Gift Guide plus!

A friend suggested a print of this as a great gift for the too cool for school (or sexism) person in your life:

Thanks Friend!

Last Minute Gift Giving Guide

Christmas is a mere two weeks away and this Feminist hopes someone gets her these!

The Feminist Majority Foundation has a great selection of gifts here.

One organization that I support is the Heifer Foundation. You don't have to spend a lot to contribute and because the animals are a long term investment for the family and the community; your gift can reach many people over time. To donate directly to all women's projects you can go here.

A neat company based in Brooklyn, Engage Green makes Eco-friendly bags, pouches and even umbrellas!

Want to get someone an awesome pouch, phone case, pillow or drawstring bag? I love the funky feel and aesthetically pleasing work by Aster and Sage.

Lastly, the company Smart Glass makes beautiful Jewelry out of recycled glass. I love (love love!) these earringsYay!

Don't forget to keep an ongoing list of the things you need to gift yourself after the holidays. I'm thinking new earrings all the way.

What's a Feminist got to be Thankful for?

There is no doubt that reproductive rights have become increasingly under attack this past year. With states like Colorado and Mississippi pushing legislation to grant rights to the unborn, the conservative agenda wanting to strip women's health facilities of funding and the anti-choice using Crisis Pregnancy Centers to pass off fiction as fact; more than ever before we are taking giant steps in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, it can't be said that there isn't a strong and growing opposition to the ever mounting restrictions and erosion of a women's right to choose. The president of NARAL Pro-Choice, Nancy Northup, sent out an e-mail thanking supporters and highlighting some victories in the last year:

Thanks to your support, today in Kansas, a pair of father-daughter OB-GYNs who have served generations of women and their families can keep their practice open—and women seeking abortion services will not have to travel out of state to receive the care they need. And in Texas and North Carolina, women making profoundly private decisions about their pregnancies can do so with the confidential counsel of their doctors—and without the intrusion of a politically-motivated ideological lecture and forced viewing of an ultrasound image.

Check out Emily's List, the pro-women group devoted to electing pro-choice women to see what they're thankful for.

I am, as always, thankful for my family and our health. I am also thankful that when I needed reproductive support I was able to make my own decision- just like every women should be able to.

Mississippi Rejects Personhood

To my great relief late Tuesday night, it finally became clear that Mississippi's "personhood" initiative was not going to pass.

The initiative sought to "define the word 'person' or 'persons' to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof."

The final tally according to Mississippi and Wikipedia marked 58% (464,712)of voters rejecting the initiative to the 42%(333,191) of voters who supported it.

While Planned Parenthood, Naral Pro-Choice and other women's reproductive health groups applauded the results, they also made it clear that this small victory is only a small chapter in the ongoing attacks against reproductive freedom. The disturbing trend of legislation aimed at extending legal rights to the "pre-born" over the already born reinforces my fear that once a women becomes pregnant she will no longer have to basic human right to own and make decisions about her body. This type of "pro-life" legislation is anything but supporting the life of the women who are undoubtedly people.


To sign the petition started by Emily's list (a pro women pro democrat organization), click the link above.

For more on Initiative 26 and other "personhood" legislation visit Pro-Choice America

Initiative 26

Initiative 26 would define personhood as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."

As we speak (or as I type) the state of Mississippi is voting on passing the above initiative to redefine person hood in the States constitution.

The reason this particular initiative is so scary is that it legitimizes the idea that women are not people. The tactic of extending legal protection to embryos at the instant of conception isn't new and Mississippi isn't the only state where the concept has gone to ballot.

The Atlantic reports that this initiative doesn't only outlaw abortion but would ban several types of birth control in a state that already has the poorest and least educated population as well.

Roberto Garcia-Jones, a legal analyst for the measure's main sponsor, Personhood USA, claims that the amendment won't go as far as its opponents say it does. He says that the bill only defines "personhood" within the context of existing laws and doesn't contain any call for enforcement or changes to existing laws. According to Garcia-Jones, the ballot initiative would allow Mississippi's legislature to make laws against abortion that carry penalties -- laws that he believes would pass quickly. The Mississippi legislature will pass "abortion-targeted legislation," he predicts, and leave birth control formally alone.

