Lately I have read report after report on Daily Kos about gerrymandering and Democratic politicians retiring because their old districts are now bright red, they can no longer win, so they are moving on.
Not so fast: Let’s not give up on red districts! Sure, popular wisdom says the GOP owns the white suburbs. Maybe that has been true, but IS that true? Women are LIVID at the assault on our long-held reproductive rights. Pundits claimed that Democrats would not do well in the mid-terms; Democrats DID do well in the mid-terms. So we canNOT give up now. We need candidates for Congress in every district, including the reddest of the red. Make reproductive rights THE issue. For other wedge issues brought up by the GOP, listen to concerns and then make sure voters hear the truth versus the GOP lies. We can win far more than we lose. This is not an investment that makes sense every election, but it sure does this time as more and more horror stories come out of the anti-abortion states. Now is the time to take back the suburbs!
In Other News
Military
From CNN Investigates: ‘No consequences’: Women testify about sexual harassment and assault at Coast Guard Academy
Four women who say they were subjected to sexual assault and harassment at the US Coast Guard Academy testified to Congress on Tuesday about how they were silenced, retaliated against and left battling severe mental trauma while alleged perpetrators continued to thrive within the service.
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Senators from the Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said they were stunned that Coast Guard leaders, for years, had knowingly concealed reports of sexual misconduct and failed to hold accountable past perpetrators and the officials who covered up their dangerous and criminal behavior. Several lawmakers said it was time to start naming names.
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Senator Richard Blumenthal [D-CT], the panel’s chairman, said he intends to hold additional hearings addressing the Coast Guard’s “culture of cover-up.” He noted that the Coast Guard has not fully cooperated with the Senate investigation and that subpoenas will be issued if necessary – saying past and current leaders of both the academy and the agency may be called to answer for the decisions they have made.
Pretty effing naive, IMO, that the Senators were “stunned”. Show me an institution that has NOT covered up sexual misconduct and protected the powerful. Excuse my cynicism.
Great Britain
From The Guardian: If a woman can be raped in broad daylight on a train, there are tough questions for all of us:
Last week, Ryan Johnston was sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a 20-year-old woman on the tube in front of a horrified French tourist and his young son, in a case the detective leading the investigation described as one of the most disturbing of his career.
Something about this story, which unfolded in the space of just two tube stops, punches through all women’s comforting illusions about when and how we are safe. It has spread like wildfire through female WhatsApp groups, prompting questions about how on earth it could have happened: how could anyone not intervene in a rape unfolding in front of them?
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For the thankfully less violent crimes many of us will witness over the course of a lifetime, such as sexual harassment in a public place, women’s groups preach the five Ds. If Direct action feels unsafe, either Delegate (ask someone else to help, or call 999 [911 in the US], or on a train text 61016 for British Transport Police [AFAICT, on the NYC subway still call 911, for MTA non-emergency police 212-878-1001, or there is an anti-terrorism line 888-NYC SAFE (888-692-7233)] new.mta.info/...), or Document the evidence, or Distract, perhaps by striking up a conversation with a woman being hassled that gives her a chance to escape. If all else fails, there’s Delayed action, or offering sympathy afterwards. But perhaps the missing D is just the ability to suspend disbelief.
In this case, the witness had to worry if intervention would put his own child in danger. But he did testify against the assailant.
Afghanistan
From BBC: Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison — UN:
Since then [ the Taliban takeover], such incidents [of gender-based violence] have become even more common, given the impact of economic, financial and humanitarian crises which have afflicted the country, UNAMA said. Women have also been increasingly confined to their homes, which heightens their vulnerability to domestic and intimate partner violence.
Before the Taliban retook power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women's protection centres or shelters in Afghanistan, according to UNAMA, but these have since vanished.
Taliban officials told UNAMA there was no need for the shelters as the women must be with their husbands or male family members. One said such shelters were "a western concept".
