February 2008 Archives

Thanks to a tip by reader Shannon, we find that there's a Facebook group titled, "Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich." And it has nearly 40,000 members.

There are tons others like it, but this one is especially obnoxious It's description says the group is "Dedicated to keeping Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office and in the kitchen." They're also selling t -shirts for their "cause."

But the most upsetting part of this was the large number of women who are members - just glancing at it, I would guess that at least twenty percent of members are women. Depressing.

Because of the huge volume of stuff we blog about here, we (regrettably) don't always have time to follow a story to its end or report on the variety of responses it garners around the blogosphere. In an effort to be better about that, here are a few updates to recent posts:

Latoya at Racialicious responds to those creepy anti-statutory rape ads, bringing in a class- and race-conscious analysis to clear up some misconceptions from our comments section. Please, check out her post.

We blogged about Canadian doctors refusing to perform pap smears on single women (a story originally reported at RHRealityCheck) earlier this week. The key source for that article has a post up making clear that this is anecdotal, second-hand evidence. The story as she told it is absolutely true, she says, but this is obviously a call for more in-depth reporting on the subject. (No, Ms. Pedgehog, you're not being a bitch about this! It's a valid point.)

The Marine charged with raping a 14-year-old Okinawan girl has been released, and Condi Rice expressed her "deep regret" over the incident.

To clarify, the sports bra ads that we blogged about last week were spec ads, meaning they were created by a third party never approved by the company for public use.

Colorado state Rep. Larry Liston -- you remember him, the one who called teen moms "sluts" -- recently visited a school for teenage mothers. I highly recommend this account of his visit. After a long awkward conversation, he finally apologizes to them, face to face: "I uttered a word which I regret and I apologized for. It's a word I don't use. Scout's honor. I never use it. I regret it. I am sorry." Uh, except for that one very public time he used it? Seriously, though, the article is great: read the whole thing. (Thanks to Libby for the heads up!)

And finally, I mentioned in Sunday's Weekly Feminist Reader that our awesome feminist bloggy pal Sara at F-Words recently found out she has a brain tumor, and will be undergoing surgery to remove it. Please send prayers, thoughts, good vibes, etc. her way. And if you want to do something a bit more concrete for Sara, there's a donation button in the upper-righthand corner of her site.

I refuse to post the image of the newest horrific stunt that PETA managed to pull off in London yesterday. Instead, I'll go vintage sexism and give you the oldest ad that we have - Save the wild pussy!

Sometimes it seems that PETA's sexist bullshit will never cease to haunt us, so I thought it was about time we do something about it. I wanted to take the opportunity after this most recent heinous stunt to make a poll out of five of their most offensive ads/actions that we have and ask you which is your personal favorite (to hate, that is). So will it be:

"Fur Trim" Ad?
"Milk Gone Wild"?
Naked Alicia Silverstone's ad?
"KFC Blows" Sex dolls?
London's "Unhappy Mother's Day for Pigs"?

And while we're collecting your responses, give PETA a new campaign idea like these that Ann suggested, "Vegetarianism is not sexism" or "Don't make women your meat substitute."

Via Hear Me Roar, we find out that David & Goliath has pulled the oh-so-funny rape t-shirt (at least online, it seems). First Wal-Mart's panties and now this - we're on a roll, folks!

But don't worry, they still have the classic "I'm too pretty to do math" shirt. (Sigh.)

Hey there, we're back with our potty-mouthed vlogging for another installment of the Friday Feminist Fuck You. I recorded this week's edition, and since I lack video editing software, it's grainy and missing the fancy titles and logos that Jessica's version was sporting last week. But anyway, check it out:

For more on gender and the Academy Awards, see this op-ed from the Guardian.

If you missed last week's edition, check out Jessica telling Grover Cleveland High School to fuck off. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

PS 1, an affiliate of MoMA and the venue for ridiculously fun and famous summer parties (it's in mine and Jessica's hood in Queens), is holding "the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art. "

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution is running through May 12th, and it looks pretty damn cool. So if you're around the New York area, definitely check it out. I know I will.

You know, I just have no words. I'm too fucking mentally and emotionally exhausted to yet again explain why rape isn't fucking funny.

Lodge your complaints here.

Thanks to Ariel for the link.

Planned Parenthood of Idaho is taking (justifiable) heat after an employee agreed to take a donation aimed at aborting black fetuses.

The call to Idaho came in July to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho.

On the recording provided by The Advocate, an actor portraying a donor said he wanted his money used to eliminate black unborn children because "the less black kids out there the better."

Kersey laughed nervously and said: "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."

You can read the whole exchange here and listen to it here; it was part of an anti-choice effort to "catch" abortion providers taking funds from obviously racist donors.

What so awful about this, in addition to Kersey's horrifying response on the call, is that this plays directly into anti-choice talking points about abortion and race.

Rebecca Poedy, CEO of PP of Idaho said, "A fundraising employee violated the organization's principles and practices when she appeared to be willing to accept a racially motivated donation...We apologize for the manner in which this offensive call was handled. We take full responsibility for the actions of the fundraising staff member who created the impression that racism of any form would be tolerated at Planned Parenthood. We took swift action to ensure that each of our employees understands their responsibility to communicate clearly with donors about the fact that we believe in helping all individuals, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation, make informed decisions about their reproductive health care."

Black man vs. white woman - The Boston Globe: "Hillary Clinton contends with gender stereotypes, and Barack Obama with racial ones. Which bias runs deeper in the American psyche? The answer does not bode well for Clinton." (Oppression Olympics defined. Just check out the graphic!)

Vaccinating Boys for Girls’ Sake? - New York Times: "Will parents of sons consent to a three-shot regimen that has been marketed as benefiting girls? How do you pitch that to Gardasil Boy’s parents? Think altruism. Responsibility. Chivalry, even? Oh, and yes: some explicit details about genital warts..." (Shocker: this is in the Styles section.)

Obama: First Female President? - Newsweek.com: "It has been a rarity in modern political life: a wide-open race for the nomination of both parties. But whatever happens from here on out, this campaign will always be remembered for the emergence of the first serious woman candidate for president: Barack Obama."

Never Too Young for That First Pedicure - New York Times: "One recent rainy afternoon, Eleanor LaFauci, 7, sat with her feet in open-toed foam slippers, admiring her toenails, freshly painted watermelon pink. 'Look, we’re reading an adult magazine,' Eleanor told her mother, gleefully waving a copy of People..."

Want the government to pay for your sex change? Go to Iran. - FP Passport: "Last fall, Passport noted that more sex-change surgeries are performed in Iran than in any other country except Thailand. Ayatollah Khomeini approved them for "diagnosed transsexuals" 25 years ago, and today the Iranian government will pay up to half the cost for those in financial need."

Here is some massively terrible news:

The Virginia Senate voted Wednesday to cut off state funding to Planned Parenthood of Virginia because it offers abortions, an action that could endanger hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid for women's health-care programs.

The decision, a major setback for the Senate's new Democratic majority, marks the first time in more than a decade that the Senate has decided against giving state aid to the organization because of its abortion-related activities.

Can someone say slippery anti-choice slope? Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) noted that, "Once we start down this road, there will be no stopping."

Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) pointed out that Planned Parenthood does a lot more than provide abortions - it provides affordable contraception!

"The irony is, Planned Parenthood probably prevents more abortions than any other organization in the country," she said. But of course, anti-choicers aren't concerned about preventing abortion - if they were, they'd be touting birth control - their real concern is limiting women's choices and rolling back our rights.

Thank you to the brave women of the feminist movement for making it normal for girls and women to entertain a range of career options. When my grandmother was young, she knew she could either be a teacher or a nurse. She chose teacher. When my mom was young, she thought she might be a secretary because she'd heard that if you did your work very quickly, you could read the rest of the day. She never thought she could go into publishing or be a writer or other fancy man jobs that involved books. Despite being brilliant and dynamic, she only saw a very narrow range of options open to her job-wise. (She later would become a superstar social worker/community activist).

By the time I was five-years-old I told my parents that I would like to be a part-time waitress and part-time doctor. Then it was ballerina. Then it was vet. Then it was lawyer (until my dad took me to work and made me watch him talk on the phone all frickin' day...it ain't no Law and Order people). Then it was, finally and forever, writer.

Does is matter if women identify as feminist or is just important that they live feminist values?

It's a question that has haunted the movement for ages. It came up quite a bit for me when I was teaching gender studies at Hunter College. I could see that I was reaching the young women in men in my class--that they were moved to think about race and sex as constructs, sexism in the workplace, rape, sexuality as a spectrum not a binary (in other words, they were really "getting it")--but few of them left my class wearing the feminist label proudly on their sleeves. Did I fail? Or was it enough that they were thinking and acting like feminists?

As I've been speaking at college campuses around the country about my book, I'm running into the same questions. I always argue that being involved in feminism is one of the solutions to the crisis of self-hatred and eating disordered behavior in this country (basically that having a systemic lens to apply to all of this personal suffering can be totally healing and liberating). And sometimes "the kids these days" seem to embrace my point. Some ladies at Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL (home of the first ferris wheel) started a feminist group on campus after I was there (yeahyeahyeah). Sometimes, they take their own creative spin on it...

I was at Princeton recently and one of my student guides was the fabulous and brilliant Chloe Angyal. Not only is she studying sociology and thinking about working in public health, but she had great cowgirl boots and an Australian accent (swoon). Anyway, we're new best friends. She sent me this link to a piece she wrote called "How to be a feminist without anyone knowing." In it, she claims that she is "a self-confessed raging feminist," that she doesn't "think anyone should be ashamed of the label." At the same time, she writes, "I can understand how many women are not quite ready for it yet." She then goes on to detail five great feminist mindsets/actions for the "I'm not a feminist but..." types that don't involve truly coming out as feminists.

Okay, so what do we think? Obviously the best case scenario is girls and women around the world embracing the term and being raging, out, joyful feminists. BUT, given that best case scenario isn't always possible, is this a good alternative perspective? Will thinking and acting like a feminist long enough lead closeted ladies into the light? Does it matter--really and truly--if they ever embrace the label as long as they're contributing to the movement? (I think it does, but I'm asking for fancy rhetorical effect).

There's this other book out, I don't know if you've heard of it, called Full Frontal Feminism. Um, obviously FFF is--in part--an argument for why young women should and need to embrace the label. And what a wildly successful argument it has been! I run into young women all the time who say that the book turned them into out feminists, that they named their clubs on campus "Full Frontal Feminism" in honor of their awakening etc. (Go Jess, go Jess, go go go Jess!)

But what about those gals who are still hanging out in the in-between? Must we convince them to take the label or is it enough that they're down for the cause?

Everyone should check out Ann's great piece up at The American Prospect Online about identity politics and this election. Among other things, she makes the salient and totally neglected point that every election is, in part, about identity politics--even when every candidate is white, old, and rich. I chuckled at this bit:

After all, Clinton and Obama and their supporters aren't playing "identity politics" any more than John Kerry's supporters did in 2004, or George W. Bush's did in 2000. It's absurd to suggest that the Andover-Yale-Harvard-bred Bush adopting a swagger and thickening his Texas accent, or John Kerry riding a borrowed Harley onto The Tonight Show set, was anything other than identity politics.

I turned the last page on this gut-twisting dystopic novel, authored by ex-politico Joe McGinniss Jr., yesterday while cramped in an airplane, headed west, and I felt trapped. I couldn’t get the amoral world of artificial sexuality and economic exploitation, set (surprise, surprise) in Vegas, out of my mind. And a question kept buzzing—like the neon found all over that rough city—in my brain: why do we read?

If we read, if I read, to learn something—than this novel has failed me. I learned nothing new about sex or the quarterlife crisis or exploitation. What I already knew was exaggerated and put in my face in freakish proportions, but it was not new (it may be new to an older reader). If we read to be inspired, uplifted, called-to-action then hot damn has this novel failed me. It was so depressing near the end that part of me wanted to just shut it and shove it in the seat pocket in front of me, not waste another precious minute of my life feeling so sad. But if we read to be moved, to feel something potently and undeniably, than the novel has succeeded.

Hey all! I just wanted to give a quick hello and let all you lovely readers know that I am still around, but you may have noticed I haven't written in a while. I recently had some unsavory circumstances which forced me to evacuate my apartment (I will explain all next week), along with being really sick a handful of times and I am finally recovering from a bout of strep throat! Boo!

But I wanted to say hello, in case you missed me, and let you know that I miss you (!) and I will be back in full blogging form next week.

Also, a cute video to lighten the pain of my absence.

She is so rock-star!

Seriously?

Proposal to limit abortion rejected - The Tennessean: "A proposed constitutional amendment that could have allowed new limits on abortions in Tennessee was killed on Tuesday by a state House subcommittee, the fourth time the Republican-backed proposal has been defeated in the legislature."

Florida Marlins recruit tubby male cheerleaders for Manatees squad - NY Daily News: "The Florida Marlins are looking for some footloose fat men. The National League team is creating an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad to be dubbed the Manatees." (File under: not funny)

Deviance in the Time of Abstinence - RHRealityCheck.org: "'...I wouldn't mind having a conversation that does not include the words dildo, fisting, squirting, orgasm, vibrator, latex, fucking, shibari, or three-way,' writes Brian Alexander at the end of his latest book, America Unzipped: In Search of Sex and Satisfaction."

Many sex ed teachers may lack training - Yahoo! News: "A sizable minority of sex education teachers does not cover all of the basics, and many lack training to teach sex ed at all, a survey of teachers in one state suggests."

Belmont Abbey College removes contraceptive services from faculty health care plan - Gaston Gazette: "Birth control was once available to Belmont Abbey College faculty under its previous health care policy. Contraception, abortion and voluntary sterilization came off that policy in December after a faculty member discovered that coverage, according to an e-mail Belmont Abbey College President Bill Thierfelder sent to school staff, students, alumni and friends of the college and obtained by The Gazette."

A couple of you have asked in comments and emails for some occasional cheer-up posts, to temper all the bad news we've been getting. So here you go...this is my favorite happy-making video. (Yes, I know I've posted it before, but it never gets old to me.)

Nora Niedzielski-Eichner from SAFER has a piece in the LA Times responding to Heather Mac Donald's recent op-ed claiming that there is no rape problem on college campuses.

Niedzielski-Eichner not only refutes Mac Donald's claims that commonly-cited rape statistics are wrong, but also points out that fewer than half of colleges have sexual assault prevention programs - something that must change given the very real problem of campus rape.

Check it out for yourself, and comment over at SAFER's blog.

Reason magazine topped its article on the "we need more white babies!" movement (and its accompanying film, Demographic Winter) with this great headline:

Best EVER! But seriously, the article also makes the excellent point that people don't choose to remain childless for some weird or nefarious reason. Some of us, uh, just don't want kids, and have decided our lives will be just as happy or happier without them.

When I think about my happiness and my lack of desire to have babies, I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode in which Marge starts a crusade against "Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays," and she has the following exchange with childless activist Lindsey Naegle:

Bart: Mom, I locked your keys in the car.
Marge: Then wait in the shadows!
Bart: Also, Maggie puked in your purse again.
Lindsey Naegle: Poor me… all my purse is full of is disposable income.

Of course, you should feel free to have lots of babies if you like them and they make you happy!

Barbara Seaman, born September 11, 1935; died February 27, 2008
Contributed by Jennifer Baumgardner

I came to New York City in 1993, age 22, to take an internship at Ms. magazine. Within a few months, I was asked to fact-check a profile of Barbara Seaman, a pioneer in the women’s health movement on the 25th anniversary of the publication of her classic The Doctors Case Against the Pill. I called her and three hours later got off the phone a changed person. She had answered my fact-checking queries, but then peppered me with friendly questions: Who was I? What was my background? Was I interested in health? Was I on the Pill? Did I know Mary Howell? No, I really must meet her. Was I working on a book? I was clearly smart, she could tell by our conversation. Did I want to attend a gathering with her at Erica Jong’s house? I really must meet Erica.

The questions and opportunities went on and on. I was flummoxed by her interest and offers—didn’t she know that I was just a lowly assistant (by that time) at Ms.? Did she have me confused with someone else? I had ambitions, sure, but I was far away from admitting I wanted to write a book—I just wanted the cool Ms. editors to learn my name.

