Well if you're going down in flames already...

Bush Further Taints Legacy

Washington, D.C. – Today, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, expressed extreme disappointment over the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) issue of the final Bush administration rule that could undermine women's access to essential health-care services, including birth control.

"President Bush's campaign promise was to unite Americans and he certainly did, as Americans are united in their opposition to this dangerous last-minute rule," Keenan said. "This last-ditch effort to undermine women's health and privacy is a transparent payoff to the right-wing pressure groups. In the 2008 election, voters clearly rejected the use of government authority to advance divisive policies. We look forward to working with the incoming Obama administration to reverse this divisive rule and change the tone of the debate over reproductive rights by protecting women's access to contraception, which actually helps prevent unintended pregnancies."

The new Bush administration regulation purports to encourage enforcement of, and education about, the existing laws described above. If that were so, the regulation would not be groundbreaking, necessarily. But in fact, the regulation pushes the bounds of current law and introduces several very serious problems:

It jeopardizes women's access to birth control by leaving open the possibility that providers will be able to define contraception as abortion; allowing them to do so could thereby expand the conscience protections pertaining to abortion to apply to birth control as well.

It expands the universe of individuals and institutions that are explicitly afforded refusal rights. It offers broad rights to employees who are only tangentially involved in providing the services at issue (for example, receptionists scheduling appointments), and it may grant entire health-care corporations (hospitals, HMOs, insurance companies) the same "conscience" rights as those offered to individuals.

It allows individuals to refuse to give referrals and information about a broad range of services. Current law allows individuals the right to refuse to refer or counsel patients for abortion services, but the regulation may allow individuals to refuse to provide referrals and information about any health-care services. This could affect reproductive-health services and many other health-care services beyond.

It fails to take into consideration laws that protect patients' rights to services and information, potentially limiting patients' abilities to make informed decisions about their own health-care needs and to access legal health-care services.

Read more!

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Sexual violence education...for MEN

Damn, we kind of suck at updating this frequently!

Anyway, the Star Tribune had a great article in the Sunday paper last week and I wanted to share it with everyone. Minnesota State colleges are focusing heavily on educating men about rape and sexual violence, and teaching them how to stand up for women. It's the change we've been needing to see for years!!!

Here's an excerpt:

Instead of teaching women not to walk alone at night or to carry Mace, some colleges are trying something much harder -- changing college men.

It's a great article - definitely check it out!

Coming up: The decline in abortion in recent movies and perhaps a little something about harmful advertisement for women.

Jess Weiner - Self Esteem Expert

I recently had the pleasure of listening to Jessica Weiner (www.jessweiner.com) speak at Minnesota State Univeristy, Mankato. She spoke of sexual violence and it's effect on us and those around us. She started off the night with the discussion of what sexual violence is and what the student’s perception of it was. We came to a consensus that sexual violence is any sexual act forced against someone’s will. Everyone has a story and most of them stay silent in fear of being judged or embarassed.

My story: I was a sophomore in college and was having issues with my boyfriend. I decided to break it off with him. He started calling me names, posting things on his MSN about me and making me out to be a bad person. Continued telling his friends lies about me and make me feel like shit. Afterwards of course being single caught the attention of some guys but I had stuck to it and ignored them while confiding in my friends and trying to gain my own emotional ground. One who I was confiding in was one of my guy friends who I had known since freshman year. Unfortunately I had confided in him too much. I went to his dorm room emotionally distraught and he attempted to calm me down. He popped in a movie and let me just lay there...for a little. Next think I knew his hand was down my pants and he some how forced himself on top of me trying to make out with him and force me to go further. Prior to this he had been the one who would offer me back massages only to get a feel. I didn't let him have his way. He had gotten up to go to the bathroom and came back to find me missing. He had asked me what went on and I explained to him that it was unacceptable and it had better not happen again. After that, he refused to talk to me.

Stories like this are what can educate people. Don't put yourself in these situations...be smart! One thing that was discussed during this event was the fact that kids are uneducated about sex whether it be that schools don’t teach it or that parents don’t educate their children well enough on the topic. Most schools teach about abstinence which I believe doesn't do anything. Kids are still going to be curious and instead of teaching safe sex we try to teach them that sex is wrong and therefore kids have unprotected sex.

