February 2010 Archives

New York Gov. David Paterson's office was accused of intimidating a woman who tried to press domestic violence charges against one of his aides.

Maryland will recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Women on public assistance testify on the Hill to change welfare policies.

"A white person tossing out 'girlfriend' in a professional conversation with a black woman equals epic fail."

Can Facebook save Emily's List?

The sad stats about women in Hollywood. Plus, 30 movies that are for and by women.

A really upsetting review of several new books and reports about prison rape.

A new French law would require people with restraining orders against them to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.

The third PostBourgie podcast is up!

Call for submissions: MAMA SAYS GOOD GIRLS MARRY DOCTORS - Retaining Control, Negotiating Roles: South and East Asian Diasporic Women and their Parents

Muslimah Media Watch interviews Emma Tarlo, author of Visibly Muslim.

Is a new documentary about domestic violence raising awareness about the issue or making a spectacle of survivors?

Why Caster Semenya is NOT like the main character in Middlesex.

Anti-choicer Lila Rose strikes again, attempting to discredit a reproductive health clinic in Milwaukee.

Ohio teens demand real sex ed.

"Are we socialized to believe that despite study after study saying that women overwhelmingly feel relief after an abortion, that two adults in love must break up?"

What have you all been reading/writing this week?

Hi folks! Community Moderator here. Just a note about comments-- we're currently on our Feministing retreat here in NY so comments may take a while to show up. It'll be like this till about Tuesday when I go back to Cali. Sorry about this, thanks for your patience!

Heather Corinna, a writer and activist, is the founder of Scarleteen, one of the internet's best sex ed resources for young people, and the author of S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-to-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide for Getting You Through High School and College. Scarleteen, which Corinna started in 1998, tries to fill the gaps left - whether intentionally or unintentionally - in sex education provided by teachers and parents. Scarleteen is for and by young people, aims to equip young people with all the information they need to make the best choices they can make. It also provides a space for them to talk, in an honest and safe way, about issues that they might not otherwise be able to explore, like bisexuality, coming out and abusive relationships. I particularly like this post, about men, masculinity and breakups.

Corinna is also one of the founders of the All Girl Army, a blogger collective for young feminists (some as young as 10, and who doesn't love a 10-year-old feminist?). Each of their bloggers was asked to define what feminism means to them. Check it out - it'll put a smile on your face.

Corinna, whose writing has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Bitch and Bust, among many, many others. She also writes erotica, and publishes her erotic photography online at her site Femmerotic. Those of you who read RH Reality Check will recognize Corinna from her Get Real! series, answering readers' questions about sex, sexuality and sexual health. In this week's column, about sex and guilt, she writes: "I have yet to see any sound evidence that people enjoying pleasure, sexual or otherwise, in ways that do not hurt anyone -- that everyone involves wants and engages in with basic care and respect for themselves and others -- has anything but positive benefits for people and the world as a whole." Amen to that.

And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with Heather Corinna.

Sorry I have to run out today. The Feministing folks are getting together this weekend and we are starting out with a training for our editors at the very awesome Women's Media Center. We'll be back on Monday!

Shani-O on the pro-life billboard in Atlanta that is targeted to black women.

Rachel Simmons on hook-up culture. I wish I had time to write a longer post about this (maybe next week). You may not agree with her, but give it a read, she makes some super valid points.

Jamie Foxx tells Kirstie Alley to stop it with all that diet bullshit. (He says it really nicely, I do not :)

And uh, did Governer Patterson aid in the suppression of this woman's story of being assaulted by one of his top aids?

Nothing says you should quit smoking like conflating sexual assault with the effects of cigarettes. Via the NYTimes, a feminist activist in France speaks out,

But the reaction on the Web site of Droits des Non-fumeurs has been mixed. One comment read, "The campaign trivializes sexual abuse -- worse, it implies guilt on the part of the abused."

Florence Montreynaud, the president of La Meute des Chiennes de Garde, or the Pack of Female Watchdogs, which opposes symbols of sexual violence in films and advertising, called the ads "unbearable" and said "what is most shocking is the banalization of sexual violence."

She is a feminist, she said, and a longtime member of Droits des Non-fumeurs. "But it is terrible to represent in the public space this kind of image restricted to pornography," she added. "I'm appalled. It's a poverty of imagination. When people have no ideas, they use female bodies."

These ads are not edgy to me at all. They are just gross.

Like several of my co-bloggers, I am of the anti-violence, de-escalation, anti-incarceration and anti-police industry camp. I think generally increased penalties on criminal behavior supports and reinforces more criminal behavior. I believe that a just criminal justice system is one that is fair, protects the interests of the people and is built through community organizing.

Having said that, my political beliefs about prisons, policing and law enforcement are often taken to task on the issue of domestic violence, stalking and other forms of harassment and assault. Calling the police may not always help, restraining orders are hard to obtain and even harder to enforce. But it is still an option that many women choose and one of the only that are available to them.

It is with this same ambivalence that I think about this law in France that will most likely pass, garnering unanimous support. Men who have a court order to stay away from their ex-partner will be electronically tagged and if they violate their court order police will be notified immediately.

The proposal is part of a draft law on conjugal violence. It has cross-party support and is expected to pass easily.

According to the government, around 160 women in France are murdered by their husbands or partners every year.

Parliament is also considering outlawing psychological violence in the home, because it is seen by many as a precursor to physical violence.

It is rare for the left and the right in France to agree on anything, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield, so the near unanimity in parliament behind this law comes as something of a novelty.

Everyone agrees that domestic violence is bad and getting worse.

Awareness on behalf of the government of the epidemic of violence against women is a good thing and will lead to more legislation that supports the rights of victims. Also, I think if I were one of these women, this would put my mind at ease on some level, knowing that police are being proactive about enforcing court orders. On the other hand, this is still part of the same cycle and system of violence. If someone wants to get to you, a bracelet that alerts your parole officer may not always stop them.

So while I am in support of this kind of legislation (even though the idea of "tagging" has a bit of a post-apocalyptic cyber realm thing going on with it), I think it should be paired with anti-violence and rehabilitation therapy and trainings to create long-term solutions to violence.

If you are living in NY than you woke up to several inches of snow outside. This is what my quiet Brooklyn street is looking like right now.

Posting might be limited today. Feministing is having a retreat this weekend and we are going to be getting ready to meet up this afternoon...assuming we can get our front doors open. There maybe some snowshoeing in my future.

If you are on the East Coast enjoy the snow today and hopefully whatever you were supposed to do was canceled. If you are not on the East Coast or in a place where it doesn't snow 12 inches all the times, well, be glad you don't have to deal with it. Or be jealous that we have an excuse to stay home :)

Don't miss Miriam's takes on surrogacy and leadership by women of color in the reproductive justice movement.

Gotta love The Onion sometimes: Rise In Teen Pregnancy Proves Teens Still Got It

"While men make up the majority of abusers of street drugs, including meth, cocaine and heroin, women are just as likely to abuse prescription pills as men."

The panty fairy (and anonymous activists) visit a Dartmouth frat.

Check out my column this week on the field of architecture's diversity problem.

Salon asks, "Kathryn Bigelow: Feminist pioneer or tough guy in drag?"

Frisky's Jessica Wakeman interviews the woman who live-tweeted her abortion.

Four days after shocking some users by suddenly removing over 5,000 apps with sexually-explicit content form the App Store, Apple (a) started talking about the decision and (b) created a new category called "explicit" apps. Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide product marketing, told the New York Times:

It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.

As the NYT reports, "Many software developers have long complained about Apple's strict screening process and, at times, seemingly arbitrary decisions about what was acceptable in the App Store." Tech bloggers have noted that Playboy and Sports Illustrated's swimsuit apps were untouched, while lesser-known developers had their salacious creations pulled.

If you connect the dots here, it seems pretty clear. Apple made a decision to block some unsavory apps based on an economic decision (women, target consumers, complained, as did parents). They knocked off the smaller app producers as a gesture of caring about sexism without pissing off their big friends, like Playboy and SI.

I'm not necessarily arguing that any of this should be censored. I don't know enough about the ways in which apps function (truth be told, I don't have an iPhone) and I'm generally one to fall in the free speech camp on most issues. But it's pretty clear that Apple is just watching their own asses, financially-speaking, not trying to actually explore the idea of creating a brand that appeals to progressive folks who care about things like, say, little girls not growing up to feel like their power lies in having a perfect body fit for iPhone apps.

I know that Apple is, at its core, a massive corporation that wants to make money, but is it really too much to expect that one of the world's most creative companies might come up with a creative solution for all this objectification? It's particularly disheartening that they're so blase and bottom line about it when so many are innovating at the intersections of profit and nonprofit, social enterprise and market opportunism.

For more see TechCrunch and Huffington Post.

See also:
New iPhone app rates your attractiveness
Need a hymen? There's an app for that.*
I knew there was a reason I didn't want an iPhone
The iGrope?

Thanks to Jaime for the heads up.

Jennifer Bartlett contributes her second guest post, an interview with artist Sunuara Taylor. Note: All the art works included are by Sunny. Without further adieu:

JB: I've been exploring the idea of disability as a strength rather than the societal perception of the disabled body as 'weak.' My idea derives from the concept that people with disabilities accomplish many of the same things that nondisabled people do with a so-called "compromised" body. I wonder what you think of this?

ST: Well firstly I'd like to touch on the word disabled. I like the definitions of the words disability and impairment that exist within the Social Model of Disability. Under this model, the word disabled is used to describe the disabling environment and culture that different bodies live in (for example stairs and negative stereotypes disable me). Impairment is used to describe one's body, one's diagnosis (which is in itself arguably a cultural creation). When I hear or say 'disabled people' I think of people who are oppressed not by their bodies (or not only by their bodies), but by a discriminating and inaccessible world. Thus, when I answer these questions, I'll be using the word impairment for when I'm talking about one's individual experience in their specific body and disabled when I am talking more broadly about the experience of living in a body that is disabled by society. Of course, sometimes they are too entangled to separate!

One of my favorite quotes and in fact definitions of impairment/disability comes from the disabled dancer/artist Neil Marcus. Marcus says, "Disability is not a 'brave struggle' or 'courage in the face of adversity'...disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." What I love about Marcus' quote is his focus on the creativity and ingenuity that is needed when living in a body that doesn't work/move in a normalized way and that is discriminated against. I am under the impression that being forced to think creatively and ingeniously makes one a stronger and often more interesting individual, but I hesitate to say outright that having an impairment is a strength in and of itself -but I also would NOT say it's a weakness. I would say the strength comes from a potential creativity that disabled people are forced to deal with out of necessity.


