feminist blogs in english

HELP NEEDED!!!

Women Occupy the Status of Women Office in St. John's

Both Petrina Beals, the Coordinator of the Women's Centre and Janet
O'Donnell,
Treasurer and long-time member of the Mokami Status of Women Council, are
involved in the occupation. They need your help!

Although Minister Oda claims they are putting the savings from the cuts back
into services for women, the closure of the regional office in our province
hurts us. Centralization of decision-making about women's issues is bad for
Labrador. It means that decisions about funding for women's services or
programmes will be made in New Brunswick. That doesn't make sense to us.

The current conservative government has also opened the door for private
companies to apply for funding from the Status of Women Canada. That
doesn't
make sense to us either.

The Minister didn't consult with women to make these decisions. She says
women
are already equal and the struggle for women's equality is over. We don't
think
so.

Please call or email the Minister for the Status of Women, Beverly Oda, to
tell
her you support the women in Labrador who are occupying the Status of Women
office in St. John's. Her email address is: Oda.B@parl.gc.ca

Thanks for your support,
Claudia Mann,
Mokami Status of Women Council
claudiajmann@yahoo.ca

via David Swanson.
(Goddess bless him, he has been a tireless warrior in the fight against this criminal administration.)

The impeachment movement is uniting and expanding. We're joining with many other organizations to launch Impeach07, a coordinated series of actions aimed at impeaching Bush and Cheney through widespread public protest, creative dissent, media activism, education, and lobbying:
http://www.impeach07.org

Bush and Cheney have misled this nation into an aggressive war, spied in open violation of the law, and sanctioned the use of torture -- among numerous other offenses. Newsweek reported in October that a majority of Americans favor impeachment, and in January that 58% said they wished the Bush administration were over. "Only a great popular upheaval," Howard Zinn said recently, "can push both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will."

We need to end one war and prevent another, and impeachment is the way we will do it.

On March 17, the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, Impeach07 will mobilize for a
March on the Pentagon to demand peace and impeachment. Go here to get involved:
http://www.marchonpentagon.org

On March 18-20, Impeach07 will organize local events for peace and impeachment around the country:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/event

Impeach07 is also planning:

A "Make Hip Hop, Not War" bus tour promoting peace and impeachment on March 19 - April 21:
http://www.hiphopcaucus.org

A boycott of major corporations that are profiting from the Bush administration's policies, making a killing off of killing, on April 15- 22:
http://www.wearenotbuyingit.org

And a nationwide day of protest:
Impeachment Day, April 28, 2007:http://www.a28.org

Initial participating organizations represent hundreds of thousands of antiwar, military family, peace, youth and women activists and lawyers. They include: After Downing Street, Backbone Campaign, Center for Constitutional Rights, Citizens Impeachment Commission, CODE PINK Women for Peace, Constitution Summer, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, Democracy Rising, Gold Star Families for Peace, Green Party of the United States, Hip Hop Caucus, Impeach the President, ImpeachBush.org, Military Free Zone, National Lawyers Guild, Patriotic Response to Renegade Government, Progressive Democrats of America, Independent Progressive Politics Network, Velvet Revolution, and World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime.

Organizations that want to join should write to jacob@a28.org

Wimbledon will pay men and women tennis players the same prize money this year, bringing the tournament in line with the three other Grand Slams...
The Australian and U.S. Opens pay the sexes the same. The French Open last year paid its champions equal prize money while retaining a differential during earlier rounds. Wimbledon men's champion Roger Federer won 655,000 pounds ($1.2 million) last year, 30,000 pounds more than women's counterpart Amelie Mauresmo. Prize money for 2007 has yet to be set.Bloomberg

It's sad, but I'm not even surprised that there was a difference (though I was unaware of the discrepency before this story).

Remember the big poo-bah about a woman playing golf with the men a couple of years ago?

And women's sports rarely get the coverage or viewership that men's do.

So why be surprised that women are paid less in tennis?

Positive move though.

The case of a tiny baby born at just 22 weeks has made the news, and looking at the picture, I can see why. That baby's feet are translucent!

Disturbing, though, is how pro-lifers have jumped on the survival of the baby as a reason to ban abortions.

Meanwhile, although it doesn't often happen, the Abortion Act allows terminations to be carried out until 24 weeks in Britain; any time after that there must be incontrovertible medical evidence that it would be dangerous to continue. The law in the US is predictably fraught and unclear, and in any case varies from state to state. Roe v Wade bans it after the foetus is viable, which, as Amillia has shown, is something of a contestable point.Guardian Unlimited

So, perhaps if women don't want to carry their baby to term, they can just have it removed and pro-lifers can try to rescue them all. It's really the only solution I can see.

