What a week! Obama does away with the Global Gag Rule and announces plans to do the same for Gitmo. Isn't winning elections fun??
Roe v. Wade was decided 36 years ago. Jamelle writes, "I'm not terribly interested in living in a world where women die for the "crime" of trying to control their own futures." earlgreyrooibos asks Obama to make contraception and sex education more accessible. Cara on how abortion intersects with the issue of sexual violence. Over at her place, Shark-Fu writes, "The existence of Roe v Wade doesn't automatically make pro-choice activists out of everyone. It does, however, give those of us who do give a damn something to fight for...to build on...and to defend." PLUS, Our Bodies, Our Blog has a link roundup, and Broadsheet has Obama's statement.
MADRE has a 12 month plan "to address massive medical and humanitarian crisis left by invasion."
Sybil at BitchPhD asks why we gender-segregate film awards. (Also see the Friday Feminist Fuck You I did on this topic...) via PostBourgie. Plus, Tammy Oler at Bitch on the Academy Award nominations.
On women entrepreneurs in Rwanda. (video)
Will Michelle Obama, in her role as first lady, push for a new national work/family policy?
Renee has some data on the issue priorities of LGBT folks, and writes, "just like any other social grouping in the GLBT community, whiteness seeks to lead and make its issues primarily the focus for organizing."
The latest Carnival Against Sexual Violence is up at abyss2hope.
Yes, domestic violence is a human-rights violation.
Sasha and Malia Obama are already being commodified. (More at Sociological Images and What Tami Said.)
On the awful new ABC show, Homeland Security, USA.
Sarah Haskins takes on Ann Curry.
Tami is worried about what Chris Rock is going to say about hair.
Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Kay Yow has died.
Muslimah Media Watch on single mothers in Morocco.
Kay Steiger infiltrated an anti-choice "personhood" conference.
Carlin Ross asks, "Is it possible that one legacy of this recession is that women become a majority of the work force for the first time in American history?"
Take it from the abstinence-only clown: sex is just as dangerous as juggling machetes.
Watch "I Am Sean Bell: black boys speak."
Get Involved
We've got a new events calendar! So I'll no longer be listing upcoming events in this space. However, I'll continue to post online actions, calls for submissions, etc.
The Break the Silence project is looking for your creative submissions (art/music/writing) on silence and sexual violence. Submission deadline is March 15.
Submit to the new Tell It WOC Speak blog carnival, started by Renee of Womanist Musings. Click here to submit a link!
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Thanks for the linky love ladies. I just wanted to point out that the carnival is open to WOC and allies.
Also here are a few posts I wrote this week.
When Religion justifies raping your wife: Looking at a Muslim clerics stand that marital rape should not exist and comparing it to out western rape culture.
The Cure for fatness: A man ties his daughter to a bed because he has decided that she is too fat.
Legalization Of Prostitution In Nevada: The government is seeking to legalize for the purposes of taxation without considering the effect on the women involved in the sex trade industry.
Michelle Obama Is A Sexual Being: The ways in which Michelle disrupts the idea that black female bodies exist to be sex toys and presents the idea that it is okay for us to be sexual.
Isn't prostitution already legal in parts of Nevada?
"If this step is going to be taken to legalize prostitution, it should be done from an impetus to improve life, not to prey upon the already vulnerable."
Yes, this!
Also check out How to be a Gori Girl, Shada Meye, Memsahib, or Farangi in India on Womanist Musings.
I think the creepiest thing about the Maila and Sasha dolls is that, while I can't tell about the dolls themselves, the drawings of the girls on teh packaging clearly look like 17 year old girls with boobs. They do not look like they could be 7 and 10 years old. The dolls themselves don't seem to have barbie bodies, but the drawings behind them have tiny waists and large chests like a disney character. It seems more creepy if they're supposed to be modeled after actual children.
And...why don't they have noses?
http://mzbitca.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/we-are-not-your-tools-with-which-to-fight-the-patriarchy/
Post on some people's reactions to sex workers who made the choice to engage in it and how they are silenced.
http://thecurvature.com/2009/01/22/blog-for-choice-sexual-rights/
An exerpt from a comment from "Blog for Choice: Sexual Rights: The Curvature"...
SunlessNick writes:
"Anti-choicers claim that a foetus has a greater right to a woman’s body than she has herself."
Never have I seen the "Pro-Life"/anti-choice argument summarized so succinctly. Never forget this, and how unpersuasive it is.
I loved the Sarah Haskins video yet again. She truly is a comedic genius.
However, I disagree with the idea that having two separate categories for Best Actor and Best Actress is sexist. Yes, I think they should be presented one right after the other so they're of equal importance, but if there was just one category for Best Performance, then just think of how many women would get overlooked in the boys club of Hollywood. Having two separate categories allows more people, who might not have been nominated had there only been one category, to receive recognition for their work.
The Baltimore Sun ran an op-ed about Bush's last minute implementation of the "conscience clause":
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.conscience23jan23,0,137165.story
A bit of a departure, we posted a Letter from a Feminist After Attending the Inauguration this week.
Snippits of reviews of note:
Feminism and Pop Culture: In Feminism and Pop Culture, Bitch magazine cofounder Andi Zeisler is able to do what does not regularly happen in the pages of the magazine. Introducing readers to the reasons why the relationship between feminism and popular culture is important, example after example illustrates how feminist interpretation of television, music, film, and news events has progressively become an important part of understanding our world.
The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change: McRobbie examines our current social and cultural landscape, one that is often referred to as "post-feminist," and presents a compelling analysis of how images of women in contemporary pop culture contribute to an "undoing" of feminism. Throughout the book, McRobbie positions post-feminism as not just anti-feminism (in the sense of anti-feminism being a straightforward backlash against feminist positions and ideas), but as a form of backlash that "takes feminism into account."
"If this step is going to be taken to legalize prostitution, it should be done from an impetus to improve life, not to prey upon the already vulnerable."
this is a very nice way to see.
I have a question....sex toys IN or OUT?
Ps: like this one
http://www.sinlesstouch.com/sex-toys/details/vibrators-8087.html
I'm not sure what you mean by "IN or OUT". Rabbit vibes do both internal and external stimulation. Or did you mean whether they're "in fashion"?
That Homeland Security is such a shitty show and I despise ABC's faux patriotism to EVERY thing they put on the air. I thought the dolls were cute, I should be a doll. As far as awards I like what Mariah Carey says, to her winning the R&B award is the album of the year. The actress award is the best acting award to me. Feminist that is purely opositional doesn't appeal to me everything isn't about men.