BAHAHAHAHA!!!!

This isn't exactly feminist news, but it is fucking hilarious.

Some weird Republican think tank called Family Security Matters released the 10 most dangerous organizations in America. This outta be good, right?, particularly since not only do they sell T-shirts for dogs, said dog is on their homepage next to the words "Get your FSM Gear." I can only assume that is so because only a dog would wear their merch. Here's the list. I can't post the original since all off FSM's links seem to be broken (I guess not enough dogs bought their T-shirts to keep the site maintained), so this is from Crooks and Liars.

10. Think Progress. A blog. A blog is the 10th most dangerous "organization" in all the land. I find it dangerous to our nation's credibility that six people who run a blog can seriously be considered the 10th most dangerous organization in the country. Oh, that's right. We have no credibility.

9. Muslim Student Association. Think of your campus' Black Student Union except for Muslims. And with their guiding principles of sincerity, knowledge, humility, truthfullness, moderation, tolerance, forgiveness, patience, and gratitude, I can clearly see how anyone would be shaking in their boots.

8. CodePINK. Now I'm not big on interruptions and disruptions of press conferences or presidential inaugrations, but we're in a time of war -- anything goes! Needless to say, a group of women who believe in American children getting healthcare before Iraqi children getting their heads blown out of their asses in an airstrike can't be that dangerous.

7. American Civil Liberties Union. It's dangerous to have an advocate when someone has or is trying to infringe upon your civil rights! The 7th most dangerous thing in the country! Sure FSM is on the radio airwaves, the blogosphere, and on the streets -- but they can't stand civil liberties! Be damned with the civil liberties!

6. Family Research Council. Okay, so they got one thing right.

5. Center for American Progress. The organization where you can find the blog that is also the 10th most dangerous organization in the country.

4. League of the South. Hey! They got two things right!

3. MoveOn.org. Democracy in Action. Boooo! But MoveOn couldn't beat . . . .

2. Universities and colleges! The thousands of institutions of higher learning in the United States are tied for second for Most Dangerous Organization in America. But of course. Possibly finding out that what comes out of FSM is utter bullshit is dangerous . . . for FSM.

And the Number One Most Dangerous Organization in America is . . . .

The Ku Klux Klan! No, no, no. Think more objectively!

Feminists to the Rescue! Ha! I wish! No, it's . . . .

Media Matters for America! Rush Limbaugh and the hacks over at FOX News aren't dangerous, but the organization that accurately quotes them, dangerous!

*sigh* That did amazing things to my funny bone. Unprecedented things.

UPDATE: Family Security Matter's site has loaded, and here's the original list and the reasoning behind each choice. Yay for calling League of the South sexist and racist. Boo for believing in anything the Family Research Council does.

U.N. Decries Violence Against Women and Girls

Violence against women as a tool of oppression is used every single day all around the world. While I want the media to let the people know about these disgusting acts, I'm disappointed when there's a news story about it. It sends the message that it only happens when someone reports it. But I shouldn't be so picky.

This is one of the best things I've read all day:

"Impunity for perpetrators and insufficient response to the needs of survivors are morally reprehensible and unacceptable," [Assistant Secretary-General Rachel Mayanja, the secretary-general's special adviser on gender issues] said. "Sexual violence in conflict, particularly rape, should be named for what it is: not a private act or the unfortunate misbehavior of a renegade soldier, but aggression, torture, war crime and genocide."

See that, people? Not just a few bad apples.The U.N. also stressed the importance of women in the whole peace-making process, as they are underrepresented.

Judge Southwick Confirmed

The Senate confirmed Judge Leslie H. Southwick to the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals, which deals with cases in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana. Nine Democrats and Independent Joe "I'll Caucus with the Dems" Liebermann didn't think his beliefs that homosexuality is a choice and that White workers can use racial epithets towards Black wokers would keep him from making objective decisions. And with Trent Lott on your side, how can you possibly believe otherwise?

