When I first saw this story, I thought she was joking, but she's not. In trying to argue that rage, substance abuse and violence is a result of the oppression of the Aboriginal people, most people would be hard pressed to say that she's wrong. Addiction begets addicts, violence begets violence, and crushing and hopeless poverty and societal isolation does nothing to help. But that does not mean that no one should try.

That the NT intervention is heavy-handed and sucks at fixing the problems in Aboriginal society probably goes without saying. In 1999, one report found that "in Western Australia, Aboriginal women are more than 45 times more likely to be a victim of domestic violence than non-Aborigines." Putting troops on the streets, or interviewing every child about abuse, or curtailing welfare payments is not going to combat a systemic and (at this point) multi-generational problem. It requires education and equity in the legal system and would probably be assisted by poverty-eradication programs, better health care and living conditions and efforts to right the wrongs of racism (like some version of affirmative action). But it does not mean, as Greer suggests, "They can't get over [their rage] and it's inhuman to ask them to get over it."

If one accepts the premise that Aboriginal men are — consciously or subconsciously — expressing their rage over their position in Australian society on the bodies of Aboriginal women and children, one must also recognize that it is the wrong outlet. But domestic violence (as we learned yesterday) also stems from sexism, from an attempt to assert power over another person and from the failure to understand that it's completely wrong. That, even as Ted Bunch noted, more "brown and black men" are punished for it than white men is not a reason to refrain from punishing the former, but a reason to increase the equity in the system for the victims of the latter. And the last thing a feminist ought to be doing is advancing the idea that domestic violence is an understandable reaction to racial oppression and can thus be dealt with, if it still exists, when racial oppression is gone.

Australia Apologizes to Aborigines [International Herald Tribune]
Senate Paves the Way For NT 'Emergency Intervention [Crikey]
The Storm Within [The Age]
Germain Greer Writes on Aboriginal Rage [UPI]
The Truth About Aboriginal Domestic Violence [The Australian Paper Archives]

Bunch's group sessions involve a male and a female leader who don't take crap from their attendees and call them out when they say sexist things. They discuss everything from why a man would refer to grown women as "girls", to why catcalling is not a compliment to the women abusers additionally tend to harass, and any other sexist acts women are stuck dealing with on a daily basis. The men are asked to think about sexism as another way of exerting dominance over others, in the same way many of them have experienced being harassed by the police based on the color of their skin. Bunch doesn't fool himself that he's changing many minds — his advise to victims of abuse is to expect the same abuser back no matter how much he promises that he's changed — but he figures that maybe getting them to think about sexism and to be held strictly accountable for attending the classes (at the risk of being jailed) is a start.

Bunch probably wouldn't self-identify as a feminist, but he says such wonderfully feminist things like:

Calling [violence against women] a woman’s issue serves men because then men don't have to get involved in it. We need to start re-framing it, holding men accountable, changing the language so we have to start looking at our statistics in a different way like what you’ll see if you Google "domestic violence" is "domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women." That talks about the victim, but it doesn’t say anything about the perpetrator.

He also thinks we should all start saying "the leading cause of injury to women is men's violence." It's Bunch's combination of cynical resignation about the men he serves and his hopeful idealism about the society he'd like to change that makes him — and the work he's trying to accomplish — so fascinating.

Class Teaches Respect for Women to Batterers [WNYC.org]

Related: A Call To Men
Safe Horizon's Domestic Violence Accountability Program

Ms. notes that 60% of these types of restraining orders are violated each year, and that several other states have implemented the use of GPS to track abusers. The technology is already widely used to track sex offenders and other ex-cons. According to Ms., the way the technology works is "the offender is outfitted with an electronic anklet that communicates with a satellite. The victim can designate “exclusion zones,” such as her home or office, in which she would like to be protected. In the best programs, if her abuser enters these zones, police and the victim are notified immediately."

Of course, as Ms. notes, there remains a question of civil liberties being violated, especially since many accused abusers are often required to wear the GPS anklets before they go to trial. Are these violations worth it as long as women's lives are being saved?

Tracking The Abusers [Ms.]
Cindy Bischof's Legacy [Chicago Tribune]

Fully accepting Edwards' version of the time line of events, Bonnie places the blame for his candidacy on Elizabeth:

The bigger question is "why did Elizabeth Edwards drink her husband's Kool-Aid? How could she have possibly believed that her husbands affair would remain a private matter when he was running for President of the United States? Hello, the National Enquirer had already broken the story last fall. Why in fact, did she knowingly encourage her spouse to even enter the campaign when she had been fully informed about the affair for over a year? And she helped support and propagate John Edwards' image as a devoted husband and family man.

