Comments

  1. Siobhan says

    I will shamelessly self-plug here.

    I covered a bar in Alberta that defied Bill 7 (explicit protection for trans Albertans) and how the owner twisted themselves into knots to avoid issuing any kind of consistent rationale for the policy. I wanted to highlight the sheer obstinate refusal to confront reality or facts displayed by transphobic policymakers–a phenomenon so severe that people literally invent and lie as a post-hoc justification for their transmisogyny. I think it’s important for trans allies to fully grasp what trans feminists deal with (which is not much different from what other feminist groups deal with, really).

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/atg/2016/07/27/its-no-big-deal-says-bar-owner-barring-trans-people-from-peeing/

  2. Excluded Layman says

    The CBC has a couple stories of judges and rape culture in Canada. Usual content warnings for news stories about sexual assault and insensitivity apply.

    First, a real piece of work huffed and puffed and victim-blamed his way into an inquiry. Which has decided to “hear from advocates for sex assault victims” because of “the current legal and social context surrounding how the justice system responds to sexual assault complaints.”

    Second, a judge who acquitted a 15 year old because consent is confusing, has been rebuked by a higher court judge because no, actually, it isn’t. [Content Note: Contains detailed description of originating assault.]

    Taken stochastically, Canada has a clueless judge problem. But cluesticks are being brandished conspicuously, so maybe things will improve with time.

  3. ragdish says

    Is Hillary Clinton a feminist? She is flawed for a variety of reasons:

    1. She supported a crime bill in the 90s that led to mass incarceration of today’s African Americans

    2. She supported the use of force along with regime change in Bush’s Iraq war

    3. She has ties with big business corporate America

    4. She supported regime change in Libya

    And there are likely more…

    If you think based on her record (both pluses and minuses) that she overall advanced the rights of women, then absolutely yes! She is a feminist. However, from an alternate viewpoint, if you think she perpetuates a heteropatriarchal capitalist narrative that upholds white privilege and got nominated by a rigged DNC, then……….Despite all her flaws and the alternative a fascist orange haired creature, I’m with her 100%. She’s a flawed feminist with warts and all.

  4. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    She supported a crime bill in the 90s that led to mass incarceration of today’s African Americans

    I’m calling shenanigans on this. She wasn’t a voting politician in the ’90s.
    Too many critics confuse the policies of WC as being her policies, and also blame her for Obama’s foreign policies.

    She supported the use of force along with regime change in Bush’s Iraq war

    Again, shenanigans. She reputed her vote later. Why hold grudges unless YOU have the problem, not her.
    If you are lying like that in the first two items, dismissed.

  5. ragdish says

    NORDOMT,

    You can’t whitewash the past and dismiss facts as “shenanigans”. Here’s the truth of it all in this slate article:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/02/hillary_clinton_told_the_truth_about_her_iraq_war_vote.html

    She trusted Bush which which she admitted was a lapse in judgement. She was against a UN Security Council resolution on this matter. Don’t get me wrong. She has to be our next president. It’s OK to point out flaws and to say that she is not a “perfect feminist”. That’s absolutely fine by me.

  6. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Is there anyone in Vancouver, BC that could offer an FtB commenter a place to spend the night? Spare room or tent in the back yard wouldn’t matter, but I would need a ride to wherever I would be staying,

    A ride to UBC hospital in the morning would be a bonus but is unnecessary

  7. Vivec says

    I’m watching the Green Party town hall on CNN, and Jill Stein just answered a question on how her Feminism is different from Hillary Clinton’s, and a big part of her answer was on how one of women’s most important role is being caretakers and nurturers for their families, which to me kinda came off as a shockingly anti-feminist line.

    There’s no inherent reason why women should have to take on a special burden of caretaking and whatnot – that’s a social role that is generally coercively applied, regardless of any woman’s particular interest in it.

  8. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Funny how those with Stein’s canned answer end up in politics. They really need to define the point where women are no longer caretakers, and can participate in politics. Details, details. In some societies, Stein would be seen as a powerful “auntie” at this stage of her life (same age as me), whereas I would simply be an “old fart” to be ignored.

  9. Saad says

    India’s Gulabi Gang, a group of women activists who fight against patriarchy, child marriages, domestic abuse and other human rights issues

    They dress in all pink and carry sticks as a symbol and means of defense. I wish them lots of success. I’m pretty sure they face a ton of opposition and disapproval from men all over the country. We need such a group across the border in Pakistan too.

    Known as the Gulabi Gang or Pink Gang, it has just inspired two films – a documentary and a full-length feature film which captures the collective imagination.

    “Yes, we fight rapists with lathis [sticks]. If we find the culprit, we thrash him black and blue so he dare not attempt to do wrong to any girl or a woman again,” boasts Sampat Devi Pal, the group’s founder and head.

    Devi first discovered the power of the stick in the 1980s when she used it against a neighbour who abused his wife.

    Devi’s model of delivering alternative justice inspired a movement that now boasts of a network of 400,000 women – dressed in pink sarees and all wielding a stick – across 11 districts of India’s largest province of Uttar Pradesh.

    From fighting violence against women, preventing child marriages, arranging weddings of couple in love despite local resistance, to ensuring delivery of basic rights for the poorest of poor, the Gulabi Gang’s vision is to ‘protect the powerless from abuse and fight corruption’ has found easy resonance across much of India’s hinterland, blighted by unending reports of sex crimes and gang rapes.

    “When a woman seeks the membership of Gulabi Gang, it is because she has suffered injustice, has been oppressed and does not see any other recourse,” says Suman Singh, the group’s deputy commander, from Mahoba district. “All our women can stand up to the men and if need be seek retribution through lathis,” she adds.