The Politics of Crying

USA Today published a story about crying and gender stereotypes. At the risk of sounding like a blubbering fool, it made me want to cry a bit.

In a recently published study at Penn State, researchers sought to explore differing perceptions of crying in men and women, presenting their 284 subjects with a series of hypothetical vignettes.

What they found is that reactions depended on the type of crying, and who was doing it. A moist eye was viewed much more positively than open crying, and males got the most positive responses.

"Women are not making it up when they say they're damned if they do, damned if they don't," said Stephanie Shields, the psychology professor who conducted the study. "If you don't express any emotion, you're seen as not human, like Mr. Spock on Star Trek," she said. "But too much crying, or the wrong kind, and you're labeled as overemotional, out of control, and possibly irrational."

I just loved that "damned if they do, damned if they don't" line. That's the exact phrase that I used in my Social Inequality class a couple years back when we were asked what "oppression" means. So, yeah, we're are not making it up when we say we're oppressed.

The article also mentions a story that went completely under my radar. Suzyn Waldman, who does commentating for the Yankees on the radio, was ripped a new asshole after she cried on the air after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs this season. As a huge baseball fan (of that other New York team at which I'm still a little angry), I can empathize with Waldman. Everyone knew that manager Joe Torre was going to get sacked or offered a truly insulting deal that nobody could accept while still keeping their dignity, as the case may be, and so the end to the Yankees postseason was also the end of the 12-year Torre era. Hell, I cried when the Mets fired Bobby Valentine in 2002, and I wasn't even sure if I could get through the next morning's class without shedding a few tears over it. And the tears shed by Torre and the Yankees for the past 12 years after all their postseason wins could keep Yankee Stadium green for a year. But it was Waldman who got ripped a new asshole (as someone once eloquently put it). Why? Not because sports is a silly reason to cry over. No, it's because Waldman's a woman.

The conclusion of the article talks about what I wanted to post about for days but couldn't find the video for it, as it was most likely lost in the ejection of 9/11 conspiracy theorists: Bill Maher's disgusting comments about the whole Ellen Degeneres/Iggy the dog fiasco.

At this moment when the entire nation is saying 'Hmm, can we have a woman president? Maybe they're too emotional,' I don't think this is helping. If I was a woman, I would be embarrassed right now. I would be embarrassed for all womankind.

Is the entire nation saying that? Because I thought Clinton was leading every candidate in the polls. Anywho, I HATE it when the actions of one individual are somehow indicative of everyone from whatever arbitrary group you want to make look bad (after all, he didn't say he'd be embarrassed for all blonde-kind or gay-kind for that matter). It's as if people attempt not to make a sexist comment by feeling bad for all women when one woman fucks up, especially when the fuck up is a woman being empathetic while the camera's rolling. The truth is, the unfavorable behavior of one woman wouldn't reflect poorly on all women if women weren't already negatively stereotyped. If Bill Maher went on a killing spree, there wouldn't be some dramatic paradigm shift where the majority would exclaim, "White dudes are apeshit, and this is proof! They want to murder us all!!!! They're killing machines!!!!" Of course that doesn't happen, because this logic only serves the purpose to further oppress the oppressed.

Someone Stop This Crazy Lady!

This crazy woman and recent Worst Person in the World nominee named Susan Orr was just appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs. The thing is, she opposes birth control. She worked at the reactionary Family Research Council. She believes that providing contraception is part of "the culture of death." Told you she was crazy. She doesn't need Senate confirmation, but you can still send a message to President Bush and tell him that you oppose this appointment.

Maine Middle School Will Dispense Birth Control Pills

King Middle School in Portland Maine will dispense birth control pills and patches in addition to the condoms they've been providing at the school's health center. I'm all for it. However, the article doesn't say if the students will get some sort of talk from the physician about how birth control works and the fact that they don't protect against STDs and all that jazz. I trust that middle schoolers would know to get contraception if they're going to have sex, but I don't think they're going to know how to use it effectively on their own (that's probably true for most people). I saw this story on the 12 o'clock local news on CBS2. What followed the story was pretty funny.

