"I love feministing.com and always learn from it." Katha Pollitt, The Nation
"Many people need a morning "fix." For some, it's coffee. For others, it's "SportsCenter." For me, it's Feministing.com." Katie Stone, The Denver Post
"Feminism is fun again! Every bit as edifying as your women's studies books from college, but with a biting sense of humor that keeps things punchy, not preachy." Marie Claire, December 2006
Banned books would include those written by gay authors - like
Tennesee Williams, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal - and books with gay
characters in them, such as Alice Walker's "The Color Purple."
Allen said he was afraid of the "homosexual agenda" and "I don't look
at it as censorship. I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls
and minds of our children." Allen must not have gotten the memo that
at every single point in history when politicians have banned books,
it has turned out to be a bad, bad idea.
Luckily, the bill died before it could be voted on, because not enough
state legislators showed up for the vote. But isn't it nice to know that asshole like Allen still exist?
Contributed by Jess Wakeman
Let's hope so. A UN spokesperson announced yesterday that there has been a number of U.N. peacekeepers that have sexually abused and exploited local women in Liberia, where they were stationed to protect them. Old news, my friend.
The official speaking on a condition of anonymity said that the number of total allegations could reach up to twenty. “The allegations range from the exchange of goods, money or services for sex to the sexual exploitation of minors. The peacekeeping department here in New York as well as the mission on the ground are taking appropriate follow-up action."
We'll see about that. These atrocities have been continuing for so long and near to nothing has been done about it. If you want to take some action, click here.
Here’s some other posts on the UN and violence against women in war:
From gaming blog Kotaku:
Wired’s Sex Drive has a short review of porn star Jenna Jameson’s new game up. xStream3D Multimedia VirtuallyJenna sounds about as original as its name. Basically, you get to play around with a virtual dummy of Jenna Jameson that looks like some creepy plastic corpse in the screen shots. Regina Lynn writes that you can dress Jenna up and pose her and then plunge a variety of tools into her to try and get her to achieve climax. That’s the whole game. Lynn was able to get Jenna to moan a whole bunch and say she was almost there, but never landed the big O. xStream3D president says the thing is a game and that it empowers women.
The world is ready for something like this. In games like Grand Theft Auto, the women are not empowered, they’re kind of secondary citizens and have low-class roles In this game, the women are the stars. They’re powerful.
And I’m sure that’s exactly what all of the pantless men playing the game one handed will be thinking. For me, this game has all of the appeal of making sweet love to a wax dummy.
I'm glad to know not everyone thinks this game is a great idea. Ew. But I love the company pres. trying to convince folks that the game actually empowers women. Cause what's more revolutionary and powerful than being a virtual dummy that gets penetrated?
"Women business owners continue to be short-changed by the administration...The number of women-owned businesses is growing at more than twice the rate of all firms, but women entrepreneurs aren't getting their fair share of the capital, counseling or contracts. There's no place for the ol' boys club in our government. We need to ensure that, with a smart business plan and a lot of hard work, every American entrepreneur can achieve success."
Of the $300 billion in contracts awarded by the government, women-owned businesses (which are 30 percent of all businesses in the US) are expected to receive five percent. Yet they're only given three. Although it doesn’t seem like much, this means that they lose out on about $6 billion per year. Additionally, (and not surprisingly) the administration has refused to implement a women’s contracting program to help women-owned businesses obtain access to federal contracts.
As infuriating as this is, I’m glad to see that our old friend (sniff, sniff) is back and doing his thang for a good cause.
The book titles alone should be enough to get you interested (and laughing): You, The Warrior Leader; The Barbarian Way; Fight on Your Knees; God's Gift to Women.
Jeff Sharlet, a research professor at New York University's Center for Religion and Media, takes on the upsurge of Christian men's books in a recent Nerve article:
...What's sad about books like God's Gift to Women and Wild At Heart is that they attempt to contain the mystery of that question in metaphors that translate its inherent sexuality into codes of combat, and clichéd ones at that. The "enemy," of course, is Satan, but his names are legion: pornography, homosexuality, feminism, humanism, the monolithic foe Christian conservatives call, simply, "the culture."
