"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
White House refuses to state position on contraception
In a press briefing last week, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan completely refused to answer a pretty goddamn important question: is Bush opposed to contraception?
Q There are news reports this morning that parents and children who were guests of the President, when they visited Congress, wore stickers with the wording, "I was an embryo." And my question is, since all of us were once embryos, and all of us were once part sperm and egg, is the President also opposed to contraception, which stops this union and kills both sperm and egg?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think the President has made his views known on these issues, and his views known --
Q You know, but what I asked, is he opposed -- he's not opposed to contraception, is he?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, and you've made your views known, as well. The President --
Q No, no, but is he opposed to contraception, Scott? Could you just tell us yes or no?
MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think that this question is --
Q Well, is he? Does he oppose contraception?
MR. McCLELLAN: Les, I think the President's views are very clear when it comes to building a culture of life --
Q If they were clear, I wouldn't have asked.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and if you want to ask those questions, that's fine. I'm just not going to dignify them with a response.
Hmmm…I wonder why no answer? That’s a head-scratcher...
John Tierney elaborates on his genius "women aren't competitive" theory with an even more illuminating argument: women just don't want it bad enough. But don't worry; Tierney came to this conclusion using the most advanced method possible for studying gender differences: Scrabble.
...But if you think that leveling the playing field would eliminate gender disparities, consider an unintentional experiment conducted in the Scrabble world, which is hardly a hostile environment for women.
For a quarter-century, women have outnumbered men at Scrabble clubs and tournaments in America, but a woman has won the national championship only once, and all the world champions have been men. Among the top-ranked 50 players, typically about 45 are men.
The top players, both male and female, point to a simple explanation for the disparity: more men are willing to do whatever it takes to reach the top. You need more than intelligence and a good vocabulary to become champion. You have to spend hours a day learning words like "khat," doing computerized drills and memorizing long lists of letter combinations, called alphagrams, that can form high-scoring seven-letter words.
...A champion wouldn't waste any valuable time in a game. Thanks to the thousands of alphagrams he's memorized, he would realize immediately that there are four anagrams in the first rack (antlers, rentals, saltern, sternal) and none in the second.
See ladies, if we weren't so lazy about studying vocabulary we would be equals in life and in board games!
And why do women lack the necessary drive to succeed? We don't care about getting laid as much as men do.
"Evolution has selected for men with a taste for risking everything to get to the top of the hierarchy," [anthropologist Helen Fisher] said, "because those males get more reproductive opportunities, not only among primates but also among human beings. Women don't get as big a reproductive payoff by reaching the top. They're just as competitive with themselves - they want to do a good job just as much as men do - but men want to be more competitive with others."
Evolutionary psychologists see two kinds of payoffs that traditionally went (and often still go) to victorious men. Women have long been drawn to men at the top of a hierarchy (a clan leader, Donald Trump) who have the resources to support children.
...So if you're a lonely bachelor at the bottom, it makes evolutionary sense to have more zeal than the typical woman to fight your way up. It has been noted at Scrabble tournaments that some of the best players are single guys with wide-open social calendars. And there are Scrabble groupies - I'm not kidding - apparently still under the unconscious influence of that classic short-term reproductive strategy. They prefer guys who win.
And men prefer losers, I suppose?
You know, I can buy that the impetus behind many human actions is to have sex. But Tierney's (and these theories') assumptions that women won't go that extra mile because it's not worth it to them reproductively is just absurd. It relates back to the whole women-are-meant-to-be-monogamous-and-hate-sex argument that Amanda touched on recently at Pandagon.
For a fantastic book on women that (among other things) takes on evolutionary psychology's position on what "female nature" is, check out Natalie Angier's "Woman: An Intimate Geography." It's the best. Really.
The Associated Press reports that women firefighters still face significant barriers and discrimination, most notably in New York.
...Of roughly 296,000 professional firefighters [nationally], about 6,500, less than 2.5 percent, are women. That's up from zero as of 1972, but "nowhere near the point where you lose your token status," said Terese Floren, director of the Madison, Wis.-based Women in the Fire Service.
Firefighting forces are more than 10 percent female in several big cities; two of them, San Francisco and Minneapolis, also have women as fire chiefs.
The Seattle Fire Department has 91 female firefighters, a little over 9 percent of the force, said Helen Fitzpatrick, a spokeswoman for the department.
But in Boston and Philadelphia, barely 1 percent of the firefighters are female; New York has only 29 women out of more than 11,000 firefighters, less than 0.3 percent.
...No major fire department embodies a new approach to gender more than San Francisco's, where 230 of the 1,700 firefighters are women, and the chief is Joanne Hayes-White, 41.
The article focuses on one woman's experience in several NY firehouses, and addresses specific cases of harassment and discrimination across the country.
Make sure to check out Katha Pollitt's Stiffed, which takes on Viagra, Medicare, contraception and the sexual double standard.
My fave part:
And what about sex aids for women? Where's that female Viagra they're always promising us? Most newspapers didn't even report that in December an FDA panel turned down Procter & Gamble's application for Intrinsa, a testosterone patch intended to raise libido in women whose ovaries have been removed. The problem wasn't that Intrinsa didn't work (the panel voted 14 to 3 that the manufacturers' trials showed a meaningful improvement in desire and pleasure); the issue was health risks as well as the potential for "off-label use" by women who had simply lost their mojo. A "lifestyle drug" for women! Can't have that. Men, of course, have been known to use Viagra recreationally, and Viagra, moreover, is not without risk: It has been associated with fatal heart attacks and eye damage. Here's what gets me, though: FDA panelist Dr. David Hager voted against Intrinsa. Yes, that David Hager--the right-wing Christian Ob-Gyn accused of persistent marital rape by his former wife and now under scrutiny for his secret role, first revealed in The Nation, in killing over-the-counter status for emergency contraception. Maybe there are enough questions about Intrinsa's safety to justify the turn-down--but letting Hager vote on female sex drugs is like letting the Taliban vote on women's hemlines.
Mexican President Vicente Fox accused the media on Monday of rehashing the story of a 12-year spate of women's murders on the U.S. border, minimizing a tragedy seen as among the nation's worst crime outrages.
His comments came just weeks after two girls, aged 7 and 10, were sexually assaulted and murdered this month in Ciudad Juarez, an industrial city across from El Paso, Texas, where more than 340 women and girls have been strangled, battered and stabbed to death since 1993, 17 of them this year.
"We must attend to the case of Juarez and we are, but it must also be seen in its proper dimension. These murder cases have been solved," Fox said, accusing the press of overplaying the story.
"We are offended by what has happened in Juarez, but nor is it right to be reheating the same 300 or 400 cases," he told reporters.
Women's groups say most of the murders are still unsolved and there are questions about how convictions were obtained in many of the cases that have been closed.
...The United Nations has called the Ciudad Juarez murders emblematic of rampant rights abuse and flawed justice in Mexico, and a U.N. panel accused Mexico of "grave and systematic violations" in its handling of the cases.
Um...is addressing hundreds of unsolved murders and calling out Fox on government inaction really "reheating" cases? Seems to me it's more shaming. And it looks like it's worked, at least a little:
On Monday, Fox's new attorney general called the Ciudad Juarez murders a top priority and announced that special prosecutor Maria Lopez, appointed last year to clean up botched local investigations, was being replaced.
Concerns that Ann Veneman, new head of UNICEF and a former member of the Bush administration, would implement a more conservative policy on HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual health and condoms were quelled last week when she announced that policies would remain as they are.
"We're not going to change UNICEF's position," Veneman, a former U.S. Agriculture Secretary, told Reuters late on Thursday at a feeding centre in Malawi where the U.N. is feeding AIDS orphans and other vulnerable groups.
Veneman raised concern in January when she said she believed social issues such as reproductive health were "irrelevant" to UNICEF's mission, a remark some interpreted as signalling a change in UNICEF's drive to promote family planning.
Let's hope Veneman really doesn't change UNICEF's policies...I'm a tad wary of anyone who thinks reproductive health is "irrelevant."
A couple of weeks ago Microsoft failed to support an anti-discrimination measure in Washington State and caused the bill (which would protect gay and lesbian people from discrimination in work, housing, etc) to fail passage in the state legislature. But soon after Microsoft changed its decision because of all the pressure from employees and gay rights groups.
In Friday's message, Ballmer seemed to suggest that input from employees had helped persuade Microsoft officials to renew their backing of the measure. More than 1,500 employees had signed an internal petition demanding the company support the bill, and scores had written in protest to Ballmer and Gates.
A Microsoft executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that after Microsoft's turnaround on the bill was widely publicized and prompted an internal company uproar, a group of senior officials had met and decided to change the company's position because of the pressure from employees.
A few weeks ago due to some really good investigative journalism in Spokane, Washington, it was found that Spokane Mayor Jim West, known for his anti-gay rights conservatism, was found to be soliciting men on Gay.com.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports... Spokane Mayor Jim West, who championed an anti-gay agenda during his tenure as one of the most powerful Republicans in the Legislature, yesterday admitted to using the trappings of his current office to entice what he thought was a young adult man but denied allegations that he molested two young boys more than 20 years ago.
West confirmed to The Spokesman-Review of Spokane that he offered gifts, favors and a City Hall internship during Internet chats with a man he believed was 18. The online pen pal was actually a forensic computer expert working for the newspaper. After the story hit the newsstands yesterday, West sent city staffers a remorseful e-mail.
"I want to sincerely apologize to you personally for the shame I have brought to the Mayor's office and the city," West wrote. "I stumbled and let you down."
