January 2009 – Page 11

Ledbetter passes the House!

Woo! Suck it, U.S. Chamber. A vote’s expected next week in the week in the Senate, so don’t forget to make your calls, if you haven’t already. I know a few folks commented the other day that they called Congress for the first time ever, and that’s seriously fantastic. I can’t stress enough how important it is. Trust me, I understand – I don’t even like to call pizza places, so I get it might be nerve wracking to call a senator’s office. But listen. All they want to hear is, “My name is Rachel and I’m an Ohio voter.* I’m calling to urge the senator to support the Paycheck Fairness Act and Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Thank you.” Voice of the people!

From RH Reality Check:

In the spring of 2007, the Supreme Court told Lilly Ledbetter, a twenty-year employee of Goodyear Tire in Alabama, that if she wanted to take legal action against the wage discrimination she had suffered, she should have filed a complaint within 180 days of the first discriminatory paycheck she received. Since she hadn’t, she had no standing to recover decades of lost wages. The Supreme Court did not make it clear how Ledbetter was supposed to have known that she was being discriminated against after only 180 days on the job, seeing that Goodyear forbade employees from discussing their salaries, and Ledbetter only found out years later, thanks to an anonymous note.

Today Congress took a step toward correcting that injustice. The House passed both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, restoring and establishing basic protections for employees who are subject to wage discrimination. The Ledbetter Act repeals the 180 day requirement, while the Paycheck Fairness Act protects employees from retaliation by employers if they bring complaints and allows them to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. With news today that unemployment this month has hit 7.2%, a 16-year high, any protections for workers are welcome.

The Senate is expected to take up the equal pay legislation next week. House supporters of the legislation predicted that it could be among the first bills President-elect Obama signs into law.

*I’m actually a DC voter, but see, since we don’t have senators…

Friday Random Ten – the Chop’t edition

You know the drill: Set your MP3 player to shuffle and post the first 10 songs that come up:

1. Jans Lekman- Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
2. Radiohead – Scatterbrain
3. Roots – Nothing New
4. Death Cab for Cutie – 405
5. Timbaland and Magoo – Up Jumps Da Boogie
6. Cat Power – After It All
7. Spoon – I Could Be Underground
8. Amr Diab – We Hikaytak Aih
9. The Notwist – Off the Rails
10. Silver Jews – Albemarle Station

No video this week because I am feeling lazy. Feel free to post some in the comments. And in case you were wondering, this week is the Chop’t edition because my kittens are getting their balls cut off on Wednesday. Aww.

Reconsidering the Black Single Mother Argument

A great essay on what is really at the center of hatred directed toward black single mothers, single mothers in general, and other non-nuclear families, by BlackScientist, especially with arguments like this one threatening to break into the media narrative again:

I want to point out that nuclear black families do exist, and have in the past, alongside other family arrangements. Before Moynihan declared in 1965 that the problem with black america was that “nearly one-quarter of negro births are… illegitimate,” and “almost one-fourth of negro families are headed by females,” 74 percent of all black families were maintained by a husband and wife, and 22 percent were headed by women. Interestingly, by 1982, almost two decades after the implementation of policy that followed his report, black families maintained by married couples had dropped down to 55 percent, and single mother households rose to 41 percent.

The principal problem with the argument that intergenerational crime and poverty are due to the prevalence of single black mother households (aside from its sexist undertones) is that it centers blame on the family structure itself — which is queer — as opposed to the state-sponsored hostility that incriminates that family structure and makes it so difficult for single-mother households to survive. The fact of the matter is, through policy, the nation-state systematically discriminates against single-mother households and other queer domesticities that are not husband-wife-child. There are federal and state policies that not only encourage marriage, but also actively discourage other forms of love and commitment by granting multiple economic and legal privileges to married couples.

You must read the rest.

(via)

Targetmania

You know, things can get hectic over the holidays. There’s a lot to do, people are out of town, there are holiday parties to go to. You get stomach flu, you throw your back out, and your father starts calling you and talking about how his second marriage is in trouble and your twelve-year-old sister is anxiously cleaning everything in the house. (Oh wait, that last sentence is just me… uh, never mind.)

But there’s still no excuse for this grave oversight: in violation of our Official Blog Charter, we somehow forgot to post several of Sarah Haskins’ “Target: Women” videos, all about the lessons we women can learn from advertising. And movies too! Movies about vampires!

I’m sorry, this will never happen again. More videos after the jump.

Paris Hilton is like a brand-new Prada purse

And you should be too!

