2006 March Archive | Feministing

Teach contraception, become a target

This is kind of scary. A teacher in a UK Catholic school had to contact the police after she received threatening letters from an anti-choice organization over her teaching contraception.

Diana Vernon, of Woldingham School, in Surrey, was sent hostile letters and e-mails by anti-abortionists attacking the move to teach girls aged 14 and 15.
Anti-abortion group UK LifeLeague said the school did not have to teach it.

Vernon said that “we make sure that the girls are aware of the options and then can leave here and make an informed moral choice for themselves.” Well there’s the problem! I guess no one told her that young women aren’t allowed to make decisions for themselves–that’s what old white ...

This is kind of scary. A teacher in a UK Catholic school had to contact the police after she received threatening letters from an anti-choice organization over her teaching contraception.

Diana Vernon, of Woldingham School, in ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Back to school…with Playboy?

Um, seriously? Apparently you can get Playboy pencil cases, eraser sets, notebooks, the whole terrifying back-to-school package.
What parent would buy this for their kid? I’m completely freaked out.

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Angling for equal rights

I love coming across a story that lets me post this pic of Vanessa.
A New Zealand anglers’ club has had a sex discrimination complaint made against them after they refused to rent women a cabin for a weekend fishing trip.
A group made up of men and women tried to make a reservation, but were told only men were allowed in the cabins.

The Wairoa Anglers Club maintains that they’re not being discriminatory, they’re just trying to protect women. Club secretary Esther Foster says they won’t rent cabins to women “so that you’re not having young girls in with old men. It’s a politically correct type of thing.” Um, ok.

I love coming across a story that lets me post this pic of Vanessa.
A New Zealand anglers’ club has had a sex discrimination complaint made against them after they refused to rent women ...

By Jessica • 18 years ago

Take Action: Help repeal the SD abortion ban

NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota is working with other pro-choice activists to repeal the state’s abortion ban–last week they filed a petition to get a measure on the November ballot so that South Dakotans can vote out the ban.
But to get the measure on the ballot, they need to collect 17,000 signatures from voters in in the state.
NARAL has put together some ways you can help:

Volunteer: Sign up to collect petition signatures in South Dakota. We are organizing volunteers for the coming weeks – sign up today!
Spread the word: There are 12 other states considering abortion bans right now. Help us spread the word to people in your community about these outright attempts to ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

I am left confused.

Make it stop. An article by a British academic Alison Wolf in Prospect Magazine has people’s heads spinning. It is about what she calls “elite women” and their ability to get whatever they want in a high-paying, high-power career. Her basic thesis, these women are ruining society because talent is leaving jobs that need women, such as teaching and other social services.
Someone, stop me now.

Three consequences get far less attention than they deserve. The first is the death of sisterhood: an end to the millennia during which women of all classes shared the same major life experiences to a far greater degree than did their men. The second is the erosion of “female altruism,” the service ethos which ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

Shortcomings of American Feminism

Hello, I am slow but I just came across this piece by Lisa Jervis on Lip Magazine about the short-comings of American Feminism. She totally breaks it down and although I think many feminist writers are attempting to juggle newer conceptions of a feminism to include gender (as opposed to women only)-analysis, along with looking at how race and a capitalist society create a much more complicated understanding of oppression, her analysis is necessary for us to move to more radical feminist stance.

A transformative progressive feminism envisions a world that is different from the one we currently inhabit in two major and related ways. Most obviously, this world would be one in which gender doesn’t determine social roles or ...

By Samhita • 18 years ago

So weird!

This is a recent piece by a Brooklyn based artist, of Britany Spears giving birth (since when did people give birth doggy-style?) and is supposed to be a homage to the pro-life movement. I can’t say anything Alternet and Broadsheet haven’t. But this image is just so freaking weird.

By Samhita • 18 years ago

Alabama introduces two bills banning abortion.

With the attitude of, “if they can do it, so can we…” two Alabama legislators have introduced bills that are eerily similar to those recently passed in South Dakota.

“I thought if South Dakota can do it, Alabama ought to do it, because we are a family-friendly state,” said state Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, who has introduced a bill in the Senate that would even ban abortions in cases where a woman became pregnant because of rape or incest.
A similar bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Nick Williams, R-McIntosh. The bills would make it a felony crime to perform abortions in Alabama.
With only seven days left in the 2006 session, the bills do not have much ...

With the attitude of, “if they can do it, so can we…” two Alabama legislators have introduced bills that are eerily similar to those recently passed in South Dakota.

“I thought if South Dakota can do it, Alabama ...