Figure: Demystifying the Feminist Mystique

2008-10-17T05:04:00.002-04:00

Great post by Ruth Rosen about the lack of real discussion of women's economic concerns by the candidates.

I've worked as a waitress. In fact, that's how I got through my undergraduate education. I met many Josephines and none of them imagined, like Joe the plumber, that they would ever earn $250,000. If they're lucky, they earn just barely enough to provide for their families.

As Obama has insisted, they are the ones who need his proposed tax cuts. So why did he and Sen. McCain continually talk to Joe the Plumber, who was a Republican and had already made up his mind? Why didn't Obama change the subject and talk about Josephine the waitress? Or Jane, the single mom, who has just lost her home? Or Joanna, who has just lost her job and has no health care?

When all the examples are of men's travails, guess who feels excluded, indeed invisible.

Read the rest at TPMCafe.

Feminist Bloggers?

2008-10-03T02:40:00.004-04:00

As part of her PhD, Jessie Daniels is looking for bloggers who identify themselves as feminist.

Pre-screening survey can be found here (just a few quick questions). If you are what she is looking for, an hour interview (face to face or phone) would be involved.

Biden-Palin Debate

2008-10-03T02:35:00.001-04:00

Just because she didn't fall flat on her face doesn't mean that she did well!! More later.

The Girl Effect

2008-07-28T16:06:00.000-04:00

Just watch the video.

Chronicle of a feminist death foretold...NOT!

2008-06-06T13:58:00.007-04:00

I have written approximately three drafts for pieces that I never uploaded because they all seemed boring, lacked originality or were just plain uninspiring. And I knew this was not due to a lack of subjects to discuss, or the fact that there were no issues that, from a feminist perspective, caught my eye.

And then today I ran into a piece published in The Guardian by Kira Cochrane entitled "Now, the backlash" an insightful, well-rounded and poignnant piece on the backlash of feminism. Touching upon subjects such as the prevalence of sexual harassment, the declining rates of rape conviction in the UK, discrimination in the workplace and the obsession with female celebrities and their pregnancies, just a few statistics are enough to acknowledge that the feminist agenda has accomplished a lot, and much more is pending.

Even though women have come a long way, we are still underpaid, underemployed, undervalued (devalued?), and under protected by the law. Furthermore, some of the rights we thought were guaranteed now suddenly are being discussed again. One, clearly being the issue of abortion rights (recently discussed in the UK and currently being discussed in the Supreme Court for Mexico City's case). It seems that birthing is attractive when being carried out by Angelina Jolie, but if you happen to be her employer, according to statistics provided by Cochrane, 68% would rather not have hired her (given that it is illegal for an employer to ask a woman about her family plans).

Still, I am a positive person at heart, and found Cochrane's theory of this backlash somewhat uplifting. It is exactly the small gains, the baby steps if you will, that strengthen this backlash. The feminist debate is growing, and maybe the backlash is indeed a sort of pendulum reaction to the accomplishments achieved other the past decades. As Professor Liz Kelly, chair of the End Violence Against Women campaign, very eloquently explains: "What a backlash does is it curtails us, but we never take those two steps back, and that's what I think can send the conservatives...and the rightwingers...absolutely wild...What do they think we're going to do?... Go back into the kitchen and make a sandwich?"

NYT Article - Pre-Roe

2008-06-05T07:56:00.002-04:00

Go check out this essay in the NYT about the coat hanger myths. The argument that women will resort to harmful home-methods if abortion is made illegal or more difficult to access is usually shot down by the opposition because there is little hard evidence.

Pre-Roe v. Wade women rarely reported who performed back-alley abortions on them and no one was taking note of the women who ended up dead or severely damaged from self-inflicted abortions. The data we have available to us is anecdotal, through word of mouth, as is much of women's history.

"There I saw and treated almost every complication of illegal abortion that one could conjure, done either by the patient herself or by an abortionist — often unknowing, unskilled and probably uncaring. Yet the patient never told us who did the work, or where and under what conditions it was performed. She was in dire need of our help to complete the process or, as frequently was the case, to correct what damage might have been done.
The patient also did not explain why she had attempted the abortion, and we did not ask. This was a decision she made for herself, and the reasons were hers alone. Yet this much was clear: The woman had put herself at total risk, and literally did not know whether she would live or die.
This, too, was clear: Her desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force behind the selection of any method available."

2008-06-05T07:36:00.005-04:00

The French government has launched a new campaign to get people to hire more domestic help. The initiative isn't really new (tax cuts for hired help at home were introduced about five years ago), but this campaign is. The campaign centers around the tongue-in-cheek image of the 1950s household where the wife does everything domestic and we were all happier (right?). The ad agency who came up with the campaign were quoted as saying that "In 2008, no-one could imagine that the images of the 1950s are being taken seriously."

Firstly, women still do most of the housework in France, so lets not pretend that the 1950s are so far away.

Secondly, as a someone commented on Bremner's post on this campaign, what the hell happened to the non-white population in France? Yes, we get that the ads are supposed to be a joke but for those of us who don't think it's funny, it's just reinforcing sexist and racist stereotypes.

True Feminism versus True Capitalism

2008-05-06T09:51:00.003-04:00

It's been a while. I have no excuse. Well, I'm starting a business, which is a fairly good excuse. But doesn't let me off the hook. However, it does tie in perfectly with an article in the SF Chronicle that got my blood boiling: Callie Millner's When Can I Call Myself A Feminist Again?

Hoyden About Town posted about it, prompting others to 'dissect' the piece. In the comment thread on her post, Deborah from In A Strange Land wrote "But I have found that the sh*t h*ts the fan when you have children." (see full thread for context). Which really hit home for me.

I get why Millner is complaining. There are women who are held up in mainstream media as feminist icons, whether or not they actually are, and they will at times disappointed, misrepresent, and say things that some of us might be considered fairly unfeminist. And we should point out these times and keep on going, not be so disillusioned that we decide to practically renounce feminism, upset that the mass media is not choosing talking heads who directly understand, appreciate, and agree with our political views. But that's not really what got me about the article. It was more the disregard for the enormous percentage of women who are feminists and deal with sexism on a daily basis and who aren't characters out of Sex and the City.

" "The new behaviors we're seeing in young women - buying their own homes, starting their own businesses, traveling the world - these aren't revolutionary behaviors," Weeks went on. "It's the attitude of these women that's truly progressive. They're not angry at men for historical grievances. They're just trying to take advantage of all these different opportunities without having anyone get in their way, male or female."

Of course! This is my life - and Weeks' life - and the life of virtually every other young woman we know."

Wait, what? "the life of virtually every other young woman we know." ??? Really? Wow, I'm so glad to hear that 'every other young woman' has the financial stability to become a home owner, start their own business, and travel. That's sort of news to me. Also, "they're not angry at men for historical grievances"???! Is that what my 'anger' is about? I'm just pissed at men?! I don't think so.

This image of the 'real' feminist is not the image I believe portrays feminist women. Or even modern women. And back to the whole motherhood throwing a spanner into the works - this image does not include mothers. Even those of us who are home owners and have business and travel. But the 'real feminist' according to this article doesn't have children. And if she does, she probably can afford excellent day care and has a great boss that gives her plenty of maternity leave and doesn't' mind if she can't work late.

The image portrayed is saccharine sweet, easy and nice to swallow. It doesn't touch on so many of the issues that feminism is working and needs to focus on. It doesn't touch on the nitty gritty of daily life, on fighting for domestic equality, on assault, on sexual harassment at work, on poverty, racism, abuse, neglect, discrimination.

Women For Obama

2008-04-11T12:17:00.002-04:00

Just in case you didn't get enough from Alisha, I thought I'd give you some more Obama love. As we speak my 65 year old mother is preparing to go on a road trip to PA for a Women For Obama rally (you can find out more here -). So if you're in the area, get your banners out and join her!

I wish I could be with her, but instead I'm in a country where the President admits that his new super-model wife makes him jealous because she looks better naked compared to him. Yes, believe everything you have ever heard about the French and women. It's all true.

Barack Obama: A True Feminist

2008-04-11T08:44:00.003-04:00

Hello readers,

Sorry for the long-time radio silence, but I want to join C-A in a big rousing thanks for our E for Excellent award. I suppose it's motivated me to try to live up to the ranking :)

I've moved across the pond - these days I'm back in the UK. But what's on my mind, not just as an American but as a citizen of the world if you will, is the 2008 presidential election. Regular readers will know I've posted on this topic before . But my own beliefs have followed an evolution throughout this campaign, starting from being so thrilled as a woman and feminist to have a prominent female contender in the race to my stance now: an absolute, full-out, 100% Obamaniac. I love Obama in the way you love someone that inspires you and your friends and family to want to do good things and hope for the future. I think he's intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, progressive - everything I want in my country's next president.

But I will admit, I get some grief, especially from former friends and colleagues in gender studies about my support for Obama. To date, I haven't been able to articulate clearly enough why I feel like I support Obama over Hillary precisely because I am a feminist. Luckily, Ariel Garfinkel, writing in the Huffington Post, did it for me.

In her article, The Obama Feminists: Why Young Women Are Supporting Obama Garfinkel posits that in this race, Obama is the candidate that best embodies feminist ideals of equity and equality, as well as the one who has certainly run the most high-minded campaign. He doesn't forget gender or sexuality just because he talks about race or class- he has, in my opinion, a firm grasp on how intricately these identities are connected. And not only that, he's kept his integrity as the race has gotten dirtier and dirtier which, sadly, Clinton has not:

As the media endlessly ran clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, suggesting somehow that Obama was responsible for the extremes of his minister (a scrutiny, by the way, not applied by the media to the provocative spiritual advisors of John McCain), Hillary ducked to let the circus continue. Failing to show true leadership by denouncing one pastor's views as fair game in evaluating a presidential candidate, Hillary sat it out apparently hoping the focus on Wright might injure Obama. While missing her own principled moment, Hillary was left to watch Obama rise to his.

For more information on the Obama campaign click here.
For an excellent interview with Obama in The Advocate, click here.

In the mean time, I leave you with the Yes We Can music video which seriously brings tears to my eyes.

We Are Still Here....

2008-04-08T11:44:00.004-04:00

The Choice Is Now nominated us for an 'E is for Excellent' award in March. First of all, it's a thrill to get nominated, so thank you very much Kelly. Secondly, I have to apologize (again) on the total lack of posting recently. Even though there are three of us, we still seem to be completely lost in our own little worlds and aren't finding enough time to post. Which is sad. It's kind of like saying you don't have enough time to exercise when we all know that's just an excuse. In fact, I'm been feeling so bad about not posting, I started considering whether this was the end to Feminist Figure, but our little award makes me feel like perhaps there is some life in this little blog yet.

But back to the award. We have to nominate ten blogs that we feel have excellent content. And since there are three of us, the task is getting divided among us. And instead of 10, we are nominating 12 because it's easier then 3.3. Also there is no limit to how many blogs you nominate. By the way, I've made this decision without any consultation with my fellow blogger team.

So here are my four:

blue milk
Charlotte's Web
anythings.org
Feminist Dad

Feminism and the political left in Mexico City

2008-02-21T14:35:00.001-05:00

Today, it is quite common to hear right-wing conservatives discredit progressive governments of being “populist” and using certain topics to attract votes and increase popularity rates. This has certainly been the criticism towards Mexico City’s government, which has taken a stance on certain topics, such as abortion, euthanasia, and others, as a political standpoint against the Federal Government’s conservative right-wing.

Whatever the political force behind some of the programmes being promoted by the city’s government, feminist and gender equality organizations have taken advantage of the political juncture and have pushed through critical legislation to their agendas.

Probably the most ground-breaking, and controversial legislation was passed by the Mexico City legislature in April 2007, essentially legalising abortion. Technically, abortion is still illegal; the law passed simply included several causes that allow for an abortion to be performed legally during the first trimester. Considering that at least 68,000 women die each year in Latin America due to botched abortions, it becomes clear that it is a question of public health. Since the law passed, a total of 5,845 women have decided to legally interrupt an unwanted pregnancy in Mexico City.

Ironically, in May 2007 the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) presented a brief before the Supreme Court to initiate lawsuit to declare the law unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Justice will soon decide upon the matter, but hopefully will see this issue as one of public health and human rights of women, and not as a moral or political one.