Actually, let's dispense with the problem with Bonnie's facts first. John and Elizabeth say that she was told "sometime" in 2006; Edwards threw his hat in the ring on December 28, 2006 (the same week Rielle Hunter was quoted talking about her documentaries in Newsweek). Elizabeth was, however, no where to be seen in any of the photographs or press reports. The first documented incidence I can find of them together was on January 14, 2007 when Edwards gave a speech for MLK Day, followed by a campaign event on January 20, 2007 — more than a month after the official announcement (and long after the decision had been made). Frankly, at the point at which John Edwards was contracting with Rielle Hunter to make documentaries of him in Summer 2006 — mistress or not — the decision for him to run for President had obviously long been made. So, she'd hardly been "fully informed about the affair for over a year" when she encouraged him to run — assuming, in fact, that' she's "fully" informed now.

That aside, there are plenty of reasons Elizabeth might well have assumed John's indiscretion might never come out. Anyone in Washington can tell you that plenty of men cheat on their wives in this town and no one ever says a word. If John told her, as it seems he is telling us, that he had a "brief" indiscretion with a staffer, that's a lot different than a long-term torrid affair and far less likely to become public. Elizabeth, by all accounts, has sacrificed a lot for John's political career and is as committed to his political goals (poverty eradication, universal health care, etc.) as he is. So maybe once she got over her grief and anger, once she made the decision to stay with him, maybe she convinced herself that no one else would ever have to know about her humiliation. Goodness knows that's not the first time that such a thing has come to pass. And looking at the race, and her husband and her political ideals, maybe it wasn't such a stretch to believe that a one-night stand wouldn't make the papers. Most politicians' don't.

The second point to consider is whether his indiscretions make him a bad father (in Fuller-speak, "family man"). Not that I wouldn't rage to the high heavens if I discovered my father had been unfaithful to my mother, but that would have almost no bearing on whether he was a good father to me or not. That's not to say whether John Edwards is or not — he might well not be and, if Rielle's child is his, I would guess that the general consensus would be he's not — but what he did or did not do with his penis on the side aren't the determining factor in that by a long shot.

Fuller's main point is this:

Well, she may not want to admit it but Elizabeth is as guilty as her husband at this point, in inviting the public into her family's personal life.

What evidence Fuller has for that is unclear. Because she stood by his side? Because she did what you do when your spouse is running for office? Standing next to him at a rally, or giving a speech, or sitting for an interview is tantamount to letting the press into your bedroom or the inner workings of your marriage? While I have no doubt that Fuller, the former editor of Star Magazine and US Weekly, repeated that to herself in the mirror every morning before heading to the office to scroll through paparazzi photographs to use in her next poorly-sourced, sometimes mean-spirited celebrity-gossip-filled issue, that doesn't make it, you know, actually true. I don't want Bonnie Fuller's minions in my closet at night any more than I want George Bush's.

Basically, Elizabeth Edwards forgave her husband and, by her own admission, wanted to be spared public humiliation so she didn't run through the streets telling everyone her husband had an affair. She began to try to make her own peace with it in her own way, and at the same time recognized that, in terms of policy issues, she still thought her husband was the best candidate for President and supported him. How terrible of her. While I disagree with her assertion that her husband's actions in the affair — especially given the timing, the money he paid Rielle to work for him, the kid, the shady antics involved in paying both her and Andrew Young to leave North Carolina and the possibility that he has continued to lie about it — should not be subject to public scrutiny, I don't think she bears any responsibility for his actions or her desire and willingness to continue to support him. He is the villain here, at least in terms of his marriage and the affair and its effect on his political career — not her. And slapping blame on her for convincing herself that her private humiliation might remain private is just ugly and unwarranted.

Today [Daily Kos]
Elizabeth Edwards Drank Her Husband's Kool-Aid And Became His "Ambition Enabler" [HuffPo]
Politics 2008: John Edwards, Untucked [Newsweek]

There is no upside to this story, so I will continue to list the gritty details. According to Amnesty International, "The Russian Federation does not have a specific law on violence in the family," and NPR reports that for the police to intervene in a domestic violence situation, the injury has to be so grave as to "prevent you from work for two weeks."

Number of women's shelters in Moscow: 0. Number of beds in the nearest women's shelter to Moscow: 7. Because housing is so expensive in Russia, many women, like one of the women interviewed by NPR, have to go back to living with their murderous ex-husbands because they can't afford to go anywhere else. Amnesty International tells almost the identical story, one of a woman named "Anna."

