Bends Towards Justice

US strategy in Afghanistan sanctions abuse of women

2008-12-29T22:47:00.004-05:00

It has recently been reported that the CIA is now using Viagra as an incentive to get information and allegiance from Afghan warlords. Afghan leaders regularly keep up to four (significantly younger) wives, with four being the limit that they believe the Koran sanctions.

Afghan weddings are arranged, dowried affairs. Leaders gain status and power over their villages by tactical marriages. Child marriages have long been practiced in Afghanistan, and various governments have turned a blind eye. If you Google "afghan marriages", the first hit you get is an article titled "Why Some Afghan Women Prefer Death to Marriage". Female genital mutilation is still common.

The CIA is tickled pink that they've thought up such an ingenious strategy for eliciting information from normally fickle tribal leaders. What an incentive! A tribal leader who cannot impregnate his wives, or who is mocked behind his back for sexual inadequacy, is not long to be a leader. So, thinks the CIA, let's sustain and sanction the subjugation of women by forced marriage, genital mutilation, and child rape, and give our notoriously unreliable sources another tool to induce fear. And while we're at it, they continue, let's cripple our own efforts at democratic governance, because forced child marriages of mutilated women to older men wielding guns has always proven such a great democratizing tool.

Maybe I shouldn't be so surpised. The US Armed Forces has never shown respect for women, even their own wives and comrades, judging from the domestic and sexual assault records. Why should they give any more thought to destitute women in a third-world, war-torn country?

Women deserve better

2008-11-03T13:30:00.005-05:00

Via feministe

Don't forget to vote tomorrow.

Happy National Coming Out Day!

2008-10-12T22:53:00.002-04:00

It's a disappointment that I have nothing more to offer, but I'm coming out as an ally to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer folks, both those in my life and elsewhere.

Here's to a celebration of living openly and freely, without fear of retribution. Here's to kissing your partner tonight, whoever they may be.

Oh, and vote against Proposition 8 (CA). I may not believe in marriage as a sacred union, but plenty of people do, and they should be given the same legal and social standing as all y'all heterosexuals.

More on Palin

2008-09-09T13:01:00.002-04:00

Sorry, here's more on Palin. I have a morbid fascination with her, perhaps because, as Judith Warner put it, Sarah Palin is humiliating for women.

Yes, we should all leave Bristol Palin and the other little Palins alone, but the Republican ire is (duh) hypocritical. Remember when John McCain called Chelsea Clinton ugly when SHE was 17?
Here's the official list of books Palin tried to ban as mayor of Wasilla. You'll notice Webster's Dictionary is on there. Also, Harry Potter. As others have mentioned, this list is very similar to one circulated by evangelicals in 2000, albeit without the boy-wizard. So she wasn't even a creative censor? Insult to injury, my friends, insult to injury.
The Wall Street Journal calls Palin out for her flat-out lie about opposing the Bridge to Nowhere. Via TPM.
A follow-up on the rape kit thing: Rapes occur in Alaska at a rate of 76 per 100,000 females (2006, FBI). That's more than DOUBLE the national average of 32.7 per 100,000 females.
A Johns Hopkins study in 2006 named Wasilla High School a "drop-out factory". Fewer than 60% of students graduate. However, some claim that Wasilla's students are rather more transient than average, and may simply be tranferring to other schools.

Palin-bashing may be fun, but this is anything but.

2008-09-09T12:05:00.002-04:00

While Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town billed rape victims for evidence-finding (namely, the rape kit taken at the hospital). Barbaric and counter intuitive, yes, but some states still do it (Illinois was one of them, until Barack Obama co-sponsored the legislation to end it). However, Alaska governor Tony Knowles specifically banned the practice in 2000. The article is here, via Op-Edna.

McCain and Palin should answer for this. This sort of position is practically pro-sexual assault. How exactly does a city plan to prosecute rapists without physical evidence? It's already difficult for rape victims to consent to (free) rape kits and evidence collection, not to mention the (free) psychological services most states provide, without adding yet another barrier.

Moving is miserable.

2008-09-01T15:05:00.002-04:00

Year after year, apartment after apartment, moving is awful. In other parts of one's life, the more you do something, the better you get at it. Why don't we ever get better at moving? Why doesn't it get any easier? There's no learning curve for dirt, heat, and heavy lifting.

