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I’m not really into the whole prostitution is what happens between consenting adults argument. I find that it reeks with the notion that the experiences of a lucky few, a sub set of a sub set, somehow overlays what happens to most people who get involved in prostitution; that would be degradation, pain, and suffering. Layer that with helplessness, fear and shame and you have a tried and true recipe for broken human beings.
Prostitution is not okay. It is never okay and thus the topic is set for your Thursday DWR PSA.
Thank you to Buy Fair: Fight Slavery for hosting the video.
The fear women live with everyday manifested itself in one of the most horrific ways in New Dehli.
“The woman and a male friend, who have not been identified, were on a bus in New Delhi after watching a film on the evening of Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman’s body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police.”
Their culture, like our culture, is a rape culture. Women are deemed sexual objects for use and abuse by men.
“Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days,” Loh said. “She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds, but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome.”
She is unnamed, she is dead. The existing (patriarchal) system tries to justify what happened:
“The tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, which forces them to keep quiet and not report it to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Also, police often refuse to accept complaints from those who are courageous enough to report the rapes, and the rare prosecutions that reach courts drag on for years.
Indian attitudes toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen as provocative.”
Victim blaming is on the first page of the rapist’s playbook. It happens in India, and it happens here in North America. One in four women experience sexual assault/rape in our society – the same barriers in India are present here in North America that deny women justice and protect and promote rape culture. They are working on the problem in India:
“Nehra Kaul Mehra, a young Indian studying urban and gender policing at Colombia University in the United States, said, “We come from a feudal and patriarchal set-up where we value men more than women.
“We kill daughters before they are born. Those who live are fed less, educated less and segregated from boys,” she said with a black band of protest around her mouth.
Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, assured the protesters in a statement that the rape victim’s death “deepens our determination to battle the pervasive, the shameful social attitudes and mindset that allow men to rape and molest women and girls with such an impunity.”
What needs to happen is like the following statement.
“The outrage now should lead to law reform that criminalizes all forms of sexual assault, strengthens mechanisms for implementation and accountability, so that the victims are not blamed and humiliated,” Ganguly said.
Amen to that.
Brilliant repost straight from DAMMIT JANET! - One internetz for those folks over there, stat!
“If you are an anti-feminist woman and you vote — even for candidates who’d stop that nonsense in a nanosecond — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman and you enjoy the rights of contract and property law — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman but sadly divorced yet benefitting from family law reforms (allowing you to have custody of your children, for example) — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who practices safe, legal family planning including contraception and abortion (we won’t tell anyone) — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who wants to or needs to work ‘outside the home’ — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who works and is paid the same as the man in the next cubicle — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who has achieved higher education — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman in a profession formerly seen as ‘male’ — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman with recourse to sexual harassment/discrimination remedies in the workplace — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who needs daycare for her children — you didn’t build that.
If you are an anti-feminist woman who took maternity leave to have those children — you didn’t build that.
And if you are an anti-feminist man whose mother, sister, daughter, wife, girlfriend, and female friends benefit from any of those things — you CERTAINLY didn’t build that.
Anti-feminist women love to SHRIEEEK: ‘Feminists don’t speak for me!’
No. We don’t.
But our accomplishments — and ongoing struggles — benefit ALL of you.
You’re welcome.”
‘Nuff said.
I keep finding good stuff to repost. This blog entry is by Salty Current with the original found here.
