April 2008 – Page 10

Everything that’s wrong with the world

Is basically summed up in this comment to a story on another KBR rape case:

If we can look the other way while female “employees” are raped, why can’t we open gov’t funed bordellos, get the whole thing out in the open, and then look the other way. That, in and of itself, would be the greatest protection for those females hoping to take advantage of the lucrative oportunities available to them in the war zone, while at the same time creating another lucrative oportunity for the women who want to make money in the sex trade. Simple solution. Police the approved houses of ilrepute, give the whores medical attention, and away we go.

There’s a great solution: Instead of actually doing anything about rapists, let’s give them Iraqi women to rape and call it “sex work.”

(And before anyone says that I’m equating prostitution with rape, my point is that the Americans in Iraq who are raping their fellow employees are looking to rape — that is, to hurt women sexually. Offering up a house full of Iraqi women isn’t going to turn them into kind and thoughtful johns. I suspect the commenter know this, and just doesn’t care).

This is just another in a line of allegations that American mercenaries and military men are sexually assaulting their own. What’s astounding isn’t just that it’s happening, but the arrogance that it’s happening with — the American rapists in Iraq are confident that they can get away with it. And if prosecutions of soldiers and defense contractors are any indication, they can.

And if defense contractors and soldiers think that they can get away with doing this to American women, imagine what’s happening to Iraqi women.

Feministe in The Guardian

In a great article about using women’s bodies to promote charity causes.

Daily Misogyny

We occasionally get emails from readers who encounter pretty egregious misogyny in their real lives. First, one reader spotted this at her dentist’s office:

The mountaintop

40 years ago, the day after delivering this speech, he was assassinated.

Super Pii Pii Brothers

Not sure if you’re ready to invest in a Shenis or a P-Mate? Well now you can test-drive a virtual experience, and pee on some cats at the same time, all thanks to ThinkGeek, who imported a bunch of copies of this game. ThinkGeek reports that this game for the Wii, which already has a mostly-female audience in Japan, is gaining popularity amongst the most notoriously influential consumer segment in that nation: young women. I don’t normally jump onto “Japan is Wacky” news for the heck of it, but this is both genius and totally puerile, so why not? You can duel with your friends, enjoying algorithms that create “Amazing Realistic Pee Fluid Dynamics.” It’s even useful practice for using a single-strap harness — if they had intended this game for guys, they probably would have built it in a two-strap style, am I right?

And actually, part of the reason it’s genius is because it’s PLAYING on the idea that “anything weird is believable when it comes from Japan” to get people to fall for an April Fool’s joke, as well as a dash of the hoary old “girls have penis envy” theme. I found this one really late, I know — but it’s one of the better ones I’ve run across this year and I figured it deserved linking!! I mean, they made video of a whole fake game with streams of urine, for god’s sake.

Take Back the Night at Barnard and Columbia

To all of you in NYC and the surrounding areas, check out Barnard and Columbia’s Take Back the Night event. The details:

April 17th, 2008
8pm March
10pm Speak Out

The march will meet outside of Barnard Hall on the Barnard campus, which is at the intersection of 117th and Broadway (1 Train to 116th Street). The Speak Out will happen after the March, and last as long as necessary.

Take Back the Night is a national movement that began in Belgium in 1976. At first, the movement was primarily concerned with the role of pornography in perpetuating violence against women. Today, however, on many college campuses nationwide, student-run Take Back the Night chapters largely focus on sexual assault and domestic violence.

The first march at Columbia University was organized at Barnard College as a product of a Seven Sisters conference. The march was held in April of 1988, with a participation of nearly 200 students. Since then, march attendance has grown every year.

They’re also on Facebook. Hope lots of you can make it!

