This is cross-posted at DailyKos.
WOMAN
AS VESSEL DEPARTMENT
“Case Explores Rights of Fetus Versus Mother”
I get that the authorities really really really
care about fetuses, because, God, but how come we women don’t get the God
protection? You know, I’m fed up with trying to understand these bullies
because there is nothing honorable about them and no bible thumping with prove
otherwise (besides, my bible is a scroll). Honestly,
Get Your Compassion Out Of Our Wombs!
“JACKSON, Wis. — Alicia Beltran cried with fear and disbelief when
county sheriffs surrounded her home on July 18 and took her in handcuffs to a
holding cell.
“She was 14 weeks pregnant and thought she had done the right
thing when, at a prenatal checkup, she described a pill addiction the previous
year and said she had ended it on her own — something later verified by a urine
test. But now an apparently skeptical doctor and a social worker accused her of
endangering her unborn child because she had refused to accept their order to
start on an anti-addiction drug.
“Ms. Beltran, 28, was taken in shackles before a family court
commissioner who, she says, brushed aside her pleas for a lawyer. To her astonishment,
the court had already appointed a legal
guardian for the fetus.” (highlighting mine)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/us/case-explores-rights-of-fetus-versus-mother.html?hp&_r=0
WOMEN WHO ARE TOO OLD TO BE PERT AND BOUNCY
DEPARTMENT
San Diego, which brought us creepy Mayor Bob Filner, now
offers Matthew Tucker, who fires the ladies who he doesn’t enjoy looking at
because they’re too darn old.
“SAN DIEGO — A former employee of the North County Transit
District has sued the public transportation agency, claiming its executive
director, Matthew Tucker, illegally targeted employees -- specifically, older
female employees -- for layoffs, then retaliated when his decisions were
questioned.”
“Heidi Rockey, a
former grants specialist who resigned from NCTD in July 2012, told inewsourceTucker
made a habit of firing, laying off or demoting women over 40.”
And there you have
it: “According to sources who were either the subject of the statements or
witnessed the actions firsthand, Tucker frequently referred to older female
employees as “grandma”; asked if they had enough energy to do their jobs;
suggested they dye their hair to look younger; and repeatedly said younger
women were “easier on the eyes” than their predecessors.”
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/oct/23/war-women-over-40-lawsuit-claims-sex-gender-bias-n/
http://inewsource.org/war-on-women-over-40-linked/
WOMEN BEING PUSHED BACK INTO THE KITCHEN DEPARTMENT
“The war on voting is a war on women”
in Texas and Beyond
“The assault on voting rights is a
naked attempt to suppress the votes of minorities, students, the elderly, and
the poor. But don’t be fooled. This War on Voting is an essential part of the
War on Women.”
“What is not commonly
known, however, is that women are among those most affected by voter ID laws.
In one survey, 66% of women voters had an ID that reflected their current name,
according to the Brennan Center. The other 34% of women would have to present
both a birth certificate and proof of marriage, divorce, or name change in
order to vote, a task that is particularly onerous for elderly women and costly
for poor women who may have to pay to access these records.”
Lesson Learned? Don’t change your
name when you get married. That will show them!
And get out and vote, always, because
this is an endless war against our rights.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-war-voting-war-women
Same story covered on the Rachel Maddow Show.
“And yet, state Republicans approved
a discriminatory voter-ID law anyway. As Ari Berman explained, the law is off to
a rough start: ‘Based on Texas’s own data, 600,000 to 800,000 registered voters
don’t have the government-issued ID needed to cast a ballot, with Hispanics 46
to 120 percent more likely than whites to lack an ID. But a much larger segment
of the electorate, particularly women, will be impacted by the requirement that
a voter’s ID be ‘substantially similar’ to their name on the voter registration
rolls. According to a 2006 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, a third of
all women have citizenship documents that do not match their current legal
name.’”
Unbelievable. Texas has a law that forces
a women to change her name on her official Texas state ID card, speaking about major
control issues. So instead of having a middle name and a maiden name, on a
Texas ID card, your maiden name becomes your middle name. How the heck did that
get passed? But, because of this name change, many women won’t be able to vote
because none of their other documents that they need to further prove who they
are, have their name written that way—because it’s not their name. So, Texas
gets to rename just about every married woman in the state—and screw them at
the same time.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/when-the-war-voting-meets-the-war-women
ENDLESSLY RECURRING DEPARTMENT: GIRL RAPED. BOY
CHARGED. CHARGES DROPPED. GIRL HARASSED.