Additionally, Mexico City’s congress has put forth a bill that will legislate sex change operations and open the possibility for a person to change his/her gender, promoting the human rights of the citizens of one of the largest cities in the world. The proposal was put together with the support of doctors, sexologists, psychologists as well as organizations specialized on transexuality issues. The bill includes the possibility to modify the birth certificate, as well as all legal standing for any legal purpose. Additionally, it proposes a change to the Health Law in order to enable public hospitals to perform sex change operations.

Other important measures include the granting of paternity leave, which not only is a policy which promotes gender equality, but also aids in raising awareness of the need for men to participate in reproductive labour. Incorporating masculinities (an absent topic) in public policies in Mexico is critical. The guidelines are still pending, which means that it is up to each institution to decide the terms on which this benefit will be granted. However, one man who works for Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission has already taken his paternity leave (10 working days with pay).

Additionally, Mexico City has implemented a policy aimed at reducing sexual harassment of women in public transport by placing women-only buses on the street. Even though this might not be the panacea, the women-only buses available have made the lives of women much easier. Approximately 22 million passengers use the bus and subway system daily, and although estimations of the numbers of sexual harrassment against women are hard to acquire, given the many disincentives to report these incidences, it is a major and visible form of violence against women. The policy has many flaws, including the fact that only four of city’s bus routes have these buses, a very small coverage for such a large and chaotic city. However, it is an effort of Mexico City’s government to create safe places for women, and the government plans to expand the number of routes to 15 in the months ahead. Additionally, the city is planning to pass a law that will make it easier to prosecute those found harassing women in public spaces, one of the many deterrents for women to actually report sexual harassment. Needless to say, this is a problem that resides in gender constructions, and as such, must be accompanied (as any public policy) with a strong campaign to raise awareness on the very troubling issue of violence against women.

Personally, I disagree with politicians who take advantage of the needs of the people to push through their personal electoral agenda. However, I am all for women’s organizations taking advantage of a political opening to promote legislations that can pave the way towards a more equal society, where the rights of both women and men are guaranteed and safeguarded. Kudos!

52nd Carnival of Feminists

2008-01-23T05:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the 52nd Carnival of Feminists.

Violence Against Women

Stef at Toxicity talks about Sophie Elliot's murder and why women feel pressure to stay in 'toxic' relationships.
Feminist Fire points out the obvious to the Home Office, who once again have a new campaign up that blames women for getting raped:Note to the Home Office: Rape is caused by rapists, not alcohol, and not women.

Media

Jospeh Orosco critiques Roger Scruton's ideas that us crazy ol' feminists just can't take a joke. This is a such an interesting and conflicting issue. Harking back to random acts of feminism, what do you do when someone says a sexist joke? Which battles do we pick?
This leads us nicely on to Why Do The Supposedly Liberal Doods Link Sex And Derogation?

Carol McKay asks why there isn't more outrage from the feminist community about the arrest of a Chinese woman after she publicly outed her husband in terms of his extra-marital affair. She's been detained by police, yet there is hardly any media coverage or grassroots activity to help her.
Shuffl has a post up about the irony (and stupidity) of using sexual images of women to sell information about why women's sexuality equals evil (in a nutshell): A Witch Worth Blowing Your Whistle Over?
BrownFemiPower voices her dismay at once again mainstream American feminists not looking in their own backyard. And KitKat's Critique follows up with Budgeting Time As A Feminist (part 2).

Body Image

Ann Bartow from FLP continues the discussion about toe removals for shoe fitting and how it's not an urban myth anymore.
High School, Hair Color and Choices posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, reminds us that fighting for your rights should start early and gives us a glimpse at how hair color on a young girl can be interpreted as subversive behaviour.

Sexuality

Menstrual Poetry writes about the recent study on bisexuality in women and I think we all agree with her in asking why the hell they aren't also doing a men's study?
We know that Facebook is pretty evil, and now Digg is joining them in demonstrating how social networking and media sites are sexist and discriminatory. Where's the rage?? Read Tali's post to find out more.
Greta Christina presents All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Porn -- Or Not posted, looking at why porn is not where kids should be getting their sex education. And while that may sound obvious to alot of us, but considering the state of sex education, it's no wonder teenagers are turning to pornography. And remember, if you're a parent - this does fall into your remit of parental responsibility - don't blame it on the schools.
Sage presents In Praise of Degradation at Persephone's Box, voicing her opinion on the attraction to "safe-scare" violence. Her starting point is with bell hook and Riane Eisler's writing.

Politics

First start with a bit of Hillary poetry from Mad Kane.
Followed by Antidrown, who points out that as much as everyone wants to pretend that woman have it pretty good, thus demonstrated by how far Hillary has come, women are still pretty much invisible so maybe we should stop putting the horse before the cart.
A Business Professor's Weblog looks at the Iron My Shirt scandal,
While Grrl Scientist speculates on the "Hillary cried!!" events.
AfroGeek Mom writes about being expected to choose between race or gender.

Arts (and Craft)

Lea Kottner looks at the arts and crafts revival and how it's not really original to dismiss crafts as a waste of women's time, considering that how anything that has traditionally been done by women is labelled: "a waste of time".
Check out The Pinup Blog to learn why pinup art isn't actually only 'boy's art' and a bit of history about women pinup artists.

Choices

Lauredhel asks Rudd to STEP UP on women's rights and abortion.
Cara from The Curvature has an excellent post up about anti-choice activists calling abortion "The Darfur of America''.
Holly Ord presents Medical Accuracy is So Last Year, as well as Colorado and Missouri Wage War on Women’s Rights posted at Woman Tribune.
Yesterday was Blog for Choice Day 2008 and there are a number of great posts up - here are just a handful of my favourites: Womenstake, Light Rail Coyote, and Two Women Blogging. You can find the full list of bloggers who registered here.
Natalie Bennett discusses the Safety First Coalition lobby she attended on sex worker's rights and decriminalisation.

***********

That's it! Thank you to everyone who submitted and I hope every one enjoys the carnival. The next carnival host hasn't been announced yet so please be sure to check the Carnival of Feminists site to find out where to send your submissions for next month.

Blog for Choice Day 2008

2008-01-22T17:19:00.000-05:00

This year's topic for Blog for Choice Day 2008 is 'why it's important to vote pro-choice'.

Living in Europe as an expat I sometimes forget how different things are back home, how perilous things are in terms of choice.

I think back to the elections in France last year and how even though a woman was a front runner until pretty much the finish line, the debate over abortion never really came up, or at least not enough to make a stir in main stream media. Least of all would a conversation have occurred about whether a candidate would get your vote based on how they stood on abortion. For the a culture that invented kissing and lingerie, it's no surprise that they have a straight forward attitude towards abortion. Of course, France and USA are so cultural different you can't even see the line that divides them.

A conversation a few weeks ago reminded me once again that I have gotten comfortable living in countries where my rights are more firmly protected than in the US. Advising a friend about her abortion and contraceptive rights should she move to London, I rambled on about how to get contraception, the procedures she would need to go through, what to do if she need an abortion etc. I was reassuring her, if anything, that she would not be moving to a country where her choices would not be restricted. Side note: the UK has a skew of problems regarding abortion - one of them being that it's not technically a 'right' but rather a medical allowance but this is not the time for that post.

And the question is not why vote pro-chioce but why it is important to vote pro-choice. Because it will change the face of a country, to have such a right taken away from women, it will change the landscape of America. The USA is already getting near the top of the lists of appalling teen pregnancy rates and horrific maternal health statistics. It can not become a country where women's bodies are trampled over, and ignored, where's women's voices are not heard or acknowledged.

Submit to the Carnival!!!

2008-01-20T06:08:00.000-05:00

Come on, readers! The next Carnival of Feminists is just days away. Submit posts to using the form or email us at feministfigure (at) gmail (dot) com.

Paying it forward - Random Acts of Feminism

2008-01-18T14:25:00.000-05:00

Today's Guardian features an interesting piece by Wendy Roby on how Random Acts of Feminism can be an easy - maybe naïve - but empowering way of fighting back against daily sexist situations. Although some of the acts suggested by the readers might reproduce certain gender stereotypes, the core idea still remains enticing. So be random, inventive and fight back!

Apparently I'm Undecided...

2008-01-13T10:02:00.000-05:00

...about who to vote for according to the Go To Quiz for Presidential Candidates. These are my results:

74% Hillary Clinton
74% Barack Obama
73% Dennis Kucinich
73% Chris Dodd
71% Mike Gravel
71% Joe Biden
71% John Edwards
70% Bill Richardson
51% Rudy Giuliani
46% John McCain
35% Mike Huckabee
35% Mitt Romney
33% Ron Paul
24% Tom Tancredo
22% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

The Politics of Oppression (or, are politics oppression?)

2008-01-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Gloria Steinem's editorial, Women are Never Front-Runners, in Tuesday's New York Times has left me much to chew on. Like everyone else in this country, I can't quite help getting caught up in election mania, particularly the excitement of having the two front-runners in the Democratic party as a black man and a woman.

My friend Adriana sent the article around as food for thought to a group of some of the smartest women I know - and I found the responses incredibly thoughtful indeed. Below I post Danae's response to the piece. What do you think?

"and because there is still no "right" way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what."

They used this quote on CNN yesterday, and I found it very interesting. moreover my mom and I had a discussion last night about wardrobes and how Clinton has had to find a balance between being seen as too masculine ( i.e. bitchy and therefore intimidating voters) and being seen as too feminine and pretty (and potentially not be taken seriously). However, I don't think this similar dichotomy doesn't exist for Obama. I distinctly remember at the end of the summer/early fall the debates about him being "too white" to attract the black vote, and god knows if he were more culturally black he would not be nearly as far ahead as he is in this campaign because too many white voters would feel alienated.

"because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects "only" the female half of the human race;"

This quote stuck out in particular because I think it is one of the pernicious and invisible ways in which sexism exists. It reminds me of Allende's speech for TED--"for every dollar given to a women's program, 20 are given to a men's program".(I wonder if by men's issues she means general issues that effect men more often, for example organizations promoting heart attack research as opposed to ones promoting prostate cancer research, for instance). I remember being shocked after taking my CPR course to later learn that the symptoms of heart attack they taught us to look out for almost exclusively occur in men. The signs for heart attack in female are entirely different (and I still don't know what they are!). I can't help but imagine that perhaps a similar type of hidden racism exists as well, though. I don't know numbers for healthcare, because it's not an issue that is discussed frequently, but I can certainly say for a fact that in world crises (American lives notwithstanding) European lives are considered by the American public to be more valuable than Asian lives, which are in turn more valuable than African lives (at least in terms of the minimum threshold of deaths required for a story to be "big" news). This, I believe, is entirely based on skincolor and not simply the differences in culture from American culture.

Either way, I'm not sure if I entirely agree with Steinem, although I obviously think it is an important issue to explore. I have been wondering for a while now which of the two candidates (Clinton or Obama) will win out, and I honestly don't know which is a bigger stumbling block for most Americans, race or gender. It will be interesting to see what happens! What an exciting race it is turning out to be!

Upcoming Blogging Festivities

2008-01-10T05:57:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of announcements:

Feminist Figure will be hosing the 52nd Carnival of Feminists on January 23th. Please send submissions to feministfigure (at) gmail (dot) com or use the carnival submission form.
Secondly, this blog will be particiapting in Blog for Choice on January 22nd!

If you want to get involved, sign up your blog here. This year's topic is: tell us, and your readers, why it's important to vote pro-choice. Simple enough.

100th Birthday of Simone de Beauvoir

2008-01-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

Today would have been Simone de Beauvoir's 100th birthday. I was suprised to find that not many mainstream publications (Mexican and foreign) dedicated much to this occasion. The Guardian featured an illuminating quiz on her life, with deep and relevant questions such as the translation in English of her nickname (although I must admit that for procrastination matters it makes the cut). I wish I could have had more time to include an interesting piece on her work. However, Feminist Figure wants to acknowledge this date, so I enclose a piece on her that appeared in Der Spiegel.

Beauvoir's work in "The Second Sex" is a cornerstone for Gender Studies. Her insights on the social construction of gender, "one is not born a woman, one becomes one" opened the door to future groundbreaking theory on gender, social construction, compulsory heterosexuality, queer theory, the sex/gender distinction and more (see G. Rubin, J. Butler, D. Haraway, et.al.)

