one to Colbert. I think Colbert appreciated it more.

Happy holidays, all!

Yay Feministing readers! The gross "Who needs credit cards..." panties have been pulled from Wal-Mart:

"We have directed our stores to remove this merchandise from our shelves," Linda Brown Blakely, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, told FOXNews.com Wednesday.

The undergarments had caused a stir on some blogs prior to Wednesday's announcement. Scarlett, a reader of Feministing.com, alerted the blog to the holiday-inspired undies, which she found on a rack in the juniors department of a Wal-Mart in Cary, N.C.

Go Scarlett! And as Ann just said via Skype to me: File this away for the "online activism isn't 'real life' activism" rebuttal files. Indeed.

UPDATE: This is hilarious; Fox News has the panty story on their front page. Please go look at the headline this instant.

Sonia Ossorio is the president of NOW-NYC, a position she has held since elected in 2004.

I know a woman from South America who spent her first night in the Big Apple in a brothel overlooking Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. With a timer at her side she “serviced� 19 men – a veritable United Nations parade of taxi drivers to restaurant workers who literally queued up for a turn to have 15 minute sex sessions with the women at this brothel.

If you never had a picture of what the low-budget, factory-style prostitution that makes up much of the local NYC sex industry, this is it – up close, uncomfortable and a mockery of sex and all it stands for – pleasure, sharing, sexual empowerment and women’s liberation.

At the beginning of each shift, the women are given a produce box top with two rolls of paper towels, a bottle of lube, alcohol and a baggie filled with unwrapped condoms. The condoms are prepped much like vegetables at restaurants before the rush hits. There are tips that go to the men who stand on the corners as dusk sets in and pass out business cards for the brothels and give directions to the houses where sex can be bought $30 for 15 minutes. The price went up this year from $25.

Not to be outdone by the NYC gals, Jen and I are convening a little holiday happy hour for Feministing friends in DC. Same date, same time, different city:

See you there!

You may remember the horrendous story from The New York Times about how female Jets fans are routinely harassed and abused at Giants Stadium:

At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.

When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men. (Emphasis mine)

Charming, right? Well it seems that maybe (maybe) something will get done about it.

Dennis Robinson, who recently became chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (which is responsible for Giants Stadium security), has blocked access to the stadium ramps where the majority of harassment takes place and is considering long term measures such as limiting alcohol sales. Yeah, I'm sure that will go over well.

While it's great that steps are being taken, there's no easy fix to change the sexist sports culture and mob mentality that breed harassment and assault against women. Any ideas?

Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the terrifyingly pervasive Disney princess trend in The Nation. Nice.

Hotness.

Pic from caffeina.

A Texas woman says she was gang raped by her Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and that the company is trying to cover up the assault.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

Eventually, Jones convinced a guard to let her use a cell phone to call her father who subsequently called the State Department and their congressman. The State Department quickly sent help from the U.S. Embassy and Jones was rescued.

Jones, who was also drugged by her attackers, had a rape kit done which showed she had been vaginally and anally raped--the kit disappeared after it was given to KBR security officers.

Now, two years later, and still no criminal charges have been brought. Imagine that.

Funny: "Now, I don't see race … People tell me I'm white, and I believe them, because I own a lot of Jimmy Buffett albums." -Stephen Colbert

Not Funny: "I don't even view Obama as black or with racial distinction." -Jerome Armstrong, MyDD

The post Katrina housing crisis is one that we know about but is failing to get as much national attention as it should. It is an ongoing problem and the structures that are supposed to be fixing up housing, providing and protecting the residents and working to "bring New Orleans back," have failed to keep their promises. New Orleans has been flooded with bad policy decisions in the last 2 years that has left thousands of people homeless.

This week has been an eventful one in New Orleans as activists fight against the city of New Orleans and US Department of Housing and Development who have plans of demolishing four public housing developments, that is 5000 units of public housing, and replace them with newly developed "mixed income" housing. Mixed income is one of those terms that sounds harmless, but really means, push out the poor, women of color and single mothers, poor families and families of color and replace them with higher income folks. The people most affected by displacement and possible demolition plans are women of color.

According to the Times-Picyune, most of the demolition plans are going ahead full force with the exception of one of the developments that the Historical Conservation Committee decided to preserve in response to activist demands.

Maureen Shaw is the Chair of NOW-NYC’s Reproductive Rights Action Committee. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Human Rights at Columbia University.

For years, Emergency Contraception, or Plan B, has been a hot topic of debate. Does it cause abortion? Should it be available by prescription only? Should minors have access to Plan B?

A quick run-down on Plan B will teach you that no, it does not induce abortion, but rather prevents pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. And while I believe that it should be available to all women regardless of age, the FDA recently made Plan B available over the counter for women 18 years and older. And by “over the counter,� I mean dispensed by a pharmacist without a prescription.

While this is a step in the right direction, the price of Plan B is outrageous, particularly in New York City.

NOW-NYC’s Reproductive Rights Committee crisscrossed the five boroughs and found prices as high as $50 at some local pharmacies, and a study conducted by the New York City Council found the average price of Plan B at New York City pharmacies to be $41.84, which is higher than the price at which it was sold by prescription only.

Nearly 17 million women nationwide are in need of subsidized contraceptive services, and financial obstacles pose a real threat to low-income women’s ability to obtain Plan B. When the price of EC is out of reach for many girls and women, the hard-fought battle to make it accessible is defeated.

