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"Many people need a morning "fix." For some, it's coffee. For others, it's "SportsCenter." For me, it's Feministing.com." Katie Stone, The Denver Post
"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 posted earlier this week about the pros and cons of medical abortion. And right on the heels of that discussion, the New York Times reports that Shanghai Hualian, the Chinese drug company that manufactures mifepristone pills (aka RU-486) used in the U.S., has been accused of producing tainted drugs. Now, to be clear, all tainted drugs have come from a different plant from the one where U.S.-bound mifepristone is made. But that didn't stop the Times from writing the screaming headline:
Tainted Drugs Tied to Maker of Abortion Pill
Now, I absolutely agreed that the plants that do manufacture mifepristone -- and any other drugs used in the U.S. -- should be inspected immediately. Yes, I believe we need to verify the safety of this drug. But does anyone else find it suspicious that the FDA refused to disclose whether any other U.S. pharmaceuticals are produced by that company? That they only named mifepristone?
Last week, The New York Times asked the F.D.A. whether the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group exported to the United States any drugs or pharmaceutical ingredients other than the abortion pill. But after repeated requests, the agency declined to provide that information; it did not cite a reason.
On at least two occasions in 2002, Shanghai Hualian had shipments of drugs stopped at the United States border, F.D.A. records show. One shipment was an unapproved antibiotic and the other a diuretic that had “false or misleading labeling.” Records also show that another unit of Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group has filed papers declaring its intention to sell at least five active pharmaceutical ingredients to manufacturers for sale in the United States.
So to summarize, mifepristone is very likely not the only U.S. drug that could be tainted. And yet the FDA is only talking about "the abortion pill". What, I wonder, could be their political motivation? I'm really stumped by that one...
Another big aspect of this story is that we're learning, for the first time, the name of the company that manufactures mifepristone.
Because of opposition from the anti-abortion movement, the F.D.A. has never publicly identified the maker of the abortion pill for the American market. The pill was first manufactured in France, and since its approval by the F.D.A. in 2000 it has been distributed in the United States by Danco Laboratories. Danco, which does not list a street address on its Web site, did not return two telephone calls seeking comment.
And this is where I get really, really upset at anti-choicers. I believe doctors and patients should have broad access to information about the drugs they prescribe/take, and the makers of those drugs. Because of the antis, that information about mifepristone has never been accessible.
That said, knowing how the antichoice movement works, I fully understand why this information has been kept under wraps until now. And the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the FDA throwing the antichoicers a bone by leaking this information -- issuing a not-so-subtle warning about mifepristone, without issuing the same warning about other drugs made by that same manufacturer. It's bullshit.
Esquire needs your help to say stupid shit about women
Just saw this on a couple of email lists and, well, wow.
Esquire is asking the women of America to take part in something huge. How huge? It just might be the largest survey of American women in the history of survey. Our goal is to interview 10,000 women – you read that correctly: 10,000 – and we only have one question: What is something that men don’t know about women?
Building on our popular monthly feature 10 Things You Don’t Know About Women (examples below, or by clicking this link ), we want to educate the American man about women in a way no one ever has: By directly asking 10,000 of them.
Quick Hit: New Social Networking Site for Lady Activists
I just got an email about this new social networking site for global women activists: PulseWire. It's still in beta form, but they're looking for those working in the fields of human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and water sustainability to join up and test it out.
What do people think about social networking sites anyway--overhyped or actually helpful? I can never decide.
I like to imagine Ms. Wilkerson—turtleneck, cardigan, unremarkable haircut—writing the Pythagorean Theorem on the chalkboard as her students text message, fall asleep, and take notes. They probably think Ms. Wilkerson is “cool” or “okay,” but assume she has no life outside of the four walls of their underfunded classroom. Little do they know she was once a violent, anti-establishment radical who survived an explosion in her own family’s Manhattan town house.
Cathy Wilkerson, the author of the exhaustively detailed and fascinating memoir, Flying Close to the Sun, has been a math teacher for the last 20 years in New York City schools, but prior to that she was a member of the Weathermen, SDS, and a civil rights and anti-war protester.
The memoir is amazing if you’re the kind of person who is obsessed with the nitty gritty of social change and the ins and outs of shifting consciousness. Wilkerson takes the reader through her childhood, marking the moments when she first became aware of injustice and reflected on violence, into her college experience at Swarthmore during the increasingly radical mid 60s, and into her really intense days of career protest and SDS leadership. The most interesting questions for me, as I was plodding through, were: (1) How did a girl from a conservative Quaker background become convinced that violence was the only answer? (2) How did the activists of the 60s logistically build a movement? And (3) How did they handle the intersection between all the different hot issues of the time: race, gender, war, poverty etc.?
MORE magazine, one of the best women's magazines for high quality writing and a complex take on women's lives, has a fascinating feature up on their website: If Hillary Wins... A range of feminist authors, politicians, and activists weigh on what they think a Hillary Clinton presidency would be like. Some samples:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, especially chosen to administer the oath of office, in place of the traditional Chief Justice, did not produce a Testament, Old or New. Instead, she pulled out a tattered copy of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and held it to the new Commander in Chief to swear her oath upon.
