VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. The creep who just keeps on creeping out.
What kind of therapy do you get to learn not to use your position of authority to touch and thereby intimidate women? I would have thought that reaching middle school and the 21st century were enough, but obviously not.
For the first slide of the revised therapy program, I suggest: DO NOT TOUCH WOMEN. That should do it.
http://hosted.ap.org/...
http://www.theatlantic.com/...
http://www.latimes.com/...
New York, not wanting to be outdone by that other coast, seems to have its very own political groper.
“In April, the commission [New York's ethics board] issued a report critical of Silver for arranging a secret $103,000 settlement of sexual harassment accusations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez.”
http://online.wsj.com/...
Could somebody please take women and their MINDS seriously already!
Zanzibar, Not So Exotic Anymore
Apparently it is very easy to vent your anger against whatever ails you by hurting women. This time it was two British volunteers in Zanzibar: eighteen-year-olds trying to do good. Way to go to make a statement for your cause!
“Hate cleric Ponda Issa arrived on Zanzibar a week ago amid claims that he was attempting to rouse support for anti-government demonstrations. The fundamentalist preacher wants Islamic law to be imposed.”
http://www.express.co.uk/...
http://hosted.ap.org/...
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Sex in the Unconscious Zone
I really don’t need to read this phrase a week before sending my daughter off to college: “allegedly having sex with an unconscious victim.” I believe that none of us wants to ever read that phrase again. Do wishes ever come true?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Apparently rape is okay; it’s only wrong to share the video with friends.
“A U.S. Attorney is starting a program in West Virginia that will teach high school athletes to use social media "responsibly" so as to prevent Steubenville 2.0. Why teach kids not to rape when you could teach them not to get caught?”
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://jezebel.com/...
What’s a Woman’s Life Worth?
“Where Are India's 60 Million Missing Girls? The Tragic, Obvious Answer”
“The figure is 60 million, about the population of the entire UK, which Hundal surmises is comprised by those “aborted before birth, killed once born, died of neglect because they were girls, or perhaps murdered by their husband's family for not paying enough dowry at marriage.’”
http://jezebel.com/...
Tennessee Used to Rhyme with Dubai
It’s about time. Sounds like some other places in the news and their treatment of rape.
“On Monday, the Tennessee Supreme Court got rid of an antiquated rule that classified statutory rape victims as potential criminal accomplices and eliminated the requirement that testimony of the victim be corroborated by other independent evidence.”
http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
Politics as Usual, Unfortunately
The “punish them till they go back home” school of immigration reform.
“Specifically, the immigration reform bill that passed through the Senate includes language that bars an immigrant woman who is working to obtain citizenship from utilizing means-tested federal benefits like Medicaid for a minimum of ten years. She will also face a five-year delay under the current law if she does not naturalize as soon as possible, after the initial ten-year period.”
“This kind of punitive, restrictive policy-making on the backs of women is all too familiar to many reproductive health advocates. Whether it is legislation that literally imposes a waiting period to delay a woman who is seeking abortion care or barring public hospitals from making agreements with abortion clinics to accept their patients in emergencies, we are used to seeing political games played with women’s health.”
http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
ABORTION
The HAVES Have Abortions while the HAVE NOTS Have Lots of Babies
“The "abortions for the well-off, forced childbirth for everyone else" mentality has permeated the anti-choice movement in recent years.”
http://www.slate.com/...
Twisting Words Department
Sounds like my ex-husband’s way with words when he tried to twist my wanting my daughters to spend time with my parents in Florida to my not wanting to spend time with them.
So crazies protest outside abortion clinics, with guns, and somehow that’s the clinic’s fault.
“But if much of that alleged violence was directly related to the presence of the protesters, wouldn’t it make more sense to restrict their very own protests rather than shut down the clinic? Gietzen was unmoved.”
http://tv.msnbc.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Clearly They Don’t Have Heartbeats
“According to the Columbus Dispatch, state Rep. Christina Hagan (R-Alliance) may propose a heartbeat ban as early as this week, with the support of longtime house member and heartbeat ban supporter Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon). Rep. Wachtmann was the chief sponsor of the failed 2011 version of the bill, which passed the Ohio house but did not make it to the senate for a vote.”
http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
Hurting as Many People as Possible
Texas is so big that it impacts Mexico.
“What’s even more likely, local experts say, is that Mexican women who previously crossed the border in search of safe abortions will now be stranded with few good options in a culture that still hews deeply conservative and Catholic.”
“According to Ms. Magazine, in the last five years, 127 women have been put on trial for having abortions in Mexico—despite abortion being legal in Mexico City since 2007.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Maybe Good News for Peace Corps Volunteers
“This total ban on abortion for Peace Corps volunteers was attached to the appropriations bill as a rider in 1979 and has been passed every year since. Just before its August recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill that funds U.S. foreign affairs, including a provision that would grant women in the Peace Corps the same access to abortion coverage that women in the armed services receive.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
WAR ZONE
What was it that we brought to the women of Afghanistan?
“Noor Zia Atmar, one of the first female members of parliament in Afghanistan and an outspoken leader for women's rights in the country, has requested asylum after fleeing from her abusive husband.”
"Women are in a worse condition now. Every day they are being killed, having their ears, noses cut. It is not just women in villages - it is also people like me," Atmar told the Sunday Telegraph
The British embassy has refused to grant Atmar asylum, citing that they do not give asylum for domestic violence alone.
http://www.feminist.org/...