Another point that was stressed in the presentation was the different ways of saying no and knowing whether or not one can tell if the situation is good or not. Women and men alike need to learn to say no. Yes a woman may become labeled as a bitch, pussy, whore, cunt, and whatever else men use to slander them but "no" can save someone. Men may be seen as a pussy if he is still a virgin by a certain age or he may be called a man for sleeping with a certain quota. However, regardles..."no" can change the situation. Silence is not a way of saying no. "No" means no and Ibelieve everyone should find there own way of saying it and stressing it.

Some facts gained from this event:
-Most people know someone who has been or who themselves have been victims of sexual violence.
- Every 90 seconds someone in America is sexually assaulted,
-About 44% of rape victims are under age 18 and 80% are under age 30, and one in four college women will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape.

Please educate those around you that sexual violence (assault, rape, harassment, etc.) is not allowed. Explain to your friend, child, spouse, or whomever you know what "no" means and that "no" does not make you a bad person. Like I said, everyone has a story including myself and if those who do have stories are kept silent, the word will not get out and this problem will continue.

Uh oh...

Letter from the President

I received the following email from Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America:

Gov. Palin had a good applause line last night about hockey moms and lipstick on pitbulls. Well, we have an expression here, too: Dress it up any way you like, but the McCain-Palin rhetoric about women’s freedom and privacy is nothing more than lipstick on a pig!

John McCain and Sarah Palin would leave American women with no choice and no privacy. And we can’t let voters be deceived. Not when reproductive health is on the line. And make no mistake, it is!

When you take away the rhetoric, chants, signs, and spin -- the McCain-Palin ticket is one of the MOST anti-choice campaigns we’ve seen and the platform on which they are running is the most anti-choice ever put forward.

Quite right...it's terrifying!! And of course, you don't actually hear this in their speeches b/c they know it would turn away the voters they're attempting to get by taking on a woman VP pick. For proof, here's another lovely McCain quote (be prepared):

John McCain on NBC's, Meet The Press, 1/30/00

Mr. Russert: “A Constitutional Amendment to ban all abortions?”
McCain: “Yes Sir”
Mr. Russert: “But, Senator, women across the country would say, prior to Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of women a year went to the back alleys to have abortions.”
McCain responded: “I understand that.”
Mr. Russert: “Many died.”
McCain, “I understand that.”

Heartless.

Presidential views on choice

I find it amusing that McCain chose a woman for his running mate (presumably to get the chicas to vote for him), seeing as how he's completely anti-choice. Here are some quotes/opinions of the dear Republican candidate (special thanks to GlassBooth.org!):

If Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion outlawed, McCain said he believes doctors who performed abortions would be prosecuted. "But I would not prosecute a woman" who obtained an abortion. -- Boston Globe, Jan. 31, 2000

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned." -- Associated Press article, Feb. 18, 2007

Here he acknowledges what women would have to resort to without a choice - and still disagrees!!!

But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations." -- Washington Post

Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education and contraceptives. Vote to adopt an amendment to the Senate's 2006 Fiscal Year Budget that allocates $100 million for the prevention of unintended pregnancies. -- Appropriation to expand access to preventive health care services, 2005

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's campaign officials boast he has "consistently voted against taxpayer-funded contraception programs." -- NowPublic article, August 27, 2007

"I would do everything in my power to ban that horrible procedure...of partial-birth abortion." -- GlassBooth

McCain was asked whether he would reinstate the Reagan era rule that prevents international family planning clinics that receive federal funds from discussing abortion. "I don't believe they should advocate abortion with my tax dollars," McCain said, adding that he opposed abortion except in cases of rape and incest. He was then asked how he would determine whether someone had in fact been raped. McCain responded, "I think [bold font ours] that I would give the benefit of the doubt to the person who alleges that." -- NYT, Jan. 25, 2000

He supports abstinence-only programs...even though countless research have shown that they DON'T WORK:

Senator McCain has a long legislative record of supporting abstinence-based initiatives in his record in the U.S. Senate, said Trey Walker, McCain's South Carolina campaign director. "He thinks that abstinence is healthier and should be promoted in our society for young people." -- Associated Press article, Feb. 16, 2007

On his own Web site!!

On a decision by the Supreme Court to uphold a ban on "partial birth" abortions: "Today's Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children...as we move forward, it is critically important that our party continues to stand on the side of life."

