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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Jul
31
Birthday
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, fun, personal and self-promotion | 8 Comments
For The Beatles: Rock Band fans.
How my husband got this video, let alone on my birthday, I do not know.
But he did, and it is.
ETA: There are three more The Beatles: Rock Band videos up at VH1. Check them out.
Jul
26
The Night Before
Filed Under blogging | 5 Comments
So I didn’t disappear after 5am EST without notice because I’m an irresponsible person, or because I’m a person who who fell asleep at her desk. Rather, I disappeared after 5am last night because I’m a person who uses Time Warner’s Road Runner internet service, which in the world’s cruelest irony went out in my area at 5:20. I was in the middle of writing a post about “Oh Yoko!”
My husband tells me that it came back at about 10am EST.
I don’t know what to say about that except that I really, really wish that Road Runner had an actual competitor in the area. It was extremely important to me to make it all the way through the Blogathon this year. I was going to make it all the way through the Blogathon this year. But. Well . . .
In any case, the total pledges for SAFER have come to a whopping $601.59, which is $100 over goal, and almost $150 more than what I raised last year. Of course, some of those pledges were hourly, so it’s up to those sponsors whether they end up donating the amount they would have if I’d been able to make it the full 24 hours, though obviously that would be very nice. (For the record, I was able to complete 20 hours.)
No matter what, I’m awed, thrilled, and humbled by the generosity. So thank you so much to the 26 of you who acted as sponsors. And thank you to all of those who kept me company in the comments and on Twitter while I was still here. That certainly helped a lot.
cross-posted from my Blogathon sub-blog
Jul
25
The 2009 Blogathon: It Has Begun!
Filed Under blogging | Leave a Comment
The 2009 Blogathon has begun. Head on over to have a read (and leave a comment!)
Remember, I’m not just doing this for fun (though I’m going to try to have as much as possible), but to raise money for SAFER. My pledges are currently up to $383.42 — and pledges can still be made throughout the day, giving us a decent shot at my original $500 goal. Please consider making a pledge yourself, whether it’s for $5 or $50. Every little bit helps! And whatever the total outcome, big, huge thanks to my sponsors so far — especially the anonymous ones who I can’t thank personally.
Okay, off to blog!
Jul
22
Blogathon Updates
Filed Under blogging | 13 Comments
So, you may have noticed that the blog has been a bit dead, lately. That’s because I’m busy preparing for the Blogathon, which I recently wrote about. I also started a new training course this week that I’m really excited about. Oh, and last week my husband became a U.S. citizen, and my cat was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (she should be fine). And did I mention that a new Beatles Rock Band trailer was released and 15 new songs for the game announced? I’ve been busy!
So here’s just a quick update and reminder about the Blogathon on Saturday. So far, I’ve raised $238 in pledges for SAFER — which brings us almost halfway to my $500 goal! But I’m going to need quite a few more sponsorships by the end of Saturday to reach that goal. If you are able to make a pledge, whether it be big or small, please do so now!
I’ve also gone ahead and created that Blogathon sub-blog, which I will be using on Saturday. I’ll be posting that link again here as the Blogathon begins, but I’m letting you know in advance in case any of you who prefer to read through blog readers want to grab the feed now.
And lastly, I’m still looking for things to blog about! Again, if you’ve got links, stats, news stories, etc. about sexual violence, especially the kinds that we don’t usually spend much time talking about, I’d love to see them. Because right now, I’ve received nothing, actually. So if you’d like to help me out with the preparation, drop me an email or a comment! And remember that I’m taking Beatles-related requests too for the nighttime half of the Blogathon, too!
Jul
14
Women Who Would Have Medicaid-Funded Abortions Instead Often Give Birth
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, class and economics, misogyny, patriarchy, politics, pregnancy, reproductive justice, women’s health | 3 Comments
A new study just released by the Guttmacher Institute (pdf; news release here) determined that “approximately one-fourth of women who would have Medicaid-funded abortions instead give birth when this funding is unavailable.”
Whatever the actual number of women who are essentially forced to give birth due to a lack of funding for abortion is, as a percentage it’s a gigantic and terrifying figure.
Of course, such news is likely to be cheered by advocates of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal dollars from funding abortion, and similar state funding restrictions. The results, after all, were incredibly easy to predict, and while they are indeed shocking they’re not hugely surprising.
What it goes to prove that restrictions on abortion funding aren’t really about ensuring that a woman’s reproductive choices aren’t funded by those who may disagree with them. (After all, there are assholes out there who think that it’s “wrong” for women to give birth under “certain” circumstances, but we still fund prenatal and birth care.) It’s about ensuring that women without their own funds don’t get to actually make a choice at all. It’s about forcing women to give birth because they have no other option.