JB: What do you think of the liberal use in the media of words such as wheelchair bound, afflicted with disability, and suffering from disability? Are these terms problematic?

ST: I cringe at these terms! And also the use of words like handicapped, special, and metaphoric language that co-opts and stereotypes words like blind, crippled and paralyzed (i.e. the nation was crippled by the financial meltdown, or blind to the corporate takeover). I'm annoyed, but rarely surprised. Even the most progressive journalists like Amy Goodman use these terms on a regular bases.

Simi Linton, in her groundbreaking book Claiming Disability, has a chapter on why each of these terms are patronizing, stereotyping and generally misinformed.

They are all either loaded with intensely negative history or are biased towards negativity -we are suffering, bound, confined, afflicted -but in actuality wheelchairs are liberating and most of the suffering that comes from being disabled comes from dealing with a discriminating and stereotyping world.

I use the word disabled for its political meaning. Many of us in the disabled community use the word crippled, 'crip' or gimp as a reclaiming of names similar to how the gay community has reclaimed the word queer.

More interview, paintings, and bios after the jump.

Exhibit A, according to CNN:

12:30 p.m.: Sen. John McCain slams the special deals inserted in the Senate health care bill, saying those should be removed so that the American people will know "that geography does not dictate what kind of health care they will receive."

Obama shoots back, "Let me just make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore. The election is over."

McCain interjects, "I'm reminded of that every day."

You know what we're reminded of every day McCain? That we no longer have a form of government that actually serves the American people. Rather, we are subjected to politicians obsessed with re-election, special interests, and the media spotlight. I honor what Obama is trying to do, even as the spectacle is further depressing me. Ugh.

I haven't had a chance to read Marisa Meltzer's awesome sounding new book, Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music, but you know shit is promising when Viva la Feminista's six-year-old daughter is trying to catch a sneak peek. She wrote:

What I found most intriguing about the book was how Meltzer outlines how a group of feminists grabbed guitars, drums and the mic and launched a very real music revolution and then how that revolution was so successful that it is quickly evolved into what we typically think of as "Girl Power" music...Girl Power also made me stop and consider how do we want girls to discover feminism. Or more to the point, how do we think we can get them to discover feminism? My daughter has taken a liking to this book solely due to the title. The kid has asked me how I have liked the book, what it's about and tried to read over my shoulder.

92Y Tribeca is hosting a killer launch for the book on Wednesday, March 3rd, that includes a slide show, a dramatic reading from Courtney Love's diaries and performance by the band Supercute!. The panel features Sean Fennessey, the Director of Merchandising for eMusic.com and former Music Editor of VIBE, Emily Gould, of much blogger fame, Elizabeth Spiridakis, of White Lightning, and Marissa herself. If you're in the NYC-area, check it out. The complete deets.

We've covered the tragedy of untested rape kits at some length. Well, Human Rights Watch investigator Sarah Tofte, who spearheaded the initial work in LA, is currently leading comprehensive research in Illinois. Good news: she may not have to deal with the same disappointing reaction from the police department.

Chicago Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced new legislation introduced on February 9th, sponsored by Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-40th) and Rep. Emily McCasey (D-85th), that would require all evidence of sexual assault to be submitted by the investigating law enforcement agency within 10 days of receiving it from the hospital. If the bill is passed, it also would require all law enforcement agencies to provide Illinois State Police with an inventory of all untested kits in their possession. This may sound obvious, but this would be groundbreaking precedent for the rest of the country. There are literally shelves and shelves of untested rape kits in most states in the union (13,000 in LA alone), and the police are under no legal obligation to get the kits processed. Madigan explained the significance of the legislation:

"Women who are victims of rape put their trust in authorities to bring their offenders to justice. When evidence that is so painstakingly collected sits untested, stored away on police departments' shelves, that trust is violated. This mandate must be put in place to assure rape victims that their cases will be effectively prosecuted and their offenders put behind bars. This legislation will put Illinois at the forefront of this issue and help bring about justice for victims."

Tofte told Feministing:

This bill will make Illinois the first state to require every booked rape kit be sent to the crime lab and tracked--two reforms necessary for the state to account for and eliminate its backlog. Our research in the state so far shows that only 20 percent of all booked rape kits are ever sent for testing. This is unacceptable. If this bill is passed, rape kits will come flooding into the crime lab, and the state will see what we know already--thousands of rape kits have gone untested in Illinois, denying justice to victims.

Read more here.

If you live in Illinois, now is that time to express your support for this legislation with your local representatives and spread the word!

Lady Gaga says of her strap-on attire on the cover of UK's Q magazine: "We all know that one of the biggest talking points of the year was that I have a dick, so why not give them what they want?"

Even better: "When a guy says, 'Oh I fucked all these chicks this week,' there's a high-five and giggling. But when a woman does it and its publicised or she's open about her sexuality or she's free or liberated, it's, 'Oh, she must have a dick.'"

Via Jezebel.

The New York Times reports:

New research is showing that eviction is a particular burden on low-income black women, often single mothers, who have an easier time renting apartments than their male counterparts, but are vulnerable to losing them because their wages or public benefits have not kept up with the cost of housing.

This will come as no surprise to those that have been following the ways in which this economic down turn has exacerbated many of the financial threats facing so many women and people of color, in particular. Just as corrupt mortgage companies have targeted low-income women, well-documented in places like Baltimore, women are now losing their rented housing at higher rates than men.

This new study focuses on Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where one of every 25 renter-occupied households in the city is evicted each year. In black neighborhoods, the rate is one in 14. Women from largely black neighborhoods in Milwaukee constitute 13 percent of the city's population, but 40 percent of those evicted.

But this isn't just a problem of the Midwest or of former industry towns like Milwaukee, straining for rejuvenation in tough times. According to the NYT: "Housing lawyers in Los Angeles and New York described a similar predominance of minority women, including Hispanic women, in eviction cases." According to Chester Hartman, an urban planner with the Poverty and Race Research Action Council in Washington, there have probably been millions of evictions nationwide in the last year, but unlike with foreclosures, data isn't easy to come by.

Why are women disproportionately targeted? The study lists a combination of factors, but a few of them are outrageous: "women more readily complain to city agencies about repairs, potentially angering landlords who then find excuses to evict them. And police reports of domestic violence can backfire on women, leading some landlords to seek evictions out of fear that they will be fined for tolerating disturbances."

See also:
Resisting Foreclosures Together
Domestic violence survivor evicted for reporting abuser

Thanks to John for the heads up.

A blogger is YouTubing and live-tweeting her abortion, saying, "I'm doing this to de-mystify abortion."

Dana Goldstein talks to disability rights leaders about their skepticism towards Sarah Palin's disability advocacy (or lack thereof).

While the existing state health plan in South Carolina only covers abortion in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman, apparently that wasn't enough for State Rep. Rex Rice, who introduced legislation that would ban abortion under any circumstance. Nice guy, he is.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has let Congress know of the Navy's plans to finally allow women aboard submarines.

Awesome news: Today, Spain approved a sweeping new law that eases restrictions on abortion, declaring it a woman's right and removing the threat of imprisonment. The new law also allows women to obtain abortion without restrictions up to 14 weeks into the pregnancy, and gives 16- and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.

I'm especially excited about this because I see this latest legislative victory as part of an overall trend in Spain toward more liberal and pro-woman policies, despite quite vocal opposition from conservatives and the Catholic Church. As the article explains, this is just the latest of a series of reforms by Prime Minister Zapatero- under Zapatero, Spain has also legalized gay marriage and made it easier for Spaniards to divorce.

For more, check out the whole article on MSNBC.

In December, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) released a report not only about the fact that 95% of college campus rapes go unreported, but that survivors who do report often get no justice. Today, they have followed up with solid results from a year-long study, revealing that school judicial systems sanction little to no punishment for students responsible for sexual assault, often leading to repeat offenders. Via The Center:

The Center interviewed 50 experts familiar with the campus disciplinary process, as well as 33 female students who have reported being sexually assaulted by other students. The inquiry included a review of records in select cases; a survey of 152 crisis services programs and clinics on or near college campuses; and an examination of 10 years of complaints filed against institutions with the U.S. Education Department under Title IX and the Clery Act. The probe reveals that students deemed "responsible" for alleged sexual assaults on college campuses can face little or no consequence for their acts. Yet their victims' lives are frequently turned upside down. For them, the trauma of assault can be compounded by a lack of institutional support, and even disciplinary action. Many times, victims drop out of school, while their alleged attackers graduate. Administrators believe the sanctions commonly issued in the college judicial system provide a thoughtful and effective way to hold culpable students accountable, but victims and advocates say the punishment rarely fits the crime.

Additional data suggests that, on many campuses, abusive students face little more than slaps on the wrist. The Center has examined what is apparently the only database on sexual assault proceedings at institutions of higher education nationwide. Maintained by the U.S. Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women, it includes information on about 130 colleges and universities receiving federal funds to combat sexual violence from 2003-2008, the most recent year available. Though limited in scope, the database offers a window into sanctioning by school administrations. It shows that colleges seldom expel men who are found "responsible" for sexual assault; indeed, these schools permanently kicked out only 10 to 25 percent of such students.

That means 75 to 90 percent of total disciplinary actions that schools do report are minor, some so minimal it's astounding -- such as making them send a letter of apology to their victim or write a research report on sexual violence. That's right, their punishment for sexual assault is to write a research paper. Other small sanctions are suspensions, social probation or counseling, despite the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women's recommendations to its college grant recipients to train their judicial panels to give "appropriate sanctions, such as expulsion." One example is to the right, where survivor Margaux J. of Indiana University describes her experience with the campus judicial panel she participated in. (More on her case here.)

And the Education Department, which is responsible for enforcing both the Clery Act and Title IX, rarely investigates complaints of botched school proceedings. When cases do go forward by their Office of Civil Rights, there are rarely any sanctions made against institutions. "The full extent of campus sexual assault is often hidden by secret proceedings, shoddy record-keeping, and an indifferent bureaucracy," says Center for Public Integrity Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. "Yet these are serious crimes that go largely unpunished. This is a troubling area of campus life that lacks much needed transparency and accountability."

In the meantime, we have college newspapers printing pieces that blame rape victims and women's magazines spreading the myth of "gray rape." If we can't rely on schools to hold students who commit sexual assault accountable, and we can't rely on our Education Department to hold those schools accountable for their inaction, where does that leave us? This is more than troubling; this is a crisis that's occurring on campuses across the country, and survivors deserve better.

Read all of their findings here.

No. Just no. For ice dancing in the Olympics this year, the theme was folk dancing. Who knew it would turn into this?

