Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin

September 8, 2008, category

2008 election, politics

Gloria Steinem recently published an article in the LA Times entitled ‘Palin: wrong woman, wrong message‘ In a piece that was published under ‘opinion,’ which I find to be a mistake since a lot of women are unanimously agreeing on the fact that Palin is indeed the wrong woman for potential vice presidency and she is definitely touting the wrong message across America. Why do I think this? Well, let’s leave it to Gloria Steinem herself to clear up the Sarah Palin myths people are buying into when they believe that Palin is a good candidate for women and set the record straight for the media who believe that women who support (and supported) Hillary Clinton for president would be so simple-minded and jump at the chance to get a woman (any woman!) into that white house and vote for McCain simply based on his vice presidential pick.

Great points in the article (that you should definitely read in its entirety):

This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere.
To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, “Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.”
Palin has been honest about what she doesn’t know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, “I still can’t answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?” When asked about Iraq, she said, “I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.”
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she’s won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain’s campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax.
McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I’m not going to quote the entire article, but these points were way too important to not note here. Read the entire article here.

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CodePink Protester Attacked at DNC

August 30, 2008, category

politics, random acts of activism, sexism, violence against women

I saw this early yesterday morning and am still angry (well, angry doesn’t really cover it; it’s more like seething) disgusted and thoroughly sickened by this.

A few days ago at the Democratic National Convention, a CodePink protester was the victim of obscene police brutality as she was shoved to the ground with a baton of a police officer with excessive force while the police officer yelled “back it up, bitch.” While talking to reporters about how she (and other protesters) were treated during the protest, the cop then went over to her, grabbed her by the arm and violently pulled her away from the reporters.

The CodePink protester, Alicia Forrest, 24, of Los Angeles, was arrested on charges of “interference.” But what is this interference they speak of? Forrest had allegedly witnessed the arrest of an unidentified man in the street near the Denver Civic Center Park when she and others nearby asked police why the man was being arrested. So one man gets arrested for obviously nothing, since officers were being asked why the man was being arrested and because of this they also get arrested. Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me!

Forrest was transferred to the Denver City Jail where bond was posted for $580 bail and was held for the night. After getting out of jail, Forrest said this:

“I was standing up for my free speech rights, showing support for a fellow activist,” Forrest said. “If anything, this showed me how powerful standing up for your beliefs can be, and how necessary it is for the truth to get out even in the face of resistance.”

CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans called watching the video footage distressing.

“Here we are CODEPINK activists, here to deliver the message of peace, and how ironic that we would witness the exact violence we oppose,” Evans said. “How is it that a Denver cop would be afraid of a peace activist with a pink crown on her head? What have we become?”

The video of the violence against Forrest and her arrest are below, but I wouldn’t recommend going to the YouTube page to read the comments–They are full of sexism and misogyny and very triggering.

Who else thinks it’s kind of ironic that I was listening to the song What’s Going On when I was reading about this and again when I started writing it?

Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
What’s going on

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Woman Experiences 19 Hour Rape and Torture

June 8, 2008, category

sexual assault, violence against women

On April 13, 2007, a 23-year-old Columbia University journalism student was followed from the elevator in her apartment building to her apartment door by Robert A. Williams. He asked if she knew where a Mrs. Evans lives and when she stopped and hesitated, her had the perfect opportunity to force himself into the woman’s apartment.

After forcing himself into the woman’s apartment, Robert A. Williams, 31, put the woman in a chokehold and slapped her cellphone out of her hand. After turning a clock to the wall so the woman didn’t know what time it was, he raped her repeatedly and cut her hair because “he wanted to see her face, her fear and humiliation.” He made her sit in her bath tub and told her to gouge her own eyes out with a pair of scissors. When she refused, he punished her by throwing boiling water onto her face and body which caused such a jolt, that she broke her wrists out of the restraints he had put on her earlier.

Throughout the 19 hour ordeal, he had also doused the woman with bleach, forced her to swallow handfuls of pills and chase them with beer, sealed her mouth with glue, and bound her wrists and legs with shoelaces, cords and duct tape. When told to gouge her own eyes out with a pair of scissors the second time, she held the scissors in between her knees and lowered herself onto it, turning her head at the last minute and stabbing herself in the neck, hoping to kill herself–But it didn’t work.