Barbara continued to fax and call me at Ms., providing me with endless history, important contacts, and insightful analysis. She goaded me to get to know the feminists who she felt were being forgotten by history—women like Cindy Cisler (perhaps the most significant philosopher in the push to legalize abortion) or Dr. Mary Howell (the first woman to become a Dean at Harvard Medical School). She organized intergenerational gatherings in 1994 where I first met Leora Tanenbaum and Jennifer Gonnerman, who were my same age and who also began to think (with more than a little nudging from Barbara, I presume) that they would write books. (Leora went on to write Slut, Catfight, and Taking Back God; Jen wrote Life On the Outside.) Barbara asked me to introduce her at a party for her held in a gorgeous penthouse, saying, “I’d love it if you said a few words, Jen. Then Katie Couric will probably say a few things.� She did introduce me to Erica Jong–and Alix Kates Shulman, Margot Adler, Shere Hite, and countless others who adored Barbara.

This morning the Senate passed the Vitter Amendment -- yup, that David Vitter -- banning the use of federal Indian Health Service (IHS) funds for abortions. Except that the Hyde Amendment -- another piece of "pro-family" legislation named for a noted philanderer -- already restricts the rights of low-income women by denying Medicaid and IHS coverage for abortion.

So what's Vitter doing? He claims his amendment closes a loophole in the Hyde Amendment that may be exploited by a pro-choice president. But really, this is bullshit. All his amendment does reiterate our existing federal policy, and muck things up for a future Democratic congress or president that may repeal the Hyde Amendment. Explains Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards:

“Sen. Vitter’s amendment is simply a political tactic that will do nothing to improve health care for Native Americans, nor reduce the number of unintended pregnancies,� said PPFA President Cecile Richards. “If Sen. Vitter is serious about preventing unintended pregnancies, he would support prevention legislation that invests in family planning programs. Unfortunately, Sen. Vitter’s amendment puts politics over the health and welfare of Native Americans.�

Exactly. Native women face disproportionately high rates of rape and sexual assault, and a very high teen birth rate. Seems like an awesome idea to cut this population off from federal reproductive health funding, huh?! Planned Parenthood continues,

In addition, Sen. Vitter’s amendment opens the door to potential unintended consequences. Restrictions on federal funding for abortion-related services should be consistent across federal programs and subject to the same language. As an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, IHS should be treated in the same manner as other HHS programs, such as Medicaid, which are all subject to the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment. Senator Vitter’s amendment poses potential confusion and duplication of effort if abortion restriction language is amended or changed.

In short, Senator Vitter’s amendment is a political ploy.

Yup. This is a way for Vitter and other anti-choice members of Congress -- including amendment cosponsor John McCain -- to pander to their base. Which is why it's so appalling that Vitter has offered this as an amendment to the "Indian Health Care Improvement Act." As if he gives a damn about native women's health.

I love anti-feminists so much, because the jokes just write themselves.

David Gelernter from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research has a doozy of an article up, "Feminism and the English Language." Basically, Gelernter is pissed that some words are used differently now (i.e. firefighter instead of fireman) as not to be sexist.

How can I teach my students to write decently when the English language has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Academic-Industrial Complex? Our language used to belong to all its speakers and readers and writers. But in the 1970s and '80s, arrogant ideologues began recasting English into heavy artillery to defend the borders of the New Feminist state. In consequence we have all got used to sentences where puffed-up words like "chairperson" and "humankind" strut and preen, where he-or-she's keep bashing into surrounding phrases like bumper cars and related deformities blossom like blisters; they are all markers of an epoch-making victory of propaganda over common sense.

The feminine is pissing all over his English language and he's not going to take it anymore! I love that he thinks words like 'chairperson' are "puffed up" and "strut." He might as well call the word an uppity bitch and get it over with.

Gelernter also calls feminists "language rapists" and writes that what we've done to language "skreak like fingernails on a blackboard." Which, you know, is not at all telling.

I guess is what fellows at right-wing think tanks do with their time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go castrate some sentences before my day is through.

So I have a confession to make. I have a litte bit of an obsession. With feminist sex shops. I want to work at them, and every time I go to a new city I drag whoever I am with to find the local one. Ever since I discovered Babeland (formerly Toys in Babeland) when I was in college, I have been a huge advocate of these places. They should be paying me for all the promotion I do (but they're not).

Today I am in Minneapolis/St.Paul and have had the awesome opportunity to visit another feminist sex shop, Smitten Kitten. And boy am I smitten.

For those you who have never visited a feminist sex shop, think fun brightly-lit store, minus sketchy people and plus super knowledgeable (and usually feminist-minded) employees. Think sex-positive. Think products made with women in mind, for a whole spectrum of sexualities and identities. Think packaging without playmate-like models on every toy, and toys that are safe to use and good for our bodies. These places make talking about vibrator choices as unembarassing as picking out a toothbrush.

And speaking of toothbrushes, my personal favorite Smitten Kitten product is the Tingle Tip. (Hint: It's an attachment to your electric toothbrush that could give dental hygiene a whole new meaning).

Other awesome feminist sex shops:
Babeland (NYC, Seattle and Los Angeles)
Smitten Kitten (Minneapolis, MN)
Good Vibrations (San Fransisco, Berkeley and Boston)

Feel free to add your favorites in the comments!

PS Most of these stores offer online shopping, and deliver their items in amazingly discreet packaging. And they have really fun classes!

I think some people see being compared to Election character Tracy Flick as a negative thing, but I gotta say, it's impossible for me to watch that movie and believe Tracy wouldn't have made a great class president, even if I don't want to be her best friend.

Not a person.

Mike Huckabee has endorsed Colorado's "Human Life Amendment," which defines a fertilized egg as a person.

"This proposed constitutional amendment will define a person as a human being from the moment life begins at conception," Huckabee said in a statement.

"With this amendment, Colorado has an opportunity to send a clear message that every human life has value," Huckabee said. "Passing this amendment will mean the people of Colorado will protect the sanctity of life from conception until natural death occurs."

[This] initiative, if approved by voters in November, would extend state constitutional protections to every fertilized egg, guaranteeing the right to life, liberty, equality of justice and due process of law.

Women, not so much.

Cristina Page, author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics, and the War on Sex, has a post on HuffPo about how dangerous John McCain is for reproductive choice and justice. Check it.

The United Nations' Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) kicked off its 52nd session yesterday; this year's theme is financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women and the emerging issue is gender perspectives on climate change.

In the session's opening address, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out against violence against women, noting that "at least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime." Ban also announced the launch of a new campaign to battle global violence against women, which will run until 2015.

I've been lucky enough to go to past CSWs when I was working in the international women's rights arena, but (sadly) I won't be there this year. What's great, however, is that you can follow along on the CSW website and see what's happening - whether it be panels, statements or NGO events.

Another great place to find out info on CSW and its happenings is the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) (my old stomping ground), who are heavily involved in the process and give great updates.

Too often, American feminists forget about the all-important work being done on the international level by groups like WEDO and others. So please, check out all of the info on CSW and get involved!

If you want to know more about CSW and its history, click here.

Many of you probably remember the grossness that was Southwest Airlines last year, when they kicked a young woman off a flight for what she was wearing. Then, when you thought the drama was over, they harassed a second woman and later mocked the debacle through a press release and promotional deal where they offered flights at "mini-skirt" prices.

Now, two women on a recent flight say they were harassed and eventually kicked off the plane and detained by officers because of the way they looked. The full story is somewhat unclear from the video (if anyone has more info, please send it along), but given Southwest's history - I'm not putting anything past them.

Thanks to Matt for the link.

A report out of the UK says that women without children are most likely to do unpaid overtime.

Note: I recognize that the headline is misleading - after all, there are not-young women without children! But that's the one the BBC went with. Thoughts?

Monty and Neidra's favorite is sheet-changing time!

I love this. Hayley Atwell is starring in Woody Allen's new movie, Cassandra's Dream, but Miramax Films asked her to loose weight.

Says Atwell: "I went round to Emma's one night and she was getting very angry that I wasn't eating all the food she was giving me. I told her why and she hit the roof." The no-nonsense Thompson was so outraged that she called the producers the next day and threatened to resign from the film if they forced Atwell to lose weight. Faced with Thompson - a two-times Oscar winner - on the warpath, Miramax Films swiftly relented.

I heart her.

I'm not getting wet, so there's no way it's raining!

This op-ed in yesterday's The Los Angeles Times is very likely to make your head explode. Or at the very least, inspire you to write a scathing letter to the editor.

Writer Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the right-wing think tank the Manhattan Institute, says that the rape crisis is all in our heads - and that it's really slutty girls who are to blame for all this "rape" nonsense.

Such a crime wave -- in which millions of young women would graduate having suffered the most terrifying assault, short of murder, that a woman can experience -- would require nothing less than a state of emergency. Admissions policies, which if the numbers are true are allowing in tens of thousands of vicious criminals, would require a complete revision, perhaps banning male students entirely. The nation's nearly 10 million female undergraduates would need to take the most stringent safety precautions.

None of this crisis response occurs, of course -- because the crisis doesn't exist.

Last time I checked, institutional inaction has never been an indicator that something doesn't exist. But in Mac Donald's world or warped logic, the fact that people ignore rape culture means that it couldn't possibly be real.

And then comes the all-too-predictable victim blaming:

Many students hold on to the view that women usually have the power to determine whether a campus social event ends with intercourse. A female Rutgers student expressed a common sentiment in a university sexual-assault survey: "When we go out to parties and I see girls and the way they dress and the way they act ... and just the way they are, under the influence and um, then they like accuse them of like, 'Oh yeah, my boyfriend did this to me' or whatever, I honestly always think it's their fault."

Just because the sentiment may be common, it doesn't make it right. In fact, it's horrifying. But not to blame queen Mac Donald, who thinks girls who dare to leave the house and socialize are getting what they ask for.

Maybe such young iconoclasts can take up another discredited idea: College is for learning. Fighting male dominance or catering to the libidinal impulses released in the 1960s are sorry substitutes for the pursuit of knowledge.

Yeah, bitches, stop fighting rape and do something useful with your education.

Now, clearly I don't expect much better than this from anti-feminist assholes, eager to blame campus feminism for anything they're keen on making up. But the fact that LA Times would print this is just disgusting. Especially when you take a look at the full article the op-ed was adapted from, where Mac Donald actually takes a woman's story of sexual assault and opines how there's no way it's true.

Though the Harvard victim does not remember her actions, it’s highly unlikely that she passed out upon arriving at the party and was dragged away like roadkill while other students looked on. Rather, she probably participated voluntarily in the usual prelude to intercourse, and probably even in intercourse itself, however woozily.

The horror goes on and on in that one; I can't even bring myself to fisk the whole thing. There will always be anti-feminists, there will always be rape apologists, there will always (sadly) be rapists. But that doesn't mean we have to stand by while the media gives them space to spread lies. Please, write to the LA Times and tell them how you feel.

Via SAFER.

Better women get cancer than doctors be forced to provide health care to sinners. At least, that's the sentiment of some Canadian doctors.

RH Reality Check reports that in Canada, some doctors are refusing to give unmarried women pap smears, citing religious objections. (You know, because we shouldn't be having sex to begin with.)

To look for answers, I turned to Patricia LaRue, Executive Director at Canadians for Choice, to see what she could tell me if doctors have the right to refuse ANY procedure that they see as going against their religion. She reminded me that doctors have a "conscience clause," allowing them to refuse prescriptions for birth control, abortion, and now pap smears. The conscious clause is put in place by the Canadian Medical Association so that physicians are not forced to act in any way that goes against their personal beliefs.

Even if that means risking women's health. Charming.

Via Pandagon.

Give me a "C!"

Behold, some very cool art students at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

PIc from dunemanic.

It’s not surprising, Ralph Nader announced yesterday that he is running for president. Clinton and Obama both suggest he’ll have very little effect on the race. What do you think?

SO much stuff this week!

This entire article about sommeliers in Australia never explains why, in the photo, the one female sommelier is naked, while the men are all in suits.

Catholics in New York take to YouTube to bash pro-choice Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

How the media treat Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse differently than Owen Wilson and Heath Ledger.

DC Comics turns a black superheroine white.

More anti-LGBT bullshit in high schools. This week: Belleville, IL and Gary, IN.

Ve vill suck your period blood! (via.)

Can you believe that some whorish women want to wreck the white purity of their wedding gowns with a low-cut neckline? Horrors!

A new documentary explores what the Bible really says about homosexuality, and ponders why anti-gay sentiment is at the heart of the conservative Christian agenda.

I'm playing the world's tiniest violin for the so-called "angry white male" voting bloc.

A study by the Toronto school board found that "It appears a growing number of young girls are not only being sexually assaulted on campus, but have come to think of it as a normal part of their educational experience." That's incredibly upsetting.

Muslim Hedonist on talking to her daughters about FGM.

This article -- and the entire situation -- is pretty awful. Not only are they charging this woman for homicide for using drugs while pregnant, but the sheriff says her life consisted of "using drugs and having babies." Disrespectful much? Also, a reader sent along an earlier version of the article, which disclosed the woman is HIV-positive, which is totally unrelated to any charges brought against her. It appears they've now deleted the mention of HIV. (Check out our previous posts on drug laws that punish pregnant women.)

Next week the Canadian parliament will debate the "Unborn Victims of Crime Act." Pro-choice talking points are here.

The Bilerico Project has been running profiles of black LGBT people in history.

A Louisiana woman was arrested for a DWI and then brutally beaten by a police officer, who claims she "slipped and fell." (Trigger warning.)

They're marketing Frida Kahlo-brand skin cream? WTF?

A guy actually tried to get mini-silicone implants for his naked-woman tattoo.

An ultra-Orthodox Israeli politician blames gays for earthquakes. Seriously.

Anyone else find it sad that they're airbrushing kids' school pictures?

(Way more below the fold...)

Via.

Miki Fujiwara, aka Urban Envy, is a self-employed visual artist/community activist based in New York City.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Miki is known to be one of the original members of the New York Tributary Art Movement. The majority of her work, mostly paintings, has been categorized as "Cultural Surrealism," often said to be in the "tradition of Cynthia Tom and Frida Kahlo."

Urban Envy's works can be seen in local galleries of New York City.

Here's Miki...

Hilarious parody:

ABSTINENCE-ONLY DRIVER'S ED.
BY SUZANNE KLEID

- - - -

Thanks for making it out on a rainy Saturday, kids. Slippery out there, huh? Let's get started. We're gonna have some fun today!

Car accidents are a leading cause of death for teenagers. The school board and your elected representatives want to make sure that you and your families are spared from such a tragedy, which is why the money for driver's ed was eliminated from the budget. Whereas last year I was teaching your older siblings how to shift and brake and three-point-turn during a six-week course, it has since been decreed that I actually need just one afternoon to tell you the only piece of safety information I'm permitted by law to share:

The ONLY 100 percent effective method for avoiding car accidents is to ABSTAIN from driving until marriage.

And it gets better from there. Read the whole thing.

Thanks to reader Samantha for passing this along.

Let Them Be - Religion Dispatches: "Sister Mary Soledad Perpinan, known as Sister (Sr.) Sol is a member of the congregation of Good Shepherd from the Philippines. Sol sees herself as a pioneer, an international and public figure, a feminist, an eco-feminist, a peace and social activist..."
(tags: religion bad.ass.women)

Hotties of the Desert - ThreadPit.com: Nothing like a shirt that combines racism and sexism!
(tags: sexism racism products)

Unmarried pregnant teacher loses job - Star Tribune: "An unmarried fifth-grade teacher at the Catholic school in Wabasha (MN) is out of a job because she got pregnant."
(tags: sexism discrimination reproductive.justice work)

Ms. Pac Man: Feminist Hero - YouTube: This shit totally made my day.
(tags: feminism video)

Condom Design Contest - The Principles of Pleasure: "I *heart* Planned Parenthood. For many reasons. But the reason today is because they are having a condom packaging design contest."
(tags: sex reproductive.justice activism blogs)

Uncovering the Nativism of Population Politics - RHRealityCheck.org - Priscilla Huang: "When anti-immigrant zealots publicize their opposition to policies that they perceive as 'pro-immigrant,' they often insist that their motives are not racist."
(tags: immigration racism sexism blogs)

State workers back to 8-to-5 - The Columbus Dispatch: "Gov. Ted Strickland is taking the flex out of flexible work hours for thousands of government workers. The policy change has angered some state employees, many of whom have worked nontraditional schedules for as long as 18 years to accommodate child care..."
(tags: work child.care)

The New York Times had an article yesterday about the rise of teen girl bloggers, which is great news. But it doesn't come without some predictable stereotyping.