Despite the controversy Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin created when Aboriginal leaders found out the Russian ice dancers' routine was an unbelievably offensive interpretation of Aborginal dance, all they did was "tone down" their costume (meaning not use as much face paint) but the dance was not altered. They came in third place on Sunday's competition. Via Yahoo! Sports:

The dance they did was more likely their interpretation of Aboriginal dance, though they claimed to have done research. Watching the dance Sunday night, one can understand why Aboriginal leaders were offended.

At times, Shabalin led Domnina around by her ponytail. They mugged, stuck out their tongues and mimicked the hand over mouth gesture that was once associated with American Indians.

You can see the routine here, it's pretty difficult to watch. Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales state Aboriginal Land Council said:

"I am offended by the performance and so are our other councillors...Aboriginal people for very good reason are sensitive about their cultural objects and icons being co-opted by non-Aboriginal people - whether they are from Australia or Russia. It's important for people to tread carefully and respectfully when they are depicting somebody else's culture, and I don't think this performance does."

She also notes the fact that their dark body suits put them on a "very slippery slope" to begin with. Sol Bellear of the Council adds, "We see it as stealing aboriginal culture, and it is yet another example of the aboriginal people of Australia being exploited."

Via Pam.

Looks like we have a new Carrie Prejean on our hands, except not only does this beauty queen oppose same-sex marriage, but promotes the abomination and death of gay people.

While headlines are popping up everywhere about how Miss Beverly Hills Lauren Ashley opposes same-sex marriage, where are the headlines about her contention that God thinks gays should be put to death? Here's one (content may be upsetting):

"The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman," Ashley told FOX News. "In Leviticus it says, 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.' The Bible is pretty black and white."

Oh, and there's more:

"I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone...If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that's a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life."

But she adds to Fox News that she has lots of gay friends and "there's no hate between [her] and anyone." So since she has gay friends, it's okay to think they should die for their sins! Unreal.

New York Fashion Week wrapped up recently and London Fashion Week is underway, which means images of dangerously thin, overwhelmingly white models are everywhere in the media. Of course, such images are ubiquitous year round, often coupled with articles about the latest diet sure to make you impossibly thin, too.

The Eating Disorders Section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the UK's main professional organization of psychiatrists, has begun a campaign to oppose the media's over-representation of incredibly thin models and glamorizing of eating disorders. They are calling for a new editorial code and a symbol placed on images that have been airbrushed.

"Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are serious mental illnesses," said [Dr. Adrienne] Key.

"Although biological and genetic factors play an important role in the development of these disorders, psychological and social factors are also significant," she added, saying that was why the RCPsych was urging the media "to take greater responsibility for the messages it sends out".

As a person who's struggled with eating disorders I agree the media has a big influence. When nearly every image is telling you the standard of beauty is thin as well as cisgender, white, and able bodied, and you're already struggling with your relationship with eating, it's hard not to try to fit that image.

As Amanda Marcotte points out, in the US there seems to be only two polarized approaches to food: overeating or anorexia. And anorexia is encouraged. Diets are supposed to be the answer to obesity (which the media seems to think is the worst thing ever), but too often they aren't a way to shift one's long term relationship with food and physical activity. Instead they're a structured form of disordered eating, often with other people encouraging you, that are socially acceptable to speak about positively in public. The "Air Diet" may be an extreme example, but not by much.

Where's the representation of an the option beyond overeating or starving yourself? Where's the space to negotiate a positive relationship with your body and the food you eat? I agree with the psychiatrists, the press is outright encouraging disordered eating and a negative body image. It's way past time they stopped.

You may already know we're not the biggest fan of Dr. Laura, but she just keeps coming back to piss us off.

The Sexist covered her most recent video chat, addressing a question by a listener about stay-at-home dads. Her response? That being the family's breadwinner could lead these women to extreme emasculation (sounds like a good band name) of their men:

[W]hen the moms are working, and the dads are at home, the moms, the women, the wives, tend to change their feelings somewhat about their husbands. They tend not to see them as the heroes. The warrior. The man. The caretaker. The provider. The protector. And those feelings are really very significant. And I have found over the years that there often is more marital strife when the roles are reserved. Whether you're a feminist or not, whether you like it or not, them's just the facts.

Apparently she didn't get the memo that this isn't 1950 and we're not in a Disney movie. But the doctor makes sure to say it's a-okay if you want to be a working mother, as long as you still know your place:

Now: it often works very well. And when it works very well--OK, when it works very well it's good for the kids, when it doesn't work very well, it's not good for the kids. The point is not, are the rolls reversed and is that good for the children? The point is, are the parents RHHHHGGG about it? Is dad being treated with less respect? Is mom coming home sort of bitter that she's not with the kids, and feeling like since she earns the money, she's the boss? If there is this kind of negativity and dissention, that hurts the kids.

Mom can't be having, you know, too much respect or anything! Amanda says, "In other words, are you still treating mom like a woman (with less respect), and dad like a man (the boss)? You're good to go." Indeed. If anyone needs advice, it's Dr. Laura -- on what year it is.

Approximate transcript after the jump.

This isn't good, folks. A bill passed by the House and Senate in Utah this week could make it a crime to have a miscarriage, with penalties up to life in prison. RH Reality Check reports:

The bill passed by legislators amends Utah's criminal statute to allow the state to charge a woman with criminal homicide for inducing a miscarriage or obtaining an illegal abortion. The basis for the law was a recent case in which a 17-year-old girl, who was seven months pregnant, paid a man $150 to beat her in an attempt to cause a miscarriage. Although the girl gave birth to a baby later given up for adoption, she was initially charged with attempted murder. However the charges were dropped because, at the time, under Utah state law a woman could not be prosecuted for attempting to arrange an abortion, lawful or unlawful.

The bill passed by the Utah legislature would change that. While the bill does not affect legally obtained abortions, it criminalizes any actions taken by women to induce a miscarriage or abortion outside of a doctor's care, with penalties including up to life in prison.

Lynn Paltrow of National Advocates for Pregnant Women tells RH that while other states have feticide laws specified to prosecute third-party attackers, directing it at the woman will have severe repercussions. It could create cases where women are prosecuted for having an unintentional miscarriage if there is any indication of "reckless behavior," like drink alcohol and miscarry, or do any number of other things that could be deemed "reckless." Next thing you know, you're sentenced to time in prison for criminal homicide.

The bill awaits the governor's signature. If you live in Utah, contact him and let him know just how dangerous this bill is. Amplify also has a community post with more ways to take action.

W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights activist and scholar, was born today.

Senator Rockefeller says he probably would not vote to pass the public option through reconciliation. Not a good sign.

Harry Reid points out a statistical relationship between male unemployment and domestic violence against women. Of course he says it in a problematic way - he's Harry Reid.

Kansas State Rep. Steve Brunk compares rape to having your car stolen.

Kenya is poised to ban abortion in their constitution.

Check out Miriam's new piece about surrogacy over at RH Reality Check:

Surrogacy is a complicated subject, to say the least. It involves many of the issues central to reproductive justice--bodily autonomy, a woman's right to abortion, definitions of parenthood, and custody of children. It's also an option increasingly relied upon by gay couples--usually gay men--to create families. It invariably brings up concerns about racial and economic justice when the majority of surrogates are low-income and many are women of color. It's an issue on which few reproductive rights and justice groups are currently working but one that deserves our close attention.

Click here to read the article.

Fears and negative assumptions about immigrants have been used by opponents of health care reform to build opposition, appealing to an already large anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. This came to a head when Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" after President Obama spoke the sad truth that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for federal subsidies to purchase health insurance.

Via the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health's blog comes word of a study conducted by Project HOPE that refutes the assumption that providing health care to immigrants requires too much public funding:

An examination of health care spending during 1999-2006 for adult naturalized citizens and immigrant noncitizens (which includes some undocumented immigrants) finds that the cost of providing health care to immigrants is lower than that of providing care to U.S. natives and that immigrants are not contributing disproportionately to high health care costs in public programs such as Medicaid.

...

In fact, noncitizens, most of whom are recent immigrants, use fewer health care resources than even naturalized citizens. The one exception appears to be that noncitizens have a significantly greater proportion of uncompensated and charity care than naturalized citizens or U.S. natives. However, this finding likely reflects noncitizens' poor access to care and low socioeconomic status.

These findings have important implications regarding both immigration reform and health care reform. The debate about health reform throughout 2009 ignored how the immigrant population, and particularly noncitizens, would be treated under a new system. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act blocked immigrants' access to much public health insurance coverage, which we suspect is partly responsible for the high level of uncompensated and charity care being provided to noncitizens. The noncitizen and recent immigrant populations have been given few options to obtain high-quality, affordable health care.

Anti-immigrant and anti-government sentiments combine well to serve those spreading false information in their attempts to block health care reform. Sadly these myths have played into legislation that makes it harder for immigrants to access the care they need. The real issue, in fact, is a lack of access.

I don't think cost should be a reason to give up on the idea of providing necessary care and support, but this study shows money's not even the issue. Immigrant's lives are being caught in the middle of a fight that has nothing to do with reality.

Because it's never too early to shame girls about body hair and normalize hair removal. This doll teaches children to remove hair from those typical problem areas like sides, ankles, and that pesky full bikini bottom of hair that wraps around your waist.

via The Frisky.

UPDATE: Turns out the doll is an art piece designed to highlight the socialization of girls. Guess it worked.

Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall said Thursday at a press conference opposing funding for Planned Parenthood that children with disabilities are a punishment from God for women who have previously had abortions:

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children," said Marshall, a Republican.

"In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

What a disgusting statement in so many ways, from the cruel ableism of saying children with disabilities are a punishment at all to the false claim that there is a link between abortion and disability in subsequent pregnancies.

This was just one part of the lies and offensive statements from Marshall's press conference. Speakers also perpetuated the black genocide conspiracy and Marshall claimed Planned Parenthood received about $500,000 annually from the state, when in fact the organization receives about $35,000 a year in Medicaid reimbursements.

Marshall issued a sort of apology/retraction on his website, one of those "I regret it if you took my words badly" statements. I'm not buying it given his history of incendiary comments about abortion and gay rights.

You can sign a petition calling for Bob Marshall's resignation here.

Last week "The Dr. Oz Show" featured interviews with two transgender youth, their families, and a Doctor who works with young trans folks. The teaser and opening video package were typically sensationalistic. But the interviews were very different from previous daytime talk show segments about trans folks. Dr. Oz asked important questions without being overly invasive about anatomy or the details of surgery. His framing of questions also recognized the young people's genders as real and accurate and did not focus on the gender they were assigned at birth. This may sound like a very basic level of respect and accuracy, but it's pretty much unprecedented in a talk show segment about trans folks.

Here's video of the segment, broken into two parts:

A transcript of the show can be found here.