If women reporting abuse have no relatives where they can seek shelter, they will be put in prison “for their protection”. That’s right, the women go to prison and the abusive men are free to pursue the next woman. SMH.
Iran
From Council on Foreign Relations: The AI Assault on Women: What Iran’s Tech-Enabled Morality Laws Indicate for Women’s Rights Movements: Iran and other countries in the Middle East are increasingly using artificial intelligence as a tool to crackdown on women's rights. International AI standards need to address the impacts of technology on gendered repression:
AI-facilitated practices related to facial recognition, geolocation, analysis of web traffic, and other forms of automated detection played an important role in the government’s response in the early days of the women’s movement last year. Soon after Amini’s death, facing a sudden onslaught of protests from women’s rights supporters and democracy activists across the country, the Iranian government responded with draft legislation that explicitly committed to use AI-assisted tools such as facial recognition to enforce strict morality codes. The government has also worked to stamp out social mobilization with internet restrictions and blackouts.
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Iran’s surveillance capabilities have already been boosted by exports of video recorders from China, which more than doubled in 2022 as the country’s protests erupted. The speed and scale with which new technology could expand gendered repression with greater ease and lower cost in Iran should raise mounting concern for women’s rights supporters worldwide. Reports suggest that 70 percent of Iranian women do not abide by the government’s strict hijab regulations. Iran’s Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have claimed in policy documentation that their identification databases, on which their surveillance activities rely, primarily draw on images from national identification cards, a concern advocates have warned could lead to imprecise matches and wrongful persecution.
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Iran serves as an important case study of the ways in which governments can deploy such tools with dramatic direct and indirect repercussions for women’s movements, far more so than was feasible when women took to the streets across the Middle East in the so-called Arab Spring. Iran also highlights the need for immediate work in two key areas: 1) increasing independent, credible reporting about the use of technology to facilitate repression of political movements, and 2) establishing an immediate focus within AI governance debates on mitigating the risk of AI-assisted gender-based repression.
Kenya
From The Guardian: Police officer stoned to death after rescuing FGM survivors in Kenya: Activists see the killing as a setback in the efforts to eliminate the practice, despite it being illegal in the east African country:
“It is shocking and disheartening that in the 21st century we can kill a police officer rescuing girls undergoing the inhumane act,” said Tony Mwebia, founder and executive director of the not-for-profit Men End FGM Foundation that aims to rally men and boys against FGM and child marriages. “Were these men who killed the policeman aware of why they were protecting the backward culture? Do they have any idea of the harm caused by the cut?”
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“They are told the cut makes women more mature and avoid promiscuity. They are also told that they will lose any respect within the community by marrying an uncut woman. That is why they will kill anyone, including a policeman, who interferes with the cut,” Mwebia said.
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“Cases of FGM have come down in communities that were strongly for the cut, mainly because girls have come out to say no,” said Loloju. “Although women are the perpetrators of the cut, we continue to engage the elders who are the cultural gatekeepers. These are the men who are shocked when they see videos of how FGM is done.”
Africa politics
From DW [Deutsche Welle]: Will female candidates transform politics in Congo? Women have been underrepresented in Congolese politics — until now. Ahead of the December 20 elections, support for a fresh wave of female candidates is growing:
Voters in Congo are due to head to the polls on December 20 to elect a president, as well as members of various assemblies and councils at a local and national level.
But entering politics has never been easy for women, who are still held back by cultural barriers.
Generose Kagheni, coordinator of the organization Women Today, which is engaged in the defense of women's rights in North Kivu province, believes women's rights are often flouted in Congo because not enough women are in decision-making positions.
From Reliefweb.int: Voices from Syria, Libya and Nigeria on Redesigning the Peace Table: What does the peace table look like now? Who is missing and why? And why and how does it need a feminist new look?:
In a new publication as part of our ongoing Feminists in Conversation series, we share a look at the insights that emerged from this discussion and highlight the voices of the women who participated. Among these voices is Oula Ramadan, a Syrian activist with the organisation Badael, who emphasised the urgency of transitioning from “inclusion to influence”, and Joy Onyesoh, a Nigerian activist and President of WILPF Nigeria, who articulated how the constraints set by donors undermine women’s long-term efforts within challenged conflict-affected areas.