And by the way, turns out us gals don't really like the sex so much:
In an interview with New Man, a Christian magazine, John Hagee, a popular pastor who is the author of What Every Man Wants in a Woman, explains what, in turn, every woman wants in a man (which is odd, since Hagee's wife, Diana, is the author of a book of that name, and would have presumably been the more logical explicator): "nonsexual affection."
Well, sure. That this is news to anyone is hard to believe. But more shocking is Hagee's announcement that nearly every woman he's counseled over the years has told him that "It's really no big deal if I never have sex again with my husband." This makes sense only if one accepts the division of identity increasingly popular in evangelicaldom: young men are knights and young women are virginal maidens, and even after marriage that formula, in a sense, continues: Men must get dirty in battle, women must stay pure at home. Sex is for the fellas.
Don’t know how much the boyfriend is going to like hearing that. Sorry honey; no more sex for me! Hand-holding will suffice from now on.
Make sure to read the whole piece...you'll thank me for it.
Effective May 18, Ohio residents will be able to spend an extra $30 for the specialty plates, $20 of which will go to anti-choice groups that "encourage women to consider adoption rather than abortion." The state will not be providing specialty license plates with an abortion-rights message.
The lawsuit hinges on viewpoint discrimination against pro-choicers, because the Ohio legislature rejected a license plate with a pro-choice message. Of the 10 states that have "Choose Life" plates, none offer plates that read "Choose Choice."
"This is a case about fundamental fairness," said Carrie Davis, ACLU of Ohio staff attorney. "The State of Ohio cannot open a public forum to one side of a debate without allowing the same access to all other sides."
It looks like the British Open organizers have decided to admit women into the competition beginning in 2006, reports BBC News. The Open is one of the four largest golfing events worldwide.
The word on the street is that fifteen-year old Michelle Wie is going to be the first woman to qualify. Check out some of her kick-ass achievements she’s made as one of the leading ladies of golf.
How many "Oh, your cell phone is on vibrate (wink, wink)" comments have you ever gotten? Well from now on those obnoxious comments will have some truth to them. Kind of.
Vibrafoon makes exclusive content for mobile phones. Our first product is the Vibrafonic. These Vibrafonics are small java applications that turn your mobile phone into a personal massaging device. Besides vibrating, they play a funny, flirty, or erotic animation or video clip. These vibrations, in combination with the visuals, give you a shaking sensation you'd never expect from a mobile phone.
Um, ok. But then I have to put it up to my ear? Don't think so. Not to mention the "erotic" visuals are anything but (see above).
But I do have to admit, their flash ad is pretty cute.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-D) is asking that Americans give great Mother's Day gifts this year--not shopping at Wal-Mart:
DeLauro, D-Conn., wants consumers to join with her in supporting a federal lawsuit that accuses the nation's largest retailer of discriminating against women.
"When it comes to the treatment of its women employees, Wal-Mart's low prices come at a cost," she said at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
The lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart's female employees earn less and are promoted less than their male counterparts...
Representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO, joined DeLauro in urging Americans to e-mail Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott a Mother's Day card asking him to lead an effort to resolve the issue.
DeLauro also wants the company to turn over wage statistics for congressional review.
In other choice/teen news: make sure to check out The New Republic's article on all the recent brouhaha surrounding emergency contraception, Morning-After Sickness. Outside of discussing legislative threats, author Jonathan Cohn also takes on the fear of teen sex that seems to be behind much of the opposition to EC:
The other serious argument against Plan B is that it will increase risky sexual activity by young people. But peer-reviewed studies published in mainstream medical publications (like one just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) have repeatedly found no such link. Of course, conservatives argue that making emergency contraception available sends a broader cultural message about the acceptability of premarital sex...
