Articles of Faith...again

When I was reading Cynthia Gorney's Articles of Faith, I said I would update along the way. I didn't. In part because life happens and I was happy enough to be reading the text for later discussion if not immediate critique. I finished the book months ago but for one reason or another did not make it back here to analyze nor share the profound effect that this book had on me.

This book is lauded by many- it's hailed for being a truly unbiased account of the build up to and immediate after affects of the Roe v Wade ruling in the Supreme Court. In a very abbreviated fashion here are two things

1. The abortion "wars" have been and and will continue to be fought by those who without a doubt believe in and or abhor the right for a women to abort a pregnancy in the United States.

2. This issue will never be decided 100% in favor of or against a women's right to choose.

Number two is a pill that was very difficult for me to swallow. Never? The abortion wars will never be decided in this country? What? How can that be? Either a women has the right to terminate a pregnancy or she doesn't...right?


In my idea of a perfect world the women who are already born will without a doubt own and control the outcome of their bodies- period.

Feminists Don't Laugh About Rape

I've written before that I don't have a sense of humor. When it comes to certain things, I can't laugh- regardless of how "funny" others may think something is.

Feminists already have a bad rap for taking things too seriously but I don't that's a bad thing. The problem lies with the rest of society not taking things seriously enough and then ostracizing those who speak out. How many times have you heard people refer to Feminists as too "uptight", or that they should just "lighten up"? Some of the most abhorrent rhetoric out there about Feminists is that they "need to get laid" or "stay in the kitchen". I'm not sorry that those things fail to amuse me.

Daniel Tosh- up until yesterday I knew of him very vaguely. The only thing I had heard about Tosh is that he doesn't discriminate against who he offends and that isn't rare when talking about stand up comedians. Recently a young women told her account about her experience while seeing Tosh at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. A friend of the women posted the story on her blog. You can find the original post here.

"Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious."

The women, feeling "provoked" stood up and shouted "Actually, rape jokes are never funny!"

 "After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, 'Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her...' and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing I needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there ..."

Later in the post she says "I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying..."

The situation in and of itself is disturbing and the young women prefaces her story by saying she was rather apprehensive about attending the show to begin. She also says didn't know who Daniel Tosh was when she decided to see the show

I acknowledge that going to a comedy club is in a way an invitation to be offended. This goes above and beyond being offended however. If Tosh wanted to continue his show after being shouted at he should have asked security to remove the "heckler" and go on with his show. You can blame her for heckling/speaking up- but for all of those who may think she deserved the comments that followed because she interrupted his "performance" should realize that it's the performer who has the power and control over the audience. Tosh instead proceeded to make a spectacle out of her and turn her comment around to make her the subject of a never funny joke about getting raped.

One thing is certain- Rape jokes aren't funny, ever- I would have gotten up and left. More over I may have shouted a certain word or two on my way out. 

Tosh doesn't get that it isn't about taking awful things and joking about them to make them less awful- his reasoning for where he was going with the words was,"the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them."

Okay...that doesn't make them less awful at all. It trivializes violence against women and desensitizes us from reacting accordingly to gross violence. I also want to ask where the joke was in all of this- Tosh said what he said, it wasn't a waiting for the punchline but the punchline didn't come situation- he never even started a joke. He through out a scenario and stated that it would be funny if this girl was raped. You can't see a joke in there because there isn't one.

I don't understand how someone could think "wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? What kind of sick freak would sit there and laugh at a girl being gang raped in front of them? The people in that audience would not have been laughing if 5 guys stood up and attacked a women in front of them.

Here is the most frustrating part- I can hear the statement "it's a joke, it's not supposed to be taken seriously" coming from innumerable sources. I read the comments left by people after reading the story and they are repulsive. The scenario is repulsive. The comedian just isn't funny.

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

 

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Mississippi

Today a judge blocked enforcement of a Law that put Mississippi on the path to becoming the only state in the country without an abortion clinic. The law, which required any physician doing abortions at the clinic to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. The two doctors who currently preform the abortions have requested permission at the local hospital but that has not been granted.

"The opponents of reproductive rights in the Mississippi legislature have made no secret of their intent to make legal abortion virtually disappear in the state of Mississippi", Says Nancy Northup CEO of the Center for Reproductive rights based in New York City."

The temporary restraining order was based on evidence that the act is solely about eliminating abortion in Mississippi.

Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act otherwise known as "Obamacare" was upheld today in the United States Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts was the majority vote but no hell hasn't frozen over.

Of course, some concerns still remain- especially for low income women. Head over to Womens E News for more on that story.

Remember the Ladies

I had been working on a post about the Michigan "Vagina Incident" in which a state senator was barred from speaking the rest of the day after referencing her vagina. I'm not going to finish that post- at least not right now.

Today I will bring you a smorgasbord of reports on various issues and you can pick and choose what you're interested in.

First I bring you an update on Sandra Fluke- Yup, shes the one deemed a "slut" and a "prostitute" by beloved cultural commentator Rush Limbaugh. He also said that if Ms. Fluke wanted "us" to pay for her birth control then she should post videos so that "we" could watch. Charming man.

So what is Sandra Flukeup to these days after spiraling into the spotlight?