After receiving confirmation that retailers set the pricing of Plan B, NOW-NYC called on NYC pharmacies to lower their costs. We encourage everyone to do the same – the more voices that are united, the more potential for change!

Our Web site has letters available to download and send to your local NYC pharmacy, urging them to make Emergency Contraception more affordable and therefore more accessible for many women.

So please, join us, and take action against the unfair pricing of Plan B, which can have detrimental effects for women who can’t afford it at its current cost.

To get a woman to stop saying feminism and say fuck me. Yeah right, so not cute. Everybody knows, feminists do it better.

Thanks to Jo for the link. And no I don't have a sense of humor.

Binge drinking is a nation-wide problem. It is a common problem and one many of us have been guilty of. It has also become par for the course for most young people in college and oftentimes continues into later parts of your life. It can be fun and usually it is, but it can also lead to depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and a handful of other great things that happen when you do too many depressants. I bring this up because CNN had a story today about the culture of drinking in college and a Facebook group that women post pictures of themselves completely trashed and passed out on.

One young woman dances on top of a bar. Another sits on the toilet drinking a beer. Several vomit. One appears with a bruised and bandaged face ("I just got drunk and fell out of a car," she writes.). In another photo, two women urinate into a waterfall.

I mean these days what is the big deal right? People post their entire lives, personal and professional, online without thought for what the consequences will be. But what are the consequences to young women posting pics of themselves drunk online?

According to CNN, a lot.

What you won't find on this page -- called "Thirty Reasons Girls Should Call it a Night" -- is humiliation and embarrassment. For the most part, the women post the photos themselves, seemingly with pride. This makes many adults -- teachers, counselors, parents -- worry that students aren't thinking through the consequences of showing themselves drunk to the world.

Many photos on the site are accompanied by full names and the colleges the women attend, apparently without much concern that parents, or potential employers, will take a look.

I can take the health line of approach that maybe binge drinking isn't good for you, but the young women should know better or should be ashamed doesn't work for me. I am always weary of shaming women for things that men do freely. Guys in college get wasted as a ritual, they don't have to hide it from future employers, in fact they are practicing to drink with future co-workers. But women have to be careful not to ruin their ladylike manners.

The lack of security in Iraq continues to astound as does the subsequent rise of woman hate that has been inspired due to the upsurge of Shiite vigilantes. You know, using Islam as a cover up for generic woman hate.

Via.

Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.

"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Our fight against the war in Iraq is a feminist issue, you already know that, but this is why. It is an especially disgusting form of woman hate that unleashes itself under dire circumstances, oppressive conditions and in war torn regions of the world.

Reader Scarlett saw these oh-so-charming panties in the junior department of her local Wal-Mart on Kildare Farms Road in Cary, NC. There's nothing quite like telling adolescent girls that they don't need to worry about finances since they have their very own moneypot between their legs.

Contact customer service here and corporate offices here: let them know that preteen vaginas aren't commodities.

Thank you fellow investigative bloggers for finding these tidbits on my least favorite, "Jesus will save you" GOP nominee.

via Kos.

Huckabee's opinion on gay marriage is out there, but we should also be publicizing Huckabee's opinions on heterosexual marriage. Specifically, what he believes about a women's role in a marriage.

In August of 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full page USA Today Ad which declared: "I affirm the statement on the family issued by the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention." What was in the family statement from the SBC? "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."

Oh hell no.

Via Racialicious.

Bryn Taylor is a member of NOW-NYC’s Women and Girls in the Media Committee. She lives and works in New York as a freelance fashion writer and stylist.

With sex and violence running rampant throughout the entertainment industry, one might think (or hope) that regulations would become increasingly more strict as the entertainment becomes raunchier. Sadly, this is not the case. In fact, Hollywood’s guidelines are becoming more lenient by the minute, and everything seems up for interpretation.

A recent report by NOW-NYC’s Women and Girls in the Media Committee (WAGM) uncovered the startling fact that a number of films in circulation today fail to accurately warn against the sexual content they contain. The Motion Picture Association of America is in charge of assigning detailed and precise ratings to films. And they are not doing their job.

In response, WAGM spearheaded a campaign aimed at the MPAA and its failure to include warnings of rape and/or sexually aggressive behavior in movies where these abominable acts are clearly depicted. The committee compiled a list of 144 films released between January 1996 and March 2006 that had received either an R or NC-17 rating with mention of sexual content, but no specific mention of rape or sexually aggressive behavior (which we have defined as “any non-consensual sexual contact/behavior… that does not result in sexual penetration�). Of the 144 films screened, 31 depict rapes or attempted rapes, and 66 contain characters that are victims of sexually aggressive behavior.

The MPAA’s method of rating is subjective at best. There are no specific definitions as to what constitutes rape, or any type of sexual content. Without standards by which to judge, each film’s rating is prone to the whims and fancies of its raters. This leads to the inevitability of biased judgments and opinion-based decisions. Where one rater might find a scene to be sexually violent, another might judge it as harmless or even arousing.

In our last "Voices of..." series in 2007, NOW NYC will be contributing posts this week!

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the nation's largest organization working to advance women's rights. The New York City chapter of NOW (NOW-NYC) is the largest chapter in the country and works to protect women's reproductive choices, end violence against women and eliminate sex discrimination in our schools, workplaces and the justice system in New York.