And my personal favorite:

"I am pro-life because of my belief in the dignity of human life." -- ABC News: Political Radar post

Right...let's kill everyone except unborn babies.

Aussie inflation deflation

ABC News in Australia reported the following today:

The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index measures the happiness and wellbeing of Australians.

The latest findings have shown that for the first time in seven years, the wellbeing of men is higher that that of women.

Report author Professor Bob Cummins, from Deakin University, found that women are more sensitive to rising costs as they make more of the household purchasing decisions.

Well, that made me curious, seeing how our economy isn't so hot in the good ol' US either. So after doing a little research, I found the following in a Wall Street Journal blog by Wendy Pollack:

In addition to the well-documented disparity between men’s and women’s pay, there is a persistent gender gap involving consumer prices. Lately, that gap has been widening, Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg tells BusinessWeek. The cost of consumer goods and services targeted at women — including clothes, shoes, cosmetics, jewelry, housekeeping and appliances) have been rising faster than those for typically male products (men’s clothing, sporting goods, televisions, and auto parts and repairs). Using U.S. consumer price inflation data for the past year, Mr. Rosenberg pegs the “female inflation rate” at 3.6% year to year, 18 times the 0.2% rate for men.

Dubs T F? Cause we're not already at a disadvantage?? Of course, there are some reasons for this. WSJ goes on to say:

There are a number of factors driving the disparity. For starters, women currently are experiencing greater job growth than men, fueling an increase in their consumer confidence to six-year highs. That bolsters demand, and consequently, prices, for the things that women are more likely to purchase.

What’s more, women are marrying later than they used to, or not at all. That affects price inflation because single women spend a greater proportion of their income than single men. Unmarried women also tend to spend more money on themselves than men, according to the Census Bureau’s Consumer Expenditure Survey.

Hmmm...makes you take a little different look when at the mall.

The women (and men) know what they're talking about!

I'm watching Hillary's speech at the DNC and thought I'd post some solid pro-femme quotes...'cause nothing's better than reiterating truth. :)

Sylvia Plath:
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.

Susan B. Anthony:
The fact is, women are in chains, and their servitude is all the more debasing because they do not realize it.

Hillary Clinton:
I have met thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is not being pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is trusting the individual to make the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard.

Virginia Woolf:
The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.

Sojourner Truth:
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Margaret Sanger:
Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.

Ayn Rand:
The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

Camille Paglia:
We cannot have a world where everyone is a victim. "I'm this way because my father made me this way. I'm this way because my husband made me this way." Yes, we are indeed formed by tramas that happen to us. But you must take charge, you must take over, you are responsible.

Andrea Dworkin:
Woman is not born: she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes symbol of this, symbol of that: mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so.

Ursula LeGuin:
We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.

Florynce Kennedy:
You've got to rattle your cage door. You've got to let them know that you're in there, and that you want out. Make noise. Cause trouble. You may not win right away, but you'll sure have a lot more fun.

Margaret Sanger:
No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.

And my personal favorite tonight:

Hillary:
Eleanor Roosevelt understood that every one of us every day has choices to make about the kind of person we are and what we wish to become. You can decide to be someone who brings people together, or you can fall prey to those who wish to divide us. You can be someone who educates yourself, or you can believe that being negative is clever and being cynical is fashionable. You have a choice.

Check out what other women have said!

Verbage I hate:

I hate the term "alleged rape" - call it what it is. Rape.

The Working World of Women

New Mexico programs are helping women find ways to support themselves and learn skills.

Festival Helps Women Artisans Gain Self-Sufficiency

According to the New Mexico Business Weekly,

Half the women in New Mexico are struggling to live on less than $10,000 a year.

It’s statistics like those from New Mexico Voices for Children that spurred the New Mexico Women’s Foundation to launch its Women’s Cottage Industries Program in 2001. The nonprofit makes grants to other nonprofits and cooperatives around the state who help women earn money through home-based enterprises...

The Foundation also organizes outlets for the products these women make, such as the Rag Rug Festival and Design Collective, which takes place August 15-17 in Santa Fe at the Stewart Udall Center for Museum Resources on Museum Hill.

The article goes on to state:

"We don’t really care what women make,” said Frieda Arth, producer for the festival. “They can make software, start a writers’ retreat, they can make products, they can make crafts. It doesn’t matter to us. They can build furniture. Whatever they can do to make a living is what we’re interested in.”

