How to take your V-Day Events Further

As many of you know February means V-Day! And no, we’re not talking about Valentine’s Day. V-Day is an organization that seeks to raise awareness about violence against women and girls as well as raise money for local beneficiaries that are working to end violence. Many student groups put on “The Vagina Monologues” or host other film screenings to raise money for their local domestic violence and rape crisis centers.

We think it’s amazing to raise awareness about violence against women and sexual assault on campus, and we are here to offer ways to take your V-Day events further. When planning events, think of ways you can change policies on campus to make it safer for the students.

Here are some questions to think about:

• How safe is your campus? Is there sufficient lighting?
• Are there emergency blue light towers on campus? Blue lights towers have emergency buttons that will connect you to 911 dispatch.
• Is there a free 24-hour student escort service?
• Does your college provide counseling services for survivors? Does your school have at least one full time staff person that works exclusively on sexual violence and education?
• Is emergency contraception available for rape survivors in school health centers?

If there is something missing on campus, fight for change! Demand more preventative measures and better response systems on campus!

Next, do you know about your sexual assault policy on campus? Is it adequate? Check out the Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) website for “What Makes a Better Sexual Assault Policy”

Things to look for are: student input, accessibility, due process, fairness, clear language, oversight, prevention and education, crisis intervention, accessible and accurate reporting, amnesty, long term counseling, community involvement, and sexual assault response training. Some good examples of comprehensive sexual assault policies are: The College of Holy Cross, Spelman College, Lehigh University, and University of Michigan.

If your sexual assault policy doesn’t make the cut, make sure you take action to change it! Set up meetings with the administration to discuss how to make the SA policies on campus more comprehensive.

Photo courtesy of flickr.com/samjnewman

Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Rape Today

This afternoon Senator Arlen Specter will chair a hearing by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, entitled "Rape in the United States: The Chronic Failure to Report and Investigate Rape Cases." The hearing will highlight the under reporting, dismissal and treatment of rape cases by law enforcement.

For a brief introduction into today's hearing listen to NPR's Morning Edition: Power Breakfast featuring today's panelist Carol Tracy of the Philadelphia-based Women's Law Project. Eleanor Smeal will also be a featured panelist on behalf of the National Center for Women and Policing, a project of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

To listen to the hearing live at 2:15 pm today tune into to the live webcast. We will also feature excerpts from FMF President Eleanor Smeal's remarks later today.

Panel I
The Honorable Susan B. Carbon
Director
Office of Violence Against Women
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC

Panel II
Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey
Philadelphia Police Department
Philadelphia, PA

Sara R. Reedy
Butler, PA

Carol E. Tracy
Women's Law Project
Philadelphia, PA

Julie Weil
Jupiter, FL

Scott Berkowitz
President & Founder,
Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network
Washington, DC


Panel III
Lawanda Ravoira
Director
NCCD Center for Girls and Young Women
Jacksonville, FL

Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor
Vice-Chair for Education, Department of Psychiatry
Director, National Crime Victims Research
& Treatment Center,
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC

Eleanor Smeal
Feminist Majority Foundation
Arlington, VA

Michelle Madden Dempsey
Associate Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law
Villanova, PA

Excited New FMF Intern and Blogger!

Hello fellow feminists! My name is Stephanie McClure and I’ll be working with the Feminist Majority Foundation as a Choices Campus Intern for the summer. I’m so excited to be blogging about feminist issues, activism ideas, and of course, engaging in awesome conversations with all of you this summer! Listed below are a few things about me:

• I just graduated from Oregon State University (OSU) with my B.A. in English.
• FMLA’s are awesome, and I was the President of the OSU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance last year. Our FMLA did lots of Choices Campus Campaigning, as well as put on many events specific for our campus such as: Love Your Body Day; Inequality Bake Sale; Take Back the Night; OSU Feminist Film Festival; Smashing the Scales: Eating Disorder Awareness Project; Rise Up Speak Out: A Celebration of the Voice of Resistance Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (an open mic night).
• I worked at the OSU Women’s Center last year as well, and think that all universities need to have safe empowering permanent places on their campuses such as Women's Centers.
• The Vagina Monologues is a production that I deeply believe in and think is super important to bring to all communities, and this year I was one of the performers at OSU!
• Domestic violence and sexual assault are two issues that have affected many of my loved ones, so I’m extremely passionate about working towards ending all forms of violence against women and girls.
• I’m also an ecofeminist, and believe that there is an inherent connection between the way that women and nature are controlled and impacted by systems of oppression. (Grrrr...BP!)
  

