Menstrual Poetry

The True Price of Beauty is Needles in Your Face

I have been a big fan of Target Women done by Sarah Haskins who has developed quite the following with her hilarious and spot on humor about products and media targeted at women.

So far, Sarah Haskins has brought us the ridiculousness how all women are angry because of Hillary Clinton losing the presidential candidacy and how McCain and Obama want us for our votes and target us on basic cable and think “Well all women watch Army Wives, Ellen, The View and insert other television shows that are popular among women here and so if we put out PSA’s during those shows, they will have to vote for me!” We’ve also learned about the hilarious and stereotypical nature of WE, The Women’s Channel and how we, as women, all flock to shows about weddings and we’ve also seen several commercials about yogurt and how all women love yogurt and there’s never a bad time to have some, even if you’re at a wedding reception, which I believe was the first Target Women feature.

And now, ladies, we have the horrible fact of aging! Oh no, wrinkles! Not being looked at as sexy anymore because oh no, you’ve aged and now everything is ruined!

Is the Media Promoting Teen Pregnancy?

Earlier this month, Time magazine put out a story about 17 girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, none older than 16, who had made a pregnancy pact stating that they would get pregnant at the same time so they could raise their children together. The number of teen pregnancies in this school alone has risen more than 4% in just one year and the number of teen pregnancies across the country this past year are astonishing. One must ask, given the statistics, why are so many young girls getting pregnant?

In almost every blog post I have seen on this topic, most of which were “mommy bloggers,” mothers of mostly small children, one of the first things brought up is the media. Most people are claiming that movies like Juno and Knocked Up are glamorizing pregnancy and young, unwed mothers. They are also pointing the finger at television shows such as the upcoming The Secret Life of the American Teenager, from the same people who brought you all thirty years (well it sure felt like it!) of 7th Heaven. While mass media is definitely pushing its boundaries and has caused young girls as well as grown women to take up extremist behavior, I think that while it’s definitely okay and right to point fingers, people are only pointing fingers at mass media and don’t believe that anything else can cause such an extreme outcome.

The last time I saw Juno, it was about a teenage girl who was most likely told by her parents not to have sex, hence her being so apprehensive to speak with her father and step mother about being pregnant. However, this teenage girl had sex anyway and it wasn’t a case of her boyfriend wanting to have sex and pushing her to agree to it nor was it something she felt she had to do to fit in with her friends or live up to social expectations; it was simply a curious girl who was in love with a boy and wanted to have sex. Sorry to break it to you, folks, but this is the way real life works–Teenagers are curious about sex, they wonder what it is like and yes, they’re going to have sex and it’s most likely going to be after you told them not to. The movie also showed a teenage girl who had a good enough head on her shoulders to know that she wasn’t ready for a baby and opted to find a couple who wanted a baby, yet couldn’t have one and it resulted in a closed adoption per Juno’s request. I highly doubt that Juno glamorized teenage pregnancy, nor did it show Juno’s best friend wanting to have a baby with Juno so they could raise their babies together.

The only thing I have to say about Knocked Up “glamorizing” young, unwed mothers is that one of the last scenes of the movie shows a closeup of a woman’s vagina while giving birth. Glamorous? Making teenage girls want to go out and get pregnant so they can experience what they just saw? I doubt it. On second thought, I have more. In Knocked Up, the main character asked if the man she was sleeping with after a very drunken night had a condom and being drunk, well, it didn’t work out so well. If anything, I’d think that Knocked Up is a public service announcement for “This is what happens if you get drunk…and have sex” not “This is what happens if you have sex, but it’s a good thing because it all worked out in the end!”

I find it rather odd how there is story after story coming out about a substantial rise in not just teen pregnancy, but the amount of teen cases of sexually transmitted diseases and infections and instead of pointing my finger at television shows and movies, I thought a little deeper and it dawned on me–Oh yeah! It wasn’t too long ago where we found out the amount of money that has been poured into abstinence-only sex education and what some teens think you can do to prevent pregnancy and STDs.

In the case of Gloucester High School, sex ed ends freshman year and apparently they aren’t able to tell you what you need to know up until then. No matter which way you look at it, teenagers are going to make up their own minds and if they choose not to have sex, consider yourself lucky. Teenagers are curious and they often feel as if they are in love or may actually be in love several times during their teenage years and through their lives, they have most often been told that when you love someone you have sex and that is what they do.

Education is the most powerful resource anyone can have and it’s the only thing no one can take away from you. The same applies for the subject of sex, especially when you’re talking about teenagers. Every person deserves the education they need to go out in the world and make something of themselves and of their lives.