...When conservatives talk about Plan B, they conjure up images of lust-crazed college girls engaging in one-night stands, then reaching over empty beer bottles to grab their supersized Plan B jars. But the one group to whom emergency contraception would make the greatest difference is rape victims. According to Trussell, who studied statistics from 1998, about 22,000 of the 25,000 women who became pregnant from rape could have prevented pregnancy with emergency contraception. Unfortunately, the new federal hospital guidelines for rape treatment released in January mysteriously omitted Plan B, even though a previous draft had included it. In Colorado, conservatives have fought efforts to impose a guideline that includes emergency contraceptives...
I'm glad that Cohn points out that women who are suffering most because of the lack of EC availability are rape victims and not crazy spring breakers, as the conservatives would have us believe. But don't crazy spring breakers deserve EC, too? By focusing on victims of sexual assault as the primary users of emergency contraception are we somehow bolstering the argument that "irresponsible" teen girls shouldn't have access to it? Just putting it out there...
From the Associated Press:
The state's social services agency was granted a court order to block an abortion for a pregnant 13-year-old girl living in a state shelter, prompting an emergency appeal Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
…The girl learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and planned to have an abortion Tuesday. Her caseworker arranged for transportation and help. But the state Department of Children & Families asked a Palm Beach County juvenile judge Tuesday morning to block the procedure.
The state agency argued the 13 1/2-week pregnant girl -- described as L.G. in court documents -- is too young and immature to make an informed medical decision, according to the ACLU appeal.
Because the laws that affect teen girls and their bodies tell volumes about how all women are viewed. Anti-choice legislators (and activists) see women as children, unable to make decisions on their own—at 13 or 30 years-old. We need to be protected from ourselves and our bad decisions. That's why our pharmacists won't give out birth control or emergency contraception, or our states act as parents when we're a 13 year-old with no family who wants an abortion.
This recent article from the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger about adolescent gynecology made me think about how this issue is largely left out of the discussion on teen sexuality.
The first visit is described as a "gynecological encounter," which doesn't include a full pelvic exam, but allows teenage girls to start a dialogue with their OB/GYN. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that healthy girls first visit a gynecologist between the ages of 13 and 15 and preferably before sexual activity. As a good friend of mine pointed out, the first visit is kind of like the "control" to which every exam after sex can be compared.
This also ties into the discussion on abstinence-only education. If teenage girls aren't getting accurate information about sex in school, then maybe they can get it from their OB/GYN. I'm wondering: Are parents who advocate abstinence-only education delaying the date of their daughters' first visit to the gynecologist?
Speaking from personal experience, my parents are conservative Catholics who believe strongly in abstinence-only until marriage. I made my first OB/GYN appointment by myself, and I was way older than 13. This article certainly makes the case that more girls would benefit from starting a relationship with their gyno at an earlier age, even if they aren't sexually active.
Thoughts? Do you think age 13-15 is too young to see the gynecologist, or should we be encouraging girls to be comfortable with their doctor at an earlier age?
My friend Gary recently sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal. (He knows just how to please me). The article is called "Girl Power as Boy Bashing: Evaluating the Latest Twist In the War of the Sexes," and before reading the piece, I groaned. I hate when people attribute things like cuts to men's college sports (or affirmative action) to girls "robbing" men of things they deserve. It's so tired to claim that women's progress is somehow meant to punish men.
Luckily, I was basically wrong. The article actually deals with the economics of the tween consumer market. (Shocking! An economic analysis from the Wall Street Journal!) The author shows that kids are now spending millions on products promoting the gender war. He points out the popularity of things like insult-laden clothing lines, confrontation-packed reality TV shows, and advertising that defines girl-power as boy-bashing.
Most of the girl power/boy-bashing argument focuses on the popularity of the David & Goliath "boys are stupid" clothing line, which is sold in 2,500 outlets and has an annual income of $100 million. As many of you know, the clothing line sells the infamous "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them!", "Boys are smelly," and "Boys have cooties" t-shirts.
