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).

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.

On feminism and Sex and the City. (via Broadsheet)

Serving sushi on naked women is a high-end food trend in the U.S. now, too? (Ok, and serving some on naked men, too. Still.)

Illinois considers putting known domestic abusers on a GPS tracking system.

Some female superdelegates who support Obama have had their sisterhood called into question.

The SAFER blog has a thought-provoking post on drinking and consent.

Unmarried women earn only 56 cents for every dollar a married man earns (PDF).

LiP magazine on Obama and white voters: "But this is where things become considerably more complicated; the point at which one is forced to determine what, exactly, his success means (and doesn't mean) when it comes to the state of race, race relations, and racism in the United States. And it is at this point that so-called mainstream commentary has, once again, dropped the ball."

Fewer med schools are training future doctors in how to perform abortions.

Pro-choice women turned out before the Lithuanian Parliament to protest the proposed abortion ban.

How race, class, and other factors influence quality of life for aging Americans.

A group called the Internet Sexuality Information Services is holding a contest for the best underwear design that promotes STD awareness. Oh lord…

The sexist coverage we've come to expect from articles about Hillary Clinton is now showing up in articles about Chelsea Clinton.

Iraqi refugees forced to turn to prostitution.

Are black women always the "mean girls" on "reality" TV?

Much more after the jump...

An 8-year-old Yemeni girl takes her father to court for forcing her to marry a 30-year-old man.

The Guardian publishes an ignorant, hate-filled screed against fat people.

Female leads in blockbuster movies, by the numbers.

Note to Silvio Berlusconi: "Your women are ugly" is not a political argument.

A court dropped charges against an Oklahoma man who took photos up a 16-year-old girl's skirt while she was shopping at Target, because apparently you can't be a "peeping Tom" in public.

Philadelphia magazine on 8-year-olds getting waxes. Shudder. (Also file under: Lifestyles of the Children of the Rich and Famous. This is one of those New York Times-style "trends" that only affects the wealthiest 1% of the population, but yeah, has some resonance for the rest of us.)

The case for young women getting better breast cancer screening -- not just cervical cancer screening.

An elementary school in Wisconsin has a dress-in-drag day, and conservatives freak out.

A great post over at Bitch Ph.D, "Coming out of the menstruation closet." And Sara wonders, "Why aren't [tampons] provided for free in public restrooms, like toilet paper?"

More links after the jump...

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Despite what the L.A. Times prints, it's still a major problem on college campuses.

More colleges are assigning coed roommates.

Illinois considers tracking devices for people with restraining orders against them.

The Department of Justice's inspector general is investigating whether a U.S. attorney was fired because she is a lesbian.

Weight discrimination hits women harder than men.

Minnesota considers comprehensive sex ed -- 'cause, yeah, abstinence-only doesn't work.

Some interesting linguistic history on how we talk about virginity.

Women fight back against poverty.

The Pentagon apparently has a problem with "transporting gay domestic partners." WTF?

On rape as a weapon of war. (The Senate recently held its first-ever committee hearing on the subject.)

The Navy abruptly changed its policy to allow women to serve on submarines.

What have y'all been reading? What about actions/events coming up this week? Leave your links in comments...

The Advocate explores what happens when transmen choose to get pregnant. (And please, hold the stupid Junior jokes.)

Apparently anything with a female pronoun attached is subject to hate-filled, sexist rants that purport to be humor. Weird.

How rape and violence against women is downplayed in coverage of Darfur.

Rebecca Walker has a blog!

An awesome primer on Asian and APIA feminists.

Afghan feminists look to the Koran as reinforcement of their beliefs: "Forced marriage, child brides, honor killings – none of this is in the Koran," Fatima told me, when we met in her office at Kabul's Red Crescent Society, which she directs. "Women are treated like chattel, and in the name of Islam. This is not sanctioned in the Koran," she said. […] "If we want to change Islam from within, we have to be totally committed to the religion. That's the only way to succeed," said Fatima.

Reminder: Civil unions are not "just as good as" marriage. Scott and Melissa have more.

Kavita Ramdas tells us to look beyond Clinton v. Obama and toward the status of women and people of color in the rest of the world.

Some reflections on International Women's Day.

McCain: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Guerrilla Girls pen a letter to Eli Broad, whose new Broad Contemporary Art Museum in LA is 97% white and 87% male.

The Census Bureau just released a 40-year study on pregnancy in the workplace.

On women presenting as male online to avoid harassment.

Despite the screaming headlines, serotonin levels are probably a better predictor of whether girls will cut themselves than their relationships with their mothers.

The Missouri legislature wants to reclassify mifepristone -- the drug used in medical abortions -- as a Schedule I controlled substance, a classification for drugs with "a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value."

