If Harvard does in fact appoint a woman, it'll make the Ivy League Presidencies fifty percent female. First my own math department's entering class, then the Ivy League Presidencies... when will it end?

I'm familiar with the buffer zone situation in Massachusetts because I used to escort patients there on weekends. I do hope it passes though because there are a lot of loopholes that the protesters will use to harrass people. As liberal a state as massachusetts is, this still goes on.

In that photo accompanying the article I recognized the sign as one that is always held by this one protester, who 9 times out of 10 will start yelling things like "IT'S ALIVE, IT HAS A BEATING HEART" or sometimes he would try to rankle the escorts and call us Nazis and what not. There are also two women who hang out by the parking garage and take video of people's cars, and they especially like to yell at clinic staff. One time when it was my turn to watch the garage and help guide cars in, they threw pro life literature into a women's car window as she was pulling in. Technically, her car was not yet in the "buffer zone" but I offered to corroborate her story if she decided to file an official complaint.

I don't want to be a complete downer though, many passerby often stopped to thank us for what we were doing, two people asked how they could get involved and one couple brought us coffee :)

I just posted about the abstinence issue, because my son is in the 7th grade and they are pushing a program there called "Worth the Wait" for students to participate. They make a "purity commitment" and they sign a contract not to have sex. Nowhere in the program is sex education or any kind of safe sex discussion. I was appalled.

I can't see the video about the burkini. :( Anywhere else I can see it?

Okay, nevermind, it's working now. Even though I hate the notion that women's bodies need to be covered up, I like that it's giving Muslim women more freedom.

I don't believe the Massachusetts buffer zone law should be passed. I believe the current zone is good enough. I'm completely against a prolife advocate threatening or tossing something into someone car but there is nothign wrong with harrasing or intimidating someone in that situation.
And why is that? Because the possibility exists they could be wrong. And to answer most replys to speed things up, I believe pro choice advocates should be able to harass or intimidate pregnant woman outside of hospitals even though the sight of such a thing would be worse then swallowing battery acid for me.

but there is nothign wrong with harrasing or intimidating someone in that situation.
And why is that? Because the possibility exists they could be wrong. And to answer most replys to speed things up, I believe pro choice advocates should be able to harass or intimidate pregnant woman outside of hospitals even though the sight of such a thing would be worse then swallowing battery acid for me.

I've reread this about 10 times and still can't wrap my brain around it.

As far as the pharmacists who continue to refuse Plan B, I say the consumers start snapping cell phone photos of the offenders and posting the pics on Flickr, just like we do subway masturbators.

Grrrr, Wal-Mart.
I just read a story (from Planned Parenthood) about a woman who decided to "test" the pharmacy at a Delaware, OH (outside Columbus) Meijer store, and they claimed they didn't have Plan B. She contacted Naral and PP, and they got positive results from Meijer. I wish I could find the link...

"I've reread this about 10 times and still can't wrap my brain around it." Yeah, me neither.

Well, yes, because the natural corollary to forced-birthers harassing women getting abortions is of COURSE members of the pro-choice movement harassing women who WANT to continue their pregnancies. Didn't you all know that being pro-choice means you never want anything to be born, ever?

*massive eyeroll*

The abstinence thing is truly sad. "Men are light bulbs and women are curling irons." I guess at least it's different than the "men are microwaves and women are ovens" argument.

If you male partner were doing it correctly (or if you were confident enough to instruct them in what you like) then you'd both be on the same page. Or the same appliance in this case.

And don't feed the trolls! They will only follow you home;)

Ug, thanks for reminding me of that Magnus... I was just cooking up a yummy troll snack when I saw your post... *deep breath, and exhale*

It provides an anecdote about a college girl who French kisses on a first date. It then gives two questions to ask: "How might this situation make her vulnerable to date rape?" and "Is it safe for her to participate in preparing his body for intercourse when she does not know him very well?"

Does the statement "preparing his body for intercourse" make anyone else feel ill? Jeez, talk about sucking all the fun out of kissing and/or sex... on another note, it makes the male prerogative seem like a train wreck waiting to happen. "Oh no! Don't even hint to him that you might like him enough to have sex with him! Once he's on that path there's no way he could possibly stop!". Give me a BREAK.

This use of "cunt" as a prejorative in England isn't exactly new.

In the early '70s while an exchange student in England, my then boyfriend off-handedly called me a cunt, a word that I'd never heard spoken out loud before.

I actually grew dizzy and blurted out, "I want to go home," meaning actually back to New Jersey.

Boyfriend looked surprised at what seemed to him an (over) reaction, but never used it again in my presence.

"Cunt" usuage in England was roughly equivalent to our use of "asshole" and "dick" as negative appelations -- only, of course, using the common term for female genitals -- and applied equally to men and women.

