Urban Outfitters

In the catalog most recently sent out from Urban Outfitters there is a page picturing a bedspread and a collage of posters and magazines on the wall above the headboard.

Two things jumped out at me immediately; one was a cover from PlayBoy Magazine and the other was a large pin up of a naked women with smaller pictures covering her nipples.

I am not saying that Urban Outfitters pretends to be anything other than a clothing magazine targeted at young hipsters who want to wear "urban" outfits. However, I remain disgusted at the blatant disregard of responsibly taken by this company when it comes to questionable products and advertisements.

In the past UO has been criticized for creating sexist, racists and classist T-shirts as well as carrying the controversial board game "Ghettopoly." One shouldn't be surprised that UO has moved on to posting PlayBoy on the walls of the "bedrooms" in its catalogs so why was I?

Well, I don't think it was surprise I felt per say, it was more like mild shock and then disgusts and then an intense feeling of curiosity. Half naked skinny girls adorn the colored and black and white pages of a typical UO catalog, I knew that. I also know that the T-shirts in question said "Eat less" and "Fathers, it's up to you to protect your daughter's virginity!" Let's not forget the T-shirt with the words scrawled in golden glitter "Poverty Sucks." In 2008, the company had a gay friendly T-shirt that had " I Support Same Sex Marriages" on it and that shirt was pulled off the shelf in 2008. Many critics had harsh words for UO after that though UO stated that it was pulled because it "wasn't selling."

Is it hip to be offensive? I don't know. I can't in good conscience spend money on anything from Urban Outfitters and I can't figure out what the appeal is for others to buy these items either. The former President and founder of UO claimed that he "very, very, very rarely" had regrets or second thoughts about potentially offensive products and he also openly donated thousands of dollars to anti-gay politicians. The current President of UO is openly gay but that doesn't stop the company from using hot button slogans as T-shirt designs for the young and sexy to sport.

Other controversial UO T-shirts? "Everybody loves a Jewish Girl" surrounded by dollar signs and a T-shirt that featured a Palestinian child holding an AK-47 over the word "Victimized".

I feel hipper already.

Men and My Uterus

Some days I really am at a loss.

Men will never become pregnant. That is something I believe the majority of people can agree on regardless of political affiliation.

I'm not saying that Men don't get to have an opinion on Abortion; I am saying that there opinion shouldn't hold much merit. Obviously if the man provided the sperm that creates the fetus their opinion matters a bit more. Ultimately, men will never experience pregnancy and therefore cannot make the claim that they know anything about terminating a pregnancy.

Yes, that is where I am going with this. Men make policies, Men sign laws, and Men make judgments about what's best for Women when they have no business doing so.

I am particularly struck by the war on women that has come to the forefront of state and national lawmakers. Mike Pence, John Boehner and Rick Perry are some of the more prevalent anti-women figures proposing bills and signing laws that take away not just abortion services but reproductive health services in general. Do these men have daughters? Wives? Friends that are women?

In Kanas, Rep. Pete DeGraaf suggested that women purchase insurance to pay for the cost of an abortion just in case they get raped and may need one.

Rep. Barbara Bollier, a Republican who supports abortion rights, questioned whether women would buy abortion-only policies long before they have crisis or unwanted pregnancies or are rape victims.

DeGraff said: "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?"

Bollier asked, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?"

DeGraaf drew audible groans from other House members when he responded, "I have a spare tire on my car."

"I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."

This is disgusting; this is sad and dehumanizes women. How can you even respond to the comment about having a spare tire? I mean what? Are you honestly comparing a tiny part of an automobile to an unplanned pregnancy potentially from an assault and rape? What kind of person thinks like that? What kind of State, Country or Government can say that you should get a rape insurance plan?


In other news the state of Texas passed legislation that requires a sonogram for women seeking an abortion. Should the women decline to view the sonogram the image can be described to her.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who had tried to pass the bill in previous sessions stated that God was finally ready for its passage. It's also nice to know that women can count on the separation of church and state. State Rep. Patrick also said, “Standing for life is not a partisan issue. It’s a God issue.”

Great. I feel better already.

Talking to my Dad (or Slut Parade Walk FAQ's)

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Guttmacher Institute

The Guttmacher Institute focuses on providing factual evidence and sound research on sexual and reproductive health issues. They focus on the abortion debate being placed in the proper context of closely related issues like unintended pregnancy, contraceptive use and sex education.

The Institute has just released an educational video describing the facts behind who has abortions in the US.

Take a look

Planned Parenthood-Enemy Number 1

The other title for this entry was "It's okay, you won't miss your reproductive health choices til they're gone."

I tried to write about something other than Planned Parenthood this past week. It's not impossible, there are hundreds of issues on women and plenty to pick apart and analyze. Usually the harder part of deciding what to write about has more to do with whether I can offer any interesting commentary or added insight.

Everyday I read about men making claims and assumptions about what women want and want they can legally decide about their own bodies. I see lawmakers bending and stretching in any direction to blame abortion provider Planned Parenthood for anything from budget woes to the end of days.

