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Jan
13
Third Edition of Feminism at its Finest
The third edition of Feminism at its Finest is here! This week was a great turnout, a lot more than I expected. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Firstly, my favorite feminist post I’ve seen this past week is from Cara of the The Curvature. In Whose Abortion? she talk about a new men’s rights, anti-abortion movement that seeks to change political and personal language from “I had an abortion” or “she had an abortion” to “We had an abortion.” This is definitely a must-read; I know I was seething from beginning to end!
Madeleine Begun Kane presents a great little piece on bras, Keeping Abreast Of Bras. Bras…a subject I am all too familiar with, yet not so familiar with at the same time. I know I hate them, I even know how much I hate them! This and much more is at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.
D Robinson wrote a post warning people about an incredibly offensive T-shirt website that completely degrades women and uses their merchandise as their little sexism playground. Men behaving badly: sexist t-shirt slogans.
She also presents a post, ‘Right to Life’ bias in pregnancy counseling, which talks about anti-abortion pregnancy centers and pro-life extremists, citing a specific website, Pro-Life Victoria. This website has pictures of alive children and of course, being the extremists they are and carrying the entire pro-life “movement’s” belief that women have no idea what they are doing or are too unintelligent to care when seeking an abortion, aborted fetuses. For this, I issue a trigger warning because these types of pictures, while unnecessary and uncalled for, are rather disturbing. Both of these posts can be seen at Australian Women Online.
Vishal Gupta wrote a post, along with every other person in the blogosphere, about the one woman getting the most publicity in the media, Hillary Clinton. Iron my shirt?- Sexism and Leadership is posted at A Business Professor’s Weblog.
Megan Bayliss presents a great post on the traveling bra project that All For Women have going on right now, All for women, two sheilas and under cover BRAvery. She says:
Some women wear their bras on the inside, some on the outside. I wore mine up the street, in full view, as a consciousness raising walk about women’s issues and the circle of friendship between women the world over. Who stopped to talk to me about the bra - WOMEN.
Read this post at Imaginif child protection became serious business.
blue skelton presents Slippery Slope Movie Trailer, a trailer for a movie about Sarah Shenck and her dream to direct meaningful movies with a feminist message, but desperate for finances, finds herself directing a porno film. Could be interesting, especially if done right. This can be seen at Blue Skelton Publications.
For all of the business women or business women hopefuls out there, Bonnie Krueger has a post about business grants and loans–Where Do Women Go To Find Business Grants Or Loans? This is posted at Women Personal And Business Loans.
This week’s turn out was great! Thanks to everyone who submitted their posts, you can start submitting any feminist posts you may have for next week’s carnival!
Jan
12
Medical Accuracy is So Last Year
Uninformed religious fanatics are a dime a dozen lately, especially in politics, as we can easily see from the lineup of Republican presidential hopefuls. However, Indiana is also doubting the intelligence of women seeking abortions, as was demonstrated Thursday.
Life begins at conception, and a fetus could feel pain during an abortion.
Oh wow, that’s a factual statement if I ever heard one!
In a legislation by Sen. Patricia L. Miller, (R-Indianapolis) Senate Bill 146, states that doctors would have to deliver the above statement to any woman seeking an abortion. This legislation was introduced for the second time since it died in the Senate last year, and was debated again on Thursday.
Miller said the bill is necessary to make sure women considering an abortion have all the facts they need to make an informed decision.
I agree with Miller–A woman considering an abortion should have all the facts and she should make an informed decision. However, a woman is entitled to facts based on medical accuracy, not religious propaganda. And the woman, by seeking an abortion has already made an informed (and very difficult) decision before even stepping into a health care facility.
Sue Swayze, with Indiana Right to Life, said she hopes the legislation passes this year.
“We think that it’s important to provide this information, especially in writing,” Swayze said. “An abortion is an emotional issue, and we sometimes may not always remember everything we hear.”
