This Week in the War on Women: Enough is Enough Version

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Saturday October 15, 2016 · 5:01 PM PDT

2016/10/15 · 17:01

Women are justifiably angry. If Nate Silver’s polling is any indication, women especially, of all stripes and beliefs, genders, color, ethnicity, will deliver the election for Hillary Clinton. What is so remarkable about this emphatic rejection of Donald Trump is the insistence among women that we tell our stories of the constant sexual assault, harassment, insult, shaming—telling those stories loud and clear. In public. So men cannot ignore it. So women who defend these men cannot ignore it. So that women able to think can join together and say “Enough is Enough.”

This week’s report on the War on Women is focused on the reactions to the tape of Donald Trump delighting in his “ability” to sexually harass any woman in his reach—married, unmarried, hot, attractive, anyone he deems worth . Most of the reactions were revulsion. But the small group of Trump supporters made their presence known by standing armed, outside Democratic candidate sites and their ongoing online presence insulting women, Hillary Clinton, and praising sexual predator Donald Trump. More below the line.

So let’s start with the Nate Silver polling. Part of this story started with Trump, Jr. tweeting the Nate Silver map of electoral votes based on current polling.

www.salon.com/...

Great. Trump Jr. says women who can’t handle sexual harassment should teach kindergarten. Ugh. This in Brendan Gauthier Salon article.

What Nate Silver actually posted, the map in question, was if only men voted —

After finding out what Nate Silver had posted, Trump supporters decided that women should not vote. LA Times reporter Seema Mehta writes on Trump voters who want to repeal the 19^th Amendment, the amendment enlarging the franchise to include women.

www.latimes.com/…

The link below is to the map with voting by men only is red. The map with women only voting is quite different.

fivethirtyeight.com/…

Almost all blue—but a handful of Southern states, three mountain states—Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, and North Dakota. 458 Electorial Votes.

312961 — Nate Silver’s 538 blog map of outcome of women voter polling Oct 14, 2016

Beautiful. Hope it holds. Because more of us vote in percentage terms. We need to show up.

So let me move to the important reactions of women.

Story for NPR by Camila Domonoske on the Twitter outburst of stories of sexual assault.

www.npr.org/...

On Saturday, Oxford said that over the course of a single evening, a million women had responded to her call-out.

The flood of stories still hasn't ended. More than 13,000 tweets were directed at Oxford on Sunday and Monday alone, mostly from women and men recounting assaults; still other stories were shared under the hashtag #NotOkay, or posted on Facebook.

The vast majority of responses, including Arington's, do not mention Trump by name. They stand as a rebuke not only to the candidate, but to something much larger: a culture of complicit silence.

In a Chicago Tribute article by Dahleen Glanton, she relates her own story and closes with

Michelle Obama spoke for many women Thursday when she said the Trump allegations had "shaken" her to the core in a way she couldn't have predicted.

It is frightening to realize how close we have come to electing a president who dismisses predatory behavior as merely locker room banter. It's depressing to think that America could have a man at its helm who views women as a piece of meat. It is hurtful to hear him talk about being able to do whatever he wants to a woman.

Such a mindset has no place in our society, and those words certainly shouldn't have come out of the mouth of a presidential contender.

That's why we are breaking our silence. Because every woman in America deserves better than this.

Quite apart from the deplorable video of Billy Bush and Donald Trump discuss assaulting women, here are several other descriptions of Trump’s attitudes toward women. In Rolling Stones special report on Trump, Matt Taibbi on Trump’s violent reactions to women who challenge him.

www.rollingstone.com/...

Summer Fields’ ABC story on how Trump uses Twitter to attack women.

abcnews.go.com/...

Fields includes some of his notable tweets about women in the media, his usual target.

Sarah O from Crooks and Liars writes on the reaction to Trump disclosure by women.

crooksandliars.com/...

The “witness” Trump uses to say that the Leeds flight sexual harassment it didn’t happen in fact confirms that he was on that flight. Ye, Gods!

Another story about Trump and sexual assault, this one compiling a list of the accusers.

www.theglobeandmail.com/...

Claire Cohen’s compilation of Trump’s offensive comments about women.

www.telegraph.co.uk/...

Here’s an example from the Cohen article about about women and architecture:

2007: When he compared women to architecture

This appears in his bible of business wisdom Trump 101: The Way to Success:

"Beauty and elegance, whether in a woman, a building, or a work of art, is not just superficial or something pretty to see."

At least our beauty isn’t superficial, eh ladies?

An article in McClatcheyDC by Anita Kuman and Lesley Clark about differences and similarities between Clinton and Trump as politicians with sexual scandals.

www.mcclatchydc.com/...

Here are the kinds of comments by Trump supporters--Good Lord!!