Although de Beauvoir did not go as far in arguing that being a woman is a choice, for her work suggests that one inevitably becomes a woman, fully identified through the male gaze, her work allowed for "femininity" to be considered as not pre-given, but a social construction, which constantly fluctuates, which allows for historical change. Later on Judith Butler would argue that the category ‘Woman’ is a process, a discursive practice open to intervention and resignification, which must be constantly reviewed and challenged (See "Contingent Foundations"). Beauvoir's work allowed for these reflections, and in many ways, it is the work of these women which inspired us and allow us to have spaces such as Feminist Figure, so thank you and happy birthday.

The Surrogacy Debate

2008-01-04T11:42:00.001-05:00

I know the topics of pregnancy and motherhood are more up C-A's alley these days, but my husband pointed out this piece on the NY Times website on Outsourced Wombs, and I had to post it.

Judith Warner blogs about the increasing surrogacy industry in India, where Western families are literally outsourcing pregnancy to poor Indian women. The issue of commercial surrogacy (where a woman is inseminated and paid to carry the fetus to term) brings up some complex questions about the way societies view the pregnant body and its role. There's clearly a class issue added to this as well - surrogacy can pay very well - and an added layer of imperialism when this transaction takes place between women in, for example, the US and India. But does it make it any better (or worse) when the relationship is between a wealthy and a poor woman from the same country?

Very well thought out piece. Enjoy.

Fatemah Ali Explains Iran's Policy on Women's Rights

2007-12-09T02:59:00.000-05:00

Head of the Iranian Parliament's Committee for Women and Family Affairs, Fatemeh Alia gave an exclusive interview to Press TV in Tehran regarding women's rights in Iran. I don't think it's exactly coincidental that this interview comes just days after the arrest of Jelveh Javaheri, women's rights activist who set up We4Change.

Q. Can you please explain some of the shortcomings of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)?

A. Iran is concerned about various issues of the mentioned convention. CEDAW undermines the traditional family structure which is much respected in our society. The preamble states, "A change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and in the family is needed to achieve full equality between men and women." This requires states to "Modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices based on stereotyped roles for men and women."

This convention denies any distinctions between men and women. It defines discrimination in its own words as "any distinction on the basis of sex," in "any field". This is to say, it ignores differences between the roles, rights and obligations of men and women in the natural world.

The convention also states that governments should "ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning". This sort of rhetoric also includes open access to abortion services.

Abortion, of course, is only one of the contradictions between Islamic law and the Convention. Countries that have ratified CEDAW will also be obliged to welcome sexual relations out of wedlock, which Islam prohibits because of the harm it does to the society.

The Islamic tradition of hijab frees women from being perceived primarily as sexual instruments and helps cleanse the society of promiscuity. A healthy and vigorous society is considered essential in Islam for individuals to be able to nurture and develop their abilities.

Societies which promote women as sexual objects also have a horrendous rate of violence toward women. The wisdom behind this dress code is to minimize sexual enticement and degradation in society as much as possible for both men and women.

Regarding Islamic laws relating to inheritance, women have been granted the benefit of being completely entitled to their own property.

A woman receives a dowry at marriage and can choose to keep all of her inheritance for herself. She does receive less inheritance than her male sibling but this is due to the difference which derives from the obligation men have to support their wives financially, while the woman's share would be entirely at her own disposal.

Islam allows polygamy for men whereas there is no such law for women. Certain circumstances require such remedial laws to be introduced in the society. Due to conditions like war, the total number of women sometimes exceeds the number of men. At such times, the society must resolve the dilemma of caring for women who have the right of marriage, emotional support and welfare. In these circumstances polygamy is the only just solution.

The full interview is available here.

We4Change challenges Iranian laws that are unjust and detrimental towards women's equality. A full explanation can be found on their site. Nafiseh Azad, another campaigner with We4Change, has posted about the extreme hypocrisy and inanity of Javaheri's arrest.

UNIFEM Launches New VAW Campaign

2007-12-04T10:52:00.001-05:00

I only just had a chance to look at UNIFEM's new campaign to end violence against women, launched by Nicole Kidman and other partners on the 26th of November. I confess that I didn't think it was that fabulous having Nicole Kidman be 'the face' of the campaign. I know that she is bringing her name and fans etc to the project and probably helping get it alot more press coverage than it would, but frankly I would have rather seen the face of a woman who is actively fighting against VAW in her daily life, whether it be with personal struggles or as part of a group - one of the many women from UNIFEM's Stories From the Field section for example. But I digress.

The campaign has launched a new website and is looking for signatures and donations. They are really pushing the virtual signature book and it will be interesting to see how many names they get. Make sure to watch the film. I was torn about how I felt about it. it seemed a bit too 'Hollywood', with the dramatic music and quick cut shots. But I thought it was pretty effective in terms of getting the point across. Hopefully there will be some follow up films, focusing more on women and the varied forms of violence women experience.

Amnesty International Campaigns Against FGM

2007-12-01T13:34:00.001-05:00

In my second year at university I was campaigning about women's rights and trying to raise awareness on campus about violence against women. One week we had printed out leaflets to distribute, which listed a number of types of statistics about violence against women including info about FGM. We had already been told that the on-campus shop would not let us leave a pile of leaflets on the counter because customers (students) might find the information offensive - I tried to point out that it was offensive, it's wasn't supposed to make them feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, it was supposed to get them to do something and get involved. Apparently the other half dozen posters and flyers in the shop advertising other political groups on campus weren't offensive.

Later in the day, we stood outside during a lecture hall handing out the leaflets. A young man took a flyer without really looking at it. About 2 minutes later he walked back and asked if he could talk to me. There was something on the flier he had never heard of: female genital mutilation. I tried to explain to him what it involved, with students and staff rushing to and from class, he stood there looking more and more shocked. It finally clicked in his head and he immediately excused himself and rushed away. It couldn't have been more than a 5 minute conversation and I felt frustrated that we hadn't actually been able to talk about the complexity of the issue.

Amnesty International has just launched a new campaign against FGM. I came across it at Feministing where there is an interesting comment thread about the use of flowers to symbolize the vagina. But I find these images pretty effective. They made me look twice. And that's what most people have to do. FGM isn't a hot topic - many people have never heard of it or understand why it's practised. Amnesty has an lengthy section on what FGM is.

Of course like most awareness campaigns, the subject has to be boiled down to a simple quick concept that can be absorbed in a few seconds. There is no room for nuance, background, history, policy etc. And thus the subject is not fully understood. But of course, limited awareness is better than complete ignorance and we have to start somewhere.

Feminist Christmas Gifts for Children

2007-11-30T05:26:00.000-05:00

Every day closer we get to Christmas I am reminded of how unbelievably early gender-roles are established in us. If I see one more company Christmas Gift List with a Girl section, complete with pink rolling pins, little ovens and princess dolls, I will scream. So last night I was happy to receive the Feminist Majority's Staff Pick for Kids List. Some of my favourites:

Other feminist items I've found while searching for children's gift this seasons:

Cross posted at The Baby Gravy Train.

Girlistic Magazine Winter 2008

2007-11-30T04:52:00.000-05:00

The Winter 2008 edition of Girlistic Magazine is out today, with the theme Feminism & Fashion. You can download it online in PDF form.

16 Days: Saudi-Quatif Rape Trial

2007-11-29T17:34:00.000-05:00

Mona Eltahaway doesn't mince her words about Saudi Arabia judicial system's attempt to hide behind religion in the conviction of the young woman who was gang raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes. She also mentions an aspect of the case of which I was unaware: the fact that the rapists filmed the attack on a cell phone. This was not admitted in court as evidence though.

Abeer Mishkhas, in Arab News, wrote about the iron of Saudi Arabi partaking in November 25th, when the media is consumed with this rape case. The article questions what happened to make the public suddenly turn against the girl:

"Why suddenly is there talk of the victims being the guilty party? How did we lose direction so quickly? It is easy to explain since the official statements made it clear that the girl was breaking a rigid social law. What gave the girl the final blow were details about her appearance and the insinuation that she was breaking a moral law. That evidently was enough to cloud the eyes of the public with prejudice and it was but a single step from there to thinking that she violated a social taboo and so she deserved what she got."

The notion that women often deserve what they get is a common discourse in violence against women. The Saudi Qautif case may seem extreme but there are elements of it that are universally comparable.

Women are still often asked about their sexual history in rape trials despite rape shield laws, what they were wearing is a matter of great importance still, whether a victim was a virgin, had she been drinking, flirting etc. Her behaviour will be scrutinized in order to establish whether or not "she was asking for it".

International Violence Against Woment Act

2007-11-28T07:18:00.001-05:00

The bill (I-VAWA, S.2279) was originally introduced in October by Senators Joe Biden and Richard Lugar. Biden, who is also running for president, also introduced and authored the Violence Against Women Act in 1994.

The I-VAWA has not passed yet though. Contact your Congressperson and let them know you support this act

Sign at Womens Edge Coalition or Care.org.

Care.org is coinciding their campaign for the I-VAWA with an awareness campaign about the systematic and brutal rape epidemic in the Congo.

***

The ever compassionate Phylliss Schafly pointed out that the I-VAWA was really about this:

"Radical feminists have devised a scheme to cash in on the flow of taxpayer money in a big way."

Um, 'devised a scheme'? Are we in The Sting?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and UNHCR

2007-11-27T16:28:00.000-05:00

An interiew in The Indepenent with Ayaan Hirsi Ali - she recounts the violence she endured as a child and climate of violence she now lives with under a fatwa. Ali has caused controversy on a number of different issues and she tends to be associated with fighting against Islam. This fight often overshadows the her work on violence against women, which is primarily what got her elected in the Netherlands and what provoked the fatwa.

***

UNHCR has committed an additional $3.4 million to women and girls in high risk situations. Guterres, UN High Commission for Refugees, had this to say about it:

"We, especially men, are often reticent to speak out to condemn violence against women and girls. But this should not be viewed as a personal matter; it is an essential part of our work to promote international protection," added Guterres, who said he always made it a point to listen to women and children during field trips to understand their concerns and determine if "we are providing them with the protection they need."

***

Feminist Figure is taking part in ka-blogging with Take Back the Tech.

Sisters in Law - Watch Tonight

2007-11-27T15:31:00.000-05:00

November 27 at 10 pm on most PBS stations. Unfortunately I won't be able to watch it but Longinotto is an amazing director and hopefully will be able to catch a screening some time soon.

Women Make Movies Press Release:

"Winner of the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival and screened to acclaim at more than 120 festivals around the world, SISTERS IN LAW is the latest documentary from internationally renowned director Kim Longinotto, co-directed by Florence Ayisi.

In the little town of Kumba, Cameroon, there have been no convictions in spousal abuse cases for 17 years. But two women determined to change their community are making progress that could change their country. This fascinating, often hilarious doc follows the work of State Prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba as they help women fight often-difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from family and their community to remain silent. Six-year-old Manka is covered in scars and has run away from an abusive aunt, Amina is seeking a divorce to put an end to brutal beatings by her husband, the pre-teen Sonita has daringly accused her neighbor of rape.

With fierce compassion, the two feisty and progressive-minded women dispense wisdom, wisecracks and justice in fair measure, handing down stiff sentences to those convicted."

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

2007-11-26T05:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which marked the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. This year's campaign theme is:

Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women!

So what does that mean? The focus is on the limitations that are faced when trying to implement efforts to stop violence: lack of funding or restricted funding, empty promises, access to information, and lack of safety of campaigners and activists themselves.

An aspect that I have been thinking about lately is violence against women through lack of inadequate healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth. I see further recognition of this area as a challenge. For many lack of or inadequate healthcare should not be placed under the umbrella of 'violence against women' and rather it should be classed as a healthcare policy issue that is not gender based. One of the main arguments for this is because it is not seen as intentional or perpetrated by men -the lack of these two elements somehow gets confounded with the possibility that violence against women can only be perpetrated when it is accompanied with bad intentions and by a man, neither of which are necessary for gender based violence.

The above argument is severally flawed. It assumes that lack of healthcare to pregnant women is unintentional and that violence against women is not an insidious element of modern society in all parts of the world, that it is not an integral part to how women are seen and treated. Below are just a few of the many ways in which lack of adequate healthcare during pregnancy.

