This Feminist is heading South

That's right. International Women's Day falls on Mardi Gras this year and I am headed off to New Orleans to celebrate both.

My college pal and fellow Feminist K lives in a shot gun house in New Orleans, Louisiana. I fell in love with NOLA, esp. the French Quarter the first time I ever saw it. Now don't get me wrong, walking down Bourbon St. the one time I did made me feel outwardly yucky. Walking past middle aged men and women drinking mango daiquiris at 1:20pm in the afternoon whilst cheering at nothing and tripping over themselves is not something I would care to see often. However, the shops and boutiques, Cafe Du Monde on Decatur st, Gumbo at the Napoleon House, Pims cups, music everywhere and so many more things it is overwhelming me just thinking about it.

I am looking forward to having one Mardi Gras behind me already and I will keep my top on the entire time no matter what. I don't need to show anyone anything to earn anything. Besides, Mardi Gras to me is about dressing up, not undressing. There isn't any historical significance and it is only the spring breakers and tourists who think that exposing ones breast is a requirement for receiving throws from Mardi Gras floats. Locals stay out of the quarter on nights after big parades because Mardi Gras isn't about debauchery and topless women (okay, 1% of Mardi Gras is about debauchery and topless women).

Walking and Shouting for Women

You can see me on my ancient cell phone.

It was a great turn out.

More pictures to come!

P.S. Getting my pictures off the card has been riddled with tech problems. I promise I will get them off it and on here as soon as possible.

P.P.S. I forgot to mention that the reason everyone is on their cell phones is because we were all calling Senator Scott Brown at the same time!

Boston Walk for Choice FINAL DETAILS

So the routes have been posted on this site

I am planning to meet up at the Boston Common between 2-3pm. I have to be on the floor at the cafe until noon, which always stretches to 1:00pm somehow. If I meet up with a group along the way than so be it.

Here are the participant guidelines:
—This isn’t a parade, so keep to the sidewalks, don’t jaywalk or block any kind of traffic, and avoid signs that require more than one carrier.

—We’re all excited for Saturday, but let’s hold off on popping the celebratory bottles of champagne and other adult beverages until after it’s all said and done. Remember, St Patrick’s Day isn’t until next month.

—Planned Parenthood has agreed to mobilize and support us, as have student groups throughout the city. We’re grateful for those endorsements, and we’d like everyone to keep in mind that PP will be affected by any attention we receive, good or bad. We ask you to keep this in mind as you make signs and posters or if you’re approached by the press on Saturday.

—Please, please, please don’t engage with any members of the opposition if at all possible. If someone does approach you or harass you, please keep walking and move on, or if necessary find the BPD.

—Please respect the City of Boston. We’ve spoken to the BPD and they’re aware of the Walk, so please defer to them. We’ve also had a great experience working with the Parks and Recreation department so far, so let’s keep the Common clean and peaceful.

PUNK FUCKING ROCK

Boston Walk for Choice

Boston Walk for Choice 2011 is going down this Saturday Feb.26th 12:00pm-6:00pm.

The horrific bills being proposed and passed by the United States House of Representatives are both disgusting and frightening. In response, major cities around the country are holding events this Saturday. In Boston the walk begins at noon.

Meet up spots

# Marsh Plaza at Boston University
# Ringer Park in Allston
# Brigham Circle in the Jamaica Plain/Mission Hill area
# The Esplanade, near the access point at the Mass. Ave. Bridge
# Government Center

ANYWHERE else in the city.
Event Website

Mike Pence hates you and your utrerus. And who the hell is Justun Bieber?

Mike Pence considers himself a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican, in that order.

Mike Pence penned the recent Pence amendment which aims to pull funding from Title X, the ONLY federally funded program that serves poor women in need of reproductive health services. Now, as intelligent people know, the Hyde amendment already prohibits federal money from going towards abortion services in all of its ridiculous and vague glory because what a women does to her own body is of national f^&*ing interest. But now, Mike Pence wants to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood period.

"What is more fiscally responsible than denying any and all funding to Planned Parenthood of America?" demanded Representative Mike Pence of Indiana.

There are so many things wrong with this question that I am going to assume it's rhetorical.

Interestingly enough, some words of reason come from the Rev. Tom Davis "It is always strange that many men, particularly religious men, seem to believe they know better than women how women should live."*

So, if Planned Parenthood doesn't use federal funding for abortion services, what more does the GOP want?

Mike Pence contends that the federal funding Planned Parenthood gets for other services frees up funding to cover abortions.

But WAIT, a white man from Texas has the answer:

"All Planned Parenthood has to do is say they're going to stop performing abortions," said GOP Rep. John Culberson of Texas. "And yet they won't do it.**

I'm terrified, and you should be to.

And if the above doesn't do it then maybe this will.

I didn't even know who Justin Bieber was until a few weeks ago but he has this to say about about the rights of women to decide what happens to their bodies: "I really don't believe in abortion," he revealed. "I think [an embryo] is a human. It's like killing a baby."