Amnesty International decries the backlash against women's rights activists in Iran.

An anti-domestic violence riff on the typical jewelry ads.

A line-by-line rebuttal to Charlotte Allen.

The "mentoring gap" for women in science fields. And yeah, the good ol' pay gap is still around, too.

"American sex experts" define "sex" as only penis-in-vagina.

This is horrifying: Police pull over a woman for little to no reason, then "one of the officers allegedly inserted his finger into Shutter's vagina on a public street during an apparent search for drugs."

The Wisconsin state senate just passed a law mandating that EC be offered to rape victims.

If you've not been following the disgusting, homobigoted comments by Oklahoma legislator Sally Kerns, head over to Pam's place and get caught up. You will be appalled.

Christopher Hitchens has once again declared that women aren't funny, and Katie Halper has this great response.

The National Urban League focused its 2008 State of Black America report on women.

Spc. Monica Lin Brown, a 19-year-old US Army medic in Afghanistan, became the second woman to win a medal of valor since WWII. After a roadside bomb hit a convoy of Humvees, "Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said." Too bad women are still banned from combat!

Guttmacher reports on the role of contraception in preventing the spread of HIV.

Actions and Events
In the UK, the nonprofit Southall Black Sisters (which works to end violence against women of color) is under threat of closure. Some ideas on what you can do do help.

Birth mothers react to Juno.

Ellen DeGeneres speaks out about the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, who was killed because he was gay.

A Japanese video game is about a young woman who is rejected by boys because of her "tremendous size." In playing the game, "You are that young woman and your mission is weight loss by way of exercise, diet, and mini-games." Ugh.

Military maternity leaves are awfully short.

On proudly identifying as a "bitch, ballbuster, battleaxe, ballcutter."

A high-powered networking society is now required to admit women.

Tennessee considers whether to make paternity tests mandatory for every baby born in the state.

As we gear up for the Texas presidential primary on Tuesday, the NY Times had a piece on the history of female leadership in the state.

A nice essay on supporting the notion of Hillary Clilnton, and how that's separate from supporting the candidate herself.

Public service announcement: You can be a devout Muslim and not wear hijab.

Arizona considers a measure that would undermine the rights of pregnant women.

A 16-year-old girl was raped by four teenage boys, and used MySpace to figure out her attackers' identities. When police got a warrant and searched their MySpace accounts, they found details of the attack.

Writes Kavita N. Ramdas, of the 2008 election: "What is alarmingly absent from our conversations and arguments, even as they allude to race and gender, is any sense of how our decisions affect the well-being of people across the planet--not least the status of women, 51 percent of us, who are being treated with appalling brutality around the globe."

More after the jump...

SO much stuff this week!

This entire article about sommeliers in Australia never explains why, in the photo, the one female sommelier is naked, while the men are all in suits.

Catholics in New York take to YouTube to bash pro-choice Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

How the media treat Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse differently than Owen Wilson and Heath Ledger.

DC Comics turns a black superheroine white.

More anti-LGBT bullshit in high schools. This week: Belleville, IL and Gary, IN.

Ve vill suck your period blood! (via.)

Can you believe that some whorish women want to wreck the white purity of their wedding gowns with a low-cut neckline? Horrors!

A new documentary explores what the Bible really says about homosexuality, and ponders why anti-gay sentiment is at the heart of the conservative Christian agenda.

I'm playing the world's tiniest violin for the so-called "angry white male" voting bloc.

A study by the Toronto school board found that "It appears a growing number of young girls are not only being sexually assaulted on campus, but have come to think of it as a normal part of their educational experience." That's incredibly upsetting.

Muslim Hedonist on talking to her daughters about FGM.

This article -- and the entire situation -- is pretty awful. Not only are they charging this woman for homicide for using drugs while pregnant, but the sheriff says her life consisted of "using drugs and having babies." Disrespectful much? Also, a reader sent along an earlier version of the article, which disclosed the woman is HIV-positive, which is totally unrelated to any charges brought against her. It appears they've now deleted the mention of HIV. (Check out our previous posts on drug laws that punish pregnant women.)

Next week the Canadian parliament will debate the "Unborn Victims of Crime Act." Pro-choice talking points are here.

The Bilerico Project has been running profiles of black LGBT people in history.

A Louisiana woman was arrested for a DWI and then brutally beaten by a police officer, who claims she "slipped and fell." (Trigger warning.)

They're marketing Frida Kahlo-brand skin cream? WTF?

A guy actually tried to get mini-silicone implants for his naked-woman tattoo.

An ultra-Orthodox Israeli politician blames gays for earthquakes. Seriously.

Anyone else find it sad that they're airbrushing kids' school pictures?

(Way more below the fold...)