Since anti-choicers have been unable to institute an outright ban, they go the way of restrictions which, as all abortion-related restrictions do, only impact economically disadvantaged women. They’re the only ones for whom a few hundred dollars in the way can make such a life-altering decision. And since the class system is still structured rather strongly along racial lines, it’s also having a disproportionate impact on women of color. Indeed, a North Carolina study cited in this same Guttmacher paper showed that when public funding for abortions was made available, there was a 10% increase in abortions among black women, compared to a 1% increase among white women.
Currently, only 17 states fund all or most medically necessary abortions. The rest (with the exception of South Dakota, which is in breach of federal law), only cover abortions in the case of rape/incest or life endangerment. So, as the ACLU blog astutely notes, the women mentioned above who would have had Medicaid funded abortions given the option but instead gave birth also includes women with health-threatening conditions (such as cancer or heart disease, to name only two of many) that pregnancy poses an increased risk to.
Last week, I posted about anti-choice efforts to exclude abortion funding from proposed health care reform legislation. The good news is that some of those efforts just failed in committee — hopefully indicating a willingness of all but the most anti-choice Democrats to stand up for women’s rights and health. The bad news is that anti-choice legislators will have plenty of opportunities left to try to reinsert such provisions. And they likely will. After all, as the information above proves, such efforts have served their goals quite well.
Jul
13
Blogathon 2009
Filed Under blog news, blogging, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | 10 Comments
Last year, I participated in a little something called the Day of Blogs — a 24 hour blogathon, with a post going up every half hour. As a result of the effort, RAINN received a $454 donation!
This year, it’s called the Blogathon, and it takes place on July 25 from 9am EST to 9 am EST. I will be participating again this year, but this time, I’m doing it for SAFER.
Regular readers of the blog will have seen me mention them often. That’s because they run one of my favorite blogs. But while those of us in the feminist blogosphere may tend to know them primarily as an awesome anti-rape blog, offline they’re an utterly amazing organization that works to implement real strategies for reducing the rate of sexual violence. There are two things that I absolutely adore about SAFER, and which make them my favorite charity:
- They promote and help to implement real response strategies to sexual violence, that include not only comprehensive victims services but also real accountability proceedings for perpetrators.
- They promote and help to implement real prevention strategies that focus on (potential) perpetrators — and bystander behavior — rather than (potential) victim behavior.
And while their work is directly applicable only to college campus life, their strategies for community response and dialogue surrounding rape are useful with regards to organizing in many other venues.
Click here to sponsor. (If you want to see the running total of sponsorships, check out the Blog List page.) You can choose to either sponsor a flat amount, or an amount per hour (which would of course be 24 total, assuming I make it the whole way through). When the Blogathon is over, you’ll be sent an email asking you to send in your donation. Unlike last year (to my great relief), I’ll never personally see any of the money. But please do put in your pledge amount through the site, so that we can keep track of how much we’ve raised! I’d absolutely love to beat last year’s total and get to $500.
Here, dear readers, is what I need from you. I’m getting into the game relatively late — less than two weeks out — but seeing as how I spontaneously decided to participate last year with only five days notice, I’ve got myself a ton of time, right? Right. But I still need help! Here’s four things you can do to pitch in — and even doing one would be very much appreciated.
- Sponsorship! I know that money’s tight right now, but fun though 24 grueling hours of blogging may be, there is no point in doing this without the charity aspect! So again, here’s where you go to sponsor my efforts for SAFER. Whether it’s $5 or $50, every bit helps!
- Promotion! Help get more sponsors on board by spreading the word to your circle through Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, whatever it is you use, or if you’re feeling extraordinarily generous, with a blog post of your own.
- Ideas! Last year, I learned very, very quickly that there is little time to think, and absolutely no time for in depth posts. Which means that while I can’t write my posts in advance, I do need to research and get ideas in advance. My plan is to, for the first 12 hours, blog about sexual violence related topics. The second 12 hours, when I will be much too tired to blog about anything serious and have far fewer readers, I’ll be blogging about my other favorite topic — The Beatles, of course! But I want to make sure that this year, unlike last, I have a good representation of topics. That means I don’t want to just blog about male sexual violence against cis women, but a whole range of issues — rape of men by men, rape of men by women, rape of women by women, rape in prisons, rape against people with disabilities, rape of sex workers, rape in abusive relationships, rape against trans women and men both necessarily included as an aspect of all of the above and discussed separately, prevention strategies . . . and probably more that I’m forgetting at the moment. So if you’ve got resources for me that will help out with that, I need to see them. Please leave them here in the comments or email me at cara.kulwicki AT gmail DOT com. The same goes for just any sexual violence news story or general topic you’d like me to blog on. And it even goes for Beatles topics! While that will be requiring minimal research and I surely have plenty of ideas (a song each half hour, for example), and while there will sadly be no time for Top 5 lists, I’m willing to take requests! If there’s a song, or Beatles event, aspect of a band member, etc. that you’d like to see me comment on, I’m likely happy to oblige.