And while he thinks it's "really sad" for a woman to become pregnant after being raped, he noted that "everything happens for a reason"***




*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-tom-davis/mike-pence-and-the-mormon_b_823485.html

**http://www.pal-item.com/article/20110219/NEWS01/102190315

***http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/02/16/2011-02-16_justin_bieber_in_rolling_stone_i_dont_think_you_should_have_sex_with_anyone_unle.html#ixzz1EYIOvd2n

They Give Horses Contraceptives Don't They?

In the same week that the GOP proposed a bill to eliminate Title X, THE ONLY federally funded program which provides family planning options, another proposed bill having to do with tax payer bought contraceptives has come to light.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) introduced the amendment, which would control the population of wild horses and burros as an alternative to the costly practice of capturing the animals and holding them in pens, which the Bureau of Land Management currently employs*

So it's okay for the government to pay for contraceptives for horses because they want to save money on having to provide for said horses. In fact, the fate of herds of wild horses has never crossed my mind when thinking about contraceptives at all.

I'm not saying that the overpopulation of wild horses is something we shouldn't care about or that the way the herds are handled now are all that terrific. I don't know enough about the situation. What I'm saying is that it is sickening that the same people who would advocate taking away tax payer funding for all types of reproductive health care (not just birth control)are ready to offer up federally funded birth control to HORSES before they can offer the same courtesy to women.

I am getting more and terrified everyday.



*Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49689.html#ixzz1EF4a5yxY

Pepsi pays tribute to the beautiful, the confident and the skinny.

Today I read several articles on the massive rape epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I read about Egypt and the protests that have been raging on for the last few weeks. I also checked up on Tunisia, thought about the coffee farmers in Nicaragua, checked into international volunteering, talked a bit about latte art and caught myself being asked directly why I don't consider woman's basketball to be a real thing for the first time ever (in theory not in practice). Yet, the nagging thought that wouldn't leave my head when I sat down to my computer this afternoon was WTF Pepsi??? Seriously, what the fuck?

Pepsi has changed their diet Pepsi can to a taller thinner can in "celebration of beautiful confident women." The new cans will be available in March and press releases noted that this cylindrical slender aluminum can is "sassier" then the old boring chubby soda can of the past. On top of everything in the entire world to pressure women into eating disorders, distorted body images and self loathing, Pepsi has to make their diet soda can skinnier. Moreover, this was the second most popular news story according to the Christian Science Monitor, right behind Mubarak refusing to step down.

It's mind boggling.

Did bill try to redefine rape? GOP backs down after public outcry.

Did bill try to redefine rape? GOP backs down after public outcry.

WTF O.B. Tampons II

As of Feb. 3rd the website for OB tampons had this to say, "To our valued customers: We are pleased to confirm that o.b.® tampons are increasingly in-stock at more stores nation-wide and several online retailers."

I won't believe it until I see it. Furthermore, seeing as though Johnson and Johnson hasn't explained why the only mainstream non-applicator brand tampons disappeared; I am now going to do everything I can to NOT buy OB tampons.

Between horror stories of Toxic Shock Syndrome, fiberglass in tampons (to hold shape) and all of the other unknowns that make you think about the truth of what may be in the cotton wad you are inserting inside yourself, do you really want to go back to using a product that pulled a Houdini?

Now, there are of course natural alternatives to all kinds of tampons. The Diva Cup is becoming more and more popular and if you are concerned about additives to tampons you could also use sea sponges.

I have been quite happy using Natracare tampons which is the organic version of OB but it seems like now may be the time to continue living without OB and try out the alternatives to all tampons.

Without any explanation or warning about the tampon crisis of 2010-2011, I am certainly not jumping up and spending my money on Johnson and Johnson products. Sorry OB, I learned to live without you.

Dirty Girls Ministries (or This Hand Ain't Your Hand)

First of all, I am not saying that porn addiction isn't a real thing. What I am saying is that there is huge difference between addiction and self loathing.

Dirty Girls Ministry is an organization founded by 26 year old Crystal Renaud. Renaud claims that she went though her own "porn addiction" and wanted to help other women with similar issues by holding meetings at her local church and on the internet. Renaud also offers treatment for masturbation and lustful thinking. Some members of the discussion forums admit that they view porn or masturbate twice a week or less. They also include romance novels and erotica in this definition of porn addiction.

Bust Magazine reports on the ministry in the Feb/Mar. issue and author Blaire Briody says of DGM founder; "Her ministry is labeled anti-pornography, but it also aims to treat masturbation without porn when it involves lustful thinking".


Renaud uses all the terms that come along with addiction lingo. Terms like "staying clean" for instance or being "sober" is the only way to completely break free from the horrors of this addiction. Her approach includes a 12-week recovery program called No Stones. Renaud starts the recovery off by banning any sort of material that can be determined as pornographic for one week. Then begins 90 days with no sex, no masturbation, no pornography or any TV shows about sex.

