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

Month: March 2011

How to make trolls behave

An interesting suggestion: Cognitive therapy.

Shlomi suggests that the often-suggested method of ignoring the trolls (often referred to as “don’t feed the trolls”) is not the way to go. Neither is criticism, calling for banning, or asking a troll to simply stop trolling. So what should you do? Ask questions to clarify (e.g “Why do you feel that Python is so bad? What do you find wrong with it?”), and kill with kindness (e.g. “It’s OK to prefer Perl, we’ll still accept you here.”). As frustrating as it may be to be nice to someone who isn’t, sometimes people just want to be heard and accepted.

I have a feeling this will not work so well here, but, good thought.

No, people, no.

Why is this a thing that keeps happening? Via The Indian Express, scientists in Germany have invented a robot with “model-like” looks.

The amazing hi-tech Artificial Intelligence Lightweight Android (AILA) robot, called fembot, can not only navigate, think for herself and lift heavy objects — but she also has got great hair, say its developers.

Well. The hair is the important thing. Also: fembot?

Firstly, people, it’s been done, and, secondly, more importantly, why would you want to do that at all? Why the need to gender robots? Surely it isn’t out of some misplaced desire to create a woman of your very own to mindlessly serve your every need? Oh. Wait. Such ideas, they are best placed far away from all women and, actually, anyone.

(Oh, Jill, I bet you thought I was joking when I said I was going to write a post about this.)

The 100th International Women’s Day!

It’s the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, and, to celebrate, I thought it would be an idea to read opinion pieces from women around the world on what IWD means in their contexts.

A disability services funding wishlist

Here in the state of New South Wales, Australia, we have an election coming up on 26 March, so help us all. The head of the state government, Premier Kristina Keneally of the Australian Labor Party, has pledged $30 million in disability services funding. She’s not going to be re-elected – I’ve never known an Australian government to be so widely despised – so it’s more of an exercise to maintain the last dregs of the public’s goodwill than anything. (If you’re wondering, her government has been plagued by so many scandals, ministerial resignations and schemes that fell through that it would be tempting to get out the popcorn and laugh were it not so serious.)

This is reminding me a bit of the federal election campaign last year, during which we had what I like to call “disability week”. Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Labor and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of the Coalition both mysteriously started to promise money to disability services, after a few days of which the issue dropped off the radar again. It was all great and feel-good, but not much has actually been happening for disabled Australians. I’m a bit reluctant to take Australian politicians at their word about this sort of thing, having been around during the years in which John Howard (George W. Bush’s friend, remember him?) was Prime Minister and funding for services used by disabled schoolchildren was drastically cut. This was at heartbreaking expense to people I care about, and for the development of programs helping those kids engage with such frivolities as “learning to read” and “adding and subtracting”. Who ever would want to use those skills?

Yeah, I’m bitter.

If you had millions of dollars to put towards disability services in a given part of the world, what would you do with them? Here are some of the uses to which I’d like more funding directed where I live. I have a hard time imagining that these are the uses to which Keneally’s funding – which, as I’ve noted, won’t materialise anyway – would be directed, but a lady can dream. Hopefully the forthcoming Premier, Barry O’Farrell of the opposition, will step up.

1. Proper care: I wish that everyone in need would have access to proper care, and that there were strict measures in place so that disabled people wouldn’t be subject to abuse, neglect, and assault at the hands of those working in the care sector. That should not be happening, and it definitely shouldn’t be covered up by the system.

2. Fair treatment of disabled people in the criminal justice system: The existence of disabled people in Australian prisons has been largely ignored until recent years, with a lot of damage as a result. The conflation of disability and criminality and difficulties navigating the legal system while disabled are cherries on top of the lack-of-adequate-care pie. I’ve just written a piece on this subject for Global Comment, as a matter of fact.