After slicing the woman’s eyelids open intending to ruin her vision because “a blind witness could never identify her attacker,” he fastened her legs and arms to a futon, and she lost consciousness. When she awoke, she smelled smoke and got herself (and the futon she was fastened to so she couldn’t move) to the fire and used it to free her arms.

This is an intense, scary, horrific and very, very real story. More people need to speak up about this type of violence because it happens and it isn’t always making headlines.

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Feminism at its Finest: May 2008

June 1, 2008, category

Feminism at its Finest, Menstrual Poetry

The Feminism at its Finest blog carnival is a day late, so we’re just going to pretend that it’s still May; just for today! Of course, thanks to everyone who submitted their posts and to submit your posts for the June edition, which will be up on June 30, just go here.

I would also like to clarify that in order to submit your blog posts, you do not need your own domain, a Blogspot, Wordpress or whatever else is out there; even if you just wrote something on your MySpace blog and it is feminism-related, please feel free to submit it as well; not enough people give the MySpace bloggers a chance to really take part in the blogosphere happenings, so here it is. And now, on with the carnival…

A. Lee presents American Conceptual Artist & Feminist Barbara Kruger Probes Your Views posted at eArtFair, saying:

“Barbara Kruger juxtaposes mass media photographs with biting slogans. Her art both questions and condemns mass media’s ways of control self-identity, desire, and public opinion. A key aspect of her work centers around the question of what it means to be feminine.”

Amanda Moore presents 106 Organizations That Are Changing the World - Are you helping? posted at VagabondetteVA.

Garry presents Whirled News - President, Candidates Address Gasoline, Climate Crisis posted at Chicks With Guns.

Ian Welsh presents Ok, Enough With the Stupidity About Clinton’s “Kennedy Statement” posted at The Agonist, saying:

“The level of near hysteria, of complete unwillingness to read Hillary Clinton’s words in any context with any good will that is sweeping large portions of the political blogosphere, reflects a deeper pathology.”

Lauren Martin presents Liberty Lowdown: Magic 8-ball, primaries, and you posted at Blog for Choice, the newly improved pro-choice blog from NARAL Pro-Choice America!

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Next, They’ll Claim Obama Inherited Clinton’s Reverend posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

nandita presents Domestic Violence in the Press a Century Ago posted at law Matters.

Nine Deuce presents The First Amendment is only sort of cool. posted at Rage Against the Man-chine.

O. Daille Nation-Ashley presents David vs Female Lawyer (Goliath?) posted at Power Of Attorney: Not Happy Hour At The Bar.

Renee presents I Wish I Was In Dixie posted at Womanist Musings, saying:

“This post is about internalized racism and how it cause some to act in ways that are detrimental to POC. It stands as a legacy of slavery.”

Renee also presents MacFarlanes Babes posted at Womanist Musings, saying:

“I posted on the Family Guy spin off because I believe that people mindless consume pop culture without realizing how damaging the images are that they are consuming. When we internalize without thought we are accepting negative portrayals of others as normal.”

Shaheen Lakhan presents Domestic Violence and Executive Dysfunction posted at GNIF Brain Blogger, saying:

“Executive function has big implications for the design of domestic violence programs. It is important to know the subtypes of batterers because different subtypes have different needs for treatment, and different levels of intervention that are necessary to ensure safety.”

Shaheen Lakhan also presents Democracy vs. Domestic Violence posted at Brain Blogger, saying:

” People are looking at how we are affected by the groups we belong to that are treated unequally and subjected to various kinds of stress and discrimination — a field called intersectionality.

Tali presents 10 Strangest Pinup Artist Quirks | Artists, Cartoons, posted at The Pinup Blog, saying:

“Visual artists can’t hide behind their work, at some point, some one will notice, a fetish, a habit a quirk. Missing belly buttons, fake breasts, detached heads- This is a list of the 10 most fucked up pinups in classic cheesecake history.”