"When you stop masturbating, says Renaud, or stop looking at porn, your body actually goes through withdrawal. It's intense."

So, how did Renaud come to be the messiah for women who can't stop masturbating and checking out porn?

First let's back up a bit. The abstinence movement has long been a tool of the religious to deter young people from engaging in sexual intercourse period and we all know how well that works.

If these young people don't have sex until marriage, their purity is intact and their physical chastity has brought them to whatever prize it is that you get when you don't fuck until marriage. If they don't wait until the blissful marriage bedroom...well in that case, they won't use a condom because as the abstinence teacher said condoms don't work and a girl shouldn't ask a guy to wear one unless she's a slut. So the guy does alright in the end and the girl ends up getting pregnant, labeled a whore or a slut and suddenly wonders why her abstinence only sex education didn't include putting a condom on a banana like all the other kids in the school downtown got in there sexual education class. I bring abstinence only education (if you can call that being educated)up because it provides us a look at the mentality of people who seek to erase human sexuality in any context other than procreating. Now, not only are you not suppose to have sex, you aren't suppose to think about it nor simulate it in any manner until you are legally married and in the bed you your husband/wife picked out together and ran by the comforter set with your priest.

Renaud says that she found a dirty magazine of her brothers when she was 10 years old and the male genitalia was so fascinating to her that she began searching for it. Upon hitting puberty she admits that masturbation was added into her porn seeking behavior. Fast forward to age 15 and we find Renaud at a Christian summer camp. She heard a pastor talking about god loving everyone unconditionally regardless of what you do (unless you have an abortion or are gay, I digress). Renaud pledged then and there to end her masturbation and porn habits.

Putting women and pornography together is already a touchy subject as Men are supposed to hide the fact that they view/enjoy pornography and women are supposed to be open and loud about the fact that they don't view and are offended by pornography in all of its icky porn ways. Obviously parts of the above are true, on the whole I think the whole thing is crap. Women are made to feel awful about having any sort of sexual desires or wants to begin with. Now your telling me that women look at and actually masturbate to pornography and it is a viscous addiction that needs to be stopped?

Masturbation is wrong because....wait why???? Christian porn addicts are told that God intended sex to between a man and a women, not a man and himself. Okay....and why is masturbation wrong again? Because of the Porn thing? Well, as Christine O'Donnell stated in that oh so fascinating 1990's MTV video, it is wrong because having lust in your heart is committing adultery and you can't masturbate without lust. Uh. huh. She goes on, "If he already knows what pleases him and he can please himself, then why am I in the picture?"

AH HAH!!!! There it is. Renaud's crusade is against all sexual thought unless they are about your husband. O'Donnell is another women who is against all sexual thought unless it is about your husband (though she's worried more about him not thinking about her apparently).

So let us put a few things into context. The Dirty Girls Ministries is an organization where women who to one extreme are masturbating and watching porn all the time and to the other extreme having (gasp!) dreams about masturbation. So, what is the common thread between the two? GUILT. They all feel guilty. One member of DGM reports "Once, I've actually committed the sin (of porn and masturbation), I find myself feeling such sadness, frustration, disappointment anger and shame." Another states that it makes her feel "sick and unworthy" and another feels isolated and disgusted with herself.

While Renaud is running her DGM, some parts of society are starting to embrace the idea of masturbation, especially when it comes to women. It's a fact that millions of women struggle to reach orgasm during traditional penis/vaginal penetration. Countries like Spain and Britain have launched masturbation positive campaigns or pamphlets. Last year the UN released a report saying that children should learn about masturbation around age 5. Even Oprah, OPRAH has talked about the benefit of female masturbation. Some Doctors have pointed out that masturbation allows women and young girls to take the reins of their own sexuality. No way says Renaud, you can teach children that porn and masturbation exist as long as they don't try it. "It's a very dangerous society that we live in when we're telling women that it is OK to look at porn."

Christine O'Donnell agrees. What if women figure how to pleasure themselves without men?

What if getting married doesn't do anything to curb sexual desires felt by good Christian women who still feel guilty about their sexual fantasies? The women in DGM have the assumption that once a man is involved and they are married, the guilt or temptation to do taboo things will go away, allowing them to have appropriate good Christian women sexual thoughts, as if such a thing exists. If someone is taught that porn and masturbation is a bad thing, it is going to intrigue them more than if they came to the decision on there own and through there own experiences.

Mostly, I think Renaud and the other members of the DGM are lonely. Besides living in a society that tells them good girls don't like anything to do with sex, a lot of them are single and Renaud herself admits that she herself has never had a boyfriend. Maybe it is her lack of real life sexuality that drives her to call reading a romance novel and getting a tingly sensation during a particularly licentious scene "pornography addiction". Her preaching of the so-called 12-step path to salvation may be her way of normalizing the sexual repression that manifests as obsessions to other women who like to pleasure themselves if there isn't anyone else who will do it for them.


For more information on the Dirty Girls Ministry visit there web site here