On the congress floor several senators suggested that Planned Parenthood is in it for the money.

Back in February you may remember this statement by Michelle Bachmann, “They’re focused on becoming big business,” Bachmann said. “Sarah Stoesz, who heads the Planned Parenthood operation in my state of Minnesota, said she recently opened three express centers in wealthy Minnesota suburbs and shopping centers and malls and places where women are doing their grocery shopping, picking up Starbucks, living their daily lives and stopping off for an abortion.”

First of all, you don't "stop off" for an abortion. Second of all, Planned Parenthood express centers do not provide abortions; they offer reproductive health services, counseling and testing. Lastly, suggesting that PP is taking federal funding, using it to provide abortions and then somehow making money is an asinine theory. The Hyde amendment has become anachronistic because giving money to PP at all, even when an amendment exists banning those funds be used for abortion unless the sky is yellow that day isn't important because it is only "techincally true."
But apparently it doesn't matter if abortions are performed or not at PP, what really matters is that women's health, reproductive or otherwise is just not important and the GOP just doesn't care about women.

I hate the federal funding argument. It's ridiculous that we have no choice but to provide funding for weapons and military campaigns (plus all the things that we don't know about) but conservative and and republicans cry foul when their tax dollars go towards women's health services.

I have made my own opinions known, as far as I am concerned the Church is separate from the State (No ones God gives out tax dollars) and without legal and safe abortions their may as well be a legal clause for killing women if they dare decide what they want to do to their own bodies.

You don't get to have it both ways. Either abortions are free, legal and safe performed by legitimate doctors or women are not afforded their right to live.
If you are fervently against women and you want to eradicate abortions, you should be working on providing health care, education and social well being for all of these babies YOU are taking responsibility for.

John Stewart said it best on Feb.22:

"It's like the Republicans in Congress are saying, you can't prevent an unwanted child, you can't get care if you do get pregnant and we won't give you any help feeding the kid after it's born; but for those two-minutes when that babies skull is crowning, it's the most precious thing on earth."

That's great incentive to procreate, no birth control, no abortions and no services. It's so pro-life it could kill you.

(Not) Another Pregnant 17 year old

I have mixed feelings about Gaby Rodriguez, the 17 year old senior from Washington state who revealed that her "supposed" pregnancy was in fact a school project. Gaby came up with the idea to fake her pregnancy in order to study stereotypes, rumors and statistics. Rodriguez is a straight A student and came up with the idea herself in order to experience first hand the type of reaction and critique teen mothers are faced with.

The population of Rodriguez's town is about 75 percent Hispanic. The student body at Toppenish High School is 85 percent Hispanic. Her experiment is significant in the realities of this situation.

Nationally, teen pregnancy rates have been steadily declining for years. However, Latinas have the highest teen pregnancy and birth rate among any major racial or ethnic minority.

About 51 percent of Latina teens will become pregnant by age 20, compared with about 30 percent of teens overall, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

In her schools assembly last week she had students read out comments that she had carefully recorded during her 6 months of faux pregnancy. One such comment included “Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it.” Woah, these comments weren't necessarily said to her face but if you can remember high school, you find out about what people say about you in all sorts of ways.

Rodriguez herself stated, "A lot of rumors were just that I was irresponsible. No college...it was bound to happen. I knew she would get pregnant. Doesn't she know she just ruined her life," she said.

I get that Rodriguez wanted to gauge reactions to the fact that even though she was a straight A student and seemingly well liked, the news of her pregnancy brought about the same remarks and stereotypes as if she were a C student who engaged in any number of reckless behaviors. I mean, I think that is the point. On one hand you realize that stereotyping exists (not surprising) and on the other, that teens who become pregnant have a lot of shit talked about them. Do I think that teen mother's should be shunned or shipped off? Of course not. I think we should focus on methods to prevent pregnancy, but that isn't 100% realistic nor do those methods work 100% of the time.

None of the stories I found said anything about how her boyfriend (the father I assume?) was treated or if he found the same type of gossip and rumors being spread about him. I feel like that is way more telling in terms of stereotyping then people treating a pregnant teenager poorly.

Society never wants to see a teenager pregnant. Girls were sent away to "special" schools to give birth in secret not all that long ago. Pregnancy isn't contagious but viewing teen mothers to be is distasteful. I absolutely cannot watch any of the shows on television about pregnant teenagers. Sure, we shouldn't sweep the issue under the rug but why should we draw entertainment value out of it? Obviously you can't be on a teen mom show without becoming a teen mom. Over and over in these televised situations you view the disillusioned young women do the best she can with pregnancy, clinging on to young relationships with the fathers only to find that once junior comes along, daddy wants to be out with his friends playing basketball like a normal teenager and you are now spending your afternoons figuring out how to use a breast pump.

