Tag Archive for "Uncategorized"

Posts Tagged Uncategorized

Legislation introduced to end abstinence-only funding!

It’s an exciting time for anyone who thinks it’s important for young people to have access to information about sex and sexuality. Yesterday, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced legislation that would finally end federal funding for abstinence-only programs.

The Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act would strike the Title V Abstinence Only Program from the Social Security Act, eliminating $50 million a year in funding for these dangerous programs. Funding would be transferred to the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) state-grant program. PREP programs are evidence-based, required to address both abstinence and contraception and include information about adult preparation topics like healthy relationships, adolescent development, financial literacy, educational and career ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

Feministing on Tour: Offline and Unfiltered

Some of you may remember Feministing kicking off our college tour last year — we decided that after years of blogging online, it was about time we meet more of our readers face to face. After all, it’s one thing to have the occasional local happy hour, but another to be able to sit down with readers across the country (and internationally!) to talk about the state of the feminist movement(s). In fact, it was such a fantastic time, we decided to hit the road again this year.

Between “he-cessions,” mama grizzlies, and a rapidly shifting movement, there’s much to discuss this year. We’re also thrilled to be working with the fantastic speaker’s bureau Soapbox Inc., founded by the ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Bad-ass women in fake beards

Last week I was on vacation in France, and in the window of a bar in the Parisian neighborhood of the Marais, I saw this poster.

Curious, I went to the website and I was thrilled to discover La Barbe (“the beard”), a French feminist activist group that aims to raise awareness about the lack of women in positions of power in a range of fields, from politics to the arts.

La Barbe takes its name from the cheeky assertion that in order to wield any power in France, it seems, you have to be man. Taking this message to heart, the women of La Barbe protest by showing up to events – meetings, conferences, and so on – wearing fake ...

Last week I was on vacation in France, and in the window of a bar in the Parisian neighborhood of the Marais, I saw this poster.

Curious, I went to the website and I was thrilled to discover ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Following up on Sydney Uni’s ‘pro-rape’ Facebook group

Last November I wrote about a “pro-rape and anti-consent” Facebook group that was created by some members of St. Paul’s College, an all-boys residential college at the University of Sydney. When the existence group, which was called “Define Statutory,” received press attention, rape culture at Australian universities generally and at residential colleges more specifically came under scrutiny. Here’s what I wrote at the time about my experience of the atmosphere in which some of the boys who live in those colleges come of age:

The young men I knew who ended up at St. Paul’s and at colleges like it had graduated from Sydney’s best and most expensive private boys’ high schools. In my interactions with them – ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

What We Missed.

One of Eddie Long’s accusers, Jamal Parris speaks out.

More on the wealth gap. It is worse than we think.

Malcolm Gladwell on social media and activism. I want to write a longer response but my brain is zapped for the day.

The immigration bill will be including LGBT families.

Pam Spaulding on LBGT youth suicides.

One of Eddie Long’s accusers, Jamal Parris speaks out.

More on the wealth gap. It is worse than we think.

Malcolm Gladwell on social media and activism. I want to write a longer response but my ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Let’s leave my momma out of this.

In response to Susan Faludi’s recent Harper’s article, we at Feministing are doing a go around of feedback from different folks. This is my reaction to the piece, you can read Courtney’s and Miriam’s as well.

When I hear people use phrases like “women’s movement,” I get all confused, because both through academic training and as a racial justice advocate, with the lived experience of being a “foreigner”, “woman,” to me is so obviously an unstable category, something that assumes whiteness, a certain class level and even educational status. Woman only describes me when it is modified, “immigrant woman,” “woman of color,” “working class woman,” “queer woman,” and the list goes on. I’m not telling you something you haven’t ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

“Brûlez vos soutiens-gorge.” It’s French for “beauty culture sucks.”

I was in Paris last week and against my better judgment, I went into the enormous Sephora on the Champs Elysées. It is huge, and overwhelming, and I’m convinced that after just a few minutes inside, my brain was totally addled by the smell of perfume.

But I’m pretty sure that, Dior-deranged or not, I would have been appalled by this ad for breast-firming cream:

The copy reads “Burn your bra.”

I stood there open-mouthed, staring at this thing, until other shoppers started staring at me. I motioned to my mother – a bad-ass Second Waver, someone who was actually around when the stuff of bra-burning legend was taking place – to look at it. We both uttered variations of, “you have got ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Respecting HIV-Positive Women, Regardless of their Pregnancy Status

This week, a new report found that “virtual elimination” of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan African is possible by 2015.

The report cited two main factors in achieving this exciting health milestone: “significant progress” in increasing HIV-testing among pregnant mothers in the region, and more antiretroviral drugs that are therefore being administered to HIV-positive women to prevent transmission to their children.

This is great progress, and I’m thrilled with the news that fewer and fewer children are being born into this world already infected with a lifelong virus that would threaten their health and quality of life.

In the wake of the report’s findings, I also feel it’s important to call attention to the pervasive rights violations ...

This week, a new report found that “virtual elimination” of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan African is possible by 2015.

The report cited two main factors in achieving this exciting health milestone: “significant ...