I saw this on Feministing, and thought it was pretty interesting. This domestic violence awareness campaign from London puts a specific emphasis on the responsibility of those who might hear or witness this type of violence to call 911 (or 999 in England) for someone who might not be able to.

They also use an interactive video to convey this message -- depending on if you "choose" (by clicking) to call the police or not, you will get a different ending to the video.

Trigger warning.

This makes me sick.

In the Mexican state of Guanajuato, which holds the strictest abortion policy and the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, and also refuses to teach comprehensive sex education, six women have been sentenced to 25 to 30 years prison time for the crime of violating Guanajuato's abortion laws. From womensrights.change.org:

Ms. Magazine reports that the six women were tried and sentence for homicide under laws criminalizing abortion. Activists working with the women reports that all six defendants were poor and had little education. Two were impregnated by rape, and all were abandoned by the sperm-providers. One had a spontaneous abortion, a.k.a. a miscarriage.

To have a woman charged with homicide and thrown in jail for making a decision about her own body is appalling to me... it sounds like something out of some horrifying dystopian novel. Too bad it's reality.

Wow, just when I thought Mel Gibson's existence couldn't get anymore appalling, the internet gets ahold of his latest disgustingly misogynist and racist rant. It was recorded by his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. "Horrific," "offensive," and "repulsive" are all understatements.

Here's a part of it, from AlterNet, where Gibson yells at Grigorieva for looking like a "Vegas whore." SERIOUS TRIGGER WARNING.

You go out in public and it's a fucking embarrassment to me. You look like a fucking bitch in heat. And if you get raped by a pack of niggers it will be your fault. Alright? Because you provoked it. You are provocatively dressed all the time with your fake boobs that you feel you have to show off. I don't like it. I don't want that woman. I don't want you. I don't trust you. I don't love you.

Even though this is absolutely detestable language, I'm posting this here because this is an unfortunately common sentiment today: dress like a "whore," and you're asking for it. Not too long ago, I was out at a bar with some friends, dressed in my usual jeans, boots, and a tank top with a cardigan over it. Some charming gentleman tried to hit on me, I took him I was married to get him off my back, to which he responded, "If you were my wife and you went out looking like that, I would smack you around." Nice.

The Sexist actually recently posted a really nice PSA from Scotland that dealt with this issue.



Seriously, this shouldn't be such a hard concept to grasp. Women NEVER "ask for it," and even if a woman does go out in public wearing a short dress or whatever and ends up getting raped, the fault ultimately lies with the rapist. To say otherwise is preposterous.

The first advertisement for abortion services to run in the United Kingdom hit the air earlier this week, and will run about 25 times throughout the next month. Specifically, it advertises Marie Stopes International, which is one of the world's leading family planning organizations.

The ad doesn't mention abortion services - it just refers viewers to MSI. Wow, 2010 and we're just seeing the first family planning services ad now.

Here's what's up:

• A court in Illinois heard arguments yesterday regarding the parental notification law that has been stalled in the state since 1995. The law, if passed, would require that physicians notify the parents of women 17 or younger seeking abortions at least 48 hours before the procedure.


• Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional Jobs (Women WIN Jobs) Act late last week. The bill has more than 40 cosponsors and is intended to give low-income women greater access to high-wage, high-demand occupations.


• According to CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus: "the time has come to consider a change to Don't Ask, Don't Tell."


• There's a campaign underway in New York called Fight Back New York that intends to defeat anti-gay candidate Hiram Monserrate in an election happening today. Visit their website to donate, spread the word, and watch a video featuring Cynthia Nixon on the importance of passing marriage equality in NY.


• A heart-breaking occurrence at a Mississippi school: a girl name Constance wanted to bring her girlfriend to prom. But the school opted to avoid letting her by canceling the prom altogether. Take action at the Human Rights Campaign site.


• Ever pay attention to the little pedestrian icon that flashes when it's okay to cross the street? Ever notice it's probably the icon of a man? A photography mural on the streets of NYC, titled "Walking Men 99," is making people more aware of the fact that pedestrian traffic light icons can actually have many other identities.


• An article in Women's eNews exposes the hardships of women in Arizona with breast cancer: "Undocumented women with breast cancer in Arizona have to rely on community clinics and sliding scale fees to get services. Help is not easy to find. When it does arrive, economic barriers and fear of deportation often stand in the way or delay treatment."


• See how International Women's Day was celebrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This video is a little old (I just found it on the International Women's Day website), but it is something that I would not doubt is still going on in Afghanistan. It's heartbreaking, to say the least.

Warning: this video may be triggering for some.



You can visit the sites of organizations like Women for Afghan Women and the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan to learn more about the hardships of post-Taliban life, and to find out how you can help.

Sign the petition here.

