2005 July Archive | Feministing

Crush of the Week: Dr. Warren Hern

Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Colorado, took out a full page ad in a local paper yesterday denouncing Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue). The anti-choice group had protested against Hern in his neighborhood during a week-long convention they held in Denver recently.
The ad displays an Operation Save America flyer followed by Hern’s comments: “The purpose of the flyer is to cause hate and fear. Its purpose is to get someone to kill me.” The ad also calls the group a “fascist” organization.
The content of the Operation Save America flyer is unavailable, but from what I can gather, it was specifically targeting Hern and his clinic:
“It’s bad enough ...

By Ann • 18 years ago

EC news roundup

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney vetoed a bill yesterday that would have expanded access to emergency contraception. Romney offered a predictably weak explanation for his veto, taking the opportunity to criticize Roe. He also said:
Because Massachusetts is decidedly prochoice, I have respected the state’s democratically held view. I have not attempted to impose my own views on the prochoice majority.
What?! Thanks for the acknowledgment that prochoicers are the majority, but I’d say vetoing this bill was a pretty strong imposition of your views, Mitt. (More at BushvChoice.)
Meanwhile, the FDA recently announced it would decide by Sept. 1 as to whether EC can be sold over-the-counter. Consequently, the Senate approved Lester ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Women sue over birth control patch

Ten women filed a lawsuit yesterday against Ortho Evra, the maker of the birth control patch. The suit claims that the patch causes strokes and blood clots–a claim recently supported by an Associated Press investigation.
From CNN:
The lawsuit — filed in Hudson County, N.J., Superior Court — alleges that the popular Ortho Evra birth control patch is “defectively designed” and “unreasonably dangerous.”
The suit seeks punitive damages against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (Research) and its subsidiary, Ortho McNeil, the patch’s manufacturer.
Austin, Texas-based plaintiffs’ attorney Amy Clark-Meachum said the clients listed in the suit include women ranging from 18 to 47 from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio and ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

IWF: So hip it hurts

If you haven’t been perusing anti-feminist sites lately, you may not know that the ladies we love to hate at the Independent Women’s Forum have a blog. It’s been up for a quite a while…I think I chose to ignore it until Amanda’s always-smart posts on the “IWF Inkwell” made it impossible. Damn you, Amanda!
The content is laughable enough, but I just couldn’t let this post title go unnoticed:

Mailbag: Dissing the Roberts Children, and More
Dissing? Is it just me, or is there nothing worse than uncomfortable slang-use? It makes me have visions of IWF editorial meetings where Carrie Lukas and ...

If you haven’t been perusing anti-feminist sites lately, you may not know that the ladies we love to hate at the Independent Women’s Forum have a blog. It’s been up for a ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Roberts makes a boo-boo

John Roberts admitted last week that his personal and religious views could affect his ability to serve on the Supreme Court. Oops!
More at the LA Times.

By Jessica • 18 years ago

World’s first dildo?

From BBC News:
A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.
The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
The prehistoric “tool” was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.

Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.

Heh heh…they said “tool.” Yes, I like third grade bathroom humor.
But you have to admit, it’s intriguing. It’s like the Flinstones version of Toys in Babelend. ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

CBS lineup has strong women characters

The Chicago Sun Times reports that many of the female-friendly shows slated for the fall are on CBS:
In “Threshold,” the main character is a contingency analyst who is asked to stop space invaders from killing our species. A soldier-type guy tells her, “You just became the most important person on the planet.”

On “Close to Home,” the lead is a prosecutor who puts away creeps while storing her breast milk in a work fridge.
And on “The Ghost Whisperer,” Jennifer Love Hewitt passes messages from ghosts to humans, while also running a small business and a new marriage.
“They’re guy roles for women,” Hewitt says of this bumper crop of acting parts.
Even on ...

The Chicago Sun Times reports that many of the female-friendly shows slated for the fall are on CBS:
In “Threshold,” the main character is a contingency analyst who is asked to stop space ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Women’s Studies department appoints male chair

The University of Washington Women’s Studies department has a new chair: Professor David Allen.

The first male chair of the department, Allen has taught women’s studies classes for 15 years at the university. Qualifications aside, some are not too pleased about his appointment. Allen is the first to admit that it’s a “risky venture.”
“It’s not so much risky for me individually as it is politically. One way to interpret this is, ‘Here’s yet another white guy claiming to have expertise over women,’” he said. “Another position is that relatively few women hold administrative positions, so why on earth would the university make it worse by appointing a man to a women-studies program?”
I’m ...