The Feminist Majority Foundation is doing so many amazing things right now, and I’m so grateful to be here in LA with such an awesome team of feminists working together to help create a safe, equal world for all! Keep up with us on our blog, facebook page, and through twitter!

16 Year Old Turkish Girl Buried Alive for Talking to Boys

In Kahta, Turkey, a body of a 16 year-old girl was found buried outside her house. Police say that she was buried alive by her relatives in an "honor killing" as a punishment for talking to boys.

The girl was reported missing in December, and the police were tipped off by an anonymous informant. Police found her body in a sitting position with her hands tied up, buried 2 meters in the ground under a chicken pen. Postmortem investigation found dirt in her lungs and stomach. "The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl – who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood – was alive and fully conscious when she was buried,” one anonymous expert said.

Sources say that she was killed after "family council" meeting. The girls--who has only be identified by the initials MM--had male friends, which displeased her father, and had been beaten in the past by her grandfather past for talking to boys.

The mother, father, and grandfather were arrested; the mother was released shortly thereafter. The father and grandfather are awaiting trial.

The Huffington Posts says the "case is expected to bring further attention to the issue of 'honor' killings in Turkey. Official figures indicate that more than 200 'honor' killings take place each year - almost half of all murders in Turkey."

In many countries in the world, women are brutally murdered in "honor killings" by their family for engaging in extramarital sex, affairs, or after being raped. Family members justify these acts as a means to reestablish family honor. Honor killings are a horrific violence against women issue on a global scale. Go to the Feminist Majority Foundation factsheet on Violence Against Women for more information.

photo via huffingtonpost.com

Greetings Feminists!

Hi y'all, I'm Mariel Kirschen, a new intern at the FMF DC office and would just like to introduce myself to all you readers out there in the blogging world. I'm brand new to blogging, so bear with me as I try to find my footing.

I'm a sophomore at American University here in DC studying Law and Society and Women and Gender Studies. I'm especially passionate about issues involving violence against women so you might find me posting a lot on related topics.

This internship is a great opportunity to take what I'm learning in the classroom and use it to take action against issues involving women in the real world.

I'm really excited for what I will learn and the experiences I will gain. Thanks for reading!

photo courtesy of nationscapital.com via flickr

Girls' School Bombed in Pakistan

A Pakistani middle school for girls was bombed late last night near Peshawar, which is in the northern region bordering Afghanistan. No one was injured in the bombing, but reports indicate that the attack completely destroyed the girls' school building. According to officials, this is the third school bombing this month in the Peshawar region.

Local official Farooq Khan told Agence France Presse that "the girls' middle school was badly damaged because of the explosion, now the school building is almost out of use. The classrooms, desks and chairs were also damaged."

In Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, violence against schools that educate girls has been part of campaigns against the education of women. In Pakistan's Swat Valley, more than 130 primarily all girl schools have been destroyed in the past year, allegedly by the Taliban. In total, hundreds of schools have been destroyed in Pakistan's northwest region over the past several years. During the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which lasted until 2001, Afghan girls were forbidden to attend school. To date, approximately 1,000 girls' or co-educational schools have been bombed or burned in Afghanistan.

Source: Feminist News

Photo credit: Umair Mohsin on flickr.com

Normalizing Violence: Have We Gone Too Far??

We're approaching "sweeps week," you know, that lovely week when television shows fight for ratings with extravagant tricks of plot twists, celebrity guest stars, girl-on-girl make-out scenes or musical numbers. Growing up, we've learned that this is to be expected and is "perfectly normal."

As a culture, we've accepted the message that sex/violence sells and may be have even encouraged it with our nation-wide viewing records. I would be a hypocrite if I were to say I've never been sucked into a Law and Order SVU marathon. Ice T and Mariska Hargitay aside, it has felt like these images have gotten worse and worse over the years.

Proving that I'm not an old lady, reinventing the perfection of "when I grew up," a new study by Parents Television Council/Women In Peril shows that we have, in fact, gone WAY too far. Over the past five years, there has been a 120% increase in the television depictions of violence against women and a 400% increase in the number of victimized teens!

