April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

feminism

Facebook and Progressive Values

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I deleted my Facebook account awhile ago because I could no longer feel right with myself visiting a site which so clearly violates my principles. Complaints about misogynist groups advocating rape and other abuses towards women, groups degrading those with physical or mental handicaps were regularly met with ‘this does not violate Facebook standards’ yet apparently perfectly lovely shots of breastfeeding mothers do. Tattoos on breast cancer survivors seem to also.

However, I have found myself wondering if standing up for my principles does anything but soothe my conscience. I see many many progressives on Facebook and I have to wonder why it bothers me so much if it doesn’t bother them? At least not enough for them to leave.

This isn’t the first time I have taken a principled stand only for it to seem meaningless. I wonder if anyone else has this type of experience? Is there anything you have done, not done, quit because it seemed right to you, yet others who seem to share your values don’t feel the need to do the same?

CON Artists

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Harper made it clear from the beginning that he was not on the side of those who didn’t vote for him and was particularly not on the side of women. It is not really surprising then that Senator Nancy Ruth said, “shut the f— up” or it could get worse.”

“If you push it, there will be more backlash,” said Ruth, who fears that outrage will push her boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to take further measures against abortion and family planning – abroad, or maybe even in Canada. “This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country.”

A political football indeed, the mother of all motherhood issues. There is nothing that would suit the cons better than to cause divisions such as are being played out in the States. Real issues, the economy, Afghanistan, health care would be covered over with messages of gurgling babies and how many angels can dance on the head of pin.

There are those who are gleefully jubilant over this story and the recent defunding of 13 women’s groups and 1 project. They think criminalizing abortion and putting women back in the control of men is god’s will and arrogantly belive we should all rule our lives by their choice of lifestyle.

Before they get too enamoured of Harper and his tactics they might want to read this article from the Independent.

David Cameron leader of the British Conservatives is branding his cons as compassionate and lauding Hammersmith and Fulham Council as an example of his compassionate approach. Let’s have a look at the compassion.

After promising to make things better for the very poor the first thing they did was simultaneously crack down on the poor and close 12 homeless shelters. Maybe you aren’t homeless and don’t see how that applies to you. Are you a young pregnant woman in an abusive relationship?

She was eight months pregnant. She explained she was being beaten up by her boyfriend and had finally fled because she was frightened for her unborn child. The council said they would “investigate” her situation to find “proof of homelessness” – but she told them she had nowhere to go while they carried it out. By law, they were required to provide her with emergency shelter. They refused. They suggested she try to find a flat on the private market.

For four nights, she slept in the local park, on the floor. She is still traumatised by the memories of lying, pregnant and abandoned, in one of the wealthiest parts of Europe.

Are you a working mom?

David Cameron says he wants to make Britain “the most family-friendly country in the world” with “childcare as a top priority”, but his showcase council has increased charges for childcare by a reported 121 per cent

Perhaps you are disabled or know someone who is.

[…]Within three months, the promise was broken. Debbie Domb, 51, is a teacher who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1994. She had to give up work, and now she needs 24/7 care. After being lifted up by a large metal harness and placed in her wheelchair so she can talk to me, she explains: “This was always such a great place to live if you were disabled. You were really treated well. Then this new council was elected and it’s been so frightening… The first thing that happened when they came in was that they announced any disabled person they assessed as having ‘lower moderate’ needs was totally cut off. So people who needed help having a shower, or getting dressed, had that lifeline taken away completely. Then they started sending the rest of us bills.”

This is Harper’s wet dream. You may in your anti-feminist, anti-choice bubble be gloating for now, however, don’t be blinded to Harper’s real agenda which has little for the average Canadian regardless of whether you share his misogynist vision.

quote from The Star

Her Sight is Worth It!

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Imagine losing your site to a preventable or treatable cause simply because your are poor or simply because you are female.

“We know her sight is worth it. The ripple effect of providing eye care to a single person is life-changing. You not only give that person their sight and life back, you also free their caregivers. Consider that 75 per cent of blindness is preventable or treatable, often with no more than a 15 minute cataract surgery costing $50 or less”
[snip]
Of the estimated 45 million blind worldwide, 90% live in developing countries. Of these, 2 out of 3 blind are girls and women, because they receive only half the access to eye care that men do.

To raise awareness SEVA Canada is holding a video contest

You are invited to create a compelling video on the topic of Gender and Blindness. The top three winning short films will be used to inspire and educate the world about the importance of sight and raise awareness of the 30 million blind women and girls.

Basic rules are:

* Videos cannot be longer than 3 minutes.
* You must be 13 or older to enter.
* Contest is open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
* Deadline for submissions is 12:00 pm PST, December 15th, 2009. All videos submitted after this time will be disqualified.
* All videos must contain the Seva logo either at the beginning, end or both.
* Three winners will be determined through a combination of audience choice (45%) and our celebrity jury (55%).

So all you budding film makers and YouTube junkies have a chance to showcase your talents for a good cause. And best of all,
The the top three winners will also be honoured by having sight restored to one girl and one woman in their name.

Click here for further information.

Feminists Less Hostile Toward Men than Non-Feminists

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A small study conducted at the University of Houston has found what I have found from anecdotal research for years, non-feminist women actually harbour more animosity toward men than feminists do.

Our work finds that, indeed, non-feminists believe in traditional gender roles such as men being breadwinners and women being caregivers. At the same time, these non-feminists actually appear to resent the confines of the traditional roles they advocate, which presents a paradox for women and men in traditional heterosexual relationships.

more on the study here and lots of info in the comments

“Freedom and Democracy Can’t be Donated”

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Title from RAWA’s website. “RAWA believes that freedom and democracy can’t be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values.”

Both the US and Canada have stated among that high among their purpose for being in Afghanistan is to win freedom for the women there. The Feminist Majority Foundation in the States supports this. However, RAWA an organization of women who risk their very lives to fight for women’s rights, and who being women in the country in question would know best what they need, are very much against further war action.

Waging war does not lead to the liberation of women anywhere. Women always disproportionately suffer the effects of war, and to think that women’s rights can be won with bullets and bloodshed is a position dangerous in its naïveté. The Feminist Majority should know this instinctively.

Here are the facts: After the invasion, Americans received reports that newly liberated women had cast off their burquas and gone back to work. Those reports were mythmaking and propaganda. Aside from a small number of women in Kabul, life for Afghan women since the fall of the Taliban has remained the same or become much worse.

Under the Taliban, women were confined to their homes. They were not allowed to work or attend school. They were poor and without rights. They had no access to clean water or medical care, and they were forced into marriages, often as children.

Today, women in the vast majority of Afghanistan live in precisely the same conditions, with one notable difference: they are surrounded by war. The conflict outside their doorsteps endangers their lives and those of their families. It does not bring them rights in the household or in public, and it confines them even further to the prison of their own homes. Military escalation is just going to bring more tragedy to the women of Afghanistan.

Source

As feminists we know that war hurts women the most and that any thought of it being for the betterment of women is usually at best naive [witness the treatment of women in Nicaragua]. So while it saddens and sickens us to see the way women are being abused and denied their humanity, we must not make the mistake of thinking that bringing war and more violence is going to make things any better. Instead of telling the women of Afghanistan what they need, instead of worsening their living conditions and killing their friends, neighbours and children, why don’t we ask them what they need?

See also:
The Huffington Post
RAWA-Let’s rise against the war crimes of US and its fundamentalist lackeys!
RAWA – ‘US air-raid kills over 100 civilians in Farah’ – Warning Graphic Reality of War