“It’s time to move from inclusion to influence. It’s not about who is sitting [at] the table but about what infrastructures and grassroots movements can be supported to have more inclusive peace processes.”
Read it here: “Voices from Syria, Libya and Nigeria on Redesigning the Peace Table” We invite you to keep the conversation going by sharing this report with your network!
Sudan/Chad
From al Jazeera: In a refugee camp in Chad, Sudanese women are running out of hope: A spontaneous settlement in Adré, a Chadian border town, has become a makeshift home for more than 100,000 Sudanese refugees:
This spontaneous settlement in Adré, a Chadian border town of 12,000 inhabitants, has become a makeshift home to more than 100,000 Sudanese refugees. Almost 90 percent are women and children who crossed the border on foot, fleeing brutal violence that submerged their native Darfur soon after the conflict broke out in Sudan on April 15.
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The residents of Adré have welcomed refugees, but Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, and resources are scarce. “The number of people who arrived here with nothing is more than tenfold the size of the local population. Imagine something like this happening in a European town,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who visited Eastern Chad to raise awareness around the stark shortage of humanitarian funding for this crisis.
Following the sharp increase in the population, food prices skyrocketed, and essential services like water and healthcare, which were in short supply even before the influx of refugees, came under enormous stress.
Canada
From Canada National Observer: Feds start consultations on Red Dress Alert to build an alert system for missing Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people:
For the better part of a year, MP Leah Gazan, federal NDP critic for women and gender equity, has called for an alert — similar to an Amber Alert — to help find Indigenous people when they go missing. She’s suggested calling the system the “Red Dress Alert.” Now, the federal government is starting to consult civil groups about making the alert a reality.
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The rate of homicide against Indigenous women and girls is about six times higher than non-Indigenous women and girls, according to Statistics Canada. In March, the federal budget included funding for an alert system to help find missing Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. Not long after, Ottawa recognized the crisis as a national emergency.
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The [Unama’ki] system now serves five Mi'kmaq nations and has sent out alerts about dangerous individuals, extreme weather and missing persons. Since its inception in September 2020, the Unama’ki Emergency Alert System has issued more than 150 alerts. According to Jesty, in 96 per cent of missing person alerts, the person was reunited with family in less than an hour. The service could help find missing Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people across Canada, she said
Florida
From NBC: Lesbian and trans woman beaten by group of men in Miami, video shows: A spokesperson for the Miami Police Department confirmed that the incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime. No arrests have been made.
The incident took place in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood — known worldwide for its art galleries and colorful street murals — on Nov. 26, according to NBC South Florida, which obtained footage of the encounter from one of the victims this week.
The video shows multiple men attacking the women and their male friend, who reportedly tried to intervene. The victims can be heard pleading with their attackers to stop and saying that they’ve already called the police.
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“I definitely felt targeted for sure; I mean they were definitely trying to hate on the fact that we were gay,” she said in a video interview. “I don’t understand to this day why.”
New Mexico
Kiowa County Press: New Mexico restores Council on Missing, Murdered Indigenous People after protests:
New Mexico has more missing Indigenous people than any other state, so the announcement that a disbanded investigative committee will be restored is welcome news to many families searching for answers.
Darlene Gomez, an Albuquerque attorney who specializes in tribal law, said New Mexico was a leader in having a state response plan to the epidemic of violence against Native women and people. She said that's why it was a shock when the governor's office ended its task force earlier this year without a public explanation.
"The rates in general for Native American women - they go missing 10 times more than their white counterparts," Gomez said. "Homicide is the third leading cause of death for Native women."
