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

Tag: Do Something

Event You Should Attend: Girls for Gender Equality 10th Anniversary

It’s Thursday June 14th from 6-9pm at the Brooklyn Historical Society, and it honors Anita Hill. Go! All proceeds will go directly to support GGE’s ongoing work, which includes sexual harassment training, youth leadership, and a wide variety of gender equality work. GGE is also doing a special “Phenomenal Women” tribute where smaller donors can give $50 to have a picture of a “phenomenal woman” in their life be a part of a slideshow at the event. And Feministing’s Vanessa Valenti will also be honored as “Gender Justice Warriors.” It sounds awesome and you should go.

Prison Time for Women Who Use the Morning After Pill

There is terrible legislation being considered in Honduras which would send women to jail if they use the morning after pill. There is no exception for victims of sexual assault. The global activist group Avaaz is sounding the alarm on this terrible legislation, which is being actively debated in the Honduran Congress and may be “just days away.”

Lessons Learned And Unlearned

I realized something recently. I realized something about rights, about oppression, and about voices—specifically, Native American voices.

I can already hear some of you exhaling in thought, shuffling through your memories, trying to recall a recent incident, a story in the news, a connection between this post about Native Americans and current events. There isn’t one. There isn’t one because stories of Native American hardship don’t get told very much. While headlines do occasionally appear, most people have never heard of the abject poverty suffered by the Attawapiskat, or the imprisonment of five Makah men for their participation in a traditional hunt, or of the state of South Dakota essentially kidnapping Crow Creek children from their community. Many of us carry out our lives completely unaware of what is going on just miles away from the communities that we know.

TOMORROW: SlutWalk NYC

SlutWalk NYC LogoI will be there, and so will thousands of other folks. Sign-making starts at 11am in Union Square, and the march starts from the same place at noon. Come in your sluttiest. I will be wearing my usual weekend slut uniform of a t-shirt and jeans or maybe a strapless romper, because I don’t care what Salamishah Tillet says THEY ARE NOT DATED (her entirely incorrect position on rompers aside, the rest of that article is quite excellent and you should read it).

Also check out Lori’s very powerful post on why she’s marching, and Nancy Schwartzman.

A first-hand account of Occupy Wall Street violence

Photo of Occupy Wall Street protestors. Some were sprayed with mace, and others are helping them.

My name is Kelly Schomburg, I’m the girl with the red hair in these pictures. I was protesting at the Occupy Wall Street march yesterday when I and several other women were sprayed with mace and subsequently arrested. Many have already seen the video, which has been spreading like wildfire over twitter, Facebook, tumblr, and other video feeds, along with hundreds of other photos and videos. This is my recount of what happened.

I started off the march at noon with all the others, and we marched from Liberty Plaza all the way to Union Square. We were blocked off by policemen at times, but the majority of us sought to avoid any conflict and keep moving. We took up the sidewalks and the streets. We chanted. We were heard.

Read it all here.

Dining for Women

A young fistula patient lays in bed. She is looking at the camera and smiling slightly.

Another great event in NYC: Dining For Women, a movie screening and reception to benefit the Fistula Foundation. From their press release:

NEW YORK CITY – The two New York City chapters of Dining for Women are partnering with Mount Sinai’s student chapter of Physicians for Human Rights to host a movie screening and reception to benefit Dining for Women and the Fistula Foundation on Friday, September 23rd, from 6pm – 9pm at the Goldwurm Auditorium in Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Icahn Institute (1425 Madison Ave @ E. 98th St.)

This event features the New York City screening of the documentary, A Walk to Beautiful, which tells the story of five Ethiopian women suffering from obstetric fistula: the incredible struggle the condition entails, and the arduous journey the women undertake to seek a cure and to reclaim their dignity and their lives.

The film features the work of the Fistula Foundation and Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The mission of the Fistula Foundation is to raise awareness of and funding for fistula treatment, prevention, and education programs worldwide. What is obstetric fistula? It is the most devastating of all childbirth injuries – an internal injury caused generally by days of unrelieved obstructed labor. Without timely medical intervention – such as a c-section – to relieve the pressure of the baby’s head against the mother’s pelvis, tissue dies and the woman is left incontinent. Founded in 2000, the Fistula Foundation has grown to help women in 13 countries.

The NYC chapters of Dining for Women are proud to host this event and especially pleased to welcome Marsha Wallace, Founder and President of Dining for Women, and Gail Smith-Peay, Executive Director of Dining for Women. Marsha Wallace founded Dining for Women in 2003 with one chapter in South Carolina. Since that time, it has developed into an international, nonprofit organization of over 200 chapters. Dining for Women is a dinner giving circle, which meets monthly to fund grass-roots programs in education, healthcare, vocational training, micro-credit loans and economic development. These programs are aimed to improve the living situations for women and their families, by providing the tools they need to make changes.

The event doors opens at 6pm, and the keynote addresses will begin at about 6:15, followed immediately by the screening. After the film has screened, there will be a short Q&A featuring members of the production staff—one of whom is a DFW chapter member!—and additional guests. A suggested entry fee of $10 will go to benefit DFW’s operating costs, and additional donations will be accepted to benefit the Fistula Foundation. To reserve your spot, please visit http://benefit2011dfw.eventbrite.com/ and RSVP by Friday, 9/16.

For more information about the Fistula Foundation, visit www.fistulafoundation.org.
For more information about Dining for Women, visit www.diningforwomen.org.

It will be a fantastic event for a fantastic cause. Learn more about Dining for Women and the Fistula Foundation, and then RSVP for the event.

Go see The Interrupters

I caught this new documentary by Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) & Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) during its sold-out run at the Siskel Center last week.

Trailer: The Interrupters

Imagine walking down a street where everyone is armed – with guns, rocks, knives – and a fight is breaking out. Imagine walking into the middle of that fight armed with nothing but your own love, your own courage, about 40 hours of conflict and anger management training, and the lessons of your own violent past. Imagine pulling the participants apart, listening to their grievances, and talking them into being a little bit better than they think they can be, and if you do your work right – if you can listen hard enough and love hard enough – maybe no one dies today. That’s what the Violence Interrupters of CeaseFire do. They are former violent criminals who are trained to defuse violent situations in their communities. Their criminal pasts lend them insight, wisdom, and instant respect and credibility in the communities they work in. It helps that the three Interrupters the filmmakers follow closely (Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams, and Eddie Bocanegra) are also people of great personal charisma and honesty.

If you want a traditional, official film review, check out the AV Club review and Roger Ebert’s Sun Times review.

If you want a messy personal story with some flailing about and crying, keep on reading.

Read More…Read More…

Kansas Should Serve as a Warning to Virginia Women

This is a guest post by Dr. James Kenley.
These regulations, which demanded precise sizes for janitorial closets, no-variance room temperatures, and other ridiculous requirements, were purportedly established to protect the health and safety of women, but in truth had one and only one purpose: to shut down the three existing abortion facilities in the state.