It’s been three weeks since Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony before the nation and I’m still struggling to move on. As talk turns toward the impending midterms, I find myself mentally pushing back against the relentlessness of the news cycle as it plows on, casting a spell of cultural amnesia in its wake…
In October 1991, I sat perched on a stool in Mr. Bundeson’s seventh grade woodshop class listening with fascination as Anita Hill testified about her experience of sexual harassment by then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas…
The full import of that experience wouldn’t hit me, however, until the week I turned 40 and watched Dr. Ford telling her story in front of another judiciary committee. This time, I was looking at the computer on my desk at the suburban high school in Oregon where I’ve taught visual art and film studies for the past 14 years.…
….[T]he internal wall of fortitude I’d built up over the years started to crumble. That wall, which had bricked in so many experiences -- the catcalls, the comments from a high school teacher who praised my muscular legs in front of the class, the years spent with an abusive boyfriend, the boss who liked to show me his favorite porn, the men who exposed themselves to me in a park, on a bus, from a van -- all started to spill out….
No, on this one, I don’t think we’re going to just move on with the news cycle.
And sorry, tRUmpsters...if you think that emotion is a sign of weakness, wrong. Suppressing emotion, denying emotion, is weakness. Pretending to be above emotion (except for "righteous" entitled rage) is a sham. Knowing and owning all of our emotions is true strength.
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U.S. women struggle against retrograde pressure, while a building “Blue Wave” could soon propel a record number into office.
Republican women leaving the Party? Two letters today in the L.A. Times.
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Meanwhile this week brought news of progress internationally.
“Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced a political reshuffle which means women ministers now make up a record 50 per cent of the new cabinet,” The Independent reported.
The sweeping changes saw 10 of the 20 positions going to women.
It included the appointment of Aisha Mohammed as defence minister-the first woman to hold that position in the country…
The move towards a more inclusive and “gender-balanced" government will be seen as a progressive step for women's rights for the patriarchal society…
After taking office in April, the 42-year-old leader has sought to tackle the ethnically-charged violence facing the country....In July, Mr Ahmed and long-time Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, celebrated the end to one of the continent’s longest-running conflicts.
"Miracle" scheme ending abuse against women in Tajikistan: Guardian. This is one of several projects in 13 countries, run by different organizations and funded by a British agency, What Works To Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls.
Married at 18,...42-year-old [Rano Mahmurodova] had spent more than two decades being physically and verbally assaulted by her husband, who was fuelled by drink, drugs and unemployment.
Her five children would flinch and cower when their father was in the house...Their only respite was when he travelled to Russia for work….
Mahmurodova’s family was selected by community elders to take part. Not only did her husband agree to participate when he returned from his latest stint in Russia, he gradually stopped drinking, stopped the abuse and apologised for causing her 22 years of pain.
Accompanying photo essay about the program’s success in changing patterns of domestic violence: "I'm more valued than before.”
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“Thousands of women council workers across Glasgow plan to bring the city to a standstill this week in what is believed to be the biggest equal pay strike seen in the UK,” The Guardian reports.
More than 8,000 workers, mostly women who have never been on a picket line, will take part in the two-day action that starts next Tuesday and will affect homecare, schools and nurseries, cleaning and catering services across the city...The dispute stems from 2006, when a new job evaluation scheme was introduced by the then Labour-run council, with the aim of addressing gender pay inequality. Instead, say the women affected, it entrenched discrimination by paying female-dominated jobs such as catering and cleaning less than male-dominated jobs such as refuse collection, despite them being deemed of equal value, because of a complex system that penalised people working split-shifts and irregular hours.
The academy: new collection of essays, Feminist Freedom Warriors: Geneaologies, Justice, Politics and Hope, edited by Linda E. Carty and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, published by Haymarket Books, highlighted by Truthout...
...tells the stories of women of color from the Global South, weaving together cross-generational histories of feminist activism across national borders…. The book features interviews with activists from movements spanning the last seven decades in the United States, India, Mexico, Palestine, Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond.
Not such good news:
More Latinas in the U.S. are giving birth prematurely. Political and social environment--ICE policies and racist violence under tRUmp--may contribute.
https://www.theguardian.com/…
(We knew that! And somehow, our appearance is never quite right either.)
;-)
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A sharp controversy was continuing in Kerala, India, over a September Supreme Court decision admitting women of “menstruating age” (10 to 50) to an important Hindu temple of the deity Ayyappan. The temple is “one of the most active pilgrimage sites in the world,” according to Wikipedia, especially in late December and early January, when millions visit.
Ayyappan is considered to be the son of the god Shiva and Mohini, who is the female avatar of the otherwise male god Rama.
There has been significant pushback by traditionalists, including attempts to block the temple entrance and threats of suicide, some involving women. The Kerala government, led by the Communist Party, is holding firm, euronews reported.
“Female journalists have also been attacked,” The Guardian stated, continuing:
Kerala’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said: “At one point, women had no right to cover their breasts in Kerala and the lower castes were made to stand far away from Brahmins. We had many such wrongful traditions. Some traditions need to be broken.”
Some conservatives have also criticised the protests. Udit Raj, a BJP MP, said: “This is a first in the world: women saying ‘make me a slave, treat me unequally; we’re inferior to men’. I don’t understand.”
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A psychologist in UAE is providing training to women about how to be a "second wife" and like it. “Because apparently they don't,” observes WOW contributor noweasels.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/…
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Wealthy celebrity mums tend to raise the perceived bar for others, in the Age of Instagram, and in the process, usually fail to challenge gender roles:
https://www.theguardian.com/…
On the other side, there was a huge social-media flap the other day when bloviating head Piers Morgan accused actor Daniel Craig (the latest James Bond) of letting down the side, after the actor appeared in public carrying his infant child in a sling.
“Oh 007.. not you as well?!!! #papoose #emasculatedBond.”
The Guardian (yes, my favorite, again!) provided a reminder on the latest "fragile masculinity" rules:
Besides the sling thing, real, stout-hearted men don’t dare eat a banana (rapper Wiz Khalifa); dine with a woman other than their wife VP (Pence); use social media (Schweppes/Coca Cola); or cook dinner (Penny Lancaster, married to Rod Stewart)…
As the saying (partially) goes, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them.”
Piers, Wiz, Mike, and all you geniuses in the Schweppes’ advertising department: We’re laughing.
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Blast from the past:
Some besides me surely remember The Womenfolk?
For some reason...hm...can’t find the lyrics to this one, and the recording has a couple skips, but the message is pretty clear. And the times they are a-changing.
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Contributors this week: Besame, noweasels, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, thurayya. Thanks!
Everyone is busy! I’ll probably be out of pocket myself next month, as far as composing WoW diaries; I’ve signed up for National Novel Writing Month (second year in a row)!
Be well!