[nohope]

today I have three outrages to report. All from todays Democricy now show with Amy Goodman

Outrage 1.
High School Students Suspended for “Vagina Monologues” Performance
Back in the United States, a reading of the play “The Vagina Monologues” has led to the suspension of three female high school students in upstate New York. The students at John Jay High were suspended for including the word ‘vagina’ in their performance.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/08/1442255


Outrage 2.
Sexual Assault Within US Military
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/08/1443232

Outrage 3.
Gender Stereotyping in Media for Children
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/08/1443236

[candycane_girl]

Ugh, I was never a fan of Avril to begin with. Something about her just seems really fake.

As for the fake nipple piercing...I don't even know what to say about that.

[girltrouble]

mmmm, not really a fan of avril. but she got her start doing a shania twain song, then became "punk rock" so she stood out from the blondes of britney and xtina. so i'm not suprized she's doing the gwen thing. hell who isn't? fergie's got her little latinas in tow to counter gwen's little asians. ugh.


as for the pierced nipples, transvestites and cross dressers buy those. along with the fake boobs that are linked on the bottom of the page.

[LoveMyPugs]

WTF happened to Avril Lavigne?

I just watched her old video I'm With You and then I saw she had a new one named Girlfriend so I watched that. Boy has she changed. She's following the Gwen path isn't she? Disapointing...

[punkerplus]

*snort* at the nipples.

These men (boys? pigs? arseholes?) are future lawyers. I mean really. What the fuck.

http://feministing.com/archives/006649.html#more

[LoveMyPugs]

Do I post this in here? If so I only have three words...

WHAT THE FUCK??

I'm thinking about getting my nipples pierced so I'm doing some research online and I come across this shit. I've seen it all now.

[hoosierman78]

They must not have heavily advertised Running For President Barbie, because if they had, my little sisters would have had one. Our basement (aka kids play area) looked like the Tazmanian Devil tore through the Barbie section at Toys R Us.

My wife was recently a victim of the 'primary breadwinner' pay issue. She was the accounting manager at a small contractor. She was paid alright, fairly in line with what the other members of management made. This was until the service manager quit to start his own company. They hired a guy that had formerly been a sales rep, and paid him basically 75% more than anyone but the CEO. Discussing pay was a big no-no, but being in accounting, she saw everyone's paychecks. Time came for her review (which, the CEO had previously told her would get her more 'in-line' with where she should be) and he gave her a 10% raise. Normally good, but no where near where the other guy was. The reason she was given: 1. they had to woo the guy to leave commission sales and become salaried, 2. he had a family to support. She turned in her two weeks later that day, and was made even happier in her decision to leave due to her replacement being hired in at the same pay level she was at, though he had no relevant experience at all (he, afterall, had a family to support).

She's in the middle of starting up her own printing company right now, and couldn't be happier. No, she won't make as much at first, but she will directly be compensated for all the hard work she's putting in.

Up until this all happened, I questioned just how common this practice was, given that I had worked for 3 different large companies and never saw it. Pay was almost military-like in you started at a certain level, based on how much experience you had relevant to the job. Starting pay at that level was the same for everyone. Do ok, you get promoted a level every few years, and the years you don't standard cost of living increase. Promotions were based on multiple things, but in the end, it came down to overall performance. There was no favoritism that I could see based on gender. The slackers - male & female - moved horizontally in the company (or were terminated). Those that did well were promoted. After this happened to my wife, I realized that the majority of people don't work for Fortune 500 size companies. They work in small businesses where the good ole' boy network is still very alive and well.

With all the efforts to get women more involved in traditionally male dominated careers (construction, engineering, etc), I can see why so many women don't want to. Why go through the rigors of a technical degree only to find that your efforts won't pay off the same as your male counterpart that probably didn't do as well as you did. Maybe it's just my being naive, but I will never understand how a person's value can be determined by what's between their legs (or their skin color, sexual orientation, etc). I just don't get what the hell some of these guys are thinking sometimes.

[doodlebug]

I had no idea about Running-for-President Barbie. Why didn't they just make her President Barbie and get folks used to the idea???

I've heard from lots of women about making less money than men in the past based on the whole "primary breadwinner" logic...but I think it's the same logic that keeps women from getting their wage equity rights met even now. And I read a survey once that said people still tend to tip men more than women - even when they are doing the same job - because of the "primary breadwinner" logic.

But here's the one that kills me. About five years ago, a friend of mine became disabled on the job, and spent 2 years going around and around with Worker's Comp....in the end, they decided she was only worth $75 in benefits a week...based solely on the logic that she hadn't been the "primary breadwinner!!!!" Can you believe it?? WCB is a government body! (Meanwhile, her husband, the so-called "primary breadwinner," was diagnosed with MS during the middle of her fight for Worker's Comp.)

