First off, welcome all, a big thank you to all the contributors who provide links to articles for this diary.
It was a week wasn’t it? The stupid SOTU was a news hogger, on the other hand our newly elected Dem’s are running out of the gate and starting investigations to hold this joke of an administration to account. As usual though women win and women lose. I used the picture from the SOTU above because women can win! And we have some staunch supporters on our side now. The battle will not be won overnight but I could not be more proud to have these amazing women fighting for us and for our country.
This is why I chose the picture:
The cultural resurgence of suffragist style for the State of the Union
Chances are the media-savvy suffragists who wore white so their photographs would pop in print did not anticipate their successors would rely on the same tactics to shine on television a century or so later. Probably they didn’t think citizens would need to make such grand gestures anymore, that the once-radical cause of “women are also people” would simply be accepted as a given and would no longer require a uniform.
And yet, here we are: The House Democratic Women’s Working Group is calling for female legislators to wear white to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening. “Wearing suffragette white is a respectful message of solidarity with women across the country, and a declaration that we will not go back on our hard-earned rights,” Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, the group’s chair, told CNN.
Considering the near-parodic level of disarray that has come to define the Trump White House — where staffers are whisked in and out of the West Wing faster than Bachelor contestants are sent, via limousines, back to obscurity — the fact that these female legislators are able to coordinate literally anything, even their attire, makes them look more put-together than the President of the United States. Symbolism aside, it’s a bit of a flex, no? The effort is proof that these female legislators have it together, in the full sense of that word.
On to the news.
Oh boy, let’s start with abortion. I hate that we still have to fight this. I grew up with such freedom after Roe and now I feel such trepidation. It was a battle I thought we won and never gave a second thought. Yet, here we are today.
US abortion rights hang by 'dangerously thin' thread, pro-choice advocates warn
Three of the last abortion clinics in Louisiana remain open after the US supreme court stopped a law that threatened to shut them down. Advocates have warned the case shows how women’s reproductive rights in the United States hang by a “dangerously thin” thread.
The Louisiana law would have required physicians at abortion clinics to obtain medically unnecessary so-called admitting privileges to hospitals within 30 miles. The law was nearly identical to a Texas case the supreme court struck down in 2016.
“While this particular ruling thankfully falls on the right side of history, it illustrates a sobering reminder: the thread that women’s rights hang by is dangerously thin in so many places across the country,” said Ilyse Hogue, the president of the advocacy group Naral Pro-Choice America.
Donald Trump’s most recent appointee to the bench, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, voted to allow the law to go into effect and see whether doctors could obtain admitting privileges within 45 days. If they could not, they could come back before the court, he said.
Supreme court precedent is supposed to guide appeals court judges, but in a decision advocates called “rogue”, the conservative fifth circuit in Louisiana defied the supreme court’s recent decision and voted to allow the law to go into effect. The fifth circuit also upheld the Texas law, which led to the 2016 precedent.
“If the supreme court allows this law to stand, blatantly denying its own recent precedent, it throws into disarray the whole system of judicial review,” said Katherine Ragsdale, the interim CEO of the National AbortionFederation. If the law is later upheld, the court’s decision, “leaves everyone wondering when, if ever, they can rely on the rulings of the court”.
Sigh, more from CNN:
Read: Justice Brett Kavanaugh's dissent in Louisiana abortion clinic case
Read Justice Brett Kavanaugh's dissent
You will have to click the link to read it. Yuck.
This is from last month but I had to include it because it needs to be stated and shared that women do not want to abort a late term baby. This is a heartbreaking, traumatic decision a woman and her family needs to make. I do not understand how people do not have compassion for this.
Outlawing Late Abortion Seemed Like Such a Reasonable Idea Until I Needed One Myself
In the early years of our marriage, my husband and I eagerly planned our family. I relished my pregnancy and, when the time came, wondered at my daughter and the deep power I had in her creation.
