Monthly Archives: January 2011

SAY NO to the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”

Posted in Reproductive Rights, Take Action! by

I haven’t written about this yet because I am just so f*cking angry that I see red every time I try to even think, let alone write or speak, about the GOP’s attempt to redefine rape.

I am speaking of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. A bill that, “seeks to revamp the current allowances for victims of rape or incest to use government funds to pay for abortions. Instead, the bill aims to limit the rape exemption to cases of “forcible rape.” Also, the bill would make it so that federal funds would only cover abortions in cases of incest if the woman is younger than 18-years-old.”

This act is terrifying because it leaves out women who are coerced into drinking too much and losing control, or blackmailed into having sex, or tricked, or are just too paralyzed by fear to even speak let alone put up a fight… but it is also terrifying because many times even rape achieved through plain old brute force does not qualify as forcible rape in our legal system. Sometimes, even if a woman says no and the rapist acknowledges on the stand that he heard her say no… well, that’s still not rape because she didn’t fight back hard enough (maybe because she was afraid of being beaten on top of being raped, or because she is paralyzed by fear? Just sayin.) The Republican party would have us believe that this woman hadn’t been raped, even though she was forced to have sex that she didn’t want to have and had to go through the same emotional responses and struggle that any other rape survivor has to deal with… how is this okay? Its not. It wasn’t when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court levied this decision in 1994, and its no more okay today in 2011.

There’s only one thing to say: we can’t let them do this.

When I think about this bill I don’t think about it in the abstract. When I think about this bill I think about the multitudes of wonderful, strong women who I have connected with through the Rape Crisis Center, both on the phone and in person. Women who have been violated by people with no respect for them, their independence, or their autonomy. When I think about this bill I see a reflection of that same disrespect that rapists have for their targets,  because it is a bill that seeks to take bodily autonomy away from the women who need it the most.

When I speak to someone who has been sexually assaulted in any way my main goal is simply facilitating them in taking back control over their lives. Part of that control for a rape survivor could very easily mean aborting a fetus that was produced as a result of their assault. To pass legislation that would make it even harder for a rape victim to regain that control, when she is already struggling with so much uncertainty and pain inside of herself, is absolutely reprehensible.

Please, please join me in writing and calling your representative to beg them not to do this. Say what’s in your heart but please, do what you can to make it personal because if we can just get them to understand that these are lives that they are dealing with, lives of people who deserve a break not to be broken down even further… if they realize these are lives that they are playing with, there is no way this bill can pass.

Some information to help us all fight back…

Democratic Representatives Who Support the Bill:

Dan Boren [D-OK2]
Jerry Costello [D-IL12]
Mark Critz [D-PA12]
Joe Donnelly [D-IN2]
Daniel Lipinski [D-IL3]
Collin Peterson [D-MN7]
Nick Rahall [D-WV3]
Mike Ross [D-AR4]
Heath Shuler [D-NC11]

A sample letter written by a blogger, use it to help you write one of your own! If you live in a district represented by one of the Senators listed above, or if you are represented by a  Republican (who is most likely supporting this bill out of party loyalty, if not personal investment) then please, please take the time to call or e-mail them to share your story and let them know that your support for them is riding on them voting against this terrible bill.

Sign the petition!

Join in the #DearJohn twitter campaign directed at Speaker Bahner.

Make your voice heard however you can because we cannot let injustice like this pass.

Blogging for Choice

Posted in Reproductive Rights by

Today is National Blog for Choice Day and, although I don’t have a lot of time today, I really want to contribute! So, this is going to be short and sweet.

Just hanging out with Sarah Weddington, the woman who (along with Linda Coffee) defended "Jane Roe" in the landmark Roe v. Wade case!

I am pro-choice because I believe that everyone should be able to live life based on their own beliefs provided, of course, that they are not infringing upon another person’s ability to do the same. To put it simply: I believe that your right to choose [whatever] extends all the way to the point where it encroaches on someone else’s right to those same opportunities and choices.

For example: I don’t agree that anyone has the right to choose to assault someone else, because your decision to do so causes unwanted harm to that other person.  On the other hand, I don’t have an issue with consenting adults taking part in BDSM, which can sometimes hurt and cause lasting injury, because in this context their actions are something that both parties mutually desire and, thus, no one is effected in a way that they did not want or having their free-will infringed upon.

Abortion works the same way, at least in my opinion. A woman’s choice to abort, parent, or adopt does not directly effect anyone but HER. If your moral code tells you abortion is wrong then you can follow that code by not getting an abortion if you become pregnant. Someone else’s moral code may not have a problem with abortion, and no harm will come to you if they get that abortion. Thus, you shouldn’t have a say in that situation.

Before any anti-choicers jump in I just want to say that I personally do not believe that this principle applies to the fertilized egg present at the very beginning of a pregnancy, or the zygote, or the fetus because at the time that most abortions take place the fetus cannot live independently of the pregnant woman. It cannot make decisions. Most of the time it doesn’t even have a heartbeat yet, nor can it feel pain. I understand that we do not see eye-to-eye on this point, and I doubt we ever will… but that’s the point that I am trying to make here. Thanks to the choice provided by Roe v. Wade the law in the United States currently allows us BOTH to exercise our opinions [with the exception of people who don't have the means to afford an abortion or the prenatal care recommended for carrying a pregnancy to term].

I truly appreciate the work of the many people responsible for fighting for reproductive justice (and social justice in general)  every day. Thank you all for making the world a happier, freer place!