While beatings were often the scenario of choice at 29%; stabbings, rape, torture and threats were not too far behind. The study also found that if the character did not consequentially die from the violence (19% of the time,) the graphic consequences were made visually explicit to the viewer (92%) rather than just implied or described (8%.)

Using these themes to lure an audience may be good for the network marketing director, but the effects of such extreme, normalized violence on a person and a culture goes far beyond the time in front of the tube.

Women In Peril describe short-term and long-term effects of viewed violence by saying that:
Short-term exposure increases the likelihood of physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive emotions. Recent large-scale longitudinal studies provide converging evidence linking frequent exposure to violent media in childhood with aggression later in life, including physical assaults and spouse abuse. Because extremely violent criminal behaviors (e.g., forcible rape, aggravated assault, homicide) are rare, new longitudinal studies with larger samples are needed to estimate accurately how much habitual childhood exposure to media violence increases the risk for extreme violence.

Do you want our generation/the generation below us to become the next set of "data samples" needed for the extreme violence study? I sure don't!

Moral of the story:

Correlation is key: any country that on a whole actively watches young women victimized day-after-day is bound to be negatively effected. Please don't zone out to the tube, numb to what you are watching. Make your friends, family and networks aware that you will not stand for this trend to continue any more!

chart credit: Parents Television Council
photo credit: sternenrauschen on flickr.com

Women and Guns

On my way to FMF this morning, flipping through the Express, I came across the article “Bullet, Gun Sales on Record Pace.” According to the article, firearm sales skyrocketed around the time Obama was sworn into office.

Last year alone, bullet sales at US gun shops soared to the equivalent of about 38 bullets PER PERSON. (I know I didn't buy any, so I'm assuming someone is more than making up for me....) When I looked around me, I realized that if every person on the crowded metro represented 38 bullets, if there were about 300 people on the train, we'd have a collective 11,400 bullets! Wow.

From a feminist prospective, what does all of this mean ? What is the relationship like between women and guns?

In 2005, Amnesty International released a 76-page report in in conjunction with the International Action Network on Small Arms, and Oxfam International called “The Impact of Guns On Women’s Lives.” The report examines issues like armed violence against women in the home, gangs, gun use by gangs, and gender. Click here to check it out!

If you don’t have time to peruse all 76 pages, here are a few highlights:

· Access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide more than five times more than in instance where there are no weapons, according to a recent study. In addition, abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners. (Family Violence Prevention Fund Fact Sheet)

· In 2002, 54% of female homicide victims were shot and killed with a gun. (Family Violence Prevention Fund Fact Sheet)

· Having a gun in the home increases the overall risk of someone in the household being murdered by 41%; but for women in particular the risk was nearly tripled (an increase of 272 percent) (“Impact of Guns On Women’s Lives”)

· Between 1995, when Canada tightened its gun laws, and 2003, the overall gun murder rate dropped by 15%, while the gun homicide rate for women dropped by 40% (“Impact of Guns on Women’s Lives”)

The Chicago CBS 2 News site recently discussed the increasing number of women who own guns. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 48%, almost half, of people taking their first handgun seminars this year are women. Women quoted in the article say that they believe having a gun will protect them against being raped or mugged. Generally speaking, women who do own guns are more responsible with them than men; Department of Justice figures show that between 1976 and 2005, 91.3 percent of gun homicides were committed by men, and only 8.7 by women.

What do you think? Are guns worth the risk?

Photo Credit: Barjack from flickr.com

IVAWA: A Human Rights Issue

The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) was among various pieces of legislation that was discussed during the Feminist Majority’s Women, Money and Power Summit.

IVAWA seeks to address violence against women by creating an “Office for Women’s Global Initiatives,” which would be overseen by a Senate-confirmed Ambassador who reports directly to the Secretary of State. Additionally, IVAWA would create a five year strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women in ten to twenty targeted countries. It would also provide $175 million yearly budget that combats violence against women by focusing on the criminal justice system, health care, access to education for girls, economic empowerment, and public awareness campaigns. The last major initiative that IVAWA addresses is rape as a war tactic. IVAWA mandates training, reporting procedures and other measures for those working with refugees.

It is apparent that IVAWA is not just a woman’s rights issue, but it is also a human rights issue. What is less obvious, although equally important to IVAWA, are the security issues that it attempts to address. War ravaged or conflict-ridden societies are indicative of increased levels of violence, which can leave women vulnerable to violence and displacement. Without legislation such as this that addresses the needs of women, economic development in these countries is difficult to sustain. Without economic development various societies cannot become stabilized nations.

OK State Woman Fights Victim-Blaming

Oklahoma State University PhD candidate, Karen Sisk, recently wrote an article in the Daily O'Collegian about VH1 cancelling its show, "Meagan Wants a Millionaire," following a contestant's alleged murder of his wife.

Upon the article's publication, Ms. Sisk received comments and feedback excusing the murder of of Ms. Fiore (the victim), saying such abhorrent things as, "If you put your man down in public, you should probably expect that he will kill you, mutilate your body, and leave it in a Dumpster. She was ASKING for it!"

While she could have simply shaken her head in disgust and moved on, Ms. Sisk took it a step further and bravely re-addressed the issue, exposing her own deeply personal connection to the story.

Here is Karen Sisk's second article in its entirety:

When I wrote my last column about Ryan Jenkins’s alleged murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore, I got an interesting response online.

Someone believed that Fiore deserved what she got for the way she treated Jenkins. Her behavior was apparently a good reason for her to expect a violent outcome.

News reports said Fiore maintained friendships with several of her former flames and might have had physical relationships with one or more of them.

She should have known better than to cheat on a psychopath, apparently.

News reports also said Fiore repeatedly insulted Jenkins at a poker party the night before her disappearance. She also should have known better than to insult him.

Obviously, this behavior was grounds for her to wind up mutilated in a dumpster, right?

This response shocked me. Not because I do not know that people have these sorts of reactions — I am well aware that they do. But, because people usually do not intimate them, refusing to come right out and say them.

As a culture, we tend to blame women for being the victims of violent crimes. They should know better because men will take advantage of situations to do us harm. We should protect ourselves from them.

I would love to see this attitude change. Women do not deserve to be harassed, stalked, raped, beaten or killed no matter what they have worn, said, imbibed or done. The worst a woman — or anyone — deserves is to be broken up with. If Fiore behaved in a way that was unacceptable to Jenkins, he should have broken off their relationship.

She should not have wound up in a dumpster mutilated to the point where police used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her.

I say this not only as a woman but also as a survivor of sexual and physical violence.

I have spent years in therapy trying to figure out what I could have done differently to avoid being raped by the first person I was ever involved with. But, it was not my fault. I was the victim of a predator. Now, I am a survivor.

When I was 14, I was a shy, awkward and unpopular girl. When a 20-year-old man I met at a friend’s house paid attention to me, I was over the moon. I did not know how different 14-year-old girls were from 20-year-old men. So, I started dating him, and he started brainwashing me.

He convinced me to lie to my parents about his age, job and schooling. He sent me lavish presents and followed me everywhere I went. The only thing I had done to get his attention was to be in the wrong place at the right time to meet him.

Within a month, the unwanted sexual activity began, and it lasted for almost two years. After the relationship ended, I successfully prosecuted him. He was sentenced to two years in prison for the two years of my life he stole from me.

However, he only served a year and began stalking me upon his release — even showing up at my high school graduation. Luckily, the police department quickly helped me get a restraining order.

As difficult as it was to endure, the most difficult part was and continues to be my father’s reaction to the entire situation. He blamed me. He told me that I should have known better. He did not support me prosecuting my abuser and did not come to the trial.

For years, his attitude kept me from healing. It still holds me back. It was something I was unable to resolve with him before he passed away from lung cancer nine years ago. It has taken me much of that time to work toward forgiving him.

Unfortunately, my father held an opinion many hold when dealing with victims and survivors of any kind of violence. He assumed that I must have said, done or worn something that led my abuser to abuse me. My father assumed that a 14-year-old girl was savvy enough about men and sexuality to make her own decisions about her body.

Sadly, he is in the majority, not the minority. I did not do anything that made me deserve the abuse I received. I didn’t know my own rights over my body. What my father never understood was that my choice was taken from me. I was powerless. But he blamed me, assuming that I could have done something different.

Fiore did not deserve to die anymore than I deserved two years of sexual abuse. No one deserves rape, violence or death no matter what she has done or to whom she has done it.

Photo credit: flickr.com/ben pollard

Domestic Violence is a "pre-existing condition"....

WHAT?!?!

I couldn't believe it when I first heard about it either. But apparently in DC, and 8 other states--Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming--being a victim of domestic violence is enough for insurance companies to deny a woman coverage.

The Service Employees International Union covered this story in their blog this past Friday:

"Words cannot describe the sheer inhumanity of this claim. It serves as yet further proof that our insurance system is broken, destroyed by the profit-mongering of the very companies whose sole purpose should be to provide Americans with access to care when they need it most."

The system is failing women! Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women as 85-95% of DV victims are women.

What are the insurance companies thinking?! Most likely, they are engrossed in statistics about the cost of domestic violence to them. According to the American Institute on Domestic Violence, health related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homicide by intimate partners amounts to over $5.8 billion per year and the cost of victims requiring direct medical and mental health care is a little over $4 billion.

Are these not services that survivors deserve? Is this a punishment for being a victim? Is this how women are supposed to be treated after they've been mistreated?



photo courtesy of flickr.com

UN internship in NYC!

From UNIFEM's Facebook note:

UNIFEM is looking for an intern working on Social Media for the campaign "Say NO to Violence against Women"

Starting October 1st 2009; 3-6 months (New York Headquarters)

Background

Say NO – UNiTE to Violence against Women is a public awareness and advocacy initiative presented by UNIFEM as part of the UN Secretary-General’s campaign, UNiTE to End Violence against Women. Launched as a signature campaign in 2007, Say NO submitted 5,066,549 signatures to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on November 25, 2008, representing a global call to make ending violence against women a top priority for governments everywhere.

Scheduled to launch in fall 2009, Say NO Phase II will trigger and showcase actions by individuals, governments, civil society and corporate partners to prevent and address violence against women and girls worldwide. Actions can range from advocating for legislation, reaching out to students at schools, volunteering at shelters, to signing a petition and donating money towards programmes that protect the rights and dignity of women and girls. The initial target is to record 1 million actions by March 2010, which will be counted and reported on the campaign’s web site.

Working through traditional as well as online networks, the campaign will engage strategic audiences such as men, youth and faith-based communities towards changing perspectives and preventing violence against women and girls; and mobilize new online constituencies through social media.

To this end, the Communications Unit of UNIFEM’s OBDT (Outreach Business and Development Team) is looking for an intern to help with social media outreach for a period of three to six months.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Head of Communications, and the direct supervision of the UNIFEM focal point for social media, the intern will help maintain the Say NO social media platforms and actively engage in social media outreach for the campaign.

Specifically, s/he will be responsible for the following:
• Recruit new followers/ friends, reply to friends requests etc. on the different social media platforms;
• Post news items from the Say NO campaign website to the different social media platforms;
• Screen incoming content from users of the campaign website, select appropriate content, and post on social media platforms;
• Monitor postings and interactions on social media platforms;
• Moderate discussions on social media platforms; reply/ react to content;
• Monitor blogs and online media for interesting stories on the Say NO campaign to be edited and highlighted on both the campaign page and social media platforms;
• Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Graduate student, enrolled in a Masters Degree Programme in Communications, Journalism, International Affairs or related field
• Experience in social media and/or blogging
• Excellent writing skills in English; Arabic or writing skills in any other language an asset
• Knowledge of gender issues in general; knowledge of the thematic area of violence against women an asset
• Interest in the mission and values of the United Nations

If interested, please send your CV to beatrice.frey@unifem.org, indicating your availabilities.

And back to reality

So, after my brief hiatus from the Choices Campus blog, mostly due to a lack of internet, I've returned. As many of you may or may not know, Sweden has a pretty good reputation for gender equality. There are some pretty great things over here, you know, the enormous amount of paid parental leave and the subsidized day care so women are back in the work force, for example.

However, while I was pondering the benefits of paid parental leave this morning on the train, I saw the ad on the back page of the Stockholm metro newspaper. It featured a woman tied and gagged to a chair, with her back to us. Facing her were two men, one that was loosening his tie and the other was maybe cracking his knuckles or something. Since I have a very basic level of Swedish, I have no idea what it was about, but it was a little unnerving to say the least.

And just now, while reading up on the events of the world, I saw some disturbing photos of Rihanna on the Huffington Post. I think the title "Rihanna Topless and Muzzled in Italian Vogue" gives you a good idea of what they are, and why I might find them so disturbing. Anyone who's read about women and advertising knows the meaning of having women with covered mouths.