Death during pregnancy and childbirth: According to the World Health Organization 529,000 women die every year during pregnancy or childbirth. WHO lists five main complications that account for most of these deaths: haemorrhaging, infection, unsafe abortion, eclamspia, and obstructed labour. However, while these may be the direct causes of death, inadequate and poor healthcare are at the root of the problem as many of the above can be avoided.

Domestic Violence During Pregnancy: It is estimated that 1 in 5 women will experience domestic abuse during a pregnancy. Further more, for 1 in 6 abused women, their pregnancy marked the beginning of abuse. Studies have also shown that 1 in 5 perinatal and neonatal deaths can be avoided with the elimination of domestic violence. Domestic violence is intentional.

FGM & Childbirth: Female genital mutilation (also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision) often has disastrous consequences for pregnant women. Women who have experience FGM are more likely to experience severe haemorrhaging, c-sections, and prolonged hospitalization. The lack of consensus about FGM greatly hinders the implementation of healthcare policies that would greatly aid pregnant women who have undergone FGM - how can it be recognized as a major risk to women's health, specifically during pregnancy and childbirth, if health organizations cannot agree on its legality and severity?

Knowledge & Power: Many women aren't in the position to decide when they get pregnant and have no control over family planning. Women who are financially dependent and live in communities where women's health isn't valued often find themselves with restricted access to medical help.

The above list is just a drop in the ocean. Violence against women is still considerd to be about the rapist in the dark alley or the drunk, abusive partner. We need to challenge the obstacles that restrict certain issues in women's lives as being labelled as violent and it becomes that much easier to sweep it under the carpet.

Bitter Sweet

2007-11-24T18:55:00.000-05:00

Bitter: The fact that some one is looking for "ciudad juarez strip club pictures" (thank you site meter) on Google.

Sweet: The fact that our blog comes up as number one when you search for "ciudad juarez strip club pictures". I'm sure this isn't what they were looking for.

Brazil Jails and Women's Rights

2007-11-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

This is one of the most horrific stories I've heard in awhile:
Brazil shock at women's jail rape

Authorities in Brazil are investigating reports that a young woman was left in a police cell with some 20 men for a month and repeatedly sexually abused.
Governor Ana Julia Carepa said the age of the woman, put variously at 15 and 20, was irrelevant as she should not have been jailed with male prisoners.
Women's rights groups in Brazil say it is not an isolated case.
According to reports in the Brazilian media, the number of men in the cell with the young woman varied from between 20 to more than 30.

An aspect that keeps getting reported on is that police seemed unclear about her age:

The girl’s father has now alleged that he has been threatened by police who tried to force him to provide a birth certificate showing that the girl was 20 years of age - a document which he said did not exist.
The police are said to have believed at one stage that the girl was not under age.

But it's totally unclear why the police found her age important. They obviously knew she was in there and that she shouldn't be. Are they implying that had she been older or younger, they would have stopped what was happening?

The NGO group CEDECA has been in contact with the young woman and say that she is able to recognize members of the police responsible for putting her in the cell and inmates who attacked her.

Feminist Blog Finds

2007-11-23T04:47:00.001-05:00

For the past few months, I've been a bit slack of discovering new feminist blogs or uncovering ones that have been around for awhile. However, last night I finally spent some time catching up on my reading:

Feminist Fire: excellent new blog by a 36 year old radical woman. Her blog has a great list of links and is pretty UK-based.

Faux Real Tho: Lauren was one of the founders of Feministe but her personal blog is not meant to be a political feminist blog. It's more a personal blog with dabbles of feminism served up occasionally.

Feminist Philosophers: this is a UK-based group blog that is about - "Feminist philosophy, more than most areas of philosophy, needs to be informed by real-world information and examples. One of our goals is to help feminist philosophers keep up with philosophically relevant facts and examples."

jill/txt: A blog by Dr Jill Walker Rettberg, predominately about technology and communication, but she also writes extensively about the gendered nature of communication.

Katha Pollit's Blog: There's still alot of controvers about her book "Learning to Drive?" but after listening to her on NPR, I heard more interesting and compelling points than the ones being made by her critics.

Ornamenting Away: She recently hosted a Carnival of Feminists, which is how I found her - very personal and very strong.

Rape and Castration – a public policy with no balls

2007-11-21T18:43:00.000-05:00

One of the leading parties in Mexico, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI for its acronym in Spanish) has put forth a bill proposing the chemical castration of pederasts and rapists. The bill proposes that whoever commits a sexual felony in Mexico City will do time, and will be administered a pharmaceutical drug to diminish the intensity and frequency of sexual desire, which impedes an erection.

Once again, it seems that the authorities and decision-makers have completely ignored all the literature around rape and its myths, and continue to propose public policies which escape the massive legal and structural fallbacks regarding this issue.

According to statistics available through RAINN (Rape and Incest National Network), only 39% of rapes are actually reported. If the rape is reported, there is a 50% chance that an arrest will be made. If this is the case, the odds of prosecution are 80%, and 58% chance of a felony conviction. If there is a felony conviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will spend time in jail. So, even in the case of the 39% of attacks that are reported to police, there is approximately a 6.24% chance the rapist will end up in prison. In other words, out of 100 rapes, only 6 people will be convicted…only six men will be chemically castrated. Now, regardless of the discussion of whether castration actually addresses the problem, you would think that a much more reasonable approach would be to tackle the issues that lead to such low rates of reports, investigations and convictions, rather than focusing on the 6.24% that actually do.

Many factors work as a disincentive to report rape, the most common being shame, fear of reprisal or belief that the police is biased. Women are ashamed of admitting being a victim of rape. This is rooted in the fact that women feel responsible for being raped. Either the time they were out, or the outfit they were wearing, or the people they were hanging out with, or the fact that they consumed alcohol…you name it, there’s always a reason to blame rape on the women themselves. Information on rape and its myths is essential to dispelling this sense of guilt. It seems “No means no” still hasn’t settled in.

Obviously, this requires information for the other side as well, the authorities’ side. A sensitization campaign of the staff in charge of creating reports is key. Women do not only have to admit to being raped, and give a full description of the incident and the perpetrator (reliving the experience), but they actually have to undergo a physical examination through which the authorities can determine if indeed the woman was raped or not. Let me repeat that …women actually have to undergo a vaginal examination (after already being raped) to prove they were raped. And this is only the initial stage of an investigation.

The police and authorities should be aware of and sensitive to the realities of rape, the realities of women who are victims of rape, and should be trained to deal with these situations. The process of reporting should make it as easy as possible for the victim te report rape, not harder. If women are not reporting rapes, this is the problem that should be addressed. Many countries flaunt statistics that rape reports have diminished, but this by no means implies that rapes are less frequent; rather, women have less and less incentives to report this type of violence.

Statistics show that more than 70% of rapes are perpetrated by someone known to the victim, most likely a relative or friend. Approximately 40% of rapes occur at the victim’s home, and 20% at a friend’s home. So, here are two great myths that must be eliminated. The common rapist is not some sketchy guy, lurking in the bushes of a park at night. It’s the father, the boyfriend, the uncle, the friend. And women are not more likely to be raped if they leave the home. Only one in ten rapes occur outside. Are they going to castrate the father, uncle, brother of the victim and assume that this will take care of the problem? Is rape, in fact, not a crime driven by sexual desire but more driven by power? Chances are that violence will continue to occur, in other forms perhaps, regardless of the castration. Actually, it is very common for women to be raped with foreign objects different to a penis…how will the law deal with this issue?

Sunday is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and it enrages me to see that having the tools, the knowledge and even the budget to make substantial changes that could actually lead to an increase in reports of rape and eventually more convictions, and hopefully less rapes, decision-makers continue to make simplistic, erroneous and ridiculous proposals to deal with situations as alarming and deeply outrageous as violence against women. Lack of information amongst the public and deep flaws within the judicial system seem to be places where issues regarding rape could be addressed and those certainly seem like much better places to start spending resources and more advantageous to eradicating violence against women that proposing to chemically castrate rapists and pederasts.

Equality Now Campaigns for Saudi Rape Victim

2007-11-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

Equality Now is campaigning for action against the Saudi ruling that sentenced a rape victim to 200 lashes:

"Equality Now is calling on the Ministry of Justice of Saudi Arabia to immediately revoke this sentence of lashing and imprisonment of the rape victim, which is a travesty of justice. Equality Now is also calling on the Ministry to restore her legal representation by rescinding its decision to revoke the license of her lawyer. Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director stated, “This verdict by the Saudi Arabian court is blatantly discriminatory and violates several fundamental rights of the victim as well as her lawyer. We urge the Saudi Arabian authorities to undo this injustice immediately. They need to ensure that the victim is treated as a victim and not as a criminal. The international human rights community will continue to closely monitor the case and provide solidarity to advocates on the ground until the victim is safe from state sponsored violence and discrimination."

Check out Equality Now's website for more info.

The Internet: Feminist Friend or Foe?

2007-11-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

A Dialogue Among Dolls by Prof. Anita Allen at Penn, found via Feminist Law Professors, is a personal essay in the form of a one-person play looking at whether the internet is really a liberating force for women. This is such an important debate but I don't think it should really be put as a debate and rather an ongoing fight. There is no doubt that the internet contain caveats of dangerous sexist activity, a huge percentage of which is actively anti-woman! But the amount of women using the internet for education, self-expression, and multi-faceted development is growing. It's more a matter of how the internet can be a liberating force, not if.

Priorites...

2007-11-16T16:58:00.000-05:00

I’m glad to see that a story about low-guilt potato chips made the top ten most emailed stories from the New York Times, yet the fact that a rape victim in Saudi has been sentenced to 200 lashes seems to have gone unnoticed.

How about blaming rape on...rapists!?

2007-09-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

The Guardian's Comment is Free section has another gem for us: Feminism's rape fallacy
First read up on the proposals that have been abandoned by the government that would have meant jurors in rape trials would have been briefed on rape myths. Then come back and read David Cox's article.

Dear Mr Cox,

Where to start? Well, how about the beginning?:

Isn't it time to acknowledge that it's beyond the capacity of the judicial process to deal with date-rape?

First of all, I think it's pretty much acknowledged that the judicial process is flawed. Hence why all is ding-bat feminists (and other people who seem to think this is a problem) have been bitching and moaning for so many years. Second of all, don't call it date-rape. Call it rape. There is no legal distinction between date-rape and rape. Do you think in prison date-rapists and 'real' rapists are separated? It's when articles like this are printed with the term 'date-rape' being highlighted as the problem that people start believing there is a distinction between date-rape and 'real' rape. Mr Cox, are you implying by making that distinction that the judicial process knows how to deal with 'real' rape? Wow, all those 'real' rape victims and potential 'real' rape victims must be breathing a sigh of relief: "Well, as long as I'm REALLY raped, I'll be able to get my day in court. I must remember to scream and kick, be wearing granny pants, my tweed jacket and twin set and make sure to get raped by someone I've never met, in a dark alley, on the way home from choir practice. Because then it's REAL rape, not date-rape."

Pardon the sarcasm. But there is alot in this article to keep me going:

In date-rape cases, it's his word against hers.

As opposed to all the other rape cases?

But I've saved the best for last:

When our houses are burgled, we're hardly more likely than rape victims to see the intruder end up behind bars. So what do we do? We fit locks to our doors and windows. We keep our valuables out of sight....Feminists object that even to mention such things constitutes a shift of blame from perpetrator to victim. Yet, when we fit window locks, does this make burglary our fault?

I'm sorry, I wasn't listening to that last part, I was too busy buying my state-of-the-art chastity belt to ensure my 'valuables' are out of sight and not getting burgled.

Actually David, feminists don't object to women protecting themselves. Women should learn self-defence, especially since we know that defending yourself can actually help (and not just further arouse the attacker or endanger your life more). Feminists object to the proposition that somehow it is women's responsibility to stop rape, that somehow women have to learn to engage with men in such a way as to not get raped.

And no David, feminist don't "want a demonstration that the state backs women against men." We want a demonstration that the state backs women against rapists. Am I the only one that is screaming into a pillow over this? Is the distinction really that complicated?

Turning Body-Builder at 51

2007-09-21T03:21:00.000-04:00

Pictures courtesy of NYT

This story is great: At 51, Establishing a New Body of Work.