However, it still seems the nastier slur to me, and another English guy I knew paid dearly for it's use in America.

Ten years later another English boyfriend, this time a musician, put out a record on his own label, which he insisted on calling Cunt Records.

I tried to explain that the word wasn't in common usuage in America, and that as soon as the secretaries at the record companies opened the envelope, that 45 would be in trash.

He didn't believe me, didn't see anything out of the ordinary (at least in punk rock) in using the word cunt.

However, the record went nowhere, he got precisely no interest from the big labels or anyone else in the music industry in New York, and ended up hightailing it back to London, where he could throw around the word "cunt" with impunity, I guess.

Re events commemorating the anniversary of Roe v Wade, in the Twin Cities a powerful coalition* of eight pro-choice organizations is hosting the second annual Rock for Roe at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis with local favorites Tina Schlieske, Dessa of Doomtree, and Spider Fighter. Earlier that evening the coalition is holding a wine and cheese reception at the Macalester Alumni House in Saint Paul featuring Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Pastor Mary Halvorson, and 3rd year medical student Carter Lebares, a member of Medical Students for Choice.

*The Minnesota Choice Coalition consists of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota, Pro-Choice Resources, Planned Parenthood of MN/SD/ND, the Midwest Health Center for Women, MN NOW, the Minnesota Women's Campaign Fund, the Minnesota Council of Jewish Women, and the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

jochre,
That must have been quite a shock!
Here in New Zealand, cunt has entered into slang even as a term of friendly familiarity i.e.
"Do you know Mike?"
"Yeah, he's a good cunt, eh!"
It is used for both men and women, but certainly only in certain circles...
However, it is still probably the "worst" thing you can say to someone, with the appropriate intonation of course!

This use of "cunt" as a prejorative in England isn't new.

In the early '70s while an exchange student in England, my then boyfriend off-handedly called me a cunt, a word that I'd never heard spoken out loud before.

I actually grew dizzy and blurted out, "I want to go home," meaning actually back to New Jersey.

Boyfriend looked surprised at what seemed to him an (over) reaction, but never used it again in my presence.

"Cunt" usage in England was roughly equivalent to our use of "asshole" and "dick" as negative appellations -- only, of course, using a common term for female genitals -- and applied equally to men and women.

However, it still seems the nastier slur to me, and another English guy I knew paid dearly for it's use in America.

Ten years later another English boyfriend, this time a musician, put out a record on his own label, which he insisted on calling Cunt Records.

I tried to warn him that the word wasn't in common usage in America, and that as soon as the secretaries at the record companies opened the envelope, that 45 would be in trash.

He didn't believe me, didn't see anything out of the ordinary (at least in punk rock) in using the word cunt.

However, the record went nowhere, he got precisely no interest from the big labels or anyone else in the music industry in New York.

He ended up hightailing it back to London, where he could toss around the word "cunt" with impunity, I guess.

Is fundamentalism the new bad porn? Uniting the description of the heterosexual impulse as "a train wreck waiting to happen" (citing cherylp) and the "burkini" is the view of sexuality as an uncontrollable force that needs to be constantly policed. The Christian abstinence people seem to be on the same page as the Orthodox Muslims here. Women and men are expected to cover themselves and stay in separate spheres under Sheriat rule because of the belief that they are always a simple step away from, well, having sex. Ditto for the abstinence-only view of heterosexuality: you are a French kiss away from utter debauchery. What an ironically porn-like construction of humanity!

Speaking of the trophy wives, my dad actually went to college with a guy who purposely wanted to marry a "stupid woman," so that he could tell her what to do and what to think and she would just do it. He did get married to such a woman (in a purple crushed velvet tux--heh), and naturally they got divorced a few years later.

And thank goodness MA is increasing the buffer zone. I've had to deal with protesters in front of PP in Boston twice. They try to throw the brochures at you and they scream things like "Mommy! You're killing your baby!" (Although I don't suppose they'd be in favor of adopting all the children they're "saving".)

And on a positive note, I found an excellent zine this past week that is pretty much all about abortion experiences from women. It's called Mine: An Anthology of Reproductive Rights and issue #2 is stories from women of color. If any of you want a copy of this (which I recommend), send $3 to P.O. Box 1594, Providence, RI 02903 or write to Meredith Stern at merrydef@yahoo.com. She's looking for more submissions, and I thought I'd just plug her zine, because it's interesting to hear about the issue from women who have had to go through the whole experience (and many of the submitters have other kids). (Also, she's giving the zine away for free for anyone who has access to incarcerated women, who are often denied abortions and are left to give birth in shackles.)

Oh yeah and another thing about the abstinence education lady: Did anyone else notice that she only asked if the BOYS wanted to marry virgins? But here's a better question: do the boys want to BE virgins? After a certain age, certainly not.

