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"Feminism is fun again! Every bit as edifying as your women's studies books from college, but with a biting sense of humor that keeps things punchy, not preachy." Marie Claire, December 2006
I am wearing red because I am a survivor of incest and rape. I am wearing red because I live in a City (Philadelphia) where a White Woman Judge Terri Carr Deni dropped all rape and assault charges in the case of a woman gang-raped at gunpoint. Because the woman was working as a prostitute, Judge Deni decided that she could not have been raped and changed the charge to “theft of services.” Deni later said that this case “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.” On Thursday, November 1, 2007, in Philadelphia, there will be a Press Conference at 1pm Outside Municipal Court (Criminal Justice Center)1301 Filbert St. On November 6, 2007, I will voice my opinion to Judge Deni by voting “NO!” on her retention as Judge in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia.
I am wearing red because I am very clear that it doesn’t matter if you’re a stripper, a prostitute, a lesbian, a bisexual woman, a heterosexual woman, a single mother (especially with several children from different fathers), on welfare, a high school drop out, college educated, working in corporate America, working at a minimum wage job with no health insurance, or working in the film/music/television entertainment industry. Yes, I placed what some people would view as very different/distinct categories of women of Color in the same category because history has consistently shown me and all of us that if any of the aforementioned Black women are at the wrong place at the wrong time (which could be at any time), we, women of Color, will be left to heal our very public wounds alone.
Vaginas are the new black (so long as you don't call them 'vaginas')
The New York Times Style section had a cover story (!) this weekend on the term "vajayjay." For reals.
I'm glad that the lack of non-sexist euphemisms for women's genitals is being discussed, and I actually find 'vajayjay' kinda endearing. Though I've also been a fan of 'vag' for a while. (For example, when at a male-dominated party a couple of years back, me and all my girlfriends dubbed ourselves "Team Vag" for the ensuing beer pong games.)
So...what's your favorite vagina-related pet name?
A report by the Gender Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC) in Kenya says that more than 600 women in the country are raped daily.
The report...indicates that the youngest rape survivor is five-months-old while the oldest is 86.
The statistics, which have been compiled in hospitals and community-based organisations where the victims go for treatment and counselling, approximate that there are at least 16,482 rape cases every year.
Reported cases of assault and battery in the country have also increased from 6,255 to 9,169 while a third of adolescent girls' first sexual experience is coerced, Health Policy Initiative Kenya adds.
I feel ill. For more information on sexual assault in Kenya, click here.
So, let's celebrate: What's the best costume you ever had? Mine was this great ballerina get-up my mom put together for me when I was in pre-school that I would later puke all over. Sicked-up-on tutus are some funny shit.
I find the question of who keeps the house clean a fascinating one. Maybe because I am a total slob and I pretty much don't know anyone my age that is married and stays at home or has the time to do most of the cleaning in the house. But there are couples that do, right? They have kids, they both work and the bulk of housework still falls on the shoulders of women. Obviously, this plays out really different based on your class background or the type of relationship you are in, but consistently, both in my experience, the experience of my peers and others, the majority of house work falls on the shoulders of women. It is the assumed default position, that if it isn't done, than guess who is going to end up doing it.
Well, according to this article from Parenting.com the main reason for this is that we as women really have to stop keeping tabs on who is doing what and just, you know, take one for the team. Oh and don't nag while you are in the process. Kthnx.
Stop nagging, start talking
"When we're tired and stressed out, we don't usually talk to our partners as respectfully as we might otherwise," says Kristen Harrington, a marriage and family therapist in Kingston, New York, and a mom of two. "We women, particularly, get bitter about our husbands' not noticing what needs to be done around the house and start treating them like their IQs are 20 points lower." Men, for their part, seem to tune out their wives when they nag.
Um, maybe we get bitter because we consistently end up doing more work and usually the work that is considered women's labor? I understand this article is assuming, hetero, middle class, married couples that have money for the mortgage. So I want to pull us out of that frame of reference. This sexual division of labor that is instilled in us through the household and then through the media and other forms of socialization trickle into every way that we interact with each other. Who does what jobs at the work place and how is that reflected in their gender? Why are the majority of nurses and teachers women and the majority of doctors and principals men?
Who is expected to do what in the household is extremely political and it isn't just a matter of convenience or someone whining more than the other. It is based on a historical division of labor that is the crux of the nation. Furthermore, when middle class women do not have the time to clean their houses, who do they hire to clean them? So still, today, the majority of house cleaning is done by women and mostly women of color.
