Category Archives: Feminism

The Privilege of Never Having to Say You’ll Concede | Dame Magazine

The potential of a fascist America is more real than ever. That’s not hyperbole—it’s a fact. A candidate for president from one of the two major American political parties has called for: the closing of the border between Mexico and the United States and the mass deportation of immigrants; a closing of the border to Muslim immigrants; assassinating the family members of suspected terrorists (a blatant war crime, by the way); the criminalization of women who have abortions; and the list goes on. The “Bernie or Bust” argument seems innocuous if you aren’t one of the millions of marginalized people whose health, rights, and lives depend on the November election results. To stay in a race that you mathematically cannot win against the first woman presidential candidate of either major party is privileged enough. To do it when the country is facing a very possible descent into fascism? That’s just dangerous.While Bernie Sanders claims that it is important to defeat Donald Trump, many of his supporters are not convinced. These people, many of whom are young white men who proudly label themselves the “real progressives,” are watching as the United States stares down the barrel of a fully loaded gun of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia and are shrugging. To even hint at voting for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, or claim that they are the same, is privilege personified.These are the “Bernie Bros”: white men who support Bernie Sanders but seemingly ignore the issues that affect marginalized people, who bellow and bully women and people of color for supporting Hillary Clinton, who claim ideological purity without having their rights and lives on the line. Not only that, but they have time and again berated and harassed women and people of color with whom they may disagree, in some cases threatening Democratic women like Nevada State Democratic Chairwoman Roberta Lange. Bernie Bros are relevant to this argument; they are a sexist reflection of the privilege emanating from the man they worship, a man who has done little if nothing to curb their atrocious, bigoted behavior.

Source: The Privilege of Never Having to Say You’ll Concede | Dame Magazine

Zika Bill Is Blocked by Senate Democrats Upset Over Provisions – The New York Times

Democrats blocked the bill because they said Republicans were using the must-pass legislation to score political points, jam through unpalatable policy changes, or cut money from other programs. Among the provisions, they said, were efforts to hinder access to contraception for women, and to weaken environmental restrictions on pesticide use.

Source: Zika Bill Is Blocked by Senate Democrats Upset Over Provisions – The New York Times

Democrats charged that Republicans had booby-trapped the legislation by adding provisions that included a ban on any direct government financing for Planned Parenthood, the women’s health organization, to provide contraceptive services related to fighting the Zika virus, which is also transmitted sexually.

The Democrats also said that Republicans had inserted a provision cutting $500 million in financing for the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care law, and that they had stripped a House provision that would ban the flying of the Confederate battle flag in federal cemeteries.

From Julia Gillard to Hillary Clinton: online abuse of politicians around the world | Technology | The Guardian

Hillary Clinton received almost twice as much abuse as Bernie Sanders on Twitter this year, according to a wide-ranging analysis provided to the Guardian that compared the treatment of politicians in the US, UK and Australia.The abuse of politicians online, particularly women, is perceived by some to come with the territory. But as high-profile cases flag the urgent need to clean up the web, the scope of the problem is now revealed in greater detail in work by a Brisbane-based social data company, Max Kelsen.

Source: From Julia Gillard to Hillary Clinton: online abuse of politicians around the world | Technology | The Guardian

Tribute to Judith, to nine years of femicide in the villa 31 – Red Harvest

Paul Zapulla, head of the National Campaign Against Institutional Violence in Villa 31, told Red Harvest that one of the objectives of the campaign is “to organize the families of the victims of trigger within neighborhoods so they can seek justice” and avoid other cases. For them, “Gumer is a pride to have lost value representing a daughter and keep fighting every day.” She is always the first to “get to meetings and the last to leave.” Judith Gimenez’s mother encourages young people to continue fighting. Does not give up not only by the memory of her daughter, but her two grandchildren “villera pure strain” Nicholas Valentina four years and two. “I fight so that they can grow and live freely, enjoy your neighborhood and walk to the time it is,” said Red Harvest. He added: “where there is an injustice, murder or police doing a bad job there will be present, always.”