For more information and resources about transgender youth check out Trans Youth Families Allies. You can also sign a petition thanking Dr. Oz for this groundbreaking coverage.

The cruelty of Nicaragua's extreme abortion ban is undeniable in the case of Amelia (an alias), a 27-year-old woman with cancer. Passed in 2006, the law criminalizes abortion, even if the woman's life or health is at risk. Amelia, who has a 10-year-old daughter, needs to have an abortion so she can undergo treatment for the cancer, which may have metastasized in her brain, lungs and breasts.

The Strategic Group for the Decriminalization of Therapeutic Abortion in Nicaragua, whose members include the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, the OB-GYN Society, the New Family Association (ANFAN) and international organizations including Women's Link Worldwide, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and IPAS Central America, filed a petition on February 18th with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to demand the Nicaraguan government adopt urgent precautionary measures to protect Amelia's life.

From a statement from these organizations:

Even though the treating physicians concluded that the patient requires an abortion to initiate chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, the young woman has been hospitalized since January 29th without being able to receive an abortion and therefore, without receiving any kind of treatment to stop the cancer.

Under these circumstances, Amelia is in imminent danger of losing her life, given the impossibility of accessing an abortion. Under current Nicaraguan law, women in need of therapeutic abortions to save their life or protect their health are in fact, sentenced to death. Additionally, in this case, her minor daughter would be orphaned.

Too often, abortion laws completely ignore the lived realities in which the procedure takes place. Nicaragua's law is the antithesis of pro-life since, if followed, it could mean this woman's death.

UPDATE: The coalition working on this case is asking individuals and organizations to take action. Head over to RH Reality Check to find out how you can help.

It looks like Hawaii is about to repeal it's extremely restrictive state abortion policy, which has been on the books for over one hundred years. Yay! (This would be a today in history what we missed, since this article is from 1970--thanks for the correction commenters!)

Holla Back NYC is shooting it's first ever PSA and looking for participants! Check out the details here.

Feministing has been nominated for a Lezzy Award in the Feminist/Political category! Go vote for us.

The cast of Glee has been invited to perform at the White House by President Obama. Pretty cool!

It's National Eating Disorder's Awareness Week.

Our awesome columnist Shark-Fu is celebrating her birthday today!

Check out her site and send her some birthday love in comments.

Go read our girl Jessica's first piece in the Washington Post.

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. In honor of the month, and of the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act and the establishment of the Office on Violence Against Women as part of the Department of Justice, DOJ had a blogger call last week.

This was a first for the DOJ, and definitely indicative of the new outreach strategies of this administration. I'm entirely sure who was on the call, but some of my favorite feminist bloggers asked questions.

The call focused on the efforts of OVW and DOJ to combat Teen Dating Violence. They have an emphasis on online harassment and specifically mentioned "sexting" and cell-phone based harassment.

They also mentioned that Obama's budget for 2011 includes a "29% increase in funds specifically targeted to address sexual assault and violence against women."

They are running this website, Love is Respect, as part of the campaign to combat Teen Dating Violence.

Via Sociological Images, we bring you Butch Bakery.

Text reads: Butch it up Buttercup, These ain't your grandma's cupcakes. Our objective is simple. We're men. Men who like cupcakes. Not the frilly pink frosted sprinkles and unicorns kind of cupcakes. We make manly cupcakes. For manly men.

With that kind of name (and located in NYC) I half expected it to be a super gay bakery catering to Butch lesbians and gay men.

I guessed wrong.

These cupcakes seem to be in line with our new era of anxious masculinity. We saw it layed out in the Docker's ad campaign Vanessa posted, and further reiterated in the series of Super Bowl commercials that Jessica covered.

Butch Bakery has had so much success so far they've had to postpone the delivery of new orders.

In advance of the White House organized health care summit this Thursday, President Obama and his team have just released their health care plan.

From what has been said about the plan so far, it follows closely along with the senate version of the health care reform bill, including on it's stance on abortion. The Senate version still had limits on health insurance funding for abortion, including a system that would force women who wanted abortion coverage to write two separate checks each month for their insurance premiums.

There is no public option in this plan either.

For more, go to the White House website.

Tegan and Sara, Wake Up Exhausted

Last week I went to a Tegan and Sara concert. If you aren't familiar with them, they are a Canadian music duo comprised of queer twins, Tegan and Sara. Their music has become more popular over the years and they played an awesome show in DC.

Seeing them perform for the second time got me thinking back to when I first got to know their music. It was the summer before my senior year of college, and I had just come out. I was living in my hometown, doing a program at the local university. I didn't know any queer folks there and didn't feel comfortable coming out to the other students in the program.

I did a lot of reading that summer, and a lot of listening to music.

I was lucky enough to see Tegan and Sara in concert that summer, along with Melissa Ferrick, another lesbian musician. Those two musicians became the soundtrack to my coming out. That summer was the time when I really became comfortable with myself, after a tumultuous few months of self-exploration allowed me to admit what I had been avoiding for years.

I've included two of their songs that really take me back to that time, lyrics after the jump.

Melissa Ferrick, Will You Be the One

Our very own Professor Foxy was awarded a Young Women of Achievement Award by the Women's Information Network last week.

Women's Information Network is a local DC group for pro-choice democratic women.

She was recognized for her achievement in the area of non-profit service and advocacy.

Congrats Professor Foxy!

Media scaremongering about women's "ovarian reserves."

As Jessica puts it, "We're suffering under the mass delusion that women in America have achieved equality."

The story of Sharbat Gula, the woman who, as a 17-year-old, was featured on the cover of National Geographic.

How the college abstinence movement falsely bills itself as pro-woman.

What if there was just a Best Acting category in the Oscars?

"Not to be a broken record about this, but the notion that most rapes are a matter of women making drunken choices and regretting it later doesn't match the realities."

This is an abbreviated list of links this week, as my internet connection is spotty... So let me turn things over to you all: What have you been reading/writing?

This weekly Saturday column "Ask Professor Foxy" will regularly contain sexually explicit material. This material is likely not safe for work viewing. The title of the column will include the major topic of the post, so please read the topic when deciding whether or not to read the entire column.

Dear Professor Foxy,
I am a divorced mom to a six and a half year old daughter. My relationship with my ex has been over for about two years. I was married for seven years, and in the relationship for 11, so I didn't really get much experience dating when I was younger. I'm very sex positive, and have used this opportunity to explore my sexuality, explore intimacy, and explore what I really think about dating in general. So I've had a bit of a learning curve, but its been fun. I have started considering the possibility that I might want a real relationship again, and suddenly I feel clueless, and hopeless.

What I'm at a loss for is dating around my daughter. I am having a hard time deconstructing what sort of exposure to dating is healthy for her and for me. Up until this point, I've erred on the side of keeping my sex and dating life completely and totally secret and separate from my mom life. This has worked fine for the short term, but what I'm realizing as I move forward is that keeping these spheres separate undermines any attempt at building any sort of real relationship from the very beginning of that relationship. Conversely, I certainly don't want to introduce my daughter to every possible romantic partner on the first or even second or third date, especially not until I'm serious about them or am sure if it will become a longer term relationship.

What scares me about my thinking, and about my actions is all of the sudden, I feel like I have two choices I recognize as the false and sexist dichotomy we all know; the virgin or the whore. If she sees me date anyone who isn't 'the one' (or a 'revolving door' of men) I'm a whore and a bad mom and she's going to have 'issues'. Appearing asexual, however, damages my chances of ever finding real intimacy (I don't want to be single until she's out of the house!) but I also worry that this charade (appearing asexual and pretending not to date) might also ruin her understanding of what it is to be a healthy sexual woman and how to develop happy relationships.

So my question is, how does a feminist single mom be a good role model to their daughter AND date? I've always been proactive about helping her to understand and question gender norms. Even the ones we both happily partake in (playing with makeup) we discuss critically and openly. Even sex, and babies, and all sorts of topics that pose some parents difficulties, have not been difficult for me. Why is this one topic sooooo hard for me to figure out?! How do I decide which guys to introduce my daughter to? How do I talk to her about it? How sure am I supposed to be in the prospects of a relationship for her to meet them? Assuming that meeting goes well, how sure before she sees us kiss, hug, or hold hands? Do I ever let anybody I'm not sure I'm going to marry ever (ever?) stay the night? Are these things I'll just KNOW when I find the right person? Ugh, I'm so confused and scared and worried and afraid of being judged or doing the wrong thing for her. But I know the right thing for me and my happiness is to date, and to give her limited exposure to the fact that I do date, BUT how?!

Sincerely Confused,
Sexy Feminist Single Mom

Hi SFSM -

I don't think there is one set answer, though I think you can find a lot of experts that will tell you that there is.

I think what matters is honesty within healthy boundaries. Your sex life is not your daughter's business, but your relationships can be. I am sure she has many people who were just friends of yours. You can introduce lovers/potential lovers as friends. When/if things get more serious and a lover is around more often, you can explain about dating. But you don't need to jump there.

I would also to keep the same boundaries you have with friends with lovers. For example, if friends stay over your house (and/or in your bed), do the same with lovers. Your daughter does not know all your friends, just the special ones. I would do the same with dates/lovers.

I once saw Robie Harris speak. She writes amazing, amazing books about sex and sexuality for children. In the course of her presentation, she talked about how as adults we tend to be overly explicit in our answers to children about sex and dating, about how we as adults freak out "OMIGOD THEY ARE ASKING ABOUT SEX!" instead of listening to what they are actually asking and addressing that issue.

You don't have two paths, you have a multitude and many of them are down the middle. She will see you date some men, she will watch you make choices that are the best for you, and that is a good role for your daughter. You will be teaching her that women and mothers are sexual beings and she does not have to choose just one path. And that is definitely being a good role model.

Best,
Professor Foxy

If you have a question for Professor Foxy, send it to ProfessorFoxyATfeministingDOTcom.

Kierra Johnson is the Executive Director of Choice USA, a pro-choice organization based in Washington, DC. Choice USA campaigns to make emergency contraception available, repeal the Hyde Amendment, uncover the deception of Crisis Pregnancy Centers and much, much more. Johnson has been with Choice USA for a decade; she started her career there by training at the Gloria Steinem Leadership Institute, and ten years later, she's running the show. Kierra is also a member of the Women's Health Leadership Network with the Center for American Progress and was a member of the Board of Medical Students for Choice from 2003 to 2006.

Johnson is responsible for the creation of Choice USA's Generation Awards, designed to recognize young activists and to "show the world that young people in the United States are not only aware and interested in the social and political events that shape our lives and those of our communities around the world, but that we are actively thinking and strategizing about how to make a positive and lasting impact towards social change." Sounds an awful lot like the Feministing community, if you ask me!

