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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” –Gloria Steinem
May
31
Good Posts
Filed Under blogging, feminism, random | 9 Comments
I’ve been a bit on the busy side, lately. So here are a few really good/important posts by other people:
Got anything else for me? Leave ‘em in the comments.
Popularity: 13% [?]
May
30
Ron Paul: The Candidacy That Won’t Die
Filed Under 2008 election, Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, Republicans, abortion, assholes, bigotry, immigration, politics, pop culture, race and racism | 33 Comments
I’ve written on more than one occasion about how I hate Ron Paul’s eccentric, misogynist, racist, xenophobic guts and never, ever want to hear his name again. But unfortunately, I’m still passing a giant Ron Paul sign every day on the way to work. And the New York Times is still writing about him. I just can’t contain my fury. (all emphasis in quoted text mine)
Attendance at Ron Paul campaign stops has nearly returned to pre-Super Tuesday levels. A group of supporters recently announced plans to start Paulville, a gated community in West Texas, where believers can pursue the candidate’s libertarian ideals as a cooperative lifestyle. Ron Paul’s book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto,” rocketed to No. 1 on a New York Times best-seller list on May 18 (it has since dropped). Supporters are starting to discuss creating yippie-ish disruptions at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September to gain visibility for the movement.
[. . .]
This message has hit home — not only with some traditional libertarians, but also among a small but passionate group of young voters who came of age after Sept. 11, during the debates about the Iraq war, the Patriot Act and Abu Ghraib. For them, the Ron Paul message has the feel not of 1776, but of 1968, when an unpopular war raged abroad, and a subculture of disenfranchised young people embraced an unorthodox philosophy built around a utopian ideal of freedom.
Of course, Ron Paul is a lot closer to Barry Goldwater than to Eugene McCarthy. But his young supporters, many of whom call themselves former liberals, said the peacenik left shares much with the libertarian right.
“It’s about taking the country back,” Mr. Lim said, waving off the policy differences between his old “political saint,” Mr. Nader, and his new one, who is anti-Roe (Mr. Paul opposes abortion personally, but thinks states should decide the issue) and supports gun rights. “Whether you believe in abortion or not, in guns or not, that’s not the point,” Mr. Lim said. “It’s about the way the country is going: to hell in a handbasket.”
Yeah, the country is going to hell in a handbasket, so let’s give everybody a bunch of guns and let the government decide that women should be forced to give birth! Because our society and government are so fucked up and can’t be trusted. That makes sense.
No, seriously, have people just gone ridiculously, unforgivably stupid? Yes — yes, they have. Read on.
Popularity: 19% [?]
May
29
Governor Paterson Orders State Agencies to Recognize Same-Sex Marriage
Filed Under Democrats, LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, politics | 4 Comments
UPDATE: If you live in NY, please call the governor’s office TODAY and let them know that you support Paterson’s directive. Call 1-518-474-8390 and say “I support the Governor’s directive on marriage equality,” then give them your 5 digit zip code. I did it just this moment, and it really is that easy. The opposition is gearing up and we need to let them know that they’re on the losing side. Go! (Thanks to Angela for the email.)
Popularity: 16% [?]
May
28
Morning Funny
Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, fun, homophobia, religious fanaticism, stereotypes | 7 Comments
Popularity: 18% [?]
May
27
Widespread Sexual Abuse Against Children Committed By Peacekeeping Forces
Filed Under International, class and economics, human rights, objectification, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | Leave a Comment
Trigger Warning: this post contains descriptions and links to descriptions of the sexual abuse of children.
I woke up this morning to two emails from readers, and they both contained this story (thanks Jean and Rich): a new study shows that peacekeepers and aidworkers in post-conflict areas are sexually abusing children much more than we’d like to believe.
Popularity: 21% [?]
May
26
The Importance of Real Sex Education
Filed Under education and schools, rape and sexual assault, reproductive justice, sex and sexuality, sexual exploitation and harassment, slut-shaming, social conservatives, women’s health | 22 Comments
When I say “real sex education,” I don’t mean teaching more than “sex is wrong.” I don’t mean simply teaching that oral and anal sex (*gasp*) exist. I don’t mean just teaching teens how to avoid STDs or pregnancy.
I mean actually teaching them about sex. For me, real sex education (a phrase I will use in this way from here on) is teaching not only about taking precautions, but also teaching that sex is a normal part of life, healthy, varied in terms of both preferred partners and preferred acts, and should be consensual and pleasurable for all participants.