I'm not a fan of body-building and in many ways it has the same principles behind cosmetic surgery, but it is a more male industry. To push oneself to the extreme of what is expected of your sex is off-putting and often unhealthy, not matter which gender you are. But body-building also falls into that strange category of a sport that is pretty much considered off limits to women. Yes, there are thousands of female body builders but they are judged, not because they have entered a sport that is considered somewhat alternative to many, but because in competing and altering their bodies they are defying their gendered physical 'limitations'. Eva talks about how her societal interactions have changed drastically since she started body-building:

One of her former co-workers, upon seeing photographs of her, told Birath that two questions ran through his mind: “Is she on steroids?” and “Is she a lesbian?”
“The hardest part is people’s attitudes,” she says. “You know how you have those circle of people who are your friends? Suddenly, I wasn’t invited to those parties anymore. I think they thought I was strange, but I don’t care.”

Some Self-Promotion: Dollymix.tv

2007-09-11T14:02:00.000-04:00

I'm also now blogging about feminism at Dollymix.tv!

Girlistic accepting submission for Winter Issue

2007-09-11T13:58:00.000-04:00

The wonderful Girlistic has opened its doors for submission in the Winter issue:

The issue is themed around fashion. We're open to any and all pitches
Starter ideas:

* Women behind the seams - seamstresses & sweatshop workers: what are their stories?
* Fashionistas - how women determine fashion
* Women's roles as buyers of clothing
* Shopping with a feminist mindset
* How feminism fits into today's fashion trends

If you're interested in submitting work, please visit our Submission Guidelines for details. Submissions can be sent to editor AT Girlistic DOT com.

It's no secret that I'm a fan.

Gender Role: Breadwinner and Mother: Adjust to It

2007-09-08T16:11:00.000-04:00

This article brings up alot of difficult issues concerning how women break out of gender roles and establish equality in terms of how other people view their lives: Breadwinner and Mother: Adjust to It

The fact is work done in the home is not considered to be 'work' no matter whose doing it. The judgments that are made about either gender are different but still usually misplaced:

Housewives:

- What a waste of education! Why isn't she out working, using her brain?

- She's obviously not liberated. A real feminist doesn't clean and cook all day and rely on a man brings home the bacon.

- He probably doesn't let her work, otherwise she's be out there at a 9-5.

Househusbands:

- No job? She supports the family? He's obviously a bum.

- Sure, he's taking care of the kids, but children really benefit more from the mother being at home?

Prostitution Targeted on Craigslist

2007-09-05T04:19:00.000-04:00

The article in the NYT regarding prostitution on Craigslist is slightly annoying. The authorities quoted give the impression that they are cracking down on heavy-hitting sex crime: you imagine doors being broken down in brothels, evil pimps being thrown into the back of cop cars, embarrassed clients trying to hide their faces as the press cameras flash away. Yup, Craiglists is really aiding a huge network of outrageous sex criminals. Except that "most of the arrests are on misdemeanor charges, with convictions resulting in fines of a few hundred dollars;" and as Mr Buckmaster, founder and owner of Craiglists, pointed out it's "no different from old-media publications that have long carried sex-oriented ads".

Considering that the internet is used for a multitude of sex crimes such as rape and paedophilia, crimes that aren't just dealt with fines and misdemeanor charges, I think law enforcement officials are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Full article: Prostitution Targeted on Craigslist - New York Times

Girlistic Magazine: Feminism & Food

2007-09-02T10:24:00.000-04:00

The new issue of Girlistic is out with the focus on Feminism & Food. I'm on page 9.

Sex and Gender? The debate continues

2007-08-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to point you all to an article (and my subsequent comments) posted on FLiP (Future Leaders in Philanthropy). I'd love to hear your thoughts on the piece as well!

Naomi Wolf in a burka...

2007-08-18T08:32:00.000-04:00

Naomi Wolf in a burka? That's what she came back with?

Harrasment of Women & Children Gamers Now Common Place

2007-08-15T05:45:00.000-04:00

Following on with the whole "women shouldn't use technology because it takes time away from all the ironing and cooking" debate, I came across a great article on WomenGamers.com about one mother's experience of harassment on XBox Live. The GR8 clan is a group of children, between the ages of 8 and 16, and their mothers who are involved in a sort of 'after-school program'. Being a XBox geek myself, I thought this sounded like a good idea, especially if you have the sort of kid who isn't taken by more traditional after-school activities. If they refuse to leave their computers, join them! That's a great attitude.

The article explains the sort of harassment they (mothers & kids!) receive from other gamers, even when they are aware they are playing with children. The harassers argue that it's not for children and they should get out of the game. However, the M (mature) rating that allot of games are given is a recommendation and GR8 Jen explains why this shouldn't matter in a WomenGamers.com forum:

"...I just wanted to add that we do not encourage young kids to buy and play M rated games. Most of the kids in the GR8 Clan we met on games like GRAW, RB6 Vegas, and others. These kids would pop in and out of our rooms and the GR8 Clan just came to be what it is today and that is a clan that consists of some adults that watch out for these kids online. It is like a big brother big sister relationship. We have never gone out and looked for kids to join this clan, somehow they just find us.

Whether a game is rated E, T, or M no one should have to put up with some of the abuse that goes on online. I am not talking about the occasional competitive smack talk. I am talking about statements that are so disgusting and horrible I will not and cannot repeat them.

We always make are own rooms when online and when an individual comes into our room they are expected to be respectful of everyone. We do not tolerate discrimination or racism. If they can't deal with these rules then they get the boot.

The GR8 Clan has been around since 2003, and hope to be around for the kids for years to come."

Well said. It's now becoming so common place for harassment that involves sexual violence and derogatory female insults that we're just supposed to assume that this is how adults interact online. Just put up with it? I don't think so.

Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen

2007-08-12T04:29:00.000-04:00

Why do men insult their intimate partners? This is the title of a recent paper published in the Journal of Personal Differences. I love that there is work being done like this and that there are blogs like Freakonomics (yes, after the book) , which tell me about it.

The research found that some men who insulted their partners did so as a part of larger strategy in mate retention. I.e. as way to keep them, they insulted them. Hmm, yes, well that seems fairly strange....or does it?

It would be interesting to further look at the research and see how and when such behaviour crosses the line into abuse. Degradation and attacking self-confidence is classic abusive behaviour. But they are tactics that we all pick up casually throughout our lives, some of us just take it too far.

Also I would love to see how men learn that insulting behaviour works for mate-retention. For instance, the boy who pulls your pigtails at school because he really likes you...Does it start that young? And how do women learn to respond to it? You go home and tell your mom that so and so is teasing us and she tells you that it's really because he has a crush on you. Don't you remember feeling like your mom was full of it because it didn't make any sense that someone would be mean to you if they liked you?

More stalking of women bloggers

2007-08-11T15:57:00.000-04:00

So apparently all us women bloggers didn't get the point with Kathy Sierra, we obviously missed the message.

A whole other round of site crashing, stalking and sexual violent threats has occurred over at Women's Space. The site's down at the moment. Heart's blog is still up though so go and take a look.

Meat? Is this supposed to be ironic?

2007-08-09T04:26:00.000-04:00

I've recently increased my linking towards the New York Times because I only just got around to putting some key words into my Google Reader. However, this morning I was tempted to delete the feed because of this article: Be Yourselves, Girls, Order the Rib-Eye.

Now, I am aware that I'm no longer having to deal with the dangerous world of dating, so I might be slightly unsympathetic to how extreme it has become in terms of which signals you are giving out, and actually a gendered analysis of modern eating habits would have been interesting, to certain extent, but the most in depth sociological commentary we get is this:

In an earlier era, conventional dating wisdom for women was to eat something at home alone before a date, and then in company order a light dinner to portray oneself as dainty and ladylike. For some women, that is still the practice. “It’s better not to have a jalapeño fajita plate, especially on the first date,” said Andrea Bey, 28, who sells video surveillance equipment in Irving, Tex., and describes herself as “curvy.” “You don’t want to be labeled as ‘princess gassy’ on the first date.”

Is 'princess gassy' a term I should be familiar with? Are these the new insults that I don't know about because I am now the epitome of uncool? Is the New York Times in dire need of some interesting articles about the ins and outs between the two sexes? Yes.

How Feminist Are You?

2007-08-08T20:04:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the exceedingly long hiatus. These days I feel like more of a materialist than a feminist - wedding planning, as fun as it can be, can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth (once you've spent LITERALLY hours pondering the implications of taffeta v. chiffon).

However, as the wedding planning winds down and the ACTUAL wedding approaches, I'm excited to get back to blogging - and feministing.

My new favorite blog, Jezebel (v. post-feminist and tongue in cheek humor) just posted a link to a feminist quiz. While this quiz is, as Jezebel says, "stupid" it's nice to be reminded that feminists are people who believe in equality - EVERYONE should be a feminist (see my very first blog post).

My result is below. It's nice to be back.

You Are 98% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man).

You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

Cultural Barriers for Women in Japan

2007-08-06T10:25:00.000-04:00

I found this article, Career Women in Japan Find a Blocked Path, interesting in terms of how culture was referenced so many times as a reason women are finding it hard to make it up the career ladder or through the glass ceiling, pick your metaphor. Culture isn't a reason/excuse that it used very much anymore when we are discussing Western capitalist systems and how they don't fit women in.

“Japanese work customs make it almost impossible for women to have both a family and a career,” said Ms. Kurose, 45, who now works for a polyester company.

***

Experts on women’s issues say outright prejudice is only part of Japan’s problem. An even bigger barrier to the advancement of women is the nation’s notoriously demanding corporate culture, particularly its expectation of morning-to-midnight work hours.

***

Even with cases of blatant discrimination, lawsuits remain rare because of a cultural aversion to litigation.

When is the last time you heard someone talk about how American culture is what's keeping women out of management? It's the cultural aspect of women in high positions that make Wal-Mart not promote them?

It's just not a notion that is associated anymore with certain issues that are predominantly approached either from an intensely personal point of view or a legal perspective. I think it's a matter of semantics though. We might replace 'culture' with 'ethics' or 'beliefs' but the notion of culture doesn't hold strong. Perhaps 'tradition' is a more comparable word. In a sense, the notion of culture has now become alien to us. Thus how much 'culturalism' is bantered around when discussing things like international women's rights.

Autism in Girls

2007-08-04T07:02:00.000-04:00

Very interesting article about autism and girls in the New York Time magazine

Because there are so many fewer females with autism, they are “research orphans,” as Ami Klin, a psychology and psychiatry professor who directs Yale’s autism program, puts it. Scientists have tended to cull girls from studies because it is difficult to find sufficiently large numbers of them. Some of the drugs, for example, commonly used to treat symptoms of autism like anxiety and hyperactivity have rarely been tested on autistic girls.

Read the full article here.

Thinking Blogger Award

2007-08-02T10:57:00.000-04:00

The lovely Valiens over at A Brain Like Mine (and Big (healthy) Lunch) has bestowed on me the Thinking Blogger Award!

This has done two things: made me realize that I have to get blogging more on Figure as it has become slightly neglected in the past months AND made me realize that I need to catch up on some of my favorite blogs. It's taken me a couple days to figure out which ones really make me think and hence I haven't been reading lately because I've been too busy doing other things.

Needless to say here are my five:
Adonis Mirror - came across him while looking for posts about feminism and language.
Feminist Law Professors - I challenge anyone who isn't provoked in some way by them.
A Blog Without A Bicycle - she finally finished her thesis!

Can't think of two others at the moment, so will have to add to the list later.

Where's My Harley?

2007-07-28T03:04:00.000-04:00

Interesting article in the NYT about how Harley is trying to make the motorcycle industry more woman-friendly.

Until my mom started riding a Harley a few years ago, I was sort of oblivious to the motorcycle world and assumed it was fairly sexist. For my motorcycles=Hell's Angels=sexist, macho behaviour. I tended to class it with the "I bought a new sports car to compensate" attitude.

However, I've now been given a whole new perspective on it. The fact that my mom, at 60, learnt from scratch and now goes on perilous road trips for weeks, made me think that there must be something to it.

I plan on getting my motorcycle license at some point. I've already got the jacket and my mom supplies me (and my baby girl) with regular Harley gear.

Justified Paedophilia?

2007-07-28T01:49:00.000-04:00

Two stories in the last two days that make you say "Semantics anyone?".

