August 2001

Abortion Clinics Need Defense
Great! Bush and Cheney Love Defense!
Thursday, August 23, 2001 Bubble and buffer zones around abortion clinics have been the subject of debate this week in both New York City and the state of Massachusetts. A federal appeals court ruled last week in favor of the Massachusetts bubble law, which prohibits protesters from the entrances and exits of clinics in order protect women and staff going in and out of facilities, after it was challenged by anti-abortion groups as an infringement of First Amendment rights. A proposal for a similar bill in New York City (the state of Colorado also has one) may shade the city’s upcoming mayoral race – we’ll see which candidates support clinic protection, and which will cave to anti-abortion factions, who raised a ruckus at the recent hearing on the bill.

Abort, Retry … FAIL? Not if we have anything to do with it. Call 1-877-YOU-DECIDE to find the branch of NARAL (the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) nearest you and find out how you can help defend clinics.

Brazil Awards Equal Rights to Women
Includes Right to Quit Brazil Waxing
Wednesday, August 22, 2001 From the country that brought you the thong -- it's ratified equality for women! It took twenty-six years of legislative debate, but the Brazilian Congress finally approved an equal rights code that abolished outdated laws, e.g., the one that allowed men to annul their marriages if their wives were not virgins, or the one which gave fathers the unrestricted legal right to make all the decisions in the family. The Brazilian media has applauded the decision as a death knell for traditional “machismo,” while Brazilian feminists have called it “law catching up with social customs.” Abortion is still illegal and family planning resources remain scarce in this Roman Catholic country, but at least they got them to change all the legal reference to “man” to “human being.” Bush, meanwhile, is content to let our equal rights amendment rot … while trying to change all legal references to “fetus” to “human beings.”

Women World Leaders in Wobbly Places
Like, Wearing Stilettos on Stilts Wobbly
Tuesday, August 21, 2001 Three out of the handful of the world's female presidents are sitting on unstable countries; worst off is Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who faces impeachment. Kumaratunga, a former Prime Minister's daughter, has been leading a country through a long, bloody civil war with the Tamil Tigers, a formidable separatist group of religious minorities, notable for, among other things, its female suicide bombers. Her party has been losing favor, especially since she suspended Parliament in an effort to stave off a no-confidence vote that would have removed her from office. When the Sri Lankan Parliament resumes on September 7th, they will contend with the old business, as well as new charges that Kumaratunga struck a deal to borrow millions for the country from the International Monetary Fund without consulting the cabinet, an abuse of power that could cost her the presidency.

Presidents Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines and Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia are both running struggling, economically depressed East Asian archipelagos; each was the vice-president of her country until incompetence forced out her predecessor. Megawati's government waged a long, ugly war with secessionists in East Timor and elsewhere; Arroyo faces her own well-armed separatist movement. And to learn more about what women are doing in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Indonesia, just check the labels of your Gap, J. Crew, or Old Navy sweaters.

Kashmir Militants Attack Women With Acid
The Flashbacks From That Are Gonna Be a Bitch
Thursday, August 16, 2001 Two women in the Indian province of Kashmir were sprayed with corrosive acid by members of a militant Islamic group for appearing in public without veils. The assaults, while not entirely unprecedented in Kashmir, were heinous enough to cause other hard-line Islamic groups to criticize the attackers, saying that dress codes are vitally important, but that using violence and terror to enforce them is counter-productive to the cause – “The veil should be a woman’s choice, not her compulsion,” said one hard-line spokesman. But other religious heads have used the fear the attacks have inspired to urge their constituents to comply with religious dress codes, “for their own safety.” Of course, we deplore this kind of horrific violence against women, and the veiled coercive threats it has inspired. Oh, and guys, next time you’re trying to get someone to conform to your religion try attacking them with Ecstasy.

Turkish Village Women: No Water, No Sex
Fix the Plumbing Or No One’s Cumming
Wednesday, August 15, 2001 The women of the village of Sirt in southern Turkey have banned their husbands from the bedroom until the men fix the town’s water system. The town has been without running water for months, and the women of the village have been forced to get their water from a central fountain, which is sometimes several miles from their homes, and lug it home in big containers. The booty boycott is not just an arbitrary negotiation technique on the women’s part – Islam requires that followers bathe after sex, so if the water doesn’t flow, the juices don’t either. After a month of the sex strike, the men of the village petitioned the local government for the necessary plumbing supplies. “You have to help us fix our pipes!” they moaned. “And you know what we mean by pipes!”

Nepalese Women’s Group Wants to Ban Booze
I Just Want to Ban Asinine Beer Ads
Tuesday, August 14, 2001 The Revolutionary All Nepal Women’s Organization, the women’s arm of the Maoist rebel group that has been at odds with the government for close to six years, is calling for the prohibition of alcohol in Nepal. While business leaders worry that the economy and tourism may suffer if booze is banned, the women of RANWO are more concerned about stemming domestic violence against women, which they believe is caused in many cases by alcohol. The government has agreed to meet with the women’s organization to discuss their crusade, as they are in the process of negotiating peace with the Maoist rebels at large, but the booze ban is not likely to be officially sanctioned and enforced. The Maoist women's cause is reminiscent of the temperance movement in the United States in the ‘30s, which was also championed by women motivated by concern over domestic violence. It also echoes a current program in nearby India, where one large company is paying the wives of its male employees cash to control their husbands'drinking. It's always the ladies, it seems, who wind up crusading against the effects of excessive boozing. Probably because, not only do they get beat on more often, they're also the ones who get stuck cleaning up the puke.

