Sorry this is a bit late today, folks...
Four women who were sentenced to die by stoning in Iran have had their sentences commuted... but that doesn't mean this issue should fade from the headlines.
Angry Black Bitch is pissed about stupid election-related polling of women.
Sweden is proposing mandatory sterilization for transpeople. Lisa at Questioning Transphobia writes, "To me, this idea doesn't send the message "We want to accommodate your transition." It sends the message "We want to make sure you have no chance of procreating once you start the medical aspects of transition.""
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt blogged about the new proposed rule that redefines contraception as abortion -- defending it.
The Democrats are fighting over the abortion language in the party platform.
Ultra Violet has a cool project, This Is What an Indian Feminist Looks Like.
New research shows that the more people are exposed to women in power, the more comfortable they are with it, and the less likely to resort to stereotypes.
Tariq Nelson highlights a really cool article about giving circles -- in which women of varying incomes pool their money to help their communities.
Beth Ditto, say it ain't so!
The South Dakota Abortion Ban: It's baaaack! Check out the action center at the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families to get involved.
Stuff White People Do on the condemnation of slavery -- and lack of compensation for it.
The Ms. Wheelchair event is billed not as a beauty pageant, but as a way to challenge outmoded standards of beauty.
Renee on "pussy" as a consumable product. (Just go read the post...)
A new GAO report calls out the military for is dismal response to sexual assault within its ranks. And on a more personal level, on the community blog a woman tells her story of surviving a sexual assault while serving in the military. (Trigger warning.)
Yes, John McCain is really an anti-choice zealot. Sarah Blustain has the definitive piece on his record on choice. And speaking of anti-choice zealots, see ya, Phill Kline!
A really interesting post from Kerry Howley on how she has no regrets about donating her eggs -- despite the fact that everyone seems to want her to say it was painful and she new regrets her choice.
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I had no idea women were supposed to feel bad about donating their eggs. If I thought anyone would even want my eggs it's something I would do and feel incredibly good about. Enabling another woman to become pregnant and have little mini-mes running around experiencing the world without having to raise them myself? That would be pretty cool.
I was flipping through a magazine last week--I don't know if it was Vogue or Cosmo or whatever (it was one of those that you read while you're killing time getting a pedicure), and I saw an ad for nailpolish called "pussy galore." I don't remember if that was the brand or the color, but I was totally shocked and wondered if I was somehow misreading or misinterpreting what I read. But I guess I'm not crazy after all.
@Bee Pussy Galore is the name of a Bond villain.
I'm with rhowan, I'm a young black woman so I'm one of the least desirable candidates to harvest eggs but if I could sell some for 10 to 30,000 bucks you bet your sweet ass I'd do it in a heartbeat and not feel one damn thing bad about it, hormones and needles in all. Women have thousands of eggs, most are going to waste every month anyway.
It's interesting that the Huffington Post post Kerry links to has the comments section closed for that post, as if the author couldn't stand (or was expecting) to take criticism. I'm amazed that even in this day and age, another liberal woman can't differentiate between women. I've said it many times before and I'm sure this will not be the last:
WOMEN ARE NOT THE BORG!
We are individuals, with--get this--individual feelings. JUST LIKE MEN! Some women will feel bad, some won't.
As for Renee's article about the energy drink Pussy, I disagree that we'd never see an energy drink called "Cock" (penis is way to clinical, just like vagina or vulva or testicles). Because as someone in the comments pointed out, there is/was a drink called Bawls. Those hypothetical men who would guzle down "cock" thinking it made them more "manly" (as opposed to drinking something called pussy) would then look at you funny and wonder why you found it homoerotic they were guzzling down something called "cock" ;).
Sweden is proposing mandatory sterilization for transpeople.
It's completely backwards that they would do that for something which may not even be genetic for all we know, when they still allow people with problems very well known to be 100% genetic to breed.
And I'm not even saying mandatory sterilization for anyone is a good thing, only that if it is, then this is completely wrong, and if it isn't... then this is still completely wrong, so it's messed up no matter what your position is on mandatory sterilization per se.
I used to work at this gas station out in east chuckafuck and a year or 2 ago this guy came in wanting to sell his new "Pussy" energy drink there. My managers were both women and we all said no and told him to leave.
I can't believe I'm hearing about it again!
aka UltraMagnus:
10,000-30,000? Are you for real? About a year ago, I was looking into donating as well (I, like you, ultimately realized by ethnicity isn't really popular enough. Also, I'm short), and most places offered 2,000 to maybe 7,000 at the most. I had no idea compensation went up that high.
This is a huge misconception that egg donors receive tens of thousands of dollars for their donations. The ASRM has guidelines on this and if I recall correctly they say something like anything over 5000 needs to be for a good reason and anything over 10000 is not appropriate. Most clinics follow these guidelines. And in my state all the clinics offer 3500. There are very rare occasions where an individual will offer a large sum to find a donor with the exact qualities they want, but that is very very rare and many clinics won't even work with them if that's the case.
Also, the quote about the donor calling up her dark army was hilarious. I say that same thing to my friends all the time! I think someone stole my joke, lol. I have donated several times and they have all been very successful cycles with plenty of embryos left to freeze, so I could potentially have dozens of kids out there one day. An army's worth. Heh.
I can't believe that nobody's latched on to this story about Rita MacNeil, Canadian folk singer, about the RCMP monitoring her activities in the 70s because of her involvement in women's rights orgs: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/08/04/rcmp-womenslib.html
That article about the egg selling is pretty fascinating. As someone who's had two abortions, and doesn't feel the least bit ashamed about them, I identity with the emotions in it pretty strongly. I think there's this expectation that i need to be appropriately shamed about my abortions, and certainly not make jokes about them. Even on anonymous message boards (Even anonymous message boards about abortion), one can't just say that you had an abortion--it has to be justified somehow, and include an antecdote about the difficult decision process, etc.
That article really forced me to view my own decisions in terms of reproductive rights, not just abortion rights.
I was really psyched about donating my eggs - I mean, I get to make some cash and help people at the same time, and it's kinda cool to know that a little part of me is running around in the world somewhere.
Unfortunately, it turns out I can't donate because of my Mirena IUD. :( Oh well!
If my family didn't have a strong history of breast cancer, I would totally donate my eggs. I don't even desperately need the money, but it would be crazy to turn down several thousand bucks. Alas, the hormones would be very, very bad for me. There will be no mini keshmeshis to rule the world.