feminist blogs

First up, a few Mothers Day links:

An index of the best and worst places in the world to be a mother.

Mothers in prison celebrate the holiday.

Juarez mothers demand justice for their daughters.

The former vice mayor of San Jose discusses her experiences with gender discrimination in politics.

Thomas on why food is a feminist issue.

Female Impersonator has an update on the Johnny Vegas sexual assault .

A Catholic law school tells students they can't get credit if they do pro-bono work for a pro-choice organization.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a series of articles by reporter Joanna Connors, who writes, for the first time in 20 years, about being raped by a felon on parole and the fallout from that violent act. Her story "is about rape. It is about race and class. And it is about our community -- our line-in-the-sand combativeness over these issues, and our stubborn and fearful reluctance to talk about them."

There's been some debate lately as to whether those Dove Real Beauty ads were photoshopped. Photographer Annie Leibowitz and a professional photo-retoucher say they weren't.

All Africa profiles a woman who has climbed the political ladder in Ghana.

We mourned Mildred Loving's passing this week. Racialicious has two great posts on interracial relationships. And Rick Perlstein republishes Loving's call for marriage equality for same-sex couples.

More links after the jump...

Maria Soledad Vela, who is helping to rewrite Ecuador's constitution, wants to include that "women should have the right to make free, responsible and informed decisions about sex lives."

Veronica on why you should know who Lorena Ochoa is, but probably don't.

I highly recommend this piece by Betsy Reed in The Nation about Hillary Clinton and institutional feminism. Ta-Nehisi Coates adds, "As a guy who's long felt that civil rights-era black leadership has lost the moral high ground, I get where she's coming from."

Manohla Dargis on the state of women directors and actors in Hollywood. Also check out Women Make Movies.

The Coup Magazine offers some steps toward ending the violence (particularly the violence against women) in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- and also notes there's a new Amnesty International report on women, HIV/AIDS and violence in South Africa.

On those deceptive robocalls by Women's Voices, Women's Vote.

Latoya quotes Joan Morgan on hip-hop and feminism and racial solidarity.

Check out all the great Blog Against Disablism posts.

Does Obama support parental consent laws?

A day in the life of a feminist high-school student. (via Lauredhel)

Alice Walker on Clinton, Obama, and womanism.

What a horrible headline: "Testimony starts in manslaughter trial of woman who cried 'rape'." Astraea has a great post responding to this news story -- and an update noting the woman was convicted.

On the depressingly high maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan. (via)

Carmen at Racialicious on the "reality" TV show Miss Rap Supreme.

Scientific American has an article on subliminal stereotyping.

On marginalization, exoticism, and a South Asian adaptation of the Vagina Monologues.

Secondhandsally reacts to that Esquire cover featuring Jessica Simpson shaving (a takeoff on their 1960s-era cover that featured Marilyn Monroe in a similar pose).

Actions and Events
On Tuesday, COLOR (Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights) is hosting an event to oppose the defeat the deceptively named “Human Life Amendment.”

May 8-11 is the Willie Mae-ra-thon in NYC to benefit the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls!

Click here to support the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA).

Less than a week after the annual Day of Silence action, a principal in Memphis displayed a list of couples in the high school -- including gay couples, outing some of the students. The ACLU is suing the school on behalf of two of the students.

In September of 2007, the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High told teachers she wanted the names of all student couples, "hetero and homo," because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in public displays of affection. The two students now represented by the ACLU, Andrew and Nicholas (who have asked that their last names not be revealed), were two A students who had been seeing each other for a short time and were attempting to keep their relationship quiet and private. The principal heard about them through another student, then wrote their names on a list she posted next to her desk, in full view of anyone who entered her office.

ABC News reports,

"I really feel that my personal privacy was invaded," Nicholas, one of the young men who claims his sexuality was exposed without his approval by his principal, told ABC News' Memphis affiliate Eyewitness News Everywhere. "I mean, Principal Beasley called my mother and outted me to my mother!"

"It was actually frightening," Nicholas said of the incident, which occurred in Fall 2007, "to see a list with my name on it where not just other teachers could see but students as well."

Of course it was frightening, giving recent events like the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, who was killed by a classmate because he was non-gender-conforming. And a recent report shows anti-gay hate crimes remain a big problem in Tennessee.

The principal, Daphne Beasley, says she made the list of couples in an effort to combat public displays of affection. (Related news this week: Some people are so upset by gay couples kissing in public that they think it's necessary to involve the police.) Beasley claims it was a "personal call list" used to notify parents (which, hello!, is problematic in itself), and it was never posted publicly. But the ACLU says the list was highly visible in her office.

[ACLU lawyer Christine] Sun, who told ABCNEWS.com that she believes the Memphis school district to be "homophobic," said that Nicholas' mother — who was "shocked" to hear that her son is gay — reported that Beasley said she "had a problem with homosexuality" and that "homosexuality will not be tolerated."

Advocates for Youth has issued an action alert, and is encouraging people to write to the Memphis City school board to demand that policies be implemented to protect students from future harassment by school staff.

For more on making schools a safe space for students of all sexualities and gender presentations, check out GLSEN. GenderYOUTH also does great work, and right now they're conducting a survey of how schools and campuses are doing in terms of prohibiting discrimination and promoting awareness of gender identity and expression. Click here to tell them what's going on at your school.

...for awarding a female soldier a Silver Star for heroic acts, and then removing her from combat because she's a woman.

And just a note, something I didn't mention in the video, I think it's possible to oppose both the Iraq war and the Army's ban on women in combat. Yes, I believe women like Pfc. Monica Brown should be allowed to serve alongside men in combat situations. No, I don't support the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Samhita said it really well two years ago:

I don't know how to write about this issue without first saying that I hate the military, I don't support the war in Iraq at all, and the US government allowing women and people of color to advance in the military is strategic(ally fucked) and not in *any* way indicative of an actual commitment on behalf of our leading patriarchs to advance the peoples. But these women claim to still be facing obstacles as they are clearly performing well (in gunning down Iraqis) but still not advancing in their positions.

See the military isn't any good for anything.

Along those lines, when we talk about issues of women in the U.S. military, it's important to keep in mind that they aren't the only women in combat zones --and to talk about the effects of war on female civilians.

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Thanks to reader Elizabeth C. for the tip.

By now most of us are familiar with crisis pregnancy centers, which masquerade as women's health clinics but do not provide abortions, contraception, or other medical care. Apparently they're also misleading women online. Recently a faux-clinic in Wisconsin purchased a URL that was nearly identical to the URL for the website of Family Planning Health Services, the local women's health clinic -- so women who unwittingly typed in the wrong address were redirected to the anti-choice site.

That's called cybersquatting, and here at Feministing, we're quite familiar with this concept, as some devoted anti-feminists created a parody of our site using a nearly identical URL -- though it now seems to be defunct.

But back to the faux-clinics misleading women online:

Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, which opposes abortion and doesn't offer contraceptives, banked on the fact that some people switch up the ".com"s and ".org"s when typing in Web addresses.

Hope bought the domain name www.fphs.com about one year ago, Board Chairman Rick Orrick confirmed.

That address is very similar to www.fphs.org, which is the site owned by Family Planning Health Services, the reproductive health services clinic.

Last week Hope took down the Web site after a reporter for the local paper, City Pages, began asking questions.

In other words, people who intended to get this site actually got this one.

Want to bet that some women who were misdirected to the faux-clinic's site actually ended up going to the wrong clinic in real life (after copying down the phone number and address from the website)? The women's health clinic is pretty sure this has happened:

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I received an email from a friend in the community. He told me that the daughter of one of their employees had gone to one of our family planning clinics. The staff prayed with her for an hour, convinced her that she was a sinner, gave her a Bible and sent her home. He asked if this was a new requirement for our federal grant. (Witty guy)

We investigated.

My third thought (after the ‘Someone’s had a breakdown’ and ‘We’ve hired a ringer.’) was that the young woman had visited the phony fphs.com website and been misdirected to the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

The crisis-pregnancy center has changed the similar URL so it no longer redirects visitors, but its own website is still up and running, including this awesomely hypocritical quote: "Remember an informed and empowered woman is one who has taken the time to get good, unbiased, factual information." This from a crisis-pregnancy center that provides misleading information but presents itself -- online and in real life -- as a clinic that provides actual health care for women? Real nice.

Amnesty International has an online action calling for justice for the women who were raped, beaten, and humiliated by police in the wake of protests in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico, on May 3 and 4, 2006:

On May 3rd, rural flower farmers from the State of Mexico took their flowers to the Belisario Dominguez Market, in Texcoco, with the hope of setting up their stalls outside of the market, where they would sell their flowers. But upon arrival, they were met by various local, state, and federal police authorities.

The flower farmers, who belong to the People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), were violently attacked by police forces who claimed that they are not a legitimate business and that they don’t have a designated location from which to sell their flowers.

Amnesty describes what happened next:

[...] Bárbara Italia Méndez, along with 25 other women, was arrested without explanation, beaten and raped by members of the Mexican police. Once in prison an official with the State Public Prosecutor’s Office refused to register her complaint about the abuse she suffered, and no proper medical examination was carried out. She was held in prison for 12 days before being released, and is still facing criminal charges. More than two years later, she is still waiting for justice. None of the officials responsible for her abuse have been prosecuted.

Click here to sign a letter asking members of Congress to urge Mexican officials to investigate the human rights abuses against these women. I realize that the Mexican government is not likely to leap into action to pursue justice. But I do think actions like this -- both our letters and the resolution Rep. Hilda Solis Doyle is pushing in Congress -- are important because they show we're paying attention, that we care about what happens to these women.

Here's more info from Amnesty on the two-year anniversary of the protests.

Or so the major news outlets are reporting. Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found dead this afternoon.

Read our previous posts: Vanessa on the outcome of Palfrey's trial ("a pointless, slut-shaming witch hunt"), and Samhita on how the Washington dudes who purchased sex were let off the hook.

UPDATE: More from Thomas and Carissa at Blue Lyon.

What Danica Patrick's victory means to young girls who aspire to be racecar drivers.

Last week, coincidentally the Global Action Week for Education, UNICEF released a study showing Afghan girls are excluded from the country's education system.

The awful Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now adding to his resume of "shaming" male inmates by forcing them to wear pink underwear and denying female inmates abortion access by throwing a few immigration raids into the mix. Last week he rounded up 150 immigrants against even the wishes of the mayor , who said, "That's not acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone someone whose job is to help make our community safer."

A good post from secondhandsally on obsession, objectification, and Judd Apatow movies.

Why young women in particular are at risk for pay discrimination.

Menstrual blood could save lives! (Now I'm waiting for the Christian right to come out against this because there are baaaaaabies in that blood… or something.)

A Saudi court ruled that a man had not, in fact, attempted to rape a woman (despite the fact that she leapt out a window to get away from him) because her jeans were found folded on the bed.

Ashton Kutcher is a real asshat.

A plus-size woman will compete in the Miss England pageant. I'm torn between being glad that the pageant is expanding its definition of what beautiful looks like, and still hating on pageant culture as a whole.

Someone has started a cleaning service called Dust Bunnies in which women clean your house clad in lingerie or topless. Endorsed by Time Out Chicago: "The chance to entertain your sexy-maid fantasies while actually having your place cleaned...need we say more?" Sigh.

Christina Ricci: “I think people are learning to actually aspire to be objectified. It’s like the highest form of flattery for teenage girls. The culture we live in right now seems to reward behavior that we used to frown upon. We used to teach our daughters not to be like this." Well, I agree with the general sentiment, but let's not veer toward the "gee, everything was great back in the 1950s" mode of thinking, mmkay?

NPR's News and Notes had a good segment on women's rights in Sudan.

I added an update to my post on Wednesday about the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- noting that Senate Republicans blocked the bill from passing. John McCain wasn't there for the vote, but he opposed the legislation: (via Scott)

"I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems," McCain told reporters yesterday. "This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system."

To summarize: McCain's not against women and people of color being paid the same as white men for doing the same work -- heck, if businesses want to pay fairly, that's great! -- but he doesn't think we should make businesses do so. And not holding businesses accountable for wage discrimination is the same thing as endorsing it.

In my interview with Lilly Ledbetter, she actually responded to McCain's position on the legislation:

We've had a lot of opposition that said this would just open up a multitude of lawsuits, and it would be tough on corporations to fight these cases. But that's not true. If a person or individual thinks they have a case, they can't even go to EEOC unless they have proof. You can't just waltz into EEOC.

Right. It's not exactly like it was easy for Ledbetter -- and others in her situation -- to prove they were discriminated against. In fact, there are some very high barriers to getting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to recognize your complaint as valid.

So the "I hate lawsuits" defense is bullshit. McCain is really saying that he values the rights of corporations over the rights of women and people of color who work for them. Thanks, buddy.

via Jack and Jill Politics, there's a new Facebook application that allows you to register to vote. You can also find unregistered friends and invite them to become voters, too!

Then, of course, you gotta make it a priority to actually vote. I know, that's easier said than done when the system is basically set up to be confusing and riddled with barriers. Check out Cara's voting story (posted when she was guest-blogging at Feministing), and Jen's story of "voter condescension". No wonder there are 5 million single women in this country who are registered but don't vote.

But that said, I'm getting so sick of the media picking apart all the supposed motivations of women voters, it feels refreshing to shift the discussion to one about actually casting votes.