Menstrual Poetry

Target Women: Happy Period Control!

Has anyone noticed that birth control commercials never dare utter the word sex? As if women really decided to go on birth control because they wanted shorter, fewer, less emotional periods (yeah, birth control and marketing is most definitely done by a man) and not because they wanted to have sex without having a baby. Well Sarah Haskins did and she’s back with another marvelous episode of Target Women.

Newsflash: Women is a new age word! The media still believes that women are ladies and our minds still revolve around 1920’s lady ideals; the horror! Birth control really doesn’t exist for birth controlling reasons, we just really hate those monthly visits from Satan himself who we embody for a week straight and drive ourselves and everyone around us nuts.

Other reasons why this video is pure kick ass: Second Life reference. Fuck yes.

I Certainly Don’t Wanna Discuss that Issue–Birth Control or Women

McCain was recently answering questions when something he hadn’t expected happened–Someone asked about the fact that many health care providers will cover Viagra but refuse to cover birth control. Apparently a man’s ability to get it up and have sex is great, just as long as the woman isn’t using birth control and exercising her right to safe sex.

Before the woman even finished asking the question, as soon as McCain heard the words birth control, he said that he certainly didn’t want to discuss that issue and hadn’t given the issue much thought at all. The woman then reminds him of the fact that he voted against a bill that would cover birth control on health care plans. The following video is of John McCain’s reaction to the question and how it took him over 2 minutes and a lot of awkward laughing to say that he had absolutely no idea how he voted, what he thinks about granting women the right to get birth control covered on their health care plans and really, that he doesn’t really give birth control or women, for that matter, much thought at all.

Glad he thinks it’s so funny.

Via Bitch Ph.D.

On a related note, I urge you to check out Feministing’s latest Friday Feminist Fuck You by Ann who covers another bill John McCain voted against because it would have benefited women and he’s a complete misogynist. But if you asked him about it, he would probably tell you he couldn’t remember.

India Gets It

You go to great lengths to achieve sexual pleasure and with multiple partners, so never forget the friend that can keep you happy and safe–the condom.

Used as an educational video in the Telugu language from Nrityanjali Academy, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, this absolutely hilarious video of several men dancing and singing dressed in cardboard cutouts of condoms is used to educate and prevent against sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

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 Anti-Choice Agenda Gets Even More Ridiculous

The anti-choice agenda is just getting even more ridiculous with every campaign that they introduce. The latest campaign The American Life League is pushing is The Pill Kills.

The message behind this campaign is that the pills kills babies and that by using birth control you are subjecting your body to chemical abortions. On June 7, the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, which gave married people the right to use contraception, they will be gathering outside of reproductive health care facilities with what they are calling “peaceful protests,” but as we have all seen from pictures alone, their protests are hardly peaceful. This campaign is the starting point of the pro-life organizations pushing to make contraception illegal.

As usual with pro-life extremism, they are willing to do anything to push their agenda, including lying to women.

Take a look at their talking points section of the website, you can spot the bullshit immediately:

Q: Isn’t it better to be on the pill when you are sexually active?
A: Better for whom? The pill does not prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease, it is not 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and you could conceive a child who gets chemically aborted before the baby’s presence is even known to you. Moreover, sexual activity outside of marriage is seriously wrong.

Yep, if you are having sex outside of marriage, you’re just selfish thinking that you should be able to have sex without being shackled to a spouse. Don’t you know that you should be taking every child that god gives you? These people need to realize that pushing personal morals helps no one because not everyone thinks the same way you do. Imagine that.

Q: Is the pill dangerous to my health?
A: Absolutely! There are links between the birth control pill and breast cancer, cervical cancer, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), infertility, birth defects, blood clots, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, shrinking of the womb, stroke, weight gain and much more.

These crazy people also claim that clinics such as Planned Parenthood make “big money” but last time I checked, Planned Parenthood gave low income women a place to go and receive safe and confidential health care at little to no cost whatsoever.

I am convinced that the pro-life agenda really doesn’t want to cut down on the number of abortions. With this campaign alone, they are pushing the thought that women shouldn’t use contraception and to those who are buying in to their agenda, they hear “Okay, no contraception.” and especially when it comes to teenagers, who are going to have sex anyway, they are actually making the numbers of abortions performed per year rise as well as the number of children parenting children rise.