Thanks to Maureen Shaw for putting this all together!

Hey y'all, if you or anyone you know is interested...submit something!

Co-editors Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti are seeking submissions for their anthology on rape culture, Yes Means Yes!, to be published by Seal Press in Fall 2008.

Imagine a world where women enjoy sex on their own terms and aren't shamed for it. Imagine a world where men treat their sexual partners as collaborators, not conquests. Imagine a world where rape is rare and swiftly punished.

Welcome to the world of Yes Means Yes.

Yes Means Yes! will fly in the face of the conventional feminist wisdom that rape has nothing to do with sex. We are looking to collect sharp and insightful essays, from voices both established and new, that demonstrate how empowering female sexual pleasure is the key to dismantling rape culture.

Here's your horrifying lede of the day, from The Guardian: "A judge in Australia was facing calls to step down today after she failed to jail a group of nine males who admitted gang-raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community, saying the young victim 'probably agreed' to have sex with them." I...what the...sigh.

Australia has been struggling over the problem of sexual assault of in indigenous communities; a recent report showed that sexual abuse against Aboriginal children is happening at staggering levels.

In the case of this young girl, who was raped by three adults and six juveniles, communities across Australia were horrified by Queensland District Court judge Sarah Bradley's leniency and disgusting comments.

"If this was a white girl in white suburban Brisbane' there's no way the defendants would have walked out of court," said child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston.

Aboriginal academic Professor Boni Robertson called for the judge to step down while there was an inquiry. "It's undermined everything we have worked for over the last 10 years to get our women justice in this country," she said.

Apparently several of the attackers were from "prominent" families. Charming. I'm looking for sites where folks can take action, but if any one finds something before me--feel free to post in comments.

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of antiquated notions of chastity and purity being touted as "revolutionary." I'm sorry, folks--there's nothing cutting edge about believing that girls' moral compass resides somewhere in between her legs.

In a recent Chicago Tribune piece on purity balls, reporter Dahleen Glanton refers to girls promising their virginities to their dads and dressing "modestly" as "controversial," a "movement" and "counterculture."

If girls and women really want to rebel against the sexified pop culture that breeds Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls, purity balls aren't the way. In fact, they're just more of the same. Pop culture tells women that their bodies are public property and that they have to be sexual in order to be desirable and loved. Purity balls and the like tell women that their bodies are private property (though not our own of course--our bodies belong to our fathers, husbands, and the men in our life) and that they have to be virginal in order to be desirable and loved. In either case women's sexuality belongs to everyone but women. There's nothing counter-cultural or cutting edge about that.

Glanton puts a couple of feminist quotes in her article, but seems to really buy into the notion that purity balls are revolutionary. Hell, she doesn't even seem to question that all of this moral tsk-tsking is directed only at women.

"Girls are going into marriage with 12 sexual relationships. That brings so much baggage and regret that it breaks down the marriage," said Janet Hellige, a volunteer who organizes the biannual Father-Daughter Purity Ball sponsored by The Christian Center in Peoria. "Girls have a wonderful gift to give, and we don't want them to give all of themselves away. What we want them to do is present themselves as a rose to their husband with no blemishes."

Now if that sentiment doesn't make you want to start a revolution, I don't know what will! (Ugh.)

Interestingly, it seems that the purity ball folks are starting to recognize how, well...creepy people are finding these events.

Wow. In just one week we raised $7,231. That's incredible. So, we made this little video thanking all of you.

Ann, Courtney and Celina thank you too, they just didn't make the cut to be in the video (kidding!)

And let me just say, wahoo!

My. Chair.

This weekend, me, Monty and Monty's Daddy spent some time having the sniffles, hanging out at home, and putting up our Christmas tree. (Of course, having the luck that I do, my vacuum cleaner gave out right as the pine needles on the floor hit critical mass.) As of late, Monty has spent a lot of time on my beloved white chair, hairing it up and looking perfect. The bastard.

By the way, be on the lookout for another (and perhaps last?) thermometer update this morning...we think you guys are gonna like it!

Before coming to the Center for Genetics and Society, Emily Galpern worked for 10 years promoting community health and well-being through coalition-building, advocacy, and health education. She holds a BA in women's studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and obtained her Master's in public health in community health education from San Francisco State University in 2004. She completed a graduate research project on women's sexual and reproductive health in southern Ecuador using a human rights framework, and conducted other research on health disparities and inequities and the impact of racial discrimination on health.

Here's Emily...

I am so deeply disturbed when politicians running for office fail to read history. In an interview with GQ, Mike Huckabee claims that gay marriage would lead to the demise of civilization. That, any society that has changed the rules of marriage, has not survived.

I don’t think the issue’s about being against gay marriage. It’s about being for traditional marriage and articulating the reason that’s important. You have to have a basic family structure. There’s never been a civilization that has rewritten what marriage and family means and survived. So there is a sense in which, you know, it’s one thing to say if people want to live a different way, that’s their business. But when you want to redefine what family means or what marriage means, then that’s an issue that should require some serious and significant debate in the public square. And if you look at states that have had it on the ballot—I know in our state it was a 70-percent-against issue. Most states are similar to that.

Supporting traditional marriage is being against gay marriage, doesn't matter how many ways you spin it. That is transparent. If conservatives want to keep marriage so traditional they should be thinking about reality TV shows that are anything but sacred, or divorce rates, which as Wanda Sykes says is the biggest threat to marriage-not gay marriage.