Yes, it is best to give “emotional women” something to read, especially when it contains myths of what religious extremists believe–and nothing else. What about the atheist women seeking abortions? Well, according to the belief system of religious and pro-life extremists, they’re doomed and in need of counseling and prayer anyway. Sigh.
Dec
12
Purity and Integrity…Balls
I’ve spoken quite a bit on purity balls before, but lets face it, this topics in all of its Nazi-religious and abstinence-only brainwashing glory never gets old. Not to mention, of course, the underlying views of these affairs and how they tend to scream “incest” in not only big, but also bold and red type.
Abstinence-only sex education programs have been swamping the nation not only recently, but has been consistently supported by the federal government since the 1981 Reagan Administration. The federal government has been condoning this ludicrous education program and pouring more than $1.677 billion, since 1996.
Refusing to accept that abstinence-only education does not work, the religious majority have been holding formal events depicting what a traditional wedding would more-so look like for young girls and their fathers. The Father-Daughter Purity Ball, Sponsored by the Colorado Springs’ Generations of Light Ministries, are basically young girls pledging to their fathers that they will remain pure and virginal until the day (or most likely, night) they marry.
Making a commitment to yourself to remain a virgin until your wedding day is one thing that I could completely understand. A woman making an informed and personal decision for herself is completely fine, especially if that woman is of the mature age to know what she is talking about and making that decision for herself and no one else. However, these balls are not only being targeted towards teenage girls and their creepy fathers, but also to girls that look so young that they were more than likely told “Honey, look at the big, fancy dress you get to wear and there is going to be a lot of cake there!” Hell, if I were 5 years old, I’d be all about going too! And at that young of an age, the aforementioned creepy fathers only seem even creepier. I mean, it isn’t every day you look at your daughter, who is still dreaming about growing up so she can eat 3 bowls of ice cream for dinner and can’t even tie her shoes yet and immediately think and her virginity. Not only that, but to the point where you’re buying a matching cummerbund and taking her to a dance where you then imitate something that also looks like it came right out of a standard, traditional wedding. Right?
The pledge read by the father at a purity ball reads:
I, [daughter's name]’s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.
High priest!? It kind of makes you think that while writing this script they were joking saying “I can’t wait to see how many websites jump on this!” But sadly, they are completely serious. Maybe I can try that on the boyfriend while in bed–”Oh high priest…” It certainly appeals to many male egos.
What these events are basically saying is “If you really love your father, you will dress up, do an interpretive dance, read words off of a script that is provided for you, so you don’t even have to go through the task of coming up with your own words that describe how you, as a person, feel, and make a commitment you are not yet old enough to understand.” Most of the girls from the pictures on the website look like hardcore Sesame Street fans and I think that most of them even needed a little help with the big words in their script. And one of the biggest things that I have against these affairs, not including that I think Megan’s Law should keep a close eye on any father bringing his daughter to one of these, is that they are teaching young girls that they should be giving themselves as a wedding present to their husbands on their wedding day. And who ever said dowries were out of style? It is saying that we need to backtrack over a few decades to where a woman is only valuable to a man if she is a virgin, making her value as a human being only determined by her sexuality–Or if pedo-dad and God have anything to do with it, lack thereof.
The first time I spoke about purity balls I received a few emails and comments turning the tables on the father-daughter event and asking what would one think of when they heard mother-son. Well now we can question no further!
I introduce to you…The Integrity Ball!
Notice that purity was replaced with integrity–Because a man with integrity chooses a virgin to marry! I love how they go hand in hand. The integrity ball also goes on to tell young men more about women and about how they need to be “pure”, by making them think of their mothers. Ew?
Who else thinks these things came about when parents started feeling uncomfortable talking to their children about sex? Now we can just escort our children to balls, make young girls have pseudo-weddings with their fathers on their arm and make young men think about their mothers in a sexual manner.
Bad fetish porn, anyone?
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