According to a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 20 percent of boys blog, compared to 35 percent of girls aged 12 to 17. Plus that doubled increase in blogging activity from 2004 to 2006 by teens was mostly attributed to female bloggers. Awesome, right?

Yet the article focuses on the lack of girls and women interested in computer science and technology, and seems to argue that girls' interest in blogging is purely to express their own "girly" selves, and that they probably won't contribute much of an increase to the current 27 percent of women in computer and mathematical occupations:

It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.

'Girls are trained to make stories about themselves,' said Pat Gill, the interim director for the Institute for Communications Research and an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

From a young age they learn that they are objects, Professor Gill said, so they learn how to describe themselves. Historically, girls and women have been expected to be social, communal and skilled in decorative arts.

'This would be called the feminization of the Internet,' she said. (Emphasis mine)

And so this build-up continues with the cattiness between blogs by teen girls (equating hotlinking with showing up at a party with the same dress on), that their content includes mother's day cooking recipes and even refers to those who make money as "would-be Martha Stewarts." Of course they happen to leave out that the same site is currently featuring a post on sexual harassment.

Am I saying there's something wrong with the trend of glitter graphics or a primarily pink website for girls? Absolutely not. But saying girls are dominant in blogging because of "cultural expectations" and assuming that the only reason girls like blogs is because they're naturally more "creative" and want to express their feelings seems to moot the amazing fact that not only are teen girls possibly becoming more blog-savvy than boys, but also that they're creating far-reaching online communities. In other words, why should the "why" matter?

Either way, it's awesome to see female teen bloggers kicking ass. Link to your own in comments!

Note: We have been contacted by the company Running Free and they have cleared up that this ad is in fact NOT theirs; an ad agency pitched the idea to them and they rejected it because of their own offense to it. Regardless, the fact that any ad companies are even thinking to create these kinds of ads (and the positive online response to it) is still gross nonetheless.

This ad selling a sports bra is supposed to be humorous. I find it not. The ad reads, "Support bras, now available."

What's more disturbing is that this is being deemed "clever" and "hilarious" by a few sites I've come across. The fact that this "entertaining" image of women not only running with their boobs flying everywhere, but also smacking them in the face, has morphed into a picture of violence is really unsettling. And more plainly, any joke with a picture of a woman's bruised face like this is just not funny.

See other ads after the jump.

Thanks to Colleen for the link.

This is just hilarious. The fact that the G-spot has been "proven" to exist by a study with just 20 women is classic:

The mysterious G spot - supposedly a route to female sexual satisfaction - can be located with ultrasound, claim Italian scientists. (Emphasis mine)

You know, because of course women's own personal experiences don't prove diddly squat. On a serious note, check out Betty Dodson's take on the G-spot for some more insightful literature.

Thanks to Fatima for the heads up.

So this is our new weekly vlog series, Friday Feminist Fuck You. (Gawd I love alliteration.) Every Friday, we'll take a look back on a story we've linked to or commented on that week and expand on why they, well...suck. Hope you enjoy it!

PS. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

For midwives that is.

The good news: Missouri just passed a law that would decriminalize midwifery and allow for the licensing and regulation of Certified Professional Midwives. From today's press release:

Midwives advocates across Missouri and the nation today celebrated the passage of Senator John Loudon’s (R, Chesterfield) midwifery licensure bill, SB 1021, from the Missouri Senate Committee on Pensions, General Laws and Veteran’s Affairs. The long-anticipated legislation would decriminalize the practice of midwifery in Missouri and establish a board to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs).

Awesome.

The bad news: last week the American College of Obstretics and Gynecology came out against home birth once again.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) reiterates its long-standing opposition to home births. While childbirth is a normal physiologic process that most women experience without problems, monitoring of both the woman and the fetus during labor and delivery in a hospital or accredited birthing center is essential because complications can arise with little or no warning even among women with low-risk pregnancies.

They also came out against the type of midwives (certified professional midwives) the MO bill supports. I still think this is very much about childbirth as a business, and a fear that OBs will lose the current monopoly they have on the practice. The history of the move from midwives to obstetricians is connected to this same logic.

From a press release by the Big Push for Midwives:

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a trade union representing the financial and professional interests of obstetricians, has issued the latest in a series of statements condemning families who choose home birth and calling on policy makers to deny them access to Certified Professional Midwives. The Big Push for Midwives calls on ACOG to abandon these outdated policies and work with CPMs to reduce the cesarean rate and to take meaningful steps towards reducing racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in all regions of the United States. CPMs play a critical role in both cesarean prevention and in the reduction of low-birth weight and pre-term births, the two most preventable causes of neonatal mortality.

Want to know more about home birth? Watch the Business of Being Born.

Full disclosure: I'm a doula and a big supporter of midwives as well as out-of-hospital birth options.

You see, he says he doesn't "want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts..." Comforting, isn't it, that he wants to wait for the "evidence"?

Pregnant teacher discrimination suit OK'd - UPI: "A North Carolina judge refused to dismiss a teacher's lawsuit claiming she was unfairly demoted by her school district when she became pregnant."

Giveaway of emergency contraception angers anti-abortion group - Chicago Tribune: "A free giveaway of emergency contraception doses at Planned Parenthood health centers in Indiana cities with large college populations has angered an anti-abortion group, whose leader calls it 'irresponsible.'"

Gothamist: New Game Teaches Immigration Laws: "A NY-based nonprofit called Breakthrough launched a video game yesterday called ICED: I Can End Deportation (also a play on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department). In the game, the player chooses one of five immigrant teens, each of a different ethnicity and immigration status, and walks through their shoes -- learning 'how immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights to all immigrants.'"

YesButNoButYes - Vagina Punch: Not fucking funny at all. A video game where people punch women in their vaginas.

Inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter - New York Times Blog: "The stereotype of the 16-year-old boy is that he has sex on the brain. But a fascinating new report suggests that boys are motivated more by love and a desire to form real relationships with the girls they date."

This is just so great. At a campaign event in Ohio, Bill Clinton was heckled by anti-choicers. This was his response.

"We disagree with you. You want to criminalize women and their doctors and we disagree. I reduced abortion. Tell the truth! Tell the truth! If you were really pro-life, if you were really pro-life, you would want to put every doctor and every mother, as an accessory to murder, in prison, and you won't say you wanna do that, because you know that you wouldn't have a lick of political support. Now, the issue is, you can't name me anybody presently in politics that did more to introduce policies that reduce the number of real abortions, instead of the hot air putting out to tear people up and make votes by dividing America. This is not your rally."

Via Our Bodies, Our Blog.

My mom—the lady with her finger on the pulse--saw Eboo Patel’s Interfaith Youth Core on one of the morning shows and told me I should check it out. As someone fascinated by youth and political culture and spirituality, it’s totally my cup of chai.

The Core, according to the website:

aims to introduce a new relationship, one that is about mutual respect and religious pluralism. Instead of focusing a dialogue on political or theological differences, we build relationships on the values that we share, such as hospitality and caring for the Earth, and how we can live out those values together to contribute to the betterment of our community.
The Interfaith Youth Core is creating these relationships across the world by inspiring, networking, and resourcing young people, who are the leaders of this movement. We provide young people and the institutions that support them with leadership training, project resources and a connection to a broader movement.

Through the site, I realized that Eboo Patel, the founder of the Core, has a new memoir out called Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. It is a rare and beautiful intertwining of a person, a conscience, and a big idea all coming of age at the same time.

My interview with Benjamin Percy, the author of Refresh, Refresh--that great short story collection I reviewed awhile ago, is up at Alternet today. Check it out--he's a smart dude.

I am so over-the-moon (which was eclipsed last night!) about the launch of sadie magazine. Definitely check it out and let the creators--Jessie, Josie, and Susannah--know what you think.

With articles like "Move Over Perez Hilton--There's a New Bitch in Town!", a review of Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers by Cris Beam, pieces on a girl's adventure in Cuba and a column where badass lady medical students answer your weirdest body questions--how could it not succeed? I seriously think this thing could be the start of a new girl media revolution.

Full disclosure: there is a piece on me and my book (with some pretty priceless pics, I might add), but I swear that's not why I'm so frickin' excited. This thing reminds me of the days when I used to curl up on the kitchen floor near my babysitter, Carly, and flip through her Sassy Magazine while she baked blueberry muffins.

As intergenerational tensions started flaring up again around these primaries, it got me thinking about the claim that young feminists aren't aware of their legacy, that we take all the change that has happened for granted. I don't think that's true, but hearing the claim enough times has me wondering if it is one way of older women asking younger women..."Hey, could we get a little credit here?" This column is, in part, my way--feministing's way--of saying "Hell yeah, you deserve lots of praise and thanks. There are things about the previous waves of feminist thought and action that we disagree with, but there is SO much we are deeply thankful for."

Further, I think gratitude is just about the most delightful emotion on earth. Give me a thank you note to write and I'm instantly happy. Seriously.

And finally, it is hard to remember how much has changed, in part, because things have changed so dramatically in some spheres. I hope this will be a place for all of us to really take in how amazing and wildly effective feminism was and is (we hear the opposite message so often from mainstream media). Think of it as your weekly dose of proof that daily activism makes monumental social change.

So...

Today I want to express my deepest gratitude for birth control. For a nice little history, look here. I was interviewing Gloria Feldt once and she told me this amazing story about how the legalization of birth control in 1965 changed her life. She was living in Texas, struggling with a car full of kids that she loved but found draining, and then she got access to birth control, and in essence, the rest of her life. Of course she would go on to be the national president of Planned Parenthood (oh man, am I thankful for PP) and help secure so many women's access to safe and cheap birth control. I can't even begin to imagine--at 28--how my life would have been different if I didn't have reproductive control. For starters, I would have had a lot less sex. Just sayin.

Thank you to so many, but especially Margaret Sanger, Dr. C. Lee Buxton and Estelle Griswold, and Gloria.

I suppose it makes sense that PETA, the organization that loves to hate women, would end up collaborating with Suicide Girls, the supposedly woman-friendly porn site that touts empowerment while it rips off its employees.

But I'm still a big ugh.

Thanks to Sera for the link.

I'm all for his pro-choice and pro-gay marriage stance, but his attack on conservatives was not too articulate. I also approve that he says he will support whoever the Democratic nominee is. Let's keep our eye on the ball people. But Barkley for Governor?

Thanks to Lonna for the link.

Congratulations to the Southern Poverty Law Center!

The state of Mississippi has decided to close the state's notorious Columbia Training School, seven months after the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the state to stop the physical and sexual abuse of teenage girls confined there.

The SPLC suit exposed brutal conditions at the prison, including the painful shackling of girls for weeks at a time. It also sought to force the state to provide mental health and rehabilitative services to girls, many of whom suffer from emotional problems or mental illness.

Bear Atwood, director of the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project, says, "Most of the girls at Columbia do not belong in prison at all...Most are there for very minor, nonviolent offenses. Ripping them from their families and locking them up only encourages further delinquency."

This is the most hilarious thing I've read all day: Legally, a woman can't be elected president

Just read it, trust me. You can practically hear this guy's head exploding with the thought of a woman in power.

Thanks to Mark for the link.

Contributed by Sarah Murray, Women’s Sports Foundation

The party is ON in Vancouver at the end of the month. The women’s ski jumping consortium is hosting a....ummmm….rally of sorts for Jacque Rogge and his International Olympic Committee (IOC) cronies who will be in town for a Coordination Committee meeting.

The IOC continues to deny women the opportunity to compete in ski jumping on the Olympic level, despite support for inclusion by the Canadian Olympic Committee, the International Ski Federation (FIS) and every upright walking human who has bothered to pay attention to the issue. Not surprisingly, the IOC’s decision making Executive Committee is made up of 14 men and just one woman. The FIS, in contrast, actually voted 114 to 1 to recommend the inclusion of women. (Was the Devil’s Advocate allowed to vote? Actually, the one dissenting vote came from the representative from Switzerland – headquarters of the IOC.)

The IOC has dished out a heap of lame excuses for why they won’t allow women to jump, including: not enough global participation, and “technical merit,� calling women out for not being strong enough skiers. Truth be told, there are 142 female ski jumpers from 16 countries registered with the FIS, competing internationally. As for “technical merit,� it’s hogwash! Women are absolutely killing it in ski jumping! Lindsey Van, a member of the U.S. team set the 90M hill record for the exact jump that will be used in Vancouver by jumping 105.5 meters. The record for men on that same jump is currently 99 meters. As sweet as that fact is, the point is not about who jumps farther. Equity and justice shouldn’t hinge on performance. How about adding the sport because it’s the right thing to do?

If you live near Vancouver, check out wwsj2010.com to find out how you can join the rally. Or, if you can’t attend, go to the site and help the gals out by signing their online petition to the IOC. They’re looking to get 5,000 signatures before the end of the month. Better yet, strap on some ski and go learn how to jump!

Athletes for Equality will be at the Vancouver Art Museum plaza, Sunday Feb 24 1pm, with a 2pm press conference to follow.

I am a HUGE Project Runway fan. Like, unnaturally obsessed with the show. And my love for the show can only be matched by my love for Tim Gunn...that is, until he broke my heart on this recent Conan appearance. (Go to about 5:50 minutes in)

Gunn, talking about political leaders' fashion sense, says that Sen. Hillary Clinton "is confused about what her gender is." And then I cry.

Thanks to Eliza for the link.

"I let my uterus do the listening!"

Lesley Douglas, head of popular music at the BBC, has said that men "tend to be more interested in the intellectual side of music," while women are more "emotional."

Addressing the issue of making 6 Music more accessible to women in an interview with Radio 4's Feedback programme, Douglas said: "It's partly how you talk about music. For women, there tends to be more emotional reaction to music. Men tend to be more interested in the intellectual side of the music, the tracks, where albums have been made, that sort of thing."

Seriously, we might as well hold our iPods up to our vaginas.

So, yes, there were more primaries yesterday. Obama took Wisconsin and Hawaii on the democratic side, McCain took Wisconsin and Washington.

But for me, something much more important happened yesterday on the election front in Texas. More than 2,000 people marched over 7 miles in support of voting rights. The protest was lead by students at Prairie View A&M, an HBCU, protesting the county’s history of voting problems.

The Justice Department questioned the county's January decision to cut early-voting sites from a half dozen throughout the county to just one in Hempstead. The county's about-face came on the same day that critics announced a mass march to the polls next week.

Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General's Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results.

Through all of the drama and game-playing, it’s inspiring to see people standing up for their right to vote, and record levels of turn-out for elections this year.

And I love it back!

Pic from artful.artsy.amy, who made this bad-ass brooch on sale here.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Lawmakers have proposed a measure that would allow parents of stillborn children to claim them as dependents for one year when filing tax returns."

Marilyn Monroe in The Last Sitting

New York Magazine is running a nude photo spread of Lindsay Lohan posing as Marilyn Monroe in the last shoot she would do before she died. And I am appalled. Not because Lohan is pictured nude - to each their own on that front - but because there seems to be no awareness whatsoever about how this spread fetishizes the death and downfall of women in the public eye.

In 1962, photographer Bert Stern shot a series of photos of Marilyn Monroe that have collectively come to be known as “The Last Sitting.� Taken during several boozy sessions at the Hotel Bel-Air, the photographs are arguably the most famous images ever captured of America’s most famous actress: Monroe, sleepy-eyed and naked, sips from a Champagne glass, enacts a fan dance of sorts with various diaphanous scarves, romps with erotic playfulness on a bed of white linens. Six weeks after she had posed, Monroe was found dead of an apparent barbiturate overdose.

Lohan, who has publicly battled substance abuse, said of the shoot, "I didn’t have to put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? When is that ever going to come up? It’s really an honor.�

Edgar Allan Poe once said that "the death...of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Sometimes I feel like starlets are trying to complete this narrative, and it scares the shit out of me.

Thoughts?

Well, at least they're not subtle. I guess. Didn't anyone tell them feminists like to cook too?