Woody Dickman ·

Four people who lost their law licenses, one pedophile and serial rapist, one corrupt former US Secretary who sold out her office and got 4 Americans killed in Benghazi, one closeted homosexual black former "community organizer" a.k.a. Al Sharpten with a deeper voice, and finally, one First Tranny in a dress masqurading as a first "Lady", are trying to moralize with the rest of us? Bullshlt! www.google.com/...

Charlie Watkins

Come on now! Give Bill a break. I think that a man married to Hillary has got some type of Constitutional Right to stray from the marital bed. Bill is only human and being forced to be in a monogamus relationship with Hillary would test even the strongest of men. Plus Bill is so smooth with it. I think it is the eyes. You know he is lying and he knows you know that he is lying but yet you want to forgive him because his lies are so sincere. Bill is a hero to men who cannot get away with it like he can. Bill is world-class.

ALL the comments seem to be in this vein. God help us.

And to go along with these appalling comments, here is Rush Limbaugh, as reported by MediaMatters:

mediamatters.org/...

A Legacy of Musical Responses

Over the years, popular music has conveyed a number of responses to situations in which women have had enough. So here are several for your Saturday listening pleasure.

YouTube Video

Though most of these are about surviving rotten heterosexual relations, the fierceness of the sentiments rings true for this moment. Here’s Gloria Gaynor.

YouTube Video

And a nice list hitting some high spots for fierce feminist attitudes:

www.timeout.com/…

And a good old sixties song to close this section.

YouTube Video

And in other news . . .

This section includes a brief set of other news stories. I hope that readers will add news stories they found interesting in the comments as I haven’t been able too include all the worthwhile stories recommended for this week.

Events

Economic Policy Institute, October 26^th, 11:30 am. Panel, Wage Gap, Washington DC

www.eventbrite.com/…

October 11th was the International Day of the Girl. This Planned Parenthood AZ article remind us all that the real experts about girls are girls themselves.

advocatesaz.org/...

International News

CNN story by Stephanie Busari, Jason Hanna and Faith Karini about the release of 21 Chibok schools girls in Nigeria. Their names are listed in the article. Just under 200 girls remain in capitivity or whose whereabouts are unknown. #BringBackOurGirls

www.cnn.com/...

Nigeria again. While the President meets with European leaders including Angela Merkel, his wife indicates there are policy problems for women in recent actions. He wants to send her back to the kitchen.

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Breeanna Hare writes a CNN article on the five worst countries in which to be a girl.

www.cnn.com/…

Health

Article from Mosaic, a fascinating interdisciplinary journal, on the importance of microbiotic health for women’s genitals.

mosaicscience.com/…

This story about the African American doctor on a flight from Detroit being totally dissed and rejected by the flight attendant, who apparently couldn’t believe that this young woman was a real physician is astonishing.

twentytwowords.com/…

Apparently Delta “reprimanded” her. She should have been fired for endangering the life of a passenger. This shows one of the real costs of racism. As disgusting as Trump.

Fetal Remains law reviewed in report by Nation’s Rebecca Grant.

www.womenshealthpolicyreport.org/…

Action

Vote

Encourage others to vote.

Call voters.

Help voters get to the polls.

UltraViolet has a new petition up to remove Jeff Sessions from the Judiciary Committee in the Senate.

act.weareultraviolet.org/…

Another petition admonishing judge for change of sentence to child rapist. Read the story. This is awful.

countercurrentnews.com/...

As always, thanks to the mighty members of group writing This Week in the War on Women: officebss, ramara, Eyesbright, Besame, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, elenacarlena. Hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. You’re all terrific. Thank you especially ramara for teaching me how to embed a YouTube video!

This Week in the War on Women

cinnamon68 for This Week in the War on Women

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday September 10, 2016 · 5:02 PM PDT

2016/09/10 · 17:02

This week has all the usual topics and players with continuing bad news and a smattering of good news. Perhaps the most important discussion this week was about Matt Lauer’s questioning and interrupting of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in this week’s Commander in Chief forum. Eight questions about Clinton’s private email server while Secretary of State. Let’s see—where does that rank in the questions about foreign policy and war? And about being the Commander in Chief? And Lauer interrupted Clinton’s answers over and over. The good news here is that for once much of the media condemned Lauer’s performance in his role as one of the questioners in the forum. Reporters (and everyone else who watched or listened) condemned the behavior, a rare moment when people realized that Hillary Clinton was being treated quite differently than her opponent with the orange toupee.

As a linguist, I can tell you that the scholarly and empirical research on men and women in conversation show the same thing, over and over again. Though not enough research has yet been done on how this works out all the way across the gender spectrum, men interrupt women—no matter how you define interruptions—at a considerably higher rate than women interrupt men. Most of this research has been conducted on white, middle class speakers, and research into cross-sex conversations in the African American community indicates that the outcomes and interruptions may be quite different than the white, middle class version. But . . . male working class patients interrupt women physicians during office visits. Male students interrupt female instructors in conferences. Men in academic meetings interrupt women, even when women are the majority in the meeting. Corporate work meetings also show women being interrupted, silenced, ignored in various configurations. Linguists now observe that what is driving these male behaviors toward women in conversations is more a reflection of power dynamics than gender. But this week, for just a moment, a number of watchers and listeners recognized how the extraordinarily qualified woman speaker was treated by a male, sophomoric, talk show host.