Incidentally, Choice USA is hiring! If you're looking for a job with a great feminist organization, check out these openings.

And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with Kierra Johnson.

Help make women's ski jumping an Olympic event in 2014.

From Forbes: Best-Paying Jobs That Women Aren't In

Two popular conservative websites - Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism and NewsBusters - have hired Jill Stanek as a blogger. Do they know they've just hired a woman who argues that Chinese people and abortion providers EAT FETUSES?

Just when you thought CPAC couldn't get any creepier.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the way we do politics in this country. Not just the approach of politicians, but how politically engaged people who care about social justice issues direct our time, energy, and funds. I've watched us go from talk of universal health care to a bill that might very well die, or might empower the insurance companies by forcing everyone to buy from them, create a working class tax increase to pay for expanded access, further restrict access to abortion... It seems we have to admit the opponents of health care reform are doing something right and we're doing something wrong. OK, probably a lot of somethings plus events that cannot be controlled (the loss of Ted Kennedy as a leader in this fight was a huge blow). The issue that's stood out to me, though, has been the focusing of grassroots energy on winning elections more than on winning on issues.

You need power to win in politics. But what is winning? The point of politics should be to win on our issues. Elections are important - this couldn't be more obvious after recent events in Massachusetts. We need politicians in place who will be willing to enact our agenda. But hey look, there's a Democratic majority in the House and Senate and a Democrat in the White House, and real health care reform spent the past year falling apart.

Right now winning is defined primarily as getting candidates into office. This makes sense for politicians and the parties that support them: their goal is to be in power, to get more powerful. Once in office politicians are unlikely to act on our issues unless it would hurt them politically not to. Corporate interests are pumping money into Washington to push their agendas. So action from constituents is crucial to get politicians to enact an agenda we support.

It took a lot of work to get Barack Obama elected. I wasn't part of that organizing, but I saw many friends give up their free time and personal lives to dedicate themselves to the campaign. This is the sort of work that was needed to get a candidate into office. But that's the easiest part of the process. Pushing elected officials to enact an agenda we support takes a lot more work. Many people have dedicated their lives to fighting for universal health care, and many more have been working non-stop this past year to pass health care reform. But this work needed to be done at a scale larger than the Obama campaign, and that just hasn't happened.

As Miriam wrote on Monday, Feministing is partnering with the Civil Liberties and Public Policy program (CLPP) this year on their annual conference From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom (Remember to get those applications for travel and hotel stipends in by February 24th if you need help accessing the conference).

I couldn't be more thrilled by this partnership, as CLPP activated me in the reproductive justice movement. I showed up to a CLPP student group meeting my second year of college at the prodding of my friend Julia, who a year before had been present in the Feminist Legal Theory class where I finally moved away from the pro-life views I was raised with. I came to CLPP with very limited knowledge about the range of issues that impact people's reproductive health and rights. What I found in the student group was a positive, supporting community where I could gain new knowledge and deepen my understanding of issues while also playing an active role in vital organizing work.

The CLPP student group shoulders a big part of the responsibility for putting the conference together and making sure everything runs smoothly during the event. Students aren't just doing grunt work, as too often happens when young people are involved in larger organizing projects. They take on major responsibilities like organizing and running childcare, transportation, the abortion speak-out, and entertainment, and working on accessibility issues.

Student group members have an important impact on the conference beyond logistics, too. The issues covered at the conference are always expanding and the ways they're approached are constantly improving based on student input. Marlene Fried, CLPP's Director, recently pointed out to me that the increased focus on gender and sexuality and especially trans issues has come primarily from the students and younger staff. The conference doesn't lose its focus on any important topics, but new intersections are always being highlighted.

Rep. Charles Van Zant wants to criminalize abortion

Oh, Florida.

Sponsored by Rep. Charles Van Zant (R-Palatka), HB 1097 would criminalize abortion, and make for no exceptions for rape or incest. And then there's this:

Except in cases where a woman's life is considered in danger, doctors who perform abortions would face first degree felonies punishable by up to life in prison and civil fines.

Now obviously I don't think anyone should be put in prison over abortion, but I do find it interesting that this bill focuses on abortion providers - not the women obtaining abortions.

It reminds me of this video that asked anti-choice protesters how much prison time a woman should get for procuring an abortion. The protesters pretty much couldn't answer not only because some had never even thought about it (!), but also because the general anti-choice sentiment is that women are victims of abortion. That we're too stupid or naive to realize that when we're getting an abortion, we're getting an abortion. (Hence all of the ultrasound laws that exist to "remind" us.)

In any case, if you'd like to let Rep. Van Zant know what you think of his bill, you can email him here.

Click to view full size image

The Princess is a webcomic by Christine Smith that launched a few months ago about a young trans girl named Princess Sarah. It's a spin off from Christine's webcomic Eve's Apple, which I like, but I love The Princess so far.

The story has focused on Princess Sarah's parents' differing reactions to her identifying as female, changing her name, and wanting to wear girls clothes. There is also a plot line about Princess Sarah and her best friend Irma, who's a tomboy, as well as one about a bully in their class. Christine handles all these stories with sensitivity and humor.

I like the subtle changes in drawing style Christine has made for The Princess. Maybe because the lead characters are so young their designs are simpler than those of the older character's in Eve's Apple. This makes them easier to identify with. Humans see ourselves in everything - electrical sockets, the two dots and a dash that make a smiley face - and the simpler the representation of a face the easier it is to project ourselves onto and identify with it. This really works to the advantage of a comic about a trans girl.

I highly recommend jumping into reading The Princess while the comic is still new, and catching up on Eve's Apple if you have the time, too (though there are a lot more completed pages to catch up on!). It makes this comics geek really happy to see well done stories about trans folks in webcomics form.

Midwives who had been delivering babies at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, CA have been forbidden from delivering at that facility.

Midwives are still able to deliver babies at St. John's Regional Medical Center, 11 miles away in Oxnard. The reason given is that this larger facility has a neonatal intensive care unit.

From the Ventura County Star:

The two midwives who deliver at least 60 babies a year at the Camarillo hospital said they don't understand the reasoning because they rarely have complications.

"Midwives only see and deliver normal and healthy patients," said Lynn Olson, who commutes to The Woman's Place for Health in Camarillo from Agoura Hills. "In the two-and-a-half years I've been working here I believe I've had one NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) patient."

But [president and CEO of St. John's in Oxnard and Camarillo T. Michael] Murray said the hospital's medical staff felt more comfortable with putting midwives in a site where they were backed up by the intensive care unit.

"This is for safety of the patients," he said.

Midwives said they're worried that patients who want to deliver their babies at a Camarillo obstetrics unit they described as quiet and homey may not want to go a busy, much larger hospital. They also questioned why hospital leaders decided midwives need immediate access to the intensive care unit but obstetricians-gynecologists who routinely handle high-risk births do not.

In an email Joyce Weckl, CNM (Certified Nurse-Midwife), who had been delivering babies at St. John's Pleasant Valley, outlines the lack of clear medical reasoning for this change in policy:

There has never been any sort of peer review over the quality of CNM care nor were we invited or aware of any of these proceedings. In fact, the letter they sent me (3 days before this became effective) stated that this was no reflection whatsoever on my care. It also stated that I was not entitled to a hearing or review. Our belief is that this policy is the result of several political agendas of certain members of the medical staff and has no basis in evidence or statistics. I also feel that this is not just about midwifery but also about women's health care options being determined by back room dealings and not evidence based medical care.

It's hard to view this decision as being motivated by anything but a distrust of midwives, especially when OB/GYNs who deal with higher-risk pregnancies are still able to use the smaller facility. The medical establishment has taken control of birth in the US over the past century, thinking advances in medical science would make the process safer. This is true to a certain degree, but banning midwives, who normalize and humanize the birth process and are performing safe births, is not the answer. Especially when it doesn't align with the facts. As Miriam wrote at Radical Doula recently, maternal mortality rates in California have spiked in recent years, and this can be linked to the increased rate of c-sections in the state. The overuse of technology is actually having a harmful impact on the safety of births.

Access is a major issue, too. An 11 mile drive can be a big deal when you're giving birth, even if you do have a car and someone to drive you. What about patients who don't have and can't afford transportation to the larger facility?

The Birth Action Coalition is organizing to raise awareness and protest the hospital's decision. Check out their website for ways to get involved and support their work.

As was mentioned in Samhita's post about the despicable race bating anti-choice billboards in Georgia, antis in the state are also pushing legislation - House Bill 1155, the Sex and Race Selection Bill - that would make it illegal for reproductive health care providers to "solicit" women of color for abortions.

This deceptive legislation is designed to create a wedge between social justice communities working on issues of race and abortion access, as if the two aren't very often the same organizers and organizations.

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective is working to expose the lies packed in this legislation. You can listen to a recent radio piece and read a partial transcript, in which Heidi Williamson from SisterSong speaks out against the legislation, here.

The following us from a press release about the legislation [pdf]:

If implemented, this bill will adversely impact abortion providers by requiring them to prove that they are not targeting women of a certain race or ethnicity. This burden could result in delayed medical services, particularly for women of color. Additionally, this legislation would alter the racketeering laws of the Georgia Code to include abortion providers. This is unacceptable as abortion is legal in the State of Georgia, and the alleged abuses of this medical procedure are unfounded.

This legislation has nothing to do with abortion providers targeting women of color. It plays into and perpetuates the black genocide conspiracy that Shark-Fu critiqued recently and that's been getting even more play than usual from anti-choice organizations during this year's Black History Month. The bill is really about demonizing providers and restricting women of color's access to reproductive health services, including abortion.

There were a whole line of badass women born today, including Toni Morrison, Yoko Ono, and the amazing Audre Lorde. One of my favorites quotations from Lorde: "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

A global study of over 4000 MBA graduate women and men interviewed from 26 grad schools around the world was published today by Catalyst. The bottom line? The pipeline is still broken for women.

Discrimination against academic mothers continues.

Oh look, Fox News got the memo that it is not 1955.

Will Brazil have its first female president soon?

A sex ed video game called Adventures in Sex City, launched last week by the Middlesex-London Health Unit, is getting a lot of play.

Yahoo! Sports is apparently now in the business of defining when life begins.

Three Malaysian women have been caned by the authorities for having extra-marital sex.

The Kinsey Institute has recommended that condom companies re-brand their sizing in order to accommodate men's egos.

And, drum roll please, our very own Jessica is named one of the top 25 progressive journalists in the country by the Daily Beast. Brava Jess!

We're glad the Daily Beast was smart enough to include our girl, but puzzled by their use of punctuation. Apparently racism and classism are real, but "ableism" and "transphobia" are "sort of real." Huh?

World Pulse magazine, and the corresponding online site, Pulse Wire, are both fantastic resources for those seeking out international women's perspectives on everything from business to baby making. The Voices of Our Future correspondents are particularly enlightening. Check out Nepalese activist and writer Sunita Basnet on her experience of growing up with a world deeply limited by gender discrimination:

When I was young, I used to go to a nearby pond to swim with my friends. I never asked my parents' permission. I knew if I asked them, they wouldn't allow me to go. When my mother found out, she locked me in a room and beat me with a bamboo stick. After that, my freedom was bound inside the home, looking after my four sisters. For Nepalese women, their family is their world, their husband is their power, and their children are their fate.

As you might imagine from Basnet's fierce prose, she hasn't let her country or her family's expectations curtail her aspirations or her politics. She is currently in Bangladesh studying with a full scholarship at the Asian University for Women, and is involved in women's economic empowerment efforts there and at home. She writes of her vision for a more equal Nepal:

Enough is enough: gender discrimination must be stopped. We want to live like we are part of human society, not tamed animals. We want to set the example that women in Nepal can do anything. We want to fly in the sky like birds, but we don't need wings because we don't want to fly away from our country. Small changes are beginning to emerge as the number of educated women increases in Nepal. I believe this is the greatest hope for bringing equality to the country. Literacy and education, however, are only the beginning. Even if all women become literate, will they be able to work and support their families? Unless women become economically powerful, we will not be the decision-makers, and we will continue to lag behind men. I want to walk in the way of light and build an enlightened world.

Read the whole piece here.

Women & Hollywood has a fantastic guest post by L.A. Collins in which she interviews Lisa Cortes, the executive producer of Precious. She writes:

At the SAG Awards, critics darling and Oscar front-runner Mo'Nique flipped the script. She took a special, unexpected moment to give a nod to the dedicated and not-so-visible 'sistren' collaborators behind-the-scenes of Precious, the women whose focused energy came together in perfect parts to bring the little film that could to life.

One such fierce woman, Lisa Cortes, the film's executive producer, is all about the power of harnessing and circling energy in the art world: from film to music; corporate to non-profit; high art to folk. "In my mind producing films and supporting other arts are intertwined because the big picture intention is to increase the well-being of woman and mankind. Art opens the door to possibility ..."

Read the rest here.

And for more on Precious:
Precious, my Precious: Black Female Citizenship, Complexity, and the Politics of Unrelenting Survival
On Representation: Push versus Precious
Bad-Ass Woman: Actress Gabby Sidibe
Precious: A Feminist Must-See

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.
--Angela Davis

Letterpress interpretation of Jen Bekman's slogan "Live with art, It's good for you!" Art print produced exclusively for 20x200. Created entirely from antique wood type and ornaments. Printed by the Cranky Pressman.

A military raid on a group of health workers and educators in the Philippines last weekend has led to human right abuses, according to the initial findings of the Commission on Human Rights. Forty three community health workers, including two doctors, a nurse and a midwife, were taking part in a workshop conducted by the Council for Health and Development, an NGO. Since the raid, they have been subjected to "psychological torture" and are now being held in Camp Capinpin, in Tanay, Rizal. They were allegedly detained on suspicion they were New People's Army rebels. From the Inquirer:

CHR chair Leila de Lima, visiting the detainees after they had been hidden from sight over the weekend, described their sorry condition. "They are continuously handcuffed and blindfolded, they are not allowed to sleep, they are not allowed to feed themselves. Even when they use the bathroom, someone else is there to take off their underwear."

Perhaps worse than the actual torture, the detainees were denied their right to counsel in the critical first days, effectively locking them in a torture chamber of uncertainty: they were prevented from even knowing what the charges against them, and their legal options, were.

Read more here.

Sign a petition here.

I've always loved suburbian dystopia movies and books, plus Kate Winslet, so it was no surprise to me that Little Children struck a chord when I first saw it in 2006. I've been meaning to read the book for a long time (you know what they say...book is always better than the movie), but finally got around to it last week with a little vacation time.

It was shockingly similar to the film, first of all. Most movies and books, in my experience, really diverge from one another. Screenwriters are often hard-pressed to translate literary works for a visual medium--cutting out whole plot lines and often losing the novelist's sensibility or structure in the process. Not in this case. Todd Field's film is almost identical to Tom Perrotta's novel--child molester and all. Probably, it turns out, because Perrotta also wrote the screenplay.

For this reason, there were times when I was a little bored (after all, I knew how all the tensions were resolved), but Perrotta has a great style that I also found so enjoyable to read that it kept me going. He's got a knack for the satirical and humorous--sometimes leading me to do the snicker as you read thing (I love catching people doing this on airplanes or the subway). The main character is a former women's studies/literature major, and probably as a result, I found lots to identity with. In fact, part of Perrotta's charm is creating situations and characters that feel so familiar you can't believe he didn't spy into your own life, or the lives of your family members, and pilfer plot lines.

All in all, a great read. If you've already seen the movie, you might pass and move on to one of Perotta's other novels. I know I'm excited to hit The Abstinence Teacher next.

The Progressive Women's Voices program at the Women's Media Center is now accepting applications from women who want to get enlightened, feminist media training, build the platform of either their individual work or their organization's work, and shift the dialogue in mainstream and alternative media. I was part of the very first class and I found it to be the one of the most authentic and rewarding media trainings, not to mention activist/intergenerational communities, that I've ever experienced.

Check out Ileana Jimenez, who I wrote about last week, on why she feels that the Progressive Women's Voices program at the Women's Media Center was so important to her. An excerpt:

Equally important to me is the opportunity to create a platform as a woman of color within a media field that is largely dominated by white men. Learning how to create that platform with other women leaders of color in my cohort such as Rose Aguilar, Christine Ahn, Taina Bien-Aimé, Sandra Finley, Sujatha Jesudason, Mana Kasongo, and Cristina López means that I am not only a part of Progressive Women's Voices but a larger progressive women's movement that is changing the landscape of both how we talk about the issues and who is talking about the issues.

Apply today. The deadline is February 28th.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kathleen Rooney, a mid-level aide to Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, recently published a book on her experience as a political insider in the windy city, entertainingly called For You, For You I am Trilling These Songs. Don't you love that?

Durbin's office certainly didn't. Rooney was fired in early February after the staff caught wind of just how much she revealed in her series of essays. Particularly worrisome (shocker) was her explicit description of her relationship with the chief of staff. An excerpt:

Once upon a time there was a girl in unrequitable (but not unrequited) love with her boss. Every day she would dress up and every day he would compliment her on it.... He would place his hand at the base of her neck, or flick her earring, or twist a strand of her hair.... He would touch her shoulder, he would wander away. He ran the office this way -- on the ragged edge of decency.

Rooney was fired, but the guy that ran the office "on the ragged edge of decency"--as she so beautifully put it--has suffered no consequences. The explanation from Durbin's office is that Rooney "used her position for personal gain." Okay. So maybe her contract stipulates that this sort of public disclosure isn't allowed, and if Rooney signed it, it's understandable that she would get canned. But you'd assume that the chief of staff also signed a contract that barred sexual harassment or other inappropriate workplace behavior, right?

Get the full scoop at the WSJ. I haven't read this controversial little tome, but I look forward to doing so soon.

UPDATE: "Joe Shoemaker, a Durbin spokesman, said he became aware of Rooney's book when he read a review in January. He said he read it, and came away "concerned she was describing a hostile work environment" in the Chicago office. Shoemaker said Durbin then read the book. The Senate employment counsel was consulted, the Chicago chief of staff was placed on administrative leave, and an investigation by Durbin's office was launched, Shoemaker said. Interviews with the Chicago staff showed the chief of staff had shown bad judgment with regard to Rooney, but had not harassed her or anyone else in the office. He was reinstated as an aide, but stripped of supervisory responsibilities. When asked if she was willing to stop taking notes about the office's inner-workings, Rooney "declined and chose instead to be terminated," Shoemaker said."

Word on the street is that the high profile Conservative Political Action Conference will have a piñata in the shape of Speaker Nancy Pelosi for attendees to wack with a stick. No joke.

The GOP-dominated Utah legislature is in the process of passing an affirmative action ban.

Slate tells us that Fox News' Megyn Kelly is a "post-feminist news babe." I think that says it all.

While we've already known this to be true, now we have hard evidence that Title IX and girls' involvement in sports have positive, long-term effects on their education, health and work.

A part of me feels like we've posted this before, but I couldn't find it in our archives -- so I had to share, just in case. This is the 1938 Dating Guide for Single Women. And oh, it is a treat.

What's sad is that dating advice hasn't changed all that much. Check out a few more gems after the jump.

h/t to Kyle.

Daniel Tosh of Comedy Central's Tosh.O tells tasteless jokes about what's happening on the internet. But his recent spiel about the world's tallest model was not only completely fucked up, he also actually asked for extra time in his segment so he could fit all of the tired transphobic jokes he could muster up. Super original stuff, I'm telling you. Via Bilerico:

Tosh's series of one-liners about "the world's tallest model" starts out with a trans joke but quickly dances away for a more general series of putdowns and snide comments. Sadly, Tosh doubles the length of the segment just so he can make more transphobic jokes.

Afterwards he says, "Alright, now I feel better." Glad you got all that trans bashing out of your system, Tosh?

(Video may be upsetting.)

Tosh.0
World's Tallest Model
www.comedycentral.com
Web Redemption 2 Girls, 1 Cup Reaction Demi Moore Picture

If you have a Twitter account, Bilerico is calling for folks to tweet him before his show airs tonight:

Don't be a d--k @danieltosh World's Tallest Model jokes went too far #lgbt #trans http://bit.ly/aC6QRa

GLAAD is also taking action.

Video transcript after jump.

After we were thrilled to announce the sale of Planned Parenthood of Virginia's "Choose Choice" license plates, the state House decided that although the plate was introduced by the organization, none of the funds made from the plates' sales should actually go to them. This is despite the fact that the funds from "Choose Life" license plates -- already available in the state -- currently support the anti-choice organization that introduced them, Heartbeat International.

The good news is that the Virginia Senate struck down the Senate version of the House amendment yesterday, and voted to allow the license plates with the money going to Planned Parenthood.

It's standard for non-profit organizations to receive at least a portion of sales from state license plates that they create. Additionally, Planned Parenthood publicly stated that the funds from plate purchases would not be used for abortions, but apparently that wasn't good enough for the Republican-controlled House. Their decision was amended for the funds to be redirected to Virginia Pregnant Women Support Fund, a program created by the state Board of Health for women with unintended pregnancies.

Thankfully we have the Senate on our side. The final decision of where the funds will go has to be made between the divided houses by the end of the season; you pro-choice Virginians out there can help them make the right one. Also pre-order one of their awesome plates here.

Via Spare Candy.

A small study of middle school students in Glasgow revealed that the majority of them said it was justified to hit a woman if she had an affair or failed to have dinner ready on time. Via BBC:

The research involved 89 primary seven children at five Glasgow primaries.

The 11 and 12-year-olds were questioned in depth about their attitudes and aspirations towards gender roles and behaviour.

They were asked to consider whether or not a man was justified in punching his partner when he found out she had had an affair.

Nearly all of the children thought that the woman deserved to be hit.

In another scenario, about 80% of the children said a man had cause to slap his partner because she did not have the dinner ready on time.

The researchers also said the girls involved were more aware of expectations to get married and have children and to curtail their careers in the process.

Whether or not the students in this study were serious in their contention that violence against women is okay, or simply thought it would be funny to answer "yes" to these questions, you still find yourself with the same result: that violence against women continues to be normalized among youth. And that's really unsettling.

Today marks the start of "40 Days for Life," a campaign of escalated harassment outside targeted reproductive health clinics. Anti-choice bullies are working to turn out folks at clinics in the US, Canada, Australia, and Northern Ireland.

While many clinics have regular street harassers, 40 Days engages folks who have never done this before. The campaign is framed as being mostly about prayer, and there will be an increased number of folks praying outside clinics. These people are using what should be a personal religious action to guilt and shame women. But there will also be an increased number of sidewalk stalkers, folks who more actively harass anyone walking into or out of (or even just near) a clinic.

Antis who are outside the clinic every week can use some pretty disgusting tactics, but there's definitely an elevated level of concern when antis who have never done this before are present. New antis often don't know or really care about any rules that exist outside a clinic. They bring new energy and zeal to trying to stop every woman from accessing reproductive health services. Even just increased numbers of antis can lead to confusion and a more visible barrier to access.

There is a list of targeted clinics on the "40 Days for Life" website. If a clinic in your area is being targeted and you feel up to taking on this work, please contact your clinic or local clinic escorts to find out the best ways to get involved (I'd recommend Googling the name of the clinic or "clinic escorts" and your city and state).

A heartfelt thanks to everyone taking on the unfortunately necessary work of increased clinic defense during this campaign of cruelty, lies, and hate.

h/t @ClinicEscort

There will be no federal charges in the Sean Bell shooting.

TSA forces travelling policeman to remove his disabled four-year-old son's leg-braces

A must-read piece from Kate Harding on Kevin Smith, fat discrimination and flying.

Racialicious has a review of The New Jim Crow.

Well, you already know what I had to say about John Mayer, but uh...what Jay said!

Watching the Olympics has always been an event in my house. My dad is an avid sports fan, so we always watch a lot of sports, but something about the Olympics brings out part of him that was lost in living in the United States for 30+ years. The opportunity to root for India. India doesn't have a major presence in the Winter Olympics, but we still watch it together as a ritual homage to foreign nations and one of the few opportunities we can see other countries compete amongst each other.

But sentimentality aside (don't act like you didn't cry when China won gold and silver in couple iceskating last night), the Olympics is not without its issues. Not only it is a reminder of the violence of nationalism, colonial conquest and division between the first and third world, but it often uses indigenous iconography to create homogenous identities based on history often infected with violence. Guest Blogger, Toban Black at Sociological Images has an amazing and thorough break down of the use of indigenous signifiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics and their homogenizing effect.

The Olympics branding denies noteworthy differences among native groups spread across these areas. Passing theatrical gestures to native peoples during the open ceremonies could be considered to be more respectful, but Olympics marketers otherwise have been mixing up North American native traditions into a soup-like caricature. Natives have been consistently oppressed, but the various peoples who are considered to be native (in some way, or to some degree) certainly are not 'all the same.' Tacking Arctic imagery on to Vancouver-area Games implies that there is only one native essence (in North America, if not beyond this continent).

This essentialism is at the heart of what makes the Olympics so enjoyable for people like my parents and so problematic for the representation of people that not only don't identify but have been in violent turbulence with these nation-states. For all the national identity markers, come with them the baggage of nation-building and its surrounding violence. Black points this out further concluding that an inability to hear the protests to use indigenous imagery further shows this hypocrisy.

In sum, mainstream Canada claims and re-packages imagery from natives to sell a vision of a present-day Canada that is a tolerant country, with a rich and interesting history; such visions have been produced for the 2010 Games - as well as other tourism and merchandising, and wider nationalism. Then, ironically, when pro-indigenous groups challenge the use of this appropriated iconography to represent 'Canada,' majority groups dismiss their protests by claiming a more authentic Canadian-ness. Of course, the refusal to take indigenous protests seriously is just another manifestation of disinterest in the welfare of living indigenous peoples. Even as gestures are made toward native culture, actual natives generally are ignored.

I will continue to watch the Olympics but not without the grave understanding of how it is implicated in the erasure of colonialism, genocide and dissent.

Last week femme on the community site brought to our attention this horrific anti-choice billboard and campaign brought to us by Georgia Right to Life. She interrogates aptly,

This billboard dehumanizes both black women and children, by asserting that black children are an "endangered species," which animalizes them, and by asserting that black women have no control over our own bodies and that we're somehow intellectually weak enough to be controlled by the so-called eugenics-crazed poor-black-baby-eaters, aka Planned Parenthood.

Georgia Right to Life has gone too far in suggesting that black women are too quick to get abortions and should therefore "choose life." By speaking to a feigned nationalistic sentiment suggesting that one crisis for the black community is that there are not enough black children and choosing the frame of "too many abortions," this advertising campaign in the last few weeks has gained support from activists around the country.

New Law Would Ban Marriages Between People Who Don't Love Each Other

Because every opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of anti-same sex marriage advocates must be taken.

This study performed in London finds that a larger percentage of women feel that women should take responsibility for when they have been raped and the circumstances that caused the rape.

One third felt that provocative dress or returning to the attacker's house to have a drink makes a victim deserving of some blame for the rape, according to the survey, which was reported by BBC News.

The online survey of more than 1,000 people in London, called Wake Up To Rape, found that more than half of both men and women said that in some instances, the victim should take responsibility for a rape. The survey participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 50, included 712 men and 349 men, according to BBC News.

Some 71 percent of the women who said they felt some rape victims should take responsibility said the victims were accountable for the crime if they'd gone to bed with the attacker. Only 57 percent of the men felt that way, according to the survey.

Well we already know that victim-blaming is a no-no and not just because it is unfair, but because it doesn't take into consideration the ways that attitudes on rape and women's sexuality are full of assumptions about the ways women are supposed to "preserve" their own sexuality and assumptions that certain men just "act that way" so it is on us to protect ourselves from their potential inclination to rape. Victim-blaming fails to take into consideration the role that negative attitudes on women's sexuality shape predominant understandings of rape.

But sadly, this study doesn't surprise me. Fear of sexual assault has forced women in many instances to internalize negative assumptions about their own sexuality. It is hard to suggest that woman are uniquely more sexist than men but perhaps they have internalized the belief that to protect themselves from rape they have to act and dress a certain way to avoid the potential threat. So while this attitude smacks of victim-blaming, part of why a study would show that a disproportionate number of women feel that women are to blame is because they believe on some level, they might be to blame for their own potential assault, a narrative that sexism has embedded into the heads of women. This is not to suggest that women shouldn't be held accountable for unjust attitudes on sexual assault, but instead to find an explanation for why women would believe such a depressing myth.

Apparently Dick Cheney now supports repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). I'm not sure why we should care what Cheney thinks, but it seems like a big deal either way.

For more on DADT and it's relationship to sexual assault in the military, check out an interview with David Mixner at Guernica Magazine.

Apparently, a Catholic school student, responsible for the "Kill your hooker so you don't have to pay her" facebook horrificness that we wrote about last week, has been disciplined by his school. Officials won't say what the discipline entails, but according to principal of the College in Australia, he's been "dealt with." Creepy. Many other Facebook groups with similar messages still exist.

Feminist Jody Howard, one of the co-founders of Jane, the underground network that provided women with abortions before Roe, died on February 5th.

Yup, in case you were wondering--that scroll ball is supposed to look like a clitoris. Also, there is a button in the middle--the sweet spot, you might call it--that takes you to your favorite web page.

Gross.

Via Yankodesign and Gizmodo

Related:
Sexist tech tool of the day

H/t to Rachael

More pics after the jump.

This year, Feministing is partnering with Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP), an organization housed at Hampshire College, on their 2010 Conference, From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom. This will be my fourth year attending the conference and it's one of my favorites.

We'll be featuring some content in advance of the conference, and then Jos and I will be there liveblogging as well as speaking on a few panels. Jos was actually a student organizer of the conference when she was at Hampshire!

One of the great things about the CLPP conference is that they really emphasize accessibility. The conference is free (although folks are asked to contribute if able), food is provided, and they even have travel and hotel stipends available by application. There is childcare provided, and it's also very youth focused, primarily attended by college students from around the country.

The folks who speak at the conference are some of the leaders on the forefront of the reproductive justice movement.

More about the conference:

On April 9-11, 2010, campus and community activists will gather at Hampshire College to unite for reproductive justice. We offer more than 40 workshops and trainings. Conference speakers address reproductive freedom as it relates to a broad range of social justice initiatives including economic justice, health care reform, racial equality, freedom from violence, immigrant rights, climate justice, and LGBTQ rights, just to name a few.

Over the weekend, you will deepen your understanding of issues you already know about, make new connections, and unite with others who are passionate about working for social justice.

You can check out the list of speakers here.

So check it out and applications for travel/hotel assistance are due February 24th!

Update from the organizers of the conference re the cost of attendance:

As always, everyone is welcomed to the conference, regardless of ability to contribute financially. Due to a drop in foundation funding that supports the conference, we are asking for contributions to help cover costs of the conference.

If you or your organization is interested in partnering with Feministing on future conferences, email miriam[AT]feministing[DOT]com.

Internet access is likely to be one of the biggest social justice issues, as more and more resources, activity and organizing move online. There is a lot going on behind the scenes with the big telecomm companies and Congress around policies to regulate access to the internet. We need to stay vigilant and ensure that folks across the country, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, have access to affordable and reliable internet.

Today's Day of Action is all about that.

On the heels of Google's groundbreaking announcement of its plans to build a high-speed open network, local advocates and community leaders of the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) are asking Congress to protect the principles of an open internet, while dismantling significant barriers to broadband adoption in un-served and under-served communities. These advocates say if the FCC's National Broadband Plan extends the existing Universal Service Fund rules and resources to broadband and mobile devices, and Congress supports action to protect broadband networks with strong net neutrality rules, it will give millions of poor people and people of color the chance to not only log-on to the internet, but log-in to democracy.