Mississippi voters today are casting ballots for and against Constitutional Initiative 26, the so-called "personhood" amendment to the state constitution seeking to define life "to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof." Opponents of the measure warn it would outlaw not only abortion but several forms of birth control, plunging one of America's poorest and least-educated states back into the 1950s on the reproductive rights front and opening a pathway for other states to completely outlaw abortion. A close vote is expected and controversy over the measure has reached such a pitch in the state that Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said that "despite concerns" he'd cast an absentee ballot in favor of the measure last Thursday.

Mississippi has only one operating abortion clinic in the state. The Center for Reproductive Rights has pledged to file suit against the amendment. The organization notes that it "clearly violates the constitution."

The country already is moving toward a nation that doesn't support women reproductive health but the ramifications of stripping funding and passing legislation that restricts reproductive health is dangerous to the overall health of women too.

Mississippi wants to move backwards and it wants to do it now. The trends are scary and the elections of 2012 are rapidly approaching. The anti-choice movement seeks to slowly erode the reproductive rights that women fought so hard for. The victories sought by the anti-choice is simply dehumanizing women and banning any freedom we have to control our on reproductive rights.

Coming soon

So I have been slacking on substantial entries lately and am recommitting myself to at least one entry a week again.

So, here are a few topics you have to look forward to.

Sea Sponges, yes, exactly.

The Cider House Rules according to the "anti-choice."

What do you get the Feminist in your life for Christmas? (I'm offended by everything!)


This and much more to come. I promise.

Update: I haven't had electricity since Sunday am. I have been starting fires for days and am severally under caffeinated, not able to work and losing my optimism quickly. More to come when the power comes back.

Commenting on (Feminists) Blogs

Whilst checking on the site feministe.us.blog I came across a blog entry from yesterday that was called "Steven Greenstreet proves he's definitely not a mysogynist by making rape jokes" found here.

In short, Greenstreet created a video-Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street. Perhaps you can see where this is going? My point isn't to deliberate on the rights and wrongs of the video or why and how something like this even comes to fruition, I'd like to point out the comments made on the blog entry and subsequent posts from the author and the public.

I have learned a few times over that online forums are not a great place to get your views across or change peoples mind with witty unheard of arguments. I remember engaging in a heated debate on Facebook 3 or 4 years ago around the holiday times. The current big Facebook thing was themed message boards about all sorts of controversial subjects like the death penalty, women's rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I'm not positive which one I was arguing at the time but after spending two days and I don't know how many hours going back and forth with a particular user before it was revealed that the person was a seventh grade boy from Texas. I got off my message board kick pretty quickly.

If you look through the comments on the blog about Steven Greenstreet, it's pretty apparent that there is no sense of healthy dialogue or meaningful exchange. What is also apparent is the use of any and all means necessary to negate any legitimacy in what people write.

"You said that misogyny was wrong but you spelled misogyny wrong so you suck and should die in a ditch."

"Women are so uptight, they wouldn't be so angry if they were getting laid. Sexism is fake"

"This is why I hate feminism, I'm a women but I laugh at rape jokes so they should calm the fuck down"

No these are not actual comments, but they are really close and I could go on forever. Even when someone makes an attempt at a reasonable, well thought out and accurate statement the audience cannot see it for what it is. If you disagree with someone in this type of virtual setting you are opening yourself up to all sorts of irrelevant personal attacks on your character. How can anything be achieved by commenting on something and having a dozen strangers tell you you're an idiot and should be struck by a car? You can't engage in conversation, just the back and forth type of exchange where you repeat yourself and spend hours trying to come up with an argument that your fellow virtual commenter may allow for some valuable exchanges.