Muzzling Rihanna just takes that to a whole other level. Not to mention, that there seems to be a general effort to silence women. There's a movement that's trying to silence women's voices about their bodies and reproductive rights. What does it mean to have Rihanna, a survivor of violence, shown muzzled?

We can't easily dismiss the types of images of women in the media because those are the images that people don't usually think about it, and they seem to point to the underlying issues and emotions of a significant portion of our society. Even in Sweden where they boast about gender equity, it means something that there are violent images displayed for all to see.
Photo courtesy of www.flickr/mr_salvis_are

South Africa also poses dangers for women

We've been talking a lot about the rape epidemic in the Congo, but rape is a serious problem in much of the world. In South Africa, women still face enormous discrimination and violence. In a piece on Huffington Post, Alex Matthews says that despite being a democracy that "ensures" equality for women, most girls and women face a number of horrors.

In his piece, Matthews lays out the abuses women face from strip searches to rape to virginity tests. He also gives his explanation for why such widespread discrimination and abuse exists still.

I think that one of the most serious and pressing concerns of our world today is violence against women and the continuing sexism. If the world worked to eradicate violence against women and maternal mortality, relief efforts will be more effective and lives of millions will be safer and happier. If governments and people want to make our world a better place, they have to start with women.
Photo courtesy of www.flickr/strandloper

It's a wild world

Violence against women is something that has existed for centuries, but recent events have really got me even more concerned about it. I was just going about my business this morning when I saw this poem that literally had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

What with that guy shooting women at that gym, and the rising rates of male rape in the Congo the world is just really overwhelming at the moment.

It is just terrifying to think that we live in a world where men think that violence, especially sexual violence, is an actual option for dealing with personal problems, anger, or frustration.

Obviously this is something I have thought about before, it's just that the events/stories of this week are hitting me like a ton of iron. Part of me gets mad that I have to be more concerned about my safety than a man does.

Part of me just wants to say to hell with self-policing and following the safety tips that are posted in women's bathrooms on college campuses. Frankly, I think that I should be able to live my life without having to mold my schedule around the times and places that a man would most likely attack me. But, of course, that is not all that realistic. And, if I did that and something happened to me, the majority of people would just say that it's my fault.
Photo courtesy of www.flickr/steve rhodes

Male or Female, Sexual Violence Is the Arm of Oppression

The Congo is going through one of the most unstable, violent periods of its history. We have heard about the thousands of women who are raped in an effort to control the population. But what we are probably less aware of is the growing number of male rape survivors in the area.

The New York Times has a piece about this less well known epidemic. According to the article, there are probably hundreds of male rape survivors in the area.

Just as sexual violence has been used to exert power over women for centuries, it is being used to destroy the lives of these men for the same reason. The article states that being raped is a socially stigmatizing experience for these men who are often ostracized because of a negative view of homosexuality. They are often viewed by others as being less masculine.

I think it is important to look at how sexual violence is one way that power relations and oppression can be enacted against everyone, regardless of sexuality, gender, race, or class. The problem is sexual violence and traditional norms of masculine behavior. Regardless of whether or not the victim is male or female, the aggressors are using behaviors that they have been taught to use to reinforce their masculinity and power positions that are completely inhumane and unacceptable.

Photo courtesy of www.flickr/halfcrazy

Newsday Tuesday: July 21 Edition

Not only does Tuesday mark the furthest point from Monday, but also means it's time for Newsday Tuesday! Let's start the week off with a bang and highlight some of the feminist standouts of the past week!

• Former police officer Debra Hartley, who has been walking 225 miles from her home in Effort, Pennsylvania , arrived in Washington, DC Monday. Her mission is to raise awareness on sex bias that impacts women in law enforcement. Hartley hopes to meet with First Lady Michelle Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss policies that would address this issue. Hartley left her post in 2003 after filing complaints that she was treated differently than her male co-workers.
• After more than 60 years of fellowship, former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement last week announcing he is leaving the Southern Baptist Church due to their treatment of women.
  
• Judy Chu won the special election for California's 32nd Congressional District last Tuesday and was sworn in today as the first Chinese-American woman in Congress.

Global
Iranian women's rights activist, lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr was beaten and arrested by plainclothes police officers last week. Several men approached and seized Sadr without displaying a warrant, beat her with batons when she tried to escape before forcing her into a waiting car. Sadr founded Zanan-e Iran (Women of Iran), the first website dedicated to women's rights activism in Iran.