This year’s World AIDS Day comes under the theme of Leadership. So here are some of the inspirational (and less inspirational) things said by a few of those leading voices.

Nelson Mandela: Yes, big ambitious plans are needed to deal with the epidemic. But what really matters are small acts of kindness... such as protecting yourself.

George W. Bush: Faith-based groups … are the foot soldiers in the armies of compassion. They are helping to defeat this epidemic one soul at a time.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: We have made tangible and remarkable progress on all these fronts. But we must do more.

Hillary Clinton: AIDS is not just an African problem, an Asian problem, or an American problem. It's not someone else's problem.

The Vatican: Sexual transmission [of HIV] remains the most important means of infection… This is greatly fostered by a kind of pansexual culture that devalues sexuality, reducing it to mere pleasure without any further meaning. 

Annie Lennox: Why is this happening? It is an outrage and it needs to be dealt with. It is unacceptable that children die from a preventable disease. Treatment works. Get your government to do something about it. 

And a few more words from us, of course… 



For more on The Dinah Project's 2007 AIDS campaign, read this update or send a postcard.

On December 1st, a month from now, the Nelson Mandela Foundation will be holding the 46664 Aids benefit concert in Johannesburg. The number 46664 was Nelson Mandela’s prison number on Robben Island, where he spent most of his 27 years of imprisonment before being released and becoming the legendary leader of his country. 

        

Mandela has not stopped his inspiring work in the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids, and his involvement in the cause will this year draw Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel and other internationals, along with over 40 of SA’s best home-grown artists. 

About 12% of the population of South Africa is living with HIV, and 30% of all pregnant women attending antenatal clinics are carriers. There are currently 1.5 million Aids orphans. That is because 400,000 South Africans are dieing from Aids each year.

Instead of being overwhelmed by numbers too bizarre to comprehend, let this occasion be a reminder that anyone who doesn’t continually practice safe sex is at risk of STD’s. You may be luckier to be living with HIV in some countries more than others, but geography can’t save you from infection. Condoms can.

Wherever you are on earth, you can show some respect and concern for this great, colourful but ailing mother of all continents. 

Read more on HIV prevention & safer sex 

The other day I got an email from my bank (a large national chain) asking me to take an on-line survey about their on-line banking services. The subject line of the email said: Share your opinions with **** Bank and help donate $12,000 to charity! I thought, well, hey, this could be an easy way to donate money. Intrigued, I opened the email and read:If you qualify and complete the survey, we will

This is a new site that lists female firsts in politics and culture, as well as news relevant to Witches and Goddessites. It promises it be a useful feminist resource - check it out!

This week is World Breastfeeding Week. You'd think that for all the great deeds done by this spectacular pair, we'd get at least a fortnight, but a week will have to do.

             

The idea of having an international breastfeeding week is to draw attention to the great importance of breastfeeding as a health benefit. This may be less critical in developed countries where good substitutes are readily available and health conditions are better. But in the developing world, it may actually save a huge number of lives.

Having said that, women sometimes tend to get a bit evangelical, maybe even dictatorial about how other mothers choose to use their own bodies. Now may be a good time to discuss choice and rights over our bodies. There is no symbol more pertinent than our breasts to understand the complexity of a woman's body.

I think we can celebrate our breasts as sources of sustenance and love whether they are used to feed or not. We support breastfeeding by sharing the important info and letting each breast yielder make her informed choice about who will be sharing her breasts and for how long.

Read more in What is it about Breasts?

I've been following the trial of Robert Pickton in the deaths of six women from Vancouver with frustration and, at many times in many ways, in horror.

The case involves lots of material to sensationalize: remains of the women Pickton is accused of killing were found all around his pig farm in B.C.

This case brings up many, many issues.

One of those is the way the media is dealing with the graphic details they are learning. Since I get the Toronto Star at home, my knowledge of these deaths has mostly been filtered through columnist Rosie DiManno. I'm not sure why the Star insists on putting a controversial columnist on a serious, important case, but that's beside the point.

After I read her account of the first day, I swore I would read no more by her on this subject. She recalled everything. Every little detail.

I was sickened.

What is the purpose of such description of the violation of women. It seems to be amazingly disrespectful of those who had died: of their bodies, their experiences and their deaths.

Now, of course, at this point DiManno really had no way of avoiding these descriptions. The rest of the media is reporting it and if she doesn't, the Star loses some readership.

But maybe that's the way it should go. Maybe one media outlet needs to make a stand.

I will continue to follow the trial, but not from DiManno. I can't handle it.