Tracee Sioux presents Empowering Girls - Hillary Clinton posted at Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me, saying:

“Don’t Quit. It’s a good message for all women and girls.”

Tracee Sioux also presents Hillary’s “Feminine Ideal” Sin posted at Blog Fabulous, saying:

“What was Hillary’s big crime in the face of women? She didn’t self-deprecate.”

Tracee Sioux also presents Real Breasts Gallery posted at Blog Fabulous, saying:

“We’re so inundated with images of “perfect” breasts in the media and marketing that most people’s idea of what real women look like has been distorted. Women stand in front of a mirror and compare themselves to the unreal and declare “I just wish mine were normal.” For a better perspective enter the Real Breasts Gallery.”

And that’s all for this month. Remember to submit your posts for next month’s carnival by going here

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It is NOT Okay to Harass Women–And Here’s Why

May 28, 2008, category

harassment, violence against women

Many women are all too familiar with being harassed on the street. For some reason, when men get together they exude so much testosterone that they tend to believe that not only is the world their personal playground, but the women living in the world are also purely placed there for their amusement and enjoyment.

While men may think that they are just having fun at the time, their ignorance can go terribly wrong and in some cases, can cause a deadly situation. Of course these men can’t comprehend that such things can happen through their just having fun, trying to pick up some hot chicks, or any other excuse they use trying to cover up that they are blatantly harassing women.

Mildred Beaubrun is an 18 year old woman living in Florida. On the night of May 23, she and two of her girlfriends had stopped at a 7-Eleven. Then, a car full of men pulled up and decided that it was a great night to have some fun.

“Hey, baby, what’s your phone number?” they called out as the cars traveled west through Orlando.

Then the banter grew more aggressive. The men threw a T-shirt, then an AA battery, at the Nissan. One of the women threw a broken cell-phone charger back. At one point, the HHR swerved into the Nissan’s lane and tried to run the car off the road.

When the Nissan turned north on John Young Parkway, the HHR followed. Then, at Princeton Street, a shot rang out. Shrapnel flew as the bullet pierced the door and struck 18-year-old Beaubrun, who was sitting in the back seat.

You can see coverage of the event that appeared on the news here.

This is a tragic story, especially since something like this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. The world and the women in it are not for there simply for your enjoyment and it is never okay to harass women, especially since it turned into something that could be deadly, since it is unknown if Beaubrun will live at all.

Comments

Update on WrongCards

May 20, 2008, category

violence against women

Earlier this month I wrote a post on a particular ecard I saw on WrongCards.

A week later, I received an email from the person who created the card. While they noted that what they sent me was a personal letter and I will not publish it in its entirety here, here are the important parts:

“i created the ‘come back to my place for coffee and rohypnol’ card’ as a satyrist and not a celebrator of violence against women. satire here, in my view, shouldn’t be gentle - this is in an your face, offensive statement: ‘look at yourself, society and be aware’. The idea that people intoxicate themselves and make themselves vulnerable in public is a fact that cannot be reasoned with. in the same way: its bad to smoke, but it cant be reasoned with either. to explain that ecard: people seem to need pretexts for intimacy, so they can say ‘oh i didnt mean to do that, i was drunk’- for what? dignity? the fact people seem to need that is one point worth underscoring. we can’t stop them. The ecard is satire. it’s like adbusting in an unlikely place. as a subtle PSA, the hope is that if people carry it in their mind as something funny that they saw, they may remember the next time a stranger (or even someone they think they know) offers them a drink. Preaching, in my belief, doesn’t work. nobody thinks they’ll make a mistake like that. i’ll do things like that at wrongcards, i just have to be careful about not doing it too often or people won’t come and it’ll be irrelevent.”

First of all, I am all about public service announcements that are intended to help others from, in this case, making a decision such as accepting a drink that you did not see made for you. However, I can still think of about a hundred different ways to go about creating a PSA that is geared towards trying to warn people of the dangers surrounding them rather than publishing an ecard that says “Wanna come back to my place for coffee and rohypnol?” on a website that prides itself on being wrong.