From KUNM: Also in New Mexico: State replaces Indian Affairs secretary and shifts him to new role:
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday that Indian Affairs cabinet secretary James Mountain is leaving his post less than a year into the job to take on a new role as a policy advisor.
His appointment angered advocates working on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women. They pointed to sexual assault charges against Mountain, saying he wasn’t the right person to lead the state agency.
The governor’s office confirmed Friday that James Mountain, former governor of the Pueblo of San Ildefonso, has a new role as senior policy adviser for tribal affairs.
Lujan Grisham defends Mountain by pointing out that charges were dismissed. However, lack of evidence for a successful criminal prosecution is a long way from evidence of innocence. And why he has to be involved in work with people who do not trust him is not clear.
Policing
From The Nation: The Invisible Victims of Anti-Black Policing: Racist policing is also deadly for Black women and girls—a reality that is far too often ignored or dismissed.:
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989 to describe how intertwined anti-Blackness and misogyny consign Black women to the social, political, and economic margins, often erasing their existence altogether. When Crenshaw was marching against deadly anti-Black policing more than two decades later, in 2014—as she recounts in her most recent book, #SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence—she witnessed how racial patriarchy renders even Black women’s deaths invisible. Along with the chanted names of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown, Crenshaw shouted the lesser-known names of Black women killed by police or in police custody—women like Tanisha Anderson, Shelly Frey, and Ahjah Dixon. “Several people were enraged,” Crenshaw told me. “There was the sense that we were being interlopers.”
In response, Crenshaw launched the #SayHerName campaign in 2014, seeking to honor and recognize Black women, girls, and femmes whose lives have been stolen by racist policing and to protest their state-backed killings. The need for the campaign, which includes the #SayHerName Mothers Network of surviving sisters, mothers, and other loved ones, reflects the failure of the anti-racist and feminist movements “to grasp that Black women, like Black men, are subjects of anti-Black state violence,” Crenshaw writes. #SayHerName documents how even at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, which rightly included as speakers the mothers of sons killed by anti-Black police violence, the murders of Black women all too often remained an afterthought.
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#SayHerName, written in partnership with the African American Policy Forum, the social justice think tank that Crenshaw cofounded and leads, offers nine intimate portraits of Black women, girls, and femmes who were killed by police, each painted through the words of their loved ones. These surviving narrators, all members of the #SayHerName Mothers Network, have borne what Crenshaw calls “the loss of the loss”—an immense grief compounded by the lack of attention given to cases in which Black women lose their lives because of police violence. Best’s daughter, a violinist and visual artist, was unarmed when Virginia Beach police put her and her 4-month-old son in the line of fire to get their intended suspect, leaving her dead as collateral damage and her son deaf in one ear. “It feels almost as if [Black men’s and boys’] murders were more important, because…their names are spoken,” Best says. “I have to be sensitive to the other mothers, again cognizant of how they feel, because that was their son. But that was my daughter, [and] I want them to say her name too.”
work
Study: More Than Half Of Women In PR Have Faced Harassment: Global Women in PR’s Annual Index highlight that harassment – including sexual and psychological – is rife, and reporting it rarely leads to positive action being taken:
In this year’s survey, a new section on harassment in all its forms was introduced to explore whether this was a concern for women in the industry. The most common forms of harassment faced by women – mostly in mid-level or senior positions – were psychological, power and personal harassment. Around a third of those who reported the harassment either left or were encouraged to leave their organisations, while no action was taken in the case of another third.
Last year, GWPR included a new section on ageism in the industry, a factor that continues to be prevalent in the industry and one that various studies show impacts more women than men. This year, most those who work in agencies revealed that they do not see themselves staying in the agency beyond 50 years of age, opting to either move in-house, set up their own consultancy or opt out of the workforce.
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The positive benefits of flexible working did not necessarily create easy pathways for more women to progress in their careers, particularly those with children and other caring responsibilities. Around half of the women surveyed believe that women with children are still discriminated against in terms of career progression.