The women keep all the proceeds from their sales and the Women’s Foundation also covers the costs of bank and credit card charges. The festival is one of three the Foundation does around the state each year and this one includes about 100 artisans.

Arth said the Foundation’s mission has always been geared toward education and economic development, so this program best exemplifies what the Foundation is all about.

Love it!

Freedom of the [anti-choice] people

Check this out!

Bush aims attacks on women, cutting birth control
"In mid-July, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) draft memorandum came to public view that proposed ominous new regulations to undercut contraceptive services and reproductive health care. All hospitals, clinics and medical schools that receive HHS grants and provide family planning services would have to hire employees even if these individuals oppose abortion or birth control. The health-care providers would have to swear in writing to comply with this policy to obtain HHS funding.

This affects almost every U.S. hospital, as nearly all receive public funding. States could lose federal grants if they required health-care entities or individuals to provide abortion and birth control services.

The regulations include another dangerous provision: Abortion is redefined in such an overly broad way as to include many popular and effective forms of prescription birth control, including pills, patches, intrauterine devices and even emergency contraception. The document deliberately misnames them “abortifacients” (abortion-causing) when, in fact, they are birth control methods."

Seriously, just TRY to take away our rights...go ahead. Try it.

Linkin' Logs

Here's a little linking for ya!

Btw, if there's anything that you'd like to see us blog about on here, feel free to leave a comment with some ideas and we'll try to work those in. Thanks!

Dalit Woman Commits Suicide to Evade Rape Attempt
Despair Drives Suicide Attacks by Iraqi Women
Feminism and the Tube - think London, not your living room
Q&A: The Pregnant Man - now this is some serious science (and a really interesting story)!! good for him!!
Female Kidney Transplant Recipients Are More Likely To Reject Male Donor Organs
President Nominates Woman Army General for Fourth Star

And this one is just because I can't help but laugh a little...not because I think it's funny, but because seriously??? Although it is Iowa... ;)
Town Fireworks Display Accident in Iowa Injures 12

Readership

Dag yo. We have to up the readership on here!! If you know of anyone who might be interested in hearing more about women's rights and things a'happening in the world, please forward this on to them!!

We sure would appreciate it. :)

Newbie is here!

Hey all just thought I would say hi and that I'm excited to be blogging with Cassie! She's got some great views and insights on the matter of gender differences and what we can do to spike up the awareness of these inequalities! I figured I'd start off by just saying hi and I'll post more later! Until then..... :)

A newbie to the site!

I wanted to let everyone know that I have been feeling incredibly bad about my lack of posting to this site - therefore, I've invited a fellow feminist to blog on here as well! Megan has many good ideas and isn't afraid to be outspoken, so she should be a great addition. Stay tuned for more!

Linkin' it up

I decided to post some links to some interesting articles or Web sites. Check 'em out!

Vatican to Excommunicate Female Priests
Iraq War Vet Charged in Rape of Mich. Infant Makes Plea Deal
Anti-rape Condom Good But...
Protecting the Right to Abortion an Issue of Safety
Police: 10 Witness Rape, Do Nothing (I realize it's old but it's so shocking that I had to post it!)

Clinics of love

My best friend has been taking a class on gender and violence (such interesting discussions that are stemming out of it!) and recently had to do an interview with someone who works with a rape clinic or battered women's shelter. This got me thinking that I should really do a post about such places, especially since the people who work at these places are AMAZING! The amount of compassion those women and men have is unbelievable. I realize I'm probably speaking to the choir here, so I'll get to the point.

You want a learning experience? Go sit down and talk with someone who works for a rape clinic/battered women's shelter/etc for a few minutes. I haven't had the chance to do this yet, but I really, really want to. I'm guessing that it's going to lead me to volunteering somewhere.

If you're in Minnesota, here are a couple of great places to check out:
Cornerstone (Battered women's shelter)
Neighborhood Involvement Center: Rape and Sexual Abuse Clinic
Planned Parenthood
Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women
Minnesota Domestic Violence Crisis and Support Resources

Remember, if you have been a victim of rape (which is any kind of unwanted sexual contact), please tell someone about it! The easiest way to heal and move on is to talk about it.

Wage gap switcharoo?