Dana Tyler: These are young kids we're talking about. And a lot of parents are wondering are there any health concerns here especially when it comes to birth control pills.

Jim Rosenfield: Aside from the moral questions, what about health concerns? Dr. Holly Phillips joining us now with some answers. Holly?

Dr. Phillips: Well, those are some legitimate questions. These are young children. But at this time, birth control, especially long-term oral contraception, is considered safe for the vast majority of women. And it's the most effective from of contraception other than abstinence. In terms of risk, many women ask about breast cancer, but any possible link is still quite controversial. And if you have a family history of any cancer, you should talk to your doctor before starting the pill. Blood clots are a risk for certain women, especially smokers. And finally, the biggest health risk for young girls is that the pill doesn't protect against any sexually transmitted diseases. So that's really one of the main concerns, especially since this group is so young.

Rosenfield: Im just wondering does this move by the school board encourage, send a message to young girls "Okay! It's okay to have sex"?

Phillips: Okay. From a medical perspective, we have to say no. There's some really good research that shows girls are less likely to ask for contraception if they need parental consent, but they're not less likely to have sex. So we certainly don't want to encourage them, but if they're going to do it, we should protect them.

Ding! But why, oh why, is there always one word missing when talking about any kind of birth control? No, it's not kumquat. Well, actually, kumquats are usually missing in a discussion about contraception, but that's not the word I'm thinking of in this case. The word is "boy!" Jim Rosenfield and a lot of other douche nozzles are worried that if girls get birth control pills, the girls will get the message that it's okay for girls to have sex (oh, we wouldn't want that message to get around too damn quick, would we?!). Who are these girls going to have sex with after getting birth control? Themselves? Some may argue that since it's the girls that will be taking the contraception, we don't have to talk about the boys. But contraception prevents pregnancy, and who gets girls pregnant? Boys! Don't you think that if all the boys find out that the girls are getting birth control pills, one of the most effective ways of preventing pregnancies, the boys are gonna be like "Score!"? I think so. They're gonna be like "Double score!" Secondly, I'm tired of people saying that 11- and 12-years-old is too young to have sex when talking about giving minors birth control. That's an opinion, an opinion I hold, at least from a social standpoint, but it doesn't progress the discussion about birth control. The point isn't that they're too young to have sex. The point is that they're old enough to get pregnant and get girls pregnant. And isn't that what contraception is all about?

Sam Brownback to Drop Out of Presidential Race

Yay! Here's what McCain had to say about it:

"I'll miss him in this debate . . . . He's a voice for the pro-life movement and community in America."

If by pro-life you mean forcing rape victims to remain pregnant because they don't fall under the category of "innocent . . . ."

Another Reason to Love Keith Olbermann

This story starts with Bethany Wilkerson, a two-year-old who appeared in a pro-SCHIP ad by True Majority Action. See, Bethany's parents make a combined $34,000 a year. Bethany was diagnosed with a serious heart condition when she was 3 months old. Her parents can't afford health insurance, and SCHIP paid for Bethany's life-saving surgery. Yay for SCHIP, right? Not according to Mark Hemingway of the National Review Online:

"While the debate around the Frost family at least initially centered around their relative wealth, the issue really at hand is one of bad behavior . . . . On the conference call, Dara admitted to me that she and Brian had been talking about having children since before they were married. She further admitted that after they were married she voluntarily left a job at a country club that had good health insurance, because the situation was “unmanageable.” From there she took a job at a restaurant with no health insurance, and the couple went on to have a baby anyway, presuming that others would pay for it and certainly long before they knew their daughter would have a heart defect that probably cost the gross national product of Burkina Faso . . . . I think it’s rude to accept huge amounts of public assistance and then express gratitude by asking taxpayers to extend a Children’s health program to cover college-age kids who come from households making more than $80,000 a year. Which brings us to another salient point — Bethany Wilkerson is healthy. She is covered by existing programs and has already received the much of the medical care she needs."

