From the monthly archives:

September 2009

The Today Show Uses Fear-Mongering to Demonize Midwives and Home Births

by Cara September 30, 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy The embedded video above is a fairly recent segment from The Today Show on the rise in midwife-assisted home births. It’s called “The Perils of Midwifery,” and it’s a segment which, it should be noted, uses almost entirely men as reporters and experts. And [...]

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So What If Mackenzie Phillips Has a Book Deal?

by Cara September 28, 2009

My post about Mackenzie Phillips and the public reaction to her recent revelation that her father John Phillips raped her has been linked pretty widely at this point, and as a result I have received some rather obnoxious and outright disgusting comments (and emails). That’s not a complaint, at all — thank you for the [...]

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Trans Woman Murdered in Hollywood

by Cara September 26, 2009

Via Queen Emily, reports came in last week of yet another trans woman being murdered. Her name was Paulina Ibarra, she was 24-years-old, and she died in her apartment from stab wounds on August 28th. But her murder only made the news last week, when police identified a person of interest, named Jesus Catalan. Los [...]

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The Deal With Disability

by Cara September 25, 2009

Via Womanist Musings, I’ve come across a great blog called The Deal With Disability. The blog is written by Eva, a woman with cerebral palsy, and chronicles her experiences with how people treat her — from ignoring her, to being over-bearing and patronizing, or treating her like a child. Sometimes she writes about the experience; [...]

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Rape Apologism and the Response to Mackenzie Phillips

by Cara September 24, 2009

Trigger Warning Yesterday on Oprah, Mackenzie Phillips, star from One Day At a Time, revealed that she was raped by her now-deceased father, John Phillips (left), from the Mamas and the Papas. This, after years of him supplying her with drugs from a very young age. The abuse continued for ten years, into her adulthood [...]

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Protecting Your Safety While Speaking Out is Not Irresponsible

by Cara September 18, 2009

Over at the F-Word is a post that I was absolutely horrified to see on a feminist blog (h/t gauntlet), and while there are many already speaking out in the comments, I feel strongly compelled to say something myself. According to the post, UK celebrity Katie Price has spoken out about being raped prior to [...]

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Pretending That Individual Choices Will Help Correct Structural Problems

by Cara September 11, 2009

The other day, I received a press release titled “It’s Riskier to Have a Baby in the U.S. Than in Cuba or the Czech Republic.” This, actually, I knew. The U.S. has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the industrialized world — and one of the worst maternal mortality rates as well. And [...]

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Some Thoughts on Tucker Max

by Cara September 8, 2009

Over at Broadsheet, the marvelous Sady writes about the Tucker Max phenomenon. Tucker Max is an asshole who makes money from writing books about his (supposed) drunken sexual conquests — and by “drunken sexual conquests,” I mean, “the encounters as he describes them often include coercion, cajoling, heavy intoxication or some element of non-consent and [...]

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The Beatles: Rock Band Mega Post

by Cara September 6, 2009

Alright, Beatles fans. You might all be too busy practicing your Rock Band skills or attempting to nail Beatles harmonies to even read this. (My own mom, who has been mocking me for my excitement, called me yesterday from the middle of a car trip to ask me if a couple songs were in the [...]

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Help SAFER Win $10,000

by Cara September 3, 2009

During the 24-hour Blogathon just over a month ago, I think that I made my deep respect and support for Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER) quite clear. And so I just wanted to give them a shout out now — they have a chance at winning $10,000 for the organization, and just two or [...]

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