Natasha Hall, 17, was interested in journalism. Though because of a violent ex-boyfriend and what can only be described as disgusting police misconduct, she'll never have the opportunity to write.

A junior at DeLand High in Florida, Hall was murdered by her ex-boyfriend - Clay Kufner - after an abusive relationship and months of stalking and harassment. Three days before she was killed, Hall was told by police to stop calling them so much (to relay concern about her ex) or she would be arrested.

"The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I'm going to arrest you both," Sherry Hall [Natasha's mother] said. "So, the day she died, she knew she couldn't talk to police. So, she handled it herself."

Michele Karpowicz said everyone noticed the warning signs before the homicide -- except police.

"I was going crazy," Hall's best friend said. "He was psycho, jealous and abusive."

The police response? Chief Deputy Randel Henderson of the DeLand Police Department says that, "Basically we have a very young couple who are experiencing, at least up until last Friday evening, just very normal relationship problems."

The "normal relationship problems" include nine incidents of harassment and violence which were logged with the local police since November, including one where Kufner hit Hall in the face and another where he tried to drag her out of a store by her hair. Hall's family also noted that Kufner threatened to burn down their house. You know, "normal" teen romance stuff.

Even the media seems to be getting in on the normalizing-violence-against-women trend. One article says Hall and Kufner had a "stormy" relationship. Another headline reads: "2 teens shot dead in apparent murder-suicide," which is pretty damn passive considering this kid killed his ex-girlfriend. But this is my favorite headline: "Teddy Bear May Have Led To Murder-Suicide." Not violence, not abuse, not the idea that women are less than people. A teddy bear.

Now I'm aware that sensationalist headlines are par for the course. But between the media coverage and the police inaction, I just feel sick. In a society that romanticizes stalking and ignores violence against women, it's no surprise that Hall couldn't find protection. But it's still shameful.

So because I can't figure out how to set up the "daily blog posting" feature on Feministing's del.icio.us account, I'm just putting these bad boys in by hand. (If anyone has some insider del.icio.us knowledge and can help out, shoot me an email!)

Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Be Hounded by the Media - New York Times: "Some celebrities and their handlers are now saying straight out that the news media have a double standard."

Banda sisters - Guardian:"In one of India's poorest regions, hundreds of pink-clad female vigilantes are challenging male violence and corruption."

Tech's feminine side - The Boston Globe:"No one would make the argument that megapixels are masculine or that gigabytes have a gender. But as gadgets and websites become an integral part of everyday life, a high-tech world that has been largely built and engineered by men is getting the feminine touch."

YouTube - Saving My Hymen for Jesus: Satire - Two girls dish about the benefits of saving it for the lord!

The Pro-Choice Public Education Project: PEP has a new website!

BBC NEWS - Africa war zones' 'rape epidemic': "Sexual violence is spreading in African conflict zones like an epidemic, the United Nations has warned."

A reader who is a teacher in Malaysia sent us this video, and I thought it was really interesting. And refreshing. It's nice to hear different viewpoints about wearing hijab from women who actually are, you know, Muslim. (So often, we only hear from non-Muslim folks speaking on behalf of women about how oppressive it is, without listening to Muslim women's voices.) The only thing I'm unsure of is whether or not the women are actors or if this was more a documentary-style vid. Either way, I think it's pretty compelling.

Over at The Nation, Kathryn Joyce (the brilliant writer who broke the Quiverfull story) has an amazing article on "pro-family" conservatives who have started a movement on why Europe needs to create more white babies. For reals. It's a racism-xenophobia-sexism clusterfuck. (With some religious extremism thrown in for good measure.) So, yeah, a fun read!

Juno star and Oscar-nominated actor Ellen Page isn't afraid of using the f-word.

From an interview with The Washington Post: "I call myself a feminist when people ask me if I am, and of course I am 'cause it's about equality, so I hope everyone is. You know you're working in a patriarchal society when the word feminist has a weird connotation."

And then I swoon.

Thanks to Andrew for the link.

Legislation proposed in Missouri would classify emergency contraception as an "abortion-inducing medication." Which, you know, it's not.

The bill also would protect pharmacies from lawsuits and from punishment by state regulators for refusing to sell or fill a prescription for any drug defined as triggering an abortion.

Opponents attacked the proposal as an unconstitutional restraint on reproductive freedom and an unconscionable affront to sexual assault victims. They said the bill would enshrine an inaccurate medical description in Missouri law, lead to increased numbers of abortions and leave millions of rural Missouri women without access to a safe and reliable form of birth control.

Pamela Sumners, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri said that filling prescriptions “is an essential function of your job...If you become a pharmacist, you should do your job."

And let's say it one more time: Emergency contraception is NOT abortion.

Sumners suggests contacting Representative Robert Wayne Cooper, the Health Care Policy committee chair and a doctor (so he should know better). Urge him to support sound science and women's legal right to birth control access.

For more information on the legislation, click here and here.

I swear, it's not what it looks like!

Monty was sorely missed while I was in Mexico, but before we left New York I was lucky enough to catch him loving up on Neidra. You can see the shame in his face, no?

Barack Obama, at a news conference on Friday in Milwaukee:

"I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal."

I'm with Lauren in finding this sexist. It's about word choice: He could have just as easily said, "periodically when her poll numbers look bad." But instead he says she does so when she's "feeling down." 'Cause you know how the ladies are. They're always doing things based on their emotions. Not because they're trying to, say, get ahead in the workplace or win an election or anything.

Here it is on video:

I like what DnA (an Obama supporter) had to say about this comment:

On the one hand, he seems to be suggesting that Clinton is engaging in what Obama refers to as "the same old Washington Politics".

But on the other hand, it's hard for me not to read the subtext of this statement as "if you elect this woman, she's going to act crazy every time she's on the rag. You know how chicks are." What does "feeling down" have to do with it? The two of them are competing for votes, so she's launching attack ads. Why the fucking psychotherapy?

Before everyone gets all huffy about how this is the same thing as the Clintons trying to peg Obama as a scary Negro in the mold of Al Sharpton, it isn't. It's reprehensible and disappointing, but it's not clear to me that it's deliberate.

Clearly this isn't Chris Matthews-level shit or anything. All sexist comments are not created equal, and pointing out that Obama's comment comes from a place of male privilege does not mean I'm saying it's as bad as him holding up an "Iron My Shirt" sign or something. But it's pretty obvious to me that "when she's feeling down" was a sexist way of characterizing the situation. As Lauren says, "If you’ve never been told you are “ruled by your emotions� in a professional capacity, you probably wouldn’t get it either."

While on my much-needed vacation to Acapulco, the boyfriend and I came across the above gem. I'm not sure what's going on with the weird knife and beehive (?) trompo, but the charming Asian stereotype was all I needed to see to make me want to throw something at the billboard. Instead, I took a picture. Grr.

Or so proves this cartoon from xkcd, which is so funny. And so (sadly) true.

Thanks to the (many!) readers who sent this along.

Glenn Beck: "If you're an ugly woman, you're probably progressive as well. Aw, jeez."

(It's a clip from his radio show, so it's audio-only.)

Perhaps we should send Glen a few emails letting him know that "Your Women Are Ugly!" is not a political argument.

Thanks to Ashley for the link.

A gender-nonconforming teenager was killed in Oxnard, CA.

Apparently gender equality is a bad thing, because sometimes teenage girls want to drink or use drugs. Which, you know, they never did when they thought their future career choices were homemaker, nurse or teacher. Time to blame feminism! This line of reasoning actually strikes me as remarkably similar to the paternalistic language used in the Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on dilation-and-extraction abortion: "We can't allow women to have choices, because they might regret what they choose!"

Newsday on the lack of models who are women of color.

Media coverage of Kentucky's ultrasound legislation has been rather misleading.

Alessandra Stanley on MSNBC trying to clean up its act.

A government official in Britain has suggested "temporarily sterilizing" all teen girls. (The article is accompanied by some truly heinous stock photo art.)

Jennifer Baumgardner on her support for Hillary Clinton.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell says that many women of color have decided they're "not willing to play Mammy to Hillary Clinton."

Kenya is moving closer to a peace agreement, but will that stop the rampant sexual assault? Plus, why women in crisis situations like this have different needs than men.

Muslimah Media Watch critiques Ann Telnaes' valentine cartoon.

The journal Nature rejects pushes to adopt a peer-review process in which authors are anonymous. Studies have shown that when auditions/submissions are anonymous, women (and minorities) fare better.

Malalai Joya rails against the twisting of Islamic law to suppress women's rights.

A new website lets you anonymously inform someone you may have given them an STD.

Tigtog pays homage to men in kilts.

Headlines like this make me think maybe we should start an Oppression Olympics Watch, in addition to our sexism watch(es).

Budget cuts in Chicago mean that lots of low-income women are waiting weeks and weeks for important gynecological care.

Twisty eviscerates the valentine-industrial complex.

Someone has created a "wine rack." Like a sexualized version of those ridiculous beer hats.

The fundies are incensed that people who don't hate gay folks are going to be allowed into schools in Ontario to talk about diversity and acceptance. The horror!

Even gaming magazines apparently come in pink for girls.

An interesting take on a somewhat controversial book among feminists, The Daring Book for Girls.

A woman visiting Saudi Arabia was jailed for having coffee with a male colleague.

Kira Cochrane has a long essay about her feelings on her weight, and explains why she'll be writing a column about dieting/fitness.

Is sex ed in Illinois really "comprehensive"?

Antigone Magazine has a video on their Dreams for Women project.

Bush still swears up and down that harping on the abstinence-only message is a better way to prevent HIV/AIDS in Africa than providing honest health information.

File under: So. Not. Funny.

A California high school paper is in trouble for publishing a diagram of the vagina. Teachers "rushed to confiscate the publication." This is clearly some seriously dangerous information in the hands of high-schoolers! The day after the issues were confiscated, the paper's 15-year-old editor-in-chief and others showed up at school wearing shirts that read, "My vagina is obscene." Nice.

What have you guys been reading this week?

I saw Leslie and the Ly's live tonight. It was amazing. Their rendition of "Midwest Diva" nearly reduced me to tears of joy. Leslie Hall does all Midwest ladies proud. (Especially those of us from Iowa.)

I also nearly passed out upon discovering that Leslie is a fan of Feministing. Swoon!

Leslie and I strike our fiercest "I'm from Iowa, bitch" pose. (Photo by fellow Midwest diva Kay Steiger)

Bambi Weavil is founder and CEO of Out Impact, Inc and publisher of its online magazine Out Impact. Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, Bambi spends her days and her nights working to raise money for LGBTQ issues...while also squeezing time to write about pro wrestling and her guilty pleasure, "American Idol."

Here's Bambi...

This article from the NYTimes from Valentine's Day talks about the decline in perfume purchases. It starts with a trite story about a woman who seemingly ended two serious relationships because of scent-related issues:

“He thought I smelled like a traveling carnival, the kind where they sell corn dogs, because I guess the smell was reminiscent of cotton candy,� Ms. Ware, 28, said. “This was the demise of Trish No. 9.� It was a bad omen. Soon after, Ms. Ware said she broke up with the perfume-averse boyfriend. She has not worn fragrance since. A more recent boyfriend fared no better after he bought Ms. Ware what she called “an old-lady perfume� against her wishes.

I won't even go there. The more interesting part of the article is the author's discussion of a budding fragrance-free movement, partially in response to some people's allergies to strong scents that are common in deodorants, perfumes and cosmetics. The conference I went to last week, Creating Change, had a fragrance-free zone.

Now a few workplaces and cultural sites are trying to become fragrance-free zones. Some doctors’ offices ask patients not to wear perfume because some medical personnel or patients may have allergies or asthma that could be exacerbated by scent. Some schools ask students to forgo perfume and even scented deodorants if a teacher has a fragrance allergy — much like peanut butter has been removed from some cafeterias.

What it doesn't really address is the fact that a decline in perfume purchasing might be due to an increased desire to smell more like yourself. It also implies that not wearing perfume equals having no smell at all. I'd argue we all have a smell, with or without scented products, and it can be pretty nice for some people.

I'm not so unhappy to see this decline (although 85% of women still wear perfume, according to the article) mostly because of the gender stereotypes that many of the scents promote. Women need to smell like florals and fruit, while men need to smell like musk and pine trees.

And in "goody," I mean ridiculously offensive. In the midst of a trade discussion in 1973 with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Chinese leader Mao Zedong offered sending Chinese women to the United States as as a trade, saying:

"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands. . . We have too many women. ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

And the kicker: "It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied. "We will have to study it."

Nothing like some vintage sexism to get the blood boiling.

Thanks to Pamela for the link.

A resignation letter from Marilyn Mitchell, former state editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

From: mmitchell
Subject: Fuck the glass
Date: February 14, 2008 8:36:31 AM CST
To: to-all

Cc: to-all-LR, to-all-NW

All I wanted to do at this newspaper is to do a good job. I came here because I thought it was a good newspaper. But, it's not. It's a good ole' boys club made up of old white males. Nobody else has a voice. This is a newspaper in which: The city editor can verbally abuse another editor in the presence of the managing editor and nothing is done. The managing editor in a news meeting slugs a potential 1A story as blonde bombshells - a story in which bombs were strapped on two retarded foreign women and sent into a crowd. Male editors are allowed to talk about penis size during news meetings. Editors call Hispanics wetbacks in news meetings Editors are proud to call blacks n-----s in news stories. A city editor gets his feelings hurt over coverage of a story and I'm penalized for it. The managing editor is a bald face liar and the executive editor doesn't give a damn. So to "the glass," I resign effective immediately. Marilyn Mitchell

One of her coworkers, "veteran political reporter" Bill Simmons, responded to Mitchell that editors may have used the n-word, but weren't "proud" of it. He says sometimes the term "wetback" is not used in earnest, but to criticize bigots who might use it sincerely. And then he says, yeah, they made the "blonde bombshells" joke and, they may like to talk about their penises, but boys will be boys. He can't understand what the big deal is.

But Mitchell is really talking about a culture in the newsroom. Sure, the specific instances she names were offensive, but whether or not someone used a certain term (and in what tone, at what time) is somewhat beside the point. Her criticism -- which the "veteran political reporter" completely misses because he's likely part of the exact ol' boys culture she describes -- hinges on the fact that the newsroom is an environment where only white males feel comfortable. That's a hard thing to articulate, even with a few examples.

This really resonates with me because I've worked for daily newspapers, and I really hated the newsroom culture at a few of them. I never had anyone tell me I couldn't take an assignment because I was a woman, or anything overt like that. But I watched certain golden-boy reporters (and they were always boys) continually screw up and require corrections, and yet continually get the plum assignments. There was one particular editor who was best buddies with all the young dudely male reporters, and also a total lech -- with a really gross flirty attitude toward all of the younger women in the newsroom. Once he said, of another reporter who was gay, "Don't you just expect him to click his heels together three times and disappear?" (A nice, subtle Wizard of Oz reference.) Just tells you something that this editor was a "rising star" at the paper.

The point is, go Marilyn. You're not wrong on the merits just because one of the old white guys in the newsroom quibbles with your examples. This sort of thing is about the culture, the big picture. Clearly they just don't get it.

Picture courtesy of Advocates for Youth's Condom Campaign

While we know it's close to the end of the week, it's never too late to celebrate National Condom Awareness Week! Check out Planned Parenthood's instructional video showing the proper way to put on a condom, although I must agree with Nerve's contention that it's not the sexiest of videos. But it is necessary.

I actually took part in a "Put on a Condom Correctly" race yesterday that my organization's teen program was having some V-Day fun with, and my fellow opponent/co-worker and I failed miserably; there was a "condom referee" blowing a whistle in my face every time I made a mistake. (Beats an STI, right??) Meanwhile, the teens were kicking ass in the department. Some example I am.

Time magazine's Mark Halperin recently said, in an interview for a Sirius satellite radio show,

And I can tell you, [John Edwards is] really skeptical of her ability to be the kind of president he wants. But, he kinda thinks Obama is..he thinks Obama is kind of a pussy. He has real questions about Obama's toughness, his readiness for the office.