    [. . .]

    It is against this background that Devi and her vigilante group had their tasks cut out. The sticks are an integral part of the gang’s identity.

    When an incidence of crime, corruption or malpractice is brought to their notice, the group seeks redress through dialogues, rallies and hunger strikes. But when nothing works, their sticks do the trick.

    That’s awesome. I bet whenever the sticks are put to use, men all over cry out “but violence is bad!!!1”

  10. ck, the Irate Lump says

    Well, this is fun. Texas now has a maternal mortality rate higher than anywhere else in the U.S. and higher than any other developed nation:

    The rate of Texas women who died from complications related to pregnancy doubled from 2010 to 2014, a new study has found, for an estimated maternal mortality rate that is unmatched in any other state and the rest of the developed world.

    The finding comes from a report, appearing in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, that the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased between 2000 and 2014, even while the rest of the world succeeded in reducing its rate. Excluding California, where maternal mortality declined, and Texas, where it surged, the estimated number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births rose to 23.8 in 2014 from 18.8 in 2000 – or about 27%.

    So, I guess it turned out that all those lies claims that the endless new abortion restrictions, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood were about protecting women’s health turned out to be false. Who could’ve possibly predicted that? Oh, that’s right. Everyone knew, even those who pretended not to know that this would be the result.

    Pro-life, my ass. It’s abundantly clear they’re sacrificing real lives over possible ones, as people have been saying all along. Now we have research to prove it, not that it’s likely to change anything.

  11. Owlmirror says

    Susan Wood’s “People’s Programing,” 1977 — a discussion of how one SF fan learned about feminism, and the all-too-predictable patriarchal male fan reaction.

    Some excerpts (with minor corrections made from looking at the PDF of the essay scans linked at the bottom of the page):

    What, I’d like to know, does the spectacle of an almost naked dancer, carried onstage bound hand and foot, to perform for the drooling masters, have to do with science fiction? Or with adult behavior in 1977? At this point, I walked out of the 1977 Westercon Masquerade in disgust; and a famous pro jeered at me for being uptight, repressed, and “overreacting.”

    Talking about teaching sf. at conventions, was ok, “people” behavior; complaining about dirty-jokes panels and strip-tease acts at those same conventions was “crazy libbers” behavior, “making a fuss about nothing” (again), and terribly “uptight.”

  12. Saad says

    11 of the most ridiculously sexist dress codes in American schools

    Not all school dress codes are sexist. Some exist to teach all students what they can and can’t wear in public as adults. For example, I wouldn’t wear a bikini to jury duty, and a man wouldn’t wear a speedo, or even board shorts. That’s because society has rules that we all agree to so that things can run in a somewhat orderly fashion.

    However, when rules explicitly (and non-explicitly) target girls (as well as gender-nonconforming or transgender students), as is the case with many school dress codes, that’s when things start to veer into sexist bullshit categories. By saying that exposed shoulders and short skirts are “immodest” and “provocative,” it puts the onus on girls’ to cover up and not on boys’ to just control themselves. It also deprives girls of valuable learning time when they are pulled out of class to put a sweater over a tank top.

    Here are 11 of the most egregious cases of total sexism in school dress codes. Heads up, educators! Maybe take the time you spend measuring girls’ dress length and instead teach all students (and faculty) to respect women and their choices.

  13. says

    The Alliance Defending Freedom is suing a local (to me) high school to try to prevent a trans girl from using the girls’ locker room and restroom.

    First article, from the terrible local newspaper, draws heavily from the ADF press release and consistently misgenders the trans student:
    http://www.virginiamn.com/news/local/virginia-school-district-faces-suit/article_3177a9b2-7642-11e6-88fa-432164684ca7.html

    The policy change led to “daily persistent feelings of anxiety, stress, humiliation, embarrassment, intimidation, fear, apprehension, distress, violation of privacy and insecurity at school’’ for the girl plaintiffs, the lawsuit states.

    After Virginia adopted its policy based on federal rule, “adolescent girls, in the midst of disrobing within their private locker room, found an adolescent male in their midst. The risk of such encounters, and the encounters themselves, merit prompt judicial intervention to strike the defendants’ rules and policies and protect plaintiffs’ bodily privacy,’’ the complaint states.

    Second article, from a regional, and slightly more neutral, newspaper, which corrects the ADF’s misgendering:
    http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4111369-group-sues-virginia-school-district-over-restroom-policy

    The student began using the girls’ locker rooms, and the five girls from the families who filed the lawsuit claim that they felt uncomfortable changing in the locker room. A coach told the girls that they could use the main girls’ locker room near the high school gym or a locker room in the elementary school’s basement, according to the lawsuit — but the girls missed class time and sports practice time due to the need to find an alternative locker room or restroom, the lawsuit claims.

    I’m sure the students thought it would be just fine to force the trans student to change in a different locker room and make her late for class or sports practice.

    The girls have “sincere religious or moral beliefs that they must practice modesty” and have experienced anxiety, stress, humiliation, embarrassment, intimidation, fear, apprehension and distress because of the transgender student’s presence in the locker room, according to the lawsuit.

    So they want to punish the trans girl for their reaction to her. Typical.

    Two of the girls didn’t return to Virginia High School this fall, but one would return if the current policy was changed, and three of the girls continue to attend the high school, according to the lawsuit.

    Minnesota has an open enrollment policy. If the students don’t like sharing school spaces with the girl who’s the target of this lawsuit, they can choose to switch to another nearby school. There’s at least 3 other high schools within 20 miles.

    Besides eliciting rage, these articles also show what a huge difference it can make how the news is reported.