September 2008 Archives

Above: An artist's rendering of the men's rights trolls who populate this feminist blog and others. The jewels in their bellies give them magical powers that blind them to their own privilege!

Regular readers have probably noticed that the comment threads have been overrun as of late with a serious influx of trolls. We're not sure if it's just the Palin-related traffic lately, the general election frenzy, or some special link-lovin' from a men's rights site. In any case, we've noticed. We're on it.

What is a troll, you ask? A brief definition here.

More specifically, the breed of troll that's been showing up here lately typically...

• Has a username that's something vaguely female with some numbers at the end


• Makes racist/sexist/homophobic/generally ignorant comments


• Has a tendency to ask things like, "what about the MENZ?!" and "won't somebody think of the racism against white people?"

What to do if you spot a troll:

• Do not engage. It's a waste of your time, and the threads start looking very confusing after we delete the sexist/racist/otherwise ugly comments.


• Let us know. Send us an email with the trolling commenter's username, along with a link to the comment or thread in question. We are internet obsessives, so usually (sadly?) one of the editors is online at almost all times, but sometimes we leave to go eat dinner or interact with real, live humans or something. But we promise we'll delete the offending comments and ban the trolls as soon as we notice they're there.

We really value the comments threads as a place for everyone to engage and discuss and deepen our understanding of issues. Thanks so much for your patience while we work to resolve this. And double-thanks to our secret band of anti-troll vigilante commenters (you know who you are!) who have been so awesome about alerting us to trollishness on the site.

Back in May, Postville, Iowa -- a small town not far from where I grew up -- was the site of the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. Nearly 400 undocumented workers were rounded up and detained. Today, 28 women remain in custody as they apply for political asylum and special visas for victims of violence (many have suffered sexual assault and/or sexual harassment).

New America Media has video interviews with two of the women who are fighting deportation, María Laura Gómez and Maricruz Rodríguez. (I can't figure out how to embed the vid, so you'll have to click here to watch.)

In Rodríguez's case, she's applying for political asylum, seeking protection from her alcoholic, abusive ex-husband, who she immigrated with but separated from nearly three years ago, completing her divorce earlier this year. Because Mexican authorities have proven woefully inadequate in protecting domestic abuse victims, she can apply for asylum under U.S. law as a "member of a particular social group" that a foreign government isn't able to adequately shield from persecution, says Rachel Yamamoto, an Omaha attorney.

"From what she's told me, the husband would follow her back to Mexico," Yamamoto says, "and she's terrified. You can't go to the police, the police won't help in Mexico."

Other women are applying for a "U-visa," which allows victims of violence to remain in the U.S. while their cases are investigated. But according to Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program (which does great work), there's a catch:

Jonathan Martin reports that the Obama campaign was looking to recruit a rape survivor to appear in an ad.

Kiersten Steward, director of public policy at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, served as a conduit between the campaign and victims and women's advocates.

"Obviously, this is a big ask and I haven't seen a script but presumably it will be a brief 'this is what happened to me, we need someone who will fight for women like me, these are the guys to do it,'" Steward wrote in a Sept. 15 e-mail. "Again, that's just my assumption, given how these things usually go."

So it raises the question: Is this exploitative? Or is it simply a compelling way to draw attention to a very serious issue?

My gut reaction was similar to Megan at Jezebel's:

While I'm all for bringing more attention to the issue of sexual assault, I am more than a little disturbed that the Obama camp would be asking a victim to share her story (and likely be attacked by conservatives) in order to score some political points. It's one thing to go to them and offer to share her story, but it's another thing for them to come to her and ask.

But that's not the side I ultimately end up on. Political and issue-based campaigns frequently recruit people with first-hand experience to speak publicly and in ads. I wondered, would my reaction be so strong if the Obama campaign was seeking a laid-off autoworker to discuss his economic policies? Decidedly not.

I am really into lists lately. After Courtney's ten things she can do without and my own replica, along with all the responses we got, I figure why not make it a weekly feature. So similar to Amanda's Friday Random Ten, here is my second crack at the Tuesday Ten.

I have been thinking about highlighting men that do feminist work in their blogging (sort of in the vain of Twanna's Manly Monday, but different trajectory). Many of these men, I don't know personally, so I will not say they are feminists, however, in much of their writing I have found they support many of my ideals.

