Filed under: Double Standard, Feminism, Feminist, Rant, rape | Tags: Feminism, film, rape, roman polanski
So after more than three decades Roman Polanski has been arrested, and people everywhere seem to feel sorry for him. I’m confused. Isn’t raping a thirteen year old an atrocity?
Sure, the guy is a cinematic genius and an Oscar winner. And sure the Manson family brutally murdered his wife and unborn son. And I’ll even give you that he’s old and repentent. Yes, it’s also true that the victim feels that all of this is in the past…
But really people stop feeling sorry for this man. He drugged, raped and sodomize a child.
Filed under: Anti-Feminist Propoganda, Double Standard, Election 2008, Eliot Spitzer, Feminism, Feminist, Hillary Clinton, Politicians, Politics, Prostitution, Women's roles
An awesome article from Women’s e-news about Eliot Spitzer’s wife:
Scandal Doesn’t flatter Spitzer’s wife
By Sandra Kobrin
WeNews commentator
(WOMENSENEWS)– As news of the “Eliot Mess” started to break on Monday, I looked at my husband and smiled.
“You know our deal,” I reminded him. “If anything like this happens to you don’t expect me to stand beside you and suffer public humiliation. You do something stupid like this, you’re on your own.”
Then we continued to watch Spitzer’s press conference.
“It looks like she’s reading his statement,” my husband said, as he studied Silda Wall Spitzer’s controlled response. He said her eyes were focused on her husband’s script.
“Probably so,” I answered. “I’m sure she was the last to know and is doing her best to know what’s going on this time.”
I, like everyone else, was stunned by the idea of New YorkState’s Wall Street-busting crusading governor Elliot Spitzer apparently destroying his career by breaking the law and patronizing prostitutes.
Many of us in the news business, or the political business or the business business spent the day waiting for news of his resignation, pouring over the details of Spitzer’s D.C. assignation and replaying what may have been the world’s briefest press conference.
But as we talked among ourselves my friends and fellow journalists were saying it’s not just a question of what’s wrong with him. We’ were also asking “What’s up with her? What is she doing standing there by his side at the press conference?”
Aol Pops the Question
“Governor’s Wife Stands by Her Man” was one of AOL’s rotating home page headlines Tuesday. “Would You Do the Same Thing?”
Our answer: an unequivocal no. We all agree we’re suddenly tired of seeing the silent woman standing by.
In every case, of course, it’s the particular wife’s personal business how she sorts the matter out. But why should she appear at the face-to-face with the cameras’ glare? That seems to send the message that good wives are expected to put up with far too much.
As my colleagues, my family and I pored over the coverage Tuesday, one thing that popped out here was that “client 9″–the new moniker for the man once known as the Sheriff of Wall Street–was sometimes considered “difficult,” for the prostitutes at the Emperor’s Club, a high-end brothel where Spitzer had an account.
In the smoking tape made of the phone call between the prostitute and her “booker” after the encounter the booker said “client number 9″ sometimes asked for things that weren’t always that “safe.”
The mind reels. In Victorian novels when asterisks are put in the place of curse words the reader spends much more time wondering what the real words might have been–and probably coming up with worse–than if they’d been spelled out. Thoughts of all kinds of kinky sex went through my mind.
But another colleague offered a possibility at once more obvious and more serious: condoms. Perhaps, she said, it meant that Spitzer refused to use a condom.
If so, then he’s put his wife in danger as well as the high-priced sex workers he apparently regularly patronizes. All of them should be seeking medical attention and testing, if they haven’t already.
Mixed Feelings Get Sorted Out
A friend told me that her feelings about women who stand by their men are somewhat mixed. While she admires loyalty and being a friend in need, she doesn’t like the idea that dishonest men are worth putting up with.
But when the question of condoms and safe sex came up she says she suddenly got the point. In this case the wife should have been given a doctor’s excuse to miss the photo session.
Why is it that our society is repulsed with lying and dishonesty in a public capacity but accepts lying and dishonesty in a marriage?
There are editorials flying and talking heads screaming for Spitzer’s resignation, but there’s no one screaming, “Hey Silda, walk away from that lying dirt bag who put your health at risk and your reputation in the toilet! Take the money and run. You’ll do fine on your own.”
