Clearly women are far more powerful than we have ever dreamt we were, as shown by the fact that it took three armed men to wrestle a seventy pound teen-aged girl to the ground to confiscate her cell phone. I am breathlessly waiting for the head of the Houston Independent School District police to mansplain it all to me.
What was Perez being accused of? She says she was using her cell phone in class and refused to hand it over. According to KHOU, the school's policy requires students caught using phones in class to relinquish them to administrators and then pick them up at the end of the day after paying a fine.
When the 70-pound Perez was subdued, she allegedly handed over her phone. In Lucio's words: "The cop just said you can't use your phone, and after that, no words, no nothing, just actions: grabbed her, threw her down."
And of course there is more (isn't there always?) below that clearly feminine little orange thingy.
For a powerful two and a half minutes, stop over at Vox and check out this video: It's dangerous to be a woman in America.
Except, of course, when it comes time to actually, you know,
make equal pay possible.
After allowing the Paycheck Fairness Act to move forward last week, Senate Republicans turned around on Monday evening and unanimously voted to block the bill, which would ban salary secrecy and tighten rules to try to narrow the gender wage gap.
The vote came weeks after the Republican National Committee claimed that "All Republicans support equal pay." Senate Republicans have unanimously shot the bill down multiple times over the past four years.
The bill includes a number of provisions aimed at preventing the gender wage gap in the first place, which currently means a woman who works full time, year round makes 77 percent of what a similar man makes and hasn't budged in a decade.
Nice to know that we can serve to unite the Republican Party.
And in more election news, Hunter brought us this story of yet another Republican with frightening views on poor women.
Former Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce (R) resigned his position as first vice chairman of the Arizona Republican Party on Sunday amid criticism by prominent Republican candidates of Pearce's recent comments on sterilization and poor women.
According to the Arizona Republic, the resignation follows the Arizona Democratic party highlighting Pearce saying on his radio talk program that if he were in charge of Arizona's public assistance programs "the first thing I'd do is get Norplant, birth control implants, or tubal ligations…Then we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want [to reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job."
This would be the former Arizona State Senator the Russell Pearce that authored and spearheaded the state's notorious anti-immigrant bill SB 1070. Yes, he's a radio show host now. Of course he is.
CBS still doesn't know WTF it's doing. It is almost like watching a game of hot potato.
CBS just keeps compounding its ham-handedness coming out of the Ray Rice incident, and now, singer Rihanna is deservedly pissed. Last week, as the NFL reeled in response to video of Rice knocking his now-wife unconscious and Rice was dropped by the Baltimore Ravens, CBS pulled a song featuring Rihanna from its Thursday night broadcast of a Ravens game. This week, CBS thought maybe it would just slide that song back into its lineup. Rihanna did not appreciate that thought:
CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, Fuck you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this.
— @rihanna
Now, CBS is saying it will drop the song permanently.
And speaking of the NFL, the New York Times is reporting that
"Women's Views on NFL Dim in Wake of Domestic Violence Cases" Ya think?
Critics of the league’s handling of these issues include fans of all types, as well as politicians and some of the N.F.L.’s biggest corporate sponsors. But the anger voiced by women — including those who count themselves as fans — is particularly troubling for the N.F.L., which has invested heavily in trying to overcome its reputation as a domain for alpha males and find new consumers for its merchandise.
[...]
“The matriarch of the family predetermines an awful lot that goes on, from what sport you play to what media you watch to what products get bought,” Mark Waller, the N.F.L.’s chief marketing officer, said in explaining why women were important to the league. “The role of the female in the household is huge. On the emotional side, the role that the female builds that a family can gather around is fundamental. That sort of communal aspect, which is such a part of the game in America.”
I have no idea what those last two sentences are supposed to mean, but once the NFL gets beyond women as advertising targets, they apparently have little use for them, so little use that they can't even find the words for it.
From the LA Times comes this headline, Memo: NFL vows to support victims of domestic violence, sexual assault
Psssst. Hey, NFL, the best way to support victims of domestic violence is to stop creating them.
It is very hard for me to express how terribly unimpressed I am by the NFL's 'support' for victims, which appears to consist of making tax-deductible charitable donations, and promising to teach the NFL teams how to behave through participation in an educational program. Yeah, that'll work.
Goodell said the league will enter into long-term partnerships with the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. He said the Hotline will add 25 full-time advocates during the next five weeks, enabling it to handle an additional 750 calls per day.
The league will also provide support to enable Loveisrespect, a project of the Hotline and Break the Cycle, to service 24-hours-per-day text chats with young adults affected by dating abuse.
[...]
“Starting within the next 30 days, all league and team personnel -- including executives, coaches, players and staff -- will participate in education sessions on domestic violence and sexual assault,” he wrote. “These initial sessions will begin to provide the men and women of the NFL with information and tools to understand and recognize domestic violence and sexual assault. We will work with the NFL Players Association to develop and present this training in the most effective way.”
It would be so much simpler to just stop beating up on women.
In more hopeful news, Laura Clawson reported yesterday that a new White House program, It's On Us, is being rolled out in hopes of reducing campus sexual assault.
The White House is launching a major campaign against sexual assault on college campuses. Tagged "It's on us," the campaign "seeks to engage college students and all members of campus communities in preventing sexual assault in the first place," and will draw on the cultural clout of partners like video game company Electronic Arts, the NCAA, Viacom's cable channels, and more
But the most fun all week was had early, when Kira Kazantsev was crowned Miss America and heads exploded all over the conservative fantasy world Sunday night.
The new Miss America, Kira Kazantsev, isn't necessarily what you'd expect. She volunteered for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign. Asked what issue women in the Senate should be particularly focused on, she spoke about military sexual assault, with a shout-out to Gillibrand. She's spoken out about having been in an abusive relationship in college. And there's something else, something making Kazantsev the target of conservative venom: She interned with Planned Parenthood "where she supported staff members who provide sex education in the community and at local schools."
The horror! Naturally, conservatives can't hear "Planned Parenthood" without thinking "abortionabortionabortionabortion," even though in fact abortion is only 3 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.