I don't think it's possible to curtail this sort of ridiculousness because the internet provides you with a forum where you don't really have to take any responsibility for what you say to people. Even to point this very fact out is fruitless because by pointing this out to people you would have to participate in this type of communication. If you were to point out to those commenting that they aren't accomplishing anything or being heard through this form of interaction someone would inevitably challenge that with questioning why you are participating in the venue that you are discrediting. And when you think about it you might realize that they may actually be on to something with that...

My thoughts exactly/mostly

Slut Walk vs. Occupy Wall Street

Update

This weekend I have decided to report on the most recent attacks on the the legality of abortion. Roe v. Wade happened 38 years ago and gave women the right to decide what happens to her body, yet that right seems to be in more peril than ever before. While there has always been anti-choice sentiments in this country and to varying degrees in each state, the furor has been intensified to overturn the law of the land. It seems that a total ban of abortion is way off but anti-choice groups will continue to struggle for passing legislation that severely impedes if not out right bans the procedure.

This week a petition initiative was filed in the Nevada courts that would prohibit "the intentional taking of a prenatal persons life."
As you'll see in the article from the Las Vegas Sun, the term prenatal person is defined as "every human being at all stages of biological development before birth."

The Nevada pro-life coalition is not registered with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office to advocate for or against an initiative petition. They would need to file the paperwork and then collect over 70,000 valid signatures from the states three counties to have the initiative placed on a ballot.

The New York Times Sunday opinion article raises an alarm about the erosion of reproductive rights and issued a map displaying the number of harmful restrictions in each state. Also displayed is a graph showing the exponential rise in anti-choice legislation over the last several years.

To end on a more hopeful note, I will leave you with some updated information on the case of Jennie Linn McCormick. McCormick, won a temporary court order barring enforcement of the decades-old law under which she was charged for terminating for own pregnancy. McCormick, aided by her sister, obtained RU-486 from the internet and was charged under a law from 1972 making it a felony for women to end there own pregnancy.

Porno For PETA

Peta is at again.

Some of you may remember the billboard ad featuring an obese women with the slogan "Save the Whales, Lose Blubber, Go Vegetarian."

I get it, I do. I'm not into torturing, testing, tormenting or any other harmful act towards animals. We are a meat eating culture probably to our determent and definitely to our chagrin of the vegans and veterinarians of the world.

In a somewhat strange turn of events PETA has announced their intentions to debut a pornographic website that they hope will promote veganism by mixing porno with images of animals suffering. Now, call me old fashion but I prefer the old nudity to protest wearing fur as opposed to the new tactic of treating women like the pieces of meat that they are trying to garner support for. Sure, cows don't get to choose to be displayed like this but I don't see why Pamela Anderson choosing to pose likethis has anything to say about why we shouldn't eat the cow. Obviously I understand the point is to remind carnivores that animals aren't entirely made of meat, but what about women being more than meat? PETA is putting animals and women next to each other and saying that animals are the ones that should be treated better.

Shock value may be a valuable selling point and it's true that nothing sells like sex. Given the fact that the internet is filled with every and any type of fetish pornography you can think of (and some you can't), what does PETA hope to accomplish with images that they themselves admit is more cuddly porn than anything already available on the internet. Let's hear from the associate director of campaigns for PETA- "The site, she said, will have nudity and "sexually suggestive content" but not hard-core porn: "A lot of people distinguish between erotica and pornography, and this will be erotica."

I'm not arguing against women having the right to use their bodies as a form of protest or to choose to participate in pornography. If and when women get to choose to engage in either activity more power to her. I am saying that PETA's campaign is dumb. It's dumb because it further marginalizes the group as a bunch of wing nuts who aren't all there. It further alienates supporters who otherwise agree with the cause but can't get on the porno for animal rights wagon.

So, holier than thou veganism, misogyny, mutilated animals and SOFT-CORE porn?

Great idea. Just super. I'm sure the next generation of young animal loving feminist vegans are going to be really inspired by this campaign.

I'm going to go get a cheeseburger, kick a puppy and watch some hard-core porn.