In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: June 2005

Massive Link Round-up

Feminism
Green Gabbro is “shocked! that people who call themselves liberals could be so eager to distance themselves from feminist arguments. I mean, no, wait, what the hell did you expect? That people would magically acknowledge the legitimacy of an argument that attacks the ethics of their income stream?” In another post, she suggests a feminist adoption of black tile grout in order to thwart Mr. Clean’s new marketing campaign.

Body and Soul picks up on the female/male commenting divide that I posted about here. The evolving discussion is quite telling. Shakespeare’s Sister jumps on this boat as well with some questions for her readers regarding their experiences as commenters on various kinds of sites.

Hugo Schwyzer comments on the “all my friends are guys” phenomenon among young women. I’m inclined to disagree with some of his statements because, well, most of my friends are guys, some gay, some straight, but men nonetheless. I have several girlfriends whom I love and adore, but I find that in this particular town, the majority of people my age that I meet are conservative blowhards and the women who suffer in silence dating them. Then again, I’m horrible at following up on blossoming friendships.

Alley Rat discusses sexism in the sciences, especially regarding reproductive science and theories of male dominance.

Becky at Archaeopteryx takes on some Town Hall kind of article in which some guy mourns the lack of governmental control over women’s reproductive systems. It’s another “death of the race” kind of arument, and frankly if people like this are what the future holds, let’s all kick the bucket. She takes the same author on in another post for spreading anti-woman propaganda in domestic violence statistics. For a new blogger, Becky kicks serious ass.

The Science Blog reports on a study that asserts listening skills are the cornerstone of female relationships.

Ginmar writes on prostitution, saying that as the system currently stands, prostitution represents a systematic way for men to avoid taking responsibility for their own sexism. In another post, she lays out nearly every anti-feminist comment that a feminist blogger can ever expect to receive. Jeebus Harold Christ, I’ve received all of them. And Ginmar must be on a roll — here is another link detailing her thoughts on exceptionality, MRAs, and yes, the Holocaust.

Utopian Hell takes on advertising that depicts “positive” representations of rape and violence in order to sell products. My favorites are the liquor ads.

The Well-Timed Period reports on a study on depression in adolescent mothers: 50% of the subjects had depression in the first year, and 57% had depression at some point during the study. Ask me sometime and I’ll tell you all about the fucking misery.

The Disenchanted Forest analyzes conservative women’s arguments against Planned Parenthood and finds them rather flimsy. Big surprise there.

Race and Ethnicity
Terrence begins his post with a sentence that saddens me with its truth: “I wasn’t going to say anything about this, because my overall impression is that these days if you use the word “racist” people stop listening to you.” What follow is a disparaging round-up of hate crimes and racism that I too have noticed seems to be on an increase. Please read.

Politics
Unwilling to pander to softcore liberals, Newswriter continues to endorse Howard Dean.

Alas, A Blog consolidates several views regarding Lakoff, framing, and the liberal side of the binary.

Religion
Mac delivers a quote by a theologian that I can get behind: “‘Jesus said nothing about condoms, birth control or homosexuality,’ says one of the Theses. Fox said it is time for Christians to choose who the Church will follow: an ‘angry exclusionary God or the loving God who opens the path to wisdom.'”

Natural Resources
Cultural Dissent draws attention to frequent military use of high intensity sonar that kills ocean wildlife, in particular, dolphins (which we also use as aquatic soldiers who seek out mines in the ocean). Way to kill soldiers, Shrub.

Blogging
Ms. Musings reports on an irony that is not lost on female bloggers. When the Chicago Tribune decided to run a series that highlights blogs in their Women’s News section, they decided to feature a male blogger who writes an insulting review of Danica Patrick and encourages media backlash against Anne Heche. Say what? Apparently this post is well-intentioned, but horribly misguided. That the Trib thought it prudent to include this as part of the Women’s News section is not only sad, but especially so considering that in the same issue they included an article on gender underrepresentation in the media. Way to go, Chicago Tribune.

Shelley writes on the spread of Creative Commons.

Pop Culture
Amanda writes in defense of American music.

Loaded Mouth has a picture that pretty much sums up the Republican Party, if you ask me.

After School Snack provides a link to an artist to makes complex, whimsical paintings based off of children’s drawings. These pictures are awesome.

Personal
Lynn discusses the growth and wealth of her mixed-marriage family.

Krista writes on the experience of settling. After moving to a new area, being settled is the ability to go somewhere random and see someone you know (I know this feeling all too well, as does JMP — get me out of here).

Three Out of Four Horseman Agree that when Chuck begins a story detailing the end of the world in a Chicago bathroom taking a dump, it will be a good story indeed.

ATTN: Hoosier Liberals

See HABIT, a blog meant for “Indiana based bloggers to talk about George W. Bush in general and The Downing Street Memo in particular. Are you a Hoosier who wants to join us?”

DailyKos, Women, and the Margins

Sarah left a link to a study that her husband did on gender and dKos. His findings and analysis are quite interesting:

For my study (MS Word doc) I looked at the comments thread associated with Kos’ January 17th post on blog ethics. Male participants dominated the discussion, being both more numerous and more frequently responded to than their female counterparts; of the 119 participants, 27 (21%) were identified as female, 80 (67%) were male, and 12 (10%) were of unknown or indeterminate gender. Though 51% of the comments made by male participants (79 out of 154 comments) were responded to, only 28% of the comments by women elicited a response (16 out of 56). What was most interesting was that there was no apparent cause for this disparity in the comments themselves.

Males and females made humorous or provocative comments at roughly the same rate, for example, and when they were responded to the “quality” of those responses was similar (i.e. a flame from a woman is as likely to receive a flame in response as a flame from a male)… but they weren’t responded to at the same rate. The literature related to this kind of analysis shows that men tend to adopt a combative conversational approach in forums like DailyKos and that female participants in male-dominated forums often adopt male norms, so what we see here is that, on DailyKos, playing by the same rules doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the same response… or any response at all.

“Playing by the same rules doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the same response… or any response at all” sums up my experience outside of this feminist circle of blogs. Post a comment on a feminist blog or feminist-friendly blog and it doesn’t get lost in the fray. Post a comment on a general liberal blog and I am either flamed or ignored.

For awhile I thought it might be because of the name of my website associated with my name and the unfortunate stereotypes against feminism — abuse/ignore because feminist harpies can’t make sense in the real world, or something along those lines — but this suggests that it might be about gender alone.

Sardinia pictures!

It really is a beautiful place. My apologies if these pictures are formatted in a weird way, or if theyre too big… Im trying to figure out how to do this on a computer where all the directions are in Italian, and its a little challenging.

poetto
The beach at Poetto, where I go every day to lay out, relax and read.

cagliari
A view of Cagliari, the capital

Cagliari
Cagliari

“Net Nanny” bars Feministing

No joke… I just tried to go to one of my favorite blogs, Feministing, only to get a message in Italian telling me that the “net nanny” on this computer — which, notably, is a public internet point in an Italian postal service building — is barring me from visiting the site, which may contain “innapropriate” content. Huh. But dont worry, Feministe is apparently appropriate enough for me to visit.

UPDATE: Amp is barred, too.

UPDATE 2: I spoke (wrote) too soon. The Feministe archives are also blocked.

Lactivists take to the streets

Really, what is the big deal about breastfeeding in public? Good for these “lactivists” — a public display of breastfeeding is just what we need. Babies need to eat, and breastmilk is whats best for them. People need to get over whatever sqeamishness or fears they have toward a lactating breast.

“We’re all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can do for your child,” said Lorig Charkoudian, 32, who started the Web site www.nurseatstarbucks.com after being asked to use the bathroom to nurse at her local Starbucks. “And then we’re made to feel ashamed to do it without being locked in our homes.”

Most of the nay-sayers, it seems, are people who will never have the option to breastfeed themselves, and will never be banished to the bathroom or put behind closed doors just because their child is hungry:

“It’s nothing against breast-feeding, it’s about exposing yourself for people who don’t want to see it,” said Scotty Stroup, the owner of a restaurant in Round Rock, Tex., where a nursing mother was refused service last fall.

Ah yes… “exposing yourself,” as if breastfeeding women were walking around en masse flashing innocent onlookers, like an episode of Moms Gone Wild. The whole American fear/intense sexualization of the breast is really odd. The fact that things like breastfeeding in public or even tanning topless are regulated and debated is pretty strange. Whats the big fuss?

According to the New York Times article, the shame surrounding public breastfeeding is having profoundly negative effects:

Whether to breast-feed in public, many nursing mothers say, is not simply a matter of being respectful of another person’s sensibilities. They cite research by the Food and Drug Administration showing that the degree of embarrassment a mother feels about breast-feeding plays a bigger role in determining whether she is likely to do so than household income, length of maternity leave or employment status.

The American Academy of Pediatrics urges women to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months, and continue breast-feeding for at least an additional six months. If its recommendations were followed, the group estimates that Americans would save $3.6 billion in annual health care costs because breast-fed babies tend to require less medical care. But while more women are breast-feeding for the first few weeks, fewer than one-third are still nursing after six months. Some doctors attribute the decline to self-consciousness and the difficulties of finding spaces where nursing seems acceptable.

The final quote of the article, though, was the best:

“Are there people who are against breast-feeding?” asked Rich Flisher, 39, a neighborhood resident passing by the nurse-in. “I do prefer it if you’re discreet, but hey, I’m behind you. Go go go.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Summertime Downloads

In preparation for this summer’s Mixmania!, I’ve been compiling songs that scream summertime to yours truly. I envisioned my playlist as what would make me sing out loud without shame at a stoplight with the windows down. Summertime usually means that three major genres are represented in my CD player: reggae, rockabilly, and synth-pop dance music. Also cue David Bowie and the B52s.

As a charitable service, I thought it might be appreciated if I offered a preview. After all, no one can complain about free music, even if you hate it.

Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs – Notorious Thugs
I genuinely hated rap until one long summer sitting out on a friend’s front lawn watching he and his buddies get drunk on PBR while whooping at people walking through campus. They forced me to listen to all sorts of hip hop, primarily hip hop from the mid- to late-90s, until I finally got it. After many years of resistance, I finally decided that, okay, I’m down as long as it isn’t too commerical.

I offered this song up for download before with some commentary on hip hop, gender, and sexism (this song has very little in comparison with the others in that post), and got this comment from Oshunluv:

How do I feel about them??? hip-hop classics! Bone-Thugs and Biggie was an Oakland classic Back in the day!

You heard it from her: classic. Unfortunately I can’t let myself listen to Bone Thugs out loud in public — they remain relegated to my headphones during walks to and from campus.

Dawn Penn – You Don’t Love Me
This slinky reggae classic gets my hips a-movin’ and head a-bobbin’. Nuff said.

The Dirtbombs – Underdog
This Detroit band is headed by Mick Collins, formerly of The Gories, and features his trademark growling, soulful voice. Detroit has been notable in the last few years for a fusion of garage rock, Motown soul, and punk rock with bands like White Stripes and the Von Bondies. The Dirtbombs are, in my opinion, a far superior choice if that’s a sound you like.

Of Montreal – The Party’s Crashing Us
And now for the synth-pop. This band is cute, but not too cute. Sweet but not saccharine. Of Montreal is thankfully missing the Angst Factor and they make my butt awkwardly move around in the driver’s seat.

Firewater – Mr. Cardiac
A slinky, sultry, cynical song with a female guest singer that furthers my delusion that somewhere deep inside of me is a singing voice fit for the public.

Reverend Horton Heat – Loco Gringos Like a Party (link fixed!)
I maintain that the Rev. is one of the greatest bands for driving long trips down sunny highways with your windows down. This song comes from Lucky 7, my favorite album since Holy Roller, a best-of compilation that unfortunately does not include the classic song “Nurture My Pig.”

Right click, save as, rename.

NOTE: I was looking at my stats to see how many people have downloaded songs and realized that the number 47 comes up every time I upload songs to the site. Forty-seven downloads or less. Is this the same forty-seven people downloading songs every time?

Life Sentence Under “Fetal Protection” Law

[UPDATE III: Amp spells out some more details brought to light since I last read the articles that make this situation much more troublesome. In this new light, I am reluctant to defend the young man in this case.]

Two scared and stupid teenagers devise a homemade abortion and the boyfriend is sentenced to life in prison.

Nineteen-year-old Gerardo Flores of Lufkin was sentenced to life in prison Monday in a landmark test case of a state fetal protection law. An Angelina County jury deliberated just under four hours, finding him guilty on two counts of capital murder for his part in killing his unborn twins.

An appeal will likely be filed within thirty days, and may be fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ampersand further explains the case and legal choices behind the ruling:

…a 16-year-old pregnant girl, Erica Basoria, and her boyfriend, Gerardo Flores, jointly agreed to abort her sixteen-week pregnancy by beating her around the stomach. None of the news stories I’ve read explains why they didn’t go to a doctor. Maybe they were just too stupid and scared and afraid of being found out; or maybe pro-lifers have succeeded in removing all practical access to abortion where these kids live.

Under Texas’ fetal protection law, a mother can never be charged for “murdering” her own fetus – but someone else can (there’s an exemption for health care providers). She was pregnant with twins, so the boyfriend has been found guilty of a double homicide and, unless the case is successfully appealed, will spend the rest of his life in prison.

…The defense attorney tried to blame the whole thing on the girl, of course. Didn’t fly with the jury.

Note that the mother’s wishes are… entirely irrelevant. Really, I’m amazed that they didn’t go for the death penalty.

For more commentary, see Republic of T.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum says:

This is the intersection of stupid kids, stupid laws, mendacious legislators, and fanatical prosecutors. It’s what happens when states ban access to otherwise legal abortions and kids don’t know where to turn. And if circumstances and the law had been slightly different, Bauereiss probably would have prosecuted Erica Basoria too and sought the death penalty for both.

It’s like living under the Ayatollahs in Iran. It’s simple barbarism.

UPDATE II: From Bitch Ph.D.

In trying to save his life, he had to blame his girlfriend, the girl he was trying to help; and though she tried to defend him, she had to stand by in the end without being able to, listening to his defense attorney blame her for “inviting” a boyfriend to hurt her. She’s legally safe from prosecution, but not safe from the age-old “she asked for it” form of defense; and her boyfriend has to offer that heinous defense in order to save his own hide. (And people say it’s gay marriage that threatends the stability of heterosexual relationships.) Here we have a young man who, in desperate circumstances, tried to stand by his girlfriend, to help her, forced to hurt her and punished by the state because no, we will not allow women to think for themselves. We will portray women who do as victims, as crazy, as invisible; we will not listen to what they have to say; and we will punish the men who try to stand by women, who listen to what women say instead of “listening” to the imagined words of a five-month old fetus.

The whole thing is an absolute tragedy. A metaphorical punch in the gut to Flores, to Basoria, and to everyone who cares about women’s rights. She’s recovered from the miscarriage; if the sentence stands, neither she, he, nor we will recover from the blows of the state.