Friday Random Ten – the Still on a WAM! High edition

1. Voxtrot – Raised by Wolves
2. Rufus Wainwright – Evil Angel
3. Cat Power – Living Proof
4. Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart
5. Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine
6. Tom Waits – Gospel Train / Orchestra
7. Les Savy Fav – Hello Halo, Goodbye Glands
8. Amr Diab – We Hikaytek Aih
9. Iggy and the Stooges – Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
10. Death Cab for Cutie – The Employment Pages

Friday video: A song I’ve had stuck in my head for two weeks straight:

And the lovely lady who sings that song gets a mention in Amanda’s fantastic book, which I finished this week and will review soon.

How Pregnancy Happens

As explained by cartoon genitals:

I think every anti-contraception “pro-lifer” needs to sit down and watch this — it never actually discusses contraception or emergency contraception (the “morning-after” pill), but anyone who can rub two braincells together will be able to figure out why contraception taken after sexual intercourse is able to prevent pregnancy without being abortion.

Plus, you know, talking genitals (and I kind of want a real-life version of that vulva coat).

Thanks to Trina for the link.

Anti-Choice Ideology Infecting HIV/AIDS Policy

A guest-post by Kelly Castagnaro, Director of Communications at the International Women’s Health Coalition.

Despite evidence—and the efforts of Rep. Betty McCollum, experts and advocates around the world—the full House voted yesterday to reauthorize a $50 billion global HIV/AIDS relief initiative that threatens to further restrict, rather than support, expansion of HIV prevention through family planning services.

Several advocates and the mainstream media have overwhelmingly touted the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as a legacy-building success, and in one case, the “AIDS relief miracle.” Today, nearly two million more people have access to anti-retroviral medication than five years ago due to U.S. government support. However, the number of people newly infected with HIV continues to outpace the number of people on treatment —hardly a miraculous approach to sustainable public health programming.

For women and girls, HIV/AIDS is fundamentally a sexual and reproductive health and rights issue. They are vulnerable because their rights are widely violated. More than four-fifths of new infections in women occur in marriage or long term relationships. They could be protected if their access to reproductive health services and education was expanded. They could be protected if bureaucrats in Washington didn’t insist on exporting faulty abstinence and faithfulness prevention programming to communities where women cannot abstain and are already faithful.

But the real tragedy is that lawmakers have missed the opportunity to take a step towards ending, rather than managing, the pandemic by refusing to talk about sex. Sexual transmission is a leading cause of new infections worldwide. However, hysteria surrounding abortion and premarital sex has prevented lawmakers from engaging in debate about what works and what doesn’t for people who are fighting this disease in their homes, in their communities and in their countries.

Public health experts on the ground must be able to determine the best mix of prevention programming. As it stands, their hands are tied by mandates from Washington politicos who can only talk about sex publicly when their extramarital affairs and indiscretions are exposed.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a similar $50 billion bill, which the full Senate will soon consider. Let’s hope they recognize that there are no quick fixes to the global AIDS pandemic, and find a way to help women deal with their lives and their health in a humane way.

Feministe Feedback: What Does a Feminist Relationship Look Like?

A really interesting question that I would love to know the answer to, because I really struggle with this one:

i’ve noticed that many women comment with anecdotes about their boyfriends or husbands and share some challenge that they face in relating their feminism to their male counterparts. i’ve certainly noticed the challenge in my own relationships, and, having read my mary daly, know what a bone of contention having relationships with men at all has been at different points for feminism and for feminists. i’m interested to hear from the readership what they think a feminist relationship with a man looks like. of course, of course every relationship is different – but do people have ‘rules’ that they follow, or lines that they won’t cross, in the name of feminism? since every relationship involves compromise, sometimes i have a hard time telling the difference between being kind, loving and accommodating and fulfilling my assigned submissive role as a woman.

How do you work feminism into your relationships? Do you think it’s even possible to have a fully feminist, egalitarian heterosexual relationship? Are there rules you follow, or red flags? How much do you compromise your beliefs in order to find and sustain love? And, this is me adding to the question, but how does this play out in same-sex or otherwise non-traditional relationships?