The REAL Rules for Girls

Posted in Random by

The twitter trending topic #rulesforgirls is, for the most part, really awful. [See this Jezebel article for reference.] So let’s change that, I’ll start!

Here are some of my real rules for girls, boys, everyone really…

# Ignore the people who tell you that you HAVE to learn how to walk in heels, or shave, or wear skirts, or whatever… develop your own personal style and present yourself in whatever way makes YOU happy. You are the only person who will have to walk in your shoes, so you may as well be wearing a pair that makes you smile!

# Don’t ever sell yourself short (this includes “playing dumb”) you have a unique set of aptitudes and abilities, use them to contribute to the world around you as much as you can. If people can’t accept your talents and interests then they weren’t worth your time in the first place.

# Value your body by doing the work necessary to love your body for all that it does for you, exactly as it is. A positive, loving attitude makes it much easier to adopt habits that are physically good for your body AND your mind but that attitude takes WORK to cultivate in a culture that is constantly out to make money by creating and preying on our insecurities.

# Value your sexuality by taking the time to seek out resources and mentors that can help you determine what makes YOU happy and what your comfort levels are. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel inferior for the ways in which you express your sexuality, whatever they are.

# There will always be judgmental people who choose to put you down. You are stronger than them. You have the power to show them all by loving yourself in spite of their judgment… I’m not saying its easy, bullies are very talented at creating self-doubt and self-loathing, but you CAN rise above them and show them all how wrong they are. Even if it seems hopeless now, just keep trying because one day it will click. (I say this as a girl who HATED herself during Jr. High School because of the constant barrage of bullying.)

# If any person ever tries to pull a line like this (“if u deliberately give me an erection, plz get rid of it without complaining, its your fault! >:|”) on you remember you have the RIGHT to walk away from any situation, especially sexual ones, if you feel uncomfortable at ANY point. You don’t owe anyone sex. Period. If they choose to pressure you or trick you or intimidate you or force you in any way to do something you don’t want to do then THEY are in the wrong, not you, never you.

What would you add? Tweet it or tell me in the comments!

[Image source.]

(Social Justice) Skeletons in My Closet

Posted in Take Action! by

Shopping, specifically for clothes, is another awful guilty pleasure that I have given in to ever since high school, when the “shopping” switch got flipped in my head and I went from hating even thinking about clothes to getting excited about playing dress-up every day!

On one hand, this is a positive thing for me since my love of clothes stems from the hard-won acceptance of my body. On the other hand, my passion for clothing takes up a lot of time that I could spend doing more fulfilling things (like blogging or hanging out with friends or baking cupcakes), sucks up money (that I really could be spending better), and takes up way more space than I have. Beyond that, the way that I shop doesn’t currently fall in line with my passion for Social Justice.

I’d like to explore that last factor for a little while. The environmental harm of the inexpensive fast-fashion that I favor (because I don’t have the money to spend on “high-fashion”) has already been said much better than I can by other bloggers and journalists, ditto on the human-rights issues that come with these retailers. What I want to focus on is something that I haven’t seen as much said about… the racism (in the form of erasure) exhibited by many clothing retailers.

I was browsing the Forever21 website today (with no intent to spend money, I just wanted some mindless distraction) and all of a sudden I was just struck with how white every. single. model. on the site was. This inspired me to do a little quasi-experiment: I spent 5 minutes clicking randomly around the websites for stores I usually shop from, and keeping track of how many people of color I saw depicted on those sites, in larger fashion shots or modeling specific articles of clothing for sale.

Here are my results…

Forever21: 5 Images (all of the same model) in the Forever21 Plus Size Section.

Urban Outfitters: 15 Images dispersed throughout all Women’s sections, except for Intimates, and 0 Images in the Men’s section. (Approximately 3 different models.)

Modcloth: 15 Images (of the same model) all concentrated in the “Style Sealed with a Kiss” Special Feature. Since Modcloth photographs almost everything on a dress-form instead of a person, the numbers are skewed. The amount of diversity on the site varies depending on the model(s) chosen  for the special “feature” (where full outfits are shown on an actual person) in any given week. However, this site consistently tends to include a wide variety of models and often uses employees and bloggers as models, which encourages a much more diverse bunch of people showing up in their photo-shoots! Since they have hundreds less photos of people than sites like Forever21 and Urban Outfitters do a number like 15 makes up a MUCH larger percentage of the pictures on this site, thus, I consider them much better than Urban Outfitters even though the number is the same.

H&M: 11 Images (of two models) dispersed throughout all features. H&M doesn’t offer an online shopping option for the US, but they have a “Style Guide” and a few photo-shoots up on the site that all feature a variety of models. Again, the same points about volume of images as I made about Modcloth applies.

I think we get the point. Obviously this isn’t a very scientific study… for one, I was simply counting models based on a split-second assessment of their appearance, I very well may have missed a few images that should have been counted in my browsing. Furthermore, the entire concept of race is a social construct and there is no way to tell what a person identifies their own ethnicity as by looking at them (asking is the only way to do that).

There are without a doubt hard limits to what we can take from these observations, however thought experiments like this can reveal a company’s tendency to hire models that fit a certain mold (thin light-skinned women with stereotypically Caucasian features… you know, the dominant Western standard of beauty). Its fairly easy to see this when companies like Forever21 hire this type of model almost exclusivley and companies like Urban Outfitters only photograph a tiny fraction of their clothing on people of color.

Continue reading →