By Ann • 17 years ago

Newsweek admits feminists were right

Sort of. Lynn over at Broadsheet has a great post (and follow-up) on Newsweek’s “re-evaluation” of its 1986 story about marriage, Too Late for Prince Charming? (retch), which claimed that college-educated women who are still single at age 35 have only a 5 percent chance of ever getting married. Some researchers now put the odds at 40 percent.
Wonder if the editors at Newsweek sent Susan Faludi a note that said, “Whoops! Sorry! Our bad.” Faludi (who isn’t mentioned in the “update”) debunked the original article in her 1991 book Backlash, which not only illustrated why a feminist movement was still necessary, but also proved that a feminist book could ...

Sort of. Lynn over at Broadsheet has a great post (and follow-up) on Newsweek’s “re-evaluation” of its 1986 story about marriage, Too Late for Prince Charming? (retch), which claimed that college-educated ...
By Jessica • 17 years ago

RI schools get rid of abstinence-only sex ed

I love me some good news.
The Rhode Island Department of Education ruled last week that schools should stop participating in a federally funded abstinence only ed program:

Last Wednesday, the state Department of Education (RIDE) Commissioner Peter McWalters sent a letter to all school districts stating the program, run by Heritage Rhode Island, had been deemed inconsistent with the Rhode Island’s education standards. “This program should therefore not be offered as part of the public school health curriculum,” he said.
McWalters’s decision came partially in response to a complaint filed with the Department of Education last fall by the Rhode Island arm of the American Civil Liberties Union (RI ACLU).
In a letter sent to McWalters, RI ...

I love me some good news.
The Rhode Island Department of Education ruled last week that schools should stop participating in a federally funded abstinence only ed program:

Last Wednesday, the state Department of Education ...
By Vanessa • 17 years ago

Random study of the day.


According to this new study, women who have a high intake of dairy are five times more likely to have twins than women with a low or no intake. That’s just weird. (As well as terrifying; I have an unhealthy obsession with cheese.)


According to this new study, women who have a high intake of dairy are five times more likely to have twins than women with a low or no intake. That’s just weird. (As well ...
By Vanessa • 17 years ago

Abstinence-mostly education?

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill yesterday that will require all sex education classes in the state to put an extra-special emphasis on abstinence.
A spokesman for the governor assured that most Wisconsin schools already take that approach. So why make it mandatory? They probably don’t even have orgies in the classrooms until the very end of the term!
It makes enough sense — instead of trying to replace sex education with abstinence-only education, the sex-haters thought they might as well just try to change the actual curriculum of sex ed itself.
Sounds like some kind of faux compromise that’s just going to get worse.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill yesterday that will require all sex education classes in the state to put an extra-special emphasis on abstinence.
A spokesman for the governor assured that most Wisconsin schools ...
By Jessica • 17 years ago

Representin’ Conscious Masculinity

Contributed by Courtney E. Martin.
As long as I’ve been loving hip hop, I’ve also been hating it. Like most female fans, I’m drawn in by the lyricism, good dance beats, protest vibe, and, let’s be honest, the hot rappers. But I’ve also been repelled. The video ho culture disgusts me. The violent lyrics make me want to run right back to the Indigo Girls. Old school music is great; old school misogyny is weak.
That’s why I was thrilled that Byron Hurt’s documentary, Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip Hop Culture, was at BAM’s Sundance series last weekend. Hurt was refreshingly earnest, if not a bit overzealous, in his 90 ...

Contributed by Courtney E. Martin.
As long as I’ve been loving hip hop, I’ve also been hating it. Like most female fans, I’m drawn in by the lyricism, good dance beats, protest vibe, and, let’s be ...
By Ann • 17 years ago

A new low in blaming the victim

No charges. No hearing. No access to an attorney. Incarcerated in isolation.
Nah, I’m not talking about suspected terrorists. This is, apparently, how officials in Akron, Ohio treat 14-year-old sex abuse victims.
A teenage girl was jailed for 12 days as a material witness against the man who molested her. She was released today. But as her lawyer Eddie Sipplen points out, “By no means does this mean it’s over. She must now deal with the trauma of being isolated in an adult jail for almost two weeks.”
Because the girl failed to show up to testify at her accused abuser’s trial, authorities– and her own mother– thought she’d be better off in jail. They feared ...

No charges. No hearing. No access to an attorney. Incarcerated in isolation.
Nah, I’m not talking about suspected terrorists. This is, apparently, how officials in Akron, Ohio treat 14-year-old sex abuse victims.
A teenage girl ...
By Jessica • 17 years ago

Something to watch tonight

Contributed by Jessica Wakeman
Tonight at 9 p.m. EST, my favorite PBS show, Frontline, will be screening, “Sex Slaves,” which will investigates the practice that traps women from the impoverished Eastern European countries Moldova and Ukraine in organized sexual slavery. Pretty scary stuff.
Check your local listings.

Contributed by Jessica Wakeman
Tonight at 9 p.m. EST, my favorite PBS show, Frontline, will be screening, “Sex Slaves,” which will investigates the practice that traps women from the impoverished Eastern European countries Moldova and Ukraine ...

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