Halperin has since apologized for his oh-so-creative, junior-high-level insult. He really used "pussy" in the classic derogatory sense: men trying to show they're more masculine by using derogatory feminine terms to describe other men. So it's offensive not only to women (way to use a term for our anatomy as an insult! awesome!) but also to men (mocking them for not conforming to male stereotypes). The fact that he was paraphrasing Edwards when he said this is interesting, as Edwards has taken more than his share of gender-related abuse, mostly from right-wingers.

Unlike bitch or cunt (which feminists have made great strides toward reappropriating), I think "pussy" is pretty rarely used in a subversive sense. If I had to generalize, I'd say it still resides almost exclusively in the vocabularies of misogynists and dudes attempting to assert their masculinity.

On a note related to Hillary Sexism Watch: Wanna bet that many of the people calling Clinton a cunt or a bitch have also referred to Obama and Edwards as pussies?

And speaking of still-taboo vagina euphemisms, has everyone seen the video of Jane Fonda casually saying "cunt" on the Today show?

Meredith Vieira assures Today viewers not familiar with the "reclaimed" meaning of the word: "Jane Fonda inadvertently said a word from the play that you don't say on TV." And indeed, you probably shouldn't be using the C-word on TV if you're Chris Matthews. But if you're Jane Fonda talking about a segment of The Vagina Monologues? I think it's ok. Context is everything.

Especially in sports, out of all things. Come on now, little ladies!

A Kansas Roman Catholic high school banned a female referee from officiating a boy's basketball game because as a woman, and shouldn't be put in an authority position over the boys. Yes, really.

The good thing is that Official Michelle Campbell has support behind this ridiculousness; her fellow male ref walked out with her in protest when the school told her to leave, and the Activities Association is considering banning the school itself from playing in games.

The school is operated under the Society of St. Pius X, which has the following under their "FAQs":

'Feminism refuses the true nature of woman, confuses the natural and supernatural relations between the sexes and embarks upon a deviant path at the end of which the suicide of thought and the death of womanhood is inevitable,' Father Leo Boyle answered.

On whether a wife should be submissive to her husband: 'Husbands will consequently take responsibility and leadership, even when they feel inadequate, and wives will take delight in denying their own will and obeying their husbands,' Father Peter R. Scott answered.

Hmmm...suicide of thoughts or denying of will - I vote for deviancy!

Dana B. of CodePink shows us how it's done, in front of the military recruiting center in Manhattan.

Attention, dildo-lovers of Texas! You no longer have to pretend your vibrators are for "educational purposes." A federal appeals court has overturned the state's sex toy ban!

But I have to ask: WTF is up with this picture and caption in the Washington Post?

As if someone could, in a fit of rage, purchase a vibrator and really do some damage? (Actually, no joke, Mississippi has deemed sex toys more of a threat to public safety than guns.) I suppose the idea of women having extreme sexual pleasure all by their lonesome is really quite a threatening idea to some people.

Jill has the right idea in celebrating the repeal of the Texas ban by reposting the classic Molly Ivins video:

As Texan Amanda says, "Praise the lord and pass the AA batteries."

Legal Momentum has a huge new report (PDF), Sex, Lies and Stereotypes, on how abstinence-only education is especially harmful to young women and girls. (It's also a great primer on abstinence-only in general.) It makes a strong case for why, even though these programs are bad for both male and female students, there's a disproportionate impact on girls:

Females disproportionately suffer the consequences of unprotected sexual activity, including STIs and unplanned pregnancies. These programs also often contain harmful and outdated gender stereotypes that cast women as the gatekeepers of aggressive male sexuality. [...] For women of color, the absence of accurate sexual health information is particularly damaging given the high rates of HIV infection in their communities, while the gender stereotypes promoted by the programs exacerbate racial as well as sexual inequalities.

Last year, Courtney made a very compelling argument that if we had better sex education, young women and men would be better at articulating their needs and boundaries. One young woman, quoted in the report, echoed that theme:

“Because we didn’t have accurate information about what was healthy and what wasn’t, I endured some awful situations because I didn’t know the difference. We didn’t talk about respect, boundaries, and sexual communication. So the myth of ‘boys push and girls resist’ informed everything. We never talked about consent because with abstinence curriculum you shouldn’t consent.
--Erin - Abstinence-only program participant from Oregon

The report expands on those ideas, and also notes that how reinforcing gender stereotypes in these programs is also reinforcing some really dangerous messages about rape:

Likewise, Heritage Keepers’ curriculum warns:

Females need to be careful with what they wear, because males are looking! The girl might be thinking fashion, while the boy is thinking sex. For this reason girls have an added responsibility to wear modest clothing that doesn’t invite lustful thoughts.

These texts ask girls constantly to monitor their own behavior and to be responsible for dressing in a way
that ensures that male sexuality is kept in check. Their tone is condescending to both girls and boys, and fails to provide real guidance to teens about how they can develop healthy relationships of all kinds, whether sexual or not.

Most abstinence-only texts fail to meaningfully discuss rape, sexual assault, or coercion, and even fewer give guidance to victims of sexual violence. Further, when responsibility for male sexual feeling is placed on young women and girls, it removes male responsibility and, in instances of sexual harassment and assault, harmfully blames the victim and excuses the perpetrator. Moreover, there is no acknowledgment that some teens may not
experience any sexual feelings, or may be attracted to members of the same sex.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the whole thing.

So after reading Lori "Settle for a Schlub" Gottlieb's essay, and realizing it was timed with the Independent Women's Forum's annual campaign lamenting the prevalence of casual sex, Take Back the Date, I realized that there were the makings for an amazing anti-feminist PR campaign. So, inspired by the classic anti-feminist V-Day poster, I've created a new campaign:

Today is the first anniversary of the roll out of the NYC condoms. 36 million of the condoms have been distributed in the 5 boroughs since then (way to go NYC) and this Valentine's Day they've come out with a new and bilingual design. The new ad campaign slogan is "Get some." Love it. The spanish slogan is Pontelo, which means put it on.

They even have four different video ads on their site, each one with a different musical genre--including a latin one in Spanish.

Happy V-day everyone.

I was so moved by the New York Times profile of Turkish lawyer, Fatma Benli. At just 34-years-old, she is the leader of the fight for Muslim womens' right to wear their scarves in public places, especially at school. She told the Times:

I could tell you about domestic violence, about honor killings, about the parts of the criminal code that discriminate against women. But we can’t move on to those issues. The head scarf is where we are stuck.

I can still remember the way my attic smelled (like cardboard boxes and old crinkly photo albums where the sticky stuff has worn off and turned brown) as I crept up the stairs with my best little guy friend in my childhood home. We were on a mission—to find my dad’s dusty stack of Playboy’s hidden in a tiny closet, to open up the pages and quietly giggle, to have our first visual experience of naked, overt sexuality.

I wish opening the books that DK publishing generously sent me—Sex 365: A Position for Every Day and Kama Sutra by Tracey Cox, no less—gave me that same feeling. But now I’ve lived in a pornified culture, developed my own relationship with my body and the body of a hot partner, generally grown weary of anyone trying to sell me a version of sex they think I can “benefit from.�

My cynicism is warranted. For starters, all you’ll find in these books is heterosexual couples, and in DK publishing land, apparently no one sleeps with anyone outside of their race. (For more on why I think this sucks, read my op-ed in the New York Daily News today). They also all have pretty perfect (by media standards) bodies.

Setting aside the offensively narrow definition of “sex� depicted in the book—heterosexual, monoracial, tight and toned—I can see how flipping through it could liven things up in a couples’ sex life.

First and foremost, Happy V Day! Reclaim the day from the pre-packaged, homophobic, corporate conglomerates and express genuine love to a honey, a buddy, a family member, or hell, a stranger. My Valentine to you is a quotation from Emma Goldman:

Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

In case you were too disheartened to make it through my long post the other day, here's McCain on repro rights, in his own words, in convenient video format:

Yuck.

We're a bit late in covering this. Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, a 38-year-old Marine from Camp Courtney in Okinawa, was arrested on Monday for allegedly raping a 14-year old girl the night before.

Japanese officials are understandably up in arms about it, stating concern over the recrurrence of U.S. miltary-related crimes in Japan. (Not to mention a similar Okinawa rape case in 1995 of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen.)

In the meantime, Okinawan women wrote a letter to George Bush in protest.

I can't believe we missed this. Last week, after a debate over legislation that would amend the state constitution to say that it does not guarantee the right to abortion or require funding for abortion, Tennessee state Sen. Doug Henry (at right), said,

“Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it’s simply, ‘Let’s don’t go forward with this act.’ �

In the modern era, now that all women are dirty whores, rape is really no big deal. After all, women can just say no!

Perhaps we should write Sen. Henry an email or two and let him know what has and hasn't changed about sexual assault in this country?

via Ema.

UPDATE: Commenter tobes points out that this guy's rhetoric sounds an awful lot like South Dakota state senator Bill Napoli, who, when asked whose abortion he'd actually approve of, famously said:

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

UPDATE II: Oh god, there's video of Henry's speech:

We've written a lot about steak or burger restaurants that employ exclusively half-naked women, using "meat" to sell meat. But is the flip side also true? Reader Lauren alerted us to the fact that there's apparently a vegan strip club in Portland, Oregon, where owner Johnny Diablo (his real name??) hopes to convert his patrons to veganism:

While it may not be the most orthodox way to win over new vegans, Diablo hopes people bring some green and eat some green at his new club.

“(It’s) vixens, not veal, and sizzle, not steak,� Diablo said. “We put the meat on the pole, not on the plate.�

There's a video segment here. Says the newscaster,

"You won't find any meat inside Casa Diablo, but you will find a whole lot of flesh."

Johnny Diablo has made sure to clarify, on his MySpace blog, "Don't be fooled by the political correctness posers out there. We aren't feminazis. We are femi-libertarians!" He signs the post, "Johnny Diablo, Lord & Master"

Wow. Just... let that all sink in.

This is definitely part of a trend -- starting with PETA ads -- in which women's bodies are used as a way of promoting veganism and vegetarianism. There's also L.A.'s Vegan Vixens, "sexy, trendy and fun loving women whose goal is to inspire men to live a longer and happier life, by making healthier decisions on what they consume." And now the vegan strip club.

One common thread here is that all of these efforts are aimed at making veganism appealing to men. The Maxim-like PETA ads, the Vegan Vixens, the strip club: All are saying it's okay to buck the stereotype of Real Men Eat Red Meat, because here are some naked ladies to reassure you that you're still a superhetero manly man! Almost as if they're saying, you won't even miss eating meat, because you'll get to look at so much of it! Or as Diablo puts it, “We put the meat on the pole, not on the plate.� It's a substitution. This trend seems to confirm much of what Carol Adams observed in the Sexual Politics of Meat -- and then turn it on its head.

I think the Skinny Bitch in the Kitch books are related to this whole thing, too. It, too, is using women's bodies to sell veganism. As Samhita put it,

But similar to what Debbie Rasmussen from BITCH says in the article, I too am all for an assault on the food industry, but I have major issues with demanding that skinny is the end all goal for being a vegan. That is not "girl power" to me. It is tacky and a dated way of selling books.

I'm not saying Skinny Bitch and Vegan Vixens are doing the exact same thing here. But both are using the "ideal" female body type -- something men want and women want to be -- as an incentive to go vegan. This is deeply fucked up, especially because there are dozens of real, compelling reasons to switch to a vegan lifestyle -- none of them based on sexist bullshit.

*Disclaimer: I am a vegetarian, and I am by no means asserting that every vegan or vegetarian supports the use of women's bodies as a way to recruit more people to their diet/lifestyle.

A South Australian Member of Parliament thinks your t-shirt is asking for it.

Former Liberal, now independent MP Bob Such, stated during a Parliament debate on rape reform legislation that women shouldn't wear shirts which "send the wrong message":

"Some of these young women, they might think it's fun to put that message on but I don't think it helps the situation to be encouraging people out there who don't need much encouragement to do what they shouldn't do." (Emphasis mine)

"I am not one to say that it in any way justifies a sexual assault, because it does not, but I see women getting around in T-shirts saying 'Give me a few more drinks and I will do this or that' and displaying comments drawing attention to their breasts and so on."

Oh, and let's not forget that Such followed with a questioning how someone could be charged with rape if consent was withdrawn "part way through intercourse":

"I think that the everday person - male or female, and I have spoken to men and women about this - finds it hard to understand how, if intercourse is underway someone can say 'stop the world I want you to get off' and how that is really a reasonable action that could result in someone being charged with rape." (Emphasis mine)

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize that busting a nut was "the world." And yes, a reasonable thing to do would be to "stop the world" and refrain from raping a woman. Very fucking reasonable to me. I'm sure Such and Laura Sessions Stepp would get along famously.

The saddest part of this is that the chair of the SA Premier's Council for Women defended Such's comments, stating that he was merely touching on the issue of personal responsibility.

As far as I'm concerned, Such can still take his "personal responsibility" and shove it. And as for "provocative" t-shirts, maybe we should address the kind of culture we live in where these are acceptable rather than continue to place blame on women for existing.

It's almost V-Day! And you know what that means... time to take stock of all the right-wingers around the country going nuts because some gals want to take this opportunity to say the word "vagina" and raise money to fight violence against women.

First up, the Seattle Times has refused to print an ad (at right) for a performance of the Vagina Monologues sponsored by the local office of the National Council of Jewish Women. The ad was carried by other local publications.

"The artwork was created by a member of my congregation," says Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg of B'nai Torah, which is located in Bellevue. "We have it hanging in several places in our Temple. I was just very disappointed that the Times didn't share our appreciation for what I consider to be tasteful and beautiful artwork."

Agreed, Rabbi.

An email from the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute (they of the "conservative hotties" calendar), indicates the organization is, like, totally grossed out by a vagina costume:

Share Your V-Day Stories With Us

These days, even God’s country is no longer safe from V-Day activities. A student from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina sent us this photo of a vagina costume used as a promotional device for the play (viewer discretion advised).

A walking vagina on campus may seem extreme, but we know such blatant vulgarity isn’t isolated. If your college has a Vagina Monologues production, you probably have already come across some lewd promotional tactic. We want to know what’s going on at your school.

EW, vag-costume promotional device! Let's hope nobody sent these ladies a picture of the vagina sofa. They'd probably have a heart attack.

A V-Day production in Temecula, California has drawn complaints:

"In reality, 'The Vagina Monologues' does more to distort the truth about men, the truth about women and the truth about sexuality," said Bridget Blanton, of Temecula.

Um, has Bridget checked between her legs recently? The vag is truly a "reality" of most women's lives.

At St. Louis University, one of many Catholic universities where the Monologues have been banned, the campus feminist group, UNA, scheduled an off-campus performance... which campus administrators are trying to shut down. UNA member Anu Okuyemi explained the back story in an email:

Last year, in 2007 UNA was told by the SLU administration that we would no longer be allowed to perform The Vagina Monologues on campus--ever. On top of this, we are not allowed to advertise on campus at all, or even set up tables to sell tickets. Determined to still raise money for our charities, we found an off campus location last year and the protests and controversy surrounding the production helped us sell out all our performances.

The reason the administration gave us for banning the Monologues was that having the production every year was "redundant." They told us that they would be willing to support a future V-Day campaign on-campus if we found another production to do instead.

This year, we are once again performing The Vagina Monologues off-campus, and to avoid "redundancy," we chose another Eve Ensler production, A Memory, A Monologue, and Rant, and a Prayer (MMRP) to be performed on campus to raise awareness. We thought that this would satisfy the administration. We thought wrong. Just a week before MMRP was scheduled to run, we were told that they would not approve the play. They said that this production was basically "Vagina Monologues 2," and in order to be "consistent" with their previous decision they could not allow MMRP on campus since the Monologues were already banned.

Yeah, we call bullshit.

Elsewhere around the country, anti-vag wingnuts in Pennsylvania are sending threatening letters to theaters planning Monologues performances. And in Indiana, a conference of bishops fled the campus of Notre Dame, which is hosting a production of the Monologues, and instead chose to convene at a nearby convent. Where they are guaranteed not to have to hear the V-word.

And finally, in cheerier news, the website for this year's big blowout V-Day event in New Orleans has introduced me to something awesome: ({}) The vagina emoticon. So great.