- Support! On the day, stop by and leave comments as much as you’re able. Comments at night, of course, will be particularly appreciated. I will almost certainly be setting up a sub-blog like I did last year, so as to not have every uninterested party unsubscribe from their feeds, but will let you know that address both in advance and on the day of the Blogathon.
Questions? Suggestions? Leave them in the comments!
Jul
11
Transphobic Assault on a Woman in Queens
Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | 6 Comments
Trigger Warning
Earlier this week, yet another trans woman was assaulted in a transphobic hate crime. Carmella Etienne was attacked on Wednesday night while walking home from the store. Two men started yelling slurs at her, threatened to kill her and rape her with a baseball bat, and then threw rocks and a beer bottle at her. Carmella sustained a deep cut on her leg, and says that she is now afraid to leave her house.
The men have been arrested and charged with a hate crime. I want to say first of all that I’m glad and relieved that the police department in this case has had a proper and respectful response to Ms. Etienne’s allegations. Far too often, indeed I’m willing to go out on a limb and say a majority of the time, it’s just not the case, and police will dismiss assaults against transgender individuals, and often ridicule and/or assault the victim themselves. This is especially the case when the victim is also a woman of color. And that’s not even to mention all of the cases — also a majority, I’m sure — which are never reported for fear of that kind of response. When Carmella announced that she was calling the police, her attackers responded that “the police don’t care about you, they won’t do anything to us.” The sad fact is that in most circumstances they would have been correct. So good for the police for proving them wrong for once by seemingly doing their jobs.
It’s unsurprising that a friend of the alleged assailants not only claims that her friends did not commit the hateful acts of violence, but chooses to additionally engage in transphobia and victim-blaming as a part of the defense. The woman misgenders Carmella by using masculine pronouns, stereotypes her behavior based on her gender identity, and claims that the victim’s behavior is also responsible for the attack.
It’s particularly interesting and noteworthy to compare the friend’s statement to those found in the comments at Gothamist, where I originally found this story. Though not engaging in overt victim-blaming, about half of the commenters feel the need and right to make transphobic remarks about Carmella’s gender by portraying it as illegitimate, to engage in trans misogynistic slurs and judgments about her appearance, and to refer to her as a “thing.” Not only do they feel the need and right to do these things, they feel the need and right immediately after a violent attack on the woman they’re disparaging. They feel that attacks on her gender identity and appearance are indeed an appropriate response to an article about that violent assault.
It’s worth noting that the physical attack on Carmella began with a verbal attack based in the exact same prejudices found in the comment thread. Both aim to ridicule and thereby devalue the victim based on her identity as a person. And we really shouldn’t be surprised when these kinds of attempts to devalue a person’s worth and right to be treated with basic dignity also lead to and end in violence.
Jul
9
Americans Broadly Support Abortion Coverage in Health Reform
Filed Under Democrats, Republicans, abortion, anti-choice extremism, assholes, class and economics, misogyny, patriarchy, politics, reproductive justice, social conservatives, women’s health | 2 Comments
You my have heard — or you may not, as it seems to be getting little mainstream media coverage — that health care reform is in trouble. With Republicans and blue-dog Democrats sensing that some sort of of government coverage is likely to be successfully created this time around, they’re shifting tactics somewhat from attempting to defeat mounting legislative efforts to attempting to gut them. And a big area where they’re focusing that gutting is reproductive health care:
Imagine our dismay to see the proposed amendments submitted to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee this week by Republican Senators Michael Enzi, Orin Hatch and Tom Coburn:
- Coverage for abortion would be banned;
- Health providers and insurers would be protected against “discrimination” for refusing to provide health care requested by their patients including abortions, emergency contraception, aid-in-dying (such as in Oregon, Washington and Montana, where this is legal) or really just about any health service they find objectionable;
- Federally-qualified health centers could not provide abortions and still get government grants;
- Any independent medical board appointed to determine the benefits that would be included in national health reform coverage would have to include “professional ethicists…with specialty in rights of the life of the unborn.”
The really interesting thing is that while traditional wisdom suggests there is rather broad support for a ban on government subsidization of abortions, new research from the National Women’s Law Center suggests that it’s not actually true — not by a long shot:
- Voters overwhelmingly support the broad outlines of reform and requiring coverage of women’s reproductive health services. Seven-in-ten (70%) favor a proposal that establishes a National Health Insurance Exchange with a public plan option. If the reform were adopted, voters overwhelmingly support requiring health plans to cover women’s reproductive health services (71% favor-21% oppose).
