Report It on Angela Shelton Day

Happy Angela Shelton Day!

Today is the day where the Report It campaign, a campaign motivating survivors of sexual assault to report their cases via an online form at the Report It website, comes to a close with the biggest rally of unified sexual assault survivors taking place at various courthouses across the country! Today, on Angela Shelton Day, survivors are being asked to go to your local courthouses and say that the silence of sexual assault survivors has went on for far too long.

Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in the world and it is also the least talked about. By being a survivor and living through your abuse and talking about your abuse, you are breaking the silence surrounding this pandemic. One person can change the world, so if you are able, please go to your local court house and speak up for the rights of survivors everywhere.

Here is the statement that is being read at rallies across the country:

“Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in the world. All too often victims do not report the crime to authorities for fear of not being believed, mistrust of the legal system, because they blame themselves for the crime or fear of retaliation. It’s time to address why this happens to sexual violence victims, while victims of other crimes, like robbery, don’t hesitate to seek justice. Victims of sexual violence deserve the equal protection of our laws. They deserve to be heard and validated. The Report IT Campaign is a first of its kind effort on behalf of all victims — an initiative designed to give hope to all victims that we can end the silence surrounding sexual violence. Our loud, unified voice today will be the first step in a multi-year effort to inspire much needed reforms and better access to justice for all victims.”

But this isn’t the end of the collaborative rally from Angela Shelton and PAVE. In fact, PAVE will be collecting reports from survivors for the next year, in 2009 this rally will run again just as it did this year but hopefully with even more people and in 2010, PAVE is taking this rally straight to Washington DC.

If you haven’t already, report your case today on Angela Shelton Day by filling out the online form. I filled mine out this morning and now it’s your turn!

If you need someone to talk to remember that you can always call RAINN. It’s safe and confidential. 1.800.656.HOPE or check out the online hotline.

Anti-Choice Oklahoma

The Oklahoma House has recently voted 80-12 in support of the Freedom of Conscious Act, also known as SB 1878.

The Freedom of Conscious Act is basically an act that takes all of the previously brought up anti-choice laws and combines them into one. This bill allows health care workers to refuse to participate in actions that they feel are contrary to their religious beliefs and moral convictions. It also states that employers would not be able to “discriminate” against health care workers who exercise this right to refuse.

It may just be me, but if you are not able to you know, do your job, because of your religious beliefs and moral convictions, shouldn’t you find another line of work? Makes perfect, logical sense to me.

Under this bill, women are also required to have an ultrasound prior to getting an abortion. It also requires that wherever abortions are provided, there are large signs stating it is “against the law for anyone, regardless of his or her relationship to you, to force you to have an abortion.”

What this bill is doing is simply using more scare tactics against women when they seek an abortion. It talks down to women saying that it is “against the law for anyone, regardless or his or her relationship to you, to force you to have an abortion” and saying that that is simply the only reason why a woman would choose to have an abortion in the first place. By forcing a woman to get an ultrasound done before getting an abortion, you are using emotional trauma in order to get the upper hand against women seeking abortions. If they feel bad, then maybe they will go through with the pregnancy, right? That’s the “logic” behind this bill. However, people are simply not understanding that women do not walk into abortion clinics with smiles on their faces. They are not waking up in the morning and saying to themselves “Wow, what a beautiful day to get an abortion.” These women have already thought about their options, they have weighed them and have made a decision that the government is simply doing their damnedest to tell them they have no right to make.

This bill also regulates the use of Mifepristone, or RU-486, medications used in performing chemical abortions. This is perhaps the most ridiculous point on this bill.

Why does the use of these medications need to be regulated? The bottom line is that your doctor should be the only person aiding in how you get your abortion performed; not the government. When the government starts regulating the use of a medication they begin to strip away the rights of women when it comes to reproductive health and they are putting more women in harm’s way by regulating the use of these medications by making them resort to other options in order to obtain an abortion. By regulating these medications a woman who is desperate for an abortion is not going to say “Oh shit, I guess I’ll just wait 9 months and have the baby since that is the only logical way out of this.” No, they are going to go to other measures in order to abort the fetus that they do not want. End of story.