Our previous posts on V-Day:
Anti-feminists hate vaginas
D-constructing V-day
The Hoohah Monologues?! and follow-up, "Vagina" deemed suitable for public consumption
Vagina Monologue backlash
They don't want your dirty vagina money

Obama and McCain sweep DC, Maryland and Virginia primaries. And I thank the District of Columbia for getting its act together early so I can go to sleep. Take note, states.

quote From the Washington Post:

What gives Democrats heart -- and clearly worries Republicans -- is that the Obama-Clinton contest does not reflect a deep, ideological split within the party. The Republican Party appears to be more divided along ideological lines right now.

"The Democrats have some healing to do, some reconciling that naturally occurs after every primary season," wrote Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's presidential campaign and is an undeclared superdelegate. "I believe Clinton and Obama are up to the task."

I'm taking off tonight for a much-needed vacation to Mexico with the boy. I leave you in the very capable hands of my co-bloggers. Don't be jealous, I'll drink some margaritas for you. And by some, I mean many.

Have a great week, folks!

While we wait for results from DC, MD and VA, I hope we can all agree that either Obama or Clinton are 10,000 times better than this guy. Let's remember who the real enemy is.

Funny.

Not funny.

Twenty low-income women in Manila are fighting a legal battle against what they say is a ban against contraception.

The group - 16 women and four of their husbands - are fighting a policy which they say denies them access to condoms, to the pill and other effective forms of family planning.

This has had a devastating effect on their lives, they argue, causing unwanted pregnancies, pushing them further into poverty and harming their health and wellbeing.

It seems a policy touting "natural" family planning ensured (in a roundabout way) that free contraception was removed from local health centers, making access pretty much impossible. Just horrible.

Today the New York Times has an article on training doctors and med students to get beyond shyness/prudishness when they examine, uh, private parts. The accompanying picture of an avatar receiving a pelvic exam was just outright creepy (look at that computer simulation's eyes! scary!), but the article is fascinating.

And Dr. Carla Pugh (pictured at right) sounds downright bad-ass:

Dr. Pugh, 39, has worked nearly a decade to bridge that gap. Her first creation, in 1998, was a “vaginal vault� made of a cardboard toilet-paper roll, Play-Doh and a badminton shuttlecock (a makeshift cervix). She has also constructed a scrotum using two wood balls linked by a rubber band (vas deferens) and suspended in an extra-large condom filled with oil and peanut butter.

[...]

“Just because you’re smart enough to get into medical school, you’re not smart enough to outwit the social restraints we all grow up with,� Dr. Pugh said recently between meetings at a conference in Las Vegas. “It’s not like med school students are gifted to the degree that they can touch a stranger’s genitals and look them in the eye and have a calm conversation without feeling weird about it.�

All of these issues seem to dovetail really well with the documentary Miriam posted about last week, At Your Cervix, which is all about "making pelvic exams respectful and pain-free." A really interesting discussion ensued in comments, where a lot of women talked about how painful routine pelvic exams are for them, and others offered information about standardized patients at med schools. Check it out.

Thanks to Dana B. for the link.

Nice question, Couric. Jeez.

Via Shakes, with whom I share the same STFU sentiment.

Pic from Lingual X

Looks like I spoke too soon in South Dakota, where the legislature has struck down the Birth Control Protection Act, which would have ensured women's access to contraception at pharmacies.

Kate Looby, Planned Parenthood South Dakota Director called the decision "a missed opportunity to take a positive, concrete step toward reducing unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion in South Dakota."

If you're interested in hearing more about this decision, Karina (the web editor at PP Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota) has a great podcast interview with Looby.

The always-amazing Daisy Hernández has a great piece up at ColorLines about the intersection of transgender issues and race - it's really compelling stuff, so don't miss it.

Last night, my boyfriend pointed out this gem of a sidebar in a recent Time magazine. (Click on image for full size.)

Apparently, goatees are part of a backlash to feminism. Or something. I'll never look at Johnny Depp the same away again, that quietly defiant bastard.

Teach a girl math and you might as well put the doobie in her hand.

The "girls gone wild" panic in the media is fun. Blaming it on equality for women is priceless. Check out the best anti-feminist logic jump perhaps of all time:

A generation of parents and educators have pushed to ensure that girls have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, with notable results. In 2007, for example, it was girls who dominated the national math and science competition sponsored by Siemens. But a growing number of reports show that the message of equality might have a downside.

Teenage girls now equal or outpace teenage boys in alcohol consumption, drug use and smoking, national surveys show. The number of girls entering the juvenile-justice system has risen steadily over the past few years. A 2006 study that examined accident rates among young drivers noted that although boys get into more car accidents, girls are slowly beginning to close the gap.

See what happens when you give girls rights? Drinking, drugs and fast cars! They lose their fucking minds! Just so...predictable.

It seems like WaPoreporter Lori Aratani is struggling to make her point; she interviewed several teen girls about their drinking and smoking habits and clearly cherry-picked quotes to link bad behavior to "equality" and "empowerment."

I'm all for addressing problems of girls' drinking and the like, but stretching it this far to make an anti-feminist point is just plain hackneyed.

Click image to enlarge.

Wow. Because if this disgusting cologne spray can reduce your average woman to a feral animal, just imagine what it can do for a presidential hopeful in a tight race against a female candidate! This might be an all-time low for both Hillary Sexism Watch and for Axe ads. And that's really saying something.

Previously in Hilary Sexism Watch:
Chelsea edition
Acronym edition
Misogyny-wear edition
Cheek-pinching edition
"Gender expert" edition
Shock collar edition
Hitchens is an asshole edition
Ironing edition
Accessories edition
Management edition
Laughing edition

Previous Axe-is-disgusting posts:
The manliest of loofahs
A new low for Axe
Axe: The sweet stink of sexism
'Female subject is idle and ready for test sequence'
The Violence Effect

Can I just say that I can't fucking wait for this movie to come out?

Now that most of us have come to terms with the fact that John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee, it's time to start getting real about his record. On a whole slew of important issues, he's not a maverick or a moderate. (He's pro-war, anti-gay rights, not great on environmental issues, a total idiot on the economy, etc.) Think Bush is awesome? Then you'll love McCain!

And when it comes to choice, don't be fooled just because ultraconservatives like James Dobson have, uh, a few reservations about him. McCain scores a zero from both Planned Parenthood and NARAL on choice issues. At this year's March for Life, he told anti-choicers, "If I am fortunate enough to be elected as the next President of the United States, I pledge to you to be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right to life movement." He also basically compared countries where abortion is not a crime to communist dictatorships. Plus, he's been using his adopted daughter to "prove" his anti-choice street cred on the campaign trail. (Of course, MSNBC has not described this as "pimping.") It's not just that he's anti-Roe. According to NARAL, McCain "has never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion."

Here's a convenient bulleted list (largely based on this detailed report (PDF)) breaking down McCain's record on reproductive rights -- just in case you find yourself thinking he'd be any better than Bush on these issues.

• Repeatedly voted for (and cosponsored) the Federal Abortion Ban. After the court upheld the ban, he said, "Today's Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children."
• Supported the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a law that grants separate legal status to an embryo or fetus
• Voted in favor of four antiâ€?choice U.S. Supreme Court nominees. "I’m proud that we have Justice Alito and Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. I’m very proud to have played a very small role in making that happen." (May 3, 2007 Republican debate)
• Repeatedly voted to deny lowâ€?income women access to abortion care except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment
• Voted to permit federally funded Title X familyâ€?planning clinics to decline to counsel women on abortion services
• Voted against lifting the ban that forbids U.S. servicewomen from obtaining abortion services at overseas military hospitals with their own funds
• Voted to require Title X familyâ€?planning clinics to notify a teen’s parent before providing abortion services
• Voted in favor of the Teen Endangerment and Grandmother Incarceration Act
• Voted against the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE)
• Voted to terminate the Title X familyâ€?planning program
• Voted against funding teenâ€?pregnancyâ€?prevention programs and ensuring that “abstinenceâ€?onlyâ€? programs are medically accurate
• Voted to uphold the Global Gag Rule
• Voted for the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded familyâ€?planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductiveâ€?health options
• Voted to deâ€?fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization that provides familyâ€?planning services – not abortion – for the world’s poorest women
• Voted to earmark oneâ€?third of all HIV/AIDS prevention funds for abstinence-only programs
• Voted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to establish a new “abstinenceâ€?onlyâ€? program
• Voted to impose a federal parentalâ€?consent law on teens seeking birth control. Not abortion. Birth control
• Voted against legislation that would have required insurance coverage of prescription birth control, improved access to emergency contraception, and provided more women with prenatal health care
• Voted to allow medical residency training programs in obstetrics and gynecology to receive federal assistance even if they ignore abortion training requirements

About the only things that record is missing are a few thinly veiled death threats toward abortion providers and a picture of him escorting his daughter to a Purity Ball.

UPDATE: Planned Parenthood Action Fund is airing radio ads in the DC area to set voters straight on McCain's record on choice.

This is my favorite Monty story yet. The boyfriend and I were running errands in our neighborhood this weekend, and we had Monty with us. While I was in the pharmacy (and pup and the boy were waiting outside) someone stopped in the street and asked Andrew if his dog's name was Monty. It turns out she recognized him from Feministing. Amazing.

So thank you, mystery Astoria-based Feministing reader. You gave us the best story ever. And we're going to take that recommendation and check out Crescent Lounge.

Er, sorry for the delay on providing information about our redesign. To make it up to you I offer one of my favorite things, a graphic with something silly on the Feministing logo. Well worth the wait, right?

I’m kidding, of course. We’re hard at work getting the new site ready. The Feministing tech hamster is scampering furiously on his wheel (don’t you use a hamster for your website development?). I have to say, I’m very excited about where things are, and should be able to share more details with you all soon. I just took a peek at some of the stuff, and it's looking good. To those of you who made donations, or just gave us your emotional support, thank you, thank you.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out these posts about the site upgrades.

The Montana Kaimin had a piece last week on Jessica's presentation at a Students for Choice event at the University of Montana earlier this week, but apparently their weekly rating system given on Fridays had Jessica's "rating" retracted shortly after it was published:

The Full Frontal Feminist, Jessica Valenti, gave a speech on the UM campus Wednesday night, and unfortunately gets Backhands. BU&Bh was quite excited for this presentation, until we realized there was no actual full frontal. And yes, we recognize the irony of Backhanding feminists. (Emphasis mine)

While we give props to them for cutting it out, but the fact that they published it in the first place is beyond me.

A big thanks to Jamee for speaking out on this.

Barack Obama came out ahead in all four states (and the Virgin Islands) over the weekend - Kansas, Louisiana, Maine and Washington. And more importantly, he won a Grammy. On the republican side, McCain took Washington, but the Huckabee camp is contesting the results, and Huckabee won Louisiana and Kansas.

Heading into the Jen’s neighborhood primaries tomorrow, what are you all thinking?

Eve Ensler and Kimberle Crenshaw have some really thoughtful commentary on feminism and the Democratic primary.

Palestinian feminists stage a major demonstration in Rafah.

A woman misdiagnosed with HIV went through nine years of treatment before realizing her positive results were false. Wow.

Applying the "Slow Food" philosophy to sex.

On masculinity and campaign theme songs.

Jenn breaks down what happened with the Asian American vote on Super Tuesday.

On some churches shunning members who disagree with them.

More super-skinny model issues, but this time the models are male. Says one agency rep, “Skinny, skinny, skinny. Everybody’s shrinking themselves.� Ugh.

An Ohio woman called police to report being assaulted by her cousin, and found herself being violently strip-searched by sheriffs. There's a video, which -- warning -- is pretty disturbing.

Efforts continue to have HPV vaccination expanded to include men.

Oprah responds to those who call her a traitor against her gender for supporting Obama.

A county commissioner in Michigan was acquitted of sexual assault, even after he admitted he pushed a woman's face into his crotch.

Tis the season for barftastic (and offensive) Valentine's Day ads. Here's a real gem (har har) from JC Penney.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) comes out against home births. Surprise, surprise.

More on how the American invasion has made things worse for Iraqi women.

On gender-based violence in high schools in Ontario.

On Hillary Clinton, Courtney Love, and how women get a raw deal from being part of a power couple.

The BBC on Iraqi Kurdish women and self-immolation.

MSNBC temporarily suspends anchor David Shuster for asking if Hillary Clinton was "pimping out" Chelsea on the campaign trail.

An anti-choice rally in Brisbane, Australia gets heated when pro-choicers show up. I'm not without sympathy for the anti-choice spokesperson who complained the pro-choicers didn't allow them a chance to finish speaking. On the other hand, abortion is still a criminal act (except to save the woman's life) in Queensland, so the pro-choicers' anger is absolutely understandable. What do you all think?

As it turns out, settling for a boring guy actually kind of sucks. Damn you, Lori Gottlieb!

I haven't read a lot of back issues of The Atlantic, but I imagine that this tripe has to be in their top three most appalling articles of all time. In what can only be described as anti-feminist porn, writer Lori Gottlieb argues that women who find themselves single at the embarrassingly old age of 30 should stop being so uppity and settle for "Mr. Good Enough."

Seriously...imagine all the bad science scare-tactic articles that Susan Faludi debunked in Backlash and the Independent Women's Forum had a baby. A fucking ugly baby.

And despite growing up in an era when the centuries-old mantra to get married young was finally (and, it seemed, refreshingly) replaced by encouragement to postpone that milestone in pursuit of high ideals (education! career! but also true love!), every woman I know—no matter how successful and ambitious, how financially and emotionally secure—feels panic, occasionally coupled with desperation, if she hits 30 and finds herself unmarried.

Oh, I know—I’m guessing there are single 30-year-old women reading this right now who will be writing letters to the editor to say that the women I know aren’t widely representative, that I’ve been co-opted by the cult of the feminist backlash, and basically, that I have no idea what I’m talking about. And all I can say is, if you say you’re not worried, either you’re in denial or you’re lying. In fact, take a good look in the mirror and try to convince yourself that you’re not worried, because you’ll see how silly your face looks when you’re being disingenuous. (Emphasis added)

Really? Because this is how worried my face looks. Perhaps, as someone who is turning 30 this year, I'm some sort of anomaly because I'm not desperately running around looking for the nearest douchebag to propose. But something tells me I'm not alone. (Also, someone may want to clue Gottlieb in about, you know, lesbians.)

In fact, what's particularly hilarious about Gottlieb's article is that the evidence for her "thesis" is largely hackneyed commentary about old sitcoms and romantic comedies. Gottlieb cites The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Friends, Sex and the City, Will and Grace, Say Anything, and Broadcast News in an effort to convince us that single women over 30 will end up as depressed as she is. And I don't say that to be cruel; it really does seem like Gottlieb is using this piece to explore her own unhappiness:

Now, though, I realize that if I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life, I’m at the age where I’ll likely need to settle for someone who is settling for me. What I and many women who hold out for true love forget is that we won’t always have the same appeal that we may have had in our 20s and early 30s. Having turned 40, I now have wrinkles, bags under my eyes, and hair in places I didn’t know hair could grow on women...And even if some men do find us engaging, and they’re ready to have a family, they’ll likely decide to marry someone younger with whom they can have their own biological children.

Ouch. Someone needs a little Stuart Smalley in their life. And if having to read through Gottlieb's personal neuroses wasn't bad enough, we're also subjected to quotes from her (decidedly asshole) friends.

Then there’s my friend Chris, a single 35-year-old marketing consultant who for three years dated someone he calls “the perfect woman�—a kind and beautiful surgeon. She broke off the relationship several times because, she told him with regret, she didn’t think she wanted to spend her life with him. Each time, Chris would persuade her to reconsider, until finally she called it off for good, saying that she just couldn’t marry somebody she wasn’t in love with. Chris was devastated, but now that his ex-girlfriend has reached 35, he’s suddenly hopeful about their future.

“By the time she turns 37,� Chris said confidently, “she’ll come back. And I’ll bet she’ll marry me then. I know she wants to have kids.�

Yeah, I just can't imagine why a woman wouldn't want to be with this charmer. But in all seriousness, we all know that the media likes nothing better than a woman telling other women how miserable they're going to be without a man. And that's what makes nonsense like this so dangerous - its potential reach. Gottlieb has already been on the Today show touting her article and going head to head with (sigh) professional matchmakers. Who knows how much more media attention this piece will get. Shit, she'll probably get a book deal out of it.

