Hearing Us Out: FMF Interns Attend Comission Public Hearings

On Friday June 11, 2010 the FMF Campus Choice interns attended a public hearing in Pasadena, California sponsored by the California Commission on the Status of Women. An independent state agency that advocates for the women and girls of the state of California, the Commission welcomed three minute testimonies from any California resident who seeks to discuss his or her position on current issues that they want the Commission to consider for their 2010/2011 public policy agenda. After the agenda is compiled, it is provided to members of Congress and the State Legislature, the Governor's office, and various other agencies.

Chair of the Commission, Elaine Suranie, opened the hearings by explaining the Commission's reputation for supporting women's issues in California. Next, Ellen Eiden presented statistics that illustrated the close correlation between poverty, race and experiencing health disparities among women in Los Angeles County.

Local champions for women's issues were present, including West Hollywood City Commissioner Abbe Land, who addressed the need for continued funding of adult day care programs. Land expressed that the program disproportionally affects women because the majority of attendees are women and the program employs mostly women. She also mentioned that a instituting a statewide Lesbian Health Bill of Rights like the one issued in West Hollywood, CA would help eliminate medical discrimination and judgment against lesbian and transgender women.

Other issues discussed include the need for translators in the California court system for survivors of domestic violence, the importance of promoting breastfeeding as a free solution to enhance women's health, and how the bureaucracy of the CalWORKS system hinders women who are under compromising financial and personal situations from recovering and flourishing.

Personally, we were moved by women coming from all walks of life to influence politicians to advocate for various causes that affect women. Because of their commitment to acting as a mouthpiece for women's needs and rights, those who testified in the hearings are true heroines in the ongoing fight for equality.

Ignorance Leads to Unsexy Consequences

Easy or prudish? Those are the two categories that any American is bound to be placed, should they live in Europe. Sad as it may be, when I was working in France, it wasn't a rare occurrence to be told statements like "American girls are afraid of sex, they are like nuns!" and "Rumor has it, Americans will have oral sex before having vaginal intercourse...French women won't do that!" all in the same week.

While neither "easy" nor "prudish" is a desired title, stereotypes don't exist in a vacuum and this image of Americans represents a lot about our culture. With the abstinence-only programs in curriculum's across the nation, students are educated about sexuality in terms of waiting, but are left in the dark when hormones inevitably kick in and tempt them to join the 95% Americans who have sex before marriage ( feministing.com/Guttmacher Institute.) Sure, these programs may create a more passionate, uncontrollable, "heat of the moment" feeling when youth first start experimenting with sexuality, but it's not giving them the information necessary to make decisions about their health.

That unpreparedness is starting to show. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just announced that America is "among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," linking a lack of comprehensive sex education as a main reason for our poor ranking.

Abstinence-only programs are not working. Out of any age group, it is young adults that are most affected: each year, almost 19 million newly sexually transmitted infections are found in 15-24 year olds!

Wrap your brain around these figures (brought to you by Reuters and the CDC):

* 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.

* Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

* Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

* Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

* Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

* 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.

* 63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.

* Syphilis rates among women increased 36 percent from 2007 to 2008.

Fired Up? Now go educate yourself! Speak to someone about your options and proper condom use! If you're part of a campus FMLA, take it to the next step by working with your regional campus organizer to arrange for a speaker to educate your campus! Take control of your sexual education to avoid becoming a statistic or culture stereotype!

photo credit: Alex_Morrice at photoshop.com

Did you know....

On this day in 1987, "the American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person has AIDS or is HIV-positive.” --- New York Times

Photo Credit: Auntie P on flickr.com

HPV For Boys

The CDC gave Gardasil, the vaccine against HPV, a "permissive" recommendation for men and young boys. This means that the vaccine is okay to sell, but it isn't recommended for all men.

Why? A CDC economist argued that it would be more cost-effective to improve accessibility for young women rather than extend the vaccine to young men.

The argument is that if girls are vaccinated, boys won't have anything to catch or transmit. Why should men bear any responsibility when women can do it for them? It's not like women have any obstacles to obtaining health care.

Furthemore, Dan Savage makes a decent point when he says:

"But if you want to vaccinate gay men against HPV—because women can't do it for us—you have to vaccinate gay men well before we become sexually active, same as girls. Age 11, remember? And since we don't know at age 11 which boys are going to be gay when they grow up, you have to vaccinate all boys against HPV in order to protect the ones who are going to be gay when they grow up. It seems like a no-brainer and a win-win: vaccinating all boys against HPV will protect the gays ones—gay men are 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer as adults—and help protect girls and women from the deadlier strains of HPV. It would also offer some protection to girls whose parents denied them the vaccine for... religious reasons. That's a win-win-win."

More broadly, any man that doesn't have sex exclusively with HPV-vaccinated women is at risk. It's ridiculous that the CDC didn't let this fact influence their decision.

Image courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/euthman/

Were Ad-Wizards Behind New Half-Calorie Lays Half-Baked?

With their newer brand of Baked! products, Lays, Flat Earth and Smartfood brands are trying to shift their consumer's image from the generic "unkempt and unfit girl who sits alone on Friday night, demolishing through a bag of junk food (while obviously listening to Celine Dion)” to a more health-conscious, socially acceptable woman.

The ads and webisodes aim to be like an animated Sex in the City, staring four aging, hip, stylish best friends attempting to survive trials of life, love and self-improvement.

You know… if Sex and the City didn’t include witty quips or career-driven characters and was written by Paris Hilton.

The episodes tackle hard-hitting questions like “OMG! Why is my Italian hair stylist abandoning me to return home?” “How will my man enjoy our vacation together if I’m not tan enough or properly groomed?” “Did my husband accidentally put my perfect jeans in the dryer- he must have because they don’t fit me anymore!” “Who wouldn’t want a 48 hour bug if you get to lose a whole four pounds?” and “What’s the best way to completely rearrange my life so that I’ll be thin enough to be loved?!”

Here’s just the introduction to Baked!’s series “Only in a woman’s world” (ugh, don't even get me started on the title):




Here's a more recent webisode:

And here's one more, just for kicks. This one shows the battle between mom's sound advice and that of the "disillusioned feminist":

With the consistent line “Crave more?” I can’t help, but scream “YES, SUBSTANCE!” Don't get me wrong, here at FMF,we promote healthy lifestyles, but not when weight is lost in brain matter. These commercials promote disgusting caricatures of "the modern woman" that only hurt us (and don't have a thing to do with snack food.)

To let Frito Lay company know that women aren't as shallow as the Red Sea post-Moses, you can use big-girl words to email them here.

As a wrap up, FMF President Eleanor Smeal, always tells us to follow the money to find a company's motivation. Isn't it odd that the cartoon's official website is affiliated with style and beauty website Glam.com? Wonder why?