I give Gaby Rodriguez an A for creativity and execution and I honestly think it is an interesting hoax. However, I don't see why pretending to be a teen mom and hearing awful things about the way people feel about you proves anything about stereotypes and it's obvious that teenage moms remains a taboo issue. Whether you're confused or laud Rodriguez for her project, I guess we are having a conversation about teen motherhood, right? I just don't quite see what it is that we're saying about it

Provocative 11 year old girl

The New York Times reported on a horrible story involving the rape of an 11 year old girl. While some may not see the underlying tone of victim blaming, the outrage of those who do continues on.

Here is one excerpt:

"Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands—known as the Quarters—said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said"

It gets worse. Not only do the quotes in the article insinuate that this child was in some way provoking being gang raped, some of the comments are down right disgusting:

The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?

Yes, how could these men be drawn into such an act?

The communities reaction to this violent crime was reported poorly if you give them the benefit of the doubt, but that is only a small part of the problem.

There seems to be no way in which the media can avoid perpetuating "victim blaming" in cases of sexual assault and rape. The larger question could even be so broad as to ask why are their "provocative" clothing that are made for 11 year old children? You see miniature versions of tiny t-shirts, mini skirts, frilly low cut dresses and even pre training bra bras. Obviously one thinks to question where this girls parents were but that also doesn't excuse the blaming game on the girl.


The New York Times printed a response to the outrage which you can find here.

Part of the article touches on how the piece was meant to be interpreted. The standards editor for The Times (who may or may not be my uncle), told the author of the piece that the story focused on the reaction of community residents and that there was no intent to blame the victim. He added, “I do think in retrospect we could have done more to provide more context to make that clear."

Obviously society still believes that a women raped must have done something in order to provoke the assault. That's one huge problem with the media; unless they make an extreme effort to provide balanced reporting on sexual abuse it will always come across as blaming the victim, and that is the most discouraging thought of all.

Hookers go to Planned Parenthood but where does Glenn Beck go?

I shouldn't even be saying anything about Glenn Beck because acknowledging him in any form is encouragement in and of it self.

I absolutely must comment about his recent comment regarding Planned Parenthood. Last Monday, Lawrence O'Donnell read excerpts from an e-mail on his MSNBC show from a women who relied on the services performed by Planned Parenthood. O'Donnell caught flack for his contrived watery eyes and statement that he "has friends that rely on Planned Parenthood."

While replaying the clip on his own show Beck cuts it after that line and responded,

"Stop just a second," Beck chimed in. "Hookers? Who? Who depends on Planned Parenthood?" He then imitated the woman, who said she had an abortion.

"I've got 400 abortions that I have to have!" said Beck. "I have to have these children aborted!"

Woah, this guy has lost his mind. Hookers? Only Hookers use Planned Parenthood? What the fuck kind of thing is that to say? Beck is already being kicked off Fox news for his insane rants and ridiculous conspiracy theories but here he goes beyond ridiculous, he is nearing obscene.

Who goes to Planned Parenthood? Who?

Who let this man be in front of an audience?

At the very least even Fox news doesn't want this lunatic on it's network anymore.

Stop the Government; We have Abortions

First off a plug from the Restricted number that has been calling me for two weeks.

I just gave $53.80 to Emily's List (the 3.80 is in honor of the 38 anniversary of Roe v. Wade that just occurred) which is a non-profit org. that works to elect women who support progressive change. Just them out here

Part of keeping the Government rolling this past week has been a promise to once again revisit the funding of Planned Parenthood.

Last week, Senator Jon Kyl, gave a speech against federal support for Planned Parenthood last week that was noted for his complete bullshit statement that 90% of Planned Parenthood services are abortions. What's worse was his staff’s explanation that the remarks were “not intended to be a factual statement." So, he was lying. He was just doing it to further his cause and well, lie.

Planned Parenthood provides contraceptives, testing and various other services besides abortion. The problem with the way that conservatives view Planned Parenthood is that they view birth control (and the morning after pill) as being the same thing as abortion.

It isn't.

Birth control prevents any fertilization from taking place and Plan B gives you a window of time (72 hours) where you can prevent fertilization if it hasn't already taken place. There is a pill that induces an abortion,RU-486 is entirely different from Emergency Contraception. This pill is available who choose not to have the more traditional vacuum aspiration procedure and wish to have their abortion at home or other non-clinical settings.

Conservatives advocate the ban of legal abortions but they also don't want anyone to prevent pregnancy (thus reducing the need for the procedure) either. They won't offer you assistance to take care of the child but they will demonize you if you become pregnant for any reason and choose not to carry the fetus. You can't win with people who think this way. The GOP isn't interested in offering any solutions, they just want to take away as many of our rights as possible.

Amanda Palmer and The Dirty View

Amanda Palmer is fund raising for Planned Parenthood.

Obviously she isn't doing this in a lame way (as if she does anything in a lame way), she has created an entertaining and super rad podcast entitled The Dirty View

Palmer, Kim Airs and Kirsten Vangness hosts a sex ed-ish, fun time sort of presentation chat with an audience in LA. The benefit is held to help raise awareness and funds for the I Stand With Planned Parenthood campaign. You can download the podcast through the above link and donate whatever you can.

To check out AFP's blog in its entirety visit this site

Keep fighting the good fight,

Punk fucking Rock