“Fast-forward to July 2013. Sahar’s physical injuries have healed but her fight for justice is not over. Her husband and brother-in-law are still on the run, and just a few weeks ago her in-laws were released after serving just one year of their 10-year sentences. Although Sahar’s lawyer has appealed the release, a new law that would make it unlawful for Sahar to testify against her in-laws is making its way through the Afghan Parliament. Should it succeed, Sahar’s case would be extremely difficult to prosecute. Sahar now fears for her life and for her future. At this point in time it appears that justice for Sahar Gul was fleeting.”
“If we can mobilize women’s movements everywhere to stand together to protect and support the women of Afghanistan so that they continue to advance as full and equal citizens in a democracy where girls like Sahar Gul can become judges and doctors rather than child brides, we will have kept not only the promise of secretary Clinton but we will have laid the foundations for lasting peace and prosperity in Afghanistan”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
REHASH—CAN’T WE GET PAST THIS ALREADY
Putting ONE: “Sixty years ago, American women began heading off to the workplace in droves. But in the last couple of decades, that trend has completely stalled out.”
AND ONE: “The United States remains the only major industrialized country in the world that doesn't mandate some sort of paid parental leave.”
AND ONE TOGETHER: "We're losing the valuable resources of highly trained women," she said. "It's looking like we do have to break through this work-family barrier to significantly increase participation."
Makes us realize, that it all depends on which direction us ladies are leaning. Nothing else. It’s all our fault.
http://money.cnn.com/...
Job Security Is Not Based on Bra Size
The power of being a woman. So many ways to lose your job without even trying.
http://www.care2.com/...
HOME STATE NEWS: VIRGINIA
“Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPC)
Kind of like the 1912 test for 8th grade, but not:
“According to the CPC counselor, birth control is dangerous because taking it for four years before becoming pregnant can increase women’s chance of getting breast cancer by 48 percent. She repeatedly referred to the “carcinogens” in contraception. She also cautioned her client to “read the fine print,” warning that even if she would never choose to have an abortion, she could accidentally end up aborting a fetus while using hormonal contraception. “If you’re on the pill, on the patch, on the shot, and get pregnant… Unintentionally, you will abort that baby because the uterus cannot sustain that pregnancy because the lining has been so altered by those steroids, the artificial hormones,” she claimed.”
http://www.care2.com/...
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/...
Abortion. Barely Legal in Virginia
The Wall Street Journal weighs in on abortion and Virginia’s republican state representatives. I’m not sure how this doesn’t count as a War on Women:
“If Virginia's voters buy into the concept that the Virginia GOP's war on abortion is in fact a "war on women," then Virginia's Republicans have only themselves to blame. Every legislative session sees 40-50 antiabortion, and sometimes anticontraception, bills introduced by Republican legislators. Last year's session was such a debacle for the Republicans, due to abortion issues, that Virginians voted for President Obama by a comfortable margin, and elected a second Democratic senator.”
http://online.wsj.com/...
ACTION ITEMS & GOOD IN THE WORLD: YOU GO GIRLS
Arab Spring with Some Good News
“Thousands of people have rallied in Tunisia in support of women's rights amid national debate about a landmark constitution for the Arab world.”
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Message to Macy’s
Petition: "I’m outraged that Macy’s would undermine women’s right to equal pay for equal work. If you want my business, you should publicly retract your letter asking Governor Perry to veto the Texas equal pay act, and pledge not to block any future equal pay legislation in Congress or state legislatures.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/...
Pink Sari Gang
Women helping their community. Thousands of women, together, doing the work that Margaret Mead talked about: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
“Most days, it is on this small patch of concrete that Sampat receives a steady trickle of aggrieved parties—men and women—who start arriving shortly after dawn and continue bringing their problems until nightfall. Much like patients in a doctor’s waiting room, they sit with hopeful faces on the flimsy plastic chairs and charpoys, rope-beds, that are huddled together on the patio. Some clutch badly photocopied documents in their hands—things like police reports, property deeds, or marriage certificates (which are useful when men take on a different wife and kick out their previous spouse, denying her any rights). Occasionally, women come directly after their husbands have beaten them, blue bruises burgeoning under their eyes and split lips still throbbing and raw.”
“Women live in slavery,” Sampat would conclude after their daylong discussions. She hoped that maybe their self-help groups would help women achieve financial independence and, most importantly, freedom.”
The article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
The book about Sampat and the Pink Sari Gang: http://www.goodreads.com/...
The organization: http://www.gulabigang.in/
Just Who Is Educating Whom?
“Across the country, college activists are joining forces to hold their administrations more accountable for insufficient sexual assault policies. Now, they’ll have a new online resource to help them. “Know Your IX,” a campaign to help educate college students about the rights afforded to them under federal gender equity laws, launched a new website on Tuesday to serve as a hub for sexual assault prevention activists.”
The colleges that have recently been charged with not handling sexual assault cases as seriously as the dates for summer and winter break: Yale, Amherst, Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Princeton, USC, UC Berkeley, University of North Carolina, Arizona State University, US Naval Academy, and Penn State (I couldn’t resist adding this to the list).
http://knowyourix.org/
http://thinkprogress.org/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://articles.latimes.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Fingers Crossed that this Is from the Good News Front
“On Monday, Lieutenant General Michelle Johnson took control of the Air Force Academy. She is the first woman to assume the role of superintendent to any of the three best-known academies (Army, Navy, Air Force). Johnson was previously at NATO as the deputy chief of staff of operations and intelligence of the Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers.”
http://www.feminist.org/...
Wet Nurses for Marriage Equality
Breast pump anyone? I wonder if woman can call her breasts her own?
http://www.care2.com/...
Fairy Tales Don’t End with the End
These photographs are incredibly powerful and thought-provoking.
http://www.fallenprincesses.com/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...