Pro-Choice Nun Volunteers as Escort
Posted on | October 26, 2009 | No Comments
You read that right–a nun is a clinic escort volunteer. News comes from weird sources and this time is no exception. In a recent Google Alert on the topic of “gender discrimination,” I found that there is a nun who volunteers her time as a clinic escort because she perceives choice to be a gender discrimination issue:
Amy Keane, a pro-life witness for 11 years, says Quinn has acted as escort for “six years, at least.” Keane described one incident in which Quinn began shouting at the pro-lifers as they spoke to a woman about to enter the abortion facility.
“[Quinn] was so angry, and burst out very loudly so everyone could hear: ‘Look at these men, telling these women what to do with their bodies!’” said Keane. “She was so angry, that it really took all of us aback.” Keane says that the group was peaceful, and that the men present were not among those engaging the woman.
Go.Figure.
This brave nun goes even further:
In a 2002 address to the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School, Sr. Quinn described how she came to view the teachings of her Church as “immoral”: “I used to say: ‘This is my Church, and I will work to change it, because I love it,’” she said. “Then later I said, ‘This church is immoral, and if I am to identify with it I’d better work to change it.’ More recently, I am saying, ‘All organized religions are immoral in their gender discriminations.’”
Quinn called gender discrimination “the root cause of evil in the Church, and thus in the world,” and said she remained in the Dominican community simply for “the sisterhood.”
A nun who views gender discrimination as a wrong within the church and thus a wrong within society. Sign me up to hear this woman speak…now!
File this under: amazing stories I’d like to hear more about.
Tags: Catholicism > choice > church > news from odd sources > nuns > pro-choice > religion
Kuwaiti Women A Bit Freer
Posted on | October 23, 2009 | No Comments
Kuwait’s supreme court gave women in that country a reason to rejoice this week when that court decided to give women the right to get a passport without spousal consent:
The court found the article in the decades-old law “unconstitutional” because it goes against the principal of equal rights for men and women.
“It undermines her free will and compromises her humanity,” the court explained according to a copy of the decision provided by the lawyer.
Although this is a great step forward, Kuwaiti activists warned that this is not the end:
Activist Aisha al-Rsheid hailed Tuesday’s ruling, but said females in this traditional male-dominated society were still a long way from the equality promised by the 1962 constitution.
“We want to see women judges and prosecutors, we want women to give their citizenship to their children, and we want women to have the right to state-provided houses,” just like men, she said.
Congrats Kuwait! Way to take a step forward. Now there are a few more things on your list (as there are on ours)…so get moving!
Tags: courts > Feminism > international news > Kuwait > women's rights
When To Stop Blaming Bush?
Posted on | October 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
Short Answer: A long time from now.
I was thinking about just this topic this week given all of the acrimony about the Afghan war and various other topics. When do we draw the line between what W did wrong and did not do properly and where we start taking responsibility? Apparently, good ol’ Jack Cafferty was thinking the same thing over at CNN:
There’s no doubt President Bush deserves a lot of the blame for the problems in Afghanistan. His decision to invade Iraq derailed America’s mission there. But President Obama has been in office for nine months now and some days his administration acts like they just discovered we have troops in Afghanistan.
Here’s my question to you: At what point should President Obama stop blaming the Bush administration?
But unlike Mr. Cafferty, I’ve decided to take a broader approach. See, it wasn’t just Afghanistan that W turned into a quagmire.
So, let’s see…when should we stop blaming George W. Bush?
- When every child left behind from No Child Left Behind is caught up
- When every woman denied equal access to birth control around the globe due to W.’s global gag rule has had the opportunity and chance to take part in full health care
- When every person who wants to join a union is not persuaded otherwise by presidentially-mandated “Beck” posters stating that, you know, you don’t have to join a union and here’s why.
- When every soldier who was wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan is given full recovery both mentally and physically.
- When Halliburton closes its doors.
- When Dick Cheney stops running off his mouth.
- When the rich pay back the taxes they should have been paying from 2001-2009.
- When all the warrantless wire taps are destroyed and evidence thereof is also demolished.
- When the budget surplus that existed prior to 2001 returns again.
- When the nearly 15 million unemployed American workers regain employment and self-worth.
I could go on and on. But you get the picture. The fact, Mr. Cafferty, is that you can’t erase the horrible misdeeds of the last administration by simply stating that it’s time to move on. The damage has been done and until we can reverse it, you’re damn right it is the Bush Administration’s fault.
Tags: Afghanistan > American Worker > Beck posters > birth control > budget > Dick Cheney > economy > George W. Bush > global gag rule > Halliburton > Iraq > No Child Left Behind > soldiers > taxes > unemployment > unions > wiretaps
Shriver Report Says Women Are Half…Are We Surprised?
Posted on | October 20, 2009 | No Comments
That’s right, folks. The newly released Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything has found that women are now half of the workforce and that 2/3 of all families have a female breadwinner or co-breadwinner. The report is being hailed as groundbreaking:
For the first time in US history women are about to become the majority of the nation’s paid workers. The recently released Shriver Report: A Women’s Nation Changes Everything is a comprehensive study of this milestone. Today, women are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in 63.3% of American families.
At the same time the report finds that women aren’t being treated equally in media portrayals of career success:
According to the findings of a major report on the status of women by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, not really. We went from Mary Richards to Meredith Grey at top speed, and along the way, forgot about Roseanne Conner, who really represented the female head of household in America.
“Women’s professional success and financial status are significantly overrepresented in the mainstream media, suggesting that women indeed ‘have it all,’” the study says. What we see on television then are characters who “overrepresent how far women have in fact come in the workplace, underrepresent the kind of work most women do, and misrepresent how women can, and do, comport themselves on the job,” according to the report.
In response to the Report, Ms. Magazine has put out a document called “Paycheck Feminism” which, while it hails the report, is quick to point out the trouble with finding that women are half the workforce, but receive less than half of the benefits. Amongst other things, the document urges policymakers to reconsider the barriers to unemployment, insurance and family medical leave. It’s definitely required reading after reading the Shriver Report.
So what do you think? Is the Shriver Report groundbreaking? Or does it tell us what we already know? And where do we go from here?
Tags: equal opportunity > paycheck fairness > statistics > The Shriver Report > women in the media > women in the workplace > women's rights
Justice of the Crazy
Posted on | October 16, 2009 | 1 Comment
A justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to issue a marriage license this week to an interracial couple. Trying to justify the decision, Keith Bardwell claimed that the children of such marriage would not be accepted by either race and would thus have a difficult life. He then tried to play the “I have Black friends” card:
“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”
Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
Wow. I expected this to be a recycled story from 1969–not 2009. But it turns out that someone with “piles” of Black friends isn’t racist because he refuses to perform an interracial wedding. Call me crazy, but isn’t that the same thing as being racist?
There’s an underlying theme of this as well that rubs me the wrong way. The assumption that the couple would have children that would be somehow detrimentally impacted by their mixed-race status presupposes that the couple plans on having children. Such a notion is antiquated in and of itself. There are plenty of marriages where the couples don’t have children by choice. Assuming that marriage is just a vehicle to childbearing and rearing is a scary proposition.
Of course, not as scary of a proposition as the proposition that two people of different races shouldn’t marry at all.
…sounds like another battle in marriage equality to me.
Tags: crazy people > interracial marriage > justices of the peace > marriage > marriage equality > race relations > racism > weddings
Score That, Pepsi
Posted on | October 15, 2009 | 1 Comment
Apparently stereotyping women has become one of Pepsi’s main objectives. An iPhone app released by PepsiCo for Amp Energy Drink has infuriated women everywhere by doing just that.
The app, which was released last week, provides ample opportunity for scorn:
The app, released last Friday, purports to help men pick up any one of 24 types of women, such as the “sorority girl,” “cougar,” “rebound girl” or “punk rock girl.” Users can choose the type of woman they have their eye on, then get coached on facts that might be useful, such as computing a carbon footprint to impress “the treehugger.”
