2009 February Archive

WA pets could get restraining order protections

From the Associated Press: “A bill passed Monday by the state House would extend the protections of domestic violence restraining orders to pets owned by the person who secures the order.”
I think this is actually great – abusers will often harm (or threaten to harm) pets as part of the violence against their victim.
Via Jezebel.

By Jessica • 15 years ago

More Tech Issues – Commenting Edition

So we had a bit of a tech meltdown today – hence the gap in posting. We’re still fixing bugs, and that’s why the commenting is fucked. Apologies for the inconvenience – we’re working hard to get things fixed!
UPDATE: We’re back on!

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Donkey Punch the Movie (No, I’m not kidding)

Trigger Warning
At some point or another you’ve probably heard of a Donkey Punch. If not, consider yourself lucky. The basic idea is that a man who is penetrating a woman from behind will punch her in the back of the head or neck as he’s having an orgasm. Because beating women about the head is fucking hilarious and sexy, didn’t ya know?

Well it seems that somebody thought it was be a genius idea to turn sexualized violence against women into a movie, where a woman gets killed via – you guessed it! – a Donkey Punch. The trailer is above.
It’s movies like this one that make me wonder how anyone ...

Trigger Warning
At some point or another you’ve probably heard of a Donkey Punch. If not, consider yourself lucky. The basic idea is that a man who is penetrating a woman from behind will ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Site offered discounts on white tanks to proven “wife beaters”

This is the shit that makes me want to crawl back in bed and never come out.

Wife-beaters.com, a Dallas-based business that sold wife-beater T-shirts, has been shut down after a San Antonio man complained to the company hosting the site.
…The Web site sold white tank tops, commonly referred to as “wife-beaters,” and gave a discount to anyone who could prove they were convicted of wife beating.

Awesome that it was shut down, but the fact that anyone ever thought this was clever is just massively depressing.

This is the shit that makes me want to crawl back in bed and never come out.

Wife-beaters.com, a Dallas-based business that sold wife-beater T-shirts, has been shut down after a San Antonio man complained to the ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Things that make you go hmmm.

The New Zealand government has stopped investigations into pay inequity issues because they decided it would be too costly. Huh.

The investigations were set up by the previous Government and include research into why social workers at Child, Youth and Family are paid 9.5% less than their male counterparts and into inequities in female school support workers’ wages.
Cancelling the investigations, State Services Minister Tony Ryall said addressing pay inequity would “generate an additional form of remuneration pressure that is unaffordable in the current economic and fiscal environment”.
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly says working women deserve better.
“It is one thing to urge pay restraint in the public sector but quite another to endorse the unfair ...

The New Zealand government has stopped investigations into pay inequity issues because they decided it would be too costly. Huh.

The investigations were set up by the previous Government and include research into why social workers ...

By Ann • 15 years ago

Two dudes hugging

Did everyone catch conservative pundit George Will’s “You know how I know you’re gay?” moment last night? (Answer: You like to hug the president.) Remarking on members of Congress — MALE members of Congress — embracing Obama after his speech last night, Will said:

“I don’t know when men started to hug each other, but hug they do, and look at that”

He clearly pines for the days of the Bush administration, when two men NEVER ever hugged in public. (See Dick Cheney and George Bush, Sr. getting their hug on, too.)
I know, I’m being a bit hyperbolic. But this throwaway comment really is indicative of a sad traditional view of masculinity in which two Real ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Publicly funded family planning prevents 1.94 million unintended pregnancies, 810,000 abortions annually

A new report from the Guttmacher Institute shows that publicly funded family planning services prevent 1.94 million unintended pregnancies – that includes nearly 400,000 teen pregnancies and 810,000 abortions.

“The national family planning program is smart government at its best,” says Rachel Benson Gold, the study’s lead author. “Publicly funded family planning is basic health care that empowers disadvantaged women to decide for themselves when to become pregnant and how many children to have. It reduces recourse to abortion. And it saves significant amounts of taxpayer money.”

For more information, check out these other reports from Guttmacher:
Next Steps for America’s Family Planning Program: Leveraging the Potential of Medicaid and Title X in an Evolving Health Care System

“The national family planning program is smart ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Parents complain about disabled TV show host

There’s a really disturbing campaign of hate being directed at Cerrie Burnell, a host of the children’s television show CBeebies, who was born missing the lower section of her right arm.

“Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?” wrote one adult on the CBeebies website. Other adults claimed that their children were asking difficult questions as a result. “I didn’t want to let my children watch the filler bits on The Bedtime Hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter’s mind and possibly caused sleep problems,” said one message. The BBC received nine other complaints by ...

There’s a really disturbing campaign of hate being directed at Cerrie Burnell, a host of the children’s television show CBeebies, who was born missing the lower section of her right arm.

“Is it just me, ...