Media
From Editor and Publisher: Women of color executives push to diversify newsrooms and news coverage:
A new Women’s Media Center report spotlights 20 history-making women of color news executives, their landmark achievements and workplace inclusion strategies at a time when diversity in the journalism industry faces resistance.
WMC’s “Women of Color in U.S. News Leadership 2023” focuses on women in legacy print and broadcast news as well as the fast-growing digital news sphere and details their approaches for creating more inclusive newsrooms, expanding definitions of news, attracting new audiences, and, consequently, increasing the bottom line.
Many of these women leaders have been promoted since 2020, during a period when their news organizations covered the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, which amplified, among other issues, longstanding disparities in pay, promotions and other areas of U.S. workplaces, including the news media.
JEZEBEL Hey, we're back! [YAY!!] Sorry about that random little break. But we're good now, and we're back with sex, celebrity, and politics...With Teeth:
When I learned Jezebel was being folded, my first thought ... was, “What the hell am I going to read now?” I’d go so far as to say that I feel raised by Jezebel and, as evidenced by the outpouring of tributes in the days after it shuttered, I’m not alone. The site’s DNA—sharp wit, searing takes, a commitment to in-depth reporting, and an overall immunity to bullshit—were formative to my identity as both a journalist and a feminist…as they were to an entire generation of women and non-binary people who’d been made to believe their anger was hysterical, their humor was unbecoming, their experiences of discrimination and assault were their own fault, and their voices only necessary for makeup recommendations or diet tips.
I am not interested in a world without Jezebel. And, as we head into 2024, I am extremely not interested in a presidential election without Jezebel.
But (if you haven’t picked up on it already) Jezebel is back. My [Lauren Tousignant’s] goal as the site’s new Editor-in-Chief is simple: Keep Jezebel as weird, hilarious, and rightfully outraged as ever. (Unfortunately, now that I have a job again, I have about $2,000 of unused coding classes I don’t know what to do with.) Expect to see a lot of familiar names and the same standard-setting content as we work to expand Jezebel’s readership and reach, and bring in as many new and disruptive voices as the cosmos will allow. I hope you’ll join us in Jezebel’s new era. It’s going to be a dancing-naked-under-the-full-moon-in-a-supernatural-graveyard-with-all-your-friends kind of blast. I’ve never been more excited in my life.
In the anti-abortion era, we need this!
Also for fun, from Jezebel, undated: A Definitive Ranking of All the Jezebel Pets, As Judged by 3 Kids: Photos and explanation of rankings at the link!
Economic
From Axios: Single Latina and Black women have lowest homeownership rates:
Single Latinas who live alone have among the lowest rates of ownership of any group in the U.S. due to low-wage jobs and a housing market that needs more regulation, experts tell Axios Latino.
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Overall Latino homeownership rates have been steadily increasing and have outpaced other racial/ethnic demographics since the 2008 crash, says Orlando Camargo, communications director for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
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"Going into the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession, we already had a lot of housing insecurity for Black women and Latinas that was just compounded and, unfortunately, their recovery has been far from equitable," Sarah Hassmer, director of housing justice for the NWLC, tells Axios Latino.
Now banks are starting to use AI to make decisions regarding lending, likely with inequitable results.
Health
The 19th News Millennial women are making more money. They’re also facing bigger health threats: Despite strides in education and earnings, young women are faring worse in health and safety than their mothers’ and grandmothers’ generations, a new Population Reference Bureau report shows:
PRB’s “Losing More Ground: Revisiting Young Women’s Wellness Across Generations” presents an updated analysis on the well-being of women ages 25 to 34 to understand how this generation’s health and safety compare to that of older Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boom and Silent Generation women. The report, last produced in 2017, has found that in the past five years, younger Millennial women — those born between 1989 and 1999, as defined by the report’s authors — are faring worse than women of previous generations. Furthermore, they are also facing many steep declines in outcomes, a drop that began in just the last past half decade.
