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

Month: November 2008

GoodShop

The day after tomorrow is Black Friday, the “official” retail kickoff of Xmas shopping in the U.S.  I bet a bunch of you have started shopping already.  Well, a few days ago I was filled in on this website called GoodShop.  It’s by the creators of GoodSearch, the search engine where ad revenue from your searches goes to charities of your choice.

GoodShop works similarly. They have hundreds of participating stores, and thousands of participating charities.  All you do is go to the website, choose your charity, and pick the store you want to shop at.  You make your purchases as normal, and a certain percentage of your purchase goes to your charity of choice.  The amount is determined by the retailer.  For example, 1.5% of Amazon purchases go to your charity, it’s 3% for Barnes and Noble, and so on.

There are a bunch of feminist and other progressive organizations on board, including Planned Parenthood and their affiliates, RAINN, Lambda Legal, Women for Women International, Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence Aid and Resource Collection, American Domestic Violence Crisis Line, League of Women Voters Education Fund, National Organization for Women, Men Can Stop Rape, SAFER, and many, many more. There’s even a “Women” category when you browse organizations — just please be aware that many crisis pregnancy centers are listed, so be sure to choose an organization that you know.

Is it the most radical or effective way to give and make a difference?  Um, no.  Definitely not.  So please don’t stop here.  But I do think it’s significantly different from many other consumer-based “charitable” programs in the sense that you probably weren’t going to buy that Gap tee-shirt anyway.  It’s not about using this as an excuse to buy more crap you don’t need, but about seeing that a bit of your money goes someplace a little more admirable when buying crap you were already going to buy.

I was already going to do the vast majority of my Xmas shopping at Amazon, like I do every year, so there’s no reason for that 1.5%, small as it may be, to not go to an organization I love.  Amazon sure as hell doesn’t need it.  Thinking many of you might feel similarly, I thought I’d let you know.

The Choices We Have

The choices we have depend on our ability to take advantage of them, and this is particularly important when it comes to reproductive choice. Frankly, a lack of doctors willing and able to perform the procedure will render the right to abortion meaningless. WaPo follows one medical student’s journey and just how difficult it is to get training.

She had joined Medical Students for Choice, an abortion education group with chapters on 135 U.S. campuses, as soon as she arrived at Maryland. The nation’s abortion doctors were graying, and unless a new generation took their place, the right to abortion might be rendered meaningless. Lesley imagined herself being part of that new generation. But would her support for abortion translate into action?

“I won’t know until I’m faced with doing it, but I think I would absolutely be able to provide [abortions],” she said. “It’s walk the walk, instead of talk the talk. I want my actions to be consistent with my words.”

How medical students choose to become abortion providers is in some ways no different from how they choose to become cardiac surgeons or pediatric neurologists. They explore the specialty and test themselves in it, finding some connection to a patient or a mentor that ignites their passion. Except for one difference: Medical students must explore abortion largely on their own.

Thirty-five years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade, any mention of abortion is rare in the first three or four years of medical school, when students must zero in on a specialty and eventually apply for residency training. Even in Maryland, where about 61 percent of voters approved a referendum guaranteeing abortion in 1992 and which has the fourth-highest abortion rate in the country, abortion is not taught in any formal lectures at the state’s flagship medical school. The subject is viewed as too controversial, despite the fact that, according to the nonprofit National Center for Health Statistics, abortion remains among the most common surgical procedures for reproductive-age women. Nevertheless, many people, including some of Lesley’s friends, believe abortion is the murder of an unborn child and should not be legal, much less taught to future doctors.

Suggested Reading:
Is there a doctor in the house?
Medical Students For Choice

It’s Dickbag Week at Feministe

I don’t know what’s been up lately, but we’ve been getting a series of seriously obnoxious comments and emails (and those are the ones we let through). New readers don’t seem to be coming from any particular place — no major right-wing links — so I can’t figure out what’s sparked the trend. Worst of all, they aren’t even funny enough to add to a Top Troll contest.

So I have two requests. First, dickbags, either start being more entertaining or hit the pavement. Second, non-dickbags, I think my use of “dickbag” has run its course. Any new insult ideas?

We Get Emails.

