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

Month: August 2006

The Stained Glass Ceiling

No surprise here: Clergywomen have a hard time moving up in religious organizations because of their gender.

Women now make up 51 percent of the students in divinity school. But in the mainline Protestant churches that have been ordaining women for decades, women account for only a small percentage — about 3 percent, according to one survey by a professor at Duke University — of pastors who lead large congregations, those with average Sunday attendance over 350. In evangelical churches, most of which do not ordain women, some women opt to leave for other denominations that will accept them as ministers. Women from historically black churches who want to ascend to the pulpit often start their own congregations.

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Irony is Dead. Long Live Irony!

The acts of life have neither beginning nor end. Everything happens in a very idiotic fashion. That’s why everything is the same.

Tristan Tzara

Amanda over at pandagon has a very interesting post up about sarcasm and parody. I think she gets it exactly right when she says,

Now, as soon as we pointed out that the girl is flipping the bird [“See where I’m waving around up here with the laser pointer? That’s an obscene gesture“], everyone got the joke. By no means should any of this mean that Boomers who are not Deborah Solomon are irony-impaired or anything like that. It’s just that the Hip Hop Generation is so thoroughly trained to expect things to be remixed or remade or meta-commentaries that we look for that first, especially when we’re being presented with an image or other cultural touchstone that’s already iconic. The audience’s default assumption is parody.

I think this conflict in reception can be extended to blogs, where sarcasm–or, to use the word we made up for it, snark–is standard. Many of us don’t distinguish between being funny and being incisive. Not to argue that the meat papers separate everything into lightweight biweekly lifestyle columns* and the real news, but that difference in form is probably being read as a difference in focus and function.

It might also have something to do with the blur in acceptable subject matter. When you’re riffing on a subject, it’s natural to go from your government to your boss to your baby. Humor can be a very flexible and loopy thread. Comments sections–check out the one Amanda set off–can also be very hospitable to riffs, when eight or nine people toss a joke back and forth.

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“Pro-Life” Activist Again Seeks to Increase the Abortion Rate

Because what happens when you block access to and information about contraception? More unintended pregnancies, and more abortions.

But that doesn’t bother Judie Brown one little bit, because if you don’t want 17 children, you just shouldn’t be having sex (interestingly, Judie only has three children. Hmmm…). And your private birth control decisions are next on the list for anti-choice activists to attack.

As one who has fought on the front lines of the pro-life battle for much of my adult life, it’s my perception that there is mass confusion in this nation about what it really means to be a man, or a woman — a member if you will of a specific gender.

In light of that reality, it has also been my experience that nothing in this life happens by accident.

So when I heard that fellow activist Joe Scheidler’s Pro-Life Action League was sponsoring a major conference based on the theme “Contraception is not the answer,” I was elated. What in the world does this conference have to do with understanding the incredible differences between masculinity and femininity? More than you might possibly ever think.

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Wide Open Spaces

I intended this post as a giggly nod to the excellent Onion op-ed, “Sometimes I Feel Like I’m the Only One Trying to Gentrify This Neighborhood,” which has been linked by Jack at Angry Brown Butch and az over at goingsomewhere. Instead, it turned into a post in response to some of the events az referred to, and how the self-absorption that permits gentrification is also demonstrated outside the cities. I’m very familiar with NIMBYing, too–our high school had a closed campus because the shopkeepers didn’t want a bunch of teenagers who weren’t white buying lunch downtown. Just a few years ago, one of our neighboring towns tried to make it illegal to rent to people outside your family. Like az says:

What they’re doing to us. I love the victim mentality of people who own property. When you own a house, suddenly you become a hypersensitive entity at risk of all kinds of potential violations, real and virtual. Even the presence of a particular kind of person a few blocks away is violent. It’s bullshit: when I lived on a street with a rooming-house in Brunswick, the increased saturation of people walking on the street made it feel safer, especially at night. Sure, some of these people were obviously unhinged; but you say hello, you roll them a cigarette, you have a chat. We often sat in the window of my room, on the front verandah facing the street, and felt safe. Here in Coburg, people don’t hang out on the street. (Okay, with the exception of the kids opposite who play with their cars weekends, and who are, frankly, obnoxious: loud techno all day, incessant revving, squealing brakes, and no hello.) The blocks in Coburg are big, the front yards are spacious and everyone drives, so the only time you see the neighbours is when they’re climbing into their car. No-one knows what’s happening outside, because everyone keeps their front blinds closed.