I think this is an interesting point. I don't think, as people quoted in the article suggest, that this trend is a product of Title IX, and shows girls trying to get a leg up by pushing boys down. That seems like a far-fetched and quite serious claim. I do think, however, that this trend is useless, obnoxious and, given that people can see it as a negative product of feminist advances, potentially damaging. I'm also tempted to wonder why this article essentially ignores the AMAZING amount of anti-woman products selling millions out there. But alas...
Back Alley Abortions cause for many young fatalities in Kenya
Dag this is crazy. Doctors say Kenya's strict abortion laws have forced thousands of women and girls to the backstreets where charlatans use all manner of sharp instruments -- metal wires, knitting needles, forceps -- to penetrate the womb and kill the foetus.
The picture is amplified across sub-Saharan Africa where 30,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions, and millions more suffer life-long problems.
Kenya realized last year this was a problem when some young boys found 15 fetuses dumped in a river near Nairobi. Catholic bishops, who hold moral sway in the predominantly Christian country, held a requiem mass to condemn "the terrible holocaust of abortion".
This is a major problem leading back to the Kenyian governments refusal to change a colonial era law prohibiting abortion. Doctors however want the law changed. One of them said,
"We cannot impose our morality on other people," Kiarie said. "What we are basically saying is that let these women die, they deserve it."
According to the United Nations Population Fund, about 530,000 women a year die in pregnancy or childbirth, nearly half of them -- 247,000 -- in sub-Saharan Africa. Activists blame male leaders for inaction on a continent where women's rights are at best ignored, at worst, violated. "The fact that women die from unsafe abortions I don't think impinges on the consciousness of the African male leadership," Ghana's Sai argued. "There's the thinking that maternity requires deaths."
According to a study conducted by the US National Cancer Institute that included more than 5,000 patients, a new treatment drug for breast cancer has a chance of (along with standard chemotherapy) bettering the chances of recurrence after surgery by more than half.
The drug, called Herceptin, is made by the biotechnology company Genentech Inc., who said they are in process of discussing with federal regulators of prescribing the drug to more patients. Herceptin is considered to be a "targeted therapy", for it can distinguish and attack diseased cells while leaving the health ones alone.
Just as a reminder, over 40,000 women die of the disease and 211,000 are diagnosed each year. It is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in women.
Spanish Parliament Passes Gay Marriage Bill; Like Usual, Our Country Sucks
Last Friday, Spain’s parliament accepted the right for same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, reports BBC News. Now the Senate just has to pass the bill, which is expected within weeks.
In addition to a previous post on the new socialist (and feminist) Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s efforts to create a domestic violence bill, he has since made strong efforts to remove the strong influence from the Church in Spain, and create a secular state.
Under the bill, Spanish Civil Law will include the statement: “Matrimony shall have the same requisites and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex.” Woohoo!
“If the new Pope wants to say something about it, I'm prepared to respect whatever he says, he can count on my respect for him...One of the guarantees of democracy is the freedom of religion, freedom of opinion and freedom to carry out a political project with the citizens' vote.”
In the meantime, the Texas House of Representatives has just passed a bill that will ban same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. There is an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 children presently in the care of gay and lesbian foster parents in Texas. So what are they going to do, send in teams to rip these kids from their homes? I wouldn’t be surprised if they quarantined them as well. Sigh.
A cadre of anti-choice women are descending upon Washington today for "REAL Women's Voices," a lobby day against abortion rights.
Sponsored by the Family Research Council, the National Right to Life, Concerned Women for America and other conservative groups, the event's "real women" speakers include such political heavyweights as Rachel Campos-Duffy of Real World: San Francisco, and pro-life singer/songwriter Kara Klein, who "will speak at the press conference and sing her new song about Terri Schiavo, 'Beautiful Still.'"
(I'll also be waiting to hear about the number of "real women" who show up to this event. Who wants to bet it will fall short of the number of REAL women who attended the March for Women's Lives?)