So here goes. This is my list of who I consider feminist friendly male bloggers.

1. Scott Lemiuex from Lawyers, Guns and Money

2. Nezua from the Unapologetic Mexican

3. Kevin from Slant Truth

4. Jay Smooth aka the Illdoctrine

5. Jesse Taylor from Pandagon

6. Baratunde Thurston from Jack and Jill Politics

7. Kai Chang from Zuky.

8. J Brotherlove.

9. Hugo Schwyzer

10. AngryAsianMan

So the last time I wrote about American Apparel's use of mock tribal prints and the name, "Afrika" for a line of clothing, it was a little bit controversial. Some folks didn't understand why putting thin, white models, in faux tribal and animal prints with the title, "Afrika" was racist. So be it.

UPDATE: I think one of our commenters put the argument for why the use of "African" symbolism is problematic and racist best here.

She says,

For people who have not been exposed to critical race theory or the study of colonialism and cultural appropriation, the new Afrika line probably doesn't look racist to you. The reason it doesn't look racist to you is because the attractiveness of the line is meant to play on the unconscious attitudes that non-African westerners have about Africa. Here's a set of association words:

exotic
primitive
tribal
jungle
wild
animalistic
hypersexual

I can go on, but you get the point.

Perusing LifeNews can be great when you need a laugh (or a cry). Or in this case, when you need a good reminder of why anti-feminism is so effin' ridiculous.

The title of Joan Swirsky's article really says it all: Some Feminists Love Abortion on Demand But Hate Governor Sarah Palin

The whole article is priceless, chock full of old anti-feminist standards like calling feminists hysterical, full of rage, and blaming the divorce rate on the women's rights movement. But it's the sub-headers that slayed me.

Swirsky's history of feminism, in sub-headlines: DOMESTICITY BAD, MISS & MRS. BAD, UNEQUAL PAY BAD, VALUING HUMAN LIFE ESPECIALLY BAD, SHRIKES ON PARADE.

Feminist shrikes (?) have been bad, bad, bad! Reading these articles make my head hurt. Seriously.

and so should you! I think it is awesome that Google made a public statement about this. According to the Official Google blog:

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions -- Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay -- we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

Continue reading Google opposes CA Proposition 8.

Posted by Samhita - September 30, 2008, at 10:51AM | in Election, Queer Issues

The Politico reports that in a yet-to-be released clip from Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential candidate trips up again.

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

Oh dear. And yet...I can't wait to see the clip.

Via RH Reality Check.

So I watched CNN all day yesterday waiting for the vote on the bailout bill, but I noticed that even though I don't have any money to really lose (just the hope that they may not notice how much debt I have) I still felt stressed out. I also realized that when rich people lose money, it is a national crisis. But poor folk have trouble making ends meet every single day. Where is our news coverage?

The thing with money stress, for most of us, it is always there. So why this panic and media frenzy? Because the Dow Jones dropped? Or because we need to sensationalize everything and create fake scenarios to see how our to be presidents will react? Now, I am not saying that the financial crisis isn't real. Giving out money that doesn't exist will lead to problems. But this has problem didn't happen over night. As Naomi Klein would suggest,

[R]ight-wing governments use the shock generated by disasters or other crises to push through unpopular free-market policies when the population isn't in a position to oppose such programs.

via Chronicle Herald.

So instead of taking a jab at some shoddy economic analysis (which it seems like a lot of people are doing), I thought I would give you all a chance to share your thoughts on the economic crisis. I realized after watching the news all day I started to feel really panicked and started revisiting all my bills and stressing out about money. I also realized the spending on the war in Iraq is almost as much as the amount that is needed for the bailout.

Talk to me.

Remember the viral email campaign supporting Planned Parenthood by donating in Sarah Palin's name that community blogger ease_e covered not too long ago? Well, it looks like it was quite a success:

The message, which began circulating widely on the Internet last week, had one more instruction: request that the personalized thank-you card from Planned Parenthood be sent to Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee and a vocal opponent of abortion, at the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters in Virginia.

