2007 October Archive | Feministing

VA city to micromanage abortion clinic(s).

The Manassas, Va. City Council passed a resolution to create a “committee” that would study the regulations and guidelines abortion clinics in the city operate under as well as decide if stricter guidelines are necessary.
This is all despite the fact that:

There is only one abortion clinic in the city Virginia requires women to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment before receiving abortions The state requires consent from a parent or guardian of a minor to obtain the procedure The one clinic, Amethyst Health Center for Women, is a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which makes unannounced inspections

There are also architectural regulations, and more is being proposed, like allowing state inspectors to access patient records. Jennifer ...

By Vanessa • 16 years ago

Sex, drugs and illiteracy

Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.) has an editorial in an Atlanta publication yesterday saying that focusing on sex education is making kids illiterate.
He’s specifically referring to the decision made last week to allow a Maine middle school’s health center to dispense birth control, and continues on a diatribe claiming that “Portland’s middle school students may not be able to read or do math real well, but they’ll be able to tell you all about condoms and birth control pills.”
He even titled the op-ed, “SAT doesn’t stand for Sex Aptitude Test.” Awww, Barr tried to make a play on words!
A quick update on King Middle School: A committee member of the school board has proposed ...

By Vanessa • 16 years ago

Fun with Feminist Flickr: NYC bad-ass edition

According to Gothamist, this billboard in downtown Manhattan was receiving a number of complaints before the recent “addition” above.
Some Gothamist readers are arguing that the graffiti is implying blame on women for dressing provocatively, others on AA for objectifying them. Thoughts?
Thanks to reader Laura for the heads up!
Pic from GammaBlog.

By Vanessa • 16 years ago

I (don’t) heart Huckabee

Abortion’s at it again.
Not even a week after his priceless claim that promoting safe sex and contraception use is the same as saying that domestic violence is only half bad, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is following Tom DeLay’s lead by now saying that immigration is taking jobs away from aborted fetuses:

Sometimes we talk about why we’re importing so many people in our workforce. It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973.

Lovely. I’m sure he was thrilled to find the bill that failed ...

By Vanessa • 16 years ago

Shop of Horrors indeed.

It’s time to bring out the heinous in Halloween.
Between sexy mustard and Anna Rexia, I don’t know which is worse. But when these ridiculous, “sexy” costumes start getting marketed to kids is when the nausea really starts to kick in. Girls costumes categorized as “occupational” on this site include “Major Flirt Child,” “Nurse Child,” and “French Maid Child.”
The women’s “occupational sexy costumes” are disturbing as well; their careers consist of being “Ella Mental,” (shown after the jump — because tied up and mentally ill just screams sexy), “Shop-A-Holic,” “Trophy Wife,” “Working Girl,” and a “Deviant Housewife.”
So a crazed shopaholic, deviant trophy/whore of a wife fits the bill of what it means to ...

By Vanessa • 16 years ago

Quck Hit: Planned Parenthood silenced by public radio

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania had prevention messages being aired for just two days on WDUQ 90.5 FM, the flagship NPR affiliate in Pittsburgh, before they pulled the plug on the underwriting messages because it was “not aligned with” the “Catholic identity” of the station’s license holder, Duquesne University.
If you live in Pennsylvania and thing this is a load of crap like we do, then take action.

By Jessica • 16 years ago

Today Show: Women with careers are “fembots” with no soul!

Females, are you fembots?
A segment on the Today Show (above) calls women who don’t get married and have children, “fembots.” Seriously. The segment, featuring an editor from Marie Claire, basically calls any woman who cares about her career “emotionally unavailable” and soulless. It’s pretty vile stuff.
Amanda has a podcast on the segment and Andi at WIMN’s Voices has some analysis.
You can email the show here and let them know what you think.

Females, are you fembots?
A segment on the Today Show (above) calls women who don’t get married and have children, “fembots.” Seriously. The segment, featuring an editor ...

By Jessica • 16 years ago

Spice Girl Anti-Feminism

In an interview with The Guardian, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell says that “feminism is bra-burning lesbianism…It’s very unglamorous.” Unglamorous, my ass. Hmph.
Halliwell went onto say that she thinks feminism should be “rebranded” and that it should celebrate “our femininity and softness.” Now, debunking feminist myths is definitely something I can get behind–but when the desire to “rebrand” is because you think there’s something inherently wrong with being considered an activist, strong, or “unfeminine,” well then we have a problem.