3. Violence against women: I’d like some attention paid to domestic violence against disabled women and girls in particular. In spite of this being a population particularly subject to domestic violence, there aren’t a whole lot of accessible shelters, nor do government campaigns against violence against women discuss how disabled women and girls are affected. There is barely any data available on sexual violence against women and girls with disabilities, even though we know that the rates must be heinous. I can only find one report examining this, and that’s a 2008 report from the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault. It blows my mind that this extremely vulnerable group of women are largely ignored by so-called feminist or women’s groups, and that governments just don’t seem to care.

4. Education: Well, we know how I feel about this. There isn’t enough funding for teachers and aides. Disabled students are denied access to private schools. Australian policy on tackling literacy and numeracy issues has changed enough times in the past ten years to make one’s head spin. And if there’s anything worse than a bad educational program or policy, it’s an inconsistent one that doesn’t allow anyone to learn anything before it changes all around again. It’s ludicrously bad. I’d like a thorough inquiry as to the state of education for disabled students, and I’d like the government to take the results on board and address the issues. (Unlike that time in 2005 where there was a decent report into literacy, the resultant plans from which were scrapped after we got a new federal Education Minister. I’m bitter. Really, really bitter.)

What would you add?

In the mean time, there’s some good news: it looks like, after years of pushing, Australia’s disability support scheme is getting closer to a complete overhaul. Let’s hope!

“Pro-life” anti-abortion laws mean that women are denied abortions and watch their babies die.

“The law worked as it was intended.”

Nebraska fully outlaws abortion after 20 weeks, even in cases where the baby will not survive after birth and the pregnancy is doomed. Danielle and Robb Deavers had such a pregnancy, and wanted to terminate it so that their baby wouldn’t suffer. They couldn’t, and Danielle had to continue the pregnancy and give birth. Then, they watched their baby die.

Danielle Deaver cradled her daughter, knowing the newborn’s gasps would slowly subside, and the baby would die.
…
Her baby tried desperately to inhale.

With her husband, Robb, at her side, Deaver sobbed, gently kissing her daughter’s forehead and hoping her baby wasn’t in pain. That fear – that the baby would suffer before its predestined death – compelled the couple to seek an abortion. But a new Nebraska law that limits abortion after the 20th week of gestation prevented her from getting one. The Iowa Legislature is considering a similar law.

A nurse at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in Hastings instructed the couple to closely monitor their daughter’s breathing so when it stopped the staff could accurately record the death.

The clock ticked.

At 3:15 p.m. Dec. 8, 1-pound, 10-ounce Elizabeth Deaver – named in memory of Robb’s grandmother – made one final attempt to breathe.

Her life struggle, 15 minutes outside the womb after 23 weeks and five days of gestation, was over.

“Our hands were tied,” Danielle Deaver said. “The outcome of my pregnancy, that choice was made by God. I feel like how to handle the end of my pregnancy, that choice should have been mine, and it wasn’t because of a law.”

“Pro-lifers,” including one Republican sponsoring a similar bill in Idaho, say this is a good outcome, and exactly how the bill is supposed to work:

“In life, amazing things happen,” Massie said, noting examples of when unborn children have beaten the odds of a dire medical prognosis. “I know it may be a one in a bazillion snowballs’ chance, but if I were that snowball, I’d want that chance.”

Amazing things do happen. And so do torturous, horrible and cruel things. What happened to the Deavers is the latter.

Where are you from? Part 2

Previously: Part 1.

Just asking some questions by way of bringing the thinking behind where one might be from to light…

How do you figure “fromness”? If you’re ever asked where you’re from, how do you answer?

Is it a matter of…
where you are?
where you’re a citizen?
where you identity as someone who belongs?
where you were born?
where your people are from?
where you’ve felt like you’ve belonged?
where you spent the longest stretches of time?