In December 2003, after her husband had threatened to set her on fire, Anna finally decided to file for a divorce. Incensed at her action, her husband destroyed the family’s possessions, including dishes and clothes. In March 2004, a week after the couple had been officially divorced, she returned with her older son to the flat, as she had nowhere else to go. Her ex-husband told her that he did not recognize the divorce and that he was going to have sex with her. During the incurring argument he doused her with inflammable liquid and tried to set her alight. While Anna had witnesses who could confirm what had happened, the police told her they could not do anything, because he "had not committed a crime". According to Anna, the police did not pay attention to the fact that he had a lighter nor did they check her coat which was soaked in the liquid.

Some Russian women, like pop star Valeria, have started to speak out against the endemic violence in their country, but silence on the matter still seems to reign. To send money to Amnesty International, click here.

Domestic Violence A Silent Crisis In Russia [NPR]
Russian Federation: Nowhere To Turn To: Violence Against Women In The Family [Amnesty International]
Domestic Violence: Russian Women Speak Out [BBC News]

We blog about stories involving domestic violence against women all the time, but it's worthwhile to point out the way in which stories about immigrants, specifically Muslim immigrants, are covered in a different way. An Atlanta Journal Constitution story from Tuesday notes that Mr. Rashid, a Pakistani native, "told the judge he wanted to observe his Muslim beliefs in the Clayton jail. He wants to follow a diet that forbids the consumption of pork in any form and requires other meats are prepared according to Islamic rules." Question: Is it customary for articles about alleged murderers to discuss their jail house dietary needs? Are reporters, consciously or unconsciously, trying to cast Rashid as the "other" when all that really matters is that a young woman is dead?

Dad Charged With Murder In Bride's 'Honor Killing' [CNN]
I'm Innocent, Says Man Held In Daughter's Death [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
Father Accused Of Strangling Daughter Over Marital Dispute [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

On the other hand, well, I really do like watching women kick some jerk's ass. Call me a reverse-sexist, call me an inappropriate fan of country justice, but there's something primal about watching a bunch of powerful women get some of their own back. In fact, in The Handmaid's Tale, there's a scene in which state-sanctioned violence against rapists by the least powerful women in the society is ritualized as a way of controlling the handmaids' impulses to rebel against their station. So, when I'm not watching Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell and Tracie Thoms beat the shit out of Kurt Russell, I sort of wonder if the fetishization of violent women is just another way of distracting us from the rights we don't have — like equal pay, say — rather than an actual equality.

Wait, what was I saying? That's so cool.

Guns Are A Feminist Issue [Asymmetrical Information]
A Deadly Myth [Violence Policy Center]

NPR:

Even at their bloodiest, though, those directors never sent their characters through the abbatoir the way Wanted does. As part of his training, Wesley gets pummeled mercilessly — and the existence of the Fraternity's miraculous "recovery room" doesn't make the damage any easier to watch.

Bekmambetov sometimes shows evidence of a lighter touch, as in the scene where a furious Wesley smashes a computer keyboard and the now-detached keys spell out a taunting message as they hurtle through the air.

Too bad the director doesn't show a similar irreverence toward such inane plot devices as "the loom of fate." Night Watch and Day Watch had ludicrous elements of their own, but those movies weren't nearly as into their own nonsense as Wanted is.

Los Angeles Times:

In a movie that musters barely more than a dozen speaking parts, there are heroes and there is cannon fodder. In a thrilling face-to-face battle that sends a passenger train plummeting into a gorge, there's not even a pause to acknowledge the collateral damage of the duel between supermen. Bekmambetov savors the way a target's forehead explodes as a bullet burrows through from the back, but the slaughter of innocents fails to hold his interest.

As much fun as it is to watch Bekmambetov play with his action figures, the movie would be more engaging if he ever got under their polyurethane skin. McAvoy tries mightily to bridge the gap between wheezy nebbish and eager assassin, but there's nothing pushing him forward beyond the movie's pronounced contempt for his former life. In "Wanted's" cosmos, there are wolves and there are sheep, and the sheep are not even worth pitying.

New York Sun:

The movie has its moments, one or two good jokes, and a satisfactory number of exploding heads, but, whatever its director's aspirations, it fails to convey that sense of another world — ours but not quite — that ought to be key to any comic book adaptation. A film of this type should be a magic carpet ride, exhilarating and impossible. "Wanted," by contrast, is as functional as a trip on the crosstown bus, complete with stops, starts, and periods of boredom.