- Absent coverage for women’s reproductive health services, majorities oppose reform. If reform eliminated current insurance coverage of reproductive health services such as birth control or abortion, nearly two-thirds (60%) would oppose the plan and nearly half (47%) would oppose it strongly.
- Supporting coverage of comprehensive reproductive health services would benefit Members of Congress. A plurality (45%) would feel more favorably toward their Representative if they voted to cover reproductive services, while 24% would feel less favorably, and 32% said it would make no difference.
- Voters would feel much less favorably about their Representative if they voted to cover services like Viagra for men, but excluded reproductive services for women. Voters overwhelmingly reported that they would feel less favorably toward their Member of Congress if they voted for reproductive services for men and not for women (71%), while only 9% would feel more favorably toward their Representative.
Jul
7
Top 10 Ringo Starr Drum Tracks
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, fun | 29 Comments
Today is Ringo’s 69th birthday. Happy Birthday, Ringo!Ah, lovable Ringo. The most overlooked Beatle. John, Paul and George have all received their own top 5 posts by now, so it is long past due for Ringo to get his.
Ringo doesn’t get his due in a lot of ways. He was stacked against the talent of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison — admittedly, it’s a little hard to measure up. But that doesn’t mean that he deserves all of the snide remarks, mean-spirited jokes and outright insults that are thrown his ways. It’d be pretty damn hard to not be the least talented in a group otherwise comprised of John, Paul and George. That doesn’t mean that the man doesn’t have talent.
But it’s exactly what you’ll hear. The “Ringo is a horrible drummer, and so lucky that the Beatles even gave him the time of day” bullshit meme is almost as common as the “Yoko is an evil bitch who broke up the Beatles” bullshit meme.
Often cited is John Lennon’s statement that Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles. But here’s what you need to know in order to fairly assess said statement:
- John was a dick.
- John was known for telling really mean-spirited jokes. Ugly, but undeniable.
- John was a liar, especially with regards to Beatles lore. He also once claimed that he and Paul never wrote songs together.
- John loved Ringo’s drumming. Period. When he could have literally had any drummer in the entire world work with him on Plastic Ono Band, who did he ask along? Ringo. In Memories of John Lennon, the drummer from the Double Fantasy sessions talks about John not liking his drumming and imploring him (to the drummer’s delight) to “play it like Ringo.”
- Paul, allegedly the best drummer in the Beatles, is certainly competent. But he’s nowhere near as good as Ringo. If you need evidence, look at Back in the USSR and The Ballad of John and Yoko. Fine, yes. Even good. But if you think it’s anywhere near the quality of Ringo’s drumming, I don’t even know what to say to you.
- Though Paul was rather well-known for giving Ringo drumming “advice,” everyone in the Beatles was quite used to taking Paul’s “advice.” In criticizing George Harrison’s guitar playing in Let It Be, Paul can also be heard saying “I’m just trying to help you.” So used to it, George was, that Paul did not end up strangled with a guitar string.
Indeed, the reason that Ringo’s drumming so regularly gets a bad rap is precisely because of what makes it so great. Ringo is not flashy. He hates drum solos. He hates drawing attention to his skill. His drumming blends into the song. It doesn’t distract from the song, it’s a part of it.
Jul
3
Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Oklahoma
Filed Under disability, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | 6 Comments
Trigger Warning
There are some extremely horrifying allegations coming to of Oklahoma regarding the treatment of female inmates by male jailers. The allegations include sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and more:
Four former Delaware County jail female inmates have filed a civil lawsuit in Tulsa federal court accusing the sheriff of covering up such crimes as rape and sexual battery as well as blackmail attempts and death threats committed against them by jailers.
Those filing the suit Wednesday were Sherry England, Katrina Rogers, Cynthia Craig and Marie Watson.
Craig, 40, described in the lawsuit as “mentally disabled,” said then-reserve deputy Bill Sanders Sr. raped her several times in one day in a jail shower. Craig said she was afraid to scream because Sanders told her “he would send her down the river.” She said the deputy forced her to scrub her body while he watched.
. . .
England, 49, states in the lawsuit that jailers would “bargain” with female inmates. Inmates who exposed their breasts were given cigarettes, cupcakes, candy and personal items they could not obtain while they were in jail, England states.
England states that when she refused to show her breasts, she was shown “deliberate indifference to her medical needs.”
She states she is an epileptic who requires medication to prevent seizures. She states that she had five seizures during her 18 days in the jail.
There’s a lot more, and I recommend that you go read the entire article. Perhaps even more appalling than all of the allegations of abuse is the allegation that the sheriff rehired Sanders, the man responsible for a vast majority of the abuse mentioned in the lawsuit, despite his history of “sexual misconduct.”
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
