What We Missed
Sad news of a supposed "honor killing" in Gaza.
An interview with Kate Clinton about her work, human rights and new media.
A round-up of places to see feminist art in NYC.
A discussion about women's roles in movies or television. Could TV roles be better?
The NYTimes is reporting that less than 400 women in France actually wear the full veil--which legislators there were recently considering banning in France.
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I know I'll catch flak for saying this, but color me unopposed to France's efforts to ban the burqa. We always stand opposed to women's subjugation by Christian extremists, such as the Quiverfull movement, and yet we are supposed to turn around and forgive the same by Islamic extremists in the name of "cultural sensitivity"? Sorry, no.
Thank you for recognizing the horror of so-called "honor killings," at least.
What about women who want to wear the burqa?
...and don't forget http://www.feministing.com/archives/016268.html !
"What about women who want to wear the burqa?"
Well, what about women who want to participate in the Quiverfull nonsense, as most of them say they do? We like to say the Quiverfull women are brainwashed by the patriarchal religious extremists, but then we say that the burqa-wearing women are freely representing their cultural identity. I just don't see how these two attitudes are logically compatible.
I think the difference is that we are not trying to ban the quiver-full movement. We attempt to educate in order to help woman realize the power men hold over them by internalizing such religious believes. Doing that helps people to better understand why it is they should reject the philosophy behind the movement. Banning it outright does not educate, it does not liberate, it simply makes something illegal. Banning the burqa is like banning alcohol to stop drunk driving. It may appear to help, but it does not change minds, only forces action.
argon, any secular law that controls women's dress but not men's is as sexist and anti-feminist as any religious law that does the same. Telling women they can't wear the burqa would be as misguided as telling women they can't marry patriarchs and have 18 children (to use your Quiverfull example). Even if it's a choice you don't agree with because you think it's sexist, don't knock the women making the choices and, in effect, push to limit their choices even further.
The thing is, if it is banned, they are gonna fix the problem by not allowing women to leave the house.
Here's a MetaFilter post, with a range of links and comments, on diversity in open source projects:
http://www.metafilter.com/83701/Standing-out-in-the-crowd
I wrote on the third wave of feminism here:
http://clarissasbox.blogspot.com/2009/07/third-wave-of-feminism.html
Despite Promises, Some Rape Victims Stuck Paying Exam Bills
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/despite-promises-some-rap_n_248144.html
Kate Clinton will be in Provincetown, MA for Family Week! Family Week is an event for families with LGBT parents and is hosted by Family Equality Council, a national LGBT family advocacy group.
Woo!
Also, COLAGE collaborates with Family Equality Council at Family Week.
This comment has been deleted because it violates our comment policy.
This comment disturbs me.
Violence will NOT solve anything, and will most likely close any path of communication currently open (although most of that is closed). Right to abortion, as well as contraception and any other stance that pro-choice people take will not be furthered by violence.
I realize that those who are pro-choice and who have opted for abortions have had to deal with the grief of anti-abortionists. However, anti-abortionists have failed to actually sway the government (and under the current administration, will most likely continue to fail).
Instead of focusing our efforts on "payback," maybe we should be doing something more constructive. Violence, at this point, won't help anything, certainly not the women who are in need of contraception and abortions for whatever situation they are in.
There's also the admittedly ironic matter of pro-lifers also being the ones with guns.
Gaza ? Those happen all over the world.
And it's wrong, all over the world.
Nooo, it is wrong only within our society. Those regions have a different world view and they carry it to sweden England Germany...