Silda Wall Spitzer is a Harvard-educated lawyer and the founder and chair of the board of New York-based Children for Children, a nonprofit organization that fosters community involvement and social responsibility in young people. She has three daughters ranging in age from 14 to 18.
Well listen up Silda. You are entitled to your own decisions but you and your daughters don’t have to stay.
Don’t Follow Hillary
In any event, please don’t let Hillary Clinton be your role model, even if your husband has endorsed her candidacy.
Yesterday, the presidential contender told reporters she was sending her best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family. Oh boy. I understand she didn’t want to lose a possible super delegate but, puh-lease.
Clinton is used to public humiliation; she was a doormat when it came to her philandering husband and his infidelities since he was Arkansas governor.
In Carl Bernstein’s recent book on Clinton, “A Woman in Charge,” he writes that she really was the last to know the truth during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and livid when she found out.
In a 1992 interview, Clinton said she stayed with her husband because she loved and respected him. OK, but let’s see if Silda Spitzer is also contemplating a run for office.
Even Dina Matos McGreevey, the still-in-a custody-battle wife of former New JerseyGov. James McGreevey, has piped up. The author of “Silent Partner” bore up through the press conferences when McGreevey’s admitted a gay affair with a state employee and stood by him until he resigned three months later.
She says Silda is right to stand by her husband as she is protecting her daughters and shouldn’t be criticized.
Bull. The best way to protect a daughter is to be a role model and despise lying and dishonesty and divest from it in public as well as private life.
Federal prosecutors rarely charge clients in prostitution cases, generally seen as state crimes.
But the 1910 Mann Act makes it a crime to transport someone between states for the purpose of prostitution, and the woman Spitzer met up with traveled from New York to Washington.
Someone on the Web site of the Feminist Law Professors says this might be raised in the context of legal quid pro quo for the so-called DC Madam, whose sex workers consorted with Republican Senator David Vitter last year. He is not on trial but her trial begins April 7.
“As the DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is prosecuted in federal court for running a prostitution ring, it will be interesting to see how things develop with Governor Spitzer,” writes a contributor on the Feminist Law Professors site. “One of the DC Madam’s big gripes is that, though the government has the names and identities of plenty of her customers and *ahem* female contractors, only she–Deborah Jeane Palfrey–is being prosecuted.”
In a press statement Tuesday, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International said the recent revelations about Spitzer demonstrate that men who sexually exploit women come from all walks of life.
“Sexual exploitation has no place in a society that values equality for girls and women,” the statement read.
That’s the kind of thing a good wife, mother and presidential candidate should be saying around now too. -Sandra Kobrin is a Los Angeles writer and columnist.
I am particularly interested in the comments about Hillary and Dina Matos McGreevey. Why does a politician’s wife stand with him when he has committed an egregious affront, which particularly effects her life? What does that imply about our society? Why do the PR people think that her presence is a good idea?
Filed under: Activism, Beauty, Body Beautiful, Body Image, Double Standard, Feminism, Feminist, Spain, Women's roles
Womensnews E-mailed this article today about Spain’s attempts to promote a “healthy” body image and it is truly interesting; my sentiments, bravo Spain! But more importantly why isn’t this issue more important to the global community and specifically the American media. Spain recognizes that women are suffering; why don’t we? Take a look at the article, decide how you feel:
Spain Sizes Up Fashion World’s Measuring Stick
By Brenda Gazzar
WeNews correspondent
MADRID, Spain(WOMENSENEWS)–The Spanish government has just finished measuring the bodies of more than 10,000 women to help create new guidelines for the clothing industry.
The Feb. 7 study concluded that Spanish women come in three basic shapes–hourglass, pear and barrel–which consumer advocates say should serve as a more accurate base for sizing.
In part, the effort is about reducing the amount of trial-and-error time in the fitting room. Current sizes are based on pre-1975 models, when women’s bodies were significantly different, and clothes often vary by two to three sizes from store to store.
“From the perspective of the consumer, it’s an inconvenience,” said Angeles Heras, director general of the Madrid-based National Institute of Consumer Affairs, which conducted the five-month study for Spain’s Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.