“I’ve only ever done it with a couple of people. People make up stories, but mostly I just kiss. I think it’s important to play hard to get. Nobody wants the fake Prada bag – they want the brand new bag that no one can get and is the most expensive. If you give it up to a guy he won’t respect you. He’ll want you much more if he can’t have you.”

(From here, but I would suggest not going).

Where to start? I suppose the obvious place would be, “Don’t you mean that nobody wants a used Prada bag?” Because I’m pretty sure that women who have had multiple partners don’t hand their husband a fake vagina on their wedding night. But maybe Paris knows something I don’t. And people do pay a lot of vintage these days.

There is a sweet irony in Paris becoming something of an abstinence-only spokeswoman. Her Prada bag fits right in with the peppermint patties, roses, band-aids, and cups of spit used to represent women’s bodies in abstinence-only classrooms, where we teach kids not only that having sex makes you a big dirty whore, but we have to trick men into marriage by tempting them with an expensive, brand-new hymen in a vacuum-sealed vadge — a vadge that can be all theirs for a one-time payment of a big diamond ring (at no less than three months’ salary).

Maybe Paris has a future doing abstinence workshops.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the link.

2008 Weblog Awards

Note: This post has been moved up so that you don’t forget to vote (every 24 hours). Some new blogs have been listed, and most of the ones we’ve highlighted here are lagging behind in the vote — and I know that if the Feministe community pulls together with a few minutes of their time, we can give them a huge boost!

The 2008 Weblog Awards are upon us, and are the biggest blog competition currently in existence.

A lot of excellent feminist blogs have made the cut this year. Below is a list of the feminist/feminist-minded bloggers who are finalists. As Lauredhel (writer for nominated blog Hoyden About Town) said in an email to me, it makes sense to make a concentrated effort to ensure that feminist blogs are represented among this year’s winners — particularly considering that there are several misogynistic/MRA blogs on the finalist list.

Voting opened today. Click here to vote. (Or click on each category header below.) You can vote in each category once very 24 hours — and can therefore vote for more than one blog in each category, if you so choose. Voting closes at Polls close Monday January 13, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). All of the other rules are here.

The feminist blog nominees are below.* The header links take you to the voting pages for each category; the blog links take you to the blogs themselves.

Best Individual Blogger

Lindsay Beyerstein – Majikthise

Best Liberal Blog

Shakesville

Best LGBT Blog

Transgriot
Pam’s House Blend
The Bilerico Project

Best Parenting Blog

Looky, Daddy!

Best Medical/Health Issues Blog

Stirrup Queens
Autism Vox

Best Religious Blog

Dervish

Best Literature Blog

Diary of a Heretic

Best Diarist

Dooce
Blue Girl in a Red State (Blue State)

Best Middle East or Africa Blog

Muslimah Media Watch

Best Australia or New Zealand Blog

The Dawn Chorus
Zoe Brain

Best Very Large Blog (Authority Between 501 and 1,000)

BitchPHD
Pandagon

Best Large Blog (Authority Between 301 and 500)

Mombian

Best Midsize Blog (Authority Between 201 and 300)

Hoyden About Town
The Sideshow

Best Small Blog (Authority Between 101 and 200)

Black Women, Blow the Trumpet!

Best Hidden Gem (Authority Between 50 and 0)

Zuky

As I do not read every blog under the face of the sun (in fact, some of the list is taken from suggestions by Lauredhel), I assure you that I have not deliberately snubbed anyone. If an applicable finalist is left off of this list, my sincere apologies — please let me know in the comments, and I’ll happily add it!

Again, click here to vote!

—

*In addition to using a somewhat flexible definiton of “feminist blog” to include those that are not necessarily and entirely about feminism but also those that are written by feminists and/or espouse many feminist ideas, I hope it goes without saying that in making this list, it does not mean an endorsement of every word ever written on each of these blogs either by myself or Feministe.

From Yes Means Yes: The Not-Rape Epidemic

Latoya at Racialicious posts her fabulous essay from Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape. (Full disclosure: Cara and I both contributed to the anthology). I’m really proud to have an essay in a collection as insightful and ground-breaking as Yes Means Yes. I will say — and I do not mean this self-depricatingly, just honestly — that my essay is probably one of the least personal and most cursory and broad in the anthology. Most the essays in the collection either focus on one topic in a new and interesting way — like Cara’s, which discusses sex education and its ideal role in combating sexual violence — or they use personal experience to draw broader political and social conclusions.