Also, can I see some examples of when marriage laws were changed, a society or civilization crumbled. Beyond the fact that many, many, many societies have changed marriage laws and traditions, including our own when we overturned anti-miscegenation laws, civilizations have not been destroyed. Devilstower at Kos makes the point that,

The truth is that every society rewrites the rules of marriage and family. That's what happens to all our social values as they respond to changes in how we live, what we know, and our available resources. Yes, friction occurs when the boundaries of a social convention no longer match those of a society in which it's embedded, but the societies that survive are exactly those which demonstrate the flexibility to change and adapt.

I agree, but I also take an even more hard-line stance, that as long as marriage is pushed to maintain traditional gender roles, it is under the purview of patriarchy. Not allowing gay marriage is just another way to maintain male gender dominance in heteronormative marriage structures. It is one of the untold stories deeply embedded in the castrated, paranoid imagination of the freeper.

Furthermore, if they actually believe that allowing gay marriage will bring the end of civilization, they are giving a lot of credit to the actual power allowing gay marriage would have. It is going to take a lot more than a mainstream, middle class, gay marriage movement, to dismantle the oppressive state-sanctioned, culturally mandated apparatus, that heternormative marriage is.

Check out Violet Blue's interview (via SFGate) with Staci Haines, author of Healing Sex: A Mind-Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma.

She asks the hard questions.

VB: Why is rediscovering sexual pleasure important for survivors?

SH: Sex is a normal and healthy part of being human. Having good sex — where you feel pleasure, intimacy, intensity and longing — is one of the most powerful experiences anyone can have. Not having that can be as detrimental as sex can be powerful. Oftentimes, people who have been abused avoid sex so it doesn't bring up feelings about the abuse. To heal, they have to go toward, and eventually through whatever triggers memories of the abuse — that's where freedom is.

We're nearly at 4k! If we hit our goal of 5k for the upgrade, I will literally do this dance around my apartment. (Also, I miss Ren and Stimpy.)

Contributed by Miriam Pérez

The NYTimes Style section had an article yesterday about "baby mama gifts," "baby baubles" and so-called "push presents." These refer to gifts given to women shortly after giving birth, as a reward for enduring pregnancy and childbirth. The author makes it seem like this is a trend sweeping the nation, in addition to it being a throw back "from the time cavemen brought trinkets to their wives." The article starts with out with a story of a woman presented diamond earrings by her husband in the delivery room after 17 hours of labor. It continues through the stories of women who received any number of gifts: rings, watches, bracelets, even a hot tub.

"It's more and more an expectation of moms these days that they deserve something for bearing the burden for nine months, getting sick, ruining their body," said Linda Murray, executive editor of BabyCenter.com.

The interesting thing about this trend is its connection to the concept of valuing women's work. If pregnancy and childbirth has value, should women be compensated for the time and effort that they are putting into childbearing? If so, what kind of compensation would be fair? Conversations about paying women to serve as surrogate mothers have stirred up these conversations, and some states want to make it illegal to compensate women for more than their medical expenses during surrogacy arrangements. Placing value on women's work (in the home, rearing children, etc) is a feminist dialogue that has been going on for decades, but this kind of materialistic compensation definitely doesn't sit well with me. How about we think of more creative and beneficial ways honor the work of motherhood.

"This isn't the time to give a $200 piece of jewelry," said Rhonda Grote, president of ThinkThoughtful.com, an online gift consulting company in Bradenton, Fla. "I do not think that because a woman has had a baby she requires a Tiffany & Company item. She requires help, love and emotional support."

Uh, it took me a whole day to post this because I couldn't stop staring and saying "what the fuck" in response to this.

Kevin over at Slant Truth wrote a great post about a truly horrible article from Psychology Today, Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. He does a great job at calling bullshit on the impressive amount of bullshit in it, so check it out.

Among other things, in response to their assertion that men are predisposed to like big-breasted, blue-eyed blondes (don't worry, it's "science", so they can say it), he says:

I have to ask; this article constantly talks about how men have a universal preference for this and that. Really? Seems to me that 3/4s of the world would be at a reproductive disadvantage if all the het men preferred, and were pushed by their genes, beyond their control, towards the hawt women (read: blonde and blue-eyed women with big breasts). Last time I checked, there weren’t too many blonde, blue-eyed women running around Africa or South America. What on Earth are they doing over there? How do they keep reproducing when their evolutionary drives are telling them that all of the women are not worthy of reproducing with?

But my favorite point Kevin makes is that just from the title you can tell you're about to be fed a well "researched" pile of crap.

Mention “politically incorrect truths� and I will almost always hold you suspect. I don’t care what side of the political spectrum you fall on. It’s almost always a way of saying, “you won’t like what you read and any arguments against me are moot, not because I can back up my claims, but because you’re being politically correct.�

For real. Can someone tell me why it's such a huge important thing for certain people to dedicate their lives to being apologists for stupid shit? I swore 5 years ago to smack anyone who talked about being politically incorrect like it's a badge of courage. We get it. You think your opinions make you a sexy truth-teller. Congratulations. Now stop being a racist sexist asshole and study something useful to society. I mean, I can be an asshole at times. That doesn't mean I'm going to write a book justifying it.