It's today! What are you doing to celebrate?

I'm sure most of you have heard about the enormous earthquake that struck Haiti two days ago, causing an estimated 50,000 deaths. I was horrified to hear about this, but I have faith that people will band together to dedicate time and money to aid those affected in Haiti. I've already seen efforts in the past two days, ranging from friends posting links to donation pages on Facebook to pop-ups on the corner of the TV screen on VH1 urging people to donate through a text message fund.

But televangelist Pat Robertson and ignoramus Rush Limbaugh were nice enough to give us comprehensive lessons on how not to help those struggling to put their lives back together in Haiti. Here's Keith Olbermann's fantastic response to their heartlessness:



Let's try looking at some better ways to help that don't involve accusing Haitians of making a pact with the devil or of being communists who brought poverty upon themselves.

Real Ways to Help:

• The Red Cross announced that you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to send $10 to the Red Cross' quake relief fund (the $10 will be added to your next cell phone bill). Or you can donate to the Red Cross online.


• You can also donate to UNICEF, NetHope, or World Vision International.


• Use your blogs, Facebooks, Twitters, text messages, and so on to spread the word about Haiti's need for our help. Stay on top of the news to remain updated on the situation, since it is constantly changing. Today, for example, MSNBC reported that the chaos that has broken out since the quake is making it extremely difficult for relief workers to get aid to victims.


• Also use social networking sites and word-of-mouth to publicly denounce the horrific responses by people such as Robertson and Limbaugh. Use Keith Olbermann's words if you need to, since he usually says it better than anyone ;)

I send my utmost support and compassion to those affected by the earthquake in Haiti, and I hope each day those in Haiti make more progress towards a recovery.

In Italy, you can find "Burqa Barbies" on display at an exhibit, being auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Italian branch of Save the Children.

Barbara Kay of the National Post, who asked, "Why is the world's favorite fashion doll wearing a symbol of oppression?" wrote:

I have seen some pretty tawdry advertising campaigns in my time, but I must say this one takes the cake for insensitivity. What's next in dolls that are "important for girls" to play with? "Illiterate Barbie"? "Forced-Marriage Barbie"?

I understand Kay's concerns, but I have a problem with this article. By saying the above statement, Kay is equating the burqa with women being denied access to education and being forced into marriage. However, burqa Barbie does not come with a scroll inscribed with the Taliban edicts; there are no indications that this burqa-wearing Barbie is oppressed in any way, other than, as Kay observes, the cloth covering her from head-to-toe.

In the article, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?" Lila Abu-Lughod points out that the Taliban did not invent the burqa. She explains, "The Pashtun are one of the several ethnic groups in Afhganistan and the burqa was one of many forms of covering in the subcontinent and Southwest Asia that has developed as a convention for symbolizing women's modesty or respectability." Abu-Lughod also cites anthropologist Hanna Papanek, who in 1982 wrote that many saw the burqa as liberating because it allowed women to move about in public, while still respecting the moral requirements of separating women from unrelated men.

When the Taliban was overthrown, though some women did discard their burqas (those who felt safe enough to do so), many continued to wear it. As Westerners who have been taught by the media and by people such as Kay that the burqa is an oppressive and horrific invention, it's hard for us to understand why a woman would choose to wear one. But even with the Taliban gone, why would a woman suddenly choose to discard what she might see as a symbol of respectability and liberation?

My bottom line: the reasoning behind a woman's choice to wear a burqa is complex. We cannot reduce the burqa to a mere "symbol of oppression." To many, it is a marker of their culture. And as people who didn't grow up in Middle Eastern culture, it is impossible for us to fully understand it.

Two positive pieces of news regarding women's rights in the Middle East:

In Pakistan, the National Assembly passed a law increasing the penalty for sexual harassment. It now must be passed in the senate, but let's keep our fingers crossed. If passed, the law would increase the penalty for sexual harassment from one year to three years in prison and would add a fine of up to 500,000 Pakistani rupees (6,000 American dollars).

In Saudi Arabia, women's rights activists are launching a "Black Ribbon Campaign" to demand women's rights in the country. Activists are asking those who support women's rights to wear a black ribbon or bracelet. The campaign has three goals: "that Saudi women be allowed to represent themselves in official and government agencies without a male guardian; that Saudi women be treated as citizens equal to Saudi men; and that Saudi women be allowed to enjoy rights and privileges that are currently restricted including the rights to travel, work, study, inherit, gain custody of children, marry, divorce, drive cars."

• Check out The New York Times' "Women at Arms" series, which "explores how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have profoundly redefined the role of women in the military."


• In the Philippines, where abortion is illegal and 70% of the population cannot afford birth control, reproductive rights advocates are pushing for legislation that would require the government to provide free or low-cost reproductive services. However, these efforts are meeting harsh resistance.


• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Wednesday restoring the $16.3 million in funds for domestic violence shelters that he originally cut from the state's budget in July.


• In Saudi Arabia, a female journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes for being involved with a TV show that discussed sex.


• The US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing Wednesday to examine the violence perpetuated against women in foreign countries. Our goal is achieve re-introduction of the International Violence Against Women Act.


• Personhood Nevada filed a ballot initiative in the state to pass a law that would define a fetus as a human being. If passed, this law would threaten abortion rights, as well as IUDs, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization clinics, and stem cell research.


• An article on MSNBC.com warns that certain menopause remedies that are becoming popular, such as hormone therapies, may contain dangerous side-effects.


• With the Barbie doll losing popularity, Mattel is giving her a makeover in hopes to revive the historic toy. It's pretty horrific... let the short short dresses and copious amounts of makeup speak for themselves.


• Michelle Obama has been active recently in Breast Cancer awareness.

For... fun? I guess? MSN.com put together a list of ridiculous and horrifying laws against women around the world. It includes:

A woman was arrested at a Saudi Arabia coffee house for sitting at the same table with a male co-worker.

A woman was convicted earlier this summer for drinking a beer in public.

One woman says she wasn't allowed to swim in a Paris pool because she was wearing a "burquini."

Undoubtedly, it's a good thing to call attention to the injustices against women around the world, but I wish MSN decided to take it more seriously. If you visit the site, you'll see they treat the whole list as laughable, and their main picture is this:




First of all, the woman convicted for drinking beer in Malaysia was not white with blond hair, nor was she smiling because, um, she was sentenced to caning.

Sure, in a sense, these laws are almost laughable because they are so ridiculous, but we only laugh at them because we cannot imagine the kind of life these women have to live. For us it might be a joke, but for them it's reality.

Stories like this make me really grateful that I live in the U.S.

A student in Afghanistan, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, was sentenced to death for distributing information regarding the role of women in Islam. He was convicted of "distributing blasphemous material."

"Blasphemous material"!!!

Thankfully, he has now been freed, but as his brother publicly stated, "Pervez should never have been put in that position." All he advocated for was the bettering of women's lives.

As soon as you get a free minute, check out "A Woman's World" on the New York Times website. It's a gallery of user-submitted photographs "that illustrate the importance of educating girls and empowering women." The photographs are beautiful, and feature women from all around the world. Thank you, Times, for putting this together.

In Mali, thousands are protesting against a proposed law that would give women more marriage rights, including granting inheritance rights to children born without married parents, changing the legal age for marriage to 18, and replacing "paternal power" with "parental authority" in family law.

According to protesters, this new law is against Islam and is based on the values of Western civilization. Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations told BBC:

We have to stick to the Koran... A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband.

Of course I'm in favor of women having rights that they deserve, but it's an extremely tough situation when religion is involved. About 90% of the Mali population is Muslim, so the chance of this law passing doesn't look too good.

In the Bahamas, a person can only accuse a partner of marital rape if they are legally separated or in the process of getting a divorce. I suppose Phyllis Schlafly would fully commend this policy, since she believes that "when you get married you have consented to sex." Rape can happen in any situation and within any relationship, including marriage.

Now, there is a bill in the Bahamian legislature that would fully criminalize marital rape, and not surprisingly, it's drawing controversy. From the Associated Press:

The bill already has caused debate on radio talk shows, with some islanders saying women could file false rape charges as leverage for alimony, child support or custody. Others have said the bill contradicts traditional Christian values.

Wow, people really give women no credit whatsoever. Keep your fingers crossed that this bill passes for the safety of Bahamian women.

I don't even have words to describe this. Horrific, appalling, disturbing, deplorable. Men in Afghanistan have won the "right" to starve their wives in order to control them and force them to meet their sexual demands:

Bowing to international pressure and unprecedented protests by hundreds of women on the streets of Kabul, the Afghan government promised in April to review a new law imposing severe restrictions on women in Shiite Muslim families.

Last week, though, Human Rights Watch discovered that a revised version of the Shiite Personal Status Law had been quietly put into effect at the end of July — meaning that Shiite men in Afghanistan now have the legal right to starve their wives if their sexual demands are not met and that Shiite women must obtain permission from their husbands to even leave their houses, "except in extreme circumstances."

Many Afghan men fully support this law because they enjoy the ability to exercise control over their wives. In Afghanistan, equality remains a myth.




And sadly, allowing starvation isn't the only thing promised by this new law:

According to Human Rights Watch, the new law also "grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers" and "effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her."

I don't even know what we can do about this, other than spread the word. I feel really powerless.