We get emails fairly often, actually. Most are nice. Some are weird. But a few, like this one, are extra-special. (The post he’s referencing is this one). Check out MRA-in-training Vincent explain why career bitchez are screwing over teh menz:

You all might recall me from some postings I made under the name “Vincent” to an August 23, 2006 blog entitled “Why You Should Marry a Doormat” which attacked Michael Noer’s article in Forbes warning against marrying a career woman. Well, my soon to be ex-wife and I are nearing a settlement. I will be getting 60% of the marital assets, she will be paying me alimony and child support and we have a 50/50 custody arrangement, which I fought seeking primary custody, but because of my incompetent woman lawyer and the bias of the courts against men when it comes to custody, the best I could do was 50/50. My wife’s words to me as we left the courtroom–“I am going to remarry a man who can financially support me.” So much for career women, huh! And therein lies the problem, women have the option of marrying a man who can financially support them, can declare it and aggressively pursue such an option and society will think it natural. How would society view a man who publicly declared he was going to marry a woman who could financially support him and aggressively sought out women who would financially support him?

As for me and my kids they are in psychotherapy, as is my wife and I. I take anti-anxiety medication and an anti-depressant. To my oldest son who is now in his early teens and taken an interest in girls I caution him not date girls who are “too smart.” With what I am going to get from this settlement I plan to open my own practice and try to resurrect my career.

So for my ex this whole aggressive pursuit of a career didn’t work out so well, nor did it for me or my kids and until women can accept the burdens of being a primary breadwinner, avoiding career women may be some good advice. So as I say to my son, I don’t care if the girl you date is tall or short, or pretty or ugly, she can be blonde, a brunette or redhead, just so long as she doesn’t have career aspirations.

Can you believe those biased courts and those incompetent woman-lawyers who only gave Vincent here 60% of the marital assets, child support, alimony, and a 50-50 custody arrangement? If there were any justice in the world, that bitch would be out on her ass, sleeping in a box on the street, and Vincent — who is obviously the Best Dad Ever — would get all the marital assets and sole custody of the kids. “Giving Dudes Whatever They Want” is how we define “fair” in MRA-ville (town motto: Puttin’ Bitches In Their Place).

Because, you know, Vincent’s wife = All of Womankind. And if you act like Vincent’s wife, or if you have half a brain, you may never score an eligible bachelor like Vince. So strip off those pantsuits, renounce your feminist overlords and put on an apron, ladies, because he won’t be single for long!

I’m sure the reason Vincent’s awful wife left him is because she’s a career bitch — not because he demeans women, thinks 50/50 arrangements are “unfair” (even when he’s getting 60% of the assets plus support), and tells their son to marry someone stupid so that he has a live-in maid instead of a partner.

No, it’s definitely the career that convinced her to leave this gem of a guy. Back in the good old days, she would have been totally financially dependent on him, and so she wouldn’t have been able to leave. And that, friends, is how a family should be.

Civics Fail?

A new report has come out showing that average American citizens scored a failing grade of 49% on a test about American history, civics and economics, and elected officials did even worse at 44%.

At first this did disturb me, based on many of the questions that the article highlights, until I looked at the test.  I took it, and scored a 75.76%.  That is, of course, significantly better than the average reported in the article.  But looking at the questions, a lot of the time I just had to ask myself “who the hell cares?”

I mean, we’re supposed to be upset that our elected officials don’t know the answers to these questions — and I personally am of the frame of mind that we should seek people to run our government who know more than most of us do — but in the end, who really cares what the Puritans believed, or what the main issue debated by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas was regarding slavery when all were important questions, or what statement Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas would all agree with?  I don’t, even if I do think they’re points of interest, nor do I particularly care whether most other people know these things.

The additional good news is that most public officials are going to be at low levels — city counsels and such.  Though these people certainly have to be smart and know a lot of things to do a competent job, I don’t think that many aspects of national history are hugely relevant to those positions.

On the other hand, I think that there are real implications to people not knowing whether it’s Congress or the president who has the power to declare war.  I’m also worried when people don’t know what the Electoral College is, let alone the basic aspects of how it works.  I think there are further implications regarding the effectiveness of our school system when so many people can’t name two of the U.S.’s World War II enemies in a multiple choice question.  And while some of the economics questions are ideologically driven, I do think that people ought to know what a profit is.

So, what do you think?  First of all, how did you do on the test? And secondly, how much do you think it matters?

On Increasing Poverty and Homelessness

The above video really did break my heart. On the one hand, I really do worry that there’s something exploitative about filming and watching this man’s pain. On the other hand, I feel like we need to watch, and turning away is just another way of excusing and reinforcing the system that created this man’s desperate situation, and that of the many men and women like him. Renee has some excellent thoughts on the matter.

And Sharkfu also has some thoughts on those who were living in poverty before this most recent economic crisis.

In related news, I was just reading this article about a plan in New York City to cut access to shelter for homeless men.

That alternative system is composed of eight drop-in centers, which have showers and seats but no beds. From there, homeless men can find one-night beds in churches and synagogues — or, if they can show they’ve been on the street for more than nine months, they can use city-run safe-haven beds. But each night, more than 500 hundred people, on average, end up sleeping in the chairs at the drop-in centers — some by choice and some because there are not enough beds in the faith-based centers.

Saying that it is looking to revamp the system so that homeless men don’t sleep in chairs anymore, the city wants to close the drop in centers at 8 p.m., starting in June 2009. In return, it will add to the number of faith-based and other easy-to-access beds. “What is most important is that at the end of the night, individuals are coming off the street into a bed,” said Heather Janik, the spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services.

But advocates for the homeless and some of the men and women who run the faith-based beds argue that the city doesn’t understand its audiences. “The city says it doesn’t like people sleeping on chairs at the drop in centers. We don’t particularly like that, either. But it is a better alternative than sending them back to the street, which is essentially what will happen, of they are told they must go to some kind of city facility,” said Douglas Grace, the director of outreach ministry at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Clearly, this is horrible no matter what way you cut it, and seemingly based far more on aesthetics than on actual desire to help homeless people.  And NYC is apparently being even more thoughtless in preventing 22 churches from housing homeless people, due to enforcement of a silly ordinance.

But as I was reading this article, I just kept noticing the word “men.” Did the writer somehow just forget that women are homeless, too? Or are women actually not allowed in these shelters? Are there other shelters for women that are not being cut? Really, what of homeless women? After all, women do make up a significantly disproportionate number of those living below the poverty line, and homeless women are often rendered invisible in typical depictions of people who are homeless.  I’m very much concerned about the impact that this new plan will have on men, but I’m also concerned about the women who may either be affected as well or didn’t have access to these shelters to begin with, and who seem to be getting erased either way.  Can anyone shed some light?

Bitch of the Day

My school insurance didn’t cover Gardasil, the HPV vaccine. So I waited until I got a job, found a new doctor and started on private insurance. The new doc is great, and she gave me a Gardasil prescription on my first visit, saying that I have to get it filled at the pharmacy but that insurance should cover it. I’m supposed to go back today and get the first round.

I went to get it filled yesterday. Turns out my insurance doesn’t cover “injectables.” I don’t really have an extra $600 to spend on a vaccine right now (it’s $200 per shot, and it’s a three-round vaccine), but I think I’m going to have to just suck it up and do it anyway. What’s another $600 when I already have $200,000 in student loan debt, right?

The U.S. health care system sucks.

The Good, The Bad, and the Weirdly Interesting

A Monday morning link round-up.

The Good:

Christiane Amanpour, one of my personal heroes and favorite reporters, finally has her own show.

Saudi Arabia’s first “all-girl” rock band is making (underground) waves (not really sure why the group is “all-girl” when the “girls” are in college, but I’ll let it go this time).

The Bad:

A woman was murdered and two others wounded in a New Jersey church, when the woman’s estranged husband showed up and gunned them down. She had a restraining order against him and had moved from California to New Jersey to escape his abuse.

A 14-year-old boy was killed by his mother’s live-in boyfriend, who she was in the process of getting a restraining order against.

“Human rights activist” claims that it’s ok to harass women — as long as they’re Israeli. Yeah, no.

Teh Gays are coming! TO YOUR TOWN!

The Weirdly Interesting:

Pink and Blue: Photos of kids who will only play with gender-specific toys.

The nine most disturbingly misogynist ads of all time. I think the first is my favorite, for sheer oh-my-god-that-is-horrific factor. via Jezebel.

I cannot help loving this video. Damn you, Beyonce, for making such fun anti-feminist feminist songs! Damn you for your glorious, glorious music videos, whether you’re imitating Jay-Z and playing with baby alligators or partaking in an ass-slapping Fossean nightmare. And damn you Justin Timberlake for wearing a leotard and high heels almost as well as B. Enjoy: