feminist blogs in english

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Something a little different to start this week's post: A recommendation for an entire blog. Have you heard about the 30 Mosques 30 States project? The "about" section of the site describes it as this: "30 Mosques in 30 States is Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq’s Ramadan road trip across the United States. Beginning August 11 in New York City, the two will spend each night of Ramadan at a different mosque in 30 states around the country." They're just about done with their trip, but I would encourage anyone interested to start at the beginning and read through it. It's really, really good, as are the photos -- and you might just learn something! CNN wrote a story about the project that you can read here, also with video.

Abortion-related news:

• RH Reality Check: "Lacking Health Insurance, More Women Turning to Do-It-Yourself Abortion." The class issues involved here ... cause you know that when women in poverty actually have kids, conservatives (and let's face it, others) want to get all judgmental and say things like "why did you have kids if you can't afford them," and "we don't want to pay for your welfare/food stamps/WIC, so just get a job already." Not to mention the safety and health issues involved in this. Ugh.
• Wire Update: "11-year-old gives birth in southern Mexico after being denied abortion despite rape." You may remember reading about this girl before. So awful.
• The Scavenger: "Why I help teenagers get secret abortions."
• Huffington Post: "Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck Insists Rape, Incest Are No Excuse For An Abortion." I really hope the voters in Colorado don't put this guy in office.
• RH Reality Check: "Access to Abortion: Red State, Blue State, Interstate."
• CBS News: "N.J. Man Thomas Hill Raped Wife Because She Wouldn't Get Abortion, Say Cops." Forcing (or trying to force) a women to get an abortion is never okay. All about control.

Violence against women:

• Colorlines: "Women Detainees Sexually Abused as ICE Polices Itself."
• Change.org: "Ex-Marine Receives Life For Taking Another." I can't really describe what happened here other than to say a man Marine was accused of raping a woman Marine, and she later turned up dead in his yard. Just read the article.
• Campus Progress: "The Street Harassment Problem." Reviews the book "Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming for Women" by Holly Kearl.
• Change.org: "Bias Against Sex Workers Let Serial Killer Murder 21 Women."

In other news:

• Al Jazeera: "Native women 'disappear' in Canada: On the International Day of the Displaced, activists say fate of hundreds of missing indigenous women must be examined."
• Ms. magazine: "Campaign Workers for Afghan Woman Candidate Murdered."
• Change.org: "Indigenous Oaxacan Woman Sues Missisippi Hospital For Taking Her Baby." I can't even.
• Huffington Post: "Ordination of Bhikkhunis in the Theravada Tradition." This is pretty cool. Four women were declared fully ordained as bhikkhunis, Buddhist nuns, in the Thai Theravada tradition, the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere.
• Slate: "The Mother of All Grizzlies: Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows how feminism is done. Again."
• FWD/Forward: "Signal Boost: Submissions Requested for the September Disability Blog Carnival." These are always really good, and they're looking for submissions.
• New York Times: "A Palin of Our Own" (op-ed). This is a good read. Also check out "How Feminists' Eggs Came Home to Roost," on Huffington Post. I think it's pretty spot on, especially this line: "Why are Democratic women moving backwards? Because we've promised our vote to one party on the basis of one issue [abortion]. We have no bargaining power or leverage." And there's also "Women Losing Out in Congress" on Tapped.
• Owning Pink: "Want a Raise? Wash Your Vagina." Yes, this advice was actually given.
• San Francisco Chronicle: "Are Bikini Baristas 'Bad Feminists?'"
• Feministe: "Marginalized folks shouldn’t always have to be 'the bigger persons.'"
• NOW has a new webiste called Ratify Women! and it's all about CEDAW. Lots of info there.
• Women's eNews: "Welfare Job Rules Hit Women With Disabilities."
• Feministing: "A Victory for Domestic Workers." This is in New York state.
• Los Angeles Times: "Fidel Castro takes 'responsibility' for persecution of Cuban gays." Hmm.
• Shakesville: "What You're Projecting Ain't Saying Much For Ya." This post contains this excellent line: "In short, they fear gay men treating them the way they treat women."
• Bitch magazine: "Push(back) at the Intersections: Hello, Appropriation!"