We're about to update that thermometer again (amount to be announced!), but in the meantime--anyone have any fun weekend happenings going on? My super-fancy plans include trying to convince Monty's Daddy, who moved in a couple of weeks ago, to finish unpacking and get these goddamn boxes out of my house. Not that I'm irritated or anything. Also, I'm going to an early 90s party--time to break out the Cross Colors.

So share your weekend plans, or do some shameless self promotion of your blog or website...

Gee, I wonder why. Via the New York Times:

The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working.

The federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates.

And as reader Sara points out, it's sort of hilarious to see the Heritage Foundation's comeback:

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said that blaming abstinence-only programs was “stupid.� Mr. Rector said that most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.

You know, because being a teen mom is such the craze these days. Let's take that statement, replace "educated" with "terrified" and "but wanted to" with "and therefore," and we'll be a bit more on the right path.

Not even a month after Iranian feminist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for taking part in a women's rights rally, Jelveh Javaheri was arrested on Saturday for creating the website We4Change, which promotes women's rights in Iran. On the site, Maryam Hosseinkhah, also arrested last month, reports from prison.

All three women are leaders in the One Million Signatures Campaign, which is seeking to gather signatures calling for the change of discriminatory laws in Iran. And at least 30 more have been arrested just in Tehran this year. Javaheri and most other activists are being taken to Evin prison, where at least Ali has been sentenced to lashings. A group of mothers of the activists being held have also created a website, Mothers for Peace.

In the meantime, the capital is setting up women-run police stations to arrest other women who, for example, wear "tight, short coats and skimpy headscarves." That's right, "skimpy headscarves." Sigh.

Take action now to help get these women released.

Because of how incredible you guys are, we've already raised another 1k today. Our grand total is already over $3200! (Thanks, in no small part, to several large donations. Wow.) Thanks everyone, you continue to amaze us with your generosity!

Check out the fabulous Amanda Marcotte's interview with the also fabulous Miriam Pérez, doula, writer, blogger and Senior Advocacy Associate of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. And the rest of Amanda's podcast rocks too (as always).

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre" when 14 women were killed at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.

On Dec. 6, 1989, 25 year-old Marc Lepine opened fire at women engineering students at the university. This was immediately after he screamed, "I hate feminists." He later turned the gun on himself.

Two years later, December 6 was made into Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. There are a number of vigils to be held today across Canada.

A list of the young women killed is after the jump.

Shortly after Katherine Heigl made her statement about Knocked Up saying the movie was "a little sexist," we find that an Jennifer Love Hewitt is now speaking out against social beauty standards. In response to ridicule on the internet regarding an "unflattering" picture of her in a bikini, Hewitt said:

"I've sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women's bodies are constantly scrutinized. . . To set the record straight, I'm not upset for me, but for all the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.

A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. . . And being a size 0 doesn't make you beautiful. . . To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist. . . put on a bikini — put it on and stay strong."

While I agree with Zuzu (who has a great post on this, by the way) that she seems a wee defensive as being seen as fat, it's great that she's speaking out against this bullshit.

Thanks to Michael for the link.

Check out that thermometer! We've all been overwhelmed by your generosity--whether it's a ten dollar donation or a hundred dollar donation, it all makes a difference. So thanks so guys; I can't believe we're halfway there in just a couple of days!

Some of you might be wondering why the hell I chose to review Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate--not particularly feminist. Ah contraire. What is so feministy and fun about this book is that it is written by a veteran feminist journalist, Alicia C. Shepard, who got the first stab at going through the Woodward and Bernstein archives at the University of Texas. UT bought the whole kit and caboodle in 2003 for a record $5 million, the most ever paid for a living writer's archive (it was rumored that Bernstein pressured Woodward into it because he needed the dough.) I also think that the state of journalism is inherently a feminist concern (truth! equality! justice!), but let me not go off on that rant.

Instead let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I felt like my father's daughter--he's a big ol' history buff--reveling in all the wonderful details and juicy quotations of this pivotal moment in American history. A couple of the things that will really stick with me:

Woodward and Bernstein, and the coverage more generally of Watergate, was the moment when journalists stopped placating the American presidency and started telling the truth. As Shepard wrote, "The White House press corp would never be the same." It gives new meaning to what we know about the Bush administration and the ways in which it has shut down journalists' capacity to ask real questions and get real answers.

The whole Deep Throat business brought anonymous sources to light. Journalists continue to fight over this issue to this day--Is it ethical to use anonymous sources? Does it lead to more truth or less in reporting? How can the public trust a source they can't know? On the on hand, yes, anonymous sources can take pot shots at politicians they detest without consequences, but on the other, vital issues that wouldn't otherwise surface (discriminatory hiring practices, sexual abuse etc.) can be exposed because the source is guaranteed safe anonymity.

These guys were frickin' young--in their late twenties and early thirties when it all went down. It's exciting to think about such newbies hunting down the truth so fearlessly. What might we discover if we don't accept the pat answers and, instead, seek the difficult, messy ones?

Thanks to Alicia Shepard for being a great role model for all of us young feminist journalists to go out there and get the big story. Too often magazine editorial board meetings and newsroom pow-wows are littered with lingering misogyny, i.e. "The new girl can cover these women's issues for the Style section." Uggh. Everything is a "women's issue," including Watergate, and Style is not synonymous with women/psychology/family/fashion/gender/consumption.

Next week: Women Who Light the Dark by Paola Gianturco and on the 20th I'll do a little holiday book buying guide.

Documents show that Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee lobbied for the release of a convicted rapist out of prison, despite a number of letters sent from previous survivors and the families of survivors urging him otherwise.

This was due to their prediction that he would rape again, and even murder, if released. Huckabee ignored their pleas, Wayne Dumond was released 25 years before his original release date, and their predictions came true. Reports the Huffington Post:

In a letter that has never before been made public, one of Dumond's victims warned: 'I feel that if he is released it is only a matter of time before he commits another crime and fear that he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time.' Before Dumond was granted parole at Huckabee's urging, records show that Huckabee's office received a copy of this letter from Arkansas' parole board.

Huckabee spokesperson denies that he ever received these letters, although authors of the letters as well as a former senior aide of Huckabee say that they were indeed, sent and received. And despite his denial that he pressured for the release of Dumond, four parole board members say that Huckabee did, in fact, push them for his release.

You must read the details at HuffPo, which includes the letters to Huckabee by the survivors and their families; it's pretty unbelievable.

I love sketch comedy, but when it is called, "Lesbian phone sex," I love it even more.

via The Big Gay Sketch Comedy Show.

It is not scandalous, I promise.

Huge thanks to everyone who blew Jessica's goal for today away by making donations to support our site upgrades. We're over $1400, and it's so great to see that you are as excited about the changes to Feministing as we are.

Special thanks to the person who made the largest donation so far, $250. And keep talking about what you want to see in January. I'm particularly interested to hear ideas of what you guys would talk about on your Feministing blog.

And, because I know a lot of fund raisers, let me just add... keep it coming!

A fetus soldier to adorn your tree this year. Very anti-choice, pro-military chic.

Via Boing Boing, Feministe and reader Shana.

Hey folks, we're totally overwhelmed by the amount of support we've gotten for our upgrade--thank you all! As you can see from our schmancy thermometer on the right, we've raised over $800 since yesterday. That's just amazing.

Let's see if we can hit $1k by the end of the day.... (hint hint)

Seriously, thanks to everyone for their support and kind words about the redesign. It's so nice to know you all are as excited about this as we are!

Several people have emailed me this story: Apparently, a charity group formed by some of the wives of the Ottawa Senators is giving money to a crisis pregnancy center. (Better known as tricking-and-lying-to-women centers.) Heather Mallick at CBC News reports:

The Better Halves are giving a third of the proceeds of this year's $50,000 Christmas Tree raffle to First Place Pregnancy Centre, an Ottawa anti-abortion group run by Pentecostal Christians.

...The problem is worse than just some hockey fans inadvertently donating to a cause they may oppose — that is a personal issue between a fan and her team (in my case, the Canadiens). What irks is that our tax dollars are involved.

So if there were any Senators fans out there planning on giving some cash, you may want to rethink the donation!

Stacey May at Shameless has more.

Warning: This video is violent and potentially triggering.

This Canadian PSA never made it on the air (I'm assuming because of the content), but I tend to think that an ad against intimate partner violence should be shocking. Thoughts?

Thanks to Ramin for the link.

Yes, researchers in San Francisco (shocking, I know) have found that a certain compound found in weed slows the rate at which breast cancer spreads.

The study, released in the medical journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, discovered that the CBD compound found in cannabis can slow the activity of a gene that causes the spread of cancer cells.

Researchers announced the finding with hope that the compound could be part of a non-toxic treatment for metastatic breast cancer.

"Right now we have a limited range of options in treating aggressive forms of cancer," said Dr. Sean McAllister, lead author of the study. "Those treatments, such as chemotherapy, can be effective but they can also be extremely toxic and difficult for patients. This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy that could achieve the same results without any of the painful side effects."

This particular compound won't make you stoned, but they are not recommending smoking tons of weed to get it, since you need quite a bit of it. I guess they will have to eat it. ;)

via RawStory.

As Feministing approaches its fourth year anniversary (April 2008!), the gals and I have been giving a lot of thought to the future of the site and what we'd like to accomplish.

I know we've alluded before to big changes on the site, and we were waiting for the right moment when we had everything together, to announce them. So here's the deal, dear readers.

We're doing a redesign--hopefully to be completed by the new year--that will change Feministing from a blog to a community site where readers and commenters can create their own profiles, blogs, and more. It's going to bad ass. Here's just a sampling of stuff that Feministing readers will be able to do when the upgrade is complete:

Create personalized profile pages with (if you'd like) personal info like a photo, interests, your location; a list of all of your comments; a list of posts, forums, and comments that you recommend;

Rate posts and comments that you like, and see Feministing posts and diaries that are highly recommended by other users.

And so much more.

We're really excited about this, because it means that we'll be community-building, not just blogging. Now, anyone can sign up to create their own diary--but as part of our ongoing effort to bridge online and "real life" activism, we're also going to be inviting certain women's organizations to start diaries that we'll highlight on Feministing. We're hoping that this will not only help to shine a light on the important work that women are doing across the country, but that it will also get these organizations more involved in online work. But most importantly, we want to do this upgrade so that we can open up Feministing to everyone who wants to get involved. Whether it's writing a blog, advocating for an organization, or just reading--we want Feministing to be a one-stop online activism shop.