The 41st Bulgarian Parliament elected their first female speaker, Tsetska Tsacheva last week.

Natalia Estemirova, a journalist and human rights advocate in Chechnya was abducted from her home and killed last Wednesday. This is on the heels of an escalation in amount of human rights abuse in Chechnya where there has been at least 50 kidnappings and 4 deaths so far this year.

Last Friday, 13 Sudanese women were arrested and 10 flogged for wearing pants. The floggings occurred after the women were arrested by public order police enforcing Sharia law, which stipulates that women are expected to dress in traditional attire and Western-style clothing is frowned upon. The women were each fined, pled guilty and received lashes immediately.

Finance Minister Surendra Pandey and the Nepalese government released a budget for fiscal year 2009/2010 last week, which includes a cash incentive for men who marry widows.

Federal
Last week, the Obama administration filed a legal brief that reverses a Bush administration policy that prohibited battered women from seeking asylum in the US. The brief suggests that battered women are covered by the definition of refugees and asylees, however, the new policy of asylum will not protect women who are victims of genital mutilation.

Congresswomen and global health administrators held a briefing on Capitol Hill last Tuesday to highlight the issue of maternal health in Afghanistan. According to UNICEF, Afghanistan has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

States
An Illinois law requiring parental notification before abortions for teenage girls was ruled constitutional by a federal appeals court in Chicago lasted Tuesday. Originally passed in 1984, the law mandates that physicians notify the parents at least 48 hours before the abortions of girls 17 or younger.

Photo courtesy of [sic!]ut.at on flikr.com

That's just not tasteful

I have a serious question for you all. What is the deal with advertising using violent images of trapped or dead women? I mean, do they really think that it doesn't send out a message about violence against women?

Department store Barney's has a window display that is not only distasteful, but sends a message the violence, especially violence against women, is fashionable and acceptable. The windows show mannequins reacting to shots. They're falling, limbs flailing, and in case it wasn't clear what was going on, there's "blood" splattered on the windows.

Time and time again, feminists and concerned people have criticized companies and advertisers that show violent images of women. I don't know what there is to get. Even the author of the article on the display thinks it's acceptable. She feels that it is edgy or something

Yeah, the deeper meaning is that this display is showing that violence against women is sexy, in style, and fashionable. And it's not.

Photo courtesy of www.flickr/

Newsday Tuesday: July 14 Edition

So much news, so little time! We have been super busy here gearing up for the launch of the newly re-designed Feminist Majority Foundation site feminist.org. Look for upcoming announcements on the official launch of the site and other information!

So let's get to it. Here is your wrap up of the latest feminist news for this week.

The big news in the office this week are Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings for the US Supreme Court. The hearings began Monday which were dominated by the Senate Judiciary Committee's opening statements. Sotomayor made a brief introductory statement at the close of the proceedings.

Sex Education
Friday, the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education eliminated traditional sources of funding for abstinence-only programs by passing an appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2010. Abstinence-only education has been found to be very ineffective through many studies including the latest in June from the American Medical Association that found abstinence-only sex programs do not result in reduced sexual activity among teens.

Emergency Contraception
The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by US District Court in Seattle this week. Pharmacists in Washington must now dispense the emergency contraception medication Plan-B, even if they have personal religious objections to the medication.

The US FDA has approved a single-pill version of the two-pill dose Plan-B emergency contraceptive, called Plan-B One Step.

Federal Appointments
President Obama announced on Monday his appointment of Regina Benjamin, MD to the position of surgeon general. Dr. Benjamin, a family physician, served local residents through Hurricanes George and Katrina. Her clinic treats patients regardless of their ability to pay.

Global
Afghanistan's Justice Ministry released a revision of the controversial Shia law that legalized rape within marriage, among others last Wednesday. The new version bans men of demanding sex from their wives and that no longer requires women to ask their husbands' permission to leave their home.

The United Nations Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, urged Afghan leaders to fight violence against women where he announced a new UN report called "Silence is Violence." The report combats the idea that women's rights are a luxury and focuses on both sexual violence and violence that inhibits women's societal participation.

Three Irish women are challenging Ireland's abortion ban in the European Court of Human Rights. Ireland's laws prevent abortion in almost every circumstance except when a woman’s life is in jeopardy. Of the over 7,000 Irish women yearly that have abortions, the current laws force women to travel outside the country to obtain such services.