Popular culture:

• Jezebel: "'Huge' & The Future Of Fat On TV" (there are some spoilers). I enjoyed the show, I hope they bring it back for a second season.
• Think Progress: "Mary Louise Parker Calls O’Reilly An 'Idiot' For Attacking Jennifer Aniston’s Comments On Single Motherhood."
• The Nation: "On 'Friday Night Lights,' Abortion Stigma Goes Primetime" (mild spoilers). Man, I love this show. And this is a good article.
• Slate: "Emmys Reward Smart, Nuanced Female Characters."
• The Atlantic: "What Hath Feminism Wrought," something of a review of the book "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848," by Daniel Walker Howe. Sounds quite interesting.
• Change.org: "U.K. Magazine Says No More Models or Celebrities."
• Cinema Blend: "Kristen Bell Organizes Fans To Demand A Veronica Mars Movie." I haven't ever watched the show, but I know people who really liked it.

This post is cross-posted with Transatlantic Sketches and Redheaded Shenanigans and co-authored by Emily and Kate Wiseman. What a revolutionary concept. And yet—I bet you would find a lot of people out there, adults and young adults alike, who instinctively disagree with the statement that “shaming teenagers about sex is a bad idea.” Think about [...]

The second season of MTV’s “Teen Mom” debuted last night. The show features pregnant teens, or young women who have just given birth, and it focuses on their struggles to raise the children while the mothers themselves are still growing into adulthood. The timing of the season premiere could not have been more fortuitous, because [...]

This is pretty interesting. The Health and Human Services Department announced Friday that it will start "accepting applications for the Pregnancy Assistance Fund." What, you might wonder, is the Pregnancy Assistance Fund? Pretty much just what it sounds like: it's a $25 million grant program that, according to HHS' press release, would "provide pregnant and parenting teens and women a seamless network of supportive services to help them complete high school or postsecondary degrees and gain access to health care, child care, family housing, and other critical support.  In addition, states can use the funds to combat violence against pregnant women." The program will offer the $25M yearly through 2019.

I think trying to support pregnant and parenting teens and women is a fantastic goal, one I fully support. I also think this language in the press release is telling (emphasis mine): "States can use funding from the Pregnancy Assistance Fund to work with a wide range of stakeholders to provide needed services to pregnant teens and women who have decided to carry their pregnancies to term and to those who are parenting."

Pair that with this information from the Guttmacher Institute (emphasis mine): "The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Then it becomes clear, to me at least, how this all fits in. Decreasing the number of abortions in the United States is, I think, a worthy goal, so long as women are always able to make the choice for themselves. If there are obstacles standing in the way of women keeping wanted pregnancies (and there are), such as finances, work, school, etc., then absolutely we should be trying to figure out ways to help these women and their children. (Including after the women give birth, which this program seems to allow for.) Obviously, no woman should be pressured into giving birth even if such assistance is available to them. (And really, if decreasing abortions is an actual goal, it has to start with comprehensive sex education and widely available contraceptives. But this is a good step, too.)

My only real gripe with this program is the amount of funding. Twenty-five million dollars isn't a whole lot, especially when you consider how this money is probably going to be distributed. According to the press release): "It is anticipated that up to 25 grants in the amounts of $500,000 - $2,000,000 per year will be awarded." I know some organizations can do a lot with those amounts, and I'm sure many will put this money to good use. I just wish more funds, and more than 25 grants, would be available.

To read more about the grant or get application information, go here.

Other reading:

• CNN: "White House ties new pregnancy assistance fund to 'common ground' abortion plan."
• Care2: "How Do We Prevent Abortion? Obama Thinks One Way Is To Help Pregnant Women."
• MSNBC: "Moms to get more care under new health law" (this is a quick overview of some of the changes coming under the new health-care overhaul that deal with pregnant women and women who've just given birth)

I, for one, cannot image a faster way to increase teen pregnancy and teen STD rates than to do the following: require parental notification for sex education classes, for birth control and for treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Can you?

Yet, that's just what the state Senate in Arizona has agreed needs to happen.

Last Monday, the state Senate voted to approve the "Parents' Bill of Rights," SB 1309. It now moves to the House. Let's just look at what the actual bill says:

On sex education:
Provision 10: Requires the policy developed and adopted by school district governing boards to promote the involvement of parents and guardians to include:
b) procedures to prohibit a school district from providing sex education instruction to a pupil unless the pupil’s parent provides written permission for the child to participate in the curricula

Provision 11: Requires the policy to also include procedures by which parents may learn about parental rights and responsibilities under Arizona law, including a summary and a brief description of each of the following:
f) the right to opt out of instruction on AIDS

On STDs:
Provision 20: Eliminates the ability of a minor to obtain treatment for a venereal disease without a parent’s consent.

On birth control (or any prescribed medication):
Provision 14: Prohibits, except as permitted by statute or federal law, a health professional who is authorized by law to write medical prescriptions from writing a prescription order for a person under the age of 18 unless any of the following applies:
a) the health professional has secured the written consent of at least one of the minor’s parents, foster parents or legal custodians, unless a parent does not have the right to consent due to a court order;
b) the health professional has secured verbal consent in person or through telemedicine from at least one of the minor’s parents, foster parents or legal custodians, unless a parent does not have the right to consent due to a court order;
c) the minor is emancipated; or
d) the health professional is acting pursuant to a court order.

So there you go. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) has to give you, the teenager, permission to take sex ed (where you might learn about topics such as birth control and STDs and AIDS), to get birth control pills, and to get treatment for a sexually transmitted disease.

Way to go, Arizona state Senate. You may soon learn something the rest of us already know: You can't force kids to tell their parents they're having sex. You just can't. You may also learn that kids are going to have sex no matter what you do to stop them. No, not every single kid. But some. No. Matter. What.

So, Arizona, all you've done is made it easier for teens to prevent pregnancy and spread STDs. Congratulations! Your state already comes in at No. 3 (out of 50!) with the highest teen pregnancy rate, just behind New Mexico and Nevada. (Guttmacher, PDF) I bet with this legislation, you can become No. 1!

Now, you might be asking yourself, what about situations like incest? Well, I'll let two state Senators explain that for you:

Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, said the measure would require a teen who is the victim of incest to get consent for treatment of a sexually transmitted disease from the parent who assaulted her in the first place.

But Sen. David Braswell, R-Phoenix, said the state should not be setting policy based on a small percentage of "bad'' parents. "The majority of parents are loving, understanding, caring advocates on behalf of their children,'' he said.

See how easy that is? You can totally ignore the fact that bad things happen, and just create legislation for "good" people! I mean, isn't that really the basis of this legislation? Cause if you have "good" kids, none of this matters anyway, so you don't even have to worry about it! "Good" kids don't do things like want to learn about sex, let alone have sex, so they don't need to take birth control or get treated for an STD anyway.

I have no idea if this will make it through the state House, but fingers crossed it doesn't.

(FYI, the bill includes many other things, including mental health screenings. You might want to read the whole bill to get the full picture.)

(And P.S. The Arizona state Senate also passed a bill Monday "to strengthen reporting requirements on abortions." You know, just for statistical purposes.)

After a decade-long decline, teen pregnancy rates rose in 2006. When the teen pregnancy rate dropped in the 1990s, it was largely because of increased contraception use. With the Bush administration in power, though, Congress directed a whole lot of money towards abstinence-only education — telling kids just to keep it in their pants until marriage (because we all know how well that works as a life-long “don’t get pregnant” plan). The result? A four percent rise in teen births, and a one percent rise in abortion.

The United States also has the highest rate of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion of any industrialized, Western nation. Seven percent of all teenage girls here get pregnant.

OMG – I love dogs in costumes. I think more people should hand out little dog biscuits with the trick-or-treat candy, because little dogs like Halloween, too, you know.

On the pro-choice front, here’s your Friday click list to kick off the weekend!

When it Rains, it Pours . . . And Then There’s Health Care Reform – San Francisco Gate
Thanks, Abstinence-Only! Teen Pregnancies on the Rise – Feministing
Need a Halloween Costume? Dress Up as the Octomom – Womanist Musings
Justice Ginsburg Hospitalized Again – Voice of America
A Party to the Abortion Wars – Newsweek
Hillary Clinton Tops Obama in Popularity – Newsday

Just when I begin to get complacent about the constant struggle that women face across the globe for reproductive rights, stories like this are thrust into my consciousness, not soon to leave. Tegan Leach, a 19 year old girl from Queensland, Australia and her boyfriend, 21 year old Sergie Brennan face serious jail time for procuring drugs to induce abortion. The couple acquired the drug, a Chinese version of RU-486, from a Ukrainian source, and the evidence used to arrest her were the empty blister packs from whence the drugs came. Although RU-486 is technically “legal” in Australia, a maze of contradictory laws and unclear regulations scare most physicians into refusing to prescribe the drug.