My mom said in the '50s and '60s, women weren't allowed to wear pants to the office.

I don't even own a skirt.

I don't know how it went down in the U.S., but in Canada, only white women won the vote in 1918. People of colour - male and female (and not including Aboriginal people) - didn't get the vote until after WWII, after Canadians of colour had "proven" themselves in the war. And Aboriginal people - male and female - didn't get the right to vote until 1960. Shameful, huh?

[greenbean]

hey No Plastic,...sorry I'm late to the party here but you should read chapter 10 from "The Hearts of Men". It reveals that in 1982(!) there were many, many women who voted against the ERA (equal rights amendment). The main reason being that they feared "the difference between the sexes would be abolished by law" and it would "abrogate the laws that require men to support their families" (eventhough these so-called laws are really just tradition and/or wishful thinking). The antifeminist idea was that if some women are going to go off and make money for themselves, why on earth would men choose a woman who wants to be a housewife (aka leech)? The funny thing is, anti-feminist women are really distrusting of men, so its ironic that its the feminists that are labeled as "man-haters".

The chapter also discusses how many suffragettes were fighting to be able to vote because they were for prohibition and stricter laws binding men to their role as breadwinners. Interesting, no?

[girltrouble]

a gwb bumper sticker that read " 'W' stands for Women.

*gak* i think i just threw up a bit in my mouth--- again!

it's topics like this that make me realize exactly how much sway the republicans have in this country. seriously why on earth would any sane person be afraid of calling themself a feminist, were it not for the rabid right working overtime to make something so positive-- an opressed minority group of people being treated equal-- so supposedly terrifying. it's that kind of creeping seeping propagandistic backlash that they do so well. it just reeks of that same sort of irrational logic that turned "politically correct" from such a beautiful, revolutionary educational idea into a knee jerk reactionary catch all.

[crazyoldcatlady]

i have no problem identifying myself as a feminist. in fact, since i believe all women and men should be, that term for me is just a baseline. so, i feel like i need to identify myself as something a step above a feminist, because it's something i feel passionate about. i don't like "feminazi", but if someone called me that i would actually probably be flattered, despite their intentions behind calling me that.

i need a new term. ardent feminist? left of center feminist? feminisiter?

ideas??


and as a side note, i rode some SUV's ass this weekend because the female driver had a gwb bumper sticker that read " 'W' stands for Women."

um, WHAT?

[culturehandy]

There is so much here to post on I don't know where to begin.

Feminism as a dirty word, I totally agree. I have a friend, who is a fantastic person, but who I had a good long talk with last week about feminism. He told me that the impression he got of feminism is that feminists were all man hating, down with patricarchy, angry women. I was dumbfounded that he told me this. I said, hey you know I am a feminist, does that mean that I'm the same way. I said that there are many different aspects of feminism, just as there are different ideas on religion, medicine, whatever!

That Glamour article, murphy's law, if something can fail it will. I have also had a pregnancy scare, and I think one time I miscarried, not pleasant. The pregnancy scare was terrifying, I was afriad to tell me mother, so I went through it with my then (useless) partner. I now know that I could go to someone else if it were to happen again. I am on the pill, and nothing is fool proof.

That whole thing about men having families to support, Uhhhh, wtf, is all I have to say. It reminds of 9 to 5, when Lily Tomlin's character gets looked over for a promotion because the man who got the position over her had a family to support. On the bright side, I work in an environment where women supervisors are much more prevelant than men.

I agree, how can women not be feminists? It just seems natural, at least it does to me. How could you not want to stand up and support yourself, and say this just isn't right. I mean that in any aspect of your life, not just the hot button issues which feminists fight for. No one should stand back and take a beating.

What I find horrifying, is that the conservative party of Canada, that wonderful group of assholes, has taken the word equality out of some government literature. In fact, Bev Oda seems to think that women have achieved equality in Canada!!!!!! I am curious what fucking planet this woman is from.

[octobersky]

Speaking of how far women have come (and still have further to go) I remember my mom telling me that in the 70's when she working at a bank. My mom and they other female tellers made significantly less on the hour because the male tellers had familys to support.
The same bank forced her to quit when she told them she was pregnant. Their reason? There was a small step over the curb to walk into the bank and they were afraid she would trip and fall, plus she had a husband to take care of her and didn't really need the money. Yeah right, my parents were poor as church mice when they were first married.

There was a really funny cartoon in Bitch magazine last issue I think, that illustrated the corporate paths for men and women. If I can find it I will try to post it.

