National Day of Action
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Washington, D.C.
There is a generation of young feminists out there ready to fight for reproductive rights. Many older feminists (myself included) have bemoaned the fact that we are having trouble recruiting younger feminists to take over our organizations. Maybe younger feminists want to form their own organizations rather than build those that emerged from second wave feminism. Maybe they'll do both.
What's becoming increasingly clear is that there are young, energetic feminists committed to fighting for equality for women. I went to a meeting today convened by WOMEN'S WAY, a local foundation which raises money for organizations providing services to women and girls. The room was filled with young women determined to fight against any erosion of abortion rights in the health care bill before Congress. (If anyone doubts that the Stupak-Pitts amendment effectively denies coverage for abortion in the plans to be offered in the proposed insurance exchange, read George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services report on the Stupak/Pitts Amendment
These young women do not want to choose between expanding heath care and maintaining a right many women currently possess. One theme which emerged at today's meeting was that the pro-choice movement has been energized by Stupak-Pitts. When we defeat this attempt to erode abortion rights, we'll be ready to take on the Hyde amendment, which denies access to abortion to low-income women who are receiving Medicaid.
I don't think young women are going to meekly stand by and accept the loss of hard fought rights. Something is happening out there.
Karen
http://www.the-next-stage.com/
If I could have given a speech on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, this would have been it:
Last night I had a dream. In it, a trans woman was given a chance to go back in time and live for a day in a world where her birth gender had been female. The day was her birthday and she was being encouraged by her parents to embrace some of the very gender binary ways of being a girl. Having lived her entire life being rejected by her family, she was confused and scared, clinging tightly onto the old basketball hoop they had on the patio. She didn't understand at first that she was free here to embrace all the possibilities of who she could be. Slowly she opened up and enjoyed this one day where her mother treated her as a daughter who would someday grow into a woman, a woman who would experience all the trials and all the joys that come of being female.
Suddenly, a long, black car arrived and a man in a suit whisked the little girl away. They drove silently until they came to a quiet street corner in a place the girl did not recognize. The man offered the girl a choice: "When you set foot outside of this car", he said "you'll either return to your old life or you can stay as you are now. If you choose the latter you will lose everyone you have ever cared about, you will have to start your life over completely without the support of anyone but yourself. You'll be alone but your mind and the vessel that contains it will finally match."
This post is inspired by reading a good friend's blog entry of Friday.
As she writes,
What happened to Carrie [Prejean] is not, as at least one feminist blogger has argued , "sexual assault, " and it does not "perpetuate the rape culture," unless you're saying televised beauty pageants rape our culture, yeah they do. But as Media Matters just pointed out this week , the word "rape" is being used far too often in political discourse, and it denigrates the suffering of those who have actually experienced that crime, the exact same way tossing around "Hitler" denigrates holocaust victims. In future, I hope we can pull it back a notch, and only use the term rape to mean, well, rape.
Frequently we cite instances of actual rape i.e. sexual assault, frequently of women and place the blame squarely upon the attacker(s) and rape culture, where it deserves to be. Despite our best intentions, sometimes I feel a bit unintentionally desensitized to it all by the fact that, especially on this site, so much attention is devoted to one key topic. I'm not saying we should refrain from pointing out how common rape is to our culture and how society overlooks or rationalizes away its negative impact, but rather to note that in many ways we are swimming upstream and in so doing creating a greater propensity for the very word and concept "rape" to lose its power. The activist in us all believes that with repetition and constant attention needed changes can and will be made, but with them too comes the inevitable unforeseen consequences.
We've talked before about whether the word "Feminism" connotes more negative than positive meanings in the eyes and ears of the beholders and in that vein it might do us well to talk and brainstorm about whether this same phenomenon might someday soon apply to discussions of rape. Language evolves with us and evolves with time. We're not the only people who are fighting against sexual assault and rape culture, but when one finds instance after instance of rape, whether simulated or real, on television and on the internet, then the horror of it begins to fade and indeed, a cavalier attitude towards it may fuel, guess what, more instance of rape as a result.
While Bones is a show I like more than others, since I love the character of Temperance Brennan and the way she's portrayed by Emily Deschanel, there are occasional things that make me cringe and wonder about what the producers are thinking.
First, she is supposed to "almost" have Asperger's. Sorry but wtf is "almost"... Her "lack of social skills" is attributed to a probable disability, while the same kind of nerdiness in a male character elsewhere, like Grissom on CSI, is attributed to a focus on work instead of socializing. Her seriousness and lack of empathy (so unfeminine!) are seen as alien and comical. Yeah, thanks. Ha ha ha - a woman behaving like that - isn't that funny! Not.
I suppose a lot of my reaction comes from the gut, as I was identified as "gifted" and acted a heck of a lot like Bones, minus the "diagnosis".
Continue reading "Bones on TV: mostly like, some ambivalence"Have we talked about this yet?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/17/palin-slams-sexist-newsweek-cover/
I'm trying really hard not to get my dislike for Sarah Palin to interfere with an analysis of sexism. But here's why I think the Newsweek cover isn't sexist:
1) Palin sexualized herself (or let the GOP sexualize her) throughout her campaign to win. She showed some leg in plenty of outfits.
2) She posed for this picture herself for Runner's World. If showing her legs there wasn't sexist, why is it here?
3) She prides in being different from the "elitist DC politicians," which is why she has worked so hard to publicize her family, wink during debates, drop the "g" from all "ing" words, dolling herself up, etc etc. Why is it suddenly sexist for Newsweek then to use a non-business portrayal of her? When has Palin even been business-y?
