April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

patriarchy

The Optics of abortion

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In recent years, support for legal abortion has waned, which Lord attributes to the growing power of Christian fundamentalists: “We, like the good citizens of Iran, live in what amounts to a theocracy.”

A great article from Womens’ Enews showing how the media on abortion has been skewed to promote the anti choice agenda.

“Not one op-ed discussing abortion on the op-ed page of the most powerful liberal paper in the nation was written by a reproductive-rights advocate, a pro-choice service-provider or a representative of a women’s group,” reported the Prospect. “Instead, the officially pro-choice New York Times has hosted a conversation about abortion on its op-ed page that consisted almost entirely of the views of pro-life or abortion-ambivalent men, male scholars of the right and men with strong, usually Catholic, religious affiliations. In fact, a stunning 83 percent of the pieces appearing on the page that discussed abortion were written by men.”

Well isn’t that special! Nothing like equal time. [Read more…] about The Optics of abortion

International Women’s Day

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IWD

I struggled with what to write today. Which subject seemed to have the greatest importance.

In the end I felt there was no subject that had greater importance. They represented different cultures, different concerns, different areas (work, school, motherhood, reproductive rights) different focus (success stories and stories that show how much work is still required) and I realized that I couldn’t anymore choose a topic of greater importance than I could choose a woman of greater importance. [Read more…] about International Women’s Day

A Feminist’s Pledge:

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I saw this fantastic article today. I think this is a pledge we can all support.

I will on reprint part of it go to the link to read it’s entirety.

  • We will not make laws that affect your medical care and rights to govern your own body. We will cover your prescriptions in health insurance and treat you with respect when you come to the pharmacy to fill your prescriptions. We will not turn you away or humiliate you.
  • We will include you in medical research to see if our biological differences result in different health outcomes, just like researchers found that males and females suffer differently in heart attacks.
  • We won’t consider you freakish for being single or childless. Your choices will be respected. We can’t all be married with 2.2 children, a house and a dog.
  • We will ask that you take more responsibility for reproductive choices. You will ask if our health insurance plans cover the pill, and be willing to get a vasectomy — so much easier and cheaper than a tubal ligation. You will also be willing to accompany us on an abortion, if needed. Just going to a family planning clinic can be dangerous.
  • We will not blame you for causing divorce, gaining profits from divorce, marrying for money, being a bad single parent, or smoking around children or pregnant women. We must find the roots of problems and work on potential solutions together.
  • We will not have scientists, educators or philosophers find reasons for your supposed inferiority. We will not abuse our public role to insult you like Socrates, Freud, John Belushi, Bobby Riggs, Lawrence Summers, et al have done. We will seek answers, not justifications.
  • We won’t spend a fortune on marketing that targets you and then turn around and call you materialistic. We won’t blame you for being consumers because you take on the majority of shopping responsibilities. And we won’t use insulting, derogatory ads that, in fact, target you as the buyer.
  • We will represent you and give you a voice in all forms of media — newspapers, radio and TV. We will include you in history and represent you fairly in textbooks and other written material. We won’t deny or belittle your contributions.

  • We will name our streets, parks, and town squares after both men and women. We will erect statues and monuments that represent both sexes fairly.

  • We will hire you in elected offices because we value your contribution and seek to represent all the diverse views of society, not because “we’re ready.”

Full article

Medicine VS Forced Care

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The same day I read about surgeries being cancelled, I receive an article from Women’s eNews on the topic of Caesarean birth.

I am not a great proponent of sections, far too many are done unnecessarily and I think it is just another way women are taught to distrust their bodies and their abilities.

It is also interesting that there is space to do so many of these unnecessary surgeries yet cancer surgeries are being cancelled.

From the eNews article

At 30 percent of all deliveries, the current national Caesarean-section rate in the United States is twice the 15 percent maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organization and three times the preferred rate cited by many researchers.

This article shows the despite the claims that C-sections are better for baby and cause no harm to moms, in fact the opposite is true.

C-section rates are increasing worldwide, with one in four newborns in Canada now being delivered via an incision in its mother’s belly, compared with 17% in the early 1990s.
But a new World Health Organization-led study involving more than 97,000 deliveries in Latin America found that hospitals with the highest rates of Caesareans had higher rates of maternal death and illness — including conditions requiring blood transfusions — and had higher numbers of babies who died or were admitted to intensive care for seven days or more after birth.
The results, published online by the journal The Lancet, “show how a medical intervention or treatment that is effective when applied to sick individuals in emergency situations can do more harm than good when applied to healthy populations.”
While the study involved Latin American hospitals, the researchers believe the findings would hold true “beyond the participating institutions.”

[Read more…] about Medicine VS Forced Care

Defective Politics

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The leadership race doesn’t seem to have had the intended effect of strengthening the Liberal party.

Though I suppose one could legitimately argue it has weeded out those with very right wing ideology.

Harper told a crowd of party faithful that the support of former Mississauga-Streetsville Liberal MP Wajid Khan and now of Mark Persaud, a former chair of the federal Liberal party’s multiculturalism committee, shows people are realizing the “failure of the Liberals to match talk with action” when it comes to new Canadians.

This has nothing to do with New Canadians and everything to do with social conservatism.

The conservatives have found a supportive base for their stance against women’s issues, including reproductive rights, for their stance against social programs and their willingness to allow religion to dictate policy.

This statement is very telling

Khan said his “disillusionment” with the Liberals began in 2005, particularly after Paul Martin’s government signed a budget deal with the “socialist” New Democrats to extend the life of its minority government. Khan said his decision to defect was made easier by Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion who, he said, has no foreign policy, no economic credentials and no commitment to “family values.”

family values

Code for getting back to the good old days when men were men, sheep were nervous and the poor did the right thing and died off or went into the woods where decent people didn’t have to deal with them.

The NDP might want to take note of this part of that quote

after Paul Martin’s government signed a budget deal with the “socialist” New Democrats to extend the life of its minority government.

If he has publicly stated that he is disillusioned with a party for working with the NDP is there much chance that Harper has any intention of entering into or honouring any agreement with a socialist party?

Next we’ll have calls to check for Reds under the beds..but I digress.

We have seen the disasters that have been created by bowing to the religious right in the States.

Abstinence programs that have resulted in higher pregnancy rates, cut backs of services that are pushing poor people into even greater poverty, children threatened with death for questioning whether scripture is belief or fact, threats to women’s autonomy.

Harper doesn’t even believe this crap himself but he’s very much an ends justifies the means kinda guy, as well as a big spoiled baby who wants to get back at every person who ever thwarted him and their family, friends and supporters.

Canadians are not Father knows Best the way much of rural America is. They are much more likely to not only support but live a life where both partners work and where daycare and other supports are needed.

It is more important than ever that we make sure these people get to the polls. The pulpit masters will certainly be doing their bit to get the fundamentalists out there.

“In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.”

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I see much of what is occurring lately to be a fear response.

Can’t raise minimum wage for fear that business will suffer.

Does business not suffer when people do not have money to spend?

This is the obvious first step on the journey to the decline of capitalism. First you create an underclass, give them just a little, instill them with fear of having nothing and make them fight each other for the pittance that barely allows them to keep body and soul together. [Read more…] about “In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.”