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What the data analysis shows, Srygley shows, is that an intersectional lens and a commitment to zooming out on the intersections of gender and policy are key to understanding why younger Millennial women are faring so much worse in so many ways than older generations of women.
“What we are seeing here is that despite signs that young women today are putting in tremendous effort to improve their lives, gains in educational or economic pursuits are not necessarily going to keep them healthy or safe,” Srygley told The 19th. “We can’t point to any one factor that causes this gap between women’s efforts and their health and safety outcomes, but signs point to a combination of social, structural and policy-driven influences….Ease of access to firearms, the rolling back of protections for women’s reproductive health, impacts of the pandemic, structural inequality, and rising political divisiveness may be just a few pieces of the puzzle.”
Abortion
The 19th News Overview of states where abortion could be on the 2024 ballot and challenges advocates face:
Seven states have directly voted on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — and abortion rights advocates are so far undefeated with ballot measures.
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The proposed amendments have the potential to reshape abortion access around the country and even mobilize voters behind Democrats in critical 2024 battleground states and races. Abortion rights ballot measures outperformed Democrats on the ballot in California, Michigan and Vermont in the 2022 midterms.
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Passing a ballot measure is a highly expensive, time-consuming endeavor. First, organizers must decide on language for their ballot measure. Next, they must gather tens or hundreds of thousands of signatures to put on the ballot, anticipating legal challenges to the validity of their signatures or the ballot language itself. Successful campaigns require lots of spending and intensive get-out-the-vote efforts, especially in states that require a supermajority for the measure to pass.
Guttmacher Institute's updated interactive map of degree of abortion access across the 50 states: We have a long way to go to the blue we all deserve!:
pregnancy
From The 19th & HuffPo: What it’s like to be a pregnant trans man in America
Three days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Sam Guido gave birth to his first child. His doctors, unsure of what was still legal, didn’t prescribe misoprostol — a drug used in medication abortions — to help with contractions.
That was another blow, another way in which Guido felt he wasn’t in control of his labor. Guido hadn’t wanted to give birth in a hospital at all — he was afraid to be there. As a transmasculine and nonbinary person, they have faced the same ignorance and discrimination in medical institutions that many trans people in the United States experience. But a home birth just wasn’t an option; health insurance wouldn’t cover that or midwife care, and Guido’s apartment was too small.
Instead, Guido enlisted chosen family and friends to advocate for them in the hospital. Having other trans voices in the room ensured that they were respected by hospital staff as they brought his daughter, T, into the world. …
Guido lives in Wisconsin, where the overturning of Roe v Wade meant attempts at prosecution under an 1849 anti-abortion law, until the courts ruled it wasn’t an anti-abortion law at all. A 1994 ruling stated that abortion was not a crime until “after… viability”. Rights and restrictions are still being litigated. That doctors don’t even know anymore whether or not they can ease contractions during labour show the damage done by such uncertainties even without clear anti-abortion laws on the books. In fact, maybe the uncertainty is a feature not a bug to authoritarians.
From Jessicca Valenti: Woman charged with child neglect for medical marijuana during pregnancy: Oklahoma has been arresting women for using marijuana during pregnancy - including at least one where the marijuana use was recommended by her doctor:
One of those women is 27 year-old Brittany Gunsolus, who used edibles and topical creams during her pregnancy with a recommendation from her doctor.
Gunsolus’ baby was born healthy, and child welfare workers found her home to be safe and loving—yet the district attorney of Comanche County decided to bring her up on felony child neglect charges. The Frontier reports that when Gunsolus’ lawyers pointed out that medical marijuana is the same as any other legal medication, the prosecutor responded that “Gunsolus broke the law because her unborn child did not have its own, separate state license to use medical marijuana.” Yes, really.