Your thoughts?
Recently, a large number of "hackerspaces" have been popping up in cities around the US. For those who don't know, a hackerspace is a physical space where DIY enthusiasts collaborate on projects and pool their resources to buy tools they couldn't afford on their own. These spaces are creating new opportunities and producing a lot of exciting projects.
However, many of these spaces are severely lacking in diversity. For example, the space I'm part of (which shall remain nameless) is about 95% male. Luckily, most of the members recognize the importance of reaching out a more diverse group. There are a lot of ideas about good (and bad) ways to do this, and I certainly have my own, but I thought this community would be a great place to get a another perspective and generate some discussion.
For some background on the policies of my particular space: full use of the space is open to the public for free as long as a member is present. Dues-paying members get 24-hour access and a vote. The monthly dues are about 3 times the cost of a fitness club membership. Most evenings we have free classes on various topics open to the public, usually taught by members. The group is very open to moving in new directions to accommodate as wide a range of interests as possible.
Some of the factors that we think may be discouraging women (and other potential members) from participating in our hackerspace and others are:
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feeling like an outsider due to existing gender ratio
price of dues
guilt over using the space without paying dues
lack of interest in existing projects / classes / tools
Some of the ideas that have been suggested so far are:
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matching potential members with an existing member as a point of contact
scholarships to cover some or all of dues
introductory rates
tiered membership rates
free memberships to an initial group of women
So, any thoughts? What are the best ways to include women and minorities in the hackerspace movement? Anyone else here have personal experience with hackerspaces, or other DIY or tech groups? Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say!
So, Cracked.com doesn't always employ the classiest of humor, but it's definitely not the most offensive site out there. That said, I was (pleasantly) surprised to see an article on their front page this morning called, "7 Popular 'Chick Flicks' That Secretly Hate Women."
From the introduction to the article: "Hollywood filmmakers like their women like they like their coffee: shrill, stupid and submissive. And usually not black.
As evidence, all you need to do is look at the "romantic" movies which are targeted toward women, yet somehow embrace every negative assumption about females that males have ever dreamed up."
http://www.cracked.com/article/194_7-popular-chick-flicks-that-secretly-hate-women/
The article isn't perfect, obviously ("tranny" is used as an insult at the end; not a fan.) but overall I think it's nice to see an article that points out misogyny alongside Cracked's usual material.
I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2005, and I've noticed a pattern in the treatment of female characters. Of course, sexy and beautiful women are prevalent in the storyline while more clothed women aren't. One can shrug this off as understandable because the gaming industry is inherently androcentric, and women are lucky to be represented at all. That's a very poor excuse, but seems to be the only one the dudes on the Warcraft forums can come up with. The sexy women are only there to serve as eye candy for the dudes that play the game. How else can you explain the Queen of the Dragonflights wearing a bikini and club boots at the top of a 100 story tower in an arctic zone in the middle of winter? That's just not logical even for a game with minotaurs that can shapeshift into cats, dance with you, and then drive away on a motorcycle.
Should we justify the oppressive themes as nothing that should be taken seriously because they are there for dudes, or should we question why these themes exist? Why does the ancient queen of the dragons have to look like a 20 year old beauty queen? The male audience thinks women have no dreams, intelligence, individuality or lives worth noting, so all they're good for is being sexy. Women like Alexstrasza are hailed by the male audience while Jaina gets "Jaina Must Die" clubs. Sylvanas gets a major plot within the story while Tyrande gathers dust in the background. Women are either sexy and prevalent in the story, or modest (if you will) and only talked about.
The ACOG now recommends cervical cancer screening at 21, and says women don't require annual exams
Thoughts?
By Diana Kasdan, Staff Attorney, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project
That’s what Bethany Cajúne told me the first time we spoke about her experience in Montana’s Lake County Detention Facility. “No one should go through what I went through.” We filed a case earlier today to make sure that Bethany’s desire to protect other women becomes a reality.
This past March, Bethany voluntarily reported to the detention facility to complete an outstanding short-term sentence for traffic violations. At that time, she was approximately four to five months pregnant, raising five small children, and attending GED classes four days a week. She was also about to successfully complete her first year in a medication-treatment program for a diagnosed addiction to opioid drugs. What Bethany didn’t know when she reported to the facility was that detention officials would withhold her medication, which was prescribed to suppress withdrawal symptoms and facilitate Bethany’s recovery, and was now critical for protecting the health of her pregnancy.
Despite several attempts by Bethany’s treating physician and drug treatment counselor to ensure that Bethany continue receiving her medication, facility officials, including its chief medical doctor, denied her this care. As a result, Bethany suffered complete and abrupt withdrawal, experienced constant vomiting, diarrhea, rapid weight loss, dehydration, and other withdrawal symptoms, all extremely dangerous during pregnancy. Despite repeated warnings of the serious risk abrupt withdrawal posed to Bethany’s health and pregnancy, including miscarriage, the facility continued to withhold her medication. Instead of receiving appropriate medical care, she was at various times confined in an unsanitary and windowless solitary confinement cell, told to “tough it out,” and shackled during an ultrasound examination. It took the intervention of a public defender to secure her release so that she could resume the treatment. In the end, Lake County knowingly put Bethany’s health and pregnancy at severe risk for nine days.
Continue reading ""No One Should Go Through What I Went Through""