First British actor Chris Langham who says he pleaded no guilty to 15 counts of making an indecent image of a child, six indecent assault charges and two sexual assault charges because he did not want to be labelled as a paedophile. Langham claims he was looking at the images in order to battle his own trauma of having been abused as a young boy. When asked why 99.9% of the images he looked at were of little girls, he responded:

"Little girls are not my prominent interest sexually. Little girls are not my interest at all."So why were you looking at them?

Also, he admitted subscribing to a website that featured women being raped but claimed that he looked at it more out of interest. It fascinates him.

Even if Langham is trying to deal with abuse trauma, he shouldn't be treated any differently. Passive interaction with child pornography is still interaction with. Research has shown that this sort of passive interaction (i.e. "oh, I was just looking, I didn't solicit any one to make anything or act on what I saw") is big fuel for child pornographers and can no longer claim it's not their fault child pornography exists, that they do not support the market. What I find especially repelling about this case is that Langham claims that he is trying to deal with his abuse but also states that he has never sought therapy besides talking to his friends 20 years ago. It's also pretty low to claim that the children in these images are his "brothers and sisters" and that be belongs to a community of people who have suffered abuse and have no way to speak about it.

The second story is that of Jack McClellan who is fully embracing the label paedophile. He has no record but he does have a website (currently shut down at the moment) where he describes how he trolls for children and sexually describes them. He claims he has never sexually touched a child but:

"I really think a lot of this pedophilia hysteria is overblown. I think there are a lot of people like me. They have the attraction but they're not going to do anything physical because of the laws. It just makes me happy to attend these events."

"I know it sounds kind of crazy, but there's kind of a code of ethics that these pedophiles have developed and what it is ... the contact has to be completely consensual, no coercion, if you're going to do it"

He seems to be attempting to argue some very bad ethics, with a wiggly line between what is acceptable in terms of paedophilia. Basically, he thinks sexualization of children and fantasies are fine but forcing a child to do anything is not....but only because it's illegal. What?

Parents are grouping together to push legislators to make such sites illegal to post any photos of children that have sexual content or theme. Many parents that are part the movement have found photos of their children on his site. I can only imagine their outrage.

Registering births to try and stop gender-selective abortions....

2007-07-15T06:38:00.000-04:00

I'm not too sure about this proposal. Yes, gender selective abortions is a major problem and needs to continue to be addressed but this seems to be more about restricting abortions rather than improving the value of female fetuses. How would this proposal actually change to the societal attitudes towards female children?

This proposal also seems to suggest that all repsonsibilty lies with the mother, that none of the women who get abortions because they find out it's a girl are influenced by the fathers or by their families?

Egypt Bans Female Circumcision

2007-06-30T06:11:00.000-04:00

That's right! After the death of a 12 year old during a circumcision, Egypt is now banning the ritual.

Father's name on birth certificates compulsary?

2007-06-20T03:41:00.000-04:00

Are you kidding me? This is another attempt at goverment to regulate morality and ethical behaviour. Do they really think that by forcing fathers to put their name on a piece of paper they will a)be good fathers b) pay child support c) be supportive partners to new mothers and d) all of the above? The Child Support Agency is one of the most unsuccesful goverment derpartments ever to have existed. How about passing some new laws that force them to get their ass in gear!?

What about victims of rape, what about women who don't know who the father is? This is obviously another wonderfully thought out Labour plan.

Girlistic Summer 2007 Issue

2007-06-08T05:20:00.000-04:00

Girlistic's new mag issue is out. This issue is all about Feminism and Marriage. My favorite so far is Theory versus Practice: Bringing Feminist Ideas Into a Marriage.

2007-06-01T11:49:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Alfonsina again, who forwarded me this article in The Independent. By the end of it I was ready to pop.

Counselling BEFORE abortions is a completely ridiculous idea. Of course they aren't suggesting counselling AFTER abortions. Those women are already judged by God, are going to hell and their children will suffer in purgatory for all eternity. Isn't that right, Mrs Winterton:

"There is very positive evidence that some women develop depressive illnesses later in life because of having abortions.We have abortion on demand, and the other side of the argument, or even a balanced case, is not given to these women."

You know what research also shows? THAT IF THE NHS IMPLEMENTS ANY MORE GODDAMN WAITING LIST INTO THE ABORTION PROCESS, THERE WILL BE MORE LATE TERM ABORTIONS AND MORE FORCED PREGNANCIES!

How about what happens to women who are forced to have children? What sort of depressive illnesses do they develop?

Women have to go through tons of hoops already. They have to get two doctors signatures for an abortion. They have to get counselling if they want to get their tubes tied. But ironically, when I went to see my NHS GP for post partum depression, she didn't offer counselling. I put a 'depressive illness' on her desk and she didn't even give me a peep about talking to someone. You know why? Because she knew that by the time I got to the top of the waiting list, my depression would have already spiralled out of control.

Counselling should be offered. OFFERED. Why the hell should it be mandatory?

How Justin Timberlake deals with infidelity....

2007-05-16T10:32:00.000-04:00

I know I'm super unhip in terms of pop music, mainly because I think most of it is bad. Today while watching music videos while waiting for Colombo to start (that should be an indication of how trendy I am), I came across the video for Justin Timberlake's What Goes Around Comes Around, which features the acting talents of Scarlett Johanssen. I didn't really listen to the song, mainly because I couldn't decipher the words, I was more intrigued by the plot of the video: boy meets girl, girl is really hot and all the guy's friends drool over her, girl ends up getting off with another guy behind first guys back, he finds out and car chase ensues, girl ends up crashing car and dying. Guy feels kind of bad....

Seriously?

I don't have the effort at the moment to deconstruct this video but suffice to say Justin Timberlake isn't doing much to combat the stereotypical perspective that some people have about violence against women, which is basically that sometimes women deserve it. Maybe living without a television for the past two months has made me forget that sexism and violence against women is cool.

Sexual Threats in the Blogosphere

2007-05-02T10:08:00.000-04:00

There was a sad article in the Washington Post on Monday about sexual threats towards women bloggers. Some of you probably have heard by now about the Kathy Sierra threats, among other things. I think this is one of those issues where if you're not a blogger or an avid blog reader, it doesn't really mean anything to you. Oh no, a bunch of women who are dumb enough to put themselves out there on the internet are now complaining because some weirdos are making lame comments, with sexually threatening undertones. Well, actually it's much more than that and it should matter to people who aren't involved in the blogosphere. It's huge and it shouldn't be ignored.

Read the article to find out the stats.

This issue is important on two levels:

1) It's an shining example of how women are never free from sexual violence or the threat of sexual violence. No matter what. Whether you are outside, walking around, or sitting in your apartment, with the door locked, wearing your bathrobe and drinking coffee. The threat of sexual violence will creep in to your computer and smack you in the face, just to remind you that as a woman you are a breathing target for sexual abuse. JUST in case you forgot.

2) The use of language in sexual violence is incredibly important and it's not recognized enough as a key element to how we learn and understand sexual violence and women's bodies. Being able to verbalize a sexual threat is not so easy unless you are used to and comfortable with talking about women's bodies in a derogatory nature. The use of sexual threats on women's blogs also demonstrates clearly how verbal aggression of women tends to focus on their sexuality, rather than any other aspect of their identities.

Interview with Susie Orbach

2007-04-28T03:10:00.000-04:00

There are few women out there who can honestly say that they have never, at some point in their lives, had a problem with their bodies. It might have been as little as having a slight annoyance with the curve of your thighs or as extreme as an eating disorder. Negative body image is something that women live with throughout their lives - and the cycle never ceases. We overhear our mothers talking about it and then move on to discussing our own bodies with our friends.

While we may all be familiar with the notion of body image, in 1978 when psychotherapist and writer Dr.Susie Orbach wrote ‘Fat Is A Feminist Issue’ the relationship between self worth and body image, especially in women, was new and controversial. Today she is one of the founders of AnyBody. She co-founded The Women's Therapy Centre in London in The Women's Therapy Centre Institute in New York. She has also been a consultant to The World Bank and at the moment is a consultant to the NHS and Dove, taking part in the Real Beauty Campaign.

More and more we hear discussion about government being responsible for the obesity problems facing the Western World, but what about the other side of the spectrum? Is someone responsible for the high rate of eating disorders causing young women to starve themselves? The fashion industry? The media?

Figure: Why did you start AnyBody?

Susie Orbach: Why did we start it! Because the assault on women’s bodies is so unrelenting and yet is experienced by girls and women as ‘normal’ as just part of femininity. We wanted to make an intervention that highlighted and addressed the way in which the female body (and increasingly the male body) is a site for extraordinary difficulty. We want to transform those conditions and make it possible for girls and women to live from their bodies with a certain ease rather than the fear that can engulf them.

F: AnyBody engages with government to change cultural perception of beauty and women’s bodies. Why the focus on government engagement as opposed to other forms of activism?

SO: There isn’t a focus on government. That is just one of the pressure points. We engage with government to make a contribution where it can to changing the situation. So far we haven’t been that successful!

F: Most recently AnyBody protested at London Fashion Week about the organizer's decision not to ban size 0 models from the catwalk. What was the public response? How did the organizers react to the demonstration?

SO: We were delighted that we could raise issues that went beyond Size O, that our ideas were broadcast widely and that we could engage with the British Fashion Council to urge them to bring the creativity of the fashion industry to transforming the mono imagery and body fascism that now surrounds the presentation of fashion. Have we got far yet? No. But an AnyBody member is putting together a show displaying diversity at Toronto Fashion Week (see www.any-body.org)

F: The media industry's standard comeback for criticisms like your own about body image is that they publish what people want to see, and if people wanted to see more realistic figures, then they would, in turn, shift their focus. Others say that the media manufactures our perception of body image. Where do you weigh in on this "chicken or the egg" argument?

SO: Once you have a dominant and dominating image, then people will look out for it and even take a kind of comfort in it. Fashion is associated with the modern and being at the leading edge of design and once a style or a size has been identified people recognise it and want to embody it themselves. So it is that our eyes become accustomed to seeing images in particular ways and as an expression of our own enthusiasms and energies we want to see them and reproduce them.

F: AnyBody is aiming to bring a case against Weight Watchers as an example of exploitation of ‘the aesthetic ideal of slenderness’. Can you tell me more about what you hope to accomplish with this case?

SO: The diet industry needs to be put on notice. Its methods don’t work for most people. 97% of them. That’s the recidivism rate. That’s what they rely on for their profit. They need repeat customers.

Secondly, for many people, dieting and particularly repetitive dieting, mucks up your metabolism by reducing your set point. This means that your metabolism can slow down when you eat less. No help if you are dieting.

So the diet industry needs to be scrutinized against the Trade Descriptions Act and other consumer legislation.

F: You are a contributing expert and board member of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. The campaign has been quite controversial: some hailing it as a revolutionary step for more ethical advertising and others seeing it as just another clever marketing gimmick. Critiques have noted that while Dove may be using more realistically shaped women in their ads, they are still selling products (such as thigh firming cream) that target women’s self-esteem. How do you respond to such concerns?

SO: That criticism is valid. They should be promoting the diversity of beauty not firming creams.

F: As part of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, they have helped engage consumers for donations to the Self-Esteem Fund, which in turn makes grants to organizations like the Girl Scouts (in the US) to provide their members with curriculum and activities that promote a healthy body image. How important was this piece of the campaign for you? Were you involved in this philanthropic effort at all? Do you feel like having a piece that reaches out to young girls is critical to the mission of the campaign, or perhaps unnecessary?

SO: There is the behind the scenes global studies I have done with Nancy Etcoff: one on Beauty in general, one on mothers and daughters and one on women over 50. Then there is the consciousness raising inside the company to get them to take up the ideas which then lead to different advertising. That is one set of activities I have been involved in. The other is working with other groups such as Girl Guides or the BEAT to produce material for use in schools – it is not a question of just giving them money - which focuses on body self esteem and media literacy, and preparing materials for Mums to help them with their daughter’s concerns.

F: Finally, what do we need to break the cycle of young girls falling into the same beauty myths that they always have?

SO: We need to help new Mums not pass on their difficult body image issues along with their milk. We don’t want them mimicking their mother’s upset about size, weight and shape and thinking that that is essential to being female.

We need to broaden the images girls see so that they can identify themselves in the world of images that they live in. We need to stop the crazy anguish around food so that it becomes something not dangerous and naughty but related to appetite and satisfaction. We can help young girls by eating like that in front of them instead of avoiding different foods and obsessing about our own size.