Leach, who chose to terminate her pregnancy because she felt that she was not ready to parent, faces up to seven years in prison for her “crime,” and her boyfriend faces three years for helping her buy the drugs. Upon her arrest, Queensland hospitals began refusing drug-induced abortions, despite their “legal” status.

Coincidentally, on August 10, 2009, Marie Stopes International won the battle to make RU-486 more accessible. Previously banned, most physicians refused to dispense the drug for fear of prison or losing their license to practice. One of the providers authorized to dispense the drug is located in Queensland, the victim’s home state. The non-profit, UK-based sexual health organization persuaded the Theraputic Goods Administration (much like the US’s Food and Drug Administration) to allow the importing and prescribing of the drug after it had been strictly regulated and rarely given to patients.

This case highlights the definitive difference between what is legal and what happens. These providers, scared of jail, fines, or losing their medical licenses are forced into a corner by such laws, and I’m certain that most Australian women have no idea whether or not the pill is legal – the authorities don’t seem to have much of a clue either. Even RU-486 pioneer Dr. Caroline de Costa had suspended her practice in fear of repercussions like those that this couple faces.

What a profound victory and failure for the pro-choice movement. The letter of the law didn’t prevent Tegan Leach from being arrested and dehumanized. This case will likely be dismissed on any number of technicalities (poor police work, all the bad press it’s getting, etc.) but that is NOT the point! These scenarios don’t even cross my mind. Going to jail for terminating a pregnancy is just inconcievable to me. But it wasn’t to women before, and it certainly isn’t for many women across the globe. Almost one-third of women lack reasonable access to reproductive health and abortion services. Women in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are most heavily impacted. These women face prison terms if they abort, and many die in clandestine, unsanitary conditions attempting to exercise their “choice.”

These conditions were prevalent in pre-Roe America, and exist still to some degree. This issue is one that should be at the forefront of our collective consciousness at all times. Period. No woman should die because her body has been held hostage by her government. Women are people, not incubators.

On Tuesday I posted Jimmy Carter’s brave op-ed distancing himself from the Southern Baptist Convention on the Moral Courage Project blog. The post prompted some interesting dialog on the site. I was particularly struck by the words of Erin:

Although it seems that disassociating with an organization that discriminates against women is the right thing to do intellectually, especially for a man who champions human rights for all, the ability to do so emotionally can be very challenging—impossible for some.

In many cultures boys are brought up to be “tough.” The use of violence and the degradation of women are seen as mere rites of passage, or less. For many cultures and communities teaching boys to disrespect women is simply a part of their upbringing. Few men, even fathers, are willing to go against the grain and teach boys that violence, sexual conquests, and disrespecting women and elders does little to make you a “real man.”

Erin continues, making a link between Carter’s statement and the new film The Stoning of Soraya M:

Soraya’s Aunt Zara. Zara, similar to Carter, was an elder in her village–someone who was respected (by most) for her independent thought and wisdom. Zara didn’t let the shameful stoning of Soraya go unheard or unrecognized.

Zahra was unsuccessful in saving Soraya because there were other elders in the village, male elders, who had more influence because they were male.

How can we prevent boys from growing up to be such harmful influences on their communities? Programs that recognize the power male elders have in preventing violence are few, but make a big impact in preventing violence. Morally courageous men are beginning to take on the responsibility of educating boys about the true meaning of manhood, and using creative ways to spread their message and influence.

One such man is Pedro Elias of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte who I had the privilege of meeting at Planned Parenthood’s annual conference this past March. Pedro runs a Male Involvement Program for male youths that educates them about healthy relationships and expressing feelings in a non-harmful way. The ultimate goals of the program are to prevent teen pregnancy/unintended fatherhood, promote responsibility, and encourage long-term community involvement.

