In being trolled for her husband’s performance, she is not alone: actor Anushka Sharma was trolled by cricket fans when then-boyfriend Virat Kohli failed to deliver in the 2015 World Cup semi-final against Australia, and in October that year, against South Africa in an ODI in Mumbai. Freelance writer and social media editor Susie Verrill, girlfriend of British track and field Olympian Greg Rutherford, recently spoke up about the endless, sometimes violent abuse she receives on social media whenever Rutherford is in the news.But the cons of being the spouse of a sportsperson aside, being a woman in sports journalism is a tough game. Mandira Bedi knows this, as one of India’s first female cricket anchors. Her clothes received more attention than her sports commentary did in the early 2000s, and in an interview in 2008, she said that starting out in cricket hadn’t been easy. “People were not used to seeing a woman fielding question on cricket,” she said, and when asked about being “controversy’s favourite child” as an anchor, she said, “It was all the handiwork of people who had difficulty in accepting a woman doing well in a field that was known to be dominated by men.”In the TV game, unfortunately, as former cricket editor for NDTV 24×7 Anjali Doshi pointed out in 2013, women are set up to fail. For the IPL, women with little experience in sports journalism are selected to be presenters based on their looks, and blamed for asking weak questions, while women with experience as sports journalists are sidelined. Doshi quoted Neeraj Vyas, business head at MAX as saying the women anchors change each year because they have to be “younger and fresher”. Senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra in pointed out in a 2013 piece about sexism in the IPL that Isa Guha, former fast bowler on the England women’s team, was asked by Navjot Sindhu and Sameer Kochchar which IPL player she found hottest and which of them was the best dancer. Vyas also reportedly said, “The focus is on fun and entertainment and not on serious cricket … The girls are not chosen for their knowledge of cricket.”When TV bosses aren’t afraid of airing these views, perhaps its no surprise that cricketers like Chris Gayle think it’s acceptable to openly flirt with a TV journalist and say, “Don’t blush, baby” when she asks him about his game during the Big Bash League. Offscreen, Gayle told journalist Charlotte Edwardes he had a “very, very big bat” while she was interviewing him.In her essay “Inside Sexism” for The Cricket Monthly, Trinidad-based editor of UWI Today Vaneisa Baksh detailed her tussles with the old boys’ club of Caribbean cricket through her career, mentioning how she was deliberately excluded by male journalists and denied membership of Queen’s Park Cricket Club for being a woman. Heartbreakingly, she even included a lewd calypso sung about her, called “I Want to Be a Member”, that ends like this:Also Read: The Most Important Thing about a Woman is Her Clothes, and Other Rubbish Lessons from SportsNow you heard the storyAbout Vaneisa versus PappyGo and get married quickly and forget about QPCCOr go and join the nunnery and keep your virginityA Parkite means men, you must knowWe don’t want no woman to spoil we show
Category Archives: Feminism
Gretchen Carlson Reportedly Recorded Roger Ailes’ Grossness With Her iPhone: Gothamist
Sherman details how Carlson’s decision to fight back started two years ago:Taking on Ailes was dangerous, but Carlson was determined to fight back. She settled on a simple strategy: She would turn the tables on his surveillance. Beginning in 2014, according to a person familiar with the lawsuit, Carlson brought her iPhone to meetings in Ailes’s office and secretly recorded him saying the kinds of things he’d been saying to her all along. “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better. Sometimes problems are easier to solve” that way, he said in one conversation. “I’m sure you can do sweet nothings when you want to,” he said another time.After more than a year of taping, she had captured numerous incidents of sexual harassment. Carlson’s husband, sports agent Casey Close, put her in touch with his lawyer Martin Hyman, who introduced her to employment attorney Nancy Erika Smith. Smith had won a sexual-harassment settlement in 2008 for a woman who sued former New Jersey acting governor Donald DiFranceso. “I hate bullies,” Smith told me. “I became a lawyer to fight bullies.”