Salon:

That's why Wesley's escape from mundane life is so cathartic for us, the audience. McAvoy is a young actor who has already proved himself in several radically different roles, among them a clueless young doctor in "The Last King of Scotland" and a tragic romantic hero in "Atonement," as well as, of course, a faun in a jaunty red scarf. Here, he's an Everyman with a shot at finally being somebody. Watching Wesley imitate, or attempt to imitate, Fox's leapfrog flips and gazelle-like grand jetés (on top of a moving train, no less), is freeing for us, too. "Wanted" has a sense of humor about itself — a sick one — and a pulse, albeit one that beats deep beneath the corpselike coldness of its surface. But McAvoy, jittery and alive, is its central nervous system. He feels it where it hurts.

Entertainment Weekly:

Wanted is kind of unintelligible and idiotic. Also kind of nasty and brutish. And also undeniably kind of fun, especially when Angelina Jolie, as an assassin (assassiness? assassinix?) appropriately named Fox, narrows her cat eyes, sets her lush mouth, flashes an Illiad's worth of tattooed text on her impossible bod, and brandishes firearms.

Wired:

Orchestrating the picture's gut-thumping action is Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (the Night Watch horror trilogy). He goes to the well a few times too many with his beloved slo-mo sequences, but Bekmambetov's noir heart is in the right place. Live-action stunt work dominates CGI effects in Wanted: Rats attack, cars vault through space with unearthly grace, shooters bend their bullets' trajectories, trains fall into gorges with a satisfying crunch and faces get pummeled in the best Fight Club tradition.

The New Republic:

Any film that features Angelina Jolie as an international assassin is, pretty much by definition, a film that glamorizes violence. But Wanted, the Hollywood debut of Kazakh-Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, does more than glamorize. It glorifies. It fetishizes. It consecrates. The crunch of bone against bone, the rasp of blade through flesh, and (especially) the planting of bullet in forehead such that it may emerge as a crimson bloom out the back of the skull—the movie's commitment to the staging of such traumas is so complete that they almost seem justified on aesthetic grounds alone.

Wanted is in many ways a deplorable film, but it is also—and, depending upon your perspective, this is either a good or a bad thing—an immensely stylish, effective one. More than any film since The Matrix, it is a ballet of brutality. But unlike Keanu's excellent adventure, which tarted itself up with mystical mumbo jumbo and a sci-fi conceit (and made sure most of its victims were computer simulations), Wanted is blunt and unapologetic. I don't believe I've ever seen a movie that advertised itself more plainly as an escapist fantasy for masculine impotence.

The New York Times:

What does turn up looks familiar — the slowed bullets, the air that ripples like water, an underground group, here called the Fraternity — especially if you’ve seen “The Matrix.” Although Mr. Bekmambetov and his team take plenty of cues from that film, they have tried to distinguish their dystopian nightmare by borrowing from even farther afield. To that end the Fraternity practices its murderous skills on pig carcasses (much as Daniel Day-Lewis does in “Gangs of New York”) while bunkered in a sprawling factory (that looks like Hogwarts). I’m pretty sure I saw the fabulous recovery room — a concrete spa filled with sunken tubs and lighted candles where Fraternity members go for restorative soaks after a hard day of carnage — in a layout in Vogue.

TIME:

As if in instant celebration of the Supreme Court's ruling on a citizen's right to bear arms — and of the newly articulated "individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation" — the burly new fantasy Wanted reveals the magic that can blossom when you put a gun in the hand of a meek wage slave and tell him he was born to be a righteous killer. Directed at a pitch of gritty giddiness by the Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov, who did the DVD faves Night Watch and Day Watch, this hard-R splatter-fest about a team of sanctified assassins is also the summer's zazziest action movie.

'Wanted' opens today, nationwide.

Rape is a crime that can never be condoned, yet women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence. As many of you know, for years, there’s been a debate about whether or not sexual violence against women is a security issue for this forum to address.

I am proud that today, we respond to that lingering question with a resounding yes. This world body now acknowledges that sexual violence in conflict zones is indeed a security concern. We affirm that sexual violence profoundly affects not only the health and safety of women, but the economic and social stability of their nations.

Which is totally great and something none of us would potentially expect being said by the foreign policy mouthpiece of an Administration that led us into a war under false pretenses but, you know, bygones. McCain's got to get women to vote for him, after all.

Unfortunately for the resolution, it's not got a lot in the way of teeth: "Specifically, the resolution requests that the Secretary General prepare an action plan for collecting information on the use of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict and then reporting that information periodically to the Council." Great, well, I think that's kind of what the Fourth Estate has already been doing, whether it's reporting on the increasingly prevalence of rape in Darfur or using historical records to document the brutality visited upon German women 60 years ago or any of the other known examples cited in Rice's speech or left out. Does the world really not recognize that rape is used as a weapon in a time of war? Does it have to be defined as an issue of national security before we give a shit about it? And, while it is important to call attention to the issue, do the women of the world need to be studied before they are protected?

Sexual Violence Is Security Issue, Rice Tells U.N. [Reuters]
Thematic Debate on Women, Peace, and Security [U.S. State Department]
Rape A Way Of Life For Darfur's Women [CNN]
The Russians in Germany [Harvard University Press]

I hinted at this a bit in my post about that Roman Polanski documentary, but people really took it the wrong way, saying that I was a rape apologist or something, which is just silly. I think what it comes down to is maybe the divide between second and third wave feminism. Or actually, maybe it's that some people don't accept that feminism isn't monolithic, and that we can (and do) have different views about a number of things, from porno to age of consent, with the one basic truth being that "women are people too." Of course I'm not a rape apologist. But I'm a child influenced by riot grrrl and the sex-positivity movement, so maybe things I say can come off as harsh, and perhaps get misinterpreted by those who don't place as much importance on those things. (Or maybe people placed too much importance on an IM conversation, which is always a more casual form of communication.)

Anyway, this is kind of related to that, but only slightly: What I'm getting at is that yeah, duh, rape is bad and awful and horrible. But there's so much more to our shared culture as girls than just rape, domestic violence and menstrual cramps. We have unicorns, and Easy-Bake Ovens, and our favorite vibrators, and Maybelline Great Lash, and a female presidential candidate, and stories of losing things up our vaginas for days on end that make us laugh.

I like the girl parts of being a girl. I can enjoy cross-stitching and cock-sucking. And I can express my own opinions without being labeled a bad feminist. And I, nor anyone else, should ever have to apologize for any of it.

Related: Bikini Kill - I Like Fucking [YouTube]

Heidi's full, thoughtful statement on why reproductive rights only matter to menopausal feminists that don't get it:

I don't think, Chris, that most women under 50 care about abortion rights, and here's why. Because women at that age have — Roe v. Wade was passed in '73, as you know. So all the women growing up — my generation, the women 10, 15 years younger than I am, it's always been legal. I don't think that 30-year-old women have any concept of what it's like not to have that right. So whether you stand left or right on it, it doesn't really matter to most women, 'cause they can't conceive of it. And on the other hand ... I don't think it's going to change. I don't think — no matter who's on the Supreme Court — it's going to be overturned. And the women who are complaining about it the most are too darn old to get pregnant. So I don't think it's a big issue for young ones.

Right, so, like, since we're all so young, we don't believe that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade despite the fact that the fundies keep spending millions of dollars pushing laws (like the South Dakota abortion ban and the federal partial birth abortion ban, to name just two) in the expectation that, eventually, they'll hit the mark with enough justices — that, notably, they're rallying around McCain to help get appointed — to overturn Roe v. Wade. Shhhh, children, don't look at the man behind the curtain. Your rights are safe. You don't have to vote for Obama to protect your reproductive rights. Doesn't John McCain make you feel inexplicably safe, like your safe old granddaddy? He would never hurt you. Shhh. You're getting sleepy. It's ok, just take a nap. Heidi will wake you up on November 5th. It'll all be okay then.

Radio Host Heidi Harris On Hardball [Media Matters]
Feminist Groups Prepare to Back Obama [American Prospect]

Other possible causes for violent acting-out in teen girls include alienation, alcohol abuse, poor parenting, and early development (if you ask the Daily Mail, feminism is to to blame! Imagine that!). Those early blooming girls who become larger earlier "might then become the more vicious bullies because they have grown bigger and faster than their peers," the BBC posits. [What? whatever, dudes. -Ed.] The good news is that many of these girls are only one-time offenders, and some social scientists believe that the number of female offenders has risen merely because the number of girls, period, has risen. Though if you see Amy Winehouse outside the pub, you should probably back away as quickly as possible to avoid potential head butting.

Crimes Committed By Girls Up 25% [Guardian]
Are Our Girls Getting More Violent? [BBC]
Fire-bombs, Mugging And Gang Warfare - Just What Has Gone Wrong With Girls? [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Girl-On-Girl Crime: Schools Step In
Amy Winehouse Arrested For Assault

Jane Doe rape kits are already available in Massachusetts and a few counties in Maryland, and though every state will have to provide the kits (valued at $800 each) for rape victims in order to receive federal funding under the Violence Against Women Act, it is up to each individual state to determine how long the rape kit is preserved.

In Cecil County, Maryland, kits are kept for 90 days. The FBI has been recommending Jane Doe rape kits since at least 1999, and previous survivