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

Month: December 2009

Abuse of Pregnant Prisoners Goes Beyond Shackling During Labor

We’ve written here at Feministe before about the common practice of U.S. prisons shackling pregnant prisoners in while they are in labor. And despite the increased recognition that such treatment is inhuman, it’s one that has not entirely ceased.

Now an article over at Alternet (originally published at The Nation) gives us awful if not hugely shocking news: shackling during labor isn’t the only atrocious and dangerous treatment that pregnant prisoners are receiving. Rather, many have been undergoing abuse at the hands of the prison system for months:

When women are brought to a hospital in shackles, the pain and humiliation they endure likely caps months of difficulty from being pregnant behind bars, months without adequate prenatal care or nutrition, or even basics like a bed to sleep on or clothes to accommodate their changing shape.

The lack of common sense and compassion with which imprisoned pregnant women are treated is chilling. Three stories illustrate the dangers women face when they cannot get anyone to take their medical needs seriously.

First, some women are not taken to the hospital until after they have already given birth, despite having informed staff members that they are in labor. Women wind up giving birth in their cells with the assistance of a nurse, corrections officer or cellmates. Others give birth in their cells with nobody to help. Both situations endanger the woman and her baby. Nineteen-year-old Terra K. screamed, pounded on the door and asked for the nurse in the Dubuque County Jail in Iowa, only to give birth alone in her cell. Afterward she asked, “How does somebody have a baby in jail without anybody noticing?”

The article tells the equally distressing story of a woman whose fetus died in utero due to a lack of needed medical care, only to have prison officials then delay getting the dead fetus removed from her body, as well as that of a woman who miscarried as a result of an assault by other prisoners, and who ended up requiring surgery and a blood transfusion because prison officials refused to take her to the hospital in a timely manner.

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SYTYCD Finale Open Thread

We don’t get that many comments in the SYTYCD show posts, but I figured I should start an open thread for the finale so that no spoilers are posted on the other posts.

So if you haven’t watched, do not enter the comments because this is a Spoiler-Filled Zone.

Everyone else, have at it! What did you think of the judges’ favorite dances? What’s with all the musical performances? And, of course, were you happy with the winner?

Story Time: Business or Pleasure

It’s time for a story! We’ll call this one “Business or Pleasure.”

I’m at a networking type of event, trying to schmooze, get business cards, that whole bit. I meet a couple of interesting people but move on to the next, as these things go. Next up is a man. He sees me and walks up to me and starts chatting. It’s the usual “so what do you do, where do you work, how’d you hear about this event,” nothing suspicious. Then it turns out that one area of expertise I have is something he needs for his business. Cool, right? Because who doesn’t want to do something they love and get paid for it for some extra income. Awesome.

You keep talking and now it’s more friendly conversation. Where are you from (which in this case meant nationality… you never really know in NY), what’s there to do for fun in NY, do you go out dancing? Because I love going out dancing, you should come.

Wait, what?

So now I’m starting to wonder, is this guy just really friendly and recognizing what an awesome person I am? Or is he not at all serious about needing my expertise and just trying to hit on me?

I sort of presume the former and carry on as normal, but it’s really been bugging me ever since. I don’t usually assume the worst in people, but it really made me think. I mean, I’m at an event, I look nice (if I do say so myself), I’ve got makeup on and heels and everything… How the hell am I supposed to know if a man is actually interested in doing business with me and not just hitting on me?

This is all too confusing. It’s enough to make me want to stay home instead.

(Cross-posted at Jump off the Bridge.)

NY Governor Extends Protections to Transgender State Employees

Today, New York Governor David Paterson signed an executive order barring discrimination against state employees on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. Seeing the high numbers of transgender people who report discrimination in the workplace, this is great news for those current and future employees who will be affected.

But it’s also only a first step in the right direction. While New York is now ahead of many states, it’s also really behind many others:

While supporters of transgender legal protections said they were encouraged by Mr. Paterson’s order, they noted that New York was not a pioneer in extending such rights.

“It has been a long road, and I think New York is behind,” said Dru Levasseur, a transgender rights attorney for Lambda Legal. “So this will bring New York up to par with other states that are taking the lead on workplace fairness.”

Twelve states and the District of Columbia have broad laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender expression or identity, according to gay and transgender rights groups. In addition, more than 100 cities and counties across the country provide similar legal protections

Indeed, just within the state, New York City, Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, Rochester, Westchester County and Tompkins County already have workplace discrimination laws applying to trans people in place.

Further, the executive order only applies to state employees, because a law is required to extend those same protections to all workers in New York. What is truly needed is the passage of GENDA, an anti-discrimination bill affecting trans New Yorkers that the legislature has allowed to languish for several years — or, as many would argue, a revamped version of GENDA that doesn’t risk causing as many problems as it solves. (Better yet, an inclusive ENDA would extend workplace protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation to all employees across the United States.)

In other words, it’s great news that Governor Paterson finally got around to doing this. But he and the rest of New York’s elected officials still have significantly harder work ahead of them.

Media Critic Calls for End of Media Criticism and/or Feminists

Oh, good. I was wondering when someone would publish an article with this headline! Again!

Has Feminism Gone Too Far?