As Abortion, Every Day has pointed out time and again: this is what criminalization looks like. The fantastic organization Pregnancy Justice is providing legal help in this case—you can donate to them here.
So will doctors be writing prescriptions for all fetuses now? If not, how long before they arrest a pregnant person for “illegally sharing her Rx with her fetus”? Welp, it’s bound to happen, the whole point of unclear laws is to harass women.
Intersectional
From The Conversation: Racism [and sexism] produces subtle brain changes that lead to increased disease risk in Black [and female] populations:
This article was submitted because the contributor recognised the parallels between what Blacks and women are going through in dealing with day-to-day “microaggressions”, with similar health consequences:
We are clinical neuroscientists who study the multifaceted ways in which racism affects how our brains develop and function. We use brain imaging to study how trauma such as sexual assault or racial discrimination can cause stress that leads to mental health disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
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The more brain energy you use to suppress, control or manage your feelings, the more energy you take away from the rest of the body. Over time, and without prolonged periods of rest, relief and restoration, this can contribute to other problems, a process that public health researcher Arline Geronimus termed “weathering.” Having these brain regions in continual overdrive is linked with accelerated biological aging, which can create vulnerability for health problems and early death.
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This continual questioning and doubting of the circumstances around racist experiences, or racial gaslighting, may be part of what depletes the brain of its resources, causing the weathering that ultimately increases vulnerability to brain health problems.
Sounds familiar!
Good News (more or less)
Sakharov Prize: Parliament honours Jina Mahsa Amini and Iranian women protesters:
Opening the award ceremony, President Metsola declared: "This years’ Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded to Jina Masha Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, serves as a tribute to all the brave and defiant women, men and young people in Iran, who despite coming under increasing pressure, are continuing the fight for their rights and push for change. The European Parliament hears you and supports you. You are not alone.ʺ
Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, was arrested by police in Tehran on 13 September 2022 for allegedly ignoring Iran’s strict veiling laws. She died in hospital three days later after physical abuse suffered while in custody. Her death sparked massive women-led protests across the country. Under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”, women have been protesting since her death against the hijab rules and other discriminatory laws.
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The family was represented in Strasbourg by their lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, who read a message from Jina Mahsa Amini’s mother, Mozhgan Eftekhari, during the ceremony: "Jina’s grief is eternal to me, and she is undying for people all over the world. I firmly believe that her name, beside that of Joan of Arc, will remain a symbol of freedom. From the birthplace of eternal Jina, I convey to you my and my family’s endless gratitude and I hope that you will stand firm and proud by your choice. Let us hope that no voice will fear the pronouncement of liberty."
From Feminist Majority Foundation Feminism is for Men, Too: How community organizers are engaging men and boys in the fight for gender equality:
Around the world, advances in gender equality have reached a standstill. During the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home orders drastically increased incidents of intimate partner violence. The overturning of Roe v. Wade has emboldened anti-abortion movements both domestically and globally. Whether one looks to the nation’s highest courts or to their own family relations, one likely finds the perpetuation of gender inequality. This is, in part, due to patriarchal constructions of masculinity: cultural beliefs associated with being a man often involve male domination over women.
Yet these beliefs are not unshakeable. In the last three decades, more attention has been paid to the role of men in building gender equality. To some feminists, engaging men in feminism is not just a moral imperative but a strategic one. Madelyn Amos, a program associate with the Feminist Majority, notes that men can play a unique role in effecting change. “Men have so much institutional power and so much control,” says Amos.
But in addition to advancing the feminist cause, many organizers also highlight the ways that men themselves stand to benefit from gender equality. In the U.S., over 70 percent of fathers take limited parental leave, returning to work less than two weeks after the birth of a child. Despite the vast majority of men expressing that they value quality family time, many fathers do not take on childcare work in fears of social stigmatization or job penalties. Even more gravely, men die by suicide at a rate four times higher than women yet are considerably less likely to seek treatment, largely due to gendered mental health stigma. Feminist organizers are acutely aware that men’s wellbeing depends heavily on deconstructing patriarchal systems of inequality. Accordingly, several gender equality groups have dedicated their work to helping men develop healthier concepts of masculinity.
From The 19th News How a group of grandparents is mobilizing to push back against Moms for Liberty:
When the parental rights group Moms for Liberty kicked off its second “Joyful Warriors” summit in Philadelphia in June, it did not do so without fierce opposition. Hundreds of demonstrators showed up to protest the organization labeled an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its efforts to rid schools of materials that highlight the nation’s history of racism or LGBTQ+ issues. Among the demonstrators were members of the newly formed Grandparents for Truth, a project of the progressive advocacy organization People for the American Way (PFAW). Television producer Norman Lear, who died December 5 at age 101, established PFAW in 1981 to counter the “moral majority” agenda of the religious right.
Grandparents for Truth, which formally launched in June, bills itself as an antidote of sorts to conservative groups like Moms for Liberty that strive to influence school curricula. Instead of supporting book banning, educational gag orders and far-right political candidates, the left-leaning elders, and their allies, are mobilizing to give children what they call “the freedom to learn.” Members are speaking out against censorship at school board meetings, backing progressive school board candidates and organizing against extremist ones. They’re writing legislators to urge them to take a stance against bigotry. All the while, they’re demonstrating that scores of older people are invested in fighting school policies that ignore the role communities of color and queer people play in society.
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Authoritarianism is taking shape now in a way that is really, really, really serious, and we felt that there were organizations out there pretending to be for freedom and liberty, but really what they mean by that is freedom and liberty for only particular people, which was not OK. So, we felt like we needed to launch something that very visibly and viscerally confronted that message. It felt that we really needed to make the statement by launching Grandparents for Truth as a counterforce to those voices that are, again, trying to own this notion of patriotism and freedom, when really what they’re about is freedom and rights for just sort of a privileged few.
Read more of the interview at the linky (given here again for convenience). It’s way past time there was organised pushback! Lots of school boards have been fighting extreme, violent rhetoric, on their own without full knowledge of who these “Moms” really are.
From The Conversation: The late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor’s iCivics curriculum — a project she considered her legacy — has been shown to boost knowledge of the political process:
While iCivics targets K-12 students, O’Connor considered the need for civics education to extend more broadly. She once observed that polls have shown that only a third of the public could name the three branches of government. “Compare that to the … nearly three-quarters who can name two of the Three Stooges, and the numbers are disheartening,” O’Connor stated.
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Civics education is especially useful for lifting students who did not grow up talking about politics and discussing its importance onto equal footing with those who did. Women and racial and ethnic minorities, for example, are on average less likely to be socialized by parents into learning about and taking part in politics. Civics education can compensate for these disparities, creating a pathway for all to understand how government works and how they can take part.
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With more and more young Americans questioning whether it is essential to live in a democracy, O’Connor’s efforts to increase access to civics education continue to light a path forward on how to reinvigorate democracy in the U.S.
Ally:
From www.bet.com/...: Damson Idris Calls Out Black Men's Treatment of Black Women in Powerful Message: ‘You Aren’t Men To Us’ [all caps removed by me]:
Late Monday night (Dec 11), in a message directed at Black men, the “Snowfall” star highlighted his observations, stating, “I see so much unprovoked hatred towards Black women today by predominantly grown Black men. Especially towards our young stars that are just trying to do their thing.”
He continued, “The compulsion to humble these women perhaps makes you feel like more of a man. I promise you, you aren’t men to us.” The Nigerian-British star actor cautioned, “A new year is approaching. Grow up.”
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While it's uncertain what prompted this message, it follows a surge in negative criticism towards Black women, especially female artists, on the internet.
I never heard of this actor before, but I like him!
As always, this War on Women column is a group project! Many thanks to Tara, mettle, SandraLLAP, and Angmar for items and discussion!