April is Sexual Assault Awareness...and in a horrible April Fool’s joke, President Trump signed the awareness proclamation, a tradition begun by President Obama in 2009. Of course, there is an argument that if anyone should understand sexual assault, it’s the man who bragged about it and assumed every man would do the same. Many thanks go out to Besame, Ramara, EyesBright, ElenaCarlena, Tara and the crew!
So from that, on into the breach…
Violence Against Women
When I said April was Sexual Assault Awareness, this isn’t what I had in mind. A judge has declared that Kesha should have known Dr. Luke would abuse her. Therefore, it’s her fault.
Another Berkeley professor charged with harassment:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/…
Speaking of harassment, remember Fox ‘News’? You know, where Ailes lost his position after several women came out and accused him of sexual harassment? One of his backers was Bill O’Reilly...which seemed ripe, given he’d settled once for sexual harassment. Or maybe not just that...at least FIVE times. Fox, unsurprisingly, is still supporting one of their cash cows.
A Mexican judge has freed a wealthy young man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, on the grounds that the perpetrator did not enjoy himself. […]
In a ruling which was made public on Monday, Judge Anuar González found that although Cruz was accused of touching the victim’s breasts and penetrating her with his fingers, he had acted without “carnal intent” – and so was not guilty of assault.
González also found that although the victim, who was 17 at the time, was forced into the car of one of her alleged attackers, she was never “helpless”. Two of the other three suspects are accused of penetrating the victim.
https://www.theguardian.com/...
Although old, a fantastic article talking about where sexism has come from, looking at the history of Anita Hill. http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/...
It's hard to remember how bad things actually were - and how far we've really come regarding job protections. It's also REALLY valuable to use to show folks who really don't understand how bad sexism still is.
Here's a fun one...apparently, United refused to let a couple teenage girls board because they were wearing 'inappropriate clothing'...leggings.
http://money.cnn.com/...
United's trying to recover by saying it's because they were using employee benefit passes...but yeah. Policing the wear of employees' daughters...way to go.
Mexico City put a "penis seat" on a subway to raise awareness about sexual harassment. Here's how people reacted.
https://www.nytimes.com/…
Beyond just this, we still see sexuality used to attack women...and sexuality with women used to attack powerful men. I won’t link to it, but even here, we see incest jokes made about Ivanka, as a way to insult and attack Trump. Worst of all, these frequently get recommended.
Politics
Here’s a video not just about the GOP health care bill’s failure...despite the efforts to make it even worse against women...but also about Georgia and a rape kit bill.
Given what has come in his name, many forget that Mohammed was (for his time) a feminist. He began the push for women to have rights, his wife was a successful businesswoman, and that women were assumed to have the first right of custody in case of divorce. In fact, women could become — and did become — leaders in the Muslim world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...?
Women in AZ becoming leaders in a new movement.
https://medium.com/…
I’m sure this is a shocker, but women are still treated different than men. Whether it’s the pay gap increasing, or this. Remember when Kellyanne went out and advertised on TV for Ivanka Trump’s clothing? It was a HUGE deal (and should have been. When Secretary Mnuchin advertises — AFTER SAYING HE’S NOT ALLOWED TO ENDORSE ONE OF HIS PRODUCTS — that everyone should see a movie he produced? Almost crickets. All we got was an ‘oopsie’, and a ‘well, everyone should have realized he was joking.’
A legislator in IA decided to put forward a bill to make abortion harder...like, to the point it would be illegal EVEN IF THE FETUS IS DEAD. Because babies. Despite the fact there IS no baby. It’s all about women and sex, and usually is.
Good News
The people behind the deceptive video attacking Planned Parenthood have been charged with 15 felonies for invading medical privacy. This time, in California. There’s the possibility this time, it will stick.
https://www.usnews.com/…
Action
The biggest tournament in women's golf is set to happen on Donald Trump's golf course--earning him millions of dollars and invaluable branding, while forcing women players to support a racist, sexist predator.1 And KitchenAid, a brand that depends on women customers, is giving business to one of Trump's golf courses.2
But the good news is that the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) have been feeling the heat after a series of bad press and protests over their support of Trump have plagued their events.3 If we all speak out against KitchenAid for sponsoring a tournament, the press will notice, and KitchenAid will be forced to decide: are they going to stand with Trump and his hateful agenda, or will they stand with women and dump the USGA, LPGA, and Trump?
Petition - https://act.weareultraviolet.org/..._
On the good news side, Muslim women come out visibly against the Westminster attack. It was organized by the Women's March on London - once again, when women organize, it speaks LOUDLY. Beautiful photos. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/...?