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"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist." --Gloria Steinem
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Mar
28
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week: When Ordinary Women Refuse to Accept Absue of Authority Edition
Filed Under assholes, bad ass women’s activist of the week, misogyny, objectification, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls | 8 Comments
Think it was bad when Southwest Airlines started kicking women off of their planes for dressing “inappropriately?” Well they’ve apparently got nothing on the Transportation Security Administration. They recently forced female traveler Mandi Hamlin to remove her nipple piercings before allowing her to board a plane — even though she offered to show her piercings to the female officer and required pliers to remove the jewelry:
Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin’s chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.
“Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her,” said Hamlin’s attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA’s Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims.
Applying pliers to the torso of a mannequin that had a peach-colored bra with the rings on it, Hamlin showed reporters at the news conference how she took off the second ring.
She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring. (emphasis mine)
Best case scenario, this was sexual harassment. Absolutely nothing that Hamlin was forced to do was necessary. She was upfront and compliant. None of it made passengers more safe, and the officers knew it. It seems pretty obvious that the male agents did this for shits and giggles. They sexually humiliated and injured her, laughed about it, and then proved that this was their goal by completely ignoring her equally “dangerous” belly button ring.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Mar
7
Bad Ass Women’s Activist(s) of the Week: Smacking Down Rape Apologists Edition
Filed Under Europe, International, activism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, courts gone crazy, feminism, misogyny, patriarchy, politics, rape and sexual assault, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 14 Comments
A defense attorney has yet again made a highly offensive argument about how a victim was advertising her desire to be raped by her choice of clothing. But this time, instead of just saying “oh well,” or “tsk tsk” or “everyone deserves a defense no matter how misleading and unethical,” a government official is actually doing something about it (emphasis and brackets mine).
An MSP is demanding action from the legal profession after a lawyer used the way a teenage sex assault victim was dressed as a defence for a client.
Iain Smith also brought up the 15-year-old’s sexual history and said she was not vulnerable.
His client, Rikki Tainsch, was given three years probation for plying the girl with drink then attacking her.
SNP MSP [Scottish National Party Member of Scottish Parliament] Roseanna Cunningham has lodged a parliamentary motion calling for such comments to be banned from the courts.
Tainsch, who had never met the 15-year-old before the day he attacked her, took her to his home in Tibbermore, Perthshire, in August last year.
He then gave her enough vodka and Irn Bru to make her violently sick.
She went to bed feeling unwell but woke to find the 24-year-old assaulting her.
During the trial at Perth Sheriff Court, Mr Smith said the teenager had been “scantily clad”, wearing shorts, black boots and a white top.
He also stated: “There was a suggestion the girl had been sexually active before.
“I don’t think it is fair to say this was a very vulnerable person.”
Damn straight these kinds of comments should be banned from court. I’ve made this argument more times than I can count (you’ll find many examples under the slut-shaming and courts gone crazy categories). Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. Cunningham. If it hasn’t been made clear yet, she really is a bad ass:
Popularity: 53% [?]
Jan
28
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week: 20 Years of Legal Abortion in Canada Edition
Filed Under International, abortion, anti-choice extremism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, legislation, reproductive justice, social conservatives, women’s health | 5 Comments
Today is the 20th anniversary of the R. vs. Morgentaler decision that legalized abortion in Canada — more or less, a Canadian version of Roe. Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the doctor whose arrest for performing abortions illegally was the basis of the case, is quite the hero to all who believe in medical privacy and the right of women to control their reproductive capacity:
The Polish-born physician, a survivor of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, quit his family practice in Montreal in 1968 to open his first abortion clinic in defiance of the laws of the day.
He was moved, he has often said, by the suffering of women at the hands of backstreet quacks whose amateur abortions left them in pain at best or dead at worst.
Morgentaler soon found himself before the courts, where he was acquitted by a jury that accepted his defence of medical necessity for the abortions he performed. But the verdict was overturned on appeal and he went to jail.
It took three more trials and three more acquittals - two in Quebec, one in Ontario - before he carried the day at the Supreme Court.
Looking back, in semi-retirement and two months short of his 84th birthday, Morgentaler is philosophical about the personal toll.
“I had to accept the fact that a certain amount of sacrifice was required of me,” he says. “I have no regrets.
“Women in Canada now have access to good abortions done by doctors in clinics or hospitals where their life is not in danger.”
We in America, often seen as the home of bitter contention over abortion, had things relatively easy. Amazingly enough, we managed to secure abortion rights fifteen years earlier and with far less personal sacrifice asked of any one individual (”Roe” never did receive her abortion; since converting to Christianity she has claimed that she never really wanted one and has unsuccessfully tried to overturn the decision on this basis).