The people who visit that site are mostly the kind of people who find jokes about rape funny and would most definitely see the card in question as funny and then move on, rather than lay in bed, waiting to fall asleep and think back to that funny picture that they saw on that website about rohypnol and think a little more in depth about it. Most likely, the people who saw this card did think it was funny and probably sent it to their friends to get their kicks from for about five seconds before moving on to the next wrong, but equally as “funny” picture.

While the creator’s intentions may have been good and while they thought that targeting their idea on a website with high traffic would be an effective ploy to place a subtle PSA, I am going to call this one like I see it–Ineffective.

Comments

WrongCards Aren’t Only Wrong, They’re Disgusting

May 7, 2008, category

Menstrual Poetry, violence against women

I came across this site a few days ago and while the website name alone should have tipped me off to the type of content I would find there, I was pretty disturbed by a few of the images that I saw.

With a name like WrongCards, sure, you can suspect that the content is going to be pretty far from politically correct, but what I found completely crossed the line from wrong to sick and disgusting.

Apparently we can add date rape to the list of things people find funny right alongside of sex criminals and being kicked in the stomach while pregnant.

However, WrongCards doesn’t stop there; they also have another card that reads “I’m still waiting to be sexually harassed.“

Comments

The Abortion Superhero: NOT Funny

May 5, 2008, category

violence against women

Apparently kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach is considered a form of abortion. This is odd because in the world I live in, this is called blatant violence against women and something that people are prosecuted for. I must live on another planet or something, especially since a video of a man playing a superhero that goes by the name Abortion Man is considered funny by the masses.

With comments such as:

I want the sequel…”Coathanger man.”
He’s my new favorite super hero.
Come on people lighten up
LOL. It’s funny…if you don’t take it too seriously.

And those are all just on the first page!

I frankly can’t stand how people excuse something that is obscenely offensive by saying not to take it seriously. How exactly are people supposed to take it, with a whimsical attitude? Do these rules apply to all facets of life or just subjects that make fun of women?

Oddly enough, the pedophile beards video is listed as a related video; what tags are these people using?

Comments

Feminism at its Finest: April 2008

April 30, 2008, category

Feminism at its Finest

Hooray, it’s the April 2008 edition of Feminism at its Finest!

Carol presents Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, a great post on spousal abuse and when you know someone who is being abused by their spouse–physically or verbally. Definitely a must-read, so head on over toCan’t Holder Tongue.

The Eclectic Female presents Recognizing Verbal Abuse in Relationships, saying:

“Words can hurt, and it is important to recognize when verbal abuse occurs.”

This is posted at Women’s Lifestyle.

Jackson Kern presents 40 Million Trees and a Nobel Peace Prize: One Woman’s Story, which is a video exclusive on how Wangari Maathai became the first African woman, and first environmentalist, to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. You can see the video at The Alternative Channel Blog.

John Phillips presents Guide to Hiring Women. I’ve seen these pictures before, but here’s a little trip to the past for you. This is posted at The Word On Employment Law.

Kejda Gjermani presents Dissecting the Burqa posted at Kejda.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents An Ode To Lefty Bloggers Who Hate Hillary Clinton posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Nine Deuce presents Porn Part 4: Half of the Big Picture. This post is not offensive. In fact, it makes some phenomenal points, such as:

“There’s no other object that is both desired and hated in the way women in porn are.”

~
“The porn industry is fucking lousy with producers who not only don’t work too hard to make sure their “actors” are of age, but who actively seek underage girls as they know it will increase the revenue they can extract from the kinds of assholes who are obsessed with virgins and young girls. Chances are, if you use a lot of porn, you’ve participated in the rape of a minor by proxy, especially if you’ve ever done a search with the word “young” in it.”

This is definitely a post worth checking out, posted at Rage Against the Man-chine.

Shaheen Lakhan presents Domestic Violence: Call for Primary Care Screening and Gender Issues - Part I, saying:

“Nearly half of women killed by their partner are seen in primary care settings prior to their deaths, but only 4% of them were in shelters.”

You can read the whole post at GNIF Brain Blogger.