“If you say
I think sexism, misogyny, and harassment of women, including in this community, are real problems that need to be addressed,
you should stop there and consider what you’re actually doing and could be doing to counter them and how you might be contributing to them. If you then say
…BUT feminists really shouldn’t talk publicly about their experiences, shouldn’t write blog posts about the subject, shouldn’t object to slurs, shouldn’t take sexually violent language seriously, shouldn’t be angry, should name names, shouldn’t name names, shouldn’t call out any man who’s ever done anything to support women, shouldn’t call out any man who considers himself their ally, shouldn’t call out prominent men, should only discuss prominent men, shouldn’t call out women who say misogynistic things, shouldn’t call out young people, shouldn’t organize events focusing on women, should mute their criticisms to protect skeptical organizations or events, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on Facebook, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on Twitter, shouldn’t talk about what’s said on YouTube, shouldn’t turn a skeptical eye to sexist “science,” should let their experiences go unexpressed because other women have it worse, should be more polite, should be less polite, should painstakingly qualify their every statement to make it less likely to be misconstrued by those with hostile intent, should calmly describe the entire history of the arguments to everyone who jumps into them ignorant of the context, should give the benefit of the doubt to every guy who’s done or said something sexist, should frame the issues in this or that way, shouldn’t talk about patriarchy, shouldn’t talk about privilege, shouldn’t talk about rape culture, should constantly and patiently explain sociological concepts to their interlocutors, should only discuss problems that affect them personally, shouldn’t work to change official policies, should only work through official organizational channels, should only focus on this or that part of the problem, should never analogize their situation or women’s oppression to anything else, should be more aggressive, should be less aggressive, shouldn’t insult people, shouldn’t ban commenters from their blogs, shouldn’t strenuously object to mischaracterizations of their statements,…,
you should realize that this belies your claim to caring about the problems and wanting to help address them, and recognize that you are contributing to the problem. If you insist on your preconditions for listening to and supporting feminists in their struggles against sexism and misogyny, you’re acting in a way that is harmful to the cause you claim to support.”
The United States is regressing quickly under the burden of its plutocratic elites. Public health and the rights of women are under onslaught by ignorant religious ideologues who espouse intensely anti-woman rhetoric that undermines the ideals of civilized society. You would think that idiocy on this scale would quickly be quashed and laughed out of the public sphere. Wrong – its becoming the common parlance…
”The nationwide assault on reproductive and abortion rights that effects everyone with sexual health needs (so, that’s everyone, pretty much!) and has come to be known as “The War on Women” may claim its first state as a victim soon. In Mississippi, the final abortion clinic left is fighting for its survival. Bloomberg reports:
Beginning July 1, all abortion-clinic physicians must have admitting privileges at a local hospital under a law passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Republican Governor Phil Bryant in April. At the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s sole remaining clinic providing elective abortions, none of the three physicians who perform the procedure has been granted those privileges.
“Mississippi may become the first U.S. state without a dedicated abortion clinic if the Jackson facility fails to come into compliance. That would mark the most visible victory for the anti-abortion movement, which has fought to abolish the procedure in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to have one.”
The Republicans in Mississippi are busy legislating themselves back into the stone-age. I sincerely hope that Canada will not follow their foolish example.
You would think that contraception would be a fairly straightforward issue. Women need reproductive autonomy and choice when planning their family. Of course, once the religious get involved things rapidly go down hill. Articles like the following should not have to be written…
“PRCH (Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health) supports the recent recommendation of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to include contraception in the preventive health benefits [1] for women under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) [2] and the decision of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt this recommendation in its draft regulations. [3] As physicians, we know that access to contraception is essential to the health and well-being of our patients.
About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. [4] Regular use of contraception prevents unintended pregnancy and reduces the need for abortion. [5] Contraception also allows women to determine the timing and spacing of pregnancies, protecting their health and improving the well-being of their children. [6] Contraceptive use saves money by avoiding the costs of unintended pregnancy and by making pregnancies healthier, saving millions in health care expenses. [7] Several contraceptives also have non-contraceptive health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of certain cancers and treating debilitating menstrual problems.[8] Making contraception more affordable is a significant step forward for the health of women and their families.”
There is nothing in the above that is particularly controversial. It should be a slam dunk as most 1st world countries already do this.
“PRCH appreciates the decision of HHS to include in the draft regulations the coverage of all forms of birth control,[9] allowing patients to access to the method that best meets their needs. Contraceptive methods vary and women with their health care providers need to be free to select from the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives. Not all contraceptives are clinically appropriate for every woman. [10] We also know that women and couples are more likely to use contraception successfully when they are given their contraceptive method of choice, be it a birth control pill, a vaginal ring, or an intrauterine device (IUD).[11] The draft regulations hold the promise of making contraception more affordable and easier to access for millions of women.
While we strongly support the inclusion of contraception as preventive care, we are deeply troubled by the provisions that exempt certain employers from compliance. The draft regulations threaten to compromise the very important protections they would put in place.”
Again the social-conservative legislative agenda throws women under the bus. It is reprehensible for this sort of legislation to be happening in a developed nation.
bleatmop
The Intransigent One
Mystro
The Arbourist
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