What to Expect When You're Aborting

2008-08-26T22:17:00.003-04:00

http://myabortion.tumblr.com

So my reasons for posting this are mostly empathetic: I empathize with this lady, and maybe if more women felt free to talk to their friends and families about unplanned pregnancy, we as a country could have fewer debates about what I can or cannot do with my uterus.

It's pretty much all there: She can't find any good advice. She's a little scared and lonely. All of my friends who have gotten pregnant fall into this category. It makes me really, really sad that ANY woman goes through this physical, emotional, spiritual, political whirlwind alone.

Thank the almighty for prophylactics and easy access to the birth control pill!

Huh. In unrelated news (or really not at all), I'm going in for a volunteer meeting with NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts on Friday.

Anyway, thanks to Jezebel for the heads up on this brave woman.

On coffee

2008-08-24T22:41:00.003-04:00

I've just been reading an essay by Anne Fadiman on coffee, and she makes this interesting point: Coffee is the anti-alcohol. Of course it makes sense-- uppers vs. downers, stimulants vs. depressives, morning vs. evening, work vs. pleasure-- but it struck me immediately. I don't know any committed coffee drinkers who are also committed sots. Plenty of drunks and frequent imbibers also consume coffee (indeed, many for its effect after a night of heavy drinking), but none in my acquaintance are true coffee lovers. But, as Fadiman points out, those of us who love coffee also tend to be admitted workaholics. Perhaps a person cannot truly appreciate both. How, then, is it determined? Do the coffee gods and the alcohol gods battle over every adolescent's soul? I started drinking coffee around thirteen, but alcohol not until I was seventeen. Nature or nurture?

Al Gore does it again.

2008-08-17T19:17:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry. Avert your eyes if you can.

2008-08-15T23:35:00.001-04:00

Food for thought

2008-08-15T16:27:00.005-04:00

A great post by Octogalore of Feministe about how thinking women (some might say, feminists) are made to feel bad about making money instead of selflessly helping others. Isn't this, the freedom to make a choice about one's career, one of the primary battles of third wave feminism? Traditional careers for women are as nurse, librarian, secretary, teacher, stay-at-home mom (if it's even considered a career). All are low-paid, under-respected "helper" jobs. Ergo the selfless woman. Someday, maybe, these workers will earn a higher wage. But, there are many reasons why a person might choose higher-paying work. Octogalore gets to many of them, and frankly, it seems to me the problem is with women judging women. Just now as I'm struggling to decide whether to pursue a high-paying career or a low-paying, supposedly highly fulfilling career, the fear of judgment by my friends and by society is certainly at issue.
One perspective on the current starvation in Haiti.
In embarrassing personal news, I just found out that GOP stood for "Grand Old Party". My vague understanding of the term had previously been "party in office". This belies my age, and the fact that the Republicans have been in power for too long.
I won't even pretend that I understand much of what's going on between Georgia and Russia, but my feeling is this: Russia is finally showing its teeth, and if we really didn't think they had any, then we're pretty stupid.
Two interesting points on the issue of the under-age Chinese gymnasts: a) Westerners have a hard time understanding that many Asian women look younger, longer; b) Coaches like Bela Karolyi have commented that younger gymnasts may be more desirable because they're "more fearless", and that's creepy.
Enjoy some awesome Pilobolus action with TED here.
Seriously disturbing: Bikini waxes for pre-pubescents.
Stop blaming the victim. It's sad for all of us when the parents of a child killed in a hate-crime blame the school for allowing their gay teen to wear high-heels, thereby "allowing" him to get killed. Similarly: Women in the UK who have a drink before they are raped receive 25% less compensation (which 25% of their rape are they responsible for?)

Phew! That was a lot. There may be another round-up later, depending on how boring work gets.

My problem isn't really with catatonic 22-year-olds.

2008-07-29T10:25:00.003-04:00

Congratulations, dead-eyed, hair-dyed girl. I have taken you off of my Loathe List, because I've decided it's not really your fault. Yet. You have a year or two more before it becomes your fault. I know, I know, back in the day we used to hold people accountable for their actions at 18, but you can have a free pass 'til 24 or 25. Why? Because your parents did a really awful job.