Did you take that all in? I'm not even going to get into one of the inconsistencies of his argument -- if a life-saving procedure costs the GNP of Burkina Faso, wouldn't it cost more than $80,000? I think it would. Or that Bethany is healthy but only has received much of the medical care she needs (or did she receive the medical care she needs. Looks like Hemingway changed his mind in the middle of typing that sentence but forgot to go back and correct it). Or that Mrs. Wilkerson voluntary left her unmanageable job. The bigger inconsistency is the fact that Hemingway calls the Wilkersons irresponsible for having a baby, while the right-wing fringe uses that exact reasoning for being anti-choice. Which brings me to another reason to love Keith Olbermann. From Tuesday night's show:

Keith Olbermann: Why does a group of people proclaiming themselves to be pro-life see no barrier to preserving the life of fetuses or Terri Schiavo, but when it's actual people who are already up and running, kids like Bethany and Graeme Frost, they literally want them -- in Graeme Frost's case somebody called for a public hanging -- and this little girl's case, the argument was that they didn't have sufficient medial insurance so she should never have been conceived. Is there any straight line in there?

What a great question. That's what I'd like to know. Watch the video if you want the answer given by Paul Krugman of The New York Times (at around the 3:30 mark).

Emasculated? Nope, Just Plain Misogynistic

Apparently, journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis hurt Page Six's pride when she said that their writers are emasculated. I wouldn't call a career in celebrity gossip emasculating. Shallow, but no emasculating. This was Page Six's retort:

"As for us being 'emasculated,' Grigoriadis ignores that fact that half the Page Six staff is female. The male half might take her someplace private and disprove her theory, but we don't like a woman with a mustache."

Did the goons at Page Six just openly threat someone with gang rape? I think so. Then it's a good thing she has that mustache.

Riot!

Above is the trailer for Jamie Babbitt's new film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Watch it. This movie is amazing. It's serious and funny and, at times, truly analytical. Plus it's got a killer soundtrack. Yay, Le Tigre!

Anyway, this movie is great. It's about an 18-year-old Latina lesbian (Anna) who works at a plastic surgeon's office. She just got rejected twice, first by her school of choice and then by her girlfriend dumping her. So she meets this one girl, Sadie, who invites her to join her radical feminist group, Clits in Action. And, well, hilarity happens from there.

This movie is great because it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's got a lot of awesome feminist content, a great cast, and a good story. Also, I love the fact that the movie isn't about Anna's coming out as a lesbian as a lot of films are. She finds herself, not her lesbianism. None of the movie is focused on the fact that its main character is a lesbian. It's just treated as a "Yeah, of course, why not?" sort of thing. That was one of the coolest things about it, I thought.

Anyway, check out the trailer and this review for more info.

Blaming Women's Lib for Black Single Mothers

This was really rich. Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint went on Meet the Press this morning to discuss their new book, Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.

TIM RUSSERT: What happened within the black community that we got to a point, since 1950, where 70 percent of the children are born with single parents? What happened?

DR. POUSSAINT: Well, I think all kinds of things. Some of it has to do with the fact that things changed for women with the women’s liberation movement. In the past, there was a stigma if you had—a big stigma if you had a child out of wedlock. That’s not true anymore for, for white women or black women. So a lot of the black women do not feel compelled to get married. And then the other issue is the availability of black men and whether they’re eligible to be married. You have so many black men incarcerated, so many black men unemployed, underemployed. In colleges now, black women outnumber black men two to one. And so the chances of hooking up in a marital relationship in the way our society works is more difficult. So I think that’s changed as well.

I find this just hilarious. First of all, feminism wasn't always exactly Black-friendly. The women's suffrage movement was more accurately the White women's suffrage movement -- Susan B. Anthony didn't want to go overboard with the equality. And Betty Friedan's discovery of the feminine mystique, a discovery that may very well be one of the greatest achievements of feminism, didn't apply to lower-class women of color who couldn't afford to stay home. Black women were left out of the women's movement, and some still feel that way.