Latoya’s essay is the latter, and is, in my opinion, one of the best in the book. She’s even gotten New York Times coverage for it (although I’m apparently a little dull — I don’t get how her blog’s name is “unintentionally ironic.” Anyone care to explain?). I’m a huge fan of Latoya’s writing generally, so when I finally got my copy of Yes Means Yes, her piece was one of the first I flipped to. And it’s one that I keep coming back to, and turning over in my head. I haven’t had experiences exactly like Latoya, and yet there’s a familiarity to what she writes about, an undercurrent of truth that I read and just get. There’s that deep-in-the-bones understanding that, too often, is shared only between close friends talking about “something that happened” and not quite having the words to describe it; Latoya’s essay completes sentences where many women, included myself, have trailed off.

Many of the Yes Means Yes writers managed to put words to often-silenced experiences, or experiences for which many of us lacked a vocabulary and a space to be heard. So when Latoya writes:

Without these words, those experiences feed off each other, perpetuating a culture of silence and allowing these attacks to continue.

With the proper tools, we equip our girls to speak of their truth and to end the silence that is complicit in rape culture.

I feel like yes, finally, this is what matters.

Head over and check out her essay. And if you like it and you’re looking for a good read, pick up Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape. There’s also a Yes Means Yes blog that you can check out here.

Palestinian Woman Confronts Israeli Army

Via Juan Cole comes this video of a Palestinian women from the U.S. putting her life on the line by standing up to the Israeli army firing (what are likely but not necessarily rubber bullets) at demonstrating Palestinian adolescents.

The woman is being identified as peace activist Huwaida Arraf. As BFP notes, it’s unclear when this video was taken — during the current attack on Gaza, or earlier last year — but I agree with her that it speaks volumes, as do her repeated statements of the obvious: “you’re shooting at kids.”

I think that one comment at Juan Cole’s summed up my reaction well:

What strikes me in this is how casual the soldiers are as the aim and prepare to fire. Clearly they are in no imminent danger — as they are being confronted by the brave girl, they are not taking cover behind rocks or barriers. They are standing in the open, up straight, on top of a rock in one case, and carefully taking aim to fire at the demonstrators. Their body language is clear — they are not afraid for their own well-being. And yet, absent this girl’s intervention, they seem to have no reservation about casually firing into a crowd that poses no threat to them.

Another commenter asks how she was just allowed to get away with pushing down a soldier’s gun and standing in front of it (and whether she actually did once the camera went away): the camera, her sex, her accent/nationality, her English?

It’s a good question, and the answer is unclear. But I’m still moved and astounded by her bravery, and I just had to share.

The Great American Condom Campaign

I like it already. The Great American Condom Campaign has paired up with Advocates for Youth and Trojan to distribute one million condoms to college and university campuses around the country. You want some? Yeah you do.

Individuals or groups who submit an application with a distribution plan will be eligible to receive a box of 500 condoms for the spring 2009 semester. (No, you’re not just stashing them under your bed, cheeky monkeys.) They’re focusing their efforts on schools where access to condoms is limited.

Click here for more information, or join their fan page on Facebook.

Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis through January 25th, 2009. The sooner you apply, if you’re accepted, the more likely they’ll be able to get condoms to you by Valentine’s Day.

Risky abortions, for privacy’s sake

Dominican women in New York commonly turn to ulcer medication and other off-label meds to induce abortion privately. The article is an interesting one because it reveals how reproductive justice isn’t just about rights and liberties; it’s about expanding that framework to make sure that everyone has equal access to health care, and that such care meets both individual and cultural needs.

Researchers studying the phenomenon cite several factors that lead Dominican and other immigrant women to experiment with abortifacients: mistrust of the health-care system, fear of surgery, worry about deportation, concern about clinic protesters, cost and shame.

“It turns an abortion into a natural process and makes it look like a miscarriage,” said Dr. Mark Rosing, an obstetrician at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx who led the 2000 study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. “For people who don’t have access to abortion for social reasons, financial reasons or immigration reasons, it doesn’t seem like this horrible thing.”

Ms. Dominguez, for her part, said she had no insurance or money to pay for an abortion, and could not fathom getting one for fear her mother would find out. One of her friends had spent $1,200 on an abortion that left her with a uterine infection, and another friend endured the procedure without anesthesia, she said. In addition, Washington Heights is a tightknit community where abortion — as well as birth control — is shunned; if Ms. Dominguez were spotted entering a clinic, rumors could fly.

“There are scary moments, and you got to have a friend right next to you,” said Ms. Dominguez, now 30 and a mother of four. “It’s cheap but dangerous. Certain people are more delicate than others. But afterwards, I felt relief.”