Let alone dismembered and made into fashion accessories.
Ok, now repeat after me. Dismembered women's body parts are not funny, or ironic, classy or a message for recycling (as in this case). They are gross and a reminder that women are continually objectified in compartmentalized ways, where they are judged for a piece or section of their body, not for the total being they are. Dismembered women's body parts are so part of everyday life, you almost have to remind yourself that it is totally fucked up.
I guess, I would like this more if it was done in a way that highlights how scary dismembered women are, a different type of art. Not trying to make something pretty, that really isn't.
Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has put an anti-choice group in charge of convening a task force in his name to investigate the "impact of abortion on women." Of course, every member of the task force is anti-choice. I'm sure this will be an "objective overview of the impact of abortion."
The forced-pregnancy movement uses tactics like this -- bullshit committees stacked with anti-choicers and testimony from biased "experts" -- to introduce inaccurate or slanted information about abortion into the public record, which can be used to prop up anti-choice legislation and legal decisions. So trust me, these task forces are a big deal.
A good example: South Dakota's task force on abortion was a major factor in the state's abortion ban (which voters overturned last year). State lawmakers used the commission's biased "findings" (over which the only two pro-choice members of the task force quit in protest) to form the basis of the legislation that not only criminalized abortion, but used the "daddy knows best" language that's the hallmark of the anti-choice movement.
So don't you just love how the Associated Press says "Gov. Matt Blunt, an abortion opponent, has launched the state on a scientific quest to determine how abortions affect women," then goes on to use this quote:
“I certainly would begin with the presumption that abortion has a negative impact on Missouri children, Missouri women, Missouri men, because it’s harmful to society,” Blunt said.
Sure sounds like a "scientific quest" to me. Stay tuned for the task force's completely biased findings, and the terrible legislation that is likely to result.
Left, Judy Nails in a previous version of the game. Right, in the latest version.
When I picture guitar heroines, they're usually sporting jeans and a tank top. Or menswear. Not the case in the Guitar Hero video game, apparently, where all of the ladies wear midriffs or bikini tops. Cara laments the sexing-up of her favorite Guitar Hero character, Judy Nails, in the latest version of the game:
Basically, I’m not sure why they bothered to put a shirt on her. There are copious amounts of cleavage, her entire stomach, and at least half of her bra hanging out. The shirt is really more of an accessory than an actual article of clothing. Even on stage with all of those bright lights, she still might get a little cold. And every outfit change I could give her doesn’t make it any better.
Even worse, I don’t have any other female options. There’s Cassie, who has always worn a bikini top in lieu of a shirt (which I was originally fine with, because there were other options and there is a male character with no shirt). And there’s a new Asian female character who, though she is covered, is dressed like she works for Gwen Stefani. And since I see it as pretty racist, I can’t go with her, either.
So. Apparently Guitar Hero now thinks that it either A. does not have any female fans or B. their female fans will, for some reason, not mind being objectified and forced to play with a character who is half naked, if they want to play with a woman.
Add to that Axe sponsorship (including the eau de asshole promotional jingle actually placed within the game), a guitar shaped like a woman's disembodied leg in a fishnet stocking, and a guitar called "Lady Shapes" with an airbrushed blonde in a bikini on it. More from Cara:
but, I have always thought nuns were really cool, to be honest. I mean something appeals to me about a simple life away from the consumer marketing of mainstream culture and the woes of relationships with men. But the whole, anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-gay, dogmatism kinda makes it a bad choice for anything other than sociological study on how religions make some people act crazy.
But this story does stick out to me, because it transcends some of the awful, bad, terrible communications strategy/PR of the Catholic church and gives us a sense of something real.
The real geekery of a nun.
Her cell phone has a custom ring tone. She frequents the Internet's most popular social networking sites. She gets jittery when she can't check her e-mail or post on her blog. She communicates with her family mostly by AOL instant messenger. And she's a 50-year-old nun.
Sister Anne Flanagan has been a Daughter of St. Paul for almost 30 years, and lives with five other nuns in a convent upstairs from a Catholic bookstore near Chicago's Magnificent Mile. She teaches Bible study classes, edits Catholic books and magazines and roams the Internet looking for cool technology, although, she wryly notes, "a vow of poverty tends to limit one's access."
A nun excited about Wired. C'mon, that is pretty cute. The interview is worth a read, she talks about online prayer and mobilizing environmentalism through religion.
