2013 April Archive | Feministing

While the US cuts abortion access, Australia likely to increase it

Good news, antipodean abortion lovers! The Australian government announced today that RU486, the abortion pill, is one step closer to being included in the government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, making it easier for patients to afford.

How easy? Like, between $12 and $36 easy. Which is a far cry from its current cost of $300-$800 (which is about what it is in the US, too).

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek was waiting on the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which announced yesterday that it will add miseprostol and mifepristone to the list of drugs that should be subsidised by the government. The ABC reports that,

Plibersek says it is an “important first step.”

“Now, we’ll go into a period of making sure that there ...

How easy? Like, between ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

Here are a bunch of photos of a man who was supposedly deported from Saudi Arabia for being too handsome. You’re welcome.

The Justice Department has issued new guidelines for medical exams for sexual assault survivors.

WTF? It seems Wikipedia editors are gradually moving women from the American Novelists category to the American Women Novelists subcategory.

What’s it like when your sexual assault is fictionalized in a Law & Order SVU episode?

The feminist argument for letting Futurama die a somewhat respectable death.

I really hope someday this dude grows up and is ashamed of himself.

Here are a bunch of photos of a man who was supposedly deported from Saudi Arabia for being too handsome. You’re welcome.

The Justice Department has issued new ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Thank You Thursdays: The cross-dressing Kurd Men For Equality

Earlier this month, in the city of Marivan, Iran, a judged sentenced a man convicted of domestic abuse to be paraded around town dressed in traditional Kurdish women’s clothing. This was a “punishment” since obviously being a woman is so embarrassing, amirite? In response, a local feminist group held a rally, and 17 members of the Iranian parliament wrote to the justice ministry complaining it was “humiliating to Muslim women.”

But perhaps the most creative protest has come from the Kurd Men For Equality campaign that sprung up on Facebook. In solidarity with the women’s protest, hundreds of men have submitted photos of themselves dressed in women’s clothing to visually send the message, “Being a woman is not a tool to ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

The gene patent case before the Supreme Court is hugely important to women’s health

Ed. note: Katie is off this week, so Arikia Millikan is guest blogging in her place. Arikia is a Brooklyn-based journalist and former Wired editor who writes about science and technology. She was Nate Silver’s research assistant for the NY Times bestseller The Signal and the Noise.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a precedent-setting case regarding the patenting of human genes, specifically the two genes that are most closely linked to breast and ovarian cancer. When Myriad Genetics aided in the discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2, they patented the discovery, securing a monopoly over use of the genes for decades. Now, a group of researchers and medical groups, including the women’s health collective Our Bodies Ourselves, have sued.

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quote of the Day: “Radical bitches” edition

Are you kidding me?

Steve Kush is the executive director of the Bernalillo County Republican Party in New Mexico. On Tuesday, the county commission considered a proposal to raise the minimum wage. Kush apparently spent this time on social media mocking the Working American advocates–or “chicks”–who came to testify in favor of the proposal.

Here’s what he had to say about a 19-year-old Working America volunteer.

On Facebook, Kush posted, “Uh oh another Working America chick…nice boots…I know she makes more than min wage.” He added that she “was hot enough to almost make me register democrat.” Bob Cornelius, the former executive director of the Bernalillo County GOP–I guess being a sexist asshole is requirement for the gig?–responded by writing, “Maybe she ...

Are you kidding me?

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: Grimes rails against sexism in the music world

In this awesome rant, Grimes offers some #realtalk about her frustrations as a woman in the music biz. A taste:

i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized

i dont want to be molested at shows or on the street by people who perceive me as an object that exists for their personal satisfaction

i dont want to live in a world where im gonna have to start employing body guards because this kind of behavior is so commonplace and accepted and I’m pissed that when I express concern over my own safety it’s often ignored until people see firsthand what happens and then they apologize for not taking me seriously after the fact…

I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even ...

In this awesome rant, Grimes offers some #realtalk about her frustrations as a woman in the music biz. A taste:

i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized

i dont want to be molested ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

We stand in solidarity with the Chicago workers who are striking today. (Image via)

Twitter responds to that ridiculous Politico piece about how the NYT boss lady is such a bitch.

Dartmouth cancelled classes after students who participated in the protests we covered yesterday received rape threats.

Little girls are better at designing superheroes than you.

Thomas Friedman’s “next new world” is apparently composed almost entirely of white dudes.

We stand in solidarity with the Chicago workers who are striking today. (Image via)

Twitter responds to that ridiculous Politico piece about how the NYT boss lady is such a ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quote of the Day: Shooting abortion providers “will be a blessing to the babies”

In a recording posted to YouTube, Iowa anti-choice activist Dave Leach says that it would a “blessing to the babies” if someone shot the brave folks who recently re-opened Dr. George Tiller’s former abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas.

“If someone would shoot the new abortionists, like Scott shot George Tiller, … hardly anyone will appreciate it but the babies. It will be a blessing to the babies. Everyone else will panic. Of all places to open up a killing office, to reopen the one office in the United States more notorious for decades than any other is an act of defiance against God and the last remaining reverence for human life.”

The recording is all the more chilling since Leach ...