No jobs in here.
"Unfortunately, the “but liberal men are sexist” meme has been picked up by those on the right who are the most opportunistic pseudo-feminists of all, the ones who think forced-ultrasound laws can justly be called “Women’s Right to Know” acts. As writer Katie Heaney said on Twitter this morning, “GOP dudes who say liberals don’t attack Bill Maher on his sexism aren’t listening to feminists. Sort of their problem in the first place?"
— Irin Carmon (via letterstomycountry)
lucrenoin asked you:
Your blog is wonderful <3 also, I am absolutely shocked by what is happening in the USA for the elections and how the politicians seem to consider women and science. D: please, do not let Santorum or Romney win!
I’m doing everything in my power to stop them short of crapping my pants in fear. If one of them wins though, I promise that I WILL crap my pants in fear. O.o ~ Steve
If Santorum or Romney win let’s all crap our pants in protest… at least that’s why we will tell them we crapped our pants…
(Source: skepticalavenger)
I found this over at Skeptic Freethought, another of my fave off tumblr blogs. ~ Kim
Theopublicans
Virginia transvaginal ultrasounds. Oklahoma zygote personhood. Rick Santorum. I am so gobsmacked, I seriously have no idea what to say. It’s as though Republicans have deluded themselves into believing that the past, a time when people were tortured and killed for speaking out against the Church, when women were treated as baby-making appliances rather than human beings, when the genocide of people with skin browner than Rick Santorum was considered by the elite of Europe to be a righteous act, that this tarnished and violent past of ours is some sort of Golden Age to which we should return. Progressive Americans keep shouting at Republicans like Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, and so many others under the banner of the GOP, to pull their heads out of their asses and join us in the real world of the twenty-first century, but apparently there is some sort of euphoric mass hallucination going on in their bowels that makes it difficult for them to hear reason.
Do yourself a favor, click that link up there and read the whole post. Great read.
AlterNet - Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control — And Why We’ll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now
What’s happening in Congress this week, as Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) bars any women from testifying at his so-called “religious freedom” hearings, is so familiar and expected that it hardly counts as news. The only thing surprising about it is the year: didn’t we all honestly think that by 2012, contraception would be a non-issue, and Congress wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving women out of conversations like this one?
Yes, we did. And the fact that we were wrong about that points to a deeper trend at work, one that needs a bit of long-term historical context put around it so we can really understand what’s going on. Let me explain.
When people look back on the 20th century from the vantage point of 500 years on, they will remember the 1900s for three big things.
One was the integrated circuit, and (more importantly) the Internet and the information revolution that it made possible. When our descendants look back, they’re likely to see this as an all-levels, all-sectors disruption on the scale of the printing press — but even more all-encompassing. (Google “the Singularity” for scenarios on just how dramatic this might be.)
The second was the moon landing, a first-time-ever milestone in human history that our galaxy-trotting grandkids five centuries on may well view about the same way we see Magellan’s first daring circumnavigation of the globe.
But the third one is the silent one, the one that I’ve never seen come up on anybody’s list of Innovations That Changed The World, but matters perhaps more deeply than any of the more obvious things that usually come to mind. And that’s the mass availability of nearly 100% effective contraception. Far from being a mere 500-year event, we may have to go back to the invention of the wheel or the discovery of fire to find something that’s so completely disruptive to the way humans have lived for the entire duration of our remembered history.
Until the condom, the diaphragm, the Pill, the IUD, and all the subsequent variants of hormonal fertility control came along, anatomy really was destiny — and all of the world’s societies were organized around that central fact. Women were born to bear children; they had no other life options. With a few rebellious or well-born exceptions (and a few outlier cultures that somehow found their way to a more equal footing), the vast majority of women who’ve ever lived on this planet were tied to home, dependent on men, and subject to all kinds of religious and cultural restrictions designed to guarantee that they bore the right kids to the right man at the right time — even if that meant effectively jailing them at home.
IOWA: Life Sentence For Abortion Docs?
As the nation is deluged in an avalanche of bills restricting abortion access, Tea Party freshman stateRep. Kim Pearson has introduced an Iowa bill that some are calling the most radical of them all.
Among other things, the bill makes it so a doctor that performs and abortion commits “feticide” — a Class A felony, which is punishable by life imprisonment without the chance for parole. The bill makes “attempted feticide,” where the fetus does not die, a Class B felony, punishable by 25 years in prison. Iowans can even be punished for helping someone else perform an abortion, as, “joint criminal conduct shall apply to persons knowingly participating or concerned in the commission of feticide or attempted feticide under this section.”
