Here is my new post on Radfem Hub. It’s about the responses of several female politicians to the recent slew of especially egregious anti-abortion bills, including Virginia’s trans-vaginal ultrasound bill that was in the headlines this week.
P.S. If you want to get really drunk, use “trans-vaginal” as your ‘drink’ word and watch an episode of The Rachel Maddow Show from this week. Now THAT is a partay!
[image via Maddow Blog]
Melissa Harris-Perry’s new show on MSNBC premiered this weekend, and Sunday’s show had a particularly excellent conversation on the fallout from the Obama administration’s decision on contraceptive coverage and religious employers.
Included: Sen. Barbara Boxer’s grandson’s concise observation about the all-male panel on contraception, multiple anecdotes about shifting male-centric framing in girls’ lives, and several plain truths about male supremacy that you will basically never find on cable news shows or television generally.
Click the above image or here to watch the 18-minute clip.
Just like the title says! It took me literally all night to write because of the massive linkage and research needed. Reward my bizarre sleep patterns and check it out!
RMott: “Resisting Porn Culture”
Ilithyia Inspired: “Uncensored Birth Power”
Guardian CiF: Julie Bindel on World Femininity Day, “The end of feminism, or, how I learned to stop worrying and wear lipstick”
From Meghan Murphy, “My performance of femininity and why it isn’t all about me.”
So along with all the other labels that come along with being critical of gender binaries, pornography, prostitution, etc, that plant a feminist firmly in the no-fun camp, being critical of ‘femininity’ now, apparently, makes you ‘anti-feminine’, whatever that means. The trouble with the ‘anti-feminine’ label is, of course, that femininity isn’t a real thing.
Smash the P: “Joyful Resistance”
Femonade: “On Harm Reduction”
Finally, Gallus Mag shared a fabulous (and uplifting!) short video of Gail Dines talking about the enduring appeal of radical feminism.
[Added on July 10th:] Also!! Here’s a video of Sheila Jeffreys speaking about Kate Millet’s book Sexual Politics (found via this comment on RadFemHub).
(Background info).
Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin (via Colorlines)
Rep. Jackie Speier of California (more from Echidne)
Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York (via Shakesville)
Radical Profeminist: “‘A Political Hierarchy in Gender Binary Drag’, or When is a binary not a binary? When we’re talking about a gendered, raced, sexed, classed HIERARCHY”
“Questioning Science at Questioning Transphobia: an engaging discussion”
Questioning Transsexuality: “That Pesky Orwellian Queer Umbrella”
Boner Killer: “The Importance of Women-Only Spaces”
Echidne of the Snakes: “Wikipedia’s Absent Women”. . . on Wikipedia being very male-dominated, the implications, including the example of ‘gendercide’ and the bullshit surrounding that Wikipedia entry.
“RIP, Maria Schneider”. . . Suzie on the death of actress Maria Schneider and her role in “Last Tango in Paris”. [TW for sexual violence and the minimization of rape.] The post begins with this quote from Schneider:
Never take your clothes off for a middle-aged man who claims that it’s art.
Mother Jones: “Is Providing Abortions Creating a ‘Nuisance’?”. . . (article found via Maddow Blog):
The first doctor to try to offer abortion services in Wichita, Kansas, since Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in a church in May 2009 has been blocked from doing so—by her landlord, who has claimed this would create a “nuisance.” [. . .]
The nuisance, however, would stem from protests the landlord anticipates—not from anything that Means would do.
Media Matters: “Foxy News: The Cable News Home for Sexism, Scantily Clad Women” [TW for reference to BDSM]
New York Times: check out all of Nicholas Kristof’s recent columns on the revolution in Egypt: Feb. 2 (Wednesday), Feb. 4 (Friday), and Feb. 6 (today, Sunday).
“Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshman”. . . some notable info on differences in female and male students’ emotional health (i.e. the effects of patriarchy and educational institutions):
Mary Anne Warren, “The Moral Significance of Birth”:
There is room for only one person with full and equal rights inside a single human skin.
(A pdf of the essay is available here.)
[Trigger warning for medical coercion and abuse.]
Women, particularly in the U.S., have been conned into believing that pap smears are a necessary, frequent screening that they must endure, either so they can have access to oral contraceptives or so they feel “proactive” and “responsible” for their health. This is a bunch of rubbish.
I have gone through two pap smears, both before age 20, because guidelines at the time said it was necessary and I believed I was required to submit in order to get birth control pills. In my case, and surely the case of millions of other women, informed consent was absent when I made the decision to get cervical cancer screening.
I have compiled a great number of links so that every woman may educate herself about this procedure and the lies we are told so we will not resist having this done to us. Know that you are not alone in questioning this screening.
