2005 February Archive

Kansas Attorney General seeks women’s private medical records

Looks like Kansas is taking cues from former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Kansas AG Phill Kline is seeking the medical records of almost 90 women who received abortions. WHAT?!
Kline apparently is looking for evidence of a crime under late-term abortion laws. The records he’s looking to get would include every patient’s name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile. This is such a disgusting violation of privacy rights; I’m fucking speechless.

By Jessica • 19 years ago

Mommy dearest

I don’t know if anyone has been following the recent Judith Warner buzz, but I’m curious to know what folks think.
(Warner’s book, “Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety,” says moms are going nuts trying to be perfect.)
To me it reeks of the Lisa Belkin “Opt-Out Revolution” silliness from a while back because of its assumption that the only mothers that count are white, educated, middle-to-upper class women.
Check out Salon’s coverage and let me know what you think…

By noauthor • 19 years ago

Towards a Safe Space

We started Feministing to provide a forum to critically analyze and discuss issues that young women and feminists care about. Yet, as our web traffic has grown, we’ve had less critical discussion on the site. Whether it’s the never-ending stream of comment spam *or* the assholes that think that it’s okay to appropriate feminist space for their own agendas–we are tired of losing great feminist voices.
Because young feminists have so few spaces to *openly* analyze the world, we are re-committing ourselves to trying to provide a safe space for our readers. (While we know that we will never be able to provide a truly safe space, that doesn’t mean we won’t try).
Starting tomorrow, you will ...

By Jessica • 19 years ago

Check out…

LiberalOasis’ post yesterday, How Bush Could Protect Iraqi Women, But Won’t.
I love that the piece calls on Bush to ratify CEDAW (aka the Women’s Treaty). The US is the only industrialized nation not to sign on to CEDAW, and our unwillingness to ratify puts us in the company of oh-so-woman-friendly countries like Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.

LiberalOasis’ post yesterday, How Bush Could Protect Iraqi Women, But Won’t.
I love that the piece calls on Bush to ratify CEDAW (aka the Women’s Treaty). The US is the ...

By Jessica • 19 years ago

Alabama: If I can’t come there, I’m not going

Yikes. The Alabama ban on selling sex toys is here to stay for now; the US Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the law claiming that it violates privacy rights.
The law was adopted in 1998 (that’s right, 1998!) and blocks the sale of “any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human sexual organs.” Breaking the law could mean up to 10,000 dollars in fines and one year in prison.
Maybe the women in Alabama should have a masturbatory sit-in (or sit-on!) to protest. That would go over real well.
Via Trish Wilson and Stone Court (who we have also ...

Yikes. The Alabama ban on selling sex toys is here to stay for now; the US Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the law claiming that it violates ...

By Jessica • 19 years ago

New blogroll additions…

Go check out Third Wave Agenda and Lefterer immediately if you haven’t yet.
And if you want some audio along with your blog-reading, make sure to go to BlueGrassRoots (props to Ben Carter for his infinite patience with my inability to understand AM versus PM) and Rebel Dad’s brand spanking new show, Sex Talk–a “weekly Podcast on Gender Issues, Equity and Feminism.” The first show includes an interview with NOW president Kim Gandy.
I wish we could update our blogroll more often, but we’re completely swamped these days. So if you think we’re missing anyone, drop me a note and let me know…

Go check out Third Wave Agenda and Lefterer immediately if you haven’t yet.
And if you want some audio along with your blog-reading, make sure to go to BlueGrassRoots (props to ...

By Samhita • 19 years ago

Domestic Violence and the Hip Hop Community

An article called “Love Hurts”, was recently published in Vibe magazine, discussing the occurrence of domestic violence within the hip hop community. The author, Elizabeth Mendez Berry (one of our readers!) asks several important questions about whether hip hop lyrics that condone/discuss violence against women, actually cause violence against women.
“When you get paid big money to call every women a ho, at what point do you start believing you’re a pimp?” She also talks about many famous rappers, including Biggie, Dr. Dre, Busta Rhymes, Mystikal, and Big Pun, who have all been accused of violence against there partners.
Some other interesting stuff…
“Violence against women crosses class and racial line, but it affects certain groups disproportionately…
[One] academic ...

By noauthor • 19 years ago

Bullying the Nurses Union

The AP reports that Gov. Arnold “Girlie Man” Schwarzenegger recently managed to make some *big enemies* in the California Nurses Union.
Last month when a group of nurses gathered to protest Schwarzenegger’s decision to delay changing the state’s nurse-to-patient ratio, Schwarzenegger responded: “The special interests don’t like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts.”
Are you *kidding* me? First off, if there is any special interest he’s playing to, it’s hospital administrators. And second, he’s “KICKING THEIR BUTTS”? Is this lame macho rhetoric the only way Arnie could come up with to respond to the *very* valid criticism by nurses that they are tired of being overworked?
Rose Ann De ...