[punkerplus]

At the moment there is a conference going on at the UN about the status of women. You can read about it at this blog - http://statusofwomen.wordpress.com/

I was shocked (amused? annoyed? I'm not sure) to read this (copied from the blog):

The US Department of State announced the appointment of three individuals to their delegation for the CSW. Who are they? Lisa Guillermin Gable of Upperville, Virginia, Darlene Bramon of Hailey, Idaho, and Pia Francesca de Solenni of Washington, D.C.

Bramon is a major fundraiser for Bush, and so is Guillermin Gable. Both are succesful business women, and Guillermin Gable is a member of Women Corporate Directors. Ooh well, that should make them qualified to take democratic global decisions on women in poverty, shouldn’t it?

The real star is Pia Francesca de Solenni. She won an award from the Vatican for her pHD thesis. Guess what it’s about.

If you think your rights as a woman are secure, you are kidding yourself.

[pollystyrene]

Even just on that level, everything has changed so much in the last 25 years, and I think people don't realize that 25 years ago is not that much time.

God, it still boggles my mind that we only got the right to vote 86 (87 on August 26th) years ago. When that *really* dawned on me a few years ago, I was shocked. I mean, I knew the history and all, but I know women older than 86 years.

Sorry to be ignorant, but do they do anything special on 8/26 to observe the anniversary? Probably some NOW thing, I'd assume?

[sidecar]

Barbie did run for president in 2004! Maybe if she'd won, we wouldn't be in Iraq still.

The stuff about younger women is interesting. My mom grew up in the '60s and '70s for the most part (she is 51) and she told me that in high school, she wasn't able to participate in sports because they didn't have teams for girls. She also told me that she was told to stop taking science and enroll in home ec instead, and she was never encouraged to go to college.

There's a lot of progress that was made, and I do think a lot of young women take it for granted. I don't know many people who worry about being able to get affordable birth control anymore, especially on college campuses. Or if one kind doesn't work for you, there are other options to try. Even just on that level, everything has changed so much in the last 25 years, and I think people don't realize that 25 years ago is not that much time.

[doodlebug]

I see women's rejection of feminism stemming from the reality that a few really privileged women (i.e., wealthy, white, etc.) have something that comes close to resembling equality (especially as portrayed by the media), so many women stop investigating below that surface level image. And yeah, I think the media is really guilty of that equality rights "whitewash" (what an appropriate word), because it is still largely white, wealthy men who run the media. And also, Gloria Steinem, in answering the question of why most young women on campus didn't engage in feminist activism, wrote that women become more radical as they age - and it's true. Many women have to experience discrimination and oppression before they understand it as a force in their lives. Many younger women have not experienced those things on the same level as, say, women who've experienced discrimination in family court (or family life, for that matter), or discrimination in job searches and career promotions, or the blatant sexism and harassment that still goes on in political circles, and so on. (For example, the women who launched the lawsuit against Wal-Mart, for promoting lesser-qualified men into management and not promoting them, were all middle-aged women.) I think many college-aged women are still in the stage of believing their parents and/or the media, who say, "Girl, you can be/do anything you want!" (My own father told me, in 1975, that I could be Prime Minister of Canada someday, if I really wanted to. But it's still not likely, is it? Hell, we don't even have equal representation yet.)

Although on the women-as-vets thing....I honestly think that has a lot to do with the Veterinarian Barbie that came out years ago. Imagine if they'd come up with Public Clinic Doctor Barbie or Civil Rights Lawyer Barbie or President of the United States Barbie! *sigh*

[candycane_girl]

It's exactly stuff like that which pisses me off! It's amazing how many of my guy friends don't realize that they will probably make more out in the workforce than I will just because they are male.

Sure, we've definitely come a long way but there's still more that needs to be done.

And as for those girls who think that they won't get pregnant, what are they thinking? Everyone knows that even the best protection doesn't work 100%. I've had two pregnancy scares even though I use the pill and condoms every time.

[pollystyrene]

Your mention of the Wimbledon thing reminded me of an interview I was listening to on the radio a few days ago with author, Alice Hoffman (I've never read any of her stuff, but she seems interesting) and she was talking about being a woman in the writing industry and all the assumptions people have, the value people put on your work, etc. She said that she was at a used book sale and they had two tables of books- one with a sign that said "Fiction- $1.00" and one with a sign that said, "Fiction by Women- .75 cents" I don't know how long ago that was, but WTF?

[bunnyb]

kel reminded me: it is only this year that Wimbledon will be paying the same prize money to the female champion as it does the male; the fact that equal pay was not equal up until 2006 in such a high profile competition and equal sexed sport is outrageous.