If the anti-choice movement really cared about women, they wouldn’t be brainwashing them into thinking that birth control is bad for you, they wouldn’t be lying to people saying that birth control and abortion have harmful side effects that have been proven to be untrue and they wouldn’t be giving women more ways to become pregnant by using their personal morals as a weapon.

I plan on driving to my local Planned Parenthood on June 7 and seeing what the protest looks like there (even though the closest Planned Parenthood to me that I can even call local is about 40 miles away) and see if they’re really pushing the peaceful concept; I’m thinking no… I also plan on taking pictures and seeing how many of these people are willing to talk to me; could be a damn good time indeed.

Via Feministing.

Obama, The Radical Feminist

Men’s rights activists aren’t too happy with Obama and his so-called radical feminist agenda.

As you can most likely guess, men’s rights activists view feminism as a “dogmatic belief in a malevolent, all-pervasive conspiracy that renders its victims helpless.” …Heh, “victims.” They also believe that (while comparing Obama’s affiliation with Jereimah Wright and his hatred for American society) feminists blame every unpleasantness on the alleged shortcomings of men.

So obviously, these men’s rights activists aren’t very well-informed when it comes to the topic of feminism, which we already knew, but why do they believe Obama has a rad fem agenda?

Here are some points that were brought up in the article, saying “As you can see, Sen. Obama is marching lock-step with the radical feminist agenda, pretty much from A to Z.”

• Abortion: Obama endorses the entire abortion package, including partial birth abortion. The National Abortion Rights Action League gave Obama a perfect 100% score over the last three years.

And this is bad…why? Oh yeah, I know, because men deserve to have the last word when it comes to what women do with their bodies, right? Because you know, they know so much more about the bodies of women than actual women; I get it now.

• Child Support: Obama wants to spend $4.9 billion over 10 years to throw more low-income dads in jail. That will force more single moms onto the welfare rolls. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Obviously all cases of child support not being paid is the fault of the economy and these men just having low income and not so much with most men not paying child support being deadbeats who either can’t or won’t keep jobs and not wanting to provide for their children.

• Contraception: Obama wants to expand teenager’s access to contraception. Remember last month’s comment that he didn’t want his daughters to be “punished” with a baby?

All teenagers, everywhere, should have full access to contraception at all times. It has been proving that abstinence-only education doesn’t work and that even more teenagers are going out and having sex now because of the lies they are being told in the classroom. I don’t believe Obama misspoke in the least when using the word punished, either; in all cases of teenage pregnancy where a teenage girl goes through with the pregnancy and becomes a mother at age 14 (or 13, 15, 16 and so on) that girl is most definitely being punished–For not knowing any better, for not getting the facts at a time where she most definitely should have, for not being able to have access to contraception. Hooray for expanding access to contraception!

• Domestic Violence: The democratic candidate believes that women are never violent towards their husbands. (I guess Hillary laying tracks on Bill’s face and singer Amy Winehouse beating up her hubbie don’t count.)

That or perhaps Obama spoke up about domestic violence existing and this writer blowing it completely out of proportion to fit in with the rest of this obviously misogynistic essay. Yeah, I think so, too.

• Gender Wage Gap: Barack insists discrimination is the reason why women chose to work fewer hours than men, and that needs to be fixed with stronger enforcement of the Equal Pay Act.

To hell with the candidate who believes that women should be paid the same wages for the same work. That is just outrageous! What is this world coming to?

• Women’s Health: Obama wants to fund the separate-and-unequal “Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health” that turn away uninsured men with serious medical problems.

Again, the writer twisting words to make it seem that Obama does not care about the men of the United States. Nevertheless, three cheers for cracking down on women’s health!

• Michelle Obama: An intelligent and charming woman, I’m certain. But is she First Lady material? I have my doubts. At a New York fundraiser, she tweaked the Illinois senator for not “putting his socks actually in the dirty clothes” – a necessary qualification, we know, for every man who one day hopes to become president.

Because women are supposed to be seen and not heard and definitely not possess a sense of humor or the free will to crack a joke. Joking with your spouse = bad, folks. Very, very bad. Michelle Obama, you should most definitely be ashamed of yourself for thinking that you are on the same level as a human being as your husband is. Ugh…

The article finishes with:

Barack Obama, the latest hen-pecked Democratic candidate who has pretensions of becoming the next Leader of the Free World.

Hen-pecked, huh? Because all women do is nag, nag, nag; didn’t you know?

Via The F Word.