How the hell does this keep on happening? Why do
boys deserve protection but not girls?
“I'M DAISY
COLEMAN, THE TEENAGER AT THE CENTER OF THE MARYVILLE RAPE MEDIA STORM, AND THIS
IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED”
“You
may have heard my story, thanks to Anonymous who trended #justice4daisy. I'm
not done fighting yet.”
Wisdom
from Daisy: “I not only survived, I didn't give up.
I've been told that a special prosecutor is going to reopen the case now. This
is a victory, not just for me, but for every girl.
“I just hope more men will take a lesson from my brothers.
“They look out for women. They don't prey on them.”
http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/daisy-coleman-maryville-rape
“One way to think about Daisy and
Paige’s choice to come forward is that they are trusting in the transparency of
good journalism and, yes, the Internet. Before their story ran in the Star, the girls were the targets of
vicious victim-blaming in their town. Locally, their names had been shredded.
Now that the lens for their story has widened beyond Maryville, they’re getting
the support they didn’t before. Daisy wrote about how “#justice4Daisy has trended
on the Internet, and pressure has come down hard on the authorities who thought
they could hide what really happened.” She’s right: The county prosecutor has
called in a special prosecutor to reopen the case.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/21/daisy_coleman_and_paige_parkhurst_alleged_maryville_rape_victims_tell_their.html
Information also here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/maryville-rape-case-sparks-courthouse-rally-article-1.1493960
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/daisy-coleman-rape-case_n_4145104.html
http://www.dailykos.com/blog/This%20Week%20in%20the%20War%20on%20Women
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT WHY THIS MAY BE HAPPENING
The conversational rage this
week, at least at Slate, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, seems to
be that young women should not drink to excess because this may lead to their
being raped. Is this news? Do we not know this even as we know that no matter
how drunk, no woman asks to be raped, AND THE BLAME IS ON THE RAPIST.
The New York Times, in its Room
for Debate section, examined this question: “With
studies finding an association between binge drinking and rape on college
campuses, is there anything wrong with telling women not to get blind drunk?”
Some of the voices:
“But, until that
change fully takes hold, women remain vulnerable to forms of sexual violence
against which the criminal law does not adequately protect them. Since that is
so, it is essential – in some spaces, at some times, for some audiences – to
make sure that women are told how to protect themselves.” Anne M. Coughlin is the Lewis F. Powell Jr. professor of law at
the University of Virginia.
“Calling for young
women to become teetotalers as a solution to the problem of rape on college
campuses is not only old advice, but also wrongheaded and dangerous.”
Mychal Denzel Smith is Knobler fellow at The Nation Institute.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/10/23/young-women-drinking-and-rape
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/10/sexual_assault_and_drinking_teach_women_the_connection.html
Apparently this was the article that got it started:
College Women: Stop Getting Drunk. It’s closely associated with sexual assault.
And yet we’re reluctant to tell women to stop doing it.” by Emily Yoffe
“The young woman
laments the whole campus landscape of alcohol-soaked hookup sex. ‘Women are
encouraged to do it, which ignores all the risks for us,’ she says. ‘You get
embarrassed and ashamed, so you try to make light of it. Then women get
violated and degraded, and they accept it. Who does this culture benefit? Alcohol predators. It doesn’t
liberate anybody.’”
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/10/sexual_assault_and_drinking_teach_women_the_connection.single.html
And Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post, in
Thursday’s column notes, “The message of Emily Yoffe’s Slate
article about binge drinking and sexual assault on
college campuses was as important as it was obvious: The best step that young
women can take to protect themselves is to stop drinking to excess.”
“Young women everywhere — not to mention their
mothers — ought to be thanking Yoffe. Instead, she’s being pilloried.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-missing-the-point-on-binge-drinking/2013/10/24/56c8a70a-3ce0-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html
GEE, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN DEPARTMENT
154,000 Fewer Women
Held Jobs in September; Female Participation in Labor Force Matches 24-Year Low
“In
September, according to BLS, the labor force participation rate for women was
57.1 percent, down from 57.3 percent in August and 57.4 percent in July. The
female labor force participation rate had also dropped to 57.1 percent this
March.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/154000-fewer-women-held-jobs-september-female-participation-labor
PETITION: CONCEALER SHOULD NOT CAUSE CANCER
“Revlon--one of the biggest cosmetics manufacturers in the
country--is running ads promoting their support for breast cancer awareness
while selling products to women that actually contain cancer-causing chemicals!”
Sign the petition: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/revlon_toxic_chemicals/