Lots of us are at Netroots Nation this week, so this is a bit of an abbreviated diary.
As always, this is a group effort. thanks to mettle fatigue, ramara, Getting1, SandraLLAP, and the WOW crew for links and discussion.
Reproductive Rights:
Pregnant, addicted, and prosecuted.
Federal judge halts radical abortion law in Texas, for now. (Update: and now it’s back in force again.)
Iran mandates pregnant women be reported to prevent “criminal abortions.”
Biden administration reverses abortion referral ban for family planning clinics.
Violence and Harassment:
After the recent Sarah Everard murder, some British women want to categorize misogyny as a hate crime. Boris Johnson disagrees….because there’s too much of it, and police would be overwhelmed.
Incel threatens to go to U of Michigan campus an “blow away every woman I see.” FBI visits — and concludes he’s not a threat.
Venezuelan & Australian women soccer players describe years of sexual abuse.
California’s new law makes “stealthing” (non-consensually removing a condom during sex) a civil offense.
California also reformed the penal code to punish spousal rape as seriously as the rape of a non-spouse.
Whistleblower's SEC complaint: Facebook knew platform was used to "promote human trafficking and domestic servitude"
Nationwide Anti-Rape Protests Demand Consequences for College Frats: "The return to in-person schooling has meant a new wave of sexual assault allegations."
“I’m sick of being told that women must protect ourselves from violent men.”
I don’t want to learn a new trick for how to protect my drink in a club, or how to use a pocket knife hidden in my lipstick, or have to buy some strange contraption to make sure my hotel room door stays locked. I want to live in a world where women don’t have to live in constant fear for their own safety, and where I can turn down a man and not be killed for it.
Workplace Issues:
Women left the workplace last month, but in smaller numbers than a years ago.
California has banned employers from using secret settlements to prevent workers from speaking out about illegal harassment or discrimination.
Intersectionality:
The erasure of Black women’s contributions.
An investment in child care is crucial for lifting some Latina women out of poverty.
Marie Wilcox, who saved her native Wukchumni language from extinction, dies at 87. Link to video of the 2014 documentary.
This article is mostly on colorism in Hollywood, but the issue doesn’t stop with onscreen portrayals:
Research shows that dark-skinned Black girls are three times as likely to be suspended from school than light-skinned Black girls. Dark-skinned Black women earn up to 25 percent less money than lighter-skinned women across the world. Dark-skinned Black women are more likely to receive longer and harsher prison sentences; they are more likely to be perceived as dangerous, or aggressive. They are more likely to be victims of police brutality and intimate partner violence.
Uncategorizable:
On The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Jessica Pin set out to have better information about women’s clitoris in anatomy textbooks.
What I want people to understand is female genital anatomy gets neglected, not for lack of research, but for lack of dissemination. And it doesn’t get disseminated due to taboo and lack of interest.
I believe everyone can help change this by helping disseminate this anatomy. So please clap, comment, and share.
You may not think it matters, but I promise every clap and every share helps raise awareness and combats the taboo. Disseminating this anatomy will help prevent future [patients] like me from being harmed by surgeons who do not know the anatomy. It also means that women who suffer genital injuries or get vulvar cancer will get better care... Here is also a link to my study, which shows cadaver dissections and describes the anatomy in detail.
Action item:
A petition to Congress in support of the End Pushout Act (H.R. 5325):
At alarming rates, Black girls, and other girls of color, experience discriminatory, disparate, punitive and unfair treatment in schools. Black girls are suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement and arrested on school campuses at rates that far exceed the public school population as a whole, and far exceed their white female peers.
...
The Ending PUSHOUT Act makes federal grants conditional on schools banning most suspensions and expulsions of children up to fifth grade. It also aims to eliminate suspensions and expulsions over minor infractions like tardiness and absenteeism or violations of grooming and appearance policies that consistently discriminate against students of color.