So far, the scheme seems to be getting a strong response. As of Friday, Planned Parenthood had taken in $802,678 in donations from 31,313 people, said a spokesman for the organization, Tait Sye. More than two-thirds of the individuals are first-time donors to Planned Parenthood, Mr. Sye said, and money came in from all 50 states.

Some thought this was actually counter-productive. What are your thoughts? I find it really interesting that more than two-thirds of the donors had never donated to Planned Parenthood before. And while this wasn't a campaign of Planned Parenthood's and despite your possibly adverse feelings about it, the concept itself has the kind of clever wit that mobilized people to act. We should learn from this.

Planned Parenthood is sending out the thank you cards this week. In the meantime, they have a take action component to send Palin a letter telling her that she's not your candidate.

Contributed by Helen Boyd, (en)gender

National Stonewall Democrats set up a page on ActBlue specifically for the trans community and its allies to donate to Barack Obama. It's exciting in so many ways: for a historically gay and lesbian organization to do something so tangible for the trans community, to help make visibile the trans community and its allies, both within the LGBT community and on the national stage, and to raise money for the only presidential candidate who will help set a tone of tolerance and non-discimination toward trans people and their families.

I'm excited. Be excited with me. If you're a supporter of Barack Obama already, or a trans person and Democrat, or an ally, friend, or family member of a trans person, this is a great way to stand up and be counted: no matter how small the donation, it's the number of donors that matters most. Help make the trans community visible politically.

Other posts about Trans for Obama Day have been done by Andrea James, Kate Bornstein, Riftgirl (who does a mean Sarah Palin), A Dahl's House, and Caprice Bellefleur.

Helen Boyd is tracking all the posts and keeping everyone up-to-date.

It's time already to start thinking about the Women, Action and the Media conference! You (yes, you!) should totally propose a session.

All the info is here -- the conference is at the MIT Stata Center in Boston, March 27-29. Feministing is one of the supporting sponsors. This year's theme is "Inside/Outside."

Deadline to submit proposals is October 10. So get crackin'!

Also, if you haven't yet, go check out another awesome Center for New Words project, This Is What Women Want.

The financial markets are in turmoil and the federal bail-out is in question...or at least it was when I started writing this (wince).

Seems like the perfect time for a discussion about volunteering to this bitch!

Step up on soap box...fluff Afro...continue.

For the past five years I have volunteered at local women's shelters for homeless pregnant teens and new mothers. I teach voter education classes, basic budgeting and women's health classes. Through the years I have had the honor of witnessing knowledge empower young women to take control of their lives and I have also been confronted with the personal damage done through the anti-knowledge anti-choice agenda.

But one thing that this bitch has also witnessed is the lack of active volunteering to support community organizations and programs that address reproductive justice issues.

Now catch that knee before you hurt someone!

I'm certainly not flying solo in my efforts and that's not what a bitch is trying to say.

But there are mentor positions unfilled, after school classes in need of tutors...and so forth and so on...in every community across America.

As feminists we must challenge ourselves to be activists online and offline...to lead by example and give some of our time back to our communities.

And hey, there's a personal benefit too! My understanding of the challenges facing teen mothers has grown through my partnering with them in my classes...the complexity of poverty, the inadequacy of the system, the failure of abstinence-only education, the crisis of sexually transmitted diseases and the lack of funding for programs that could make a real difference are up close and personal issues for me now.

So, if you are already a volunteer in support of feminist causes and organizations in your community then go on with your bad self!

And if you are not donating your time now is a good time to ask yourself why.

Do you think you have to have a Ph.D. in women's studies to teach a class? Because you don't...most local shelters already have programs that need support. Or perhaps you don't like to join groups? That's okay, because you can always develop your own program, make your own schedule or volunteer with a group that doesn't require membership! Hell, that's how I go started.

Or do you think that you're too busy?

Well, you're not!

Blink.

Okay, a bitch doesn't really know how busy you are, but odds are you have a couple of hours a month to spare....right?

Right!

Go forth, get active and donate your time...

...and your money, if you're one of the blessed few to still have any of that shit left (wink).

A couple of my friends found this offensive, but I think it's a hilarious way to shed light on the fucked-up-ness of Palin's involvement in charging victims of sexual assault for their own rape kits.

What do you think?

So by quick I mean URGENT! Sorry for the last minute notice, but it was just brought to my attention that you, the youth of America, can submit questions for the presidential youth debate. But you only have 65 minutes left to submit.

Have a burning question that you want submitted for consideration to be asked at the presidential youth debate. GO HERE AND DO IT NOW!

You know, I realized this morning how happy people like Ann Coulter and Michele Malkin must be that someone like Sarah Palin is running for VP. I mean, what does the media love more than women that manipulate the words of feminism to justify their calculated misrepresentations of important women's issues. And what do anti-feminist faux feminist women love more than seeing all their tall tales of "real" feminism come true? Palin is the perfect encapsulation of their anti-feminist dreams. But I digress.

I am just annoyed right now after reading this piece by Coulter on Townhall.com via Feministe where she blames the mortgage crisis and flailing economy on affirmative action. At a certain point, I realize that she just doesn't read. Or at least not the same news that I am reading.

This is too neat. Blogs can now embed books available on Google Books for readers to peruse. I hope Feministing can use this to highlight awesome feminists texts... So in honor of Samhita's recent post, check out Barbara Smith's great book, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, after the jump. (And don't forget to support feminists by buying their books!)

So for those of us Feministing gals (Jessica, Vanessa and myself) that went to school in that sleepy upstate town known as Albany we all have a special place in our hearts for Barbara Smith. One of my most formative feminist "click" moments was seeing Barbara Smith lecture at SUNY Albany when I was a young women's studies undergrad (11 years ago, eeeek, LOL).

If you have never heard of her, well she is an anti-racist, feminist, socialist activist and one of the framers of early identity politics. Frankly, her humility extends so far that she rarely gets the recognition she deserves. I am sure her constant calling out of white feminism for their inability to truly incorporate an analysis of race and class certainly has kept her on the sidelines as well.

I was pretty excited to see that Colorlines magazine (always on top of it) has a Q&A with her and what she has been up to, including running for public office. Check it out.

Just something quick a reader passed along: The url www.voteforthemilf.com redirects to www.johnmccain.com.

Via Twitter.

This weekend was my mother's 60th birthday party and Andrew thought Monty should get dressed up for the occasion too. Hence, the tie. (And don't worry - we only left it on for the picture.)

By the way, feminism is totally in my genes. Check out this pic of my mom back in the day (she's in the middle) at a pro-choice rally in DC. Happy birthday, Mom!

Check out Amanda's newest RH Reality Check's podcast that takes on teen sexuality, Republican hypocrisy, some must know facts about abortion young women and women of color and even a cameo from our very own Courtney Martin.

For a woman to be a high ranking police chief in Afghanistan is in fact a profound statement and considerable gain for women. So it is a statement that the Taliban assassinated one of the top female police officers in the country. An anti-woman statement.

The police officer, Malalai Kakar, who was in her mid-40s with six children, was an iconic figure among women's groups in Afghanistan and abroad. Often profiled in the Afghan and foreign news media, she was one of the leading totems for the wider freedoms gained by women when the Taliban, with their repressive policies toward women, were ousted from power by an American-led coalition in 2001.

So I will be in Boston next week because some fabulous students from the Tufts Feminist Alliance invited me to speak. Shout out to Tiffany and Amanda for organizing that event! While I'm in town, I would love to organize a Feministing Happy Hour for all of you who live in Boston.

I'm looking for a volunteer to help me organize this happy hour, mainly finding a location. So email me at miriamATfeministingDOTcom if you want to help and have some ideas of public transportation accessible, affordable bars that will allow people under 21 to enter as well. Usually places that serve food are more willing/able. Also, it needs to be able to accommodate about 50 people.

Thanks everyone!

Texas Prison Bid'ness

Started in 2007, when two bills were introduced, one that increased capacity in private prisons in TX and another that would have rolled back tons of standards that were achieved under a previous lawsuit from the 80s. The first passed, the second did not.

The blog was created to have a resource about private prisons in TX for legislators, activists, etc. TX was the birthplace of private prisons in the USA. Highlighting the abuses that were going on in private prisons (deaths, sexual assaults, guard abuse).