HOLLABACK!!!

2007-04-25T12:20:00.000-04:00

I've posted before about Hollaback, the phenomenal nonprofit started by my good friend Emily to help women deal with street harassment. She started in New York and it's blowing up worldwide. Check out this short and awesome video about the organization, and learn more about them at Hollaback NYC.

French Presidential Elections

2007-04-22T04:16:00.000-04:00

Today is voting day for the first round of elections in France. I should be voting but I'm registered at the French Embassy in London, so I'll have to miss out. There are four leading candidates, but really three. Le Pen is counted in the top four but he is always counted in the top four because there will always be enough racists in the world to keep men like Le Pen up there, pretending to be a real candidate.

But for me the most interesting candidate is the socialist Segolene Royal. She runs the region Poitou-Charente where I am living at the moment. I didn't actually realize this until this morning, I have been too consumed with house renovation to look up and find out about local politics. But today I can't ignore it. She has been testing out her policies in this area, namely focusing on employment but so far has not been doing so well, according to her critics. Royal is a strong socialist and socialism is not what France needs at the moment.

It's unfortunate that the first real potential runner up for a female French president may not be that good after all. She does not offer the potential to drag France into the 21st century, but offers 'a fairer France'. I think France is fair enough as it is. You may here a tinge of capitalism creeping in here and that's because it's there. Poitou-Charente at times feels like a communist country. I drive through the country side and I don't recognize the France that I knew as a child. I don't want the rest of France to look like Poitou-Charente but I also don't want the rest of France to stay in it's current state.

Royal has attempted to seperate herself in some ways from the old boys of politics. When reading her campaign material you don't feel that she is simply a good spokeswoman, picked by the leader of the socialist party for pretty, PC window dressing. And the way that she sued her father for divorce after he wouldn't grant it to her mother shows that she has a spark to fight that is necessary for surviving in politics.

Royal has called out the women of France to vote for her, to help make history by putting a woman in office. But much like the problem with Hilary, being a woman isn't a good enough reason, even though most of us have been waiting years for this to happen.

New Evidence on use of Comfort Women

2007-04-18T03:41:00.000-04:00

Visit the Associated Press article about new evidence discovered by historians about the use of comfort women in Japan in the 30s and 40s. Apparenlty the Japanese goverment is trying to sneak out of their original apology in 1993...

Feminism causes cancer....

2007-03-29T11:56:00.000-04:00

I can't even talk about this. It's too annoying and stupid. Feminism is unhealthy, according to recent Swedish study. That's all. I'm not even going to discuss it. Read Zoe William's piece if you want to get even more annoyed.

Missing in Acion and Upcoming Entries

2007-03-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

First off I would like to apologize on behalf of Alisha and myself. Between wedding planning, busy job, house renovation and a new baby, both of us have been having trouble keeping up to date on our blog entries at Figure! However, this is soon to change.

In early April we will be featuring an interview with Susie Orbach about her work with AnyBody, Dove's beauty campaign and much more. This is our first interview on Figure but we plan to be having many more. Please stay tuned for more details, coming later this month.

Got Meme Part II?

2007-03-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been memed again, I can't seem to avoid this - but this one is way more interesting than boring facts about me. C-A asked for my top five favorite things about feminism, which I've been thinking about a lot in light of International Women's Day. So here I go:

5. Feminist theory - I really freakin love it.
4. The effect feminism has had in one way or another on my fiance throughout his life, who has the most wonderfully egalitarian view on equality and is, in fact, a feminist himself.
3. Even though I won't be president, the fact that I could. Legally at least.
2. Women-focused NGOs, especially the good one, who do so much for women's rights around the world.
1. People like Gloria Steinem, Judith Butler, even bell hooks. Love 'em or hate 'em, they really rock.

Ok well now I'm stuck again with no one to meme. Readers - comment your top five below!

International Women's Day 2007

2007-03-08T12:50:00.000-05:00

Happy International Women's Day! AND Happy Blog Against Sexism Day!

For weeks I've been gearing for today and then suddenly it was here and I haven't done anything. And I only found out today it was Blog Against Sexism Day....

My main thoughts these days are how feminism and sexism are going to effect my little girl:

What kind of feminist will she become?
Will she proud to call her self a feminist?
What type of sexism will she be confronted with as she grows up?
Will any major changes have occurred by the time she grows up?
What will be the status of abortion rights?
Will women have REAL maternity pay and adequate childcare?
Will sex trafficking have been eradicated?
Will violence against women finally be recognised as a serious issue?
Will sexual harassment still be a constant problem in most workplaces?
The list is endless. Which is unfortunately sad.

Coincidentally and on a lighter note, today's episode of The Simpson's features Lisa rallying against the inherent sexism that Malibu Stacy represents.

Personal hypocrisy

2007-03-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

I went out to by a fitness dvd today. My pre/post natal yoga dvd that I bought when I was four months pregnant is pathetic. It looks like it was filmed on a hand-held camera and the yoga is not that great.

In the past I've veered away from buying fitness dvds but decided that maybe getting one to help me get back in shape (slowly) after having my baby wasn't the worst idea. So I went to HMV and stood in front of the Fitness section, with my baby strapped to by chest, and felt like crying. My first thought was "I'm such a hypocrite". All I could see was row after row of dvds telling me how to a better woman by having a better body.
What was especially poignant was the 'makeover' dvds by B and C list celebrities, many of whom have now admitted to eating disorders. Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's claim that yoga kept her super skinny sort of fell apart when she later admitted to actually having an eating disorder, however I doubt it made a dent in her yoga dvd sales. Celebrities such as Jade Goody and Kim Ryder, whose weight has been a source of entertainment in the media, have fitness makeover dvds that are quite obvious results of public beatings over their weight gain. You don't see Kate Moss coming out with a fitness dvd.

But I have to confess to my own hypocrisy. I bought one. I bought the New York City Ballet Workout, even though I know I will never look like a ballerina.

Feminist meme

2007-03-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

Valiens had the great idea of starting a "favorite things about feminism" meme. Main reason I think it's great idea is because I tend to drone on about how much feminism still has alot to do, so this forces me to look at some of the great achievements feminist has contributed to.

I'm proposing that it be five point list and you have to meme five people. So here I go:

1. Better sexual harassment laws.
2. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
3. No more corsets.
4. Pants/trousers - whatever you want to call them, we can now wear them.
5. Maternity pay.

I'm tagging Alisha (obviously), Valiens (since it's her idea!), Kimberly Palmer, A Blog Without A Bicycle, and A Somewhat Old, But Capacious Handbag.

The Voice of the Pro-Choice Majority

2007-03-06T15:45:00.000-05:00

Friend of mine is working on this project at Abortion Rights. Looks pretty interesting and reminds me that the campaign in the UK is still needing alot of support.

Got Meme?

2007-03-05T11:07:00.000-05:00

Ok so C-A memed me, which I think must be cheating since we both write this blog, but since I really, really like her, I'll give it a go. Here are the rules:

Rules: **This game starts off with ten weird little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. **

10: My fiance and I were introduced by our grandmothers, who were best friends and neighbors in Cuba in the 50s.
9: I wasn't always such a hard core feminist - once upon a time, before the glorious enlightenment that comes with college - I actually considered myself a pro-lifer.
8: I am terribly afraid to fly, which sucks since I do it at least once a month.
7: I was named after a shoe store - Alisha's Buster Brown Shoes - or so my parents tell me.
6: I'm terrible at painting, coloring, or doing anything within the lines.
5: London is still my favorite city in the world and I fully intend to move back in the near future.
4: When I was young, my professional goals were to be president of the US and/or a marine biologist.
3: I adored watching the VH1 show Flavor of Love until my dad called me out on being a hypocrite for being such a staunch feminist and watching a show that reinforces stereotypes of gender, race, and class.
2: I secretly really like Battlestar Galactica.
1: Some people say it seems like C-A and I were separated at birth, which is why she is going to be a bridesmaid in my wedding.

Ok now I have to tag six people to do this, except I only know three other person besides CA who has a blog! So Nathalie, Emily, and Brian - there you go! If I think of three more I'll add, but I'm not terribly plugged into the blogosphere.

Lynne Segal's Making Trouble

2007-03-02T11:49:00.000-05:00

Interview with Lynne Segal by Julia Bindel in the Guardian (thank you to Alfonsina for passing it on to us). Not hugely familiar with Lynne Segal's work but her memoirs, Making Trouble: Life and Politics, sounds interesting.

Spring 2007 Girlistic Out Now!

2007-03-01T05:43:00.000-05:00

It's here, it's here!!
Latest issue of Girlistic is ready for reading: Feminism and Technology! My article is on page 10. Please pass to all interested parties.

The Care Crisis

2007-02-24T14:05:00.000-05:00

Excellent article about The Care Crisis by the lovely Ruth Rosen over at The Nation.

Carnival of Feminists

2007-02-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

The latest Carnival of Feminists is up at Bumblebee Sweet Potato! Some interesting posts...including my own about midwifery. So far my favorites have been:
Raising Feminist Daughters (reminds me that I have been wanting to blog on this for the past three months)
Tennessee Representative Proposes Death Certificates for Abortion

Wimbledon gives equal prizes to women and men

2007-02-22T12:32:00.000-05:00

For the first time women tennis players will receive prize amounts equal to their male colleagues. That's right, baby!! Read more.

Judaism and Feminism: A guest post

2007-02-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Readers,

One of my dearest friends has written this beautiful piece for Lilith, an Orthodox Jewish Feminist publication here in the US on the complexities and contradictions of feminism and her religious practice. Please enjoy!

Congratulations Dr. Faust! Now the real work begins...

2007-02-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, Harvard made history (well, it's own history anyway) by electing Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust as the first female president the institution has had. Having passed my undergraduate career there, I couldn't be happier for Dr. Faust, and for Harvard for finally, it seems, catching up at least a bit with the rest of the world/ivy league at least.

With all this exciting news though, the real challenge for Dr. Faust will come now. Harvard, despite all of the myriad of opportunities it gave me, and the overall happiness of my experience there, is not a woman friendly institution. The Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS) Studies program (known simply as Women's Studies while I attended), for example, is not a full department - thus, WGS instructors cannot receive tenure in Women's Studies, they have to do so through their secondary focus (economics, literature, what have you). In my time there we lost several phenomenal professors who were offered fantastic tenure packages in Women's Studies (their PRIMARY focus) at other universities. The department suffered for this, and continues to suffer. While I don't claim to know all the machinations behind these decisions, I do know that it shows a lack of symbolic institutional support for the program. How will Dr. Faust, who herself is on the degree granting committee, deal with this issue? How will she handle the extreme inequality between men and women in the social scene?

Dr. Faust has many, many challenges ahead - I wish her the best of luck and encourage her to be vocal about women's rights at an institution where women are desperately in need of a voice. And then who knows - I may send the college some alumni money this year after all!

Lay Midwives bad for women?

2007-02-12T06:21:00.000-05:00

Wasn't sure whether I should post this on my mommy blog or here. Ended up here. Pennsylvania is trying to outlaw lay-midwives (i.e. mid-wives who don't have nursing degrees and learn through apprenticeship instead). Now, on reading this my initial reaction was "here we go again..." but then when I read further down the article I was surprised by a quote by Sarah Kilpatrick, head of ob-gyn at the University of Illinois and vice chair of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist's obstetric practice committee, who said "Why don't we have direct-entry doctors who don't want to go to medical school? We wouldn't tolerate that for physician basic care. Our standards for care for women should be the same,". She preempted this statement by saying that she was a "big fan" of nurse-midwives, it's just the lay-midwives she was concerned about.

I thought her statement was interesting. The problem is two-fold though: a) she assumes in her statement that women (in particular pregnant women) receive the same care that men do. Well, as my law professor used to chant at us "reverse the sexes and compare!"- unfortunately there is no comparable situation here for male patients, so in the case of pregnant women v. men, we can't see a comparison. But it is clear that pregnant women often do not receive care that is of an acceptable standard. Furthermore there is no similar history either of how women's bodies have been medicalized, especially in terms of the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth. And b) she assumes that the medicalization of chidbirth (which is clear in her comparison of mid-wive care with physician care) is always the best option.

But nonetheless by stating that standards of care should be the same for women as they are for men she is highlighting that at the moment they are not!

AnyBody

2007-02-11T05:37:00.000-05:00

Susie Orbach has co-founded AnyBody, "a website giving women a voice to challenge the limited physical representation of females in contemporary society". They will be holding a flash protest in London today (corner of Cromwell Rd and Exhibition Rd, 2pm) against the London Fashion Week.

Susie Orbach's 'Fat is Feminist Issue' was one of the first books (published in 1978) to draw a relationship between self-worth, weight and power. Since them many other feminist have made this relationship and it may seem obvious now that women (and men) equate body size with self-worth, but in the late70s, this was a controversial idea. Fat is Feminist Issue is often described as the antithesis to diet books.

London Fashion Week has caused controversy by NOT following in the footsteps of Spain's and Italy's fashion bodies who have banned ultra-skinny models from their catwalks (i.e. models have to have a BMI of 18 or above - the World Health Organisation has deemed a BMI of 16 to mean starvation). Concern over the ultra-skinny/size zero phenomena escalated last year when two models, Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos, died as a result of their anorexia/bulimia.

USA and Britain's fashion councils have decided not to ban ultra-skinny models from their fashion weeks. Stuart Rose, chief executive of M&S and part time chairman of the British Fashion Council, was quoted as saying "Are we going to ask people to walk through detectors for body mass index and say 'I'm sorry you're rejected'. Outright bans and indeed legislation is definitely not a route we want to go down."- I'm sorry....doesn't that imply that models aren't being told they are too fat? As if models aren't weighed and measured and told they must loose weight? WHAT! Such hypocrisy.

Do you want to hear what your doctor has to say?

2007-02-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Rachel over at Women's Health News posted this yesterday about physician's opinions on disclosure about "legal by morally controversial medical procedures" to patients. Really interesting read. Here are just a few of the stats that came out of the research (please read her post of the actual report for more details):

- 52% of the physicians had objections to abortions that were a result of failed contraception and 42% objected to contraception for adolescents without parental consent.

- "Physicians who were more religious...were more likely to report that doctors may describe their objections to patients, and they were less likely to report that physicians must present all options and refer patients to someone who does not object to the requested procedure"

Besides the procedures that are brought up in this report, it bears significance in terms of the medicalization of women's bodies. Catherine Kohler Riessman argues medicalization theory is in fact quite gendered and influenced by class. While men's bodies have also experienced medicalization, women are more likely undergo medical scrutiny, especially in terms of their reproductive system. Furthermore, women make more visits to doctors than men do. So what does this mean in terms of the above study? Are women more influenced by the personal opinions of their physicians? What is the repercussion of physicians giving their personal opinion?

Republican poster

2007-02-09T08:18:00.000-05:00

Oh Gee, of course! Now it all makes sense....
Found at Reclusive Leftist.

Ultrasounds before abortions

2007-02-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

Rep. James Mill has put forward a bill requiring doctors to offer ultrasounds to women before they have abortions. Apparently it is to help them "make a critical decision" and provide them with all the information. Rep. Nikki Randall eloquently pointed out that "it's insulting to think that they [women] don't have all of the right information. Believe it or not, we know what's going on with us. We live with it." - Well said.

Provide them with all the information? Really I had three ultrasounds throughout my pregnancy - and they were purely for the doctor's benefit. I didn't 'learn' anything. It was amazing and beautiful and all the appropriate reactions when seeing your unborn child (that you are want to keep). But I didn't learn anything that the doctors couldn't have just told me without me seeing the scan.

New York Times picks up Edwards blog story

2007-02-09T07:11:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that the Edward's feminist blog story has been covered by the New York Times. I'm also glad that the Edward's campaign is sticking by their guns and didn't co-op. They said that it was impossible to read every word written by two very prolific bloggers. The point being that they weren't hired for their journalistic method. Blogging is supposed to be personal and one of the reasons that Amanada and Melissa are popular bloggers is because they can be so scathing and opinionated - which is exactly what you want to read! Not marshmallow, fluffy, sitting on the fence behaviour or obvious towing the party line rhetoric that we are used to in mainstream political commentary.

Walmart - sexist!? Really!?

2007-02-08T12:52:00.000-05:00

Guardian article about Walmart's attempt to challenge sex discrimination ruling.

Feminist bloggers and election campaigns

2007-02-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

I LOVE that John Edwards has hired Amanda Marcotte as his blogmaster and Melissa McEwan as the netroots communicator. Marcotte has received some serious blogger bashing over the past few days about her current blogging antics - but it looks more like jealousy than anything substantial. Seems like the angry right-wingers are more concerned about how Marcotteposting ablities than how she might be contributing to the Edwards campaign.

I'm quite surprised that Edwards has taken these two feminist writers on board. I think it will be great to see what they bring to the limelight. As Ann Bartow at Feminist Law Professors points out, hopefully this means that Edwards will be discussing Clinton beyond her hair-do's and dress sense.

Rape is sooo easy

2007-02-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

Julie Bindel on the major, major flaws in the oh-so-great-woman-hating British judicial system that make rape the easiest crime. I especially like the comment on how alcohol is the new 'mini-skirt' excuse for blaming women. There has been a growing obssesion with women drinking over the past few years - lots of references in the media to drinking being the 'real' date-rape drug etc, lots of concern about how drinking increases your chance of sexual assault. You know what else increases your chances of rape? RAPISTS!!

Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

2007-02-01T10:27:00.000-05:00

Molly Ivins died on January 31st 2007, after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. Her columns can be read at Alternet, Creators and several other places on the net.

Things I loved about Molly Ivins:
a) she was a unapologetic feminist
b) she unashamedly got up Right wing noses (see Steve Anderson's tribute at The Huffington Post)
c) she named her dog Shit....

Extra! Extra!

2007-01-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

A few fantastic news stories you might have missed:

- Feminist Art at the forefront in modern art museums all over America.

- Michelle Bachelet further raising her esteem in my eyes by continuing her commitment to women's rights in Chile

Blog For Choice

2007-01-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

At the moment I'm writing an article about the use of technology in pregnancy and birth. Inevitably I've been thinking allot about choice and how technology has influenced our notions of choice, especially in terms of how technology is applied to women's bodies. 'Why I am pro-choice'....not so easy to answer - or is it just simply because women should have complete control over their bodies? Unfortunately abortion is still an area where I think women don't really feel like they have a choice. For so many women, abortions are extremely difficult and often impossible to have. Not all women can think about their own abortions in terms of choice. It is often seen as a situation where the resulting outcome (of either abortion or pregnancy) came about by default, not choice.
I am pro-choice because because no woman should come to either of those conclusions by default.

Election 2008: Be Educated

2007-01-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have recently announced their intentions to start presidential exploratory committees which allow them to begin raising funds for a 2008 US presidential bid. To have the two front runners for the Democratic party nomination be a black man and a woman is new and (to me at least) unbelievably exciting.

For those of you unfamiliar with the ins and outs of American politics, this is what having an exploratory committee means, from Wikipedia:

The exploratory committee...technically it creates a legal shell for a candidate who expects to spend more than $5,000 while contemplating an actual run. Under the rules, exploratory money may be raised without the full disclosure of sources required of true candidates. Only when the candidate drops the exploratory label does the full responsibility of transparency apply. Candidates use an exploratory committee as not only a transitional phase for their bookkeeping but as an extra claim on media attention. Some of the most skillful handlers like to leak word that their candidate is testing the waters, then leak word that he or she is thinking about forming an exploratory committee. Additional "news" can be made when the same candidate actually forms such a committee and registers with the Federal Election Commission.

I found both the video statements of Clinton and Obama very interesting. A New York Times article today explains how the two will be vying for many of the same groups, including women and African Americans. However, while Clinton directly speaks to women's rights in her speech, Obama's is more general.

See their first speeches for yourself, and comment below with your thoughts! I look forward to learning more about the platforms of both candidates, and sharing what I learn with you over the course of the upcoming months.

Obama

Clinton apparently isn't as savvy with the embedding function. See her announcement video here.

Maybe I take Betty too seriously...and Rambo

2007-01-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

Alisha, in subtly pointing out how synical I can be, has made me look at the fact that Ugly Betty does bring to the small screen a few things that are severly missing: more women of colour and more realistic body shapes. These two things should not be ignored just because they are surrounded by the negatives that I mentioned in a previous post. I still think the show shouldn't be heralded as the second coming of feel-good television though.

On a sort of different matter, I've been thinking alot about Rambo. I know that may sound odd. But I watched Rambo: First Blood again - sitting up late at night breastfeeding means I've been watching alot (well, a bit more than usual) of crap TV and my boyfriend had never seen it. Two-thirds into the film, I realized that there were no female characters (the two second conversation with one at the beginning of the film doesn't count) at all. You think it would have taken me less time to notice....

Susan Faludi, in Stiffed, explores how post-war (WWII and Vietnam) American men were caught in a quandary of having fought for a society that now could/would not provide them with lives it had promised them. Rambo is a clear cut illustration of this betrayal:

...reclaimed the virtue of the solitary American man. The goverment technorcrats...remain sullied in this revisionist history, while the lone grunt emerged as a warrior-saint.

Faludi points out that is the last two films in the Rambo trilogy that created the John Rambo as the victorious male killing machine we all know. In First Blood, Rambo doesn't win, he ends up crying in the arms of his former commanding officer, asking for an explanation for what he went through in Vietnam and why he came back to a country that saw him as a villain, not a hero. He doesn't get to kill Teasle, he does not become a hero.

Shame John Rambo will forever be the glorified, killing machine and not by the political statement made in Rambo: First Blood.

The Importance of Being Married

2007-01-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

There is a rumor that women in New York are preoccupied with two things: housing and finding a husband. This article in today's New York Times talks about both of those topical topics, saying that for perhaps the first time in history, more women in the US are living without a husband than with one.

The author cites various reasons for this: women are waiting longer to get married, have more financial independence... but says that this trend highlights a much larger one:

This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives.

I certainly agree with that point, and applaud the trend that leads us towards a world where women have greater financial independence and less "need" for a man (which I think, allows women to find fulfilling relationships not based on things like dependence or need, and end up as equal players). However, as I think about planning my wedding, and my own impending marriage, I wonder where I fall. I am a recent addict of The Knot, a site dedicated to everything you could ever possibly want to know about crinoline, bustles, addressing the inner envelope of your invitation, how old is too old to be a flower girl...you name it, the Knot knows it. Laugh if you must, but this site is just one in the myriad of wedding related sights that bolster the wedding industry, which rakes in an estimated $40 to $70 billion a year in the US alone.

This is the world I'm living in now - the world of guest lists and taffeta vs. silk shantung - a far cry from my feminist roots (although I'm sure post-feminists would disagree). However, I have to say that while the wedding has been foremost in my mind, the thought of the actual marriage has not. My fiance and I are perfectly matched (he's a feminist too!), have lived together for a year and a half, and are planning on using this wedding as a launch pad for travel and new adventure together. We're excited to get married, of course, but both of us laugh at the thought that engaging in this institution will materially change much about our lives - our thinking is we've been committed to that level for some time, so how will a silly piece of paper change that?

So, ironically then, I suppose, I live and breathe the seeming disconnect between The Knot and the New York Times piece. Maybe this doesn't help reconcile my absolute obsession with centerpieces and wedding cakes (we'll save the materialism aspect of all this for another post)... but I'm glad to know that, while I'll soon be in the 49% of American women living with a spouse, I will never consider the institution of marriage as the foremost organizing factor of my existence.

Ugly Betty makes me sad

2007-01-15T13:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, it does make me sad but I still watch it because I'm horribly drawn to the sadism that the show promotes, although it's disguised as post-modern tongue-in-cheek social commentary. What I continue to find amusing though is that the show somehow manages to convince people that it is genuine social commentary: as if holding Betty up to the glamorous, well-groomed staff whom she works alongside at Mode is somehow supposed to teach us that Botox, anorexia etc is bad. Except Betty remains ugly.

Registering births

2007-01-15T06:31:00.000-05:00

I find the following offensive. Questions asked when registering the birth of your child:

To the father:

forename(s) and surname
date and place of birth
occupation at the time of the child's birth or, if not employed at that time, the last occupation

To the mother:

forename(s) and surname
maiden surname if the mother is, or has been, married
date and place of birth
occupation at the time of the child's birth or, if not employed at that time, the last occupation
usual address at the date of the birth
date of marriage, if married to the child's father at the time of the birth
number of previous children by the present husband and by any former husband