feminist blogs

We've all heard, "hate the sin, love the sinner." But what happens when you hate the sinner, and the sinner is the self? Where does that hatred go? Enmity spills outward. When I imagine the souls of such people, I see clouds of toxic coal dust, leaking from their pores. But I also see wounded children cowering, waiting to be rescued from the darkness. It makes me sad and angry. It makes me wish that I could reach out and have a discussion with that person in which peace would be the result.

But it has ever been so. It has taken me many of my almost 43 years on this planet to quit trying to rescue people. I can feel for them, sympathize with them, but I cannot nurture the proverbial viper in my bosom.
I spend a lot of time thinking about self-hatred. My own, of course, which I cop to on a regular basis. Although I must say, I've done more to learn to love myself in the past five years than I had done previously. I think that it's about a 80/20 split these days (which makes me a good candidate for the Church of 80% Sincerity. That other 20 percent, well, that quasimodal part, she shows up on some days, and I just try to love her. What else can I do? She's part of me. I remember that this is her, too.

All right, some of you may be wondering. When is she going to get to the fucking point? I do have one. It's about self-hating women, especially those who inhabit the conservative think tank known as "Concerned Women for America." I know that I should just stay away from the place. It gives me the heebie-jeebies when I'm there, sort of like wandering around inside those catacombs where the walls are made of bones. A reminder of human frailty, but just macabre and perverse and something faintly sinister about all of it.

March 8 is International Women's Day, and the Leader of the Free World has declared an end to sexual exploitation of women, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, it's a miracle. And if he can't change the whole world by executive order, today he's at least making a stern example of those South Dakota sex traffickers and exploiters of women and young girls?

Off to tell my teen-aged daughter the great news that it's morning in America and starting today, she'll be judged on the content of her character, not her uterus. . .

From the festive Voice of America holiday story:

"America will help women stand up for their freedom no matter where they live."

The president says his administration is working with other nations to end sexual exploitation and the human trafficking of women and young girls . . .

March 8 is International Women's Day, and the Leader of the Free World has declared an end to sexual exploitation of women, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, it's a miracle. And if he can't change the whole world by executive order, today he's at least making a stern example of those South Dakota sex traffickers and exploiters of women and young girls?

Off to tell my teen-aged daughter the great news that it's morning in America and starting today, she'll be judged on the content of her character, not her uterus. . .

From the festive Voice of America holiday story:

"America will help women stand up for their freedom no matter where they live."

The president says his administration is working with other nations to end sexual exploitation and the human trafficking of women and young girls . . .

Shackles. Imagine the pain of childbirth. Imagine being chained to your bed, unable to move, your legs shackled together. Imagine. Just fucking imagine.

Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles removed.

I'm literally speechless.

Shackles. Imagine the pain of childbirth. Imagine being chained to your bed, unable to move, your legs shackled together. Imagine. Just fucking imagine.

Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles removed.

I'm literally speechless.

This morning I sent a bunch of emails to several feminist and pro-choice bloggers on the matter of Matt Brown. Right after the Alito confirmation I sent an email to Matt Burguess, Matt Brown's communications director. I've been receiving their press releases probably like everybody maybe many other political bloggers all around the country.

I am fed up with what I think is a lack of vulvas, not cojones, effecting the political discourse around choice. We need more feminists raising money, evaluating and promoting candidates, getting on the TV and radio and newspapers and the net and blasting over and over and over again that forced pregnancies are anti-American, that forced pregnancies are a new kind of slavery, that forced pregnancies are a fundamental crime against humanity.

We need to have more women speak like this publicly to all candidates, Democrats and Republicans. I was introduced here in New York City to Eric Massa, an upstate New York candidate running for Congress. I was very happyt to know he's running against Randi Kuhn, a Republican who has been taking tons of money and support from the extreme right with organizations like Focus on the Family and the Homeschool Legal Defence Association. But then, he lost me. When I asked Mr. Massa how we stood on abortion he flubbed, he fumbled, he totally ho-hummed.