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Posts Tagged “
Violence Against Women
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vaggie tales
The Vagina Monologues Anniversary Celebration Was Wet & Wild
Earlier this year, author Nancy Redd was asked to give her 2007 body-positive book 'Body Drama' to 250 teenage Hurricane Katrina survivors at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the 'Vagina Monologues'. "I've harbored a major crush on Eve Ensler for over nine years," Nancy says. "Growing up with normal teenage angst and inadequate health education, I hated my vulva and I never referred to "down there" as anything other than a "hoo-ha". The Monologues were my introduction to feminism; nothing was more empowering to 18-year-old me than having a legit reason to scream "MY SHORT SKIRT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!" and "IT'S SUPPOSED TO SMELL LIKE PUSSY!" to the world." Below, Nancy fills us in on everything that went down in the (very fertile) Crescent City over the weekend, where 18,000 participants raised awareness of violence towards women by giving love to vaginas and the amazing women who own them.
Eve Ensler considers New Orleans to be the vagina of America. In fact, in her tribute monologue to New Orleans, Welcome to the Wetlands, she makes some pretty awesome comparisons to the vag, like:"We call her sultry and sexy when we crave her, but after when we want to demean her and dismiss her, we call her swampy and soiled."and
"We brag about her music, the way she moves, we beg to get inside her, but disown her later when she has needs."That pretty much sums up the ex-boyfriend we've all had and hated, right? More »
clips
More »
"They Said If My Parents Didn't Give Them Money They Would Rape Me"
It was difficult to decide what to clip from last night's television premiere of the film The Greatest Silence, which documents the years-long epidemic of rape in the Congo. There were the dozens of adult victims...the rapists themselves...and of course, filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson, who, according to at least one female critic, shouldn't have inserted her own experiences into her cinematic story. (Whatever, lady.) In the end, we decided to focus on the following: Maj. Honorine Mungole, a one-woman SVU unit who investigates the despicable crimes; 12-year-old Safi — who was raped last year after soldiers entered her home to loot it; and Mathilde, 4, a large-eyed moppet who was assaulted by a man in her village. (A full HBO screening schedule for the film can be found here.)More »
domestic disturbances
Swedish Man Drugs Pregnant Girlfriend In Attempt To Induce Miscarriage
Three months after a Wisconsin man reportedly laced his pregnant girlfriend's food with the abortificient RU-486, comes news that a 27-year-old Swedish man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for doing the exact same thing. The unnamed Swede reportedly attempted to make his girlfriend of eight years miscarry by grinding up abortion-inducing pills and mixing them into her yogurt. "The woman ate the yoghurt and suffered severe stomach pains and vaginal bleeding," reports CBS News (via AP). "When she later realized what she had eaten, she decided to have an abortion, fearing that the fetus had been permanently damaged by the pills." Although the story serves to underscore the reality that pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence — expectant mothers are more likely to be victims of murder than to die of any other cause — it also raises an important issue: does the prosecution of men who attempt to induce miscarriage in women help the cause of anti-choice activists? More »
clips
Badass, Self-Described Feminist Jane Fonda Drops The C-Word On Today
As many already know, actresses/activists Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler were welcomed onto the Today show this morning in honor of the 10th anniversary of Ensler's Vagina Monologues, the one-woman, pussy-positive show that has since become a staple of college campuses. And what a welcome they gave back! Ensler and Fonda, who sat down with Today host Meredith Vieira, discussed the epidemic of violence against women (Ensler calls it "femicide") both at home and abroad, most notably in the Congo, where the brutal torture and rape of women and young girls has become, for lack of a better term, de rigeur. But before she and Ensler got to the serious stuff, Fonda, 70, recounted just how she got involved with the Vagina Monologues and its related V-Day Foundation, dropping the word "cunt" in the process. Clip above.
Related: The V-Day Event Of The Decade [VDay]
Earlier: Why Is The Word Cunt Still Such A Big Deal?
hearts of darkness
"Here At The Hospital, We've Seen Women Who Have Stopped Living"
Anderson Cooper turned up on last night's 60 Minutes with a disturbing report about the Congolese civil war, specifically, the epidemic of violence against women in the form of almost unimaginable rape and torture. (Guns and knives in women's vaginas, people.) Although the epidemic of assaults is old news for some, there were disturbing new details, namely, that more and more civilians are committing the crime and that Congolese officials care so little about the problem that few cases ever go to court. In his report, Cooper interviewed 24-year-old Lucienne M'Maroyhi, putting a face to the hundreds of thousands of Congolese women who have been assaulted, and interviewed Dr. Denis Mukwege, who (despite his simplistic description of rape as "sex as a weapon"), does an admirable job helping to heal the physical and emotional wounds suffered by the women in his care. Clip above.
broadsides
Dear Britney, We're Worried About Your Liver
- Britney should be worried about her liver, and not just because of her coke snorting and purple drank-ing — because of her Taco Bell-laden diet. A recent study showed that mice on a high fat diet were much more susceptible to liver injury. [Science Daily]
- The World Toilet Summit is currently getting "down to business" in New Delhi, but they're not talking bidets: They're working on getting third world denizens clean water and hygienic potties. [AP via MSNBC]
- Note to germ fearing gym-goers — a new vaccine against super Staph Infections is looking promising. Don't fear the elliptical! [Science Daily]
lost causes
Media Glare Often Reflects Off Skinny White Women
The notoriously aggressive British tabloid press has been obsessed with the disappearance of 4-year-old Madeline McCann since she vanished from her family's hotel room at a Portuguese resort this past May. The majority of the the scrutiny, as Broadsheet pointed out this morning, has fallen on Maddy's mother, Dr. Kate McCann. In September, Kate was named as a suspect in Maddy's disappearance. Most recently, Kate was quoted as telling her mother, "If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic." An editorial in the Daily Mail contended that Portuguese women have been especially unsympathetic because Kate's, well, a a skinny bitch. "Anyone who has traveled in Spain, Portugal, Italy or Greece knows how young mothers quickly come to look like overblown roses... It's hard not to imagine Portuguese women murmuring to their husbands that this British woman is — yes — much too skinny."More »
broadsides
As Always, Oprah Winfrey Is Ruining It For The Rest Of Us
- Women between the ages of 50 and 70 are about to become the richest demographic in the United States, claims writer Marti Barletta. We'd see this as cause for celebration except that the inclusion of Oprah Winfrey probably skewed things a bit! [AdAge]
- Leaders of the Sikh community in Delhi are calling for an end to over-the-top wedding celebrations, claiming that such events cost so much money for the brides' families that they could contribute to female infanticide or the aborting of female fetuses. [Times Of London]
- The same researchers who developed the HPV/cervical cancer drug Gardisil are working on a drug found in tobacco (of all things!) that could be used to prevent cervical cancer among women in India. [USA Today]
- The heavier a woman is before she becomes pregnant, the higher her risk for complications such as pre-eclampsia, premature birth and high blood pressure. [Reuters]
broadsides
Venus Williams To Go For Wimbledon Singles Title #4
- Serena didn't make it but Venus did: The oldest tennis-playing Williams sister has made it into the Wimbledon finals for the 6th time. She'll play Marion Bartoli tomorrow on center court. [SportsIllustrated]
- According to Joel Dykstra, a representative in the South Dakota state legislature, the words 'rape' and 'incest' are just buzzwords. "It's a bit of a throwaway line and not everybody who says that really understands what that means."[Feministing]
- Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be flexible on the issue of broadening Iranian women's rights. But, uh, probably not. [Salon]
- One woman in the NY Times' obituaries section today: Regine Crespin, 80, who battled through a difficult childhood with an alcoholic mother to become a famous French opera singer. [NYTimes]
broadsides
The Days May Be Different But The News Stays The Same
- Have you heard? This 26-year-old woman — 9 months pregnant — has been missing for almost a week. Are you as sick and tired of hearing about abducted and assaulted young women and girls as we are? [CNN]
- The fewer female relatives a woman has, the more likely she is to contract a certain type of breast cancer. [ABC]
- Women more likely to die from diabetes than men. Could this have anything to do with some of them leaving the disease untreated in order to lose a few fucking pounds? [Chicago Tribune]
- More adolescent girls — particularly 19-year-olds —are having abortions than ever before in the U.K; this news comes one week after UK officials announced that teens in England and Wales are "in the grip of a sexual health crisis, fuelled by a 'celebrity culture' that condoned alcohol abuse, drug addiction and promiscuity." [Telegraph]
broadsides
Bad Ad: Oh Well, We Always Liked Hubba Bubba More Anyway
- Offensive or stupid? We'll laugh at pretty much anything but yeah, this is kinda bad. [Feministing]
- Another, less-troubling side of vaginal reconstruction. [Feministing]
- Female porn stars are supporting Hillary Clinton. Radar]
- Women who aren't porn stars also supporting Hillary Clinton. [ABCNews]
- Gen-X moms get their way in the modern workplace. [Babble]