I mentioned earlier in the month that Anita Sarkeesian (of Feminist Frequency)was wrapping up a kick ass first time kickstarter project on the portrayal of women in video games. So how did it work out in the end? Just the beginning!


The Third (you gotta start somewhere) Annual Forbes Top 100 Websites For Women is out and it's pretty interesting. See the blogs out there that cater to the every women- the mom, the career minded, the athletes and,of course - the feminists.

Feminist Frequency

Anita Sarkeesian, founder of the Feminist Frequency is wrapping up her Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a video series on the representation of women in the Gaming World.

Anita's website kicks ass for a variety of reasons but the thing I love the most is how she is able to discuss pop culture issues in an intelligent, well thought out and fully informed manner. She doesn't talk down to anyone and will touch on many sides of an issue without wandering from her original point. She is a great role model to young women and a brilliant representation of Feminism.

So head over to her Kickstarter campaign or if it's too late for that go ahead and bookmark her website asap.

Suicide

"Let yourself be angry. Do not be afraid. They cannot hurt you unless you let them. But you have little time. There’s a bad danger coming"

Jameson Greely Lavo 12/1/1984-6/1/2012

Maxi Pad Philanthropy

The latest issue of Bitch Magazine contains a piece that has reignited my curiosity on the subject of menstrual pad donations. Specifically the western world sending maxi pads to developing nations as "humanitarian" aid.

In 2007, Proctor and Gamble began a program called Protecting Futures. The research used in advertisements stated that in Africa, 1/10 girls miss up to 4 days a month due to insufficient materials and facilities to hygienically and privately handle their menstrual flow. P and G donated pads as well as creating sanitary facilities so those 1/10 girls wouldn't miss school.

This program is coming to the end of its five year run and its total merits can be debated at a later time. What pleased me about the article in Bitch was that it pointed out alternatives that are more environmentally sustainable and are created much closer to home- and hopefully eventually eliminating the need to donate corporate pads at all.

From a Indian man inventing a stainless steel small motor pad-making machine (only sold to NGOs and womens collectives) to a group of women students in Malaysia who invented a biodegradable pad made from tapioca, banana fiber and vinegar to a Kenyan NGO started by 8 mothers (K-MET)that assemble reusable cloth napkins and then travel throughout the country teaching others how to- the developing world is finding it's own way to provide sanitary solutions for its women. Proctor and Gamble need not apply.

Sir Richards- Ethical Condoms

Sir Richard's Condom Company is the condom of equivalent to TOMS. You may have more fun using the condoms then you will wearing the shoes but that's beside the point.

For every condom you purchase from Sir Richards, one is donated to a developing nation. There is a huge condom shortage in the world leaving millions susceptible to preventable diseases. Enter Sir Richard's. In February of this year, working with Partners in Health-SR launched it's first project by donating 500,000 condoms to Haiti. Not just any condoms mind you, a brand manufactured in Haitian Creole called KORE.

Does having socially conscientious branding based on a buy 1 give 1 system to address a giant global health problem make Sir Richard's the best incentive to go out and buy condoms and have a lot of sex?

I certainly think so.

Privacy

That's right, privacy. The constitution of the United States says absolutely nothing about abortion. This is of course, not surprising given that the founding fathers were all...well FATHERS. Seriously though, the constitution is without question a tricky document. There is the ninth amendment which talks about not denying rights simply because they are not specified in the constitution but that's ambiguous at best.

So on what bases did states laws banning abortion become moot? Enter the fourteenth amendment. This includes a "due process clause which prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness".

Using the right to privacy, drawn from the 14th amendments right to due process became linked to the abolition of anti-abortion laws through the land mark case Griswold v. Connecticut. In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. Once a precedent was set in this ruling, the possibility of using these grounds to declare states abortion bans unconstitutional became more realistic.

It took several cases, but the one that finally reached the Supreme Court came out of Texas. The Texas law banned all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother. Jane Roe (Norma L McCorvey) claimed that while her life was not endangered, she could not afford to travel out of state and had a right to terminate her pregnancy in a safe medical environment.

It was found that the ban on abortion in the State of Texas was unconstitutional in that it violated a pregnant women's right to privacy, at least within the first trimester of pregnancy.

The Court argued that the "zone of privacy" was "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." This decision looked at the physical, psychological, and economic stresses a pregnant woman must face.


Roe v. Wade remains extremely controversial to this day and while it did legalize first trimester abortions it let states decide other factors that very much affect the ease in which women may obtain an abortion. Spousal notifications, parental notifications, waiting periods, mandatory literature, mandatory ultrasounds and banning abortions outside of hospitals are a few examples of the requirements passed by state legislatures.

It remains difficult to categorize Roe v. Wade as a complete victory for women and the right to decide whether or not to carry a fetus to term. I think that in some ways Roe got the decision right but went about it in the wrong way. Setting the court’s decision on the trimester formula is far from ideal and doesn't decide what the court says about abortion only the relationship between the right to privacy and the states interests in a women's pregnancy. No set definition of when "life" begins exists and the court’s decision says that. Thus, on the one side you have the Right to Life groups holding that the Supreme Court legalized murder. On the other, the courts poorly reasoned justification for legalizing abortion didn't go far enough and furthermore caused a backlash against abortion that has yet to be repaired.