On to the week’s news.

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 08, 2016 · 8:01 AM PDT

2016/09/08 · 08:01

Looking down into the abyss

What is a university? What is a college? Fundamentally, a university is its faculty and students. At its heart, a university’s fundamental task is for its faculty to provide an education, as they see fit, for their students.

Though administrators may make the wheels turn, administrators are basically extraneous to the fundamental task: education. They may help acquire funds, hire staff, process paperwork of all kinds, maintain the physical university or college and its monetary needs, but only the faculty and the students are absolutely necessary. See various statements about what the faculty do and how they participate in governing colleges and universities here www.aaup.org/…

Three days ago, President of Long Island University Kimberly R. Cline and the Board of Trustees locked out the faculty of the LIU Brooklyn Campus. After contract negotiations on a new contract failed, the administration simply ended negotiations. Such a lockout has never happened before in higher education in the United States. The administration not only locked out the faculty, but they also cut off their pay, their benefits, their health care, and even their university email.

If the administration of this university is able to overturn the fundamental structure of faculty shared governance, then we are all in danger of seeing the destruction of the colleges and universities into customers and faculty-free curriculum.

They need our help and I list at the end of this diary the various ways in which outsiders can assist the faculty caught in a neoliberal fit of anger.

What about the students?

And what do the students get as fall classes begin? Administrators and other nonprofessionals masquerading as faculty. Many administrators and “temporary” hires were learning to teach through “onboarding” training sessions, said LIU English professor Deborah Mutnick. Apparently, through the summer, the LIU administration was preparing for this radical move. Just how the administration “prepared” for the education of its students by administrators is reported by the www.nytimes.com/…

The university has been preparing to staff its classes with replacement teachers, advertising on job websites and through its alumni network.

Ms. Haynes said that about 140 replacement teachers had been hired, and that they all had the proper accreditation and licensing.

At one point, Ms. Haynes was scheduled to teach a yoga class. The dean of students for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, David Cohen, a botanist, was going to teach ballet.

As reported by Liz Robbins in the NYT on September 6, 2016.

The administration claims that these “errors” have been corrected, but the university searched for people to “staff” classes in a variety of very non-academic ways, including advertising positions on Monster.com. Hires in academic departments at colleges and universities are thoroughly vetted before actual hiring by the academic department in which the faculty member will teach, research, and contribute to the community. While administrators and boards of trustees may make the last official move, they almost never assess and evaluate a potential faculty member’s qualifications to be a faculty member. What’s happening at LIU is nearly the antithesis of an academic hiring process. Atlantic reporter Alana Semuels interviewed one adjunct professor and advisor at LIU who was solicited for fall classes and assigned English courses during the summer.

Sam Scheiber, an adjunct professor at New York University who also serves as a student advisor at LIU, was asked to replace the striking professors. He says that as early as July, the university was reaching out to him to get proposed syllabi for a class he hadn’t been hired to teach. Then, on August 22, at a weekly meeting, he was assigned a handful of English classes to teach, as a contingency. He was told he couldn’t discuss these classes with students or other faculty members. Rather than serve as a scab, he quit. “It seemed like an ethical line that I couldn’t cross,” he told me. www.theatlantic.com/...

As labor expert and Cornell Professor Kate Bronfenbrenner observed:

Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, is an expert on lockouts. She said that while they hurt union members economically, they pose a great risk to the reputation of employers, especially in the education sector. "If you have faculty members showing up who want to teach," it "looks very bad" for the employer to be turning them away, she said.

As reported by Scott Jascink in www.insidehighered.com/...

Professor Bronfenbrenner was also interviewed by the Atlantic and confirmed her historical view of lockouts:

Labor historians say they can’t recall an example of a university using a lockout against faculty members. Kate Bronfenbrenner, a Cornell professor of labor relations, says they’re particularly unwise in the service sector, or any sector where a company has clients such as students and donors to placate. More typically, she says, lockouts are used in the industrial sector, where customers are removed from labor practices.

So LIU-Brooklyn’s students—primarily women and primarily people of color—are getting the new, discount, neoliberal version of a college and graduate level education at the full cost of this private university’s tuition, but without the actual faculty.

The faculty definitively rejected the administration’s contract offer 226-10. And the Faculty Senate, separate from the union itself, voted “no confidence” in Long Island University President Kimberly R. Cline. The contract issues were multiple:

cuts to wages for new full-time faculty;
cuts to wages of already poorly paid adjuncts;
an imbalance between faculty pay on the LIU-Post campus and the LIU-Brooklyn campus;
changes to post-tenure review;
class size;
online curriculum;

and reducing funding of an innovative fund for additional services by adjuncts. www.thenation.com/…

As LUIFF President Jessica Rosenberg said:

“We’ve been bargaining in good faith and we continue to bargain,” said LIUFF president Jessica Rosenberg. “We had planned to bring their last best final offer to the membership for a ratifying vote on the 31st and they preempted that by informing us we were going to be locked out, and immediately after they locked us out they cut healthcare, salary, and access to e-mail and students.” www.thenation.com/...

