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I know, it sounds like a skit on SNL or a South Park episode, but it's for real. Apparently all teh poor menz who rely on GGW to boost their spirits during tough financial times are in danger of losing their only comfort. And we can't let that happen.

Would it be too much to ask that my tax dollars go to Head Start or the soup kitchen rather than Girls Gone Wild?

It seems a Maine businessman has decided to open a topless cafe in Vassalboro, a small town just north of the capital, Augusta. Despite the widespread disapproval of the proposed shop, the town said there's nothing it can do about it.

Let me be clear about what is being planned here: The cafe would serve coffee and bakery items and customers will be waited on by topless waitresses. There is certainly no advantage to waiting tables topless (in fact I can imagine spills of hot coffee would in fact be more dangerous), so I'm assuming the only purpose of this is for the pleasure of the customers.

Ew.

It's unfortunate, too, because Vasalboro is a place (like many in the US right now) that could really use new businesses that create good jobs. I would hate to see women apply there because they can't find an alternative. My guess is that it won't last more than a month anyway, if only because of the crappy location.

I do believe that if a woman wants to work at a topless bar, or at a strip club or wherever, she should certainly have that right, but my fear is of exploitation of women who need the money, and of waitresses getting harrassed.

Fox news in St. Louis, Missouri had a report on the morning news of the Polar Bear Club that swims the Mississippi every January 1. Of coarse the male news anchor had to inform all that "this is a mostly male-dominated tradition." One woman however does participate and the anchor walks to her and says "what's a pretty little thing like you doing here?" Why, in this day and age do men think they can talk to women this way? The fact that the other people watching the clip in the room with me didn't understand why it is a problem was even more alarming. I'm so tired of men treating women as less capable. I'm tired of women not being equal!!!!

2008: The Year of the Woman?  Forget 1992: In the last days of 2008,  we can look back on a year of change and see our voices everywhere.  Linda at About.com's Women's Issues offers a gallery of a dozen, most of whom Mix has been watching all year.  It was our year for medals, too: Dara Torres, 41, made history with two silver medals. and  Brigadier General Anne Dunwoody joined the Army's top brass.

  Many raised their voices in the Presidential campaign — and not only Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. This week's  Newsweek Magazine notes that Oprah Winfrey's influence on the 2008 presidential campaign is still being debated : "She's denied that Obama is giving her a job, but we know she already has his ear. Jocelyn Noveck, of the Associated Press , in her roundup caught on to the new wave of power women:

Also energizing women is the sight of important national security posts going to females -- Clinton as the top diplomat, Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador, Napolitano as homeland security chief. What global changes, women wonder, might be in store under their influence?

The Audacity of Race:   For many, the election of Barack Obama "was more than a political victory, it was a personal victory."  But, as Mattie Francis observes, "We cannot pretend, as I heard some morning-after political pundits say, that we are “a colorblind nation” at this time in history.  This is a myth."   Writing for the Point Reyes Light , she uses her own interracial marriage and motherhood to examine the questions of race and identity that will color politics, into the new year and the new presidency.

If ever there is way for a white girl from the Midwest to comprehend not only intellectually but also viscerally that race is a social construct with no biological basis, it is for her to give birth to a brown baby. Stephan Thernstrom, a professor of history at Harvard University, said that the United States is the only country in the world in which a white mother can give birth to a black child but a black mother cannot give birth to a white child.
To continue reading, please go to Women's Voices For Change

It's an All-Hillary newsmix today, as Barack Obama's lead speechwriter gets his hand caught where it shouldn't have been, Kathy Bates seems to draw upon Mrs. Clinton for her portrayal of a Defense Secretary, and two women are frontrunners to replace Hillary in the Senate.

In his cups: Hollywood director Jon Favreau's films, like Made and Swingers , often have a boys-will-be-boys attitude. Meanwhile, Washington-bound speechwriter Jon Favreau, no relation, has been caught in a boys-will-be-really-incredibly-stupid moment. The latter Favreau, poised to become President-Elect Obama's Sam Seaborn, was tagged in a facebook photo over the weekend cupping the breast of a life-sized cardboard Hillary Clinton. The photo broke in the Washington Post and has produced startlingly little commentary since then.

However, former Bill Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers has a few choice words on the matter.

The towing company that last Monday towed the domestic abuse victim's car (despite even the attendent deputy requesting the vehicle not be towed) has received over 600 complaints at it's website, and an undisclosed amounts of angry emails to the manager, Charles White.  This, along with several threats to cancel accounts, has prompted the owner of the towing company to return the $650 to the young woman. 

No apologies, however, from owner Gary Coe, who charmingly stated "I'm not sure the driver made a bad call here -- he may have," Coe said. "But we are refunding the money because the management company at the apartment complex asked us to."  

In a further move to deflect fallout, Coe has promised to donate $500 to a local shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic abuse. 

Good luck with that, boys.  Everyone at Retriever Towing involved in this debacle, from the tow truck operator to the manager to the owner, have all shown themselves to be complete a**holes.  It's great to hear they returned the woman's money, it's faboo to hear they are giving $500 to the shelter.  It's not ok that it is all being done with a pointed lack of any acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Story link.

While reading this morning's paper over my coffee, I came upon this gem:

Wilsonville assault victim made to pay tow truck 'drop fee' by Rick Bella, The Oregonian Tuesday December 09, 2008, 8:33 PM

First, the young woman bolted from her Wilsonville apartment, blood streaming down her face.

Next, she frantically drove across the parking lot, got out of her car and ran into her grandmother's apartment, where she called 9-1-1 and reported that she had just been assaulted by her boyfriend. After providing a statement to a Clackamas County sheriff's deputy, she went outside to find a tow truck preparing to haul away her car.

Not even the deputy could persuade the tow driver to leave the car without making the woman pay a "drop fee."

"I explained to the tow driver that the woman was the victim of domestic violence," said Clackamas County sheriff's Deputy Wes Hall. "I told him there was no place to park, so she left the car with its four-way flashers going, because she was trying to get away. And I told him that she couldn't move the car because I had her keys. But that didn't seem to matter."

Hall estimated that the car was parked unattended "for 10 to 15 minutes."

 

This article appeared in the paper today, talking about how common chemicals have the effect of “feminizing male populations”, putting the “basic male toolkit under threat” by leading to baby boys being born with “smaller penises and feminized genitals”. Communities that are heavily exposed to such chemicals “have given birth to twice as many girls as boys”.

I find it interesting because of the way the issue is framed, and how the article glides from “smaller penises” to “boys have been born as girls instead”.

While reading the article, I also found myself thinking... so what? Okay, if it impairs the ability of endangered species to reproduce, then that's a problem. But as far as effects on human populations go, is this a big deal?

 

Split-pea soup for the soul: Diana Foote, food writer for the Treasure Coast Palm newspaper, says that anti-depressants are not what's needed during the recession. Instead, she writes, "I suppose the erratic Dow has something to do with it, but I don't feel safe anymore without a hambone in the freezer ."

This world AIDS day and throughout December put your foot down and demand an end to violence against women in the developing world.

A girl born in South Africa has a higher chance of being raped than of learning to read. With 5 million South Africans living with HIV the risk of HIV infection for women is extremely high.

More than 15 million women are living with HIV globally. Every half minute another becomes infected. Widespread violence against women and girls increases their risk of HIV infection.

Violence also increases women's risk indirectly. The threat of violence deters many women from refusing sex or insisting on condoms, even when they suspect their partner is HIV positive.

In their new strategy on HIV and AIDS, the UK government acknowledged these problems. Now, we need to move them from acknowledgement to action.

Put your foot down in solidarity and tell the UK government that it's time to take action on violence against women and HIV and AIDS.

Sign our petition today.