Welcome to the McCain Clinic, Where You Have No Options

McCain has been very firm about his pro-life standing. By throwing in his “pro-life” stance into the mix and from what we have learned through the past few months about this stance, we know that McCain does not believe women should be entitled to the right to choose and to have control over their own bodies. What some might now know, however, is that McCain is also against a woman’s right to obtain birth control, (although it is about time he actually made a decision about where he stands on birth control–although someone else probably told him where he should stand on the issue) which 99% of women in the United States will be on at one point or another throughout their lives; to add, McCain is also against the right to emergency contraception.

So what would a John McCain women’s clinic be like?

Yeah, something like that.

Sadly, McCain’s pro-life record couldn’t be worse. He voted to permit federally funded Title X family planning clinics (like Planned Parenthood) to decline to counsel women on abortion services. He has repeatedly voted to deny low-income women access to abortion care except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. He voted in favor of four anti-choice US Supreme Court nominees, putting a woman’s right to choose under direct attack. He supports and voted in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and has also voted in support of “almost every important pro-life law proposed in the last decade.” He had also released a statement on the Federal Abortion Ban on April 18, 2007, saying:

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children. It also clearly speaks to the importance of nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges who interpret the law as it is written, and do not usurp the authority of Congress and state legislatures. As we move forward, it is critically important that our party continues to stand on the side of life.”

Taking a look at just these few issues regarding women’s rights and issues that John McCain has voted on, it’s obvious to say that the video above isn’t an exaggeration at all. The truly unfortunate fact of the matter is that according to a recent Planned Parenthood Action Fund poll [PDF] half of female voters in 16 battleground states don’t know enough about McCain’s views on reproductive health. This is due to the fact that the mass media will not cover McCain’s horrendous anti-choice record because they will not admit that there is currently a presidential candidate so anti-woman. What’s even more appalling is that 1 in 4 pro-choice McCain supporters would be less likely to vote for McCain after knowing he opposes Roe v. Wade and backs abstinence-only education.

This is the time to truly educate yourself on the candidates and the issues they stand firm on. McCain is a true misogynist who will do what is in his power to take the rights women have fought hard for since the early 70’s away and moreover, he will stand firm on his belief that teenagers should only have access to abstinence-only education.

Pro-Lifers Say No to Habitat for Humanity

We all know that “pro-lifers” want to destroy everything relating to reproductive health care and limit the types of reproductive health care women seek and are given. We also know that pro-lifers hate hate hate Planned Parenthood because they are “baby killers” (even though not all Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions) and they distribute that evil poison-in-pill form known as birth control! Another widely known fact is that pro-lifers also do not give a damn about life after a person is born; no, they’re more interested in what goes on in the womb and they only care that that fetus gets out of the womb so they have more people in the world to fight with about reproductive health care and more people to tell off about how wrong they are when it comes to personal freedom and choice.

Yeah, the people actually alive and breathing on Earth right now really aren’t a concern to them, which can obviously be proven since they recently got a project for Habitat for Humanity shut down.

“An anti-abortion group has broken up a deal between Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity by blasting out 10,000 e-mails to Habitat supporters.

Planned Parenthood is building a 23,000-square-foot regional headquarters on Central Avenue, and planned to sell Habitat the land next door for a token $10 to build three below-market-cost houses. The deal benefited Planned Parenthood because the city required the clinic to put up buildings as a buffer between its parking lot and Cohen Way.

“We could have put up any building we wanted,” said Barbara Zdravecky, president of Planned Parenthood. “We wanted to donate the land so Habitat could build more attainable housing.”

The email blast to 10,000 Habitat supporters started with James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, (Wow, a man, what a surprise…) who said it showed a cozy relationship between Habitat and Planned Parenthood. This “cozy relationship” was then compared to pushing pornography onto children, among other things.

The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is a fabulous place, a great resource to women and whom have helped several women, including myself so I am speaking from first hand, personal experience here. The clinic needed builds to put up as a buffer against this type of ridiculousness and instead of selling the land for an enormous price to someone else, they decided to practically give it to Habitat for Humanity because they are in the same field–The field of helping people.

These groups, while they hide behind their cloaks of “We want to help people!” actually wind up hurting more and more people and this time, they targeted Habitat for Humanity because they feel as if accepting a space to build and to help other people, that means that they have a cozy relationship with Planned Parenthood. It is because of the hatred that these people have against something they do not understand that Habitat will not be able to build in a space that was donated to them and will not be able to help the people who need it.

Go here to contact Habitat for Humanity and let them know that they shouldn’t be bullied by people who want to stop them from helping low income families.

The Secret to Completing a Woman’s Life: BABIES!

