The War on Women is more than just assholic legislators. It's a question of attitude. When you have men (and some women) who believe that women are somehow not worthy of the same respect as men solely because of their bodies, nothing is going to change.
In the UK, a group has taken to Twitter to expose the prevailing attitudes on that side of The Pond; I'm not aware of any similar organization here that is doing the same thing but if anyone knows of one I'd like to follow them as well.
Some of the choice bits from their feed; they retweet pretty much everything that is sent to them:
And that's just from the last few days.
It's not just a question of laws; it's a question of attitude. It's not "men and women" -- it's "human" and "other".
And certainly we're no better on this side of the Atlantic.
SHORT SUBJECTS
* Also from the UK, Girlguiding.org.uk (that's their name for Girl Scouts) did their annual survey of girls' attitudes about equality, sexism and body image. It looks to be a good read and could probably be a subject for a diary on its own. Some of the findings are summarized in this graphic:
* There's a problem in Parliament: women MPs are leaving, some citing prevailing attitudes towards women by male members. But at least one author feels that the problem isn't with the men, but rather that the women have to man up and "grow a pair."
* Pregnancy discrimination is still A Thing, both here and in the UK.
* Back here in the States, common wisdom has been that workplace discrimination would die off as the old sexist bosses retired or died off, replaced by younger bosses with a different attitude. Unfortunately, that's not the case as the old guard is being replaced by practitioners of "second-generation gender bias"; workplace discrimination is becoming much more subtle.
* Sunlight continues to be the best disinfectant for bullshit: while Mike DeWine is still an anti-gay, anti-choice creep, at least he's pursuing indictments against those who aided and abetted the horrid actions in Steubenville. If you're so inclined, you can send him a thank you note.
* I'd never heard of "revenge porn" till I saw this piece Ramara sent me from Jezebel; even more glad I don't have daughters and have a husband that is both technologically ignorant and is a decent human being.
* National Adoption Day was last Saturday…and I never even bought a card. While I agree that there are way more children needing adoption than there are families willing to adopt, I don't agree with the premise that adoption is the best solution for a "problem pregnancy" -- indeed, the need for greater access to reproductive choice is emphasized. If no one is adopting the children currently languishing in the foster care system, what guarantee is there that they'll adopt the products of unplanned pregnancy, especially if those products are not the perfect "Gerber" babies that everyone wants to show off to their friends and families?
* Fashion designers' artist renditions of women don't match up with reality.
* Let's finish up with a bit of humor: this photo from last year's Conference on Women in Saudi Arabia has been making the rounds on the Internets this week; call it "Where's Wendy?" instead of "Where's Waldo?":