With this bill receiving the vote, it is now on its way to the Senate for consideration. This bill has already went to Senate and passed. This is a shame for all women, especially those in Oklahoma. This is a violation of women’s rights and I simply cannot express the amount of disappointment I feel right now.

Now Every Girl Can Be a Pole Dancer

When I heard about this I thought it was a joke, but sadly, I was mistaken.

With fans like Carmen Electra, Kylie Minogue, the Spice Girls and Pussycat Dolls, The Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit is a stripper pole that you can put in your home and practice how to be a real, live stripper! You know, before your 18th birthday when you can legally go give men their jollies and this way, you will already be experienced!

With their booklet of dance moves, a garter and 100 peekaboo dance dollars to reenact the real thing, this stripper pole, they claim, is a sure fire way to spice things up the bedroom or what I found a little strange…to liven up a friend’s party. I’m sorry, but who wants to go to a party where everyone gets together and dance on a stripper pole?

Now what I find truly amazing is that the makers of the Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit recently announced that they are seeking a partner to help license their concept to Nintendo and making their pole dancing kit, which cannot support your full body weight and looks incredibly dangerous, as a game for the Wii.

Interested in what this Pole Dancing Kit is all about? Check out the video below.

Help Us Help You Help Others

SkirtSports, a retailer for sports apparel for women and children, has recently put together a campaign that will help their customers give back to the organizations and charities that mean the most to them.

Help Us Help You Help Others is a campaign unlike most others I have seen. Not only can you donate to a charity and help that charity help others in need, but you, as a SkirtSports customer, can choose the charity that Help Us Help You Help Others donates to.

Over a period of a month, SkirtSports asks people to nominate their favorite charity and the charity that receives the most submitted nominations will receive a $500 donation from the SkirtSports Help Us Help You Help Others campaign plus whatever amount is received through your donations, which range from donations of $5 to $100.

For the month of April and in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Help Us Help You Help Others will be donating to SOAR (Speaking Out Against Rape) SOAR is an amazing non-profit organization which runs national awareness, education and prevention programs to help survivors of sexual abuse reclaim their voice, confidence and lives. You can learn more about SOAR at their website here.

In order to donate to SOAR through Help Us Help You Help Others, go here and select the amount you would like to donate. 100% of your donations go straight to SOAR; there is no tax or fees of any kind and it gets donated directly. As an added bonus, SOAR has a special promotion through SkirtSports where if you buy from their website you receive 10% off on all online purchases by using the promo code SOAR–and while you’re at it, don’t forget to make a donation to SOAR.

I Call Shenanigans!

I’m calling even more shenanigans today, when I found out that Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania.

This makes me even more sad than I was yesterday. After losing 11 straight states, Pennsylvania is the state that makes Hillary think she can make a comeback.

Grumble…

Pennsylvania Primary Day

Today marks the day of the presidential primary in Pennsylvania. I have been looking forward to this day since reading websites talking about Super Tuesday. I have done my research, know who I’m voting for, knew I had to get my state ID renewed since it is almost six months expired, I thought I had everything in order.

I decided that I would go and renew my ID yesterday since the boyfriend’s driver’s license needs to be renewed and while looking up the business hours for the DMV, I read that I couldn’t just show up and get my ID renewed. Where was I when they decided these rules? I just showed up and got my ID initially, why do I need to mail out some papers and wait for them to mail me back papers and make an appointment now that I want to renew it? I call shenanigans!

So since I am without identification to go along with my little slip of paper saying I can vote, I can’t and I am pissed! I love voting; I take my right to vote very seriously and of course this would happen. So if anyone out there lives in Pennsylvania and didn’t plan on voting, why don’t you go out and vote for Obama for me so I can feel like I kinda sorta voted? That’d be just swell, thanks.

The Frightening Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Sadly, very few women know what the term “crisis pregnancy center” really means and that is exactly what crisis pregnancy centers prey upon.

There is a personal story from Allyson Kirk published on AlterNet of a woman who got caught in the trap of these centers, thinking it was a regular reproductive rights clinic, as these centers have tried their best to look like to lure women in and intimidate them into carrying their pregnancies to term.

After calling the National Abortion Federation Hotline seeking an abortion, she got a number for a health care clinic, but a crisis pregnancy center located themselves a mere two doors down from the clinic, where the woman ended up walking into thinking it was the clinic she was in search for. What these people put her through is sick, twisted and no woman should have to be put through this when making a personal decision regarding her body.

“She asked me about my religious beliefs. I was immediately defensive at this point. I asked her why this was a relevant question to ask in a medical facility. “Because I can’t properly counsel you on the issue of abortion unless I know your moral standing,” she said. I decided that this was not the kind of place I felt comfortable seeking medical care so I asked her to complete the free pregnancy test and then I would be on my way. I gave her a urine sample and she agreed to run the test, but only if I watched an educational video while the results were processing.”

First of all, the woman felt the need to ask about the religious beliefs of the patient just to feel around and see if she had to intimidate her to stay there so she could “counsel” (ie: push her moral standing onto her patient and make her believe what she wanted) and the woman of this clinic, after seeing the hesitancy, started bartering with the woman over getting a pregnancy test done at their clinic. “You can have your pregnancy test if you watch this video.” That is not the way to treat the women who walk into your clinic, but they knew that this woman was hesitant and was starting to realize what was going on and knew that she should not be there, so I guess bartering is the only other viable option since these people are completely unprofessional and exist only to terminate a woman’s right to choose.

“The video I was forced to watch made false claims including: doctors who provide abortions graduate at the bottom of their classes and can’t get real jobs; abortion is dangerous and often results in serious injury, even death, to women, and abortion causes severe psychological and emotional damage to women. The woman on the video said many women who have abortions have nightmares of babies crying and have guilt about their decision so intense that it sends them into depression.

The second portion of the video showed an illustrated enactment of a surgical abortion procedure. A picture of a uterus with a fully formed fetus inside filled the TV screen as illustrated metal instruments appeared. The instruments were shown probing inside the uterus and dismembering the fetus. Then a suction device entered the screen, pulling the fetus out of the illustrated uterus for disposal.”

These centers should not be able to give women completely fabricated information. “Abortion providers can’t get real jobs?” Sorry, I believe that abortion providers have one of the most important jobs–Giving a woman power over her own body and giving her the respect to know that she can make her own decision. I would think that the people who “can’t get real jobs” would be the ones who make a living off of scaring the hell out of women who walk into their trumped up office. I would think that these people can only get jobs in which they must lie to scared and impressionable women in order to push their personal beliefs onto other people–whether they’re willing to listen or not because if they don’t, they’ll just barter with them–”We’ll let you out of this room as long as you agree to pray with us.” This makes me sick.

I am willing to bet that their claim that abortion results in serious injury and even death are taken from statistics published before the early 70’s, since they would be right–Back alley and illegal abortions that women are going to have to resort back to if abortion is ever outlawed, do cause serious injury and in a lot of cases, even death.

That, my friends, is why the option of a safe and legal abortion is a hell of a lot better than an abortion done with a wire coat hanger either in your home or in unsanitary surroundings because I, for one, would rather an already living and breathing woman be able to continue with her life before I would put the life of a cluster of cells before her.

Sex Criminal Fashions

I hate the mentality that rape is a funny word. Rape is not a funny word, action or mindset and it should most definitely not be used in a comedy bit; the same goes for the word pedophile. These words have absolutely no place in comedy, yet lately it seems to be popping up everywhere and the people who are seeing these words being used in comedy are going right along with it, which infuriates me.

This particular video, entitled ‘Pedophile Beards,’ by Jon Lajoie is actually a followup video for a previous one entitled ‘Rapist Glasses.’ With over 214,000 views, 1,249 text comments and 11 video responses, the majority of Jon’s viewers are laughing right along with him, saying that it is the funniest thing that they have seen in a while and that they know many people who fit into the stereotypes that he is pointing out–those being not only rapists and pedophiles, but he has also added public masturbators and serial killers to the mix. And the point to the video? Using well known visual stereotypes in a “comedic,” and I use that word very lightly, video about sex criminal fashions.

Sure, while it is “meant to be funny,” Tshirts with the words ’serial rapist’ on them, such as the shirt (and those like them) posted over at SAFER were also just “meant as a joke” and are now in the process of being removed from Cafepress.

I, for one, am not laughing.

Warning: If the above video or content has triggered you in any way, please seek help by visiting RAINN.