Source: Tribute to Judith, to nine years of femicide in the villa 31 – Red Harvest

Player | KPFA Women Singers with Disabilities – Pushing Limits Eddie Ytuarte

Source: Player | KPFA

Who is Mary Lambert and what does she have in common with Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon,
Rosemary Clooney, Karen Carpenter, and Renata Tabaldi?
Well, these are examples of popular women singers and or composers
who experienced major disabilities in their lives; disabilities which posed barriers
to their art, or spurred or directed their musical careers–or even led to a premature death.
Pushing Limits, the creative voice of disability radio, again will sample some
of the musicians with disabilities who have shared
in contributing to our  broad and varied cultural landscape.
Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.  KPFA is heard at
94.1 of the fm band.  Past shows are archived at www.kpfa.org.

Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local – Self-delusion and evil results for the victim!

The Sør-Trøndelag District Court ruled that the 50-something man carried out the attack while asleep and thus couldn’t be held accountable.    The case dates back to a 2014 incident in which the man slept in the same bed as his 14-year-old granddaughter. The girl awoke to find her grandfather touching her lower body and then rushed into the bathroom where she called a friend who reported the incident to the police.    When officers arrived, they were able to gather evidence including the grandfather’s DNA on the girl’s underwear and genitals.    The man insisted that he must have done it in his sleep because the first thing he could remember was waking up when his granddaughter stood up to leave the bed.    The court ruled that although it was certain a sexual incident occurred, the man should be acquitted because he was asleep.

Source: Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local

Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar – The New York Times

The development has potential to be more than just a convenience for women already on birth control. Public health experts hope it will encourage more to start, or restart, using contraception and help reduce the country’s stubbornly high rate of unintended pregnancies, as well as the rate of abortions. And as apps and websites, rather than legislative proposals or taxpayer-funded programs, the new services have so far sprung up beneath the political radar and grown through word of mouth, with little of the furor that has come to be expected in issues involving reproductive health. At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills. Some ship contraceptives directly to women’s doors. Some accept insurance, including Medicaid for women with low incomes; some charge modest fees. Some send prescriptions to local pharmacies, where women can present their insurance information when picking up the contraceptives.

Source: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar – The New York Times

Back home alone: ​​the viral short narrating street harassment – Red Harvest

The short French ‘Au bout de la rue “(” At the end of the street’), shown in a very simple and clear.   That was published in March on Youtube and in the last hours began viralizarse. The film, directed by Maxime Gaudet shows in just three minutes and seconds how a woman can feel harassed at night if walking alone. And, in a very subtle way, how that live in fear is naturalized.

Source: Back home alone: the viral short narrating street harassment – Red Harvest

Muslim and Queer: Mourning after Orlando | +972 Magazine

As a Queer person, the shooting on Sunday reminded me how ugly bigotry is. How this country has yet to undo decades, centuries of discrimination and violence toward LGBTQ communities. I am reminded that we have more work to do — for those who came before us in the fight for our rights and dignity, for those who have lost their lives for simply celebrating who they are. And, we still have more work to do for those who have yet to be acknowledged within our community, for queer communities of color, transgender communities, gender queer communities and those without financial resources who are often invisible, at best, in our struggle. We have won significant milestones but we have so much more work to do and we have to do that work together.As a Muslim woman the media frenzy surrounding the shooting on Sunday reminds me, again, of how ugly discrimination is. I know what it looks like when friends and family members are visited by FBI agents in the wake of tragedies for no reason other then our names sounding Muslim. To have middle names like Marwan and Mustafa and Hassan intentionally stripped in official documents, otherwise triggering strip searches at airports, in interrogation rooms and the like. To slowly feel like we have to push our Muslim identities back into the closet, a place familiar to me in more ways than one. To see the eyes wide of people around me as they try to figure out how to compute me, Muslim and Queer.

Source: Muslim and Queer: Mourning after Orlando | +972 Magazine