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Read ‘Ems

Jill

Lots of good stuff to read today:

Three of my favorite political writers have pieces up on HuffPo today — Ari Melber on the influence (or lack of it) that Michael Moore’s Sicko will have at the polls, Bill Scher on Ann Coulter, and Ali Eteraz on American humanitarism. Ali writes:

The evolution of American Humanitarianism? There hasn’t been any. American humanitarianism started off as the handmaiden of colonialism and death, and it has remained that way. When will the American public, which in 2003 supported the war 3 to 1, and now opposes it almost 3 to 1, realize that every time US politicians cry humanitarianism, they are about to engage in a colonial enterprise that will lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of “savages.”

It’s not our TV’s and satellite dishes “they” hate us for. They’ve got those. They are concerned the US is going to come and “save” them.


Samhita at Feministing brings us the news that female Afghan journalists are targets of threats and violence.

BrownFemiPower has thoughts on the recent Supreme Court decision justifying segregated schools, and in particular the invocation of Martin Luther King, Jr. — and on just how offensive it is for conservative to pretend that King’s anti-racist work was for the benefit of white people. I will be writing more about the same issue later, but her take is excellent.

Anti-Essentialist Conundrum has an update and a call to action on behalf of the Jena Six. She also has a fantastic post up about white patriarchy and men of color — it’s a must-read.

No Snow Here, a blog I recently discovered that has quickly become one of my favorites, has a piece up asking, Do Arabs experience anti-Semitism? No Snow Here is one of the most powerful, intelligent and engaging writers I’ve ever come across, so I hope you’ll peruse the rest of her blog as well.

The teen birth rate is the lowest it’s been in 65 years. It’s still significantly higher than most other developed nations, but we should still be happy about this. The question now is what caused the decline — less sex or better contraception use? The answer is both. But the anti-condom brigade should take a look at the fact that the HIV/AIDS diagnosis rate for U.S. women rose 17 percent between 2001 and 2005, with African American women disproportionately affected.

Via Jezebel, Michelle Obama has announced that she is curtailing her professional life to campaign and to tend to her family — so that her 6- and 8-year-old daughters don’t end up “dancing on tabletops.” Ugh.

The right is attacking environmental pioneer Rachel Carson. They’re wrong.

Broadsheet brings us awesome news out of Nepal:

Nepal before 2002: With one of the world’s strictest abortion laws — outlawing the procedure entirely, and jail time for those even suspected of terminating a pregnancy — Nepal had one of Asia’s highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths. According to estimates, more than half of obstetric/gynecological hospital admissions were linked to complications from abortion. And in 2000, up to one-fifth of incarcerated women were said to be in jail for having sought an abortion.

Cut to today. Five years after Nepal’s Parliament voted to allow abortion under most circumstances up to 18 weeks’ gestation, international reproductive-rights organization Ipas reports that maternal mortality has plummeted. Dr. B.K. Subedi, director of Nepal’s Family Health Division, “has said that availability and use of safe abortion care might be one of the factors in the significant decrease.” The government, working with Ipas, has created an abortion-care model that “includes pre- and postabortion counseling as well as provision of contraceptives to prevent repeat unwanted pregnancies, throughout the country,” Ipas reports. “As of December 2006, 71 of Nepal’s 75 districts, even those in relatively remote regions, have trained abortion providers — a remarkable achievement of a national training program.” Indeed. Compare and contrast: Eighty-seven percent of U.S. counties lack abortion providers.

Not only is John Derbyshire a perv, he’s a racist ass.

The always-brilliant Digby on poor little victimized Ann Coulter.

A new TV show called “When Women Rule the World” is coming out soon. I have a feeling it’ll serve as a nice tale about everything that goes wrong when you give women power. Thanks to Jamie for the link.

In an effort to protect women from rape-related drugs, a Boston city councilor wants bars to cover drinks with plastic lids. Unfortunately, alcohol is the drug most commonly used in sexual assaults, so I don’t think the plastic lids will have much of an effect. Thanks to Greensmile for the link.

RH Reality Check has an awesome post up about the politics of childbirth, including midwifery and maternity care. Definitely worth a read.

Enjoy!

6 thoughts on Read ‘Ems

  1. Pingback: University Update - Sicko - Read ‘Ems

  3. In response to the blog post about the show where women rule:

    Hasn’t it already been proven that when men rule they fuck everything up royally? I mean…look who our President is!

    I remember someone making the comment that if a woman ruled everyone would attack us and that a woman couldn’t make the kind of decisions that a man makes. I debated that bastard down until he was throwing up a white flag because he had nothing worthwhile to say.

    They say women rulers would make all these mistakes. I say, name for me one male ruler that hasn’t made at least several mistakes during his rule. You can’t name a fucking one. But for some reason as a woman we aren’t allowed a mistake cause then we’re already called failures and everything else in the book.

    AAAAHHH!

  4. Gods damn it.

    This deal with Michelle Obama turning stay-at-home mom/campaign wife is having a significantly deleterious effect on Barrack Obama’s chances of getting my support. (By which, not having much of a say in the primaries, I mean my hope that such-and-such a candidate wins the nomination.)

    This campaign is going to turn ugly no matter what, with things set up to pit gender equality and racial equality against each other just by virtue of who the candidates are,* and feminism is going to take a heavy barrage of accusations that it’s undermining Black advancement in society. But at least Hillary doesn’t have a black man giving up his own life’s work to follow her around as unpaid support staff, the way Barrack appears to have a woman doing.

    I had high hopes for Barrack when it first came out that Michelle was facing pressure to drop her career and support her husband, that he would tell the critics to back off, that he would reject the imperative that a man running for President is entitled to a First Lady whose personal ambitions are sacrificed to the obligation of being wife-as-support-staff, and any woman who refuses to drop her independent work for her husband’s benefit is a selfish whore who is willfully sabotaging the campaign.

    It would only take a few words. Not even actions; Barrack could speak out against the pressure placed on Michelle to run with him for an office that only he would get, thank her for her sacrifice and her willingness to make it—make clear that it is her choice and not her duty—and just generally make it clear that the women’s movement should be an ally, not an enemy, both in the campaign and beyond it.

    I hope to hear it.

    *Yes, I know. Most of us are capable of voting based on political qualifications rather than solely on a vagina or skin-color litmus test, but it’s going to happen anyway;

  5. Via Jezebel, Michelle Obama has announced that she is curtailing her professional life to campaign and to tend to her family — so that her 6- and 8-year-old daughters don’t end up “dancing on tabletops.” Ugh.

    I hate to say it, but it was probably a good strategic decision. Hillary had to downplay her achievements when Bill was running (she was Hillary Rodham until 1991, when she finally added Clinton to her name), and the right wing was able to turn Teresa Heinz Kerry into a liability instead of the fabulous strong woman that she was. Not to mention that Howard Dean’s presidential chances really were hurt by the fact that his wife had a career as a physician that she would not give up.

    It sucks sucks sucks that they would even be forced to make this decision, and I hate that they made it, but, sadly, in this society, it was probably the right strategic decision to make.

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