But it’s also an effort to promote healthier body images: receiving honest and reliable information about their clothing size can help women to more readily accept their bodies as they are, goes the logic.
Manufacturers around the world often fudge sizes to make consumers feel better but they are also misleading their customers and supporting distorted perceptions of what constitutes a healthy and beautiful body, Heras said in an interview last November, while the study was being conducted. “It’s clear that fashion greatly influences the health of women,” she said. “There are many psychological disorders that stem from wanting to be thin. . .We want to promote models of healthy beauty.”
Rethinking Sizes
The $2.5 million study advocates using a three-digit sizing system that takes into consideration the perimeter of a woman’s bust, waist and hips, in relation to height. Clothes are currently limited to one simple size because “anatomy had always established scientific categories according to the male gender,” the National Institute of Consumer Affairs said in a press release.
The study found 86 percent of women in Spain had a conventional body mass index. This means that whatever their description–underweight, normal or overweight–they do not require medical consultation or treatment. About 12 percent–particularly among women over 50–suffer some form of obesity. About 1 percent–particularly among young people–is moderately or severely thin.
More than 90 percent of the clothing industry–including such popular Spanish retailers as Zara and Mango–have volunteered to standardize their sizes according to the study’s findings within five years.
The women–recruited randomly from around the country to represent 10 age groups–were measured inside booths that use laser beam technology to obtain their three-dimensional body shape. That information was supplemented by manual measurements.
More than 40 percent of the subjects said they sometimes or always had problems with clothing sizes. Among them, 43 percent said they found sizes too small for their bodies and 22 percent found them too large. Another 8 percent said their size was too common, which made it difficult to find in the store.
Aiming for Realism
Even though Heras said many women prefer to fit into a smaller size, she thinks standardized sizes will give women a more realistic and accurate picture of their true size.
“What we are aiming for is to know what we are” regardless of the size “because beauty can be real and can adapt to real women,” she said.
The 2007 agreement also requires signatories to replace their conspicuously thin mannequins with those that are at least a European size 38 (or U.S. 8). They have also agreed to change the way they treat size 46 (or U.S. 16). Previously regarded as a “special size” for larger women, it will now be regarded as a normal size and be part of their routine inventory.
Alicia Hormigo, a 50-year-old teacher from Madrid, approves of the changes ahead whether they affect the sizes that stores carry or the shapes of their mannequins. “Women have to have curves and when they are older, they cannot be thin,” she said.
Sandra Criado Mosteles, 29, a window dresser at clothing stores in Madrid said the mannequins she works with are so thin that even the smallest sizes have to be taken in with pins to make them fit. “It’s a bit deceiving,” she said.
Mosteles also welcomes the government’s push to standardize sizes. “I would like to know the (real) sizes so that I could go into stores and go exactly to the size,” she said. “When you are going to buy, it is much easier.”
Measuring the After Effects
Another woman, an immigrant and mother from South America, said she rarely feels like shopping for pants because sizes are distorted and because she has difficulty finding pants that fit her curvy hips.
“If they don’t fit you well, then you become nervous that you are fat,” she said while riding on the city’s metro. “You go home and want to start a diet.”
While sizing inconsistency is rampant around the world, Spanish officials say the country is the first to embark on such a rigorous and comprehensive scientific study aimed at remedying the problem.
No European law obligates sizes to conform to certain measurements, Heras said.
Spain began leading the way against fashion’s ultra-thin pressures a couple of years ago, when the Madrid regional government decided to exclude models with a body mass index of under 18 from its 2006 international fashion week.
Italy followed suit by banning underweight models from its Milan fashion show.
New York City’s fashion week, which ended earlier this month, has yet to ban underweight models. This year fashion reporters pointed out that the current male models were noticeably skinnier than in previous years.
Brenda Gazzar is a freelance journalist based in the Middle East. She did the reporting for this story during a recent visit to Spain.
Filed under: Double Standard, Election 2008, Feminism, Feminist, Feminist Consumerism, Hillary Clinton, Politicians, Politics, obama
So there is a lot of chatter about no youth following for Hillary but these videos argue otherwise:
This one doesn’t please the feminist in me, which arguable you could say about the previous one but it’s still worth checking out:
He’s Passionate:
THIS ONE IS THE WINNER. I Love it!
Don’t be coerced by the press to jump on the Obama bandwagon. PEOPLE ARE JUST AS PASSIONATE ABOUT HILLARY!!!!! An election is not a popularity contest. We are not looking for the coolest or the “sexiest” candidate. (Although if you ask me Hillary is that too.) We are looking to elect the best leader. It takes a life time in politics to make a leader. Don’t be fooled. VOTE HILLARY!
Filed under: Beauty, Celebrities, Double Standard, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Politicians, Politics
Sorry, I’ve been so incommunicato lately. Busy with life… Feeling a little down about Hill’s campaign. Like I said earlier, I will support a democrat all the way but I really believe that Hillary is the best choice and I don’t perceive her as cold or frigid. I think she’s delightful…
Watch the moment:
I’m a die-hard. I love Hillary!!
Filed under: Abortion, Activism, Anti-Feminist Propoganda, Arms, Art, Beauty, Birth Control, Body Beautiful, Body Image, Celebrities, Classic, Double Standard, Education, Election 2008, Femimommy, Feminism, Feminist, Feminist Consumerism, Friends, Gay Marriage, Great Books, Guns, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Honor Killing, John Kerry, Men, Politicians, Politics, Sex Education, Women's roles, obama, personal, television
SO I HATE TO PASS ALONG MESSAGES SECOND HAND, ESPECIALLY WHEN I HAVEN’T WRITTEN IN A WHILE….BUT THIS IS WORTH IT.
Message from NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy:
In a few hours, at 4:15 am to be exact, I’m headed out in the cold to yet another airport, this time to Chattanooga and then Knoxville, Tennessee to rally and speak for Hillary Clinton.
I’d go anywhere, any time, to shout from the rooftops that Hillary Clinton is the right choice for women, for our families, for our communities and for our future.
Here is why I care so much:
Hillary Clinton is a national leader of the highest order, with the strength and determination and experience to deliver real change to our country. She has been a leader on women’s rights and civil rights for over 30 years.
It is of special importance to me that Hillary is an unparalleled champion for women’s reproductive rights, justice and health. In fact, I’ve just signed a letter from many leaders: Martha Burk, Gloria Feldt, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Lulu Flores, Ellen Malcolm, Irene Natividad, Ellie Smeal, Gloria Steinem, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones on why Hillary is the best choice for those of us who care so deeply about these issues.
Hillary has been through fire and emerged stronger with each challenge. She can take anything the Republicans can dish out, and give it back double. The Democrats need her, the country needs her, and she needs your vote on Tuesday.
Make no mistake, Hillary Clinton is the strongest candidate to win in November, and to set our country right. She beat the Republicans in two landslide elections, despite predictions that she couldn’t win in upstate and rural New York. And it will take someone with her economic and national security strengths to beat John McCain. We know she can deliver on Day One — from getting our troops out of Iraq, to fixing the shattered economy and the mortgage crisis, to winning health care that covers every single person in this country.
Please vote on Tuesday for Hillary Clinton, and if you haven’t done it already, please email your friends and contacts in the Super Tuesday states and tell them that:
from her earliest days advising battered women, helping abused children, and providing free legal services to the poor,
to her time in the White House advocating for universal healthcare, championing the S-CHIP (State Child Health Insurance) program, and helping to pass the Violence Against Women Act,
to her service as a U.S. Senator, standing strong for reproductive rights and writing legislation to expand contraceptive access, helping win approval of emergency contraception, sponsoring equal pay legislation, and speaking out on the floor against the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, specifically saying that they would damage Roe v. Wade if confirmed. She was right, and I know we can count on her to nominate pro-women, pro-choice judges to the courts at every level.
She’s always stood up for us, and now it’s time for us to stand up for her with our vote and say “I’m Ready for Hillary.”
I’m ready.
P.S. Robin Morgan’s terrific new essay “Goodbye To All That (#2)” calls out the stereotypes, double standards and toxic viciousness against Hillary Clinton – Our President, Ourselves – and she concludes: “Me, I’m voting for Hillary not because she’s a woman-but because I am.”