Suggested pick-up lines can be risqué. To pick up “the artist,” the app recommends the following line: “You know the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. I wonder what else she shaves.”
So not only does the app stereotype, but it urges men (it’s target audience) to stereotype and act on those stereotypes. The stereotypes include:
Artist
Aspiring Actress
Athlete
Bookworm
Businesswoman
Celebrity
Cougar
Dancer
Foreign Exchange Student
Goth Girl
Indie Rock Girl
Married
Military Girl
Nerd
Out-Of-Your-League Girl
Political Girl
Princess
Punk Rock Girl
Rebound Girl
Sorority Girl
Treehugger
Trouble
Twins
Women’s Studies Major
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it does…and for the sake of an energy drink at that.
Shame on you, Pepsi!
Tags: applications > dude culture > energy drinks > iPhone > misogyny > Pepsi > stereotypes
Fired Up Women of the Week: An Award Winner and a Car Saleswoman
Posted on | October 13, 2009 | No Comments
Not a week goes by when there aren’t firsts for women (which is sad, considering that we still have to have firsts, but I digress) and this week is no different. This week we have the first female Economics Nobel Prize winner and the first female top sales person at General Motors.
First up is Elinor Ostrom from Indiana University who was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize in Economics. She told NPR that she wasn’t allowed to do trigonometry when she was younger because she’d end up “barefoot and pregnant.” Apparently the Nobel Committee thought otherwise, and instead thought that Ostrom:
Challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories.
Second we have the newest top woman at GM…well top woman in sales that is. Last week, GM promoted Susan Docherty to the top sales position in the company, marking the first time a woman has held that position at what once was the most powerful automotive company in the world:
Docherty’s promotion to vice president of U.S. sales means she will become the first and only woman on CEO Fritz Henderson’s newly formed, nine-person executive committee. She replaces Mark LaNeve, who is leaving the company for a position at Allstate Corp.
Well done Susan and Elinor! Way to make new strides for women everywhere!
Tags: academia > business > economics > Fired Up Woman of the Week > General Motors > Nobel Prize > women pioneers
Admitting Feminism: The Dalai Lama
Posted on | October 12, 2009 | 1 Comment
After being introduced at an event by Speaker of the House Nanci Pelosi, the Dalai Lama let it slip that he’s a feminist:
The globetrotting monk recalled that on one of his recent long-haul flights, he noticed a mother taking care of a child throughout the night and disembarking with red eyes, while the father had fallen asleep.
“Some scientists have mentioned that the response to others’ pain, because of biological feeling — more sensitivity,” the Dalai Lama said of women.
“Now these days I have always urged the females, you should take more active role for promoting these human values,” he said.
“When I mention this thing, some people may see me as a feminist,” he said.
It should also be noted that the Dalai Lama is not opposed to having a woman successor. Now if only our other world religious leaders could be so egalitarian.
You hear me, Pope Benedict? I’m looking at you…
Tags: admitting feminism > Dalai Lama > Feminism > Pope Benedict > religion
Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize
Posted on | October 9, 2009 | No Comments
I woke up this morning to the news that President Barack Obama has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Now it’s no small feat to be elected the first African American president of the good ol’ U.S., but has he really fostered so much peace that he’s ready for the Nobel prize? I mean, the last president to win it–Woodrow Wilson, had to be president during a World War to win the award.
Surely, President Obama is inspiring, but will the Nobel Prize be a weight around his neck for the rest of his presidency now? Only time can tell.
Tags: awards > Barack Obama > Nobel Peace Prize > politics > The American Presidency > Woodrow Wilson
Welcome Back to the NEW AVPW
Posted on | October 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
I know it’s been a long time, and I doubt anyone is reading this…yet…but just so you know, AVPW is back online and will be regularly bringing you stories of justice and injustice, feminism and misogyny, political and apolitical. All you have to do is be ready…and check back often.
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