Pedro’s program is teaching young men about non-traditional rites of passage and encouraging them to become influential elders with an investment in their own community. The most effective curriculum is the El Joven Noble (The Noble Young Man) program designed by anti-violence activist Jerry Tello. The program relies heavily on the participation of “Elders” from the community.

The youth involved in the program are encouraged to develop the same type of investment in their communities that Pedro and the other Elders have. Pedro says the boys are encouraged to maintain a long-term relationship with the program and that many of the Elders are former program participants (or men Pedro has met through his work as an activist). Boys that remain engaged with their communities into adulthood receive recognition and support from Pedro and Planned Parenthood.

Teaching men about healthy relationships not only prevents violence and pregnancy, but also instills in youth the sense that there are blessings to being an active member of their community and an active father when the time is right.

Why aren’t there more programs like this? Pedro says that breaking the ice and talking to youth about violence can be hard because boys don’t see violence as a problem. Violence is so mainstream in our society the boys often see violence and rage as acceptable ways to express themselves.

Pedro uses his personal experience with domestic violence to help the boys understand the point of view of the victim. This is an effective way to keep through to the boys as they are hearing the words of a victim, but also someone they trust and respect.

When I met Pedro I was struck by his warm personality, his enthusiasm for his work, and I was thrilled to hear about his innovative program. However, the question remain in the back of my head: “is Pedro the exception to the rule? Is there a way to encourage more men to care about this issue?”

I asked Pedro how he became interested in working with young men. “Every young man represents a unique story; however, all are young men. They are a mirror image of each other and I am a mirror image of them. I was a young man with a story as well. I had the opportunity to grow up with positive role models in my life and yet still was not the perfect young man. Not being perfect is now the medicine that reassures me and drives me to make a difference in the lives of young men. Learning from mistakes is realizing how it originated and not repeating it again.”

Pedro is an example to all those who wish to stop the ever-increasing violence in our society and the influence elders such as those in Soraya have on society. Pedro is an especially relevant example for men who want to be active parts of the solution instead of the problem.

In Gloria Feldt’s The War on Choice, the right wing’s attack on sex education is put under the microscope. They have started small at the local school board level and worked their way up to the federal level. The result has been that abstinence is the only sex education that American students receive in the public schools. Feldt states, “The United States is the only country in the world that requires government-funded sexuality education programs to limit their teachings to abstinence–and we’ve got the disease and pregnancy rates to show for it.”

Here are some sex ed facts that you should commit to memory. (There may be a quiz about this.)

• A sexually active teenager who does not use contraception has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.
• The Netherlands, where sexuality education begins in preschool and is integrated into all levels of school, has the lowest teen birthrate in the world–eight times lower than that of the US.  The Dutch teenage abortion rate is eight times lower.  In France, where sexuality education is mandated starting at age thirteen, the teenage birthrate is six times lower than the US, and the abortion rate is two times lower.

Feldt cites numerous studies to show that public support is clearly on the side of comprehensive sex education.

• More than three-quarters of parents surveyed say that sexuality education should discuss, along with abstinence, condom use and other forms of birth control; abortion; sexual orientation; and psychological issues associated with having sex.
• Ninety-three percent of adults support sexuality education in high school, and 84% in junior high school.
• Sixty-six percent of American voters favor teaching age-appropriate sexuality education in elementary schools.
• Only 1%-5% of parents remove their children from classes that provide comprehensive sexual information.

I’m a little curious as to who conducted these surveys, how large the sample sizes were, and how recent the polls are. But one thing is clear from looking at these statistics – abstinence-only sex education has been a colossal failure and a huge waste of taxpayer money. How, then, has the right wing been so successful at getting their agenda implemented?

Right wing activists have been persistent about attending PTA and school board meetings to push their anti-choice agenda. Pro-choice activists need to be just as vigilant. Feldt urges her readers to start attending their own local PTA and school board meetings and to advocate for comprehensive sex education curriculum in their schools. Monitor each member of the school board and keep track of their decisions on related issues so that you know what their position is on sex education. Write letters to the editor of your local paper, and e-mail other parents in your neighborhood and encourage other people to petition the school board to support comprehensive sex education. This is not a one-time letter writing kind of thing. It will mean a long-term commitment to keep putting the issue before school boards.