Two other criminal justice blogs:

Grits for breakfast--daily criminal justice blogging in TX

Think Outside the Cage---Colorado criminal justice reform blog

Kenyon Farrow

Wrote a piece in 2004 pitched to an indie paper critiquing gay marriage, called Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black? It was censored by that paper, and then it took on a life of its own, after which he began his blog.

Other criminal justice/PIC blogs:
T Don Hutto

In May 2006, the Department of Homeland Security opened its first prison for immigrant families 30 miles north of Austin. It is the first family detention center in the country to be based on the penal model, though plans were quickly made to build more.

The T Don Hutto facility holds men, women (some pregnant), children, and infants, none of whom have a criminal past. Administered by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest for-profit corrections company, Hutto lacks proper licensing and medical facilities, and has been proven to traumatize families.

This blog is dedicated to providing information on the growing movement to shut down Hutto and prevent this model of immigrant detention from spreading nationally.

Prisons as a Tool of Reproductive Oppression: Cross Movement Strategies for Gender Justice

Critical Resistance 10 Conference

Nerissa Kunakemakorn, Justice Now
The Prison Industrial Complex facilitates the destruction of reproductive capacity in three ways:
1) Overuse of hysterectomy and ovarectomy (often nonconsensually)
2) Poor reproductive healthcare provided to people in prisons
3) Imprisonment during the majority of one's reproductive years

More on #1:
-Often these radical procedures are used for fibroids and ovarian cysts, at much higher rates than on the outside
-There are documented cases of sterilization abuse, particularly after childbirth
-The new "gender responsive" prison strategies even discuss the cost effectiveness of sterilization after birth
-Some incarcerated people have been given hysterectomy's for cancers that were later found to be non-existent
-One doctor told a "lifer" (person sentenced to life in prison) that her ovary removal didn't matter since she was going to be in prison forever
-This is very closely connected with a history of sterilization abuse in communities of color (Native American women, Puerto Rican women, Mexican women in LA) More on this here.
-These procedures are disproportionately documented among people of color in prison
-Consent issues around sterilization procedures for people in prison (can someone in prison ever give consent? are there always coercive conditions?)

Elizabeth Barajas-Roman, Population and Development Program

In September of this year, a Texas woman was ordered to stop having children as a condition of her probation. The judge argued that since if she had been in prison for those ten years, she wouldn't have been able to get pregnant, it was a reasonable condition. If she becomes pregnant, she can be put back in prison for violating her parole. Clear connection between the prison industrial complex and population control.

Gabriel Arkles, Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Trans people face a whole different set of problems and barriers in prison. Not only are they targeted for incarceration (because of poverty, sex work, transphobia and racism) but once in prison they face particular challenges. Trans people are placed in prison not based on what their identification says, how they identify or how they present. Instead its usually based on what is between someone's legs. This puts trans people at risk for abuse, sexual or otherwise. Much of this logic (about not putting a trans woman in a woman's prison) is about not wanting there to be a possibility for pregnancy between prisoners. Again more evidence of the population control philosophy, and proof that they don't care about personal safety (or even preventing sexual activity) but just about preventing reproduction.

Other speakers: Maria Nakae, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and Miss Major Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project

A new study looked at workplace-transition experiences of transgender people "to provide new insights into the long-standing question of what role gender plays in shaping workplace outcomes."

Congress is considering the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and has a chance to really improve this legislation. And on a related note, a new report shows major gaps in sex-trafficking enforcement.

Australia's new governor-general -- who happens to be a woman -- has been denied access to some of the country's most exclusive clubs, because of her gender.

Equal pay? Not yet. But at least we're gaining ground in other important areas. (Sarcasm, people, sarcasm.)

An Alburquerque high-school yearbook staff has pissed off some Christian conservatives by daring to acknowledge that gay students attend their school. For real, the headline reads, "Clovis High School Yearbook Features Gays." Who do these gay students think they are, wanted to be included in their school yearbook?

A great op-ed from the Baltimore Sun: "What do families of children with disabilities need from the next president? Not just a 'friend' in the White House but a willingness to pay for services they need"

Low-income women continue to lose ground, while Wall Street gets a bailout.

The 65th Carnival of Feminists!

*Note: There is no internet access on the conference site, so these live blogs will be posted with significant delay. Sorry everyone!