Here you are, aged 22, with a degree from a good university and the whole world ahead of you. Maybe you have a boyfriend (or a girlfriend!). Most of your peers will be getting jobs, apartments, maybe moving to a new city, and beginning their adult lives. You, however, will be kept chained to your parents' kitchen table and your father's AmEx by their threats and prerogative to keep you ignorant.

Keeping children, especially girls, dependent is doing them a huge disservice. It is a parent's job to equip their child with the skills to go out into the world. That means basic money management skills, and support for their personal, independent endeavors. This is especially important for parents of girls because girls have traditionally been very dependent, and it's a good way to ensure they'll be walked all over. You want to enable your children to walk away from an abusive partner, an unfulfilling job? Then you had better give them the skills to take care of themselves.

So, dead-eyed girl, it's not really your fault that you're completely inept as an adult, and I give you a free pass while you figure it out. Your parents are practically criminal, but I hope you've learned from their mistakes. You probably haven't, because you're enjoying your life of leisure and shopping, but I hope things work out for you.

Best of luck.

Feminists don't have a sense of humor.

2008-07-19T13:02:00.001-04:00

Thanks to I Blame the Patriarchy for the link!

All known mandates of social decorum were just broken.

2008-07-17T16:22:00.003-04:00

The woman in the next stall of the lady's room just picked up her phone and started having a conversation.

I flushed.

You know, when just such an episode was listed on CNN as a mistake not to make in a phone interview, I thought there couldn't possibly be people silly enough to do such a thing. Wrong!

I'm angry, and that's a good thing.

2008-07-13T21:26:00.003-04:00

Recently, things have been tough at The Castle (that's my current apartment). I moved in with Snarls in April, and things have been pretty hunky-dory so far, but there are several issues that really bother me. When I moved in, he was living with his best friend, a friend from college, and another guy. Friend from college and random guy both moved out, and that left just the best friend. Note: Moving in with your significant other and their best friend may be a bad idea.

So, let's face it, I am not one of the guys. I try to get along with everyone when we're in a group (to varying degrees of success), but our interests and pursuits are different. They are friends because their interests and pursuits are similar. I am not dating The Best Friend, and it's okay by me that we have very little in common, if we can get along. Recently, we haven't been getting along. Maybe he feels like I'm monopolizing Snarls' time, maybe he's resentful that I'm living in his space, maybe he just doesn't like having to change his habits to accommodate a new person.

I haven't completely cooled down over the division of domestic labor in the apartment, but I'm working on it. After talking to him once about dishes, I now just leave them be, wash my own, and he gets to them eventually. I feel like I do more than my fair share, but frankly, it's because I notice when things need to be done, they don't, and I don't ask them to do it. I just do it myself and then simmer. That's my problem, not theirs.

However, I have a very low threshold for intolerant speech, especially towards women. I don't think it's too much to ask that comments expressing disgust with aging women, "unattractive" women, fat women, black people, Jews and racial minorities, go unvoiced. They offend me, and out of respect for me, at the very least, if the speaker can't muster respect for the people he's talking about, I shouldn't have to put up with it. I talked to Snarls about it, and we didn't have any major solutions. He said he didn't want to have to feel censored, but that if it offended me then it was only respectful. I pointed out that these comments don't happen when we're in a group, and that they may feel like I'm "one of the guys". I'm not, and I don't like it. Snarls and I agreed that we would both try to see it the other person's way-- he would try to remember my feelings, and I would try not get mad at him at every comment with the knowledge that he was, indeed, trying. So far we haven't had a problem with this arrangement.

Snarls and I agreed, though, that The Best Friend probably didn't realize how offended I was by his comments and that I should really talk to him in the same manner and come to some kind of similar agreement. I need to do this, but I haven't yet. It's uncomfortable, and I find it hard to talk to him about it without getting angry. This is something I know I need to work on (but that's for another post).

Frankly, though, I'm tired of the eternal spewing of ignorant and hurtful comments. A joke about fat people, or a woman's breasts, makes it seem as if we are only our surface appearance. They degrade us, each of us, down to physical attributes. These comments tell me, and all of us, that we are only valuable so long as we are pretty, young, slim (and in my case, white). This may deserve another post as well, but I often wish that I could function in the world without my physical appearance. I think it gets in the way. My appearance is the very least part of me, and it really, really bothers me when we are judged solely on our appearance. And by we I mean women, because men don't get this nearly as bad. Unattractive, or fat, or older men are not judged merely on those attributes, but more by how they deal with them. Male comics make jokes about how fat they are, and they gain societal acceptance by their personality. Fat women are always primarily fat.