According to cultural values, for a boy to become a man, he needs to have sex. But a woman must remain a virgin. So who the hell are the boys having sex with?

And if anything, she needs to be focusing on training the guys that it is NOT OK to rape a girl just because they are sexually aroused! (And on a side point, I wish sex education would also talk about masturbation. I didn't even know that was possible for a girl until I was 18.)

I agree with you Mary. Sadly, these abstinence-only programs don't talk about rape. The gender bias is just rampant in these programs. How is telling a group of teenage kids that "boys are like light bulbs and girls are lie curling irons." How is that teaching them about sexuality? And these programs are basically saying "sex is dirty" save it for someone you love." That doesn't make sense.

Masturbation should be talked about, instead of making teens feel guilty for having urges. And these programs do not talk about LGBT issues.

Re: the Ada Calhoun article on the over-abundance of punditry on our "over-sexed" culture:

Here's what bothers me the most: All of these scolds never seem to get around to saying what these teenage girls should be doing with their sexuality. They all just seem to hope it will go away until they are 26 and married or something. It's like fundamentalists and homosexuality: If you pray hard enough, God will remove this horrible affliction from your soul. Do any of these people remember what it was like to be 14? I think amnesia must be a prerequisite for this particular kind of hand-wringing.

Re: Activist pharmacists:
These people really piss me off. You have a right to your beliefs. You don't have a right to impose them on other people. Especially when doing so may well result in that person having to support another person for 18 fucking years when they can't afford to. So unless you're willing to shoulder the cost, do your damn job. Pay up, or shut up. Or find a new line of work. You're paid to dispense pills, not preach.

Re: Abstinence-only lady:
I really wanted to make an insightful comment about this, but the second I read Billy Joe Bob and Mary Sue, I just lost it. Apparently, only stereotypical rednecks have sex. With their cousins.
Bwahahaha. What a tool.

Re: Anti-abortion hecklers
As someone pointed out, there's no flip side of pro-choicers following pregnant women home and harassing them about how they really should murder that baby. I think it sucks that they're allowed to do this, but I think it does fall under the realm of free speech, sadly. I guess the only way to combat it is to exercise our own right to free speech right back and harass the harassers, whether with rebuttals to their claims or just abuse about sad losers who have nothing better to do than heckle strangers all day. I mean, don't these people have jobs? Or lives? Are they so worried about teh babies because they know they'll never, ever have their own, on account of that requiring someone to actually want to sleep with them? Sad, sad people.

Re: Hanky Code
Interesting...
The goth one was amusing. Apparently I'm a "Tragic Poet Goth."
Who knew?

Re: The burkini
So...it's a wetsuit?

Sorry for being less articulate and much more snarky today than usual. I blame the migraine.

MaryB wrote: According to cultural values, for a boy to become a man, he needs to have sex. But a woman must remain a virgin. So who the hell are the boys having sex with?

I think the answer is that these boys can sleep with girls who aren't virgins, or engage in oral/anal because hey, that doesn't count, right?

"And thank goodness MA is increasing the buffer zone. I've had to deal with protesters in front of PP in Boston twice. They try to throw the brochures at you and they scream things like "Mommy! You're killing your baby!" (Although I don't suppose they'd be in favor of adopting all the children they're "saving".)"

That's when I'd yell back, "No shit! I WANT to kill it!" I bet that'd shut the stupid bastards up.

perhaps the point about the trophy wives article is that its becoming clear to men that they DONT want a woman like that. because the income gap is closing, then can marry a woman who is their equal, and that is far more attractive these days then just a vacant moron. women don't want that in man either. I don't know, I think it's a good thing people are realizing that a woman has far more to offer then just looking good. Now that we have more options economically, we have choices as well. I will also say that I have heard men say this about their wives who just sit at home and do nothing all day, and I would say its not just the woman fault, but the mans as well. Its not like you had no idea what you were getting into. (not to mention the economic factor that comes into play)

Tokaia:

Ha, you'd think so, but those protesters have nothing better to do on Saturday mornings than argue. I did yell at them, "I'm not pregnant, you idiots!" and they countered that with "Birth control is a slight to man!"

Which in retrospect I could've countered with "And your protests are a slight to women!"

I already blogged about the pink sports wear back in November.

I mostly agreed with Calhoun's article until she whipped out this canard.

In America, rape has declined 85% in the past twenty-five years. In October, Slate reported that, if anything, porn has led to a decrease in violent crime.

Does she really expect her argument to be taken seriously when she regurgigates that shite from Slate? Certainly the stats prove that there's no correlation between porn and rape, but there's absolutely nothing to prove that porn prevents rape. I'm inclined to think that the hard work of feminists and victims advocates is what has brought down the rates of sexual violence against women.

She also fails to address the increased popularity of gonzo porn and how that is making even mainstream pornography borderline violent.

I agree with you Mary. free online games