Getting Real about Alternatives to Cops

Critical Resistance 10 Conference, Rose City Copwatch

Founded in 2003 in Portland Oregon
Building community power in opposition to police violence
-observing police behavior (videotaping police)
-agitation, disruption
-reconciling police abolition with concerns about safety

Examples:
-bad date line for dangerous johns
-Community committees in apartheid SA where the police had abandoned the neighborhood
-Peace for the streets by kids from the streets, Seattle WA "donut dialogues"

Alternatives vs Auxiliaries? How do we reconcile programs to make policing better or safer with a larger goal of prison abolition?
-Hate crimes, violence against women and their usage to legitimize and escalate policing (the idea of "vulnerable populations" who need defense)
-Ubuntu, an organization run by survivors in Durham NC
-Trust building and community building as ways of creating our own networks for safety
-Emergency healthcare: police are always a part of first response
-Philly Stands Up: Sexual Assault Survivor Support
-Gang intervention in a community: mothers in the community would make lunch and go eat it on the corners where young men were hanging out. It was a way to reach out to them and make them uncomfortable.
-Grandmothers used as a security system, tough love policing
-What is crime? How do we look at that critically? Criminalization of drugs, stealing, what about morality, ethics, crime defined by harm?

And so it begins...

So to really get our minds off the election I thought I would switch it up and do a Feminist Fuck Yeah to Henry Rollins. Why Henry Rollins? Well because he is awesome (this is more awesome), but we also got several emails from readers who have seen his spoken word performances (which are amazing) and apparently he is a fan of Feministing. If that is not FUCK YEAH worthy, I am not really sure what is.

And I have been known to bite his style from time to time. (And full transcript after the jump.)

Oh dear. (Admittedly, I would like to play in some of that bubble wrap.)

Thanks to Cheryl for the link.

Happy Friday, feminists! Time for some booze-blogging. I'll admit, I laughed out loud at this sexist ad circa 1990 (via):

(Here's another from the same series.)

Then I read this post from Lauredhel about a series of offensive Jim Beam commercials in Australia. Let's set aside, for a moment, the rank sexism and anti-gay themes in these ads, and take a broader look at how whiskey is gender-marketed. As the manliest of manly drinks. I mean, take a quick Google Image tour of whiskey/bourbon/scotch ads.

I mentioned this to my coworker and fellow whiskey-lover Phoebe today, and she pointed me to this 2006 New York Times article:

It's been going on for years, actually. When I was in college and went out with my oversize football player boyfriend, we'd order drinks, and every time I'd be served the frosty piña colada with the pink paper umbrella that he'd ordered, and he'd be served the tough-guy Scotch-rocks that was mine.

Been there, totally.

Though I still drink Scotch periodically, at some point I switched to Maker's Mark bourbon. These days, I order it in a tall glass to ensure that the ratio of booze to soda gives me a fighting chance of getting to the appetizer without falling out of my chair. But among some male bartenders, I've noticed more than a tad of residual resistance to the notion that the female of the species can drink hard liquor unadorned by grenadine or chunks of oxidizing pineapple.

McCain has announced that he will participate in the debate tonight. How big of him.

Anyone have fun debate night plans?

Here at Feministing we get our fair share of hate mail. And for whatever reason, the last few weeks have brought in a tidal wave of emails and trollish comments (I'm sure you've noticed). So for your anti-feminist mocking pleasure, here's a recent email we got from jcwhite0825@aol.com, who thinks our coverage of Palin is a clear indication that we're just jealous of her superhotness.

Why are you obsessed with Sarah Palin? Are you jealous of her? Are you pissed that she has accomplished things without whining like a little child? Before you get all upset and call me a right-wing nut, I'm not voting for McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden. They all suck. But, you girls on feministing.com are what I would call stereotypical women. You are jealous, angry, and resentful of women who have success. It's probably because she is hotter than any of you girls on feminsting. And that is at age 44. You girls have no chance of being that hot when you are that age. Oh, before you get all upset, it is not sexism to call a woman hot. That is just something that you have made up in your mind. Your site sucks. Samhita is a major league racist. You say you are strong, powerful and independent, yet you are constantly whining about wage gaps (which don't exist), abortion (women have all rights in this arena), and rape (so many false accusations it isn't funny). Do yourself a favor and get a life. You live a pathetic existence.

