2005 November Archive

Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Heidi Fleiss, ex-madam and convict for running a prostitution ring about a decade ago, has plans to get back into sex work, except the brothel she’s looking to open will be full of men. A rooster ranch, or so they call it.
The town of choice is Pahrump, Nevada, a tiny city about 80 miles northwest from Las Vegas. Fleiss intends to get what she calls a “stud farm” and charge a whopping $250 an hour for the gentlemen’s services. She seems anticipate to a majority of female clients:

“Women are more independent these days…They make more money and it’s hard to meet people. You wouldn’t believe the number of women who’ve told me, ‘Heidi, if you do this, ...

Heidi Fleiss, ex-madam and convict for running a prostitution ring about a decade ago, has plans to get back into sex work, except the brothel she’s looking to open will be full of men. A ...

By Vanessa • 18 years ago

I never thought I’d love a holy man.

In response to Virginia’s laws banning same-sex marriages, a local pastor and his church’s governing council have decided to protest in a big way — the church is no longer offering wedding services.
The Clarendon Presbyterian Church has long been a supporter of the ordination of women, people with AIDS and the rights of the disabled. Now Pastor David Ensign is in the process of renouncing his state authority to marry (straight) couples. In the meantime, he’s offering blessings to couples by having “celebration ceremonies” and counseling couples who support his protest. “We’re not seeking trouble,” says Ensign. “This is a statement of who we are.”
While many surrounding churches are obviously up in arms and more debate ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Women holla back

Go check out Holla Back NYC, a blog dedicated to calling out street harassers in the Big Apple. Love it.

Whether you’re commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some duckweed’s fantasy. So stop walkin’ on and Holla Back!

The site encourages women to send in their street harassment stories and–if possible–catch the assholes in the act with a camera phone.
The creepiest harassing comment on the site so far? “Girl I can Smell You.” Lovely.

Go check out Holla Back NYC, a blog dedicated to calling out street harassers in the Big Apple. Love it.

Whether you’re commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Shocking contraceptive for men

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Men in Serbia are lining up to have electric shocks delivered to their testicles as part of a new contraceptive treatment.
Serbian fertility expert Dr Sava Bojovic, who runs one of the clinics offering the service, said the small electric shock makes men temporarily infertile by stunning their sperm into a state of immobility.
He said: “We attach electrodes to either side of the testicles and send low electricity currents flowing through them.
“This stuns the sperm, effectively putting them to sleep for up to 10 days, which means couples can have sex without fear of getting pregnant.
“The method does not kill the sperm permanently and it does not affect the patient’s health.”

Unless ...

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Men in Serbia are lining up to have electric shocks delivered to their testicles as part of a new contraceptive treatment.
Serbian fertility expert Dr Sava Bojovic, who runs one of ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

Something to learn from the riots in France…

I like this. Tiffany asked last week on blackfeminism.org if we too should be rioting (like they are in France) when we begin to think about how black and brown people are treated all over the world. I have been thinking the same thing as I read and write more about incarceration rates and their racial implications and as I teach in communities that continue to deteriorate because of racist/classist/sexist policies and as I talk to my best friend, another community worker who just went to a funeral for a 2 year old that was shot in the chest.
So you tell me, shouldn’t we be rioting?

I like this. Tiffany asked last week on blackfeminism.org if we too should be rioting (like they are in France) when we begin to think about how black and brown people are treated all over ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

More on Rwanda.

Interesting that Rwanda is the highest in political representation because gender inequity is alive and thriving (well like everywhere else really) and is connected still to violence against women and increased HIV/AIDS infection among girls and women.

via AllAfrica.com…
Globally, women and young girls now make up nearly two thirds of those living with HIV/Aids, and the majority of whom are people below 24. Women’s vulnerability to infection can be attributed to society’s inequalities which puts them at riskâ-oepoverty, abuse, and violence, lack of information, coercion by older men and men having several partners. That’s why many mainstream prevention strategies are untenable; for example those based on the ‘ABC’ approach. Abstain, Be faithful, and use Condom.

“Where ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

Britain falls behind many “3rd” World countries…

for women’s political representation.
Ha!
Britain has tumbled out of the international top 50 for women’s political representation, with its proportion of female MPs ranking well below those of Mozambique, Iraq, Mexico, and Tunisia.
The UK languishes at 51 in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s latest table, which emerges as the Hansard Society’s fourth Women at the Top report, to be published on Thursday, warns that only all-women shortlists (AWS) will close the gender gap in parliament. Women make up 19.8% of the Commons, while Rwanda leads the world with 48.8%. Sweden has 45.3%, Mozambique 34.8% and Iraq 31.5%.

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Anglo Chauvinist Pigs?

Contributed by Gwendolyn Beetham
So, there’s been crazy debate from all sides lately on Ariel Levy’s book Female Chauvinist Pigs. I can’t help but wonder what she’d think of a recent Guardian article by Kira Cochrane on the British paper The Sun’s “Page 3” models. In case you’re not as much of an anglophile as me (and how could you be?), you should know that- every day – Page 3 of The Sun shows topless pictures of women. Yes, every day. Just like the photo of “Nikkala, aged 23, from Middlesex” above. I kid you not.
Cochrane, taking a somewhat Levyesque perspective, writes that:

…Now young women tend to label the topless photos “empowering” ...

Contributed by Gwendolyn Beetham
So, there’s been crazy debate from all sides lately on Ariel Levy’s book Female Chauvinist Pigs. I can’t help but wonder what she’d think of a ...