Legal Sex Work Gaining Ground in Europe?
Putting the "Pro" Back in "Prostitute"
Thursday, August 9, 2001 Dutch prostitutes want banks to recognize them as legitimate businesspeople, and a top health official in England is calling for the sex trade to be legalized in some areas to help stop the plague of STDs: just two of the top stories this week from the Hooker News Network. In Amsterdam, where prostitution is legal and regulated, the prostitutes' representative group has filed a complaint against the country's largest bank, which won't allow sex workers to open commercial accounts. Since these businesswomen are plying a commercial trade, they say, they should not be forced to use their personal accounts for their business necessities - instead, they want to be able to set up business accounts so that things like condoms and sex toys would be tax-free and tax-deductible. Meanwhile, in northwest England, a jump in the number of penicillin-resistant syphilis and gonorrhea cases is causing the top public health official to suggest legalizing the sex industry. The STD problem started in brothels in Greater Manchester, and is starting to appear in London; the health official stated that, in his opinion, the best remedy is to register, regulate and inspect legalized brothels. And in domestic prostitution news, sex work is still illegal in most parts of the US. But considering the 25 pages of escort ads I'm leafing through right now in the back of the Village Voice, I think we might be about ready for tax-free sex toys and cheap antibiotics, too.

Cheerleaders Sue Footballers for Peeping
Funny, That’s Not What They Did in “Porky’s”
Wednesday, August 8, 2001 Two former cheerleaders for the Philadelphia Eagles have filed a federal lawsuit against 23 NFL teams, their players and other employees, claiming that they drilled holes in walls and scratched paint off windows in order to spy on them in various states of undress. Marylou Tammaro, the director of the cheerleading team, said the women had known and repeatedly complained about the peeping, but city officials ignored their charges. The suit further alleges that “virtually the entire National Football League” knew about the peeping opportunities afforded by the visiting team’s locker rooms, and “considered it one of the ‘perks’ of being a visiting team of the Eagles.” It’s not that professional athletes have a lot of trouble getting women to take off their clothes for them willingly, nor is the world suffering from a lack of strippers, hookers, and images of naked women for them to look at, but everybody knows it’s much more fun for 300 lb. little boys to look at naked women if the women really don’t want to be looked at – it’s more naughty that way!

Teen Girls Want Babies To Please Boys
Nothing Says Lovin’ Like A Baby in the Oven
Tuesday, August 7, 2001 A recent survey of girls aged 13 to 18 showed that most of them really did not want to get pregnant; the ones who did were the girls who thought their boyfriends wanted kids. Yes, even in our post-girl-power world, where young women are bolstered by images of strong, independent women with boob jobs crawling around in hot pants, it looks like the desire to please their boyfriends is still a dominant factor in teenage girls’ most important decisions. “A boyfriend’s desire for a baby is the best predictor of an adolescent girl’s attitude toward pregnancy,” one of the main researchers told The Journal of Family Practice. Not only this, but a boyfriend’s desire to see another movie about the guy who fucked a cake is the best predictor of whether or not a girl is going to sit through American Pie 2.

Wall Street Women Face Harassment
Haw Haw! She Said HarASS! Ass! Haw Haw.
Thursday, August 2, 2001 A new study released by Catalyst, a non-profit organization for women in business, reveals that about a third of women who work in the financial services field have to deal with things like ass-patting, pay inequity, company-sponsored trips to strip clubs, getting passed over for promotions, and porn around the office. The financial services industry is one of the firmest bastions of the “old boy network” (can I just ask – what is an “old boy?” By the time you’re old, you’re not supposed to a boy any more, right?), where just over 11 percent of corporate officers are female – compared to the whopping 12.5 percent of female execs that comprise the national average in other industries. But don’t think we haven’t made any progress: last year there were two female CEOs in the Fortune 500, and this year there are FOUR! Only Fortune 496 to go!

Serial Killers Target Iranian Prostitutes
Because the Courts Can't Kill Them All
Wednesday, August 1, 2001 Nineteen Iranian women, all drug addicts and prostitutes, were strangled to death with their headscarves in the past year by a confessed serial killer and some copycats. One man has confessed to 16 of the murders; Saeed Hanaie, the so-called "spider murderer," said he went on a holy crusade to rid his town of prostitutes after his wife was propositioned near their home. The string of killings has brought to light the prevalence of prostitution in the country, which has seen some relaxed social policies in the past few years under the recently re-elected President. Still, high Islamic Sharia courts have stoned women to death in the past few months for offenses including adultery and making pornography. So are the copycat killers copying the “spider murderer,” or are they copying the courts?