Popularity: 16% [?]
Nov
15
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week: Gutsy Abortion Provider Edition
Filed Under abortion, activism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, cross-post, feminism, human rights, legislation, patriarchy, pregnancy, women’s health | Leave a Comment
The Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week is a semi-regular segment that I do over at The Curvature whenever I come across a really kick ass person who deserves some praise and recognition. With all of the bad news out there in the feminist blogosphere, I figure that news about the people who are doing good things is much needed.
This week, the bad ass activist is Rebecca Gomperts. She’s the founder of the amazing Women on Waves organization. [Warning: I'm not nuts about the tactic of showing the bodies of women who have died from illegal abortions. If you don't want to see such an image, do not go to their "facts" page]. Many of you have probably heard of them already, but for those who haven’t, Women on Waves is a Dutch group that charters a boat into the international waters outside of countries where abortion is illegal and provides them safely (and legally) to women in need. Which, if you ask me, is really fucking cool.
The Guardian has a really great profile of Gomperts this week, and so I thought that it would be a great time to celebrate WoW’s accomplishments.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Nov
9
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week: Massachusetts Kicks Your State’s Ass Edition
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, legislation, politics, religious fanaticism, reproductive justice, social conservatives, women’s health | 6 Comments
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Massachusetts was considering expanding the “buffer zones” outside of abortion clinics, to protect patients and staff from harassment by anti-choice protesters.
The Times reports that yesterday, the bill was passed, and it’s expected to be signed by the governor next week. The law requires that protesters stand at least 35 feet away from abortion-providing facilities.
The 35-foot rule is now the strictest state law in the U.S. It passed unanimously in the state Senate and with a vote of 122-to-28 in the House. How fucking cool (and utterly dumbfounding!) is that?
The bill was designed to replace an old law that said protesters could not come within 6 feet of people trying to enter the clinic, while they were within 18 feet of the clinic. It was a nobly-intended but confusing and incredibly difficult to enforce law. And shockingly enough, they fixed it.
As I covered last time, these types of laws existing at all is very rare. So Massachusetts was already ahead in that respect. But how often do lawmakers actually correct the problems caused by poorly-written or short-sighted laws? Not nearly often enough. In my book, that makes them doubly awesome.
And though anti-choicers claim that they will challenge the bill (and I don’t doubt that they will), the good news is that they challenged the previous law back in 2001, and the State Supreme Judicial Court declared the restriction perfectly Constitutional.
So thanks, all you seemingly-awesome MA lawmakers out there. Keep up the good work — you might almost make us forget that your state once elected Mitt Romney.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Nov
2
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week
Filed Under abortion, activism, anti-choice extremism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, blogging, religious fanaticism, reproductive justice, videos, women’s health | 5 Comments
I’m bringing back the Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week segment for some particularly bad ass people.
For those of you who aren’t currently reading the new Planned Parenthood blog I Am Emily X, you should be. Every day they post a different story and video of a different, anonymous Planned Parenthood clinic worker or volunteer (all of whom they call “Emily X”), talking about their experiences working at their clinic, and namely dealing with the protesters who are outside. They started it as a counter to the insane “40 Days of Life” protests taking part across the country. Whether the blog will continue once the campaign is over, I’m not sure, but I really hope that it does.
Today’s video is particularly interesting. It’s by a doctor who used to work with Dr. Slepian, and was one of the first doctors to go back to work at his clinic after the murder. He was assigned 9 federal marshals for his protection.
It’s chilling, and particularly so for me. Dr. Slepian was killed about an hour from my home. I was only 13-14 years old at the time, so my memory of the news coverage is vague and spotty. But since I now work at an abortion clinic a little over an hour from Dr. Slepian’s old clinic, it’s hard for the story — and the mere mention of Dr. Slepian’s name — to not strike a chord. Here’s the doctor, and please, make sure to check out the other videos of Emily X.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Sep
19
Bad Ass Activists of the Week
Filed Under International, LGBTQ issues, activism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, bigotry, homophobia and transphobia | 3 Comments
So I know that this story (via Tracey) is a few days late, but I just had to share. It’s so great that reading about it honestly makes me tear up a bit. In lieu of a bad ass women’s activist this week, meet bad asses David Shepherd and Travis Price.
The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.
The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.
“It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something,” said David.
They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.
“I made sure there was a shirt for him,” David said.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Aug
25
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week
Filed Under bad ass women’s activist of the week, misogyny, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, sexism, violence against women and girls | 2 Comments
I’m not sure that this family technically qualifies as women’s activists, but they at least deserve an honorable mention.