We tried again to grow our family, but experienced only miscarriage. Three in a row. By the time another baby finally took, the expansiveness and easy hope of my first pregnancy was stifled by bad luck.
The first trimester came and went, then the second. Still, I felt anxious. At 7 months, I tried to think positively. I picked up my knitting needles and began a tiny sweater for this next baby girl. I was working the final rows of that sweater at an ultrasound, which my midwife hoped would ease my relentless worry. When she saw me knitting, the doctor’s eyes welled with tears.
She showed me black marks on my daughter’s ultrasounds: large, fluid-filled holes in my baby’s brain. She named it: Dandy Walker Malformation, and referred me to a neurologist to learn more. She listed my options: adoption, abortion, or parenting this child with heavy medical intervention for her short life. If I chose to deliver my baby, it would be a high-risk birth for both of us, complicated by my baby’s condition.
Why was she offering me these choices? Didn’t she know how deeply I loved my baby? I tried to respond, but could only manage a question, “There are abortions for women like me?” I was 35 weeks pregnant. I wondered if there had been a mistake.
“We don’t know.” She said. “We used to send women to Kansas. But we can’t anymore.”
Women and families in these devastatingly complex situations need trust and support, and that’s why organizations like NARAL fight for families like mine.
I admit this made me cry. These choices are so difficult and politicians have no place in them.
NY finally gets it right.
I'm an Abortion Provider and It's Time To Tell the Truth About Abortion in Later Pregnancy
New York passed the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) in January, legislation that will safeguard reproductive health access in the event that the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade. As a physician who provides abortions in New York state, I was thrilled to learn that access to reproductive health will be preserved for my patients and I hope that other states follow suit. Though physicians like myself and reproductive rights advocates celebrated the passage of the RHA, there has also been plenty of unnecessary outrage fueled by misrepresentation over what the bill actually does, as well as abortion later in pregnancy.
During Tuesday night’s State of the Union, Donald Trump repeated some of the worst myths about late abortion and the RHA. “Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth,” Trump said.
What Trump said grossly mischaracterized what the RHA does. Passed on the 46th anniversary of Roe v.Wade, almost 10 years after it was first introduced, the RHA ended an almost 50-year history of the state including abortion in its criminal code, rather than treating it as a medical procedure. The vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester, prior to 12 weeks, and about one in four American women will have an abortion in her lifetime.
The RHA now ensures that people in New York will have their constitutional right to an abortion; that includes the right to abortion after the 24th week in pregnancy if the pregnant person’s life or health is threatened by the pregnancy, or if the fetus has a condition incompatible with life.
As a physician and an advocate for my patients, I commend New York for passing the RHA. It was long overdue and will finally expand and improve access to medically necessary care. My patients have unique lives and circumstances that bring them to the decision to have an abortion, and it is my job, as a physician, to trust them and to support them. I am grateful to visionary lawmakers like the sponsors of the RHA and to Kathy Tran for recognizing that abortion access is in danger and taking steps to protect their constituents. I urge other states to do the same.
Virginia is a just a cluster of a mess now. The information flies faster than one can keep up. I am disappointed by all of it and it just keeps getting worse, for women.
Virginia: second woman accuses lieutenant governor of sexual assault
A second woman has come forward to accuse the Virginia lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, of sexual assault, plunging the state’s politics into further chaos and capping a week of sudden turmoil.
The Virginia state government has now seen all three of its top statewide elected leaders facing scandal. Both Governor Ralph Northam and the state attorney general, Mark Herring, have admitted to wearing blackface while Fairfax now faces two allegations of sexual assault.
In a statement, Nancy Erika Smith, the attorney for Meredith Watson, a college classmate of Fairfax, said “she was raped by Justin Fairfax in 2000, while they were both students at Duke University. Mr Fairfax’s attack was premeditated and aggressive. The two were friends but never dated or had any romantic relationship.”
The statement said that Watson is not seeking financial damages, but is simply requesting that Fairfax resign from office.
I wanted to believe he was not guilty, but now not so much.