Please note that this bill is being introduced by a woman. This is why our fight is so hard. When women like her do things like this, they create female allies for those who endorse this way of thinking. ”If women and moms think abortion is murder, clearly the rest of you are wrong?” The disservice done to us by such women, women in positions to make changes for our betterment, makes me furious. ~ Kim
(Source: joemygod.blogspot.com, via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)
The Dark Side of Feminism
I’d just like to state my opinion before writing this post as to not confuse people: I think that it’s fantastic that women are standing up for their rights because there’s no denying that in the past, women have been through some tough shit and to a certain extent, still are. I’d say that 90% of the feminists I’ve spoken to are lovely people who are genuinely passionate about working to achieve that paradise goal of a gender-equal society.
But there’s a dark and disgusting corner of feminism that makes my piss boil. I think it’s fair to say that we all know the type; the feminist who doesn’t want gender equality but instead wants revenge. Revenge for the oppression of the women of the past, or maybe something more personal. These “extremists” who justify their misandrist actions by saying utter bullshit such as “Women are allowed to hate men, just like how black people can hate white people”.
I have never heard so much moronic dribble in all of my life. How can you expect to get a gender equal society of you let your blind hatred for men poison your actions? Feminism is all about not seeing gender as a thing to deter, the passion of one day reaching a society in which gender has no meaning whatsoever; a place where men and women don’t exist, we just have people. The only way we can achieve this is by men and women working together as a team. Sexism is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who it’s aimed at!
I think if that post included any more straw feminism, it’d be a fire hazard.
You aren’t listening, and that’s sad.
Have a good life, kid.
thisgingersnapsback is my girlfriend, OP, and I can tell you from personal experience that she does not, in fact, hate men, she also happens love sex.
Fail.
(Source: illumifarti)
Dear “Pro-Lifers”
“Pro-life” isn’t about life, it never has been.
It’s about controlling women, it’s about “punishing” them for having sex. These are the same people who say things like “she should have kept her legs closed” when someone has an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy.
They don’t want women using birth control, they don’t want women having the same sexual freedom as men.
Sexual women are considered “dirty”, and they should be punished by getting pregnant and having a child.
This is what it is at it’s core, I’m sure there are plenty of brainwashed “pro-lifers” out there who actually think they’re saving babies from being murdered, but at it’s heart pro-life is anti-woman.
It’s anti-choice, it’s anti-sexual freedom, it’s anti bodily autonomy.
This way women will never be equal to men, if they can’t enjoy the same sexual freedom as men, then they can’t enjoy the same career freedom.
It’s all about keeping woman “in their place”.
That’s the true agenda behind all of it.
As the Southern state votes on an extreme anti-abortion (and anti-contraception) constitutional amendment, congressional Republicans want to take the plan national.
By Nick Baumann | motherjones.com
On Tuesday, voters in Mississippi will head to the polls to vote onan amendment to the state Constitution that would designate inseminated human eggs as legal persons from the “moment of fertilization.” This would set up a challenge to Roe v. Wade and could lead to outlawing many forms of birth control. In Mississippi, the proposed amendment has created a political firestorm that’s being closely watched by both sides of the national abortion debate. But this fight is not merely a Mississippi matter: In Washington, House and Senate Republicans are pushing legislation that would do the exact same thing on the federal level.
Mississippi voters will be allowed to decide on a ballot measure that defines “personhood” from the moment of fertilization, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week. The measure could potentially outlaw abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research across the state.
(Source: The Huffington Post, via sarahlee310)
This is a personal story. This isn’t going to be filled with my usual facts and statistics. You’ll also get to learn a little something about me.
I have Familial Polyposis and Gardner Syndrome. I get frequent adenomatous (carrying the threat of cancer) polyps in my stomach, small intestine, and am at high risk to develop polyps in other parts of my body. Just recently my mother learned she has polyps growing on her ampulla, and soon has to undergo surgery to have the entire gland removed. I am at risk for similar complications. I have psoriasis—though minimal, located on my left ear, though it is a sign of an auto-immune deficiency. My mother has it worse. My back is terrible, my sleeping sucks, and despite the minimal threat of cancer hovering over me, I live with the threat of colon cancer completely gone because when I was 16, I had my entire large intestine removed because it was covered in polyps. Thousands of them. Adenomatous, and a ticking time-bomb. Colon cancer would have been impossible to avoid. Because I have no large intestine, I am frequently malnourished. I am anemic, and have a severe Vitamin D deficiency.