Furthermore, did Dr. Poussaint imply that there's no stigma to having a child out of wedlock anymore? That's news to me! Single motherhood is still a stigma. This especially applies to women of color, since every little socially unacceptable thing that a brown woman does is attributed to her skin color. If a Black woman is strolling a child in the mall, you don't even have to check her left ring finger to see if she's married -- she's just another Black welfare 'ho draining the system. White women might get similar crap, but people usually give them the benefit of the doubt -- maybe she's a divorcee.

He is right about the women's movement letting us know that we don't have to get married. And we certainly don't have to marry the -- how did Dr. Poussaint put it? -- "incacerated, unemployed, and underemployed" dudes. But it seems like he believes this is a bad thing.

But what was that about Black men and women in college? According to him, because there are twice as many Black women as Black men in college, these women just won't be able to find a mate. Maybe, just maybe, women, even Black women, can marry whoever the fuck they want. Maybe Black women can marry, for example, a Hispanic guy. Maybe the Hispanic guy is in BSU. Maybe the Hispanic guy is President of BSU. Now how 'bout that. Perhaps such a phenomenon completely blows Dr. Poussaint's mind.

Cool Blog

"I Am Emily X: The True-Life Diary of a Frontline Planned Parenthood Worker and Activist"

A Planned Parenthood worker is blogging for choice during some pro-life thing called "40 Days for Life" (not any woman's life, obviously). She's collecting donations for every anti-choice activist outside her Planned Parenthood clinic. She's already raised over $1,000. You go, girl! Great name, by the way.

Bush Administration Funds Homophobia in Uganda.

This is truly horrifying.

"As Ugandan officials and the Ugandan media intensify attacks on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, the US government should condemn these threats, and clarify that it does not support using its HIV/AIDS funding to promote homophobia, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to US officials.

“'When the US funds abstinence-only programs in Uganda, it tells people that LGBT people’s sexualities are dangerous and must be denied,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Supporting prejudice with cash is an approach with deadly consequences for all.'

"An August 16 press conference by a coalition of LGBT groups in Uganda that launched a campaign called “Let Us Live in Peace,” has led to a month-long backlash in the country. Most recently, on September 9, the tabloid paper Red Pepper published a list of first names, workplaces and other identifying information of 39 alleged homosexuals, all men. Headlined “Homo Terror,” the article promised to “name and shame top gays in the city.”

I don't think the Bush Administration purposely gives abstinence-only funding to poor countries to knowingly discriminate against gays. I think the Bush Administration are ignorant of this phenomenon -- Can George W. Bush locate Uganda on a map? It's pretty clear the homophobia that is in abstinence-only education in this country, but we're free to believe whatever we want despite what we learn in school. I don't think most people, especially middle school students, are stupid enough to believe that homosexuality is wrong because their teachers of all people tell them that. Obviously, that's not the same in Uganda. However bad the social climate is for homosexuals in the United States, it obviously pales in comparison to what's happening in Uganda. But that doesn't mean that homophobia can't get worse in the United States, especially when you create an safe environment for it. And I honestly don't think that the Bush Administration realizes how bad homophobia can get when you let it.

Legal or Illegal, Abortion Rates Are the Same

According to a new study by members of the Guttmacher Institute and World Health Organization, abortion rates are the same whether or not the procedure is legal.

"In a study examining abortion trends from 1995 to 2003, experts also found that abortion rates are virtually equal in rich and poor countries, and that half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe."

"Abortion accounts for 13 percent of maternal mortality worldwide. About 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions. An additional 5 million women suffer permanent or temporary injury."

"Unsafe abortions" were defined as "those performed either by people lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimum medical standards."

Couldn't find any official pro-life opinion on this study.

Women Activists Beaten, Tortured in Zimbabwe

Activists from the organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) released a preliminary report of the violence they experience by the police.

"The women endured various forms of torture, including beatings with a variety of instruments ... baton sticks, booted feet, wooden planks, being slapped, and falanga (beatings on the bottom of the feet)," Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) said in a report.

"The forced removal of underwear when in custody is recorded separately as it implies threatened sexual violence," said WOZA.

"Other forms of degrading and humiliating treatment the women suffered included being forced to kneel or crouch for prolonged periods and being insulted and threatened by police.

"Some of the women are subjected to cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment together with their children, as the police do not separate the mothers and their children when they suffer this treatment," it said.

WOZA hasn't posted the report on its website. I'll post the link when they do.

I Have to Talk About This

I wasn't going to talk about the new advertisement promoting abstinence until marriage by the Bush Administration. I saw the video this morning on Feministing, and it sounded stupid then. But when I heard it on The Rachael Maddow Show this evening on my way home from class, it sounded even stupider. Here's the text:

Dad?
Mom?
We gotta talk.
Talk to me about sex.
'Cuz my friends do.
It's all over the Internet.
Now, it's your turn.
Tell me what you want from me.
An education.
A family.
Happiness.
Tell me you want me to wait --
To have SEX.
I may roll my eyes.
Act all bored.
But I'll hear you.
[voice over] Tell your kids you want them to WAIT TIL THEIR MARRIED to have sex. Tell them early and often, and they're more likely to have success.
Come on, Dad!
Speak up, Mom!
You can do it!

I assume the "tell them early and often" part was only said by a disemobided voice because it's wrong to put lies in the mouths of children -- Abstinence-only education is ineffective. Honestly, this wouldn't be a bad ad if "married" was replaced with "ready." I firmly believe in sex education early and often as much as the next person, but it has to be accurate. But, hey. Accuracy isn't exactly the Bush Administration's specialty.

But my favorite line by far is "It's all over the Internet." How about "It's all up in my pants." Sex is biological. It's natural. It's not something that people learn. It's something that people do. What does the Bush Administration think people did back in cavemen days to procreate? That is, where does Bush think Jenna and Barbara came from? The Internet?

Validation!

Not just any validation. It's validation from a conservative. I'm sure all of you read my post about the Values Voter debate when I said that everyone is a values voter -- It just might not be your values that I'm voting for. Well, George Will said the following on This Week with George Stephanopoulos yesterday.

"Social conservatives should grow up. If they want to rally around somebody, why don't they try that? Huckabee needs support right now. If the social conservatives are half as important as they think they are, they would rally around one of these people. . . . But there's a vanity in this group right now. They call themselves "the values voters." I have news for them: 100% of the electorate are values voters. They vote [based on] their values. And this kind of semantic imperialism that they have where they say 'We vote values.' Everyone else votes what?"

Now I'm not going to get into who copied whom and whatnot. The only thing that matters is that it was said . . . twice!

LOL! That Way You Can, Lyke, Pretend You're Still Extracting Free Labor From Women, Lawlz

Heh heh. Because, you know, what else are moms for but washing your dirty underwear?

Funny Sarah Silverman Program Videos

I missed the season premiere of The Sarah Silverman Program last night because I thought it was on tonight. Didn't the first season air on Thursday nights? Anyway, it was about Sarah getting caught up in a pro-life organization, Operation Baby Justice, because she took their "killing babies is wrong" rhetoric literally. It begins with Sarah helping with getting ready for a protest outside the clinic. Then, Sarah realizes that Operation Baby Justice is planning to blow up the clinic. It ends with Sarah aborting an arrowhead from her friend's ass. Funny. Stuff.

Bush Vetoes SCHIP Bill

George W. Bush has vetoed 4 bills in his 6 years in office. The latest is for SCHIP, a bill that would have given healthcare to about 10 million children from families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to get good insurance, because he believes it is "a step towards federalization of healthcare." As you might remember, two of the veotes were to expand stem-cell research, because it "would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others."

But vetoing a bill that would insure millions of American children wouldn't be supporting the taking of an innocent human life, if any of those children were to die because they had no healthcare benefits. Right . . . .

In other news, up is down, left is right, and women have equal pay.