Positions of various organizations are listed below (including the administrative position):

www.liuff.net/...

AAUP Statement on LIU faculty lockout

www.liuff.net

The union’s statement

liu.edu/…

Administration’s position

What you can do as a friend of higher education--

I will save for another diary an analysis of how this lockout embodies the result of neoliberalism in higher education. And forgive me for my lack of technical knowledge about DKos 5 diaries (can’t figure out how to get a photo in the right place, for example). But there are some very real things that each of us can do, even if we don’t live in New York, even if we are not in higher education even if we are not concerned teachers at other levels, and even if we are just the concerned citizens who think students should learn to be critical thinkers.

DONATE TO THE STRIKE FUND

www.aft.org/…

EMAIL OR CALL THE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

President Cline	President	(516) 299-2501	Office of the President	UniversityCenter	liu.edu
Kim Cline	President	(516)-299-2501	Office of the President	UniversityCenter	Kim.Cline@liu.edu

QUERY THE ACCREDITING ASSOCIATION ABOUT THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE REPLACEMENT FACULTY

www.4icu.org/...

There are good reasons why the model of the university and college has remained based in the concepts of faculty and students since the earliest universities in Western Europe (University of Bologna, University of Paris, and Oxford University) and North Africa (University of Al-Karaouine and Al-Azhar University). Help stop the masquerade at LIU-Brooklyn.

[Many thanks to Aaron Barlow, Editor of Academe, and Deborah Mutnick, Professor of English, LIU-Brooklyn, for locating key information for me. I am a Professor of English at the University of Washington-Seattle.]

Goodbye Raleigh: Death by Cost of Surgery

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday August 07, 2016 · 2:18 PM PDT

2016/08/07 · 14:18

Raleigh20150601_202111-1.jpg

I can barely stop crying but I am hoping that by writing this diary that I can begin to live with my decision. This morning at 5:00 am, I decided that my only option was to put my cat to sleep. My beautiful tuxedo, my divorce cat, my companion was a neutered four-year-old male and apparently neutered male cats are prone to urinary tract blockage. Two weeks ago my cat started straining when he arrived at the litter box. I took him to his regular vet and the vet put him on a different diet and drained his bladder. This weekend, he started straining again and was so uncomfortable that he pushed hands away when I or my son tried to pet him. We had read online that time was an issue with this problem, so I decided to take him to the nearby pet emergency hospital. I did not have pet insurance.

When we came in, I told the technicians what had been happening and they took him to the examination room. A few minutes later, one of the technicians came out and told us the cost of the exam and the cost of a blood test. Because I am usually broke in the summer (I teach; no pay in summer), I had applied for CareCredit before we even left the house. But it wasn’t enough. After the exam, the vet came and talked with us about the costs to treat Raleigh. She said $2500 to $3000. I was shocked and it was more than I had in credit. I thought that I could gather a few hundred more dollars but I knew I couldn’t get to this range. So we discussed less costly options and we started on these options. Her attitude toward me and my cat was dismissive. First she said that I could take my cat to the south end of my city (the less affluent part of my city) and I might find less expensive care. No matter that I didn’t have a clue about vets in that part of the city or how to contact one in an emergency. But, of course, she said the vets wouldn’t be board certified or trained in the surgery my cat needed. Or I could euthanize him right away since I couldn’t really afford his treatment (and I probably shouldn’t have a pet because I couldn’t produce that amount of money immediately).

Let me say here that I have always thought of veterinary costs as a part of having a pet. My cat had all of his shots and had a recent examination at my regular vet that indicated that he was in good health. I have had cats all of my life and they typically lived to be 18-22 years. I lost one cat a little earlier—Watermelon developed diabetes. For five years, I gave Watermelon insulin twice a day every day. So I am not someone who doesn’t even think about veterinary care as a part of pet ownership. But for me this whole scene is a study in neoliberalism. No matter how large a role a companion animal may play in my own health, I am responsible for all costs. And I am responsible for paying for my share of the costs of the vet’s education and her practice. That entry to veterinary schools is highly competitive because there are fewer slots than students who want to study it is just, well, that’s the way it is. That veterinary knowledge has advanced and bears no relation to costs people have experienced in the fairly recent past is, well, my tough luck. That I feel like I was the victim of a holdup—well, tough shit, lady. You’re the one without the money or the credit to pay for this emergency.

Early this morning, the pet hospital called and told me that Raleigh’s bladder had burst. To save him, he would have to have immediate, emergency surgery. The minimum cost for this surgery was $4000. This pet hospital had no options other than CareCredit. I had already expended the amount of credit that I had with CareCredit. And given that time was short, and his bladder was spewing toxins into his body, I had to make a decision right away. I think that they didn’t even try very hard to save him. The evening before they had not been able to fully insert the catheter to drain his bladder. I was willing to try to pay for another try. I couldn’t raise the whole amount but I was willing to try family members to give it a shot. I told them that. But there never was another try.

I held him for 45 minutes and then let him go. I can’t stop crying.

THIS WEEK IN THE WAR ON WOMEN July 16, 2016

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday July 16, 2016 · 5:01 PM PDT

2016/07/16 · 17:01

This week is, of course, filled with far too much grieving. From the deaths-by-police of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile to the members of the Dallas Police Department and to the Bastille Day celebrants in Nice, France. And within the past month victims in Orlando, Istanbul, and Dhaka. As one editorial listed below reminds us, LA Times editorial editor Warnke, all of the perpetrators have been men, the single most shared demographic characteristic of recent terrorist attackers. An especially important comparison is between men and women police officers in the United States and deaths by police shooting. www.latimes.com/...

This week’s TWOW highlights presentations of the ultra-conservative, anti-woman positions of Trump Vice-Presidential choice Mike Pence, now Governor of Indiana. Abortion news continues to be prominent and I have combined it with current medical news, including a personal section on breast cancer in women over 60. Sexual assault, reactions to comments about assault, advice about getting women to say “yes,” online commentary by men about women’s issues, nationally and internationally, and gendered criticism of film, especially provoked by the new “Ghostbusters” with an all-female cast are all featured. International news includes some high spots with some success for women activists and the appointment of Carla Hayden, the first African American Librarian of Congress.

As usual, thanks to all of the news contributors: Besame, elenacarlena, ramara, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, and officebss. Thanks for your help and good wishes. Keep talking out there, making our issues visible, timely, and urgent. Have a great week!

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday June 04, 2016 · 5:00 PM PDT

2016/06/04 · 17:00

Not News: The War on Women Hasn’t Stopped. Every week, I look for signs of hope that the constant pressure against women living their lives on their own terms has abated. It hasn’t, but I’ll keep hoping. This week’s news ranged from the continuing political attacks on abortion and women’s health issues, such as the new app by Copley Advertising that allows anti-abortion groups to send smartphone messages to women sitting in or being treated in abortion clinics, to Slate’s analysis of network reporting on abortion and it will be not surprise to find that FOX News had the most inaccurate information usually delivered by a man. In international news, a Pakistani photographer took twitter photos of women objecting to a recent pronouncement by an iman who said that Pakistani law should allow men to beat women lightly. In Africa, young girls miss school because they lack access to menstrual pads. In Egypt, a seventeen year old died after FGM. And there is much much more over the orange filigree. Even some good news here and there, like the U.S. Senate approving Senator Patty Murray’s resolution for equal pay for the Women’s Soccer Team. And I have also included a URL for this month’s free academic journal related to women’s studies.

As always, this diary is a collective enterprise. Thanks for story leads to Besame, ramara, 2thanks, eyesbright, elenacarlena, and Tara the AntiSocial Social Worker and in several cases their introduction to the articles.

Reproductive Health

Amanda Marcotte on Salon on the app developed to track abortion patients:

www.salon.com/…

and another article on this app by Sharona Coutts.

rewire.news/…

No surprises here: FOX News provides the most inaccurate information on abortion and typically delivered by a man, such as Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity:

www.slate.com/…

The Zika virus already present in the U.S. needs more attention. As Guardian writer Susana T. Friend discusses, just not getting pregnant presents some challenges to conservative religions:

www.theguardian.com/…

Arizona’s former House Speaker, Russell Pearce, of anti-bilingual anti-bi-cultural fame, misfires again, this time wanting to require forced sterilization of women on welfare:

www.msnbc.com/…

International News

nymag.com/...

Susan Rinkunas writes in NY Magazine about 17 year old female dead after FGM.

www.nytimes.com/...

Letter to Editor NYT Women’s Rights in Brazil

jezebel.com/...

Jezebel story by Shannon Sims on gang rape of woman in Brazil and official (non)response

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Reuters article by Ece Toksabay on Miss Turkey being arrested and jailed for poem against Turkey’s President

www.theguardian.com/...

Guardian story by Sam Jones on study from UN Population Fund on continuing denials of health and education of women in poorest countries

Girls were given cameras to document their time in isolation (Chhaupadi) during menstruation in Nepal as a means of opening up conversations about this taboo. It was banned by the government in 2005, but persists. No meat, dairy, vegetables or fruits. No contact with others. No school. No toilet. no no no no

www.viralwomen.com/...

www.ipsnews.net/...

Article from Inter Press Service by Tharanga Yakupitiyage on lack of menstrual pads keeping girls from school

Also tweet from the news service.