Source: Gretchen Carlson Reportedly Recorded Roger Ailes’ Grossness With Her iPhone: Gothamist
First Lady Michelle Obama FULL Interview At Howard University | 3CHICSPOLITICO
A NEW BLOG…FINALLY. | Jane Fonda
I have to confess, under normal circumstances, I would feel some compassion for Donald Trump. I have known and loved men who had some of the same issues as he does. But unlike him, they chose, with time, to move towards the light. I feel certain that things occurred early in his life that caused him to be what he has become. But clearly, he’s made no effort to look at himself objectively and attempt to change/heal.And, as these are far from normal circumstances–the fate of the world is at stake and that is no exaggeration– I have moved past compassion to fear and anger.I will say no more because everything has been said and said and said.I think.So I will pray, and meditate that things are going to turn out all right and that Hillary will win. I will also pray that Democrats will take back the Senate and I’m doing all that I can to make that a reality from afar. Were I not making this movie in Colorado I’d be walking precincts, knocking on doors, not just for Hilary, but for all of the Dem women running for the Senate around the country. I’ve met them and they’re fierce and good.
Source: A NEW BLOG…FINALLY. | Jane Fonda
Israel Joins Bikini Fray, Ordering Concert Singer to Cover Up – The New York Times
“The ministry’s policy, led by the minister of culture, states that festivals and events which are funded by public money will honor the general public that attends the events, which includes all the various sectors and communities,” Sivan Carmon, a ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement.The ministry intervened after a concert in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, on Friday took a surprise turn. Onstage was Hanna Goor, a singer known for her appearance on “A Star Is Born,” a long-running Israeli reality television program featuring new vocalists.As she performed, Ms. Goor was wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a bikini top and shorts when, she said, a man from the production company contracted by the state approached her and told her to cover up. She said she had refused, only to have the man threaten to kick her off the stage. She sang another song anyway, then noticed the production company official return with a security officer, at which point she left the stage to avoid a confrontation.Ms. Carmon, the culture ministry spokeswoman, said by telephone on Sunday that Ms. Goor’s attire was not appropriate for performing in front of the general public. Ms. Carmon denied that the singer had been forced offstage, but said that the program had been running late and that Ms. Goor’s time had been cut short by maybe one song.In an interview on Sunday, Ms. Goor said she was only trying to stay cool in the late summer heat, and was dressed no different from many watching from the beach.“It’s Friday noon,” she said. “Everything is so sunny, so hot, I was only thinking about how tolerable it would be onstage.”She said she was stunned by the objection to her clothing. “They made it such a big deal, and now there are new regulations they want to put on and force artists to be more modest,” she said. “It’s just not right. I’m against it, and I will speak my mind about it as much as I can. It’s very important for me to sing the way I want to sing and get up on stage dressed how I want to dress.”
Source: Israel Joins Bikini Fray, Ordering Concert Singer to Cover Up – The New York Times
Anthony Weiner’s actions have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton | Lucia Graves | Opinion | The Guardian
Blame Weiner for all this, mock him, or feel sorry for him, but don’t blame Huma Abedin. She did nothing wrong, and any attempts to blame her here and insinuate Hillary Clinton into the equation are worse than purely political: they are blatantly sexist.A man who cheats on his wife does not reflect a shortcoming in his spouse – or in the woman who would hire her. If anything, the fact that these women have been able to withstand so much personal hardship in the face of unyielding political attacks is a testament to their character. We should respect them more for what they’ve been able to endure despite the sexually dysfunctional men in their lives, and despite whether they ultimately chose to stay with their husband, or not.
Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation
In an open letter addressed to Jeh Johnson, the women wrote that many of their children have contemplated suicide and all lack proper care within Berks. Faced with few options, the mothers have resorted to organizing as their only way out. They said they plan to leave the Pennsylvania family detention center either “vivas o muertas”—alive or dead.While organizing puts the families at risk for backlash, risk taking is not new for these women. These are 22 mothers who came from Central America escaping violence, corruption, the impacts of climate change, and United States intervention and occupation. Twenty-two mothers who put their bodies on the line more than once: providing for their families in Central America, immigrating to the United States, surviving each day in detention, and finally having no other choice but to refuse to eat. Twenty-two mothers who wanted what was best for their families. Twenty-two mothers who have been retraumatized each day by the country they hoped would protect them. Twenty-two mothers who are fighters reminding us they have power despite being detained.The 22 women on hunger strike are putting everything on the line for the safety of their families. As they enter their third week, the women are rapidly losing weight. We have a duty to these families. We have a duty to share their stories, to take action, to show up in genuine ways, and take action to end all deportations.