Filed under: Celebrities, Double Standard, Feminism, Feminist, Hollywood, Rant, Women's roles, television
Last night after a weekly dose of the only reality television that I’m addicted to (Project Runway), I got trapped into Bravo’s newest atrocity to women-kind, Millionaire Matchmaker.
The premise of this show is vile, but i share it with you anyway. Patti, a professional matchmaker, searches to find “marriage material” for men who are very wealthy. Of course marriage material is defined first and foremost by appearance and then intelligence.
One of the “eligible” bachelors, the owner of a sex toy business, say that a girl who has a degree from Harvard seems “a little intelligent.” The girls are just as hard to take, primping themselves and flaunting their cleavage all in the name of catching the attention of marginal looking men with dollars. Yuck.
For the first twenty minutes I let my jaw hang open at the sheer grossness of the whole scene, and then I began to wonder if I could still delight in my hour of meaningless drama and creativity, aka project runway, knowing that in some backhanded way I would be supporting Millionaire Matchmaker.
So, this morning to balance out my unyielding desire to know the outcome of PR and the degrading nature of this new show, I say Boo BRAVO!!
Filed under: Abortion, Art, Beauty, Birth Control, Body Beautiful, Body Image, Celebrities, Double Standard, Feminism, Feminist, Hollywood, Movies, Sex Education, Women's roles
So in honor of Ellen Page and others getting an Oscar tap for Juno, I thought I’d blog about this truly nifty little film.
Juno is the story of a precocious teenager who finds herself pregnant and decides to give her baby to a “deserving” couple rather than have an abortion. It’s worth mentioning that this film is definitely a farce and social critique. You are meant to laugh and see truisms in this less than lifelike world. For example, no parent has ever taken their daughter’s teenage pregnancy as well as Juno’s parent’s do, and no teenager is as equipped to handle life as well as Juno does. As long as you keep this in mind, Juno reveals itself as a touching and hilarious film, featuring a strong-minded, smart protagonist, which us feminists can adore.
A tid-bit about me that most of you don’t know, I have a MFA in creative writing, which means I am eligible for two things, I excruciating job teaching college composition and the right to point out really bad and really great writing. (I paid close to 60,000 dollars for this privilege. Dope.)
Embracing my place in the world as a homegrown and ridiculously over-educated critic, I’m telling you that Juno is smart, funny, clean writing. Diablo Cody brings rich sarcasm and cutting style to the page.
With this meaty script to work with, director Jason Riteman (Thank you for Not Smoking) and Canadian actor Ellen Page gracefully bring to life the world of this a knocked up and delightfully awkward 16 year old. Watch the trailer, go see the film, it’s easily worth two hours of your life and your hard earned pennies:
Check out the blog by Juno’s writer: The Pussy Ranch
Filed under: Abortion, Activism, Double Standard, Election 2008, Feminism, Feminist, Hillary Clinton, Politicians, Politics, Women's roles, obama
Women’s e-news sent this out this morning and if you haven’t read it yet, then I thought you might be interested, very timely:
Anti-choice PAC targets Clinton for early Attack
By Allison Stevens
WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)–
Life and Liberty PAC, a new anti-choice political action committee in Washington, D.C., has so far attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina and is planning to continue doing so in other states before Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold nominating contests.Altogether it plans to spend $500,000 in early primary states on phone calls warning voters that Clinton has been downplaying her support for abortion rights in her race against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
While all three candidates are pro-choice, Mary Lewis–who founded the PAC in September because she said other anti-choice groups were not being aggressive enough–said Clinton is their top target because she is more hostile on the issue. Clinton, for example, is a co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that would enshrine protections for abortion rights into law; Obama is not.
You already know that I’m a Hillary fan, so suffice to say we agree in regards to the right to choose.
I was turned on to this german ad by and then she said. According to her the text translates to Germany needs more babies. Our contribution:.
An analytical mind might infer from this ad women naturally want to have babies so all a country need do is dress its women in skimpy skivies and then the men will be so aroused that thay will let down their guard and children will naturally follow.
But I imagine that woman other me aren’t willing to drop everything at the idea of being a baby maker…just a guess.
How to you feel about the international role of women?