In Kenya, approx 50% of school-age girls don't have access to sanitary pads https://t.co/Wb4cjFEnU6 pic.twitter.com/mHj58yHGN7
Ã¢ÂÂ Inter Press Service (@ipsnews) June 1, 2016

From global issues.org:

Menstrual Hygiene Gaps Continue to Keep Girls from School

Around the world girls are struggling to stay in school when their menstrual hygiene needs are forgotten or ignored, yet the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and education sectors have remained reluctant to address the issue.

Menstrual Hygiene Day, celebrated on May 28, aims to raise awareness of the fundamental role that MHM plays in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential in areas such as education.

www.globalissues.org/...

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Pakistani photographer’s twitter photos with hashtag #trybeatingmelightly women responding to suggestion of how men should beat women in Pakistan Proposed Pakistani law permitting men to lightly beat their wives sparks a new Twitter hashtag #TryBeatingMeLightly (Besame)

Article by Ferdous Begum on Help Age International on issues about aging women in developing countries, easily fixed such as cataract surgery.

http://www.helpage.org/blogs/ferdoushi-begum-180/we-must-learn-from-older-womens-experiences-to-make-development-inclusive-153/

More on the Patel Prosecution and Appeal in Indiana

Huffington Post article by Lynn M. Paltrow

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Purvi Patel, an Indiana woman who sought to have a safe home abortion with medication, has already spent more than a year behind bars. Indiana does not have a law that criminalizes people who have or seek to have an abortion. What Indiana does have is a feticide law. No one should be surprised that this law, passed under the guise of protecting pregnant women from violence, is now being used to punish pregnant women.

rewire.news/...

ReWire article summing up the appellate argument in Patel prosecution appeal in Indiana. Article by Jessica Mason Pietko. (ramara)

More Crimes against Women

www.viralwomen.com/...

Viral Women article on near-rape by Bridget Brown--When the rapist looks like the good guy (Besame)

www.nbcmontana.com/...

AP Story Montana. Idaho father took pregnant daughter to marry her rapist. Father 4 months in jail; rapist 15 years in jail.

boingboing.net/...

BoingBoing story by Rob Beschizza on Stanford U student give light sentence so as to not be unnecessarily harsh.

Odds and Ends

feministing.com/...

From Feministing; article by Reina Gattuso on Levi’s Pride Line

feministing.com/...

Zoe Lufgren’s response to anti-trans testimony; story by Dana Bolger

rewire.news/...

Christine Grimaldi article on Rep Marsha Blackburn of TN who revealed researcher information on those who worked with fetal tissue. You may remember her as the Rep whose aide sent around racist pics of President Obama.

Gender and Language

journals.equinoxpub.com/...

Available issue of the journal Gender and Language, an international journal. The available issue is about quantitative approaches to studying gender and language.

Men think women are speaking equally when they have 15% of the conversational floor and women talk too much at 30%

Men think conversation as equal when women talk 15% of the time.
Men think women dominate when they talk just 30%. pic.twitter.com/I0KgccJFEk
Ã¢ÂÂ Marceline (@marcyjcook) May 28, 2016

More reading on women and men in conversation:

The researcher who found this ratio can be seen here

en.wikipedia.org/...

and here

dalespender.com.au

Good News/Better Information

From Huffington Post:

Hey! The U.S. Senate did something positive for women! Too bad it's non-binding.

They passed a resolution introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in support of giving the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team equal pay with the Men's Team.

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

www.parsemusfoundation.org/...

Male contraceptive in the works; human clinical trials in India.

www.sciencedaily.com/...

Variety of news about medicine and research on women’s health. Free online subscription.

www.onbeing.org/...

Interview with Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK and author of A Nun on the Bus.

Worthy reading even if older. She keeps on working despite the Vatican’s condemnation of her group.

www.vox.com/...

An interesting look at women's benefit from and opposition to affirmative action. It was shared by Shaun King.

www.glamour.com/...

Article in Glamor by Gabby Weiss, brought up in Quiverful family, now actively pro-choice.

Gorilla Death/Cincinnati Zoo

Questions about parenting, well, really, mothering, when an active toddler escaped his mother’s grasp and climbed into the gorilla exhibit at the zoo. Many reactions to this as the zoo decided to shoot the gorilla when he seemed to be ready to hurt the toddler. As the parent of an ADHD child, I can imagine this horrible incident.

www.theguardian.com/...

Guardian article by Ijeoma Oluo

www.nydailynews.com/...

Another aspect of Gorilla death

www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Huffington Post on family asking for donations to zoo after silverback gorilla killed

well.blogs.nytimes.com/...

NYT blog on gorilla incident

And I’ll leave us with an article on one group’s means of responding to harassment.

Fighting Back

remezcla.com/...

Confetti and punk rock as weapons to fight back against sexual harrassment in Mexico City.

This Week in the War on Women

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 16, 2016 · 5:01 PM PDT

2016/04/16 · 17:01

My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong." —Mother Jones

www.feminist.com/...

There’s no lack of news this week in the continuing world-wide War on Women. Many thanks to Besame, elenacarlena, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, ramara, mettlefatigue, and nomandates for all the sites and help with the diary.

Women’s Reproductive Health

There was considerable news in this category this week, as the Republicans continued their press to reduce women’s options for reproductive health, from abortion to requirements to burying fetuses. Here’s a list of articles:

Violence at Abortion Clinics and Elsewhere

Three articles reported on increased violence at abortion clinics. Another article reported on the possible relation between breastfeeding mothers and domestic violence. Also Kobe Bryant, “disappearing” Native American women, and “The Rape Exception”:

Arts, Film, Books

In these articles, we see evalutions of art, film and books by gender. Although some of the auteurs, photographers and authors are undoubtedly LBGT, the results are not broken out for these categories.

www.attn.com/… A series of photographs on women being touched, showing how males handle women.
allairebartel.com More on photographer Allaire Bartel, featured above.
www.flickfilosopher.com/… MaryAnn Johnson’s ranking on her blog of women in movies in 2015.
polygraph.cool/… Polygraph article by Hannah Anderson and Matt Daniels on m/f dialogue (and age) in contemporary films; 60-75% male speaking. Sigh.
www.dailykos.com/… mettlefatigue’s comment including list of “roles” for women in film that are also demeaning
feministing.com/… On Feministing, Maya Dusenbery extends the discussion on the Polygraph study
nicolagriffith.com/… Novelist Nicola Griffith (author of Hild) examines prize-winning books gender ratio.

Sexual Harassment

This category contains a range of articles, from Tennessee’s imitation of North Carolina’s HB-2 to serious problems of harassment in the academic sciences.

thinkprogress.org/… ThinkProgress article by Zack Ford on ironies associated with co-sponsor Jeremy Durham’s part in Tennessee’s version of NC HB-2’s no transgender people in bathrooms and sexual harassment.
www.salon.com/… Salon article reviews made-for-tv movie on Anita Hill testimony in Clarence Thomas hearing for Supreme Court; concludes we still aren’t able to handle sexual harassment’ by Sonia Saraiya.
viralwomen.com/… Women’s Rights News, short story on woman in feminist t-shirt receiving threats, possible abuse after photo published on ex-pats’ site.
www.salon.com/… Salon article by Rachel Kramer Bussel on male expectations for sex on first dates and twitter battles that follow.
www.theguardian.com/… Guardian article by Joanna Walters about “friend” who broadcasted on Periscope a friend’s rape.
broadly.vice.com/… Article in Broadly on extensive sexual harassment in the academic field of astronomy. Also include STEM sciences. Writer Olivia Gordon.

A bit of humor

www.youtube.com/...

Samantha Bee on Full Frontal on diapers for poor; not included in food stamps.

Odds and Ends

Many academic journals offer their “best” articles for free online reading. Each time I am on the diary roster, I’ll try to include one that carries new feminist research. This diary’s journal is Social Policy, an Oxford University Press publications. Here’s the URL: www.oxfordjournals.org/…

Another report from academic research: apparently, more women in England are keeping their birth names than in the United States. The URL is as follows: discoursesofmarriage.blogspot.co.uk

Sorry this is so clunky. I will learn DK5 eventually. And I’ll leave you with this:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelou

www.keepinspiring.me/…

Seattle Area Caucuses HUGE Turnout

cinnamon68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 26, 2016 · 1:55 PM PDT

2016/03/26 · 13:55

This is a diary about one of the local legislative district caucuses, the 46th District, in northeast Seattle. This is a hard core Democratic voting area. Today we selected delegates to go to the 46th Legislative District convention on Sunday, April 17th. At that caucus, we will select delegates to go to the County Convention. After that, there is a Congressional District Convention on May1, 2016, and then the State Convention in Tacoma on Saturday, June 18th. Delegates selected at the State Convention will go to Philadelphia. As you can see from the pic, the turnout was huge. The entire first floor of the auditorium was packed, every seat filled. There were even more people on the balcony. Apparently I can’t get my image queue to work. Sorry about that.

The procedures for the precinct caucuses were clear. These folks have been doing caucuses for a number of years. Our PCO ran the meeting. She asked for volunteers for the positions of secretary and for two counters, one for Bernie and one for Hillary. I was the Bernie counter and my next door neighbor was the Hillary counter. We counted our own ballots and then exchanged and counted each other’s ballots. Bernie won, 31-24. Three delegates from the precinct were to be elected and 2 delegates for Bernie were elected and 1 delegate for Hillary was elected. During the process, the PCO asked for volunteers to speak for each candidate. Bernie’s speakers discussed the Citizens United decision and the terrible impact it had had on elections, Bernie’s free college education proposal and his support for education generally, and his economic policies. Speakers for Hillary discussed her extensive foreign policy experience and the fact that if she were the nominee that we would have our first female President. Caucusers were then asked if the Undecideds now wished to make a choice and they did. It did not change the ratio of delegates.