This is a topic that I’ve written on before, usually in bits and pieces, and some of that will be linked to later on. But I wanted to expand upon a comment I made over at Feministing, on a thread regarding parents freaking out about masturbation being taught as a part of sex ed. The comment I was responding to was this one (excerpted; click over to see the full thing):
I’m all for teaching seventh and eighth graders about condoms, date-rape, and the medical stuff, but I’ll pick and choose my battles…if parents are weirded out by adults talking frankly about sexuality with them…enh.
My mom isn’t a super-prude or in the dark about birth control, but I don’t think she’d be thrilled to see me reading about masturbation when I was 12.
Kids experiment on their own–do parents or their surrogates in educators need talk know anything that doesn’t have to do with their safety (or sense of safety/acceptance, if we’re talking about non-heterosexual kids )? Can’t they figure out the “pleasure” part themselves? Are the two battles of “teaching your kids to be safe/avoid and STOP sexual harassment or rape” and “teaching your kids to get off” enmeshed?
I want to respond to it because while I very strongly disagree, I don’t think that it’s wingnut stuff. In fact, I think that it’s common and generally seen as reasonable. It’s probably the prevailing view.
The two battles that the commenter mentions don’t necessarily have to be enmeshed, and I see the value in a gradual approach. I’d rather see kids learn about STDs, condoms and birth control without all the rest than see them not learning it at all. But I do believe that the two should be enmeshed. And there are four basic reasons why.
Popularity: 32% [?]
May
24
Dear Hillary Clinton
Filed Under 2008 election, Democrats, assholes, feminism, politics, race and racism | 46 Comments
Please, for the love of feminism*, stop.
No, I’m not talking about Senator Clinton’s Democratic primary run. I’m talking about shit like this:
Popularity: 22% [?]
May
24
A Few Feminist Reads
Filed Under blogging, books, feminism, fun, random | 7 Comments
So I joined this meme thing called Weekly Geeks. Every week a different challenge/theme is chosen and participants go and do it on their own blog (if they wish). Dewey, who runs Weekly Geeks, is a good friend of mine, which is part of the reason I joined. The other reason is that I figured it could sometimes be fun. The catch is that it’s mostly book blog related, so I won’t be able to participate most weeks while still staying at least marginally on topic (and who am I kidding, I totally wouldn’t keep up with it if I could). But, this week I can! Hooray!Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.
So, duh, I’m obviously going to choose feminism.
Popularity: 17% [?]
May
23
The (Lack of) Medical Treatment Received By ICE Detainees
Filed Under bigotry, class and economics, discrimination, human rights, immigration, media, race and racism | 9 Comments
Last week, Miss Sarajevo left a comment with a link to this series of articles in The Washington Post, and I’m just finally getting around to writing about it. The series, “Careless Detention,” is about the terrifying, unethical and downright inhumane medical treatment of immigrants imprisoned by ICE, generally while fighting or awaiting deportation for infractions that are usually non-violent and in fact so mild as to verge on the ridiculous. Since 9/11, Bush and his buddies have really stepped up anti-immigrant measures (which were already largely poor and in place), broadened definitions of who could be deported, increased raids and decided that those seeking asylum must do so while behind bars. Our government is imprisoning both documented and undocumented men and women (and though not mentioned in this series, also children), often without due process, and then, quite simply, killing them with medical neglect, or otherwise abusing/torturing them with inappropriate or an outright lack of medical treatment.
If you think that the medical treatment of some immigrants who are not in trouble with ICE is appalling (and it is), be prepared to learn a new definition of the word.
Excerpts from the articles after the jump.
Popularity: 17% [?]
May
22
Offensive Remark of the Week: Rush Limbaugh Is Still Rush Limbaugh Edition
Filed Under Republicans, assholes, feminism, media, offensive remark of the week, politics, race and racism, social conservatives | 18 Comments
You know, most of Rush Limbaugh’s words barely even enter my brain (only fair, since they seem to barely enter his own before his says them). His offensive comments end up coming to me from Media Matters every other day, so they’re par for the course, and generally roll right off my back. But this . . .
This I think I’ll just let speak for itself (original emphasis):
LIMBAUGH: You know, the feminazis forgot one thing. Well, one of the objectives of the feminazis over the last 20, 25 years has been to dominate the public education system so as to remove the competitive nature of boys. You know, there’s a crisis of young man-boy education in the schools. And they did this on purpose, to eliminate male competition in the work force. This is part of feminazi grand plan.