Here's where you come in. Part of the reason we started taking more ads was so we could afford this upgrade and, in the future, start to pay our writers and tech folk (who do this all for free). We've estimated that the upgrade (software and pay for techies) is going to cost us around 5k--no small amount. So were asking for your help. If you come to Feministing and enjoy our content, please, consider making a donation. We want to create the best site that we can for our readers, but we can't do it alone. If you can't make a donation, consider sending our call for cash out to feminist friends.

All of us here hope you're as excited as we are about the upcoming changes to Feministing. We'll be answering questions in comments about the upgrade--so feel free to ask away.

Thanks, as always, for all of your support. It's the readers and commenters of Feministing that inspired this move, and we wouldn't be anywhere without you. Kisses.

There will be a rally and city council meeting to support the Oakland Buffer Ordinance that will protect women, clinic escorts, and reproductive health care providers and staff from anti-abortion protesters. Patients, staff and escorts are being harassed by anti-choice protesters in Oakland. Come out and show your support for women's right to access reproductive health clinics.

More info here and after the jump.

A study done at Oxford University found that in the last 17 years there has been a disproportionate growth in the number of male babies born verse female babies in the South Asian/Indian community in the UK. Researchers and experts are suggesting that it is because of a practice known as female feoticide, when a mother chooses to abort a fetus because it is female as opposed to male. It is almost ironic in a sense, a right won by feminists and activists to ensure the safety, health and reproductive rights of women, but being exercised to eliminate the birth of women. It is not shocking that a cultural practice predominant in India is reproduced abroad. It is however, disappointing.

The alarming revelation by the BBC's Asian Network radio station on Monday comes as Oxford University population experts declared they had found at least 1,500 Indian girl children "missing" from birth statistics in England and Wales in the last 17 years.

But the BBC radio investigation, which is targeted at Asian listeners, said that it is not just Indian-born British women who are resorting to the culturally-specific practice of female foeticide. Using first-hand evidence from interviews with British-born-and-bred Indian women, it said the practice appears to be quietly accepted among this strand of the 1.3-million-strong community as well.

The revelation received ballast on Monday when a Punjabi local councillor from the Indian-dominant city of Leicester admitted the practice was rife among British Indians.

I don't know why people are so shocked when cultural practices from the country of origin flourish within diasporic groups. If anything, when immigrants or second generation ethnic groups are exposed to racism, discrimination and xenophobia, they are more likely to exaggerate their cultural practices to protect themselves and their communities.

What would a solution to this problem look like?

Via Times of India.

At the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, girls took home wins in both the individual and team categories for the first time ever. Individual winner Isha Himani Jain (pictured at right with her study of bone growth in zebra fish) will get a 100k scholarship as did the winners in the team category, Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, who created a molecule that helps block the reproduction of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria. (!)

As someone who went to a math and science high school (yes, I'm a bit dorky) this just makes my day. I remember so distinctly how--even at a school that was all about this shit--girls were just treated differently. I often wish I could go back and not let myself be pushed away from my weird obsession with organic chemistry and geology. So congrats, gals. You do us proud.

Thanks to Erin for the link.

Consider this gadget the modern-day answer to the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story." Plug this device into a computer's USB port and watch the exotic dancer swivel with each sound.

I hoped that they would stop at a USB powered lava lamp. Guess not.

Via.

Thanks to Anne for the link.

Raise your hand if you are tired of hearing about another way that the courts justify rape and blame women for the violence they have suffered at the hands of men.

Yeah, me too.

A women from the Philippines has decided to take her rape case to the United Nations' CEDAW because the courts in Manila decided that there are two kinds of women; rapable and unrapable (please no, neither of these are actual words) and that she fell into the "unrapable" category.

“The court, in effect, showed that there are two kinds of women: the ‘rapable’ and the ‘unrapable’ kind. I , according to the judge, fit the ‘unrapable’ mold,� she said with a chuckle, pointing out it was an absurd proposition from a judge she described as “unenlightened� about gender-sensitivity.

Karen said she did not fall in the “rapable� stereotype by society’s standards. “There was one conference when a rich lady from Davao City sought me out because she wanted to see the prominent businessman’s victim. She looked surprised when she saw me and said bluntly that she had been expecting somebody with a come-hither appearance,� she recalled.

Oh, hell no.

Via.

Thanks to Athena for the link.

From The Onion: Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, actress Katherine Heigl says that Knocked Up, was "a little sexist."

"It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys," she says. "It was hard for me to love the movie."

Thoughts?

Apparently, a controversial sentiment.

A new ballot initiative in Missouri is seeking to essentially outlaw abortion. (H/t Cara)

The proposal would require doctors to extensively review the medical literature on abortion and investigate each patient’s background and lifestyle. It would require doctors to certify that the abortion was better for the woman than a full-term pregnancy.

Because when deciding what's best for a woman, the idea of actually trusting the woman herself is silly-talk. That's what doctors, legislators, and men are for. I suppose we shouldn't be shocked that they're going the "women are too stupid to know that when they get abortions, they're getting abortions" route, but it's still frigging infuriating. The proposal would also allow women to sue doctors if they later regretted their decision to terminate a pregnancy and would offer no rape or incest exception.

The proposal, which is known as the “Prevention of Coerced and Unsafe Abortion Act,� would require the doctor to certify that an abortion was necessary to avert the woman’s imminent death or irreversible disability. Or the doctor would have to document that carrying the fetus to term would be more dangerous than the combination of nearly every conceivable risk associated with abortion.