That's the end of my rant for tonight. I need to talk to The Best Friend and hopefully he will agree to keep those comments to himself, or at least for a time when I'm not around. It's my house too, and I want to be comfortable as well. Dealing with ignorance and hate speech will, no doubt, not end with this room mate. I need to get better at calmly discussing why I don't want to hear it, and more of us need to speak up about accepting and loving differences instead of cutting each other down for them.

More discrimination against religiously conservative women

2008-07-11T16:53:00.004-04:00

Link Here

Apparently, making the choice to veil oneself may disqualify a woman from gaining citizenship in a Western country. Even if this woman is a "radical Muslim", she is not reported to have met any of the general criteria for denying citizenship to the spouse of a French national, namely that a person may be denied if they have links to extremist groups or advocate radicalism.

Her biggest crime seems to be ignorance, and being kept ignorant by her husband and family, if that may be considered a rationale for denying citizenship.

This is Islamophobia is getting out of hand, and although France has not always had the most tolerant record towards Muslims, this is above and beyond. Western societies, take note of how NOT to determine citizenship criteria.

Station KMOV segment on Pfc. Lavena Johnson

2008-07-08T14:02:00.003-04:00

Get outraged: LaVena Johnson and institutional sanction of physical and sexual abuse of women

2008-07-08T10:43:00.004-04:00

Last week I came across this post from the wonderful women at Jezebel.

Pfc. LaVena Johnson was a bright young woman who didn't quite know what she wanted to do after high school, so she, like many other young people in her position, joined the Army. When she died in Iraq in 2005 at the age of 19, her death was deemed a suicide. Her father, a doctor, and the rest of her family are fighting to have the Army investigate LaVena's death. So far, the Army refuses to do so. My friends, consider the facts of her case:

The Army says that Pfc. Johnson shot herself in the left side of her head with a M-16 rifle. First of all, Johnson was right-handed, so using her non-dominant hand to shoot a relatively long rifle into her own head would be difficult, to say the least. Moreover, Johnson had several loose teeth, a broken nose and facial contusions indicating she received a beating, evidence of acid on her genitals and white medical gloves glued to her burned hands. And there was a trail of blood leading away from her tent. Oh, the Army said, it's just your typical suicide case where a nineteen year old beats herself up, burns her genitals with acid, sets herself on fire, and then shoots herself in the side of her head with her non-dominant hand. This couldn't possibly warrant an investigation.

Needless to say, I got very, very angry, and promptly wrote a letter to my congressmen who serve on the Armed Services Committee. It said, in short, that to fight a non-traditional war overseas, we needed a strong and healthy armed services, and that there is no reason to mistreat or injuriously ignore women who are ready, able and willing to aid our country in its admittedly poorly-run offensives in the Middle East. Our army needs women, whether it wants to accept that fact or not. So, we should be seeking justice for all armed service members.

Secondly, there's the disturbing fact that this case is all too typical. Our politicians say that they want to reduce violent crime, domestic violence and sexual assault, but leave this woman's family with ridiculously unsatisfactory answers concerning her death. How are we supposed to stop crimes against women when institutions like our own ARMED SERVICES refuse to tell the truth about what happened? Women are half of this country, and when politicians make promises to protect them and give them justice when they are wronged, it seems a poor policy choice to then ignore them in death.

If you're not white and male, like the highly-publicized case of Pat Tillman, you will be ignored by the news media. His own mother said that they were being treated so badly that she could hardly imagine how badly less publicly-known service members and their families were treated.

Here's the original post about Pfc. Johnson, and a list of the congressmen and women you can contact to force the Army to reopen her case to investigation.

First post!

2008-07-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

I've created this blog for several reasons.

One: Several of my jobs involve long hours in front of a computer doing very little.

Two: I blogged as a teenager (before we called it blogging), and I remember it as a sort of bulletin board and diary rolled into one.

Three: I want a soapbox to stand on, and the Interweb can provide one to anyone who desires.

I hope to blog about current events, social justice, and about words and language. These topics take up pretty much all of my free time. I'd like to tell you about them.