Source: Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation
Amir-Moazami: ′France does not have a homogeneous mainstream culture′ | Europe | DW.COM | 28.08.2016
Schirin Amir-MoazamiIn France, the notion of a homogeneous mainstream society has not existed for centuries. This has a lot to do with the colonial past and more recently, with the country’s immigration policy. That is why it is difficult to speak of specifically “French” values, especially if we have to determine this in the matter of how much of a body is allowed to be visible in public. These values have always been linked to contexts outside of France. So it is regrettable that France has never analyzed this past in a critical manner – for example, by asking about its consequences and impact on life today. What is certain is that one can no longer speak of original “French” values.Nonetheless, the debate has been raging in France. The philosopher and bestselling author Alan Finkielkraut points out the fact that many French people complain they no longer feel at home in their own country.This statement seems problematic to me. What does “at home” mean with regard to a past in which France took its “home” to other parts of the world? Finkielkraut himself comes from a Jewish background that he has analyzed journalistically. Unfortunately, he does not apply his question to the present. He does not ask how it is for minorities today that are also stigmatized and reproduced as minorities. It is quite obvious that Maghreb Muslims did not come to Islamize France. Instead, it is a case of postcolonial immigration.Do you see opportunities that could turn the tense situation into a successful integration story?So much has gone wrong in France in particular, so it is really hard to offer reasonable guidance. Society has become so polarized – and Germany is showing a similar tendency – that the findings are relatively serious. The recent decision of the [French court] to suspend the burkini ban is a step in the right direction. It is right not to allow the problem to heat up even more and to polarize society even more. But it would also be sensible to not to let the burkini represent an Islamist or terrorist threat. It would also be wrong to conduct this debate at the expense of women. Instead, people should look at matters of social justice, for in France, as in Germany, Muslims represent a certain social class in which a certain culture has emerged and then been marginalized.
Source: Amir-Moazami: ′France does not have a homogeneous mainstream culture′ | Europe | DW.COM | 28.08.2016
Enough with the Clothes Shaming of Muslim Women – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.
In our communities women who do not cover, or dress in conservative ways (again, with or without hijab), are not considered Muslim enough – not Muslim enough to be taken seriously, not Muslim enough to be invited on conference panels, not Muslim enough to represent Muslims, not Muslim enough for God. This is spiritual abuse. It is a form of violence.It’s violence created by the male-dominated, patriarchal discourses common within our communities, and as such this is not a critique of dressing modestly or more traditionally, nor is it a critique of the women who choose to do so. Indeed, it is misogynistic to criticize women’s choice of conservative clothing. This is a discussion of a patriarchal discourse used to control women’s bodies; a patriarchal discourse that MUST be challenged.There is no doubt that challenging this exclusion and this abuse is very tricky. We live in a world in which Muslim women who wear the hijab and/or niqab are targeted by Islamophobic violence. Hell, Muslim women and girls who simply dress conservatively, hijab or no hijab, are targeted by Islamophobic violence under the label of secularism. As Muslim women we need to protect each other from that form of oppression. We need to fight for the right of Muslim women to dress however they wish without threat of being targeted for being Muslim. Part of that solidarity and resistance to Islamophobia does mean promoting and celebrating representations of Muslim women in hijab and niqab. Absolutely. But within our own communities there are a group of women who are hurting spiritually and no one wants to talk about it. No one wants to help us fight this expression of misogyny within our own communities. Even when we try to tell our side of the story, as El-Naggar did in the Gawker piece, there are attempts to purposely obfuscate and distract from it.Too many are mistaken that we cannot focus our energies on resisting both gendered Islamophobia from non-Muslims and spiritual misogyny from within our communities. Islamophobes will be Islamophobes and will use our internal struggles against us, regardless of what we do or do not do. But that doesn’t mean we let women be spiritually abused within our communities. It’s a fine balance but we have to at least begin to make an effort to find that fine balance.
Canada′s mounted police allow women to wear the hijab | News | DW.COM | 25.08.2016
The RCMP is the third police force in Canada to have the headscarf as part of its uniform. Others include police forces in Toronto and Edmonton. Police in Britain, Sweden, Norway and some other states have adopted similar cultural symbols into their forces.
Source: Canada′s mounted police allow women to wear the hijab | News | DW.COM | 25.08.2016
















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