O'Reilly appeared on Good Morning America yesterday to talk about his new book on the youth of today. I am scared that O'Reilly actually was near young people. But I remember teachers like him, the ones that did it to really set these kids straight. They sucked.
But now he has a book out about young people and how to control them and how they act in school. I wouldn't normally pay attention this, but this got me. O'Reilly claims that wearing a burqa/hijab/veil, is an imposition of religion onto OTHER people. Huh?
O'Reilly and host Diane Sawyer are in agreement that today's youth are unacceptably dressed. Indicators of this include the flaunting of low-hanging pants and burqas. Burqas, O'Reilly says, are an imposition of one's religion on others. He alludes to such an expression of religion as a path to "chaos in the classroom" and an acceptable loss at the discretion of school administration.
Oh, I see, low hanging pants AND burqas. So too much exposure, bad-too little exposure, bad. No wonder kids are so confused and angry these days. All they get are mixed messages. And what do these two fashion choices have in common? It is probably young brown kids wearing them, so of course they shouldn't be wearing them to school. My god, how did they even let them IN the school?
And you have to love the hypocrisy. First he chides the school district for firing a teacher to have the students pray and then demands that wearing a burqa in school creates chaos. Obviously for him, it is only an imposition of religion if it is not one that he adheres to.
(Oh and he hates on Colbert, so boo to him. AND, what is up with Diane Sawyer all, "thanks for saying I am pretty?" Barf.)
Shocking, really. Pam was on this last week, asking why the hell Obama would be touring with Donnie McClurkin, as an ex-gay homophobe. Potentially an appeal to connect with people of faith, but why make a move that so clearly loses you more votes than you could potentially gain?
And then shockingly, in the final parts of his performance, Donnie goes all gay hate, god can cure you gays, I was cured, on us. Not exactly surprising.
Obama's anti-gay religious right activist used the opportunity Obama gave him last night to preach his hate to thousands of African-Americans. That's just great. And the white preacher who Obama picked to help explain to the audience that gays aren't minions of Satan? CNN reports that he said nothing at all - just a short little prayer, then he left. As for Obama, he did a taped introduction in which he praised McClurkin, the religious right activist, as one of his favorites. That's nice, because the way to help combat homophobia in the black community is to make sure the gay-basher is first endorsed by someone as high-ranking as Obama, who then chooses to say nothing about the gay-bashing.
So, in the end, Obama let his "best" and "favorite" artist slam gays to thousands of African-Americans, in his name, and neither he nor his hand-chosen white gay preacher said anything in response. Class act, that Obama campaign. For them, creating a "dialogue" means the gay-basher gets to spread his bigotry to thousands while the candidate and the token gay STFU.
Yep, I am going to have to agree with that. Also, it is not like he is gaining any votes from this. As someone mentions in comments at Pam's, the folks that dig McClurkin, are probably not going to vote for him anyway. He had a way better shot with the LGBQT voters. This is political suicide.
Quick Hit - This is scary, just not how they mean it
Can't get enough of hearing how scary and mean Hillary Clinton is? Just in time for Halloween, a poll shows she'd make the scariest costume of the major presidential candidates.
Once again, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads in a poll. This time, she was top choice when people were asked which major 2008 presidential candidate would make the scariest Halloween costume.
Asked about costume choices, 37 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos survey this month chose New York Sen. Clinton, the front-runner among Democratic presidential contenders.
On the campaigns that have cultivated and promoted their lower-level female staffers. Like Matt, I think Garance makes an incredibly important point about the reasons for Hillary Clinton's largely female senior staff:
After all, it’s not like there was some huge population of female strategists out there the various campaigns were competing for and Clinton just happened to snap them all up. Clinton created, on her own, a cadre of female strategists to serve her political needs, by spotting talent in the women around her and promoting them up the political food chain. No other candidate can say, for example, that their campaign is being managed by their female former scheduler.
This is one of the reasons I get so frustrated when I hear male editors say they're "really committed" to having more women writing and editing for their publication, while at the same time only cultivating lower-level male employees. I've heard older female editors say it took them years to realize that their male counterparts were being groomed by the older men in the office. It can be a very subtle, everyday kind of thing. So it's important to keep pointing out to people in positions of power (in business, in politics, in media, etc.) that the best way to achieve gender parity higher up the ladder is to develop the skills of women at the bottom and promote them -- not only to look for women to hire in at the top.
