By Vanessa • 16 years ago

More trans-ignorance (veiled in anti-rape rhetoric)

This piece couldn’t be more ridiculous. While its seeming purpose of being a “calling out” of the large number of New York politicians who have been accused and convicted of rape and sexual harassment, it does anything but:

Dennis Gallagher, the Queens councilman recently indicted on charges of raping a 52-year-old grandmother he met at a Middle Village bar, is just the latest in a long line of New York City pols to have been accused of behaving badly.
At the turn of the last century, a cigar-smoking, hard-drinking, womanizing Tammany insider named Murray Hall was discovered upon death to actually be a woman. When Hall died in 1901, a friend who knew him, er, her, through her work in ...

This piece couldn’t be more ridiculous. While its seeming purpose of being a “calling out” of the large number of New York politicians who have been accused and convicted of rape and sexual harassment, it does ...
By Ann • 16 years ago

Trans-ignorance

Courtesy of Cara, check out this appalling Will Saletan column in Slate:

Um, what? In the column he conflates female genital mutilation with sex reassignment surgery. (Several countries are subsidizing surgeries for victims of FGM, while Brazil now offers health care coverage for the sex-change procedures.) His little brain explodes: Aren’t these the same thing? He poses the breathtakingly stupid question,

Is genital mutilation a crime if you don’t want it but a right if you do?

Just… wow. Setting aside Saletan’s totally inapt comparison, astute commenter Tracey over at Cara’s place notes that, “COUNTLESS things are crimes if you don’t want them but rights if you do. Like sex, for example. Or sterilization. Or abortions.” But “It’s completely ...

Courtesy of Cara, check out this appalling Will Saletan column in Slate:

Um, what? In the column he conflates female genital mutilation with sex reassignment surgery. (Several countries are subsidizing surgeries for victims of ...
By Jessica • 16 years ago

Voices of the Latina Institute: ¡Pa’lante! Continuing the struggle for social justice


Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Director of Policy and Advocacy, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
I’ve heard it all: the misogynistic comments, the anti-immigrant rants, the accusations of being a ‘bleeding heart’ socialist with no pride in ‘America’. “If you hate this country so much, why don’t you go back?!� the detractors scream. “Baby-killer!�, “Spic!� “Liberal!� But still I march and still I fight.
This is a common experience for many activists. As a person committed to reproductive justice, an activist, a woman, a Latina, a daughter of an immigrant, a queer ally and a progressive individual, I find myself being constantly confronted by hate and fear. What’s most difficult is when the fear and ...


Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Director of Policy and Advocacy, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
I’ve heard it all: the misogynistic comments, the anti-immigrant rants, the accusations of being a ‘bleeding heart’ socialist with no pride in ...
By Ann • 16 years ago

A new low for Axe

It’s time for that semi-regular feature where I complain about Axe advertising campaigns. Reader Juniper alerts us to the fact that, in the latest series of ads for this disgusting cologne for the desperate, Unilever is clearly making light of hilarious issues like rape, sexual harassment, and stalking. The premise: Women are becoming sexual predators when they get a whiff of Axe. This video (sorry, it’s in Spanish — only one I could find) should give you the gist:

Ah, but as with all Axe campaigns, the actual ads aren’t the worst of it — it’s the companion websites that are truly wretched. In this case, the site contains lots of cheeky faux headlines urging ...

It’s time for that semi-regular feature where I complain about Axe advertising campaigns. Reader Juniper alerts us to the fact that, in the latest series of ads for this disgusting cologne for the ...
By Jessica • 16 years ago

Why I may never get married: I hate doing dishes

It’s official: Women do more housework than men. Shocking, I know.

Married men worldwide report doing less housework than unmarried cohabiting men, according to an international study of 17,636 men and women in 28 countries. Findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of Family Issues.
In the study by researchers at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, cohabiting men report doing more housework than married men, and cohabiting women report doing less housework than married women, although cohabiting men still do less than cohabiting women.

Looks like shacking up is in my future! I have to say, it was no surprise to find out that women worldwide do ...

It’s official: Women do more housework than men. Shocking, I know.

Married men worldwide report doing less housework than unmarried cohabiting men, according to an international study of 17,636 men and women in 28 countries. ...
By Jessica • 16 years ago

Voices of the Latina Institute: My friend Rosalía and La Operación


By Ligia Rivera, Director of Community Mobilization Programs, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
“You are getting la operación? You’re going to be sterilized for the rest of your life?� I said to my friend Rosalía recently. “Yes, I will,� she replied. With those three simple words, my friend threw into question all the hours I’ve spent learning and training others on reproductive justice. What else could I have said to a single undocumented mother of two, working a low wage job? Rosalía, like many other immigrant women, came to this country to escape from extreme post-civil war violence, risking her life and the lives of her children by crossing the Rio Grande on an inner tube. ...


By Ligia Rivera, Director of Community Mobilization Programs, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
“You are getting la operación? You’re going to be sterilized for the rest of your life?� I said to my friend ...
By Samhita • 16 years ago

M.I.A. brings it.

This interview in Pitchfork with the fabulous, Sri Lankan via GB, M.I.A. bangs out just what she thinks is wrong with the way that she is portrayed in the US media. That perhaps the US media focuses on the “who” is behind the production and lyrical genius of M. I. A., as opposed to recognizing that she is responsible for her own creativity.

M.I.A.: Yesterday I read like five magazines in the airplane– it was a nine hour flight– and three out of five magazines said “Diplo: the mastermind behind M.I.A.’s politics!” And I was wondering, does that stem from [Pitchfork]? Because I find it really bonkers.
Pitchfork: Well, it’s hard to say where it originated. We certainly have ...

This interview in Pitchfork with the fabulous, Sri Lankan via GB, M.I.A. bangs out just what she thinks is wrong with the way that she is portrayed in the US media. That perhaps the US ...

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