All of this is genetic. All of it. My mother has the disease, her mother has the disease, so on and so forth. The likelihood of me passing on these genes to offspring is staggering. I would never wish this burden upon the life of another. I would never wish the physical trauma, the mental burden, or even the financial weight a person with these cracked genetics must carry, even upon my worst enemy. It’s something I joke about constantly, because that tends to be the easiest way to deal with it. I ignore it. I forget about it.
I don’t want to be pregnant. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want children—despite how I may grumble, I actually like kids. I had always entertained the idea of children being a part of my life, perhaps adoption, etc. In recent years, painfully close to the time I realized that bearing a child might not be the best idea for me, I developed the desire to give birth. To actually conceive. With cysts and scar tissue, I’m not sure that by now it’s even an option for me, but logically and rationally—and painfully—I realize that pregnancy would be one of the worst things I could ever endure.
I’ve discussed it with my doctors, and with my OBGYN, and they are beginning to begrudgingly agree with me. I am on the Nuva Ring, though it is more expensive, because it is less likely to fail—either due to the medicine itself or to human error (aka, forgetting.) I want a tubal ligation. I want the opportunity to experience pregnancy, but the process would be terror on my body, and considering I’m malnourished enough as it is, the likelihood of the fetus surviving is slim. At the very least there would be many complications.
I want my tubes tied, and even though I have only just begun to actively seek this out, I have been met with an astounding wave of negativity and hostility. Some who listen only hear “A woman who doesn’t want a child? What’s wrong with her?” Some tell me, “You’ll change your mind in the future.” Some say, “But it’ll be worth it.”
And those are just friends, co-workers, family, acquaintances. The doctors and nurses, they look at me and frown. They think, “She’s just 21. She has no idea what she wants.” And that’s the most common reason for a tubal ligation denial. That because a woman hasn’t had children, she might change her mind. To me that says, “You’re incapable of making this decision. You will regret your decision. It’s not your decision to make.”
I want to tear my hair out. I want to scream at them, that clearly I do know what I want. I do want children, I do want to experience pregnancy! That even though I am aware it is untrue, I feel almost less of a woman because bearing a child would be difficult, if at all possible! That I am in anguish, tormented and angry. That I want all of these things, that I want and I want and I want, but that I know it is a terrible decision.
My newly-beginning battle with my decision is why the opportunity to Choose is so important to me. Because an abortion would truthfully be the wise decision for me, though it honestly kills me to say it. I have always been a proponent of Choice, even when I felt that I could personally never have an abortion myself—simply because it is not something I could picture myself doing, it never occurred to me that every other woman ought to operate the exact same way. And now I fight so viciously because it is a matter close to my heart. It is a matter that tears me apart.
I am fighting to never be faced with that Choice, but if it ever arose, I know what I would do, and I know why. And I don’t care if I am crucified for it, because those who judge and those who would call me killer are not me. It is my Choice, and it matters to me because it is a decision I have already made.
"For the anti-choice, I believe the heart of the abortion controversy is not about the fate of unborn babies. It’s about the value of women in society. In North America, for example, many anti-abortion leaders oppose ideas and programs that could help women achieve equality and freedom, and protect the health and well-being of families. For instance, they oppose affirmative action programs that help women gain equity in the job market. They force poor women to have babies and then cut off their welfare. They lobby against health and nutrition programs for children. They condone the bombing of clinics providing reproductive services, and the killing of doctors and staff.
These uncivilized actions reveal the true nature of anti-choice goals. They want a return to the days when women had few choices in life. They don’t like women having too much freedom, especially in controlling their reproductive lives. They’re convinced that women can’;t be trusted to make their own decisions. And they certainly don’t like women having sex for fun without paying for it."
These uncivilized actions reveal the true nature of anti-choice goals. They want a return to the days when women had few choices in life. They don’t like women having too much freedom, especially in controlling their reproductive lives. They’re convinced that women can’;t be trusted to make their own decisions. And they certainly don’t like women having sex for fun without paying for it."
— Joyce Arthur, summing up the anti-choice movement well. (via cognitivedissonance)
(Source: prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org, via ragingbeard)
