Uncensored Feminista

This, to me, is too important not to share.  From The F-Word.org:

Via the DTWSIMB discussion list comes this touching video tribute to Rosie O’Donnell. One of her fans created it for her after hearing Rosie say she dreads going out in a bathing suit in public with her kids because she knows how the tabloids will react to the way she looks.

I’m concerned about women’s future.  I’m concerned that certain woman are allowing their pride to take over their common sense and I’m truly afraid of what’s going to happen come November.  Here I am poking through the internet, reading the latest news, when I catch this over at the Washington Post.  Basically this is about the recent rise of PUMA’s.  What are they?  According to this article it stands for “People United Means Action”.  The main point is about the Hillary supporters who have decided that it’s Hillary or no one, or in some cases McCain.  One woman listed in the article started a web site Just Say No Deal, and this is their mission statement on their front page:

 While the Coalition respects the genuine nature of Senator Clinton in keeping her word 
to campaign with and for Senator Obama, we will not support him now or on November 4, 
2008. Senator Clinton’s vote is her own; our votes are our own and they will not be cast for 
Senator Obama. The Just Say No Deal Coalition members will either choose to stay home in 
protest, write in Senator Clinton’s name or vote for Senator John McCain. Our votes are our 
voices and Just Say No Deal’s voices are 2 million strong and growing. 

Again, I have to reiterate how incredibly dangerous this stance is to women and the reasons why this is dangerous.

Several groups are planning marches in Denver, the site of this summer’sDemocratic National Convention. Others are organizing a Clinton write-in campaign or have switched to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), creating sites to promote his candidacy. Some have more targeted interests, such as establishing an ongoing critique of misogyny in the media, pressing for changes in Democratic National Committee rules on delegate selection, even the ouster of national party chairman Howard Dean. “Howard Dean is running this party like it is a Soviet-style dictatorship,” fumed Faith Chatham, a Clinton delegate to the Texas Democratic convention.

Personally I am a Clinton supporter, I always was on the issues, but I also have to understand that this is a democratic society and the person I voted for and was in favor for did not win the primaries.  So in answer of “what do we do now?”, we move on as women, we continue to fight for our equality, and we vote for the candidate who most covers our issues, not the one who will be more than happy to take away our rights!  This is from his own web site:

John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.

Do you hear that PUMA’s.  Voting for McCain will not be a vote to support feminism, it is actually against woman, against feminism, and in my opinion, you will be undoing everything Hillary was attempting to do!

According to the Post-ABC poll, 62 percent of women who backed Clinton say they will support Obama, compared with 25 percent who say they will support McCain. The poll, however, did show a residue of bad feelings from the primary battle (40 percent of Clinton supporters described themselves as dissatisfied with the outcome, and 7 percent described themselves as angry). But on the question of which candidate is trusted more to handle “issues of special concern to women,” Obama outpointed McCain 56 percent to 29 percent among all women regardless of political affiliation.

…

Defining the Just Say No Deal coalition is not simple. The clearest and strongest sentiments seem to be that party leaders tried to force Clinton out of the race prematurely, allowed sexism and misogyny to go unchecked in the media, and made decisions about the Florida and Michigan contests that were designed to favor Obama.

“Their goal was to stop Hillary Clinton by any means necessary,” said Robin Murray, an Indianapolis therapist and social worker whose nine-minute YouTube video, “ Mad as Hell/Bitch,” detailed examples of sexism in the campaign and became a visual anthem for many feminists.

Given that she is a supporter of abortion rights and holds other beliefs that are at odds with McCain’s, Murray was asked why she would consider voting against her own interests. “Whether it’s appropriate or whether it will work doesn’t matter at this time,” she said. “The vote is a protest vote — be it if I vote for McCain, if I don’t show up, or if I write in Hillary’s name.” Added Murray: “I view it in a holistic way. It says, we will not be controlled and manipulated by these singular issues in order to cast a vote that we feel is deceitful, negative, there is just no pretty way to say it — they cheated.”

You have every right to be angry.  The way the DNC handled Hillary was atrocious.  The way the media handled her was despicable.  I’m still angry over the sexist comments, the misogyny, the overall outcome of the primaries, but am I going to be a responsible voter come November?  HELL YES!  Saying that how you vote during these elections “doesn’t matter at this time” is redundant because it sure as hell does matter and I don’t think she’ll be saying the same thing if McCain is elected and Roe v. Wade is overturned.

I’m scared that my own gender is going to be our undoing.  I’m afraid that come November my gender is going to help put in motion a further oppression of women and aid in restricting my rights and my decisions to my own body.  I think this last paragraph says it best:

The Obama-McCain comparison is what Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) has been trying to emphasize. A prominent Clinton supporter, Wasserman Schultz said for women who care about reproductive rights, the economy and a range other issues, the only choice is Obama. “The opportunity to elect a woman has been missed this time, and that’s deeply disappointing,” she said. “While I understand the temptation to gravitate towards a Puma attitude, I don’t think that is productive. In fact, I think that is counterproductive. It will result in an outcome, if it becomes widespread, that elects John McCain by accident or de facto.”

I really don’t know how I feel about this article.  It’s got me stumped.  Let me explain what’s going on.  7 female pro golfers have been approached by Wilhelmina Artist Management and they are sprucing them up, sexing them up, and taking shot of them to promote them and get them endorsements.  

When Dieter Esch began looking at the players on the LPGA Tour, he quickly figured out that something was missing. He sensed they always appeared out of place . . . swinging nine-irons, hitting out of bunkers, putting cross-handed on the green.

So Esch decided it would be a great idea to put the golfers in something different, something the casual public does not see them in, at least up to now. 

Like bikinis. Like lingerie. Like evening gowns. 

“This was perfect, to show the world there are sexy, athletic women who can play,” said Esch, who is using his company and his clout to turn seven female pro players into model citizens. 

I have such a problem with this because why do women need to prove that they’re sexy and can play?  I don’t see the same thing happening for men.  It’s as if they need to show their sexiness and their femininity in order to be recognized for the players that they are.  This sounds a lot to me like what’s happening with the WNBA and how the women are being sent to charm school.  I also wanted to mention that we don’t see male athletes in their tighty whities to promote themselves.  Granted Michael Jordon has the Hanes endorsements but have you ever seen an ad of him in underware or half naked?  Have you ever seen him wearing less clothing than what he would wear on the court?  Why do women have to expose themselves in bikinis and lingerie, which is NOT something they should be seen in public in period, not like the article suggests.  

The part that I am happy about is that they will be promoting them and trying to get them better endorsements.

The agency will seek sponsorship and endorsement deals for the women as a group and as individuals.

Wilhelmina has launched a campaign to get them work, and, well, exposure.

Clients interested in one of the group or all of them may make up their mind as they thumb through a bound booklet of color photographs of the players, posing in bikinis, summer dresses, and more slinky dresses.

If it’s not just a good read, Esch says he thinks it’s certainly worth at least a look, or several.

There is a basic need being met here, he said.

“There was simply not enough pizazz on the LPGA Tour,” he said. “The players had no representation to speak of, no advertisements to speak of. It’s a crime, so Wilhelmina is taking it upon itself to change that.”

Endorsement income for female golfers is far from great, especially when compared to their male counterparts, although there are exceptions. Michelle Wie’s estimated $12 million is the highest among LPGA Tour players, according to Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list, while No. 1-ranked Lorena Ochoa earns an estimated $6 million from her endorsements.

Those totals pale in comparison to the estimated $90 million to $105 million that Tiger Woods annually brings in from his endorsement deals.

It seems like a double edged sword.  On the one hand they’re trying to promote these women and get them the same amount of money in endorsements that their male counterparts get, but on the other hand they’re basically forced to become models and parade around in bikinis and slinky dresses in order to get these endorsements.  I don’t think that’s right.  I think they should be endorsed on their merits as professional athletes, not on how they look in bikinis and lingerie.

“I deserve to live free of shame…my body is not my enemy…pleasure is my friend and my right.” ~Alice Walker

I just finished the first part of my book, Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation called Your Life as a Girl and I have so much to say. It’s a bit disturbing to me how I could relate to these essays on so many levels because what each essay talks about is the seriousness and the tragedy that girls suffer on their quest to becoming women.

Gender Identity

This part spoke about how when you’re in grade school, before the pressures are placed upon girls to be subservient to boys, they’re on an equal level with them and intellectually they still are even when they hit Junior High and High schools, but they’re taught not to be so agressive or they’re not picked on by teachers or they’re afraid of being teased by the other kids for being too smart, setting girls up to dumben themselves to conform to societal needs. I know I felt this same pressures in school. I was never one to really speak up in class after I reached Junion High because I didn’t want to be thought of as dumb. I didn’t want to ask questions when there was something I didn’t understand for that same reason, and I also didn’t want to give off how smart I actually was. This was more along the lines of peer pressure than anything else, because my mother was always telling me that I was smart and I could do better. My teachers were more concerned about my behavior because I was always one to question things and I was always a bit rebellious, even before I was a teenager. I was a handfull! I started noticing boys in 4th grade, and I think from then on out thing went down hill.

I also remember the different expectations that were placed on my brother than were placed on me. My brother was allowed to play and run around and be a mess, but I was taught to cook and clean and iron and sew from early on. I don’t mind the crafting portion of this, because I’m a pretty crafty girl (check out my other blog Crafty Girly.com). I think I read somewhere that Debbie Stoller, the editor in chief and mastermind of Bust Magazine considers crafting a way of taking back what is truly feminine by crafting because you want to not because you have to, but I’m digressing here. My brother was told to stop being a sissy, boy’s don’t cry, don’t throw like a girl, and all the other cliche’s you hear people tell little boys. I was primped and put in cute little dresses and told that I had to sit with my legs closed and that I had to act like a lady and stop getting so dirty. Then, when we were older, my brother was allowed to go out alone from an early age whereas I had to be chaperoned everywhere until I was 15 years old. It’s as if my mother felt I couldn’t be trusted because I was a girl, whereas because my brother was a boy he would be ok. She would tell me it was for my own safety, but I highly doubt that. What’s the difference between 14 and 15 in terms of safety? I feel that if somebody really wanted to do something to me, if they were to rape me, then they would and age would have nothing to do with it.

Finding Your Sexuality

There was also a story in here from Rebecca Walker which I felt was excellent because she truly touches on the shame of being a sexually active girl because this is supposed to be something girls don’t do. She touched on how girls when they’re young are masters of transforming themsevles to become what they think the boys want them to be and how they wear all these different masks until it becomes apparent to the girl that the boy is interested in this fantasy girl and not the actual girl. I think at some point all girls fall into this trap in order to get the attention they want from boys. I was one of them until I realized how stupid it was for me to lie to myself because I was denying myself the ability to be truly loved and accepted for who I am, not for who I think they would like me to be.

What really catches my attention is how in all these stories they talk about labeling women and there is never the middle-of-the-road label. It’s always two extremes. Either she’s a good girl (pure) or a slut/whore, even if she’s still a virgin. All of these stories talk about how if you’re raped, you’re considered easy to the boys and a whore to the girls. If you’re with a boy you like and someone doesn’t like that , you’re a whore. If you hang out with a group of boys, you’re a whore. I was one of these in high school. I had more male friends than female because I could relate to them more. They understood me better and we just had a better friendship than I could ever have with the girls at my school, and because of this I was labeled a whore and was considered easy. I struggled with my self-esteem as most any teenage girl does. I had my little group who would make me feel better about myself and that was all I cared about. It was in Junior High that it was really bad. I don’t know what it is about that age but boys were dehumanizing in Junior High. They felt they had every right to do whatever they wanted to you. They would grab you inappropriately, label you to put you in your place if you stood up to them, things you hear about all over the internet and in books, and if you develop early, even more so.

Conclusion

This is how most girls are raised. This is how girls are taught to be a women. It’s no wonder that girls self-esteem is an issue. It’s no wonder that girls and woman are constantly struggling with their self-image and are prone to anorexia, bulemia, and will put themselves through plastic surgery.

This book, so far, has made me realize that I’m not alone in how I feel about the state of women in society and has encouraged me even more to be more active in helping to make woman equal in the eyes of our society.

Ok, this is totally off topic but felt I needed to share because it’s too funny to pass up.  Here’s a news clipping found from ABC Action News:

TAMPA, FL — Whether his name is a blessing or curse the man named God Lucky Howard was arrested by undercover detectives for selling cocaine in his neighborhood.

If the delivery of cocaine charge isn’t enough Howard is charged with the delivery of cocaine near a church, a school and public housing near North Avon Avenue in Tampa.

After obtaining a warrant Police searched Howard’s home and found an additional 22 grams of cocaine and a scale.

The investigation began toward the end of April and led to Howard’s arrest Saturday.

Howard remains in jail on $86,500 bond.

Maybe I have a weird sense of humor, but the idea of “God” getting arrested for selling cocaine near a church just cracks me up!

Good by George. You’ll be dearly missed, but you will keep us laughing in memory.

I took a much needed break this weekend since I’m in between summer semesters.  I should be back to my usual self shortly.  I’m currently suffering from “Post Vacation Syndrome” and it may take a day for me to shake it off.

Meanwhile, I’d just like to note that I must be doing something right by this blog as I am currently attracting trolls.  That — to me — is a sign that what I’m saying and what I’m writing about is right on the money.

More soon…

There’s been a bit of a stir about the pregnant teens in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  The story is all over the internet, starting with Time, the AP, and Feministing.  I’ve got some issues with the stories.  

Firstly, time is saying that the following:

The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC. “We’re proud to help the mothers stay in school,” says Sue Todd, CEO of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.

The problem that I see is that they’re pointing out that maybe the reasons the kids are deciding to get pregnant is because they don’t have to struggle in order to find proper care takers when they’re at school.  Maybe they should stay home and take care of the babies instead, making up part of the population who drop out of school instead.  This way we could make them welfare mothers instead of educated women.

What these people should be looking at is what is going on with them in the community, in their schools, with their friends, and even in their homes.

From AP:

Superintendent Christopher Farmer confirmed the deal to WBZ-TV, saying the girls had “an agreement to get pregnant.”

He said the girls are generally “girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life.”

From Time:

But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. “They’re so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,” Ireland says. “I try to explain it’s hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.” [emphasis mine]

What’s going on over there???  Why do they feel that the only way for them to have unconditional love is to become mothers??  That’s what we should really be looking at, not whether or not access to child care is too easily available for them.  

There is some talk as well about how maybe birth control isn’t available to these girls, but I think in this case, easy access to birth control wouldn’t have made a difference because they consciously decided they wanted to get pregnant together.  Why in the world they would want to change their lives in such a drastic way is beyond me, but I think the root of the problem lies in their issues with their self esteem and the fact that they’re seeking attention and affection that for some unknown reason they feel is lacking in their lives.

I watched a fairly disturbing movie Tuesday in class. It’s called Jesus Camp. I know this shouldn’t surprise me because I’ve witnessed some of the behaviors in this movie first hand, but it does. Let me just clarify that I didn’t actually watch the entire thing, I’ll be doing that in the near future – if I can stomach it. The professor played parts of the movie she felt were especially disturbing, and I can understand why.

Firstly, this movie is about a Pentecoastal group and is focusing on the “Kids on Fire School of Ministry”, and obviously from the name, this focuses on teaching kids. In this movie, and according to Becky Fischer, she likes to grab the kids while they’re young, and I’m talking anywhere from 7-10 years old. These kids are taught through fear of hell and they have dedicated their lives to the church and to Jesus, but these people take it to an extreme level.

Here’s what their website says about them:

The purpose of Kids In Ministry International is to impart vision to children and adults of how God sees children as His partners in ministry worldwide. The purpose is also therefore to teach, train, and equip children to do the work of ministry and release them in their giftings and callings.

It is also to teach, train, and equip adults to minister to children, teaching them how to train and release children into the things of the Spirit and to find an active place in the body of Christ in all areas of ministry. Those areas include evangelism, mission, the gifts of the Spirit, worship, hearing the voice of God, prayer, healing the sick, and more.

These purposes are to be accomplished through a variety of forms including but not limited to curriculum, books, other written materials, seminars, conferences, schools of equipping, crusades, outreaches around the world, tapes, videos, and the internet.

So okay, you’re preaching to your kids, you’re trying to teach them about your religious beliefs and trying to bring them up morally right, that’s all fine and dandy, but when 75% of kids who are home schooled are Evangelicals (as outlined in the movie), I think there’s a problem there. When you’re teaching children as young as 7 that abortion is bad, before they even truly know what sex is, and telling them that abortion is killing babies and that only 1/3 of your friends are with you today because their mommies kill 2/3 of them, I think there’s a problem. When little girls are not allowed to dance or enjoy themselves like most little girls do because they can’t “dance of the flesh” and can only “dance for God”, I think there’s a problem.  When they talk about not wanting to be judged by the public for their beliefs yet turn around and judge everyone else by telling them that their way is the only way and everyone else will burn in hell for their beliefs, I think there’s a problem.

I was watching this movie and these kids were shaking, talking in tounges, and crying because of all the people who are demoralizing “this great nation” by getting an abortion, and it just seemed to me as if this was a form of abuse. These people are forcing their children to grow up ahead of their time and you can see this in how most of these “kids” were acting like little adults, and this bothered me. What happened to trying to maintain your childrens innocence for as long as possible? These kids have been stripped of that at an early age and are learning about death and what their parents consider social wrongs. They’re teaching their girls that they have no right over their own bodies and everything they do they must do for God or else it’s a sin.

Worst of all is that they teach that science is a falsehood, that it’s there only to try to overturn God’s word and their way is the only true way to God. I have such a problem with this frameset because their religion is only a fraction of all religions that exist and they’re not even the ones with the most worshippers.  How can they discredit the other religions in the world by making such blanket statements as “our ways is the only true way.”

These people are raising these children to be “Soldiers for God” and Becky’s reasoning behind this is something along the lines of, “These people in the Middle East are teaching their children to be terrorist and they send them to camps and show them how to use a hand grenade and how to strap on a bomb belt. Well we need to teach our kids to be soldiers too. We need to teach them to be warriors in the name of Jesus Christ.”

To compare the way you are teaching your kids the bible to terrorists says a lot, in my opinion. Not to mention, they’re not taught any differently. What she fails to realize is that the terrorists are grabbing the kids and putting them in camps to be terrorist for all the same reasons these people are fanatically teaching these kids.  They’re turning the kids into terrorists because of religion and all the wrongs they see in the world.  Becky doesn’t mention this little fact in this documentary and I truly think it’s because she’s ignorant of the fact that what she’s doing is a form of terrorism and the same kind of terrorism that caused 9/11 because she’s preaching to these kids a fundamentalist type of Christianity that is just taking every single word in the bible literally and warping them to fit their needs.

These kids are not taught diversity nor tolerance. As a matter of fact, one of the children in the film says, “whenever I’m with someone who isn’t Christian I feel weird.” This is anti-tolerance. This is teaching your kids ignorance. I can understand being proud of your faith and worshipping your God in the way that you’ve been taught and in the way that feels comfortable to you, but to teach that this is the only way and everyone else is going to burn in hell is ridiculous.

Something else that caught my attention in the movie is that this same kid who was talking about he’s weirdness while being around other people who aren’t Christian also said that he’d been saved at 5 and was happy about that and was miserable before he was saved. How can ANYONE truthfully say that they were “saved” at 5? They haven’t truly lived yet! They haven’t been tempted by things other than toys and punching your younger sibling, or maybe the occasional innocent theft of something from the store, but no real big issues. That to me shows me that this child has no clue what life has in store and the only thing he is doing is verbally vomiting what he hears at home.

The mentality of this group is that of a cult. They grab people on the street when they are most vulnerable and preach to them. They say that the only way to God and the only way to salvation is their way and anyone who says differently is heretical and is going to burn in hell, just like they will if they don’t listen to them and start walking the straight path. They grab people like this one woman who’s husband was in the army and had gone off to war, kids, people who have experienced some kind of loss or are at a turning point in their life. They prey on the weak in order to preach to them and “save” them to earn brownie points with God.

What I want to know is why are these people so concerned with everyone else’s salvation and not their own? Why don’t they just worry about their own place in heaven and let me and everyone else worry about their own?  If these people are right and everyone else is wrong about which is the “right” way well to God, at least the rest of us are going to be having a grand ol’ time together in hell because the minority who believe this extreme view of Christianity are just that: the minority.

I found this showing of the movie on Google videos.  Play it when you have some time and see what I’m talking about.  As usual, I love comments, so comment away.