I saw a few posts on the movie Baby Mama when the movie was first out in theaters. I, however, being the kind of person who finds it much more enjoyable to watch movies at home mostly while I am working as I am a chronic multi-tasker, I waited and recently watched the movie online a few days ago.

After seeing this movie in all of its cliche, hardly funny glory, I am beyond surprised that I didn’t see more posts regarding this movie when it had first hit theaters. Maybe it’s just me, perhaps a movie that revolves solely around a woman’s desperate need for a child isn’t particularly funny to me, considering the generalizations that played into the movie’s dialogue and the pure ridiculousness of the characters.

The main character, Kate, played by Tina Fey admits that she is a career woman and that she dedicated her life to becoming a successful business woman, yet while she carries these accomplishments with pride, especially since she is such a successful woman working within a group of men and happens to be the youngest person working within her particular business, her life is simply not complete without a child thrown into the mix. While I do believe that maternal instinct and the desire to have children as you get older exists and is quite apparent in the lives of many women, to base an entire movie on the fact that women believe they exist to have children is ridiculous. Sorry to break it to you, but a lot of women find that the time they have spent creating their lives and businesses have been well worth it and not all women start freaking out the minute of their 30th birthday thinking that they have wasted time and need to get pregnant immediately so their lives can officially be complete.

So when Kate decides that she absolutely positively must have a child in order to make her life complete, she goes to a sperm bank because you know, successful business women are always single; did I also mention that her character is uptight and a control freak? Must be how she got to be so successful and single! So after picking out some sperm, she brings it home and in 9 months of trying and coming up without child, she finds out that there is a one in a million chance for her to have a baby on her own. Oh no, what is a control freak, uptight, single business woman who needs a child to do? That’s right! They go to Sigourney Weaver’s surrogate clinic!

In this typical Hollywood catastrophe, Baby Mama succeeds in telling women that without a baby, their lives are incomplete and may as well mean nothing and the fact that they don’t have a man is pathetic enough, but don’t be child free as well! The movie also succeeds in making fun of Anorexia, the Wiccan religion and of course, because women are so hard up for children, surrogate mothers are going to end up wanting to keep the baby they “promised” to you anyway, so you really will need a miracle. A miracle, you say? Like I don’t know, a typical Hollywood ending where a woman finds a man and ends up being pregnant even though there was a one in a million chance of her being able to? Yeah, like that!

Rape and Victim Blaming

Derek, a lovely feminist blogger and vlogger over at Doing Feminism has an incredible new vlog up over at his site on rape and victim blaming. With recent accounts of rape happening within 10 blocks of his house, he decided to make a vlog about rape and how so many people blame the victims for rape even existing and using such bullshit lines like “Well women shouldn’t wear short skirts or go to bars or stay out after dark.”

You should go watch the video, it’s fabulous.

John McCain Doesn’t Support the Troops

The current GI Bill as it stands today is the same GI Bill that was in effect during World War II. When considering the cost of living and how much more money is needed by every American just to keep a roof over their heads and eat has significantly risen since the time of World War II. The current GI Bill is also said to pay for the college education of an American soldier in addition to providing necessities; in reality, as of right now, American soldiers who are returning from several tours overseas are receiving a sum of $650 per month. This amount of money may have been sufficient for WWII veterans, however, as the cost of living has risen, more money is needed for veterans of the current war to receive what they were promised at their time of enlisting.

As it stands today, the GI Bill does not cover an American veteran’s entire education, which is upsetting specifically because so many Americans enlist in the military for the simple fact that they are promised a college education. For years, the American government has relied solely on people of lower income families and have lied to a frightening number of people about the benefits that they would receive if they enlisted. The benefits that soldiers receive now after active duty overseas is much like a college scholarship if anything else, and because of the bill is so inadequate, many soldiers are in debt because the GI Bill has not kept up with the rising cost of living in America.

There is a new GI Bill now by Senator John Weeb that covers the cost of college tuition to the price of a state college and will give the troops the peace of mind that finally they will be given what they are promised. The only problem with this new GI Bill is that it’s not getting passed due to the lack of support, including lack of support from Senator John McCain.

While McCain loves to boast that he is an American veteran and loves to give the illusion that he of all people, as an American veteran supports the troops, he should be one of the first people to endorse the new GI Bill, which doesn’t blatantly lie to the American people and leave veterans in debt or uneducated due to the cost of living and the rising cost of education. However, John McCain not only does not support the new GI Bill, he downright refuses to co-sponsor it and in turn, does not support the troops.

This is unacceptable. As a veteran himself and a candidate in the current presidential election, refusing to co-sponsor a bill that will help the soldiers with whom he loves to identify himself with, is disgusting. There is no way that any American can support John McCain while supporting America and American troops because John McCain himself does not.