If you've read my blog at all, you've probably seen how I feel about the wage gap between men and women. For a reminder, in case you're too lazy to look back a few entries ;), women still make about 70% of what men earn.

Well I recently read a blog post that poses an interesting theory or perhaps observation about that:

Weirdly enough, in the midst of all the job losses, the business closures and the foreclosures there is a bit of good news about the wage gap. No, the gap hasn’t closed; women still earn about 70 cents for every one dollar men earn. They may not have parity, but women are actually getting even.

You see, the wage gap in this country is due, in part, to the fact that women are concentrated in lower-wage professions like teaching, nursing and administration, while men are concentrated in higher-paying professions like investment banking and financial services. Until now, that stunk!

Well, the tide is turning. From last November through this April, American women aged 20 and up gained nearly 300,000 jobs, while American men lost nearly 700,000 jobs during that same period. Not only were the big-money men affected, the poorer boys have struggled too. Man-heavy industries like construction and manufacturing have also been hard-hit by the economic downturn.

Meanwhile, woman-heavy industries like health care and education are experiencing growth.

An interesting turn of events in our steadily downward-facing economy. But trust me, ladies, keep working the negotiations and such to try to get that wage gap closed. Just because the women-dominated fields are growing doesn't mean that women are getting paid appropriately.

But woot for having jobs and makin' money!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...things tend to get crazy busy and then I have no energy left at the end of the day to get online at the library. Anyway, saw an interested little story in Yahoo! News about the pay gap between men and women:

It is ironic that the Pennsylvania primary is being held on Equal Pay Day. That's the day in April every year when women's earnings finally catch up with what men made by December 31 of the previous year. The pay gap is still a stubborn problem, with women who work full time, year-round making 77 cents to a man's dollar. And, women are losing ground when it comes to how long it takes to pull even with men - a decade ago Equal Pay Day was April 11.

"Talk to Women for A Change" by Martha Burk

Ironic, indeed. Ironic that I didn't hear a thing about it.

This quote on Equal Pay Day from the Business and Professional Women network shows the difference in race:

Equal Pay Day is held annually in April to signify the point into a year that a woman must work to earn what a man made the previous year. According to the 2006 Census Bureau, women on average earn 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. For women of color, the wage gap worsens: African American women make 66 cents, Latinas make 55 cents and Asian American women make 80 cents.

Now, there have been studies that show that part of the reason women are lacking in pay is because they don't negotiate, and this can lead to a gap of hundreds of thousands of dollars over one person's career! DEFINITELY negotiate!!! But that doesn't make up for the increasing pay gap between women and men. Just another way to work towards equality!

Wait honey, I need to sign this contract first...

Just wow on this one. An article by NEWSLIVE.com.au states that apparently in an independent state of Australia, women should sign a contract before having sex. Huh? What? Why is this? Ohhh, read on...

An Independent state MP has suggested women should sign a contract before having sex in order to prevent men being subject to false rape allegations, News Limited has reported.

In a response to proposed laws making it an offence to continue a sex act with a person who changes their mind about consent, South Australian MP Ann Bressington suggested to Parliament men should carry a sex contract to prevent being accused of rape.

Are you f'ing KIDDING me??? As if it's not hard enough for women to come forward about being raped, now they have to sign a contract before sex because people think they're lying??!

Ann Brennington states, “This Bill makes men guilty until proven innocent and they will have no defence.” Okay then, Ann, what are you doing to protect innocent women from being raped??? I agree that people who "cry rape" have absolutely no excuse and are ruining the judicial system for those who actually are violated, and yes, this needs to end somehow...but you're putting ALL of the blame and fault on the woman and that's just not right. Worse than that, you're making it even harder for someone who truly WAS raped to come forward about it. Remember, peeps, 1 in 4 women are raped and only 16% of these rapes get reported - check out possible reasons why women don't report rape in this undeniably real and honest blog post.

Women are already:
- Subjected to painful rape kits
- Further harassment by the rapist and their supporters
- Mocking by strangers and trusted ones alike
- "Questions" that are more like accusations by police and others

...and by the time it's all over, they find out the police don't believe them. Cause we needed another reason to worry.

The ONE good thing about this is that it's somewhat two-fold...men without a signed contract could be charged with sexual assault. But considering the amount of cases that actually get anywhere now...well, let's not hold our breath on that one.