Broadsheet has highlighted an Afghan family who broke taboo to report their young daughter’s rape. I’m sure that most of you are aware of the fact that in many cultures, rape is seen as an embarrassment to the entire family, rarely reported to authorities and often ends in “honor killings,” marrying the victim off to her rapist, or disavowal by the family.
This case is particularly heinous. It involves two brothers from another family (18 and 24 years old) who raped a 7 year-old-girl until she lost consciousness. Two months after the attack, the girl is still in pain and anti-social. But what makes this horrible crime different from so many others is that her family actually reported it, and are fighting for the rights of their daughter in court.
Rape is not uncommon in Afghanistan, but victims rarely come forward because a girl or woman losing her virginity out of wedlock is seen as disgracing her entire family.
Because the crime is seldom reported, there are no reliable statistics on the number of young girls raped, Anwari said. She said it was the second such case in Ghazni this year.
“It’s not reported because of family honor. It’s very unusual that they’re bringing this forward,” said Naderi of Women for Afghan Women.
“No one in Afghanistan wants anyone to know their daughter has been raped because a girl’s virginity is so highly valued here. If a girl loses her virginity for any reason … she’s not a girl anymore. She’s a woman. Unmarriageable.”
Families and local elders often take the matter into their own hands and resort to traditional tribal laws, which commonly punish girls for the crimes of their male relatives. Under Afghan law, the sentence for raping a child is life imprisonment.
Zafar said the brothers’ relatives offered a 6-year-old girl as a future bride to compensate the victim’s family, who rejected the offer.
Erfani said another proposal was that the 7-year-old girl marry a young male relative of the brothers to salvage her honor. The girl’s family also turned down this suggestion, he said.
Bravo to this family. I’m sure that they are not the first in similar circumstances to have had the courage to step forward. But their actions are still unusual. In a culture with so much cultural pressure to remain silent and/or even punish the victim, this takes courage.
This is how progress begins. We can hope all we like for rape to stop, but I am sadly confident that it won’t until we begin to see reliable justice against rapists. Community members will talk about this family. A lot, probably most, will be negative. But maybe others who wanted to step forward and were too afraid will realize that they are not alone with their thoughts. Maybe another family of a victim will be less afraid to step forward. Maybe some will think twice before agreeing to a tribal hearing, which are notorious for punishing women for the attacks against them. It is a seed that has been planted.
Or maybe I’m wrong and none of that will happen. And it’s quite possible that these men will not even be punished for their crime.
But at the very least, this little girl will not be married into the family of her rapists. For all else that she has been and will go through, she will at least be spared that much. And sadly, it is an unlikely luxury for other girls and women in her situation.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Aug
2
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week
Filed Under bad ass women’s activist of the week, discrimination, gender, misogyny, patriarchy, sexism, sexual exploitation and harassment, work | 1 Comment
Female police officer Ann McDermott has won a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, after she became the only female officer on an undercover team and subsequently received hardcore pornography in her mailbox everyday for six months.
Yes. Everyday. For six months.
It’s great that she won her case. I hope that it will make male-centric institutions begin to rethink their policies. But you know what’s not so great? The fact that this happened in the first place. It’s not so great that her complaints within the department were dismissed, it’s not so great that she was transferred to another unit, not so great that the harassment still continued, that she became a pariah who was disliked for being “disloyal,” and that she spent over five years and $500,000 (which she will be awarded in addition to damages) fighting for her damn rights. It’s not so great that if you google this story, you’ll find a ton of articles referring to the harassment as a “prank.”
It’s downright shitty that she now has to return to work in the same police department, with so many fellow-officers feeling as though she has somehow betrayed them.
Personally, I don’t think that $150,000 is nearly enough for her trouble. And I’m not sure that $650,000 is enough to convince the Chicago Police Dept (and likely other police departments all over the country) to shape up and start respecting their female officers. But I say that Ann McDermott is still quite the bad ass.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Jul
26
Bad Ass Women’s Activist of the Week
Filed Under activism, bad ass women’s activist of the week, feminism, women’s health | 4 Comments
Sadly, Heather Burcham, a woman with cervical cancer who fought tirelessly to make the cervical cancer vaccine mandatory for girls in the state of Texas, has died. She was 31 years old. The fight for a mandated cervical cancer vaccine was one that was ultimately lost in her lifetime, when the Texas legislature overturned Governor Rick Perry’s executive order to require it in May.
Burcham once said: “If I could help one child, take this cancer away from one child, it would mean the world to me. If they knew what I was going through, how incredibly painful that this was … then I feel like I’ve done my job as a human on this earth.”
May she rest in peace.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body." --Margaret Sanger
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"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." -- Susan B. Anthony