But no matter where this article ends up, it doesn't change the fact that it's pure crap, mixed in with a little sour grapes. (I'm betting it makes Gottlieb - who is so clearly dissatisfied with her life - just nuts that there are all these "disingenuously" happy single women out there. Better that they're matched up with losers than pursuing their own lives.)

So, to Gottlieb and all the others who think that us "old" straight gals should go back to the men we once rejected just so we don't end up miserable spinsters: STFU already. That kind of scare tactic nonsense may have worked in the 80s, but we're having none of it.

Thanks to Julie for the link.

Hello from Creating Change! I just heard the outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Matt Foreman give an amazing "State of the Movement Address." I have a full-on crush.

NGLTF is by far and away the most progressive queer organization out there. While organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) continually disappoint progressives everywhere with policies that do little more than advocate for the most privileged in the gay community, NGLTF continues to impress me with their broad reaching justice based agenda. We're not talking about gay marriage here people. We're talking about:

-Universal health care,
-Transgender rights (including an INCLUSIVE ENDA),
-Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell,
-Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act,
-HIV prevention,
-A woman's right to choose,
-Immigrant rights,
-Opposing the war,
-Social security reform,
-Fighting abstinence only education
-and just being overall bad ass.

Matt called for a "Transformed America" and I sure hope that his vision carries on. For more information on NGLTF check out their website. (And in case you were wondering, they aren't paying me to rant for them, although if they want to give me a job that would be amazing.)

The best part of his speech was when he invited up his super cute partner Fransisco (who was wearing amazing leather pants) and thanked him for his support over the years. Aww.

Also I went to a blogger meet-up here just now and was sorely disappointed by the lack of feminist (and even female blogger) representation.

...comes not from a tabloid, but from a major metro daily newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

All about how he was out of the house, when his wife called because she nearly set the house on fire because she forgot to open the fireplace damper. And he had to go into Man Mode.

“You have to put out the fire first!� I shouted. Man Mode involves lots of shouting. I waved the waitress over. You can’t do any rescuing if you haven’t paid for your artichoke dip. “The damper is inside the fireplace. You can’t open it with a fire burning.�

She cursed at me and hung up. Damsels in distress can be touchy and irrational. This is why they need saving.

I paid up and hustled the kids to the car. They seemed a little freaked out. It was to be expected. A man in Man Mode is an awesome thing to behold.

[...]

“I can handle it!� she yelled. “You don’t have to come home.�

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,� I said, and hung up. The worst kind of damsel is one who doesn’t realize she needs to be saved.

This guy is like a low-rent Dave Barry, which, uh, isn't saying much. I *know* it's a stupid "humor" column, not a serious news story like that awful article from the Jamaica Observer we wrote about earlier this week. But beneath his jokey demeanor you know he takes some of this shit to heart.

This just pisses me off. An anti-choice group in Rapid City, SD is suing the school district because of a middle school that didn't allow them to use the auditorium to feature an anti-choice speaker.

The suit is claiming that the school's community-use policy is "unconstitutionally vague" and impinges on free-speech rights. This "unconstitutional" policy that the middle school dares to apply says that "use of school facilities will be granted only when a proposed activity is suited to the available facility," as well as that the school "shall not be used for political purposes" and lastly, that requests to host politically-related events will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

The good thing is that the district doesn't seem to be wavering. An attorney for the district said its officials believe the policy is sound and are filing a response to the suit.

Now, I'm all for a police unit that's focused on violence against women, but this article is a bit silly:

They are woman commandos. Hear them roar anytime now against abusive spouses, hostage-takers and other threats to the safety of both men and women, young and old.

An all-female police unit has been created in the Philippines to specifically combat intimate partner violence and violence against children. Which would be great, if it wasn't inexplicably dipped in sugar and spice.

President Gloria Arroyo initiated this all-female unit (perhaps in response to her crappy record addressing human and women's rights in her country), saying in a speech, “We want to show that police girl power is not limited only to sisterly counseling. It also packs a mean punch.�She also ordered all the station desks to be painted in pastel "feminine" colors. What's next?

On a more serious note, what do y'all think of an all-women police unit focused on violence against women and children? It was fairly successful in Liberia, where an all-female UN peacekeeping force was dispatched (in part due to past sexual assault allegations against peacekeepers).

Thanks to syndicalist702 for the link.

Apparently they're still hitting the "bad working mom" theme with Hillary Clinton. The nerve of her, allowing her adult daughter to campaign for her! (Never mind that Chelsea is 27 years old.)

DAVID SHUSTER: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea's out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she's apparently also calling these super delegates.

BILL PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great, I think she's grown up in a political family, she's got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she'd make a great president --

SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

Uh, no. It doesn't. And it's not like we never see male politicians' wives, mothers, and daughters on the campaign trail with them.

UPDATE: Shakes has a round-up of even more sexist bullshit about Hillary.

UPDATE II: Shuster has apologized.

So apparently Australian researchers have found more evidence showing that women can be more forgetful during pregnancy. What I want to know is where the hell "baby brain" came from and are you as perturbed by the term as I am?

A new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about a quarter of women in the U.S. have been a victim of intimate partner violence.

The CDC said 23.6 percent of women and 11.5 percent of men reported being a victim of what it called "intimate partner violence" at some time in their lives.

The CDC defined this as threatened, attempted or completed physical or sexual violence or emotional abuse by a spouse, former spouse, current or former boyfriend or girlfriend or a dating partner. The CDC estimates that 1,200 women are killed and 2 million injured in domestic violence annually.

The CDC also reported that many of these women have other long-term health risks. Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says that the report confirms "that living in a dangerous and stressful environment has long-term health impacts...it's like living in a war zone."

The survey also showed high rates of sexual and dating violence on college campuses. (How long before someone is calling it a "gray rape" survey, I wonder?)

Tori Shoemaker and Cheyenne Byrd, two eighth graders in St. Louis protested their school's abstinence-only education program by wearing shirts to school adorned with condoms, reading "Safe Sex or No Sex." For daring to speak out, they were suspended for two days from school. The superindent said the shirts were inappropriate and a "distraction" at school. Yes, because a "distraction" in the form of free speech is clearly much worse than spreading dangerous misinformation about sex to teens. Uh, wait...

So kudos to Tori and Cheyenne - you two are heroes in our book.

Check out this Amy Goodman interview with Gloria Steinem and Melissa Harris-Lacewell on race and gender politics and the presidential elections. It's pretty intense.

Poor Cupid, tethered to the unreasonable feminist demand that women not be raped.

It's that time of year again, folks! Since it's almost Valentine's Day, colleges across the country are gearing up to put on performances of The Vagina Monologues. And as they love to do (since they have shit else to complain about), anti-feminist organizations like the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) and the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute are likewise launching their annual campaigns against the award-winning play. (The above image is from IWF's Take Back the Date flyer.)

The latest is a hilarious press release from the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute that one of our readers sent in:

February 14, a day generally recognized for hearts, love and valentines, is now a day that has become increasingly associated with female private parts and the radical feminist agenda.

With shock value as its main tactic, the production has effectively captured the attention of college students around the nation. And with the purported message of ending violence against women, the Monologues' parent movement, V-Day, has earned praise from leftist groups, celebrities, and politicians across America, and even the world. But others-perhaps more than you think-are quietly left wondering how embracing vulgarity is going to make the world a safer place for women.

The organization has even put together a booklet encouraging students to protest the "vulgar" play, "The Vagina Monologues Exposed: A Student's Guide to V-Day."

What's particularly irritating to me - despite the tired notion that feminists are somehow killing romance by raising awareness about violence against women - is that these organizations refuse to talk about the incredible things this play has done for women across the globe. The Luce Policy Institute website even says that "V-Day has no real impact on the violence." I guess raising over 30 million dollars is no biggie for women, huh?

It's amazing that these groups would rather spend their time and money denigrating a play because it has the word "vagina" in it than actually, you know, do something on behalf of women.

Since I'm sitting in the Denver airport waiting for my NY connection, I thought it was appropriate to blog about this nonsense out of Colorado:

A state lawmaker used a derogatory term Wednesday to describe unmarried teen parents as sexually promiscuous and complained that society condones premarital sex.

"In my parents' day and age, (unmarried teen parents) were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are," Republican Rep. Larry Liston said during a GOP legislative caucus meeting in Denver. "There was at least a sense of shame."

Liston continued: "There's no sense of shame today. Society condones it ... I think it's wrong. They're sluts. And I don't mean just the women. I mean the men, too."

Oh, well that makes it better. You have to love that Liston, in addition to calling teens 'sluts', thinks that having shame is actually a good thing. It never ceases to amaze me the things that come out of legislators' mouths.

If you'd like to contact Liston and let him know that trying to shame young women and calling them sluts is unacceptable, you can email him here or give him a call: 303-866-2965.

Check out this article from The Dallas Morning News on the state of young dudes. Kay Hymowitz, the author, sums up her argument:

Not so long ago, the average mid-twentysomething had achieved most of adulthood's milestones – high school degree, financial independence, marriage and children. These days, he lingers – happily – in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Decades in unfolding, this limbo may not seem like news to many, but in fact it is to the early 21st century what adolescence was to the early 20th: a momentous sociological development of profound economic and cultural import.

Hymowitz takes a decidedly negative tone from there on out, arguing that men's playing peter pan are a hindrance to their female partners. It hit a nerve with me in some ways. My take is that most of these young men behaving badly are really just full of fear (fear of their authentic selves, fear of growing up, fear of resisting gender norms, fear of women's power etc.) I've had conversations with my guy friends and boyfriend that echoed a lot of what Hymowitz is laying out here, conversations where I just end up feeling sad because I don't know how to convince my beloved dudes to get out of their own way and let themselves believe in their own right to good, mature love and a sense of peace and fulfillment. A lot of them seem perpetually unsatisfied.

In other ways, the analysis felt too reductive:

With women, you could argue that adulthood is in fact emergent. Single women in their 20s and early 30s are joining an international New Girl Order, hyper-achieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling and dining with friends. Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it's receding.

I also don't like the idea of glorifying how totally ambitious most young women are because I see it, at times, as health-compromising and soul-sucking. I wish the hyper-driven among us ladies could get a little of what these child-men got...a sense of wonder and wander. Likewise, I wish some of these child-men could borrow a bit of our dedication and fearlessness.

Thanks to Girl with Pen for the heads up.

I met Alison Piepmeier at the National Women's Studies Association meeting last year and was totally taken with her insights, earnestness, and slightly southern accent. Skirt Magazine just published a beautifully written, very tender essay by her about her abortion experience. A snippet that touched me:

...the story I most want to tell—and one I have never heard—is of abortion as an intimate part of a couple’s life together. Our abortion was a love story. I’d worried that Walter and I were rejecting a gift from the universe. What I discovered, though, was that when we stripped away the distractions of everyday life so that we could make this difficult decision together, it bound us together as surely as if our choice had been different—and as it turns out, that was the gift.

Social psychologist Bella DePaulo’s book Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After gave me one of those “click� moments—after reading these words, suddenly the world just looked different:

…the way coupling is envisioned in contemporary American society is not universal, it is not timeless, and it is not human nature. Instead, the reigning American worldview may well represent one of the narrowest construals of intimacy ever imagined. Where once the tendrils of love and affection reached out to family, friends, and community, reached back to ancestors, and reached up to the heavens, now they surround and squeeze just one other person—sometimes to the point of asphyxiation.

You wouldn’t know that, of course, if you just took a quick glance around at our consumer culture and familial expectations. DePaulo writes, with great humor, about the sad face and sigh that people give single people—especially ladies—when they hear the oh so sad news that they haven’t coupled. She also talks about the legal ramifications of living in a society that glamorizes marriage to the point of absurdity (um, 50% failure rate people) and the scientific bunk that’s out there claiming only coupled people can lead fulfilling lives.

via Cara comes some disturbing news that a Maryland school district has instituted a parental notification policy for pregnant students. Way to protect young women's health, Howard County! Yech.

“There’s no question this will have a chilling effect on kids coming forward,� said County Health Officer Peter Beilenson. “It’s going to slow down health care.�

And, uh, the policy is also against the law.

Maryland’s minor consent law, which applies to those younger than 18, says teenagers do not have to inform parents to receive health services, including pregnancy testing, contraceptives and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

[. . .]

“We wanted to make it clear: If the student does not tell the parents, the school system will advise the parents,� Aquino said. “Parents have a right to that information.�

Mark Blom, the system’s general counsel, said school health offices should not be regarded as clinical settings, where the state’s minor consent law would apply.

As Cara points out, this basically means the district is operating under the classic framework that young people's rights disappear the minute they walk into a school.

She also has some really thoughtful things to say about how many parents see their teenage daughters' bodies as their own property. Go read her whole post.

I spent many a college night dancing my ass of to Anything Can Happen, so it pains me to report that Wyclef Jean is, well, an asshole.

Thanks to Ashlee for the link.

UPDATE: Reader Rachel Fallon writes,

I saw Wyclef perform at the House of Blues in San Diego on Monday (the day after the Super Bowl) he dedicated about half an hour refuting the fact that he dislikes fat girls...he only allowed "bigger" girls onstage for 3 or 4 songs and danced with every single one. he seemed extremely pissed that anyone would accuse him of disrespected full bodied women.

There is a controversy evolving around drag performance at a DC gay nightlife hot-spot in Dupont Circle, Club Chaos. Wednesday nights at Chaos are ladies nights, in addition to an occasional performance space for the DC Kings Drag King troupe alternating with a queer burlesque show.

According to the DC Kings, the Dupont Circle Citizens Association "doesn't want that kind of entertainment" in their neighborhood and have effectively banned drag shows at Chaos. While Citizens Association website does not have any information about this incident, they did have a general meeting on Monday, around the same time as news of the cancelled show began to spread.

Maybe this is too much to ask, but wouldn't you think that in 2008, in one of the gayest neighborhoods in DC, a couple of drag performers at a local gay bar wouldn't bother anyone? Apparently not. Check out the flyer for more information, but tonight's performance is being turned in to a protest.

Wowza. Gotta love any article with that headline that opens like this,

WOMEN'S manipulation of men has been listed by anthropologist Dr Herbert Gayle among the reasons for male suicides, and more so murder-suicides in Jamaica.

"I can't say in the short term that we can begin to change the culture to be less male hostile. It is going to take years. But a part of what needs to be done is to re-socialise not only our males but also our females. Frankly, some of our females are far too manipulative," Gayle told the Sunday Observer, adding that it should come as little surprise that men were killing their women and themselves.

I'm speechless. To end violence against women we need to make society less male- hostile? WHAT?! Another psychologist, Sidney McGill, goes on to explain that men don't know how to deal with their emotions, so of course they're going to channel all that anger toward the women in their lives. He then makes this most appalling of logical leaps:

The result, he said, is that "some men will lash out, or even in a very cool way plan the demise of the person that they once loved and that of themselves."

In this regard, he agreed with Gayle that women have the advantage.

"Women have grown up without restrictions on expressing their emotions and so they are more emotionally developed than most men and pretty much manipulate men and make them feel incompetent and inferior," McGill said.

(Emphasis mine.) Women have an advantage when their male loved ones plot to kill them? The mind reels. And after faulting women for getting too uppity and making poor men feel inferior, he goes on to say they're too nurturing and home-based.

"Men cannot compete on that level, and the next thing for them to do is to lash out physically with violence. Women have to realise that men's weakness is their sexuality, so women have that sort of power. They also have skills in home management and nurturing so that they are pretty much in charge of their homes, leaving men to feel (at times) that they are strangers in their home."

This article is like an anti-feminist parody on steroids. I'm going to stop engaging with it before I go crazy.

(Thanks to reader titilayo for the link.)

Hello from oh-so-cold Detroit!

I'm here attending the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Annual Conference Creating Change. I've never been before, but have heard many a story about the 5 day 3,000 person event. So I will be doing some liveblogging from here. More to come in the next few days.

PS Careful if you click on the conference link, you get a great blasting of loud gay pop music. I got some weird stares from the Detroit Airport.

A South Dakota Senate committee decided this week that state law shouldn't protect pharmacists who refuse to prescribe birth control pills.

State law allows pharmacists to refuse to dispense medication if they believe it would cause an abortion or be used in a suicide. SB164 says pharmacists cannot use that abortion law to refuse to dispense birth control.