For more on what you can do for the day of action, check out this social media release and this website.

I recently came across this flickr page, from Leslie Feinberg (pictured above).

Leslie is best known for Stone Butch Blues, a novel about queer folks in the 1950s and the struggles they faced, including constant violence and police brutality.

Leslie's body of work includes Transgender Warriors and Trans Liberation, two non-fiction books, and Drag King Dreams, a second novel.

Leslie, now dealing with a degenerative disease and also prompted by hir move from hir home of 17 years in Jersey City due to these health issues, has taken to documenting the world and telling stories through photographs. More about the photos:

I lost the ability to visualize as a child, after being physically forced to stop using my left hand. Hard to imagine today, perhaps, that left-handedness in people was once considered a sign of "sinister" character.

As my ability to use my left hand withered, my ability to visualize waned. I lost all ability to close my eyes and "picture" anything in my mind: a copper penny, a lover's face. So leaving New York City, my home of more than 35 years, and Jersey City, where Minnie Bruce and I had made our home for so many years, presented me with an especially emotionally painful loss of memory--like an impending hard drive crash. In addition, I was coping with neuro-degenerative disease and its neuro-toxic byproducts.

With only days to relocate, I began taking photos with our little silver point-and-shoot, and continued to take thousands more in the months that followed as we moved to three more apartments and I traveled for care--a kind of geographic and emotional GPS of where I was and how I got here.

Working on so many visual images has had, I believe, a big impact on my brain, my memory storage and retrieval. My ability to visualize is coming back for the first time since childhood.

These photographs are the unexpected form and shape of my memory cabinet. They also reveal the geographic and social isolation of severe illness and resulting disabilities. This body of work reveals my inner struggle for articulation at a time when illness and disability--and discrimination and prejudice--were silencing my voice.

Taking photographs may be beyond me now, because of illness. If I can't take new photographs, I will work on narratives from my already existing photo cabinet of 10,000 photos. I will continue to try to organize a digital "struggle memory project" and publish photos online. And this fall and winter I hope to find support for a project focusing on the relationship of disability to technology.

Check out the photos, Leslie's books, and you can even follow Leslie on Twitter.

A note about this series: In just the few months that I've been doing this series, I've encountered how difficult it can be to find important feminist historical moments, particularly organized by date. Especially when I'm doing most of my research online. So much of recorded history (particularly available on sites like Wikipedia, NY Times on this day) is about white men. Then the things I do find are often mostly about white women. If anyone has any online resources to share for feminist history (particularly about communities of color) let me know in comments!

Today in 1958, Natalie Angier was born. Natalie is a journalist, primarily writing about science. I'm including her in this series because of her 1999 book: Woman: An Intimate Geography.

About the book:

Angier takes readers on a mesmerizing tour of female anatomy and physiology that explores everything from organs to orgasm, and delves into topics such as exercise, menopause, and the mysterious properties of breast milk.

A self-proclaimed "scientific fantasia of womanhood." Woman ultimately challenges widely accepted Darwinian-based gender stereotypes. Angier shows how cultural biases have influenced research in evolutionary psychology (the study of the biological bases of behavior) and consequently lead to dubious conclusions about "female nature." such as the idea that women are innately monogamous while men are natural philanderers.

She was one of the first to popularize the biological fact that the clitoris has 8,000 nerve endings, twice as many as the penis.

I have to admit I haven't read the book myself (and I'm sure I would probably have some criticisms about biological essentialism) but it's clear that Angier's book has had an impact on our understanding of gender.

You can read more about Natalie at her website, and more about the book in this Salon.com review.

RIP Lucille Clifton, a poet who reminds women "we can be, quite simply, ourselves-even after everyone we know has developed a staid concept of what that might mean." Listen to Clifton read "Homage to My Hips."

What Christiane Amanpour likes about war reporting is what i like about feminism: "feeling part of a small community of people who are going through what we are going through and doing something worthwhile. "

What is Valentines Day if not an opportunity to gender-stereotype? Plus, The Sexist skewers college newspaper v-day columns.

Shark-Fu on John Mayer's decidedly non-post-racial penis.

More than 50 women held at a UK detention center have gone on a hunger strike, and report that they have been beaten.

Are the Winter Olympics as exclusive as the Augusta National Golf Club? Also, the ongoing failure to explain why women are barred from competing in ski jumping.

Writings by Aboriginal men on ending violence against women.

Helen at Bird of Paradox and Rachel at The Feminist Agenda preview the forthcoming revision of the DSM-V.

"Feminism for me was a love affair." -Dorothy Allison

Learn about transgender Argentine politician activist sex worker filmmaker performance artist Mónica León.

"Bump+, a new Web mockumentary series explores several weeks in the lives of three women from learning they're pregnant and deciding whether to continue or to terminate."

The new emergency contraception pill is being met with the same old arguments.

A hilarious guide to the hunks of Harlequin romances.

And Kate Harding tells you which V-Day links are worth clicking (in addition to those featured here, natch).

What have you all been reading/writing this week?

Emily Abt is an award-winning feminist filmmaker and the founder of Pureland Pictures. Her first film, a documentary called Take it From Me, was about the impact of American welfare policies on individual Americans. Since Take it From Me came out in 2001, Abt has made several more films, including All of Us, which is about African American women and HIV/AIDS and most recently, Toe to Toe, a story about young women, race, sex and friendship, that screened at Sundance this year.

Abt, who spoke on a panel with our own Courtney Martin at the 92nd St. Y earlier this month, says that she hopes that the film will encourage audiences to think about the issues it addresses, and especially about the sexualization of young women and interracial friendship. This semester, she's teaching a class on social issue film at Princeton University, my alma mater, and my campus spies tell me that the class is "so damn good."

You can check out the trailer for Toe to Toe here, and learn more about Abt's earlier films here.

And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with Emily Abt.

On fear of the gay penis.

Jessica on anti-choice emails and who loves abortion now.

The very brilliant Kai Wright is the new editorial director at ARC and Colorlines.

Watch the ColorLines TV Show: "Race and Economic Recovery" tonight on DIRECTV Channel 375 or DISH Network Channel 9410 at 9:30 PM Eastern/6:30 PM Pacific.

Youth jobs hit hard by the recession.

Monday is a National Day of Action coordinated by grassroots groups responding to the current debate on race, class and open internet access. Check their up to the minute press alerts here and SF Gate has more.

I'm a little late with this post, but I couldn't skip covering my favorite panel I attended at Creating Change. The history we hear the most is written by power. Hearing the stories of our communities from those elders who actually lived them is a powerful way to maintain a knowledge of our truth and our struggles.

Tom Weber from SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) organized the panel, "40 Years After Stonewall: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Activist Timeline," with Jim Fouratt, Roger Goodman, Carmen Vasquez, Ellen Ensig-Brodsky, Phil Johnson. Some of these speakers participated in the Stonewall uprising, and all of them have seen moments in TBLG history that must not be lost. Their stories tell us of our challenges, but also of our potential.

I was in tears during this entire panel. There is no way a few quotes can convey the experience of hearing queer history from those who lived it, but I hope this post adds a little something to our collective memory of struggles and community building. Some highlights from the panel after the jump.

You read that right. Halloween costumes are in early this year, and between being sexy mustard, the sultry Nemo costume and now this, it's as if the holiday has turned into a contest of who can think of more ludicrous shit for women to wear. Via Gothamist, we find that a costume shop is selling a line of sexualized Sesame Street costumes (with teen sizes too!).

I was obsessed with Cookie Monster when I was a kid -- I'd pretend to be him by shoving all of the food on my plate into my mouth at the dinner table and sing the "C is for Cookie" song at the top of my lungs (as the food then fell out of my mouth). Who knew my aspirations to be the Cookie Monster when I grew up could be fully realized by wearing a short blue furry dress and knee highs?

h/t to Erin.

Earlier this week Laura Chinchilla was voted in as Costa Rica's first female president.

The socially conservative, pro-business former vice president hails from the party of incumbent President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work in the 1980s to end Central America's wars.

Chinchilla's victory was widely seen as a vote for continuity in a politically stable country that enjoys one of the region's highest standards of living.

It's the first time Costa Rica has chosen a woman to lead the nation. Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner are the other female chief executives in Latin America. In the past, Panama and Nicaragua also had female presidents.

I suppose this is one of those things you would be excited about..except, Chinchilla is opposed to same-sex marriage, abortion and the morning after pill. We are proven once again that having a vagina does not ensure you will protect others that have them.

Women's Glib as more on this conundrum and Matthew Cordell on the rise of female leadership in South American countries.

Diane DiMassa's work, especially her comic "Hothead Paisan- Lesbian Homicidal Terrorist," has served as a positive media representation for a lot of queer folks. Marginalized folks can still cause hurt to others who experience oppression, though. Following our publication of an interview with DiMassa about her paintings, I feel I have to address the pain she's caused me and other members of the transgender community.

In 2004 DiMassa became involved in the controversy surrounding Michigan Womyn's Festival, which has a policy of excluding trans women, when a musical based on "Hothead Paisan" was scheduled to be performed there (the comic contains a character, Daphne, whose gender history is left ambiguous but who many assumed was a trans woman). DiMassa was pressured to denounce the festival's exclusionary policy. Instead, she wrote a letter in support of MichFest's discrimination. In the letter, DiMassa is dismissive of trans women's experience of oppression:

[Michigan Womyn's Festival] is for women who have been at the ass-end of life here on The Planet of the Apes their whole life. This usually does not apply to MTF's.

The notion that cis women have a longer, and the implication is greater, experience of gender-based oppression shows a deep ignorance of trans women's experiences. Many of us have been harassed our whole lives because we failed to fit into the compulsory gender binary. Not to mention the deep psychic pain of having to present and live a gender that is at odds with our internal reality, a truth often hidden even from ourselves. Using the term "MTF's" serves as a reminder of our past public male identity, which the term legitimizes over our actual female identity.

DiMassa's ignorance around trans women's experience of oppression was more starkly revealed in an interview with Bitch Magazine in which she also defended MichFest:

It's just fucking typical that a man-born lesbian can't get the concept of not being allowed somewhere.

DiMassa unfortunately fails to recognize the privilege that comes with fitting (broadly, no one really fits) into the gender category one is assigned at birth. At the same time, she suggests that trans women have male privilege, a notion that de-legitimizes our female identities and forces us back into the male box.

DiMassa's work may do a lot of good for cis lesbians, but this does not negate the hurt her public, forceful, and repeated expression of transmisogyny has done to trans women.

Posted by Jos - February 12, 2010, at 11:46AM | in Transgender Issues