Check out "5 Reasons We Still Need Feminism" on the Sirens Magazine website. I could easily write "50 Reasons We Still Need Feminism," but the five reasons they listed were certainly enough, which included the rape crisis and reproductive rights being in jeopardy. But just for some extra material to shove in the faces of folks who claim that feminism is dead and useless, here are my five reasons (in actuality, reproductive justice and the rape crisis would be on this list, but since Sirens already covered it, I'm trying to do something different).

1. Equal Pay Remains a Myth. Although we have laws to protect our right to fair and equal pay, a wage gap still exists. In 2008, women who were full-time wage and salary workers earned about 80 percent of their male counterparts' salaries. And the numbers are even worse for women of color. A core feminist belief (especially within Marxist Feminism) is that women cannot achieve liberation without economic independence. As long as women still continue to struggle with poverty, many have no choice but to depend on men for survival.

2. LGBT People Are Still Being Treated Like a Lesser Species. As long as people still exist who believe that same-sex marriage will lead to the apocalypse and will corrupt our children, gay people will continue to be stepped on by bigoted heterosexuals. Keith Olbermann once asked while addressing same-sex marriage opponents, "What's it to you?" Opponents of equality are selfish and ignorant people who envision a world with legalized gay marriage as a doomed world. To me, the scarier world is one in which over half the population in a state votes in favor of hatred instead of love, churches are performing fake exorcisms on frightened young people, scientific evidence is ignored for the sake of continuing harmful and medieval tactics, and entire groups of people who have done nothing but step into a gay bar are targeted by a terrorist group that wishes to poison them. In comparison to all that, love and acceptance doesn't sound so bad.

3. As High as the Rape and Violence Rates Are Here, Women Are Being Abused Even More Abroad. If you are a woman in the Middle East or in Africa, you have a shitload to worry about. Perhaps you were forced to live underground after surviving a rape because your family was so ashamed of you that they kicked you out, or maybe you have no choice but to undergo genital cutting, in which your clitoris is cut or removed or your entire vagina is sewn shut to ensure that you do not experience any type of sexual pleasure until you are forced into marriage. Or maybe you live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where you constantly have to worry about you or your daughters or your sisters or your friends being raped endlessly and left with unwanted pregnancies, STDs, or a torn vagina. For these women, I'd say feminism is pretty damn important.

4. Racism is Alive and Well. Let's play a game called Don't Jump the Gun, in which we try with all our might to avoid declaring racism "dead" because our country finally allowed a black man into the White House. Because when said black man is still the target of racist attacks, like comparing him to a witch doctor or a "magic negro," or is targeted for an assassination by white supremacists, I think it's safe to say racism is still pretty active. And let's not forget when for the 45340598390534th time a black man was targeted by cops, and our black president defended him, he was ripped a new asshole by right-wingers.

5. Society is Laying Out the Narrowest of Paths for Our Children. Little girls play with dolls, and little boys play with trucks. If the opposite occurs, the little girl is taunted and called a "tomboy," and the little boy is called a "sissy" or a "fag." Shouldn't our children have the right to express who they are and choose what they want to do, as long as they are safe? In a perfect (see: feminist) world perhaps, but in our society, don't even think about it. Most major toy websites still have "boys" and "girls" sections with "gender-appropriate" toys that condition young boys to grow up to love violence and sports, and girls to grow up cooking meals and playing dress-up. A feminist's task is to break down these stereotypes, until finally a young boy can play with a Barbie doll without being teased by classmates and reprimanded by nervous parents who fear the boy will grow up to be (GASP!) a homosexual. Such restrictions harm children in the long run by forcing them to stifle their interests and talents if they do not fit the norm.

What are your reasons?

I'M BACK! It's been an exciting week in Vegas, filled with winning money in Blackjack, followed by spending said money on $11 drinks. Definitely a successful vacation, but I'm glad to be back. My body couldn't handle another day in Vegas, and I was tired of being handed flyers for female escorts.

So, to catch up on everything I've been missing, and to help myself get back into the real world, here's a special back-from-Vegas edition of Buffet of the Week:

• Judge Sotomayor has been confirmed in a 68-31 vote! Congratulations to Judge Sotomayor, and let's hope she's as wonderful of a judge as we anticipated.


• A gay man has recently been released from prison after spending 21 years behind bars for sexual attacks on children that he did not commit.


• A new report released shows that women's insurance is more adversely affected by the recession.


• Quakers in the UK have decided to throw all their support behind same-sex marriage.


• Supermodel Gisele, who has announced that she is pregnant, has appeared in an ad campaign sans baby bulge. Why? Advertisers photoshopped it out.


• The Women and Work Commission has found that the wage gap in the UK has been increasing.


• Washington, D.C. schools are planning to offer STD testing to students.


• Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed asks, "Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?"

Anything else?