PS I know you won't reply because you are weak. You are not equal to men because you openly admit this daily on your site by constant whining.

I swear, this actually brought a smile to my face (okay, more like a smirk, but whatevs). It just warms my heart to know that if we're pissing people like this off, we're definitely doing something right.

It doesn't look much like a breast, but apparently this new application for the iPhone lets users simulate touching a boob. (If your boob was two-dimensional and malleable like a mofo.) You can also find the simulation here.

It never fails to amaze me how fascinating people find breasts - especially breasts that you can change the size, shape, and firmness of with the click of a mouse. Ick.

Thanks to Garret for the link.

I just love her so much.

Via Broadsheet.

Louisiana state Rep. John LaBruzzo, the charming dude who wants to pay low-income women $1,000 apiece to get sterilized, is speaking out not only to defend his suggestion - but also to complain about the media glomming onto the story. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Watching this guy is painful (and infuriating) but it's worth it, and interviewer Kyra Phillips is decent at taking him to task.

Extra Credit: Drink every time he says "these people." Seriously, he's like a caricature of racism.

Clay Aiken, of American Idol, has finally come out. It can't say it was much of a surprise.

Following the Aug. 8 birth of his son Parker, singer Clay Aiken is following through on a promise he made to himself as a new dad: to publicly acknowledge that he's gay.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

He's also not the first male singer lately to have a child with a non-romantic partner, although unlike Ricky Martin, Clay says he will be co-parenting with the birth mother.

Where Brooklyn at? Well, hopefully at this panel that I'm MC-ing this weekend. Here's all the deets for those in the vicinity:

The American Hero and the American Dream:
Reflections on Our Contemporary Political Narratives

Date: Sunday, September 28
Time: 2-4 pm

Location: The Forum, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

In this interactive panel, academics, journalists, and comedians discuss the dominant narratives--perpetuated by both the campaigns and the media--during this unprecedented election. As they explore the ways in which these two presidential candidates and their VPs have been framed, they will also be examining the way the American public still thinks about race, class, and gender, and how this election has served to defibrillate so many beating, bleeding political hearts.

Moderator: Courtney E. Martin

Panelists:
Charlton McIlwain, Assistant Professor of Culture and Communication, NYU
Gloria, Feldt, author and blogger at Heartfeldt Politics
Ramin Hedayati, associate producer at The Daily Show

Check out this amusingly bad argument from one of University of Idaho's budding Harvey Mansfield's:

There is a difference between a good thing and the best thing. For example, a meal served with a delicious dessert is a good thing, but a meal in which every course is delicious is the best thing. Getting an A in one class is better than getting no A's but not as good as getting all A's. I think we can all understand this pretty easily. However, whether we understand it or not, sometimes we treat the good things as though they are actually the best things.

Where am I going with this? I'll tell you. When we talk about women's rights, we should consider whether they are good things or whether they are the best things, because many people treat them as the best things. Of course, I will say it is better to have women's rights than not to have women's rights, but the only way to put women's rights first is if we are willing to say -- which I am not -- that women are better and more important than humanity as a whole.

Wow. Pass the dessert and give this dude an A+ for worst logic and most irrelevant metaphors ever.

Thanks to Anne-Marije for the heads up.

Many of you undoubtedly saw Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich's awesome documentary film, Speak Out: I Had an Abortion. I am a huge fan and have written about it in the past.

Well, now Jen has taken her radical work from the screen to the page, with lots of additional analysis and framing. Abortion & Life, written by Jen and containing gorgeous photographs by Tara Todras-Whitehill, just came out on Akashic Books. In it, Jen sets the scene of the contemporary abortion debate, not just between pro-lifers and pro-choicers, but between feminists of different generations and perspectives, women and men, mothers and daughters, and all of the other complex subgroups that struggle with the abortion issue ever day. As she writes, "The majority of Americans don't want abortion to be recriminalized but are uncomfortable talking about and even facing the realities of the procedure."

Jen soothes that discomfort with personal stories--stories that are as diverse as women's abortion experiences, all inciting empathy and a more nuanced