-Linda Hirshman, Get to Work
After Hillary is elected, she will realize that male presidents have been too freaked out about their own sexuality to help others. She however, having had to think long and hard about how sexuality has affected her personal and political life, will be ready for some national action on the topic. Given her personal experience with a sexually undersocialized husband, she will correct two administrations of neglect and opposition to sex education and make it a serious priority.
-Pepper Schwartz, Prime:Adventures and Advice on Love, Sex, and the Sensual Years
I was sure the first woman president would be to the right of Dick Cheney, that she'd appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and that we'd later find out she herself had had an abortion for tangled reasons that would rival Larry Craig for hypocrisy. The anti-woman woman -- like Nixon going to China. So imagine my delight that we've got Hillary as our first! You can call her 'establishment' all you want, but believe me, the establishment never had cleavage.
-Gloria Feldt, Send YourSelf Roses, mentor extraordinaire to so many young feminists
Why can't the gals at MORE start a substantive, little sister magazine for us whippersnappers?
New bill makes it easier to sue schools for sexual harassment
Here's something you may not know (I certainly didn't): A new civil rights bill introduced in Congress last week makes it easier for students to sue schools where they were sexually harassed or abused, if the school didn't respond reasonably.
As the law currently stands, students have fewer protections than employees and so schools have less incentive than workplaces to curb their employees and educate against hostile environments. This excellent position paper explains why the changes are absolutely crucial. (Found via a Feminist Law Professors link.)
SAFER, an organization which aims to improve schools' sexual assault prevention and response activities, is encouraging people to call their representatives about the bill and specifically mention the student sexual harassment provisions: "Our elected officials need to know that we care and that we’re paying attention. If this bill were to pass, it could be a powerful tool for fighting administrations that turn a blind eye to sexual assaults and rape culture on their campuses." Indeed.
Men are making more money than women in technology jobs, about 12% more than they did last year, according to a salary survey by career site Dice.com.
The survey found that salaries for men increased by 2.4% in 2007 but stayed flat for women. The average salary last year for men was $76,582, and for women, it was $67,507, according to Dice. The gap widened last year: In 2006, the difference between salaries paid to men and women was 9.7%.
The gap was highest for workers in retail, mail order and e-commerce industries - where men make 15 percent more than women. Yikes.
For anyone who ever wanted to know how Feministing came to be, here's the (probably too long) story of our start and how we know each other. If you can stand to sit through my rambling, though, you'll get to find out about the very cool new blogger we're bringing on board. (More to come in a future post on that...)
Don't worry folks, I promise from now on I'll keep these things under three minutes. And learn better editing skills. As for my penchant for subtitles...I'm not making any promises.
Hey, Midwesterners! Register for Stop Traffic today
We've posted before on fundraising events for the Stop Traffic conference, to be held in late March in Columbia, Missouri. Well, last day to register for the conference is tomorrow! (More info on the conference below the fold.)
Violence escalates in Kenya, and women demand peacemaking role
We've been remiss in not posting on the situation in Kenya. Violence related to national elections has already killed more than 800 people. And the violence is spreading. As is the case in many conflict situations, sexual assault is prevalent:
It is now recognised that women and children are bearing the brunt of the raging conflict, and now the red light is on. Sexual abuse has been thrown into the equation, and these two vulnerable groups are suffering double jeopardy.
First, they have to deal with the trauma of being violently uprooted from comfortable and familiar environments to live under deplorable conditions where their existence is dependent on relief efforts.
Then, it is emerging that sexual violence targeting women and girls is rampant in the camps. It follows that the recovery of women and children already traumatised could be fundamentally compromised.
"We are over 50 per cent of the population, but we have been marginalised and now we are requesting for an audience," [chairperson of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), Ms Isabella] Karanja said.
Addressing journalists at a city hotel, Karanja said they were holding talks with the national steering committee on how they could be represented in the talks.
Former chairlady of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation, Mrs Zipporah Kittony, said women have been undervalued and under utilised in the ongoing mediation talks.
Several women are wearing sacks in protest of the violence. Says one women, Philo Ikonya (pictured above),
I need to express myself through what I am wearing, and to pass on that message, the sack cloth is very powerful.
I shall continue dressing like this and urging other people to dress like this for as long as we do not have peace in Kenya; as long as we do not have justice and reform.
What do you get when you combine the "lazily sensual harem woman reclining on a couch" stereotype with the "cowed housewife bullied by her religion and the men in her life" stereotype? Veil fetish art. Zeynab at Muslimah Media Watch breaks it all down.
And in a follow-up post, Zeynab writes about the art of Makan Emadi, and how it deals with issues of concealment and exposure of Muslim women's bodies. Is it a powerful critique of both Eastern and Western sexism? Or is it just perpetuating the worst Eastern and Western sexist stereotypes? She has some interesting thoughts.
But what really stuck out for me was this amazing video NARAL played at the event, Everyday Heroes (above). I think it serves as an important reminder that these issues aren't just talking points and politics - they're women's lives.
I like to imagine Ms. Wilkerson—turtleneck, cardigan, unremarkable haircut—writing the 
MORE magazine, one of the best women's magazines for high quality writing and a complex take on women's lives, has a fascinating feature up on their website: 
We've 
We've been remiss in not posting on the 
What do you get when you combine the "lazily sensual harem woman reclining on a couch" stereotype with the "cowed housewife bullied by her religion and the men in her life" stereotype? Veil fetish art. Zeynab at Muslimah Media Watch