Tali presents Plus Size Pinups - Could they Ever Grow Beyond Sidestream?, saying:

” Plus-size pinups are a niche within a niche. It’s hard to see a potential of growth outside of the plus-size fetish community. I would like to propose otherwise, by showcasing a few plus-size pinup artists.”

She also presents Where Pinups Got Their Start, saying:

“he end of the 19th century brought us the curvy, flowing styling of Art Nouveau. What better suiting movement to kick-start the pinups of the mid 20th century?”

Both of these stories can be seen at The Pinup Blog.

And lastly, for some shameless self-promotion, everyone should go check out my weekly section on the commercial sex industry, Take Me Now Here.

And that’s it for this month. Be sure to submit your posts for next month’s carnival here.

Comments

Feminism at its Finest: March 2008

March 31, 2008, category

Feminism at its Finest

Welcome to Feminism at its Finest, March 2008 edition. This is by far the largest edition we have had to date and I am very excited for this carnival to keep building awareness and momentum. So let’s get to the submissions.

Blue presents Hotties On TV Sell Get Rich Scams, a post talking about an infomercial that I have seen on some lazy late nights that used women who are depicted as brainless and naive while objectifying women and using the “sex sells” mentality and sadly, they are selling to millions of people using this mentality. This post can be seen at Money Blue Book.

Carol presents What Kind of Feminist Am I? posted at Can’t Holder Tongue.

Christine presents Is Marriage Outdated?, which starts off with:

“The marriage ritual is Anglo-Saxon in nature and archaic in today’s society. Marriage for tax break reasons is not a very romantic notion nor should it be a reason for two people to stay together.”

Posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
She also presents Think Before You Vote,posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

Clever Elsie presents a few posts, first off we have “Marry Him” by Lori Gottlieb: A Singletude Response and How Single Men Make Women Settle, which is a followup on the “Marry Him” post about how Lori Gottlieb says that women settle, but men don’t have to and Commit to Yourself, a great post on a tongue in cheek idea of self-commitment parties, which I find to be a refreshing new look on being a happy single. All of these posts can be seen at Singletude: A Positive Blog for Singles.

Edith presents How to Succeed Without Being a Man, an interview with Kerrie Halmi, posted at Edith Yeung.

Greg Laden presents Board Room Gender Gap posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.

Katie presents Powerful Speech: Suggestions For Feminist Media, saying:

“This lets feminist media makers (like we bloggers!) one of the most useful things we can do right now (and, I suppose, forever?) to end sexual/gendered violence against a huge population of women.”

This post can be seen at Brown Femi Power.

Lori Jewett presents Ending Violence Against Women, saying:

“Strong, confident women everywhere are making themselves heard, but violence against women still threatens us. Learn more about women’s struggles against this plague of violence and what you can do to help.”

She also presents Coming Together for Change, saying:

“What the world needs now…is a woman in the White House. Rational, compassionate thinking, the ability to bring people together, the creation of consensus, real change…isn’t it about time?”

These posts can be seen over at Between Us Girls.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Hysterical Lefty Bloggers Whine For Clinton To Leave Obama Alone, a great limerick, as well as Ode To Eliot Spitzer, posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Marcella Chester presents Socialization Which Sets Up Sex Predator/Passive Victim Model posted at abyss2hope.

Tina Su presents A Gift That Wows!, saying that the best gifts we can give another person are appreciation and open communication, posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive.

Tracee Sioux presents a few posts, Girl Characters and Geena Davis, saying:

“Girl characters are outnumbered 3 to 1. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media is trying to change that. A look at some studies and what you can do to help.”

Posted at So Sioux Me.
She also presents Mood Shaper, a post on how a full-body girdle made her feel about herself, including adjectives such as angry, moody, irritable, cramped, shoved in, judged, restricted, oppressed, repressed, hostile, wrong, fat, unacceptable, picked apart, flawed, pinched, unworthy, squished and frustrated, as well as Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!, saying:

“With health care for disenfranchised women on the table we have an unprecidented opportunity to drastically reduce the abortion rate without criminalizing women in poverty.”

These posts can be seen at Blog Fabulous.

And that’s it for this edition! Make sure to submit your feminist posts for next month, which will be up on Wednesday, April 30.

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