The accusations of child molestation stem from The Spokesman-Review's three-year investigation and interviews with two felons who said West fondled them and forced them to perform sexual acts on him when they were Boy Scouts.
The accounts have not been confirmed or dismissed by law enforcement officials, and no investigations are planned.
Nonetheless, West's tacit acknowledgement of gay sex sent political shock waves across the state.
In more than 20 years in the Legislature, West had initiated legislation to outlaw sexual contact between consenting teenagers; supported a bill that would have barred gays and lesbians from working for schools, day care centers and some state agencies; voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman; and, as Senate majority leader, allowed a bill that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians to die in committee without a hearing.
SCANDAL! This happened at the beginning of the month, but the contraversy continues with West refusing to resign from his mayoral post. Talk about being in the closet. Now if only all the other anti-gay rights politicians would come out of the closet we could get somewhere already!
Amnesty International's report of Women in Afghanistan
The Post-Taliban time of Afghanistan has been a confusing time for women. Although, the Taliban was known for its terrible treatment of women, it is still not clear what the condition for women is today and what role the international community plays in demanding the equitable rights of women.
A study done by Amnesty International found that women are still at serious risk in situations of abuse, abduction, etc.
Afghan women are in constant risk of abduction, rape and forced marriage and the government is doing little to address their plight, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released 3 1/2 years after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime.
A spokeswoman for the Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry, Nooria Haqnagar, acknowledged that abuse was still rife and said, "In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals."
Amnesty called on the government and the international community to do more to improve the lives of women.
"Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it," the London-based organization said in the report titled "Afghanistan: Women under attack."
It said women are traded like commodities to settle debts and disputes and that some women commit suicide to escape being forced into marriages they don't want.
"Afghanistan is in the process of reconstruction after many years of conflict, but hundreds of women and girls continue to suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, armed individuals," the report said.
The manipulation of religion by government officials is still the main justification for the denial of women's rights in Afghanistan. There have been incidents of women being beaten and killed when in violation of Islamic codes. Some women have even been reported setting themselves on fire to escape abuse.
I am not feeling very optimistic about this. Is this what democracy looks like?
The Washington Post reports that President Bush vows to veto the compromise that key Republicans have created to prevent a showdown in Washington.
House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.), who has an antiabortion voting record, said he talked with Nancy Reagan about finding "some kind of middle ground." On Tuesday, he joined 49 other House Republicans to pass a bill that would repeal the limits Bush imposed when he announced the first federal funding for stem cell research in 2001.
"We very much want to be able to work with the president and see if there could be some kind of agreement," Dreier said. "I don't want the president to be in a position where he has to veto this. We want to lower the temperature and not be confrontational, so we can figure out a way for the research to go ahead."
Bush's response, "The Congress has made its position clear, and I've made my position clear," Bush said. "I will be vetoing the bill they send to me if it were to pass the United States Senate."
The White House did not embrace the search for a compromise. Spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush has drawn "a very bright line that taxpayer dollars should not be used to destroy life," and said it "would be difficult to blur that line" with a middle-ground proposal.
Using tax payer dollars to destroy life?! This shit has gone too far...Any thoughts?
The Body Shop National Cell Phone Collection is collecting used cell phones to stop family violence. Donated phones will be sold, refurbished, or recycled, with proceeds benefiting the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Wireless Foundation.
You can drop off your old phones at any of The Body Shop stores through August 31, 2005. Even better? Click here to learn how to start your own collection.
A federal hate crimes bill with explicit protections against crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation was introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday.
Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign exclaimed that, "We’re proud that for the first time legislation was introduced that explicitly covers the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, and the community will have an unambiguous shot at equal protection under hate crimes law."
While the bill is not expected to the pass, it's notable that (given our scary political climate) it made it through the door at all.
Kudos to -- Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) for introducing the bill.
The good news -- The CDC announced this week that smoking among women in the U.S. has dropped below one in five for the first time in nearly 30 years. Also notable -- last year, the number of people who quit smoking was greater than the number of those who still smoked (only the second time in history that has happened). Nice.
Republicans don't favor comprehensive sex ed for high school students, but apparently it's a-OK by the time you're a Capitol Hill staffer. That must be why Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sponsored a "Star Wars"-themedSTD slide show yesterday for young Congressional aides.
At the event, Coburn hypocritically advised staffers to use condoms. He has long been an anti-condom crusader.
Coburn's STD presentation even contained a special message for the ladies. Apparently, it's up to us alone to stop the spread of STDs: "What would happen in this country if the young women would say no [to sex] until they're 20?" [Coburn] asked. "Disease would go down, the pregnancy rate for unwed mothers would go down, the social costs for the next two generations would go down."
What else can we learn from Coburn? The death penalty should be applied to abortion providers. Women with breast implants are healthier. And "rampant lesbianism" is ruining Oklahoma high schools. Plus, it's a good idea to serve pizza to accompany a graphic STD slide show. Ewwww.