And get this--those risks include any risk that's been associated with abortion "in any study published in a peer-reviewed journal." So basically, even potentially politically-motivated and well, untrue, research would have to be taken into account. Charming.

NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri says that the proposal would mean a near-total ban on abortion and that the wording would actually mean that a dying woman seeking an abortion that would save her life would be required to wait 48 hours before obtaining the procedure. You know, so she had sufficient time to mull the decision over and all. Disgusting.

Picture stolen shamelessly from bean.

For some reason my damn audio doesn't translate when I upload videos to YouTube, but I thought sleepy Monty was damn cute--even without sound. Don't laugh, I'm desperately trying to catch him in a yawn. I swear I'm not nuts, it's literally the most heart-melting thing of all time. One day, Monty, one day.

Contributed by Priscilla Huang

Former Congressman Henry Hyde died last Thursday, but he didn’t die alone. Hyde left a legacy that includes women like Rosie Jimenez, a victim of one of Hyde’s anti-choice policies. A Latina single mother, Rosie is the first woman known to have died from a back alley abortion as a result of the Hyde Amendment. Tragically, she was found with a $700 scholarship check when she died. Rosie had hoped to finish her education and pursue a better life for herself and her 5-year old, so she risked the cheaper alternative--an unsafe abortion.

Rep. Hyde’s 30+ years of service in Congress included an extraordinary effort to impeach Bill for lying about the affair with Monica despite Hyde’s own long-term extramarital affair, which the Congressman dismissed as a “youthful indiscretion.� Uh huh. Please let me know the next time you hear someone characterize a seven-year relationship, especially one that took place in his 40s, a “youthful indiscretion.�

Although many will probably remember Hyde for his role in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, millions of women are likely to remember him as the man responsible for passing one of the most restrictive policies on abortion access. In 1976, Hyde introduced a rider to an annual appropriations bill, now known as the “Hyde Amendment,� that bans federal funding for abortions. The original version didn’t contain any exceptions, but in its current form, the Hyde Amendment makes exceptions for life, rape and incest.

Medicaid paid for about 300,000 abortions per year before the Hyde Amendment. After the Hyde Amendment went into effect, the number dropped to just a few thousand. The law has had devastating consequences for poor women, who are disproportionately women of color. Currently, 7.3 million women of reproductive age are enrolled in Medicaid, and women of color make up half of non-elderly Medicaid beneficiaries. Hyde is also responsible for this gut-wrenching statistic: 18–35% of Medicaid-eligible women would have had an abortion but carried their pregnancies to term because there is no public funding for abortions.

RH Reality Check has launched a great blog series on obstetric fistula, which effects two million women in the developing world. Through photo essays, information spreading and ways to get involved, the blog series shines a light on this tragic--but preventable and treatable--injury. Make sure to check it out.

Happy Monday, folks! Think of this picture as a fun graffiti reminder to walk with feminism in your life. (Yes, I'm very philosophical, I know.)

I spent the weekend in Philly at a friend's wedding (congrats Robbie and Ilana!) where I caught up with high school buds, drank a tad too much wine, and a had a huge piece of ceiling from the hotel bar fall on my head (seriously). What was your weekend like?

Pic from Gaelx.

On Iran's first female race car driver.

Henry Hyde, who worked hard to ensure that low-income women were denied reproductive health access, has died.
Related: Medicaid covers penis pumps, but not abortion services.

I'll take "gender parity" for 500, Alex: This season, 52% of Jeopardy! contestants were women -- a vast improvement for a show that historically skews male.
This Christmas, most girls are asking for toys designed with boys in mind.

Whatever happened to all the lesbian feminists?

Hillary Clinton's AIDS plan would strip out requirements that anti-HIV/AIDS programs discuss abstinence.

The New York Times characterizes Barack Obama as "postfeminist." WTF? (A longer post on the article to follow...) And Michelle Obama chatted with Rebecca Traister.

A new site, Abuse Aware, documents violence against women. (It features many of Donna Ferrato's groundbreaking -- and heartbreaking -- photos on the subject.)

On the unacceptable lack of coverage of Latasha Norman's disappearance and death. The major cable news networks couldn't find a few minutes in between all their Stacy Peterson updates to talk about Norman?

Extreme anti-choicers are flush with cash.

Sexist gamers rate the breasts of sexed-up video game heroines. Barf.

Did you have any idea that one of Bush's first actions in office (right after reinstating the Global Gag Rule, I'm sure) was to require that all women in the West Wing wear pantyhose at all times? Ugh.

How about some decent Hollywood biopics about black women?

Photo by Steed Media Service

In the 1990s, Celeste Beatty traveled Europe, Central America and Africa as an exchange student to study local beer brewing customs after perfecting duplicates of American ales like Samuel Adams. She founded Harlem Brewing Company, the maker of Sugar Hill Golden Ale (delicious, I've tried) in 2000.

Harlem Brewing recently sealed a partnership with the major distributor Manhattan Beer Distributors, which supplies 35 percent of New York City’s market. The deal is helping to get Sugar Hill Golden Ale into bodegas, supermarkets and restaurants around New York City.

A native of North Carolina, Celeste gives 10 percent of her company’s income to charity, usually to jazz organizations. Here's Celeste...