Most important to me was the chance to actually talk face-to-face about our candidates. There were no insults, no trashing of the other candidate, and no crazed shouting people. I have been dismayed at the atmosphere on Kos during this primary season and it was a pleasure to be in a calm, rational, polite discussion. I have seen many many commenters in diaries trash, flag, and insult other people throughout this ongoing primary season. It’s a lot harder to do that when it’s your neighbor right in front of you. I got my first hide rating after 12 years for chiding a Hillary supporter for insulting a Bernie supporter. New experience for me—quite ugly, in fact. So you caucus haters out there, you might want to rethink your conclusions. The Hillary campaign pushed absentee ballots and every absentee ballot we had was a Hillary vote. I was impressed. That’s a good ground game, just as the Bernie team got lots of people to the caucus.

I am going to the 46th District Caucus as a Bernie delegate. One of my sons is going as an alternate. I’m a woman in my 60s and the other Bernie delegate is a young man, excited to be participating for the first time. My next door neighbor, a Hillary supporter, and I shook hands at the end of the caucus and agreed to vote for the other’s candidate if she or he was the nominee in November. This is democracy in action and it is beautiful.

This Week in the War on Women

cinnamon68 for This Week in the War on Women

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Saturday February 28, 2015 · 5:04 PM PST

2015/02/28 · 17:04

January 31, 2015; This Week in the War on Women; cinnamon68

I want to start with a quotation from Salon's Britney Cooper:

So I am left wanting to ask Patricia Arquette where all the white women who’ve been fighting for every other group of marginalized people are, because some of the most prominent black women organizers in history spent a fair amount of time trying to compel these women to be in solidarity. Notwithstanding the utter absurdity of her claim, her remarks demonstrate a point I made in an earlier column: “white women’s feminisms still center around equality…Black women’s feminisms demand justice.”

My diary will be short today because I want to concentrate on intersectionality and why white feminists (as I am) must start being unreserved supporters of the issues of women of color. I promise to end with some excellent sites that honor women, especially the NAACP's work honoring black women and Leonard Nimoy's work on full bodied women. Follow over the squiggle for more. Read More

This Week in the War on Women

cinnamon68 for This Week in the War on Women

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Saturday January 31, 2015 · 7:01 PM PST

2015/01/31 · 19:01

One of the biggest stories this week in The War on Women is Florida's domestic violence victim Marissa Alexander being freed from prison to home detention. This has been ably diaried by Leslie Salzillo. I'll have more to say below. Unfortunately, the Republican Congress is back to the abortion business and we are once again looking at vaginal ultrasounds as punishment for seeking an abortion. Now that I've had one, I agree that it is punishment and a kind of physical invasion that does resemble rape. So my topics for this week are following:

Marissa Akexander
Republican Congress & Abortion
Jonathan Chait and PC Talk
Vanderbilt Rape Case Verdict
Celebrations
Women Explorers of National Geographic
Ruby Bridges at her half-year birthday

Follow me beneath the orange squiggle and I'll tell you more.

cinnamon68 for This Week in the War on Women

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Saturday January 10, 2015 · 5:27 PM PST

2015/01/10 · 17:27

Another unsettling week, this time with news from France. ISIS and Boko Haram continued to attack villagers. And, of course, wasting no time, Congressional Republicans got right to work on abortion, setting a 20 week limit in their proposed bill. There was also plenty of bad advice for women coming from the usual places. I'll note some new issues, update some previous issues and end with poetry and activism.

Here's the list:
Republicans and abortion; health care attacks
The announced retirement of Senator Barbara Boxer
More bad advice for women
The demoted Cardinal
Update on UVA
Poetry and Activism

Follow me over the orange squiggle.

cinnamon68 for This Week in the War on Women

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Saturday December 06, 2014 · 5:51 PM PST

2014/12/06 · 17:51

This week's diary seems hard to write. My attention has been consumed by the shootings of black children and men by white policemen. I am a white woman who teaches and I see the arguments play out in my classrooms. I sometimes force the issue. I asked my students to do a syntactic analysis of the narrative part of the Michael Brown autopsy (real world practice, you know, not just theory) and nearly all of them were struck by the sentence "the gun was discharged." To be sure the medical examiner is not supposed to be drawing conclusions about anything other than the body, but still . . . Yes, I know that's part of the genre of autopsy narratives but it's amazing what a little passive voice does to the scene.

And of course, the week has been full of discussions about the Rolling Stone article about gang rape at UVA, an article that has some journalistic flaws (source checking especially) but also some other lessons which I will discuss below the orange squiggle.

My topics this week--
UVA
Bill Cosby
Astronomy Shirts:GAG!
Bad News from Turkey
Follow-Up on Gamergate
More Positive News via ramara

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