Happy tax day! Take a break from filing (or deciding how to spend your return) to walk with us into this week’s roundup. We, as always, have a mix as we go through everything that’s happened. Thanks to Tara, EyesBright, Besame, ElenaCarlena, Wagatwe, and the crew!
Politics
In...INTERESTING news, TX passed a law blocking vehicle registration for people delinquent on child support payments. By and large, this is another way for the (usually male) providers of child support to have to pay up to their former spouses...but at least some DMVs are not pleased about being turned from an administrative agency to an enforcement agency.
After allegations of illegally bringing models to the US, Trump’s modeling agency is shutting down. This is less likely to do with blatantly illegal practices (we know what Trump thinks of that), and more to do with a drop in profitability and a top manager leaving to start his own business. Either way, one less business that exploits women.
Equal Pay Day just passed - a reminder of how far women still have to come. The more studies are done, the more clear it is that sex discrimination exists, whether it's that jobs begin paying less when women enter, or predominantly female jobs with the same requirements pay less than predominantly male fields...but there's another factor: whether you've been discriminated against in the past. Cities are beginning to outlaw companies asking about prior salaries, since that affects salary offers — and perpetuates existing pay discrimination.
Scotland’s Prime Minister continues being a bad ass, by attacking the articles focusing on her meetings in relation to...legs, shoes...anything but the actual policies she’s there to deal with. Sexual objectification is not ok, and she’s not afraid to call it like it is.
Latest weird attempt to co-opt feminism: a fossil fuel shill calling herself an "energy feminist" who is "pro-choice on energy sources." On the upside, it means they recognize that calling themselves "feminist" has a positive connotation.
http://theslot.jezebel.com/…
General Sexism
Artist who created charging bull statue says fearless girl statue is ruining his art. For history, the man illegally erected (hur) the statue in 1987, to show America’s ‘virility and courage.’ Now, he’s trying to claim that the statue, popularized by tourists rubbing it’s giant testicles for luck, is a symbol of America’s love and resilience. Which is...well, more persuasive in court, I suppose.
For those who were wondering, official positions of power don’t change gender dynamics that much. Female SCOTUS Justices get interrupted more often than their male counterparts. Just like the rest of us.
It’s more than just interruption — in media, female characters are judged more harshly, and must be ‘likable’. Whatever that means. Their stories are also usually not as fleshed out, their viewpoints lost, even when they’re main characters. The fact the Bechdel Test is needed — and that it’s so basic — says a lot about media and who gets to have a voice. Even with that, female characters are still at a disadvantage, not as varied, not as diverse, not as rounded.
Violence against Women
This week has some ugly, ugly stories regarding domestic violence. For those who don’t know how bad it is, here’s a quick — and sobering — wrapup of the statistics.
First, the school shooting in San Bernadino — where a man signed in, then shot his estranged wife before killing himself. He’d had restraining orders against him before by other women, as well as a history of assault and violence. The people women are most threatened by? The men already in their lives. Which is why Trump’s desire to erase that part of the budget is such a big deal.
Speaking of Trump and domestic violence, his immigration sweeps are having an effect: Houston PD is reporting dramatically lower rates of rape and domestic violence reports. Of course the GOP will argue that the ‘bad hombres’ are being kicked out...but it’s a lot more likely that ICE arresting women while they are reporting domestic abuse is the real culprit.
In other news, did you know that being a repeat victim of domestic violence can result in eviction? In Maplewood, MO, calling to report domestic abuse twice in 180 days falls under their ‘nuisance’ laws, and you can lose your residency permit for 6 months. She called several times — and each time, he was arrested. Then she was evicted for being a ‘nuisance’. He found her in her new place and stabbed her. This is one of the few ‘positives’ — she’s still alive, and he died in prison. The ACLU is working with her to sue the city. They’ve successfully gotten these laws rescinded in other areas.
Our society is so full of rape culture, there are sadly many who don’t realize what sexual harassment actually is, or what it looks like. David Schwimmer is trying to fix that with his awareness campaign.
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
"Studies suggest a rise in aggression towards women since the US election." I wish I could say I was surprised, but the President is seen as a very public figure and that his actions have the nation’s support, even when they don’t. This study was very interesting in that it didn’t address just ‘visible’ aggression like assault and the like, but also an increase in aggressive behaviors, like talking down, interrupting and arguing.
Once again, we see the power of a patriarchal culture, as a judge sentences a man convicted of molesting and raping 2 female relatives...by starting off with discussing how ‘great’ the man was. He was an LDS Bishop, and apparently that position was enough to make raping his own family a ‘mistake.’ At least he WAS convicted and sentenced...the jury was not persuaded by the man’s ‘greatness’, but by what he had done.
PTSD in Women Linked to Cognitive Impairment by Nancy A. Melville for Medscape coverage of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) Conference 2017. It's a free prof'l-level article, though you do need to use their free registration system first. http://www.medscape.com/... http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/878399
A few years back, editor James Frenkel was banned for life from the science fiction convention WisCon, after multiple women made credible reports of sexual harassment. This year, author Monica Valentinelli withdrew as Guest of Honor from another convention, OdyseyCon, after discovering that Frenkel was assigned as her guest liaison. Because of course, what could go wrong with a serial harasser as the designated liaison for a female author...
OddCon's handling of it makes United Airlines look like competent professionals. Rather than admitting they screwed up and appointing a different liaison...they decided to call all the women (who were credible enough to get the harasser banned from another convention), liars, and Ms. Valentinelli apparently incapable of making up her own mind. Because after all, you can’t believe others’ claims of harassment until you’ve been harassed yourself. Or something.
We also have in Michigan what appears to be the first conviction under a law banning female genital mutilation. The two seven year olds were apparently brought by their parents, and there’s speculation many other girls were mutilated between 2005 and 2007.
Empowerment
When women (who had registered) were told they could not participate in a marathon in Tehran, Iran — they ran their own race. The registration was clear that women could participate, though they would have to wear long sleeves, a headscarf or bandana that covered the hair, and no shorts.
Reproductive rights are central to equal rights. However, the Right has claimed a ‘moral’ stance on abortion that, while sickening and hypocritical, resonates. Here’s a minister making the moral case for why abortion access is a necessity.
New Brunswick, Canada will begin offering a pill to induce abortions for free. Women do still need a prescription, which is reasonable — and this is a HUGE step. New Brunswick was one of the more repressive regions in Canada, and had restrictions until 2015 limiting publicly-funded abortions to those for a certified medical reason only.
Women support the March for Science on 22 April. Here's the complete list of partners so far, and a quick scan shows that it includes Girls Who Code and the AAUW. https://www.marchforscience.com/...
Girls Who Code are pretty awesome, as a general plug. They do good things just in general, which can occasionally get lost in the news. They didn't just bemoan the sexism that causes girls to drop out of computer science, they did something about it, with afterschool and summer programs that make computers fun.
American Olympic swimmer Dana Vollmer is busy training and competing to be ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She took 55th in Mesa, AZ, at 2.5 seconds slower than last year...while 6 months pregnant. Another proof that women are more than capable of still carrying on in their professions, no matter how demanding, so long as they are working with their doctors.
I Have No Words
Cosmopolitan tweeted out an article on "how this woman lost 44 pounds without exercising." Turns out the answer was "by getting cancer."
http://pagesix.com/...