A year ago, following on from Jill’s 2007 post, I asked you ‘where you’re from and, if it differs, where you live’ in Feministe All Over the World Redux. With Lauren, we made a map of the most magical places we know, and with Ariel we plotted the places about which we feel strongly. For the posts Jill and I wrote, what kinds of thought processes went into responders’ determinations of where they’re from? For Lauren’s and Ariel’s, are those places ones we feel we can belong to, or belong to us, or do those magical and emotive qualities make them far off from “fromness”? Are the magical places of our lives, those invested with feeling, here, or where we’re “from,” or inevitably somewhere else? How do we value where we’re from, and where we are? Are our places beautiful or mundane?

“Fromness” doesn’t particularly need to be national, of course. Perhaps it’s about belonging to a specific region or town or even building. It doesn’t have to be about a place, even. Perhaps you’re from a group of people. Because the idea of home can be as much about people as place; with whom do you belong might even be more important than the where of it. Home is where the heart is, after all.

What’s important in determining where you’re from?

Allowing death row inmates to donate organs.

1. The death penalty is immoral, barbaric, cruel and unusual, and has no place in any civilized society. It’s shameful that we use it in the United States, and it should be shocking to anyone with a conscience and a moral center.

2. The United States has an ugly history of abusing inmates. We imprison about 1 in every 100 American citizens. We imprison more people than any other nation ever has in recorded history. Our prison system is out of control — it’s a cash cow, and it’s nearly its own private industry (with the bill footed by our tax dollars), and it exploits prisoners for free labor. We over-use punitive punishment for minor crimes. We certainly over-use the death penalty even for the most serious crimes.

3. However, our prison system exists, and the death penalty is (unfortunately) not going away any time soon. Given that, prisoners on death row should have the option — the totally freely-made opinion, without any incentives on either end — to donate their organs after death. That, of course, requires counseling, and it requires that they not receive any benefit for organ donation. But there’s no reason not to allow people on death row the choice to donate.

And this article is maybe the most intense thing you’ll read today.

Stepping backwards even as we step forwards

I read this piece in The New York Times, Women Fight to Maintain Their Role in the Building of a New Egypt by Sharon Otterman –

“The same men they were afraid to talk to in the streets were saying, ‘Bravo, the girls’ revolution,’” Ms. Hassan said.

– and was struck by the feeling of hope. There’s the sense that, yes, things are bad, things have been awful, and we are going to make things better.

And then I read Ivory Coast: Soldiers Open Fire on Women by Marco Chown Oved at Time:

The government of Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader said the country’s deepening political crisis has “crossed over to a new level of horror and barbarism” after soldiers backing his rival fatally shot six female demonstrators.

The world is full of ups and downs and horrors.

Checking in with the women of Kazakhstan

Well, the campaign for Kazakhstan’s 3 April election has just kicked off, and women are coming under the spotlight, too. In celebration of the country’s twentieth anniversary of independence, the First Congress of Kazakhstan Women has just taken place in the capital city, Astana. From Kazinform:

The event brought together about 1, 000 delegates from every region of the country. These are the representatives of state bodies, NGOs, social institutions, deputies of the Parliament, prominent public figures, renowned writers and singers, militaries, youth, sportswomen, etc.

Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev welcomed the Forum participants and congratulated the women of Kazakhstan on the forthcoming International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a public holiday in Kazakhstan! President Nazarbayev, according to RIA Novosti, added:

“I instruct the government, together with the Presidential administration and the national commission for women’s affairs, the leadership of the Nur Otan Party, to form a concrete plan effective to 2016 for the promotion of women in taking decisions,” he said at the first women’s congress in the traditionally male-dominated Central Asian country.

There are presently no female regional heads, and very few women in other governmental leadership positions. The idea is to bring more women into managerial roles and working with the forthcoming opening up of state-owned companies. Sounds good, would have sounded better if President Nazarbayev hadn’t followed his announcement up with ‘it’s not for nothing that they say that female intuition is sometimes stronger than logic.’

Also, check out this interview with Gulshara Abdykalikova, who is a government minister and chairs the National Commission for Women’s Affairs and Family Demographic Policy, on how the situation for women has evolved in the twenty years since independence.