US Federal Matters
Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Wednesday, challenging the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

The NIH issued new regulations Monday that ease restrictions on stem cell research. The new guidelines allow the use of embryonic stem cells that have been discarded from in-vitro fertilization procedures if researchers can prove their methods are ethical and scientifically worthy and also allow for study of existing stem cell lines after approval.

The number of homeless female veterans has doubled in the past decade, even though the overall number of homeless veterans has decreased. In an effort to combat homelessness for soldiers, HUD and the VA last month announced the allocation of $75 million to provide rental housing and support for homeless veterans.

Friday, the US 1st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Massachusetts law, allowing a 35-foot safety buffer zone between protestors and abortion clinic entrances. The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that the law does not infringe on protestors' free speech rights and applies to all protestors no matter their viewpoint.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to the foreign aid appropriations bill Thursday that would permanently ban the Global Gag Rule. This amendment stipulates that foreign NGOs must not be prevented from receiving US aid on the basis of providing abortion services to women.

Photo courtesy of Jay Tamboli on Flikr

Newsday Tuesday: June 30 Edition

This week was definitely a sad week in the world of entertainment. On Tuesday, we lost TV personality and Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon, 86, to bone cancer and pneumonia.

The following Thursday, both actress Farrah Fawcett, 62, and "King of Pop" Micheal Jackson, 50, passed away. Fawcett was battling anal cancer and known best for her role in the 1970s TV show Charlie's Angels. Jackson, who's death is still under investigation, is the pop phenomenon who has sold more albums than any other artist, including his biggest hit "Thriller," and has had a career that has spanned over 4 decades.

Then last Sunday, Billy Mays, 50, was found dead in his home, apparently due to a heart condition. Mays's claim to fame is as spokesperson for such products as "OxiClean," "Orange-Glo," and other household products. All of these people will be very missed and their impact on the entertainment community will not be forgotten.

Back to the world of feminism, a lot has been going on. So lets get a quick recap of the highlights for the week.

Education
Last Tuesday, on the 37th anniversary of Title IX, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that millions of dollars in grants will be awarded to improve girls' proficiency in math and science.

Neera Desai, PhD, a pioneer of women's studies in India, died of cancer at age 84 this week. Dr. Desai founded India's first women's studies program, the Research Center for Women's Studies at SNDT Women's University in Mumbai.

National
Vice President Joe Biden announced the appointment of Lynn Rosenthal as the first ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women last Friday (which our president, Ellie Smeal, was in attendance of). Vice President Biden is a strong advocate for fighting domestic violence, as he co-authored the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the strip-search of 13-year old student Savana Redding at her Arizona public school was unconstitutional. Redding was accused of bringing ibuprofen to school, which is banned under the school's drug policy. The school's principal sent her to the nurse's office, where she was stripped down to her bra and underpants. The Court ruled that Redding's Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.

On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee urging passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The bill, which passed in the House in April, would allow for "federal prosecution of violence undertaken because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity of any person."

States
Virginia - A 2008 court decision which declared unconstitutional a Virginia ban on a specific abortion procedure was overturned Thursday in a split 6 to 5 decision.

Arizona - The Arizona State Senate on Thursday passed a restrictive anti-choice bill that requires minors to receive notarized parental consent prior to an abortion.

Africa
A lawsuit is being filed against the Namibian government as at least fifteen HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilized. The International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS has documented cases that indicate that the women were coerced into signing documents consenting to their sterilization.

Following a failed prison break where 20 women were brutally raped in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) late Sunday, it is apparent that rape is being used as a weapon of war more and more in the Congo. Since the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo began in 1998, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped in sexual violence widely viewed to be a war tactic

Iran
Women are starting to play a major role in the public uprising after the Irani elections several weeks ago. Several U.S. reporters are arguing that women's increased role in politics is making women more of a major factor in the current political arena. This is also causing the needs and interests of women to become more and more important on the political agenda.

Media
L'Oreal was found guilty this week of racial discrimination in hiring by France's highest court. The suit claimed that L'Oreal employees were told to look for "BBR" women – a common euphemism used to describe white French people of white French descent. The company has been fined €30,000 and is required to pay an additional €30,000 to SOS Racisme, an anti-racism group who helped to bring the suit. Read more about this in a past blog post.