They forgot affirmative action for black guys. And because of that, every bit of their plan has gone up in smoke now, because they — if — they had to come out in favor of affirmative action for black guys, and that’s — see, this is one of the things that really irritates the women. And there are women all over this country fit to be tied — trust me on this. And it’s — one of the things is affirmative action is exactly — it’s, you know, liberals eventually are going to be devoured by their own policies. And it has happened here. Because Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate. There’s no question, the way he is being treated by the drive-bys and so forth and so on. The way he’s been puffed up here with the magical, messiah-type message with no criticism allowed.
So, it’s just — they just forgot that one thing: affirmative action for black guys. And if they had remembered to oppose that, then they wouldn’t face the situation they face today.
Popularity: 18% [?]
May
21
Update: Iscoa Will Remain in U.S.
Filed Under bigotry, class and economics, courts, discrimination, human rights, immigration, race and racism, women’s health | 2 Comments
Good news, folks: Sonia del Cid Iscoa will not be forcibly (or apparently otherwise) deported to Honduras. Even better, her condition has improved markedly and at an exceptional rate. (Thanks to Lindsay for the update.)
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesday reached agreement with lawyers representing Sonia del Cid Iscoa, ending an international legal drama over whether a legal immigrant could be forcibly transported from the country by a medical facility.
Iscoa, 34, did not have sufficient medical insurance to cover long-term care, St. Joseph’s could not offer it, and there were no apparent programs that could take her.
The hospital planned to fly her to a government hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Iscoa’s family went to Maricopa County Superior Court to get a temporary restraining order, and all parties were scheduled to appear before a judge on Friday.
But Iscoa’s condition has improved so markedly in the past several days that the discussion has changed.
“She has begun to take semisolid food. She is on room air, as opposed to supplemental oxygen. And she’s not had dialysis for a week, which is a huge improvement,” said attorney John Curtain. “Because of this the hospital at present is not contemplating sending her to Honduras.”
Of course, I find it odd that St. Joseph’s is no longer contemplating forced deportation now that Iscoa is seemingly doing well without dialysis, but was more than willing to deport her to a hospital that had no dialysis equipment back when she did need it. There’s some ethics for ya. One almost has to wonder if the decision came out of newfound financial ability, a moral revelation, or just some really shitty publicity that needed to be plugged up.
Though not entirely clear from the article, it does seem like Iscoa’s family is still going to need money to pay off medical bills, and since she’s still in recovery, her struggle is far from over.
The fact that Iscoa’s immediate crisis has been resolved is also no reason to stop discussing the issue and go back to our happy lives like it didn’t happen. Because this isn’t and never was just about one woman — it’s also about the approximately 8 immigrant patients that this one hospital forcibly deports each month, and who knows how many others that are deported by other hospitals across the nation.
Breathe a sigh of relief for Iscoa, but don’t stop talking.
Popularity: 17% [?]
May
21
Even More Links
Filed Under random | 6 Comments
There have lately been more stories to write about than hours in the day to write about them. Another link roundup:
As you may (should) know, female farmworkers are at a high risk of sexual assault, particularly when they’re immigrants, and even more so when undocumented. (But psst, LA Times: rape isn’t sexual harassment any more than murder is a “threat.”)
I wrote about the Virginia abortion ban ruling over at Sex. Justice. Change.
South African women speak out against increasing levels of violence — including murder — against black lesbian women.
An interesting profile of a support group for HIV-positive African-American and Hispanic women over 50. (big trigger warning)
On the important role that doctors play in helping domestic violence victims (and how many are shirking it).
Purity balls are still creepy as fuck. In fact, I think that they might be getting worse. What misogynistic, patronizing, paternalistic and weirdly sex-obsessed bullshit. I feel like I need a shower.
Pilot courts have been created to handle only felony-level sexual assault. An interesting and compelling idea — but one that might not be working out particularly well in practice.
Some people wouldn’t know decency if it smacked (but preferably stabbed) them in the face.
The death of Dorothy Dixon, an intellectually disabled woman who was found dead in January, has been ruled as a homicide caused by weeks of torture (trigger warning). FRIDA is running an advocacy/awareness-raising campaign around Dixon’s murder and is looking for financial and other assistance.
I probably shouldn’t be laughing at this.
The British fight against calls to lower the 24-week limit on abortion has won. Congrats and thanks to those who helped.
Common sense prevails. Woohoo! Try again, MRAs (I’m sure you will).
More reasons we need LGBT equality. By the way, Australia is (unsurprisingly) getting there faster than us.
Whew! Have fun getting through all that. And feel free to leave anything I missed or to blogwhore in the comments.
Popularity: 13% [?]
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