The Health and Welfare Committee voted 4-3 to send the bill to the full Senate for further debate.

The bill's main sponsor, Sen. Ed Olson, R-Mitchell, said he believes pharmacists should dispense birth control pills and other contraceptive prescriptions. Women need to make birth control decisions without interference by government, and access to birth control can help reduce abortions, he said.

Indeed. For more information on access to birth control and pharmacy refusals, click here.

I'm not sure what this ad campaign against sex with underage girls is supposed to relay, but it's disturbing any way you cut it.

What I find most, well...ineffective about this campaign is that the it assumes that men who have sex with young girls think of them as women. I would imagine part of the issue is that folks sexualize girls' bodies, not women's.

What do you think?

UPDATE: It seems the campaign was never used (maybe someone realized how ugh it was), but I stand by my creeped out response nevertheless.

Was anyone else up till the wee hours watching the returns? Thoughts?

Hey y'all, I'm in Missoula today - so if you're in town, come see me at the University of Montana at 7pm.

I'm hanging out with NARAL Pro-Choice Montana, so please brave the cold and come say hello...

Here's where the races are so far (as of 11:30 pm eastern):

Democrats

I'm gone for the night, but keep talking in comments, and check CNN for the latest counts.

After you've recovered from Super Tuesday madness, there are two pro-events going on in New York on Thursday that y'all should know about. Planned Parenthood of New York City is having their Body Politic '08 event Thursday at 6pm which will be featuring a number of fantastic women legislators from New York to chat politics with.

After meeting the amazing legislators PPNYC have lined up, later that night the Young Professionals' Council for Choice's cocktail event is going to be at swanky lounge Runway with (free) fancy drinks and goodies for pro-choice lovers to enjoy. So if you're in the area and are up to some politics, choice and cocktails, definitely hit up these two happenings.

I know we haven't mentioned it yet, but former Rep. Cynthia McKinney running on the Green Party ticket. Check out her announcement speech:

McKinney was recently interviewed on DemocracyNow. And Ampersand has a few thoughts.

Some readers have asked us to devote a post to Robin Morgan's recent essay on Hillary Clinton. I think we've actually addressed in previous posts a lot of the issues Morgan raises. But there's one section in particular I wanted to respond to:

Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .

Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous “Obama Girl� flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn’t her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said “made me feel like a dork.�

Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking “what if she’s not electable?� or “maybe it’s post-feminism and whoooosh we’re already free.� Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, “I could have saved thousands—if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.�

This is all incredibly offensive to me -- not because of who I support in the presidential primary, but because of who I am. A younger woman. A younger feminist woman.

The above section of Morgan's essay is incredibly condescending. It completely fails to recognize that there are a variety of valid reasons younger women might decide to support Obama. Not because they think the "Obama Girl" video is empowering. (Uh, to the contrary.) Not because their boyfriends told them it wasn't cool to vote for Hillary. Not because they're "post-feminist." Not because they are in denial about the existence of sexism. Because they've taken a look at his position on the issues and decided that he would make the best president.

This crap is merely annoying when it comes from the mainstream media. It's really disappointing and hurtful when it comes from within the women's movement.

I know there are feminists of all ages who are Clinton supporters who don't feel this way about their fellow feminists who have chosen to support Obama. They realize that voting for Obama does not mean turning your back on the astounding, amazing, hard-won battles fought by feminists in previous decades. And they know that, as Hillary Clinton said, “Women’s rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely -- and the right to be heard.� Even if certain feminist leaders don't like what you have to say.

Hi Everyone!

I'm really excited to be blogging officially for the crew at Feministing. Since in my other life I write as Radical Doula, I figured this would be an appropriate first post. Everyone should check out this documentary in the making--At Your Cervix and if you happen to be in the DC area this weekend, go to their fundraiser.

This film is all about the oh-so-scary pelvic exam. Or maybe it doesn't have to be? The film is dedicated to "making pelvic exams respectful and pain-free." Sounds right on to me.

At Your Cervix breaks the silence around the unethical methods used by medical and nursing schools to teach students how to perform pelvic exams; the most egregious being on unconsenting, anaesthetized women. At the same time, the film highlights the Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA) Program in New York City. Fuelled by the spirit of women’s health activism, the GTA program began over 30 years ago and it has been shown to be the most effective way to teach exams and is also the most ethical and empowering to women.

For those of you in the DC area: The filmmaker will be showing a clip of the movie at Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, MD February 15, 2008 @ 7pm.

Oh, and if you want to make sure this awesome film gets made, think about donating some money here.

I give Miriam a corsage in our very official new blogger pinning ceremony. Or, more accurately, we find a corsage on the bar and think it's funny.

I'm pleased as punch to welcome our newest Feministing blogger, Miriam Zoila Pérez. You may already know Miriam from her own fabulous blog Radical Doula or from her guest blogging stint here a while back.

In addition to her blogging cred, Miriam is also the Senior Advocacy Associate at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. All of us at Feministing are really excited to have her on board and can't wait to see her sure-to-great posts.

Find out more about Miriam here and make sure to give her a warm welcome in comments!

I know we're all focused on Clinton v. Obama today, but Planned Parenthood has a reminder that either of these candidates would be a major step up from the asshole that currently occupies the Oval Office.

Bush's proposed 2009 budget cuts Medicaid funding for family planning by $570 million in the coming fiscal year, and by $3.3 billion over five years. Says Planned Parenthood:

This would have a devastating effect on the millions of low-income women who rely on Medicaid for contraception and other preventive family planning services. The president's drastic proposal would do nothing more than increase the number of unintended pregnancies and the rate of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

He also wants to keep Title X funding stagnant, and cut USAID international family planning funds by $94 million. January 20, 2009 can't get here fast enough.

Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif. (1942)

Check out this 1943 guide to hiring women, designed for male supervisors on dealing with women working during World War II, published in Transportation Magazine.

My favorites are:

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit but also reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job. Transit companies that follow this practice report a surprising number of women turned down for nervous disorders.

Uh, I’d have a nervous disorder too if applying for an office job included a “special physical examination.� Yikes!

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. Companies that are already using large numbers of women stress the fact that you have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and consequently is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

I do like rest periods, but damn, I use them for peeing and eating, not hair tidying. Especially since I work from home now. Unless sloppy ponytail is considered a style.

Again, thanks to sunshine for sending this to me. Excellent chuckles on this dreary day. Though, it did make me wonder what craziness some employers would come up with today.

(Image from the Library of Congress Flickr stream of photos of women workers during WWII.)

Full list after the jump.

It's Super-Duper Tuesday! Check out how the Clinton/Obama feminist endorsements are breaking down:

For Obama: Katha Pollitt, Amanda Marcotte, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, and Claire McCaskill, Alice Walker, Kate Michelman, Ellen Bravo, Judith Stadtman Tucker, Jenn at Reappropriate, Liza Sabater, Cara at the Curvature, Lorna Brett Howard, Toni Morrison, Carmen Van Kerckhove, Wendi Muse, Fatemeh Fakhraie, Latoya Peterson, Laura Flanders, Ruth Rosen, more than 100 New York feminists.

For Clinton: NOW, Robin Morgan, Martha Burk, Gloria Feldt, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Kim Gandy, Ellen Malcolm, Irene Natividad, Ellie Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Lulu Flores, Sen. Patty Murray, Deborah Siegel, Rebecca Wallace-Segall, Wilma Mankiller, Taylor Marsh, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Erica Jong, Dianne Feinstein, Maya Angelou, Janet Reno, Billie Jean King, Geraldine Ferraro, Dolores Huerta, Hilda L. Solis, Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Barney Frank, and commenters Liza, bubblewrapgenie, donna darko.

Undecided: Rebecca Traister, Rebecca Walker, zuzu at Feministe, Jill at Feministe (leaning Obama).

Looking at those lists, it seems to me that the generational divide isn't quite as clear-cut as some might think. There are feminists of all ages in both camps. But I also know that a quick sampling of prominent feminists and feminist bloggers isn't the full story. (I'm sure I've missed lots of endorsements -- let me know in comments!)

Finally, importantly, which candidate are you supporting, dear feminist readers?

As we've said before, Feministing is not endorsing a candidate in the primary. Our official position is that sexism sucks and there's no vagina litmus test.

Hey y'all (I'm in Texas). Here's my story of how I met Jessica and started blogging for feministing:

To the rest of the gals, challaaange (toe pointed, drawing line in sand). If I can figure out this newfangled vlogging (can we all agree this word sucks?) then you can too.

Today's Natalie Dee cartoon:

(Click image to enlarge.)

Here's your horrifying news of the day:

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

To sign a petition to save Kambaksh, click here.

UPDATE: The Afghan Senate has withdrawn its demand for the death sentence.

Because this letter to the editor is too depressing for words:

Men presidents only

I think that having a woman president would be a bad idea for our country. Women are not meant to rule countries and be in charge. They are meant to make decisions but not confirm them.

Our president deals with some countries that don't respect or allow women in leadership positions. I wonder if the United States would have more terrorist attacks because we would be seen as weak with a woman leader. I agree that women can do many things, but leave the ruling of the countries to the men.

BRITTANY BAYLES, 13, Kennewick

Can I curl into a ball and die now? I honestly needed that pic (h/t) above to make me feel better.

Thanks to Cora for the link.

From Fox News Sunday:

BILL KRISTOL: Look, the only people for Hillary Clinton are the Democratic establishment and white women. The Democratic establishment -- it would be crazy for the Democratic Party to follow an establishment that's led it to defeat year after year. White women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that.

[laughter]

JUAN WILLIAMS (National Public Radio correspondent and Fox News contributor): Not me!

HUME: Bill, for the record, I like white women.

KRISTOL: I know, I shouldn't have said that.

Guess this is why the New York Times deems Kristol "a serious, respected conservative intellectual." Also, Brit Hume is creepy.

It’s no surprise that the Mississippi legislature is still trying to outlaw abortion. I think that’s the official state sport. However, someone in the state senate has a wacky sense of humor this time around. Oh, it’s not a joke? Damn.

Most of Mississippi Senate Bill 220 (PDF) is the same old garbage. But this is fantastic. The bill reads:

A pregnant mother possesses certain inherent rights that are natural intrinsic rights which enjoy affirmative protection under the Constitution of the United States, and under the laws or Constitution of the State of Mississippi; that among these rights are the fundamental rights of the pregnant mother to her relationship with her child; her fundamental right to make decisions that insure the well-being of her child; and her interest in her own health and bodily integrity.

Which of those things don't belong? See, you can’t say women have an inherent right to their “bodily integrity� while not allowing her to exercise that right. You can’t acknowledge that women have the right to determine what’s best for her pregnancy as long as it doesn’t involve abortion.

The other thing that gets me about this bill is it identifies “rights� in false opposition of each other:

The right and duty of the state to protect and preserve the life of the unborn child cannot co-exist with the right or duty to destroy that life by the physician.

Uh, what? On what planet has that ever been a real issue with abortion? There aren’t roving bands of abortion providers fighting for their rights to terminate pregnancies, assholes. I really hate the fake protectionism here. Like, the state just has to safeguard the “relationship between a pregnant woman and her unborn child� from evil bloodthirsty doctors. Because obviously no woman who actually knows what she’s doing would ever choose to have an abortion. We should all move to Mississippi. They take good care of their women.

Thanks sunshine for the heads-up.

Monty looks very pleased with himself, despite the fact that his penchant for pen-chewing has meant the demise of my much-loved couch. (The first "adult" piece of furniture that I ever bought for myself. Sigh.)

Katha Pollitt explains why she's supporting Barack Obama and Rebecca Traister fesses up to being undecided.

Upon reading this post at Gizmodo about a new male contraceptive implant, I have to say: cry me a fucking river.

Scientists in Australia are developing a radio-controlled contraceptive implant that would control the flow of a man's sperm at the flick of a switch. The valve would be "push-fit" inside the vas deferens (duct that carries sperm from the testicles to the penis) and could be opened or closed remotely depending on the baby making needs of the user. This is making me a bit nauseous, but I will forge ahead...

Oh man, having an implant in your body so that you don't conceive? That sounds terrible. I can't believe anyone would willingly go through that!

But what if your doctor is an asshole? You know, the kind of guy that will mess with his patient's junk from afar? Or what if the controls were stolen? It would be worrisome to say the least.

Yeah, what would it be like if your doctor or other health care professionals -- or heck, even your partner -- wanted to mess with your reproductive choices?! Or what if they wanted to prevent you from getting such a device, or on the flip side, to force you to get one? That would suck!

That, and the very real possibility that the valve will clog with protein over time and the user will become permanently infertile. Still, this does seem like a viable alternative if it ever becomes a reality.

Gee, must be tough for dudes to have to weigh some health risks and potential long-term side effects with other concerns -- like not wanting kids yet, but also not wanting to opt for permanent sterilization. Can't imagine what that's like.

Further evidence that the real reason we don't have more male contraceptive options is not a lack of science -- it's a lack of will. Yeah, guys, it can be pretty scary to think about all of the problems and ramifications of certain methods of contraception. Welcome to our world.

Two mentally disabled women were used to bomb a marketplace in Iraq. The blasts killed more than 100 people.

Also in Iraq, police forces are once again allowing female police officers to carry weapons. Meanwhile, Iraqi women are facing more violence and have fewer rights.

New research shows women in India are not only more likely to donate a kidney, they're less likely than men to receive a kidney transplant when they need one.

A budget airline in the UK pulls its "back to school special" ads featuring a model in attire reminiscent of the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video.

The siege against Kansas abortion provider Dr. Tiller continues. Now the antis are demanding he hand over non-redacted medical files.

Linda Hirshman on women voters in the NYT Magazine today.

A British chain store is selling A-cup bras for the same price as D-cups: "We're putting an end once and for all to one of the last prejudices - that of the bigger-busted woman," said brand director Fiona Lambert in a statement. (With apologies to my well-endowed girlfriends, II'll admit my total ignorance here: As someone with smaller boobs, I had no idea that bigger-size bras were way more expensive! Perhaps it's time to stage a bra-price-equity campaign in the U.S.?)

Despite President Michelle Bachelet's decree that the morning-after pill be made available to all women in Chile, there have been serious access problems.

An absurd piece of legislation seeks to deny restaurant service to anyone with a BMI over 30.

Hans Johnson argues that, "The ‘08 election, no matter its winners, will usher in decision-makers unable to deny the presence or escape the accountability of openly gay people in every precinct of the nation."

Susan Faludi has a great review of the new book, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary.

A state legislator in Colorado recently resigned after sexually harassing a female lobbyist:The lobbyist, who spoke to The Denver Post on Thursday on condition of anonymity, said Garcia exposed himself to her last month and said, "Wouldn't this be real nice inside of you?"

An Afghan man is sentenced to death for downloading a report about women's rights.

How did I miss the news that Jodie Foster finally came out?

An attempt to crack the woodchuck glass ceiling.

A new report documents the effects of Manila's ban on contraception.

A quick summary of sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton.

New research suggests that some women with breast cancer get better follow-up treatment if they have a female doctor.

A University of Georgia professor resigns on the heels of allegations he sexually harassed his female students.

On the growing prevalence of fair-skinned models in India. (Gee, wonder if this has anything to do with sales of skin-whitening cream?)

Covering up rape to win a few football games. Disgusting.

Hundreds of Afghan women gathered to protest the kidnapping of an aid worker.

Pam and Hilzoy dispel the myth that this is a post-gender or post-racial election.

The South Dakota legislature passed sonogram-requirement bills. (Click here to listen to Planned Parenthood's Kate Looby discuss the legislation.)

This is frightening: If consent is obtained through fraud or deceit, it's not considered rape in Massachusetts.

Joan with Javonn, one of the many babies she helped deliver

Joan Bryson became a midwife in 1991, and between her nursing experience and midwifery practice, she's assisted in more than 1,000 births.

At her private practice in Brooklyn, NY--Community Midwifery--she provides midwifery and health care for women in their teens to post menopausal years, including regular gyn exams, breast exams, primary care screening, preconception counseling, STD screening and prevention and family planning.

She is also an active member of New York City midwives. Here's Joan...

A premium denim company, Fiorana, is has created a "Latina-cut" jean.

"The Latina body is different in waist and hip structure," says Mike Braden, Founder and President of Fiorana, Inc. "When wearing Anglo