Now: careful readers will note that this is a post on The Frisky, to which I have contributed in the past. Careful readers should also be informed that I like The Frisky, and have had only remarkably pleasant interactions with those who work there. However! I need to say something here.

Because the post is by Susannah Breslin. And, by “feminism,” she apparently means the blog Jezebel, or perhaps this one post that was on Jezebel, which was about a Gap Kids commercial. And by “gone too far,” she means “put forth an opinion with which Susannah Breslin disagreed.” Yes, it’s true: the blog Jezebel did in fact put forth an opinion with which Susannah Breslin apparently disagreed, this one time, in this one post. For the record, I kind of disagreed with that one post that one time as well! But whether this is, in fact, conclusive evidence as to the too-far-gone-ness of the entirety of feminism is where Breslin and I, apparently, disagree. But never mind! Big conclusions! Narrow-ass case study! GUARANTEED BLOG-FODDER PAGEVIEW GOLD!!!

So, the post in question argued that the little girls who danced in a Gap Kids ad were oversexualized. Having seen the ad, I think this is maybe not so much the case! I just see some kids dancing. However, here are the conclusions which Breslin invites us to draw:

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Prodigal

Michael Penner committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. I found out about it when this post was linked off of one of our Self-Promotion Sundays.

It is normally wrong to refer to a trans person’s assigned-gendered past as though it lay at the foundation of life, or to place so much emphasis on becoming rather than being. It negates a lived reality, and forces a trans person to bear the burden of marginalization. It fragments a life, and implies that fragmentation is the only way to conceive of a life in or through transition.

Michael Penner’s story is unusual. Michael Penner was a well-known sports writer who worked for the LA Times for more than a quarter-century. In 2007, Michael Penner became Christine Daniels. After coming out, he worked to educate people through his column and other venues. In October 2008, Michael Penner began publishing articles under the Michael Penner byline, although he never wrote the re-transition version of the coming-out article he wrote when he became Christine Daniels. A couple of weeks ago, Michael Penner killed himself.

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That’s some “conscience”

A nurse at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York was reportedly forced to assist in an emergency second-trimester abortion, and is now suing. Predictably, the right is flipping out, and even blaming Obama. According to the story, which I can only find one version of (and that’s through an anti-choice Catholic news agency which bases the whole article on a lawsuit filed by an anti-choice organization), a woman came into the emergency room and had to have an emergency abortion — she was a “category II” patient, which means that the surgery had to happen within six hours. Details are spare, but according to the article — which only gets the nurse’s side of the story — the nurse was told that she had to assist in the abortion or she would be charged with insubordination and patient abandonment. She assisted, and now she is suing.

So, first, let me say that I don’t buy this article at face value and neither should you. But it’s an interesting story nonetheless, because it brings up a lot of the problems with conscience clause legislation. I happen to think that workplace accommodation for religious, moral or other belief is a good thing. I don’t think that nurses should generally be forced to assist in abortions if it violates a strongly-held religious belief. I think employers should do their best to make accommodations for a religious employee observing the Sabbath or important holidays. I think if someone voices a serious moral or ethical concern with working on a particular project, their employer should make the best effort to put someone else on.

But all ideals have edges, and I draw the line when you’re a health care worker and someone is dying in front of you. Should the hospital have done its damndest to find a different nurse to help out? Yes. Should it have tried to assemble a team of people who are actually interested in saving a dying woman instead of prioritizing her fetus? Yes. But have any of you been to an emergency room lately, or worked in one? Sometimes there just aren’t other staff members to be found, and in the meantime someone is seriously ill or dying. To have a nurse just standing there is pretty atrocious.

Cassy Fiano, the blogger at HotAir, has this to say:

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Casual Sex Officially Not End of Entire World, Scientists Find

Oh, my goodness! You guys! Look at this exciting SCIENCE FACT I just learned recently!

Casual Sex Doesn’t Cause Emotional Damage: Study

Wha-wha-WHAAAAAAAAT? Oh, man! This is just like the time that I learned you could have an abortion without crying over it and posting blogs on anti-choice websites about the Lessons You’ve Learned every day! Or that time someone figured out that menstrual cramps weren’t actually entirely made up by my wacky incompetent girl-brain! EVERYTHING I KNOW IS WRONG. Whatever shall I do now? Oh, right, quote the study at you:

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Pens Without Men

It seems that James Chartrand of Men with Pens is not, in fact, a man. He is actually a woman with a pen name. Because… wait for it… being a woman writer was making her no money!

Well, I would just like to say I’m SHOCKED!

In that I would like to think these things never happen but I know they do. Every day. So I’m actually totally not shocked.

I learned of this through MediaBistro, where they actually were shocked that a woman writer would not make as much as a man:

But this is 2009, and men still make more than women—double or triple in James’ case?

There are no words.

Which is weird, because the sentence right before it references George Eliot and “even JK Rowling,” who was encouraged to publish with gender-neutral initials rather than her real name Joanne because apparently boys don’t read books (even fantasy) written by women. But, you know, Harry Potter only came out a decade ago, so that seems a bad example.

At any rate, I’m thinking I’ll change my current pen name into something totally awesome. Suggestions?