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“Blind Lawyer” jailed in China

Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese activist who has been fighting the good fight over there for a good long time, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Chen’s supporters say he has become a target of retaliation by officials in the eastern Chinese city of Linyi for publicizing information about forced late-term abortions and sterilization campaigns involving tens of thousands of people.

China’s one-child policy has become less coercive in recent years, and such draconian family planning measures are no longer common practice. But that hasn’t stopped some local officials from continuing with the abuse in order to meet certain quotas.

The harsh treatment of the self-taught lawyer and a recent slew of incidents involving the arrest or intimidation of attorneys fighting against official abuse suggest that the Communist Party is worried about losing control over an increasingly vocal legal community.

China’s one-child policy is just as much an assault on reproductive freedom as restrictive abortion laws are. Chen has been an invaluable voice in numerous legal battles in his country, and his imprisonment is a sad example of what happens when governments with too much power are simultaneously able to limit basic human rights like reproductive freedom (remember, folks, if the government has the power to outlaw abortion, it also has the power to force/coerce abortion) and also seek to stifle free speech and criticism of the administration (as we see people like Ann Coulter accusing liberals of “treason,” let’s remember what it actually looks like when governments will jail you for dissent).

Best of luck to Chen, and here’s to hoping that the people of China eventually secure the rights they deserve.

In related news, my friend Will informs me that readers in China are unable to access Feministe. Way to go, subversive feminist force!

Holocaust Cartoon Contest

This is just disgusting.

TEHRAN, Aug. 24 — The title of the show is “Holocaust International Cartoon Contest,” or “Holocust,” as the show’s organizers spell the word in promotional material. But the content has little to do with the events of World War II and Nazi Germany.

There is instead a drawing of a Jew with a very large nose, a nose so large it obscures his entire head. Across his chest is the word Holocaust. Another drawing shows a vampire wearing a big Star of David drinking the blood of Palestinians. A third shows Ariel Sharon dressed in a Nazi uniform, emblazoned not with swastikas but with the Star of David.

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Colombia’s First Legal Abortion

And Colombia’s “legalization” of the procedure is a nice reminder of why we need to keep fighting for reproductive rights everywhere.

Colombia’s first legal abortion has taken place after the deeply-Catholic nation legalised the procedure in May.

Abortion is only permitted in three cases – if the mother’s life is in danger, if the foetus is badly deformed or if the pregnancy results from rape.

This case involved an 11-year-old girl who was raped by her stepfather.

Despite the change in the law, the girl’s case had to go all the way to the constitutional court before an abortion was authorised.

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Rape at The Citadel

Almost 20 percent of the female cadets at The Citadel, the state-funded South Carolina military academy that was forced to open its doors to women 10 years ago, report having been sexually assaulted since enrolling.

The state-funded Citadel military college opened its doors to female cadets 10 years ago. Last year, 118 women and 1,770 men were enrolled.

All the women and about 30 percent of the men were asked to complete the anonymous online survey, Citadel spokeswoman Charlene Gunnells said. Of those, 114 women and 487 men responded.

Of the 27 sexual assaults against women at The Citadel mentioned in the survey, 17 were never reported to authorities. About half of the women who did not report assaults said they feared ostracism, harassment or ridicule if they did, the survey found.

The sexual assaults in the survey included unwanted touching, but 16 of the 27 incidents reported by women and 15 of the 23 reported by men involved unwanted sexual penetration or oral sex.

Most of the reported incidents involving women happened in the barracks or elsewhere on campus, and the perpetrator was another cadet, according to the survey. Some of the cadets reported being subjected to more than one sexual assault.

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