This one really fires me up. It has always been common to blame the women for her own abuse but these girls were young teens, please!
Kansas judge calls children the ‘aggressor’ in sex abuse case with 67-year-old man
Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man?
A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet.
District Judge Michael Gibbens sentenced Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. That was eight years less than what was called for in Kansas sentencing guidelines.
In doing so, the judge opined that the girls, who were both younger than 15, were partly to blame for what happened and questioned how much they were harmed. The judge pointed out that the children went to Soden’s house voluntarily and didn’t appear in court when he was sentenced.
“I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,” Gibbens said before sentencing Soden. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell.”
The judge declined a request to comment for this story.
I will never understand the thought process that this Judge went through. Really.
So we go from that to this.
"Send Nudes": A New Study Shows How Often Boys Pressure Girls For Explicit Photos
A recent study has shown just how common it is for teen boys to coerce or threaten girls into sending nude pictures: an analysis of 500 accounts from 12- to 18-year-old girls about negative experiences sexting found that two-thirds of them had been asked to provide explicit images — and that the requests often progressed from promises of affection to "anger displays, harassment and threats." In an article about the study for The New York Times, psychologist Lisa Damour writes, "Teenagers are drafted into a sexual culture that rests on a harmful premise: on the heterosexual field, boys typically play offense and girls play defense… Most schools and many parents already tell teenagers not to send sexualized selfies. But why don't we also tell adolescents to stop asking for nude photos from one another?"
The study by Sara Thomas of Northwestern University found that less then 8% of girls shared explicit pictures because they wanted to; the rest did so because of a desire to please, acquiesce to, or avoid conflict with a boy. Moreover, while researchers found that both girls and boys send nude photos to one another, boys are nearly four time as likely to pressure girls to do so than the reverse. If the pair was already dating, the idea was often normalized with claims like "everyone else has a picture of their girlfriend," and if girls hesitated, some boys threatened consequences to the relationship.
Now that makes you go Hmmm about the story of the Judge, does it not?
Oh Ivanka:
Ivanka Trump Says She Is Not 'President of All Women's Issues'
Ivanka Trump, women’s empowerment genius, has helpfully clarified that she’s not here to address all women’s issues, in case for some reason you thought that’s what she was doing?
In an interview with ABC News, Trump was asked how she reconciles her new initiative to help 50 million women achieve “economic empowerment” in the “developing world” by 2025 with how the Trump administration’s policies actually impact women. Notably, the child separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“My job as a member of this administration is not to share my viewpoint when they diverge,” said Trump. “But my role in this regard is not ‘President of All Women’s Issues’ or running all women’s issues across the United States government.”
Sigh.
I actually read this at another site this week and was like “what”? I mean for real, this is still happening? Come on.
Woman Killed by Fire in Menstruation Hut, as Nepal Fights a Tradition
Parbati Bogati knew what to do when her period came.
Ms. Bogati, 21, sequestered herself in an abandoned house, in keeping with a centuries-old taboo that declares menstruating women impure, officials from her area in rural western Nepal said.
As the temperature dropped below freezing on Wednesday evening, she tried to keep warm, apparently burning wood and clothing.
By the next morning, her legs were charred and she was dead.
“It seems she also died from suffocation,” said Lal Bahadur Dhami, the deputy superintendent of the area’s police. At least three other peopledied this year while following the same superstition.
The taboo, which has its roots in Hinduism, is called chhaupadi, from the Nepali words meaning someone who bears an impurity. During women’s periods, it bars them from touching neighbors’ food or entering temples. They cannot use communal water sources or kitchen utensils. It is considered bad luck to touch them.
I have to stop here, read the whole thing.
Can anyone answer what these politicians are thinking? Do they have daughters? You know they had a mother.
Tory MP who blocked upskirting bill halts FGM protection law
The Conservative MP Christopher Chope, who gained notoriety after he blocked a bill to make upskirting a criminal offence, has used the same parliamentary tactic to halt a planned law making it easier to protect girls from female genital mutilation (FGM).
The Tory backbencher shouted “object!” when the bill was presented to the Commons for its second reading.
The amendment, co-drafted by the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith and crossbench peer Michael Berkeley, does not have government support, meaning it will struggle to find parliamentary time.
Chope has obstructed a series of bills in this way, including a bill to allow a women’s conference to be held in the Commons.
The FGM proposal, called the Children Act 1989 (amendment – female genital mutilation) bill, is intended to improve the 2003 law that prohibited the practice by allowing family courts to make interim care orders about children deemed at risk, simplifying the process.
Goldsmith called Chope’s decision to object “appalling”. In another tweet, he said: “In case anyone is tempted to believe he has a principled objection to private members’ bills, please note that once again he did NOT object to those put forward by his friends.”
“Christopher Chope is causing shame and embarrassment for the Tories but also for the country and it’s time for the Tories to show they really care about these issues by stripping him of the whip.”
Let us move on to some more positive news.
The UK may have the arsehole above but they are still accomplishing some good things for women.
United Kingdom Includes Economic Abuse in Draft of New Domestic Violence Bill
While the Trump administration is stripping away the rights of victims of domestic violence, politicians in the United Kingdom are seeking ways to expand protections for victims. Months after the Department of Justice dangerously oversimplified its definition of domestic violence to mean physical violence, language in a new draft domestic violence bill in the U.K. recognizes that domestic violence has “psychological, physical, sexual, economic and emotional” components.
Notably, the bill acknowledges an often overlooked aspect of abuse: how abusers use money to maintain power and control over their victims. Research suggests that women in relationships with financial strain are more likely to suffer from repeated abuse, and that financial strain can trap a woman in an abusive relationship.
In addition to expanding the definition of domestic violence to include economic abuse, the bill would establish a “domestic abuse commissioner” to oversee public assistance for victims of domestic violence, would offer survivors automatic protection throughout a criminal trial against their abuser, require domestic abusers into rehabilitation programs, in addition to other provisions.
Love this!
And this!!!!
“She Persists”: An Unprecedented Show of Art by Women in “the People’s House”
Last month, a record-breaking hundred and twenty-seven women were sworn in to the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Now forty-four women have taken over the walls of Gracie Mansion, the official home of the Mayor of New York but also “the people’s house” of New York City. The occasion is “She Persists: A Century of Women Artists in New York,” an ambitious exhibition inventively curated by the young art historian Jessica Bell Brown, at the invitation of Chirlane McCray, the city’s First Lady. Sixty paintings, sculptures, videos, prints, textiles, drawings, and photographs are installed throughout the formally appointed rooms on the first floor of the Federal-style house. The results are harmonious and unexpected. Museum staples (the Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner, the photographer Cindy Sherman) share the stage with rising stars (the sculptor Simone Leigh, the category-defying Mickalene Thomas). Bell Brown also introduces some unsung heroines—including the First Lady’s late mother, Katharine Clarissa Eileen McCray, who sewed and embroidered hundreds of enchanting cloth dolls that she dubbed “Quashies,” in honor of own mother’s West-African maiden name. Three are on display, representing her daughters, Chirlane, Cynthia, and Cheryl.
Well worth the whole read!
Bahahaha! This one I absolutely love!
Women's brains appear "years younger" than men's, study finds
Women tend to outlive men and stay mentally sharp longer, and a new study out Monday could explain why: female brains appear on average about three years younger.
Like other organs in the body, the brain uses sugar as fuel. But just how it metabolizes glucose can reveal a lot about the brain's metabolic age.
A machine-learned algorithm showed that women's brains were on average about 3.8 years younger than their chronological ages.
And when compared to men, male brains were about 2.4 years older than their true ages.
No sh*t.
Just want to take you out with an amazing woman.
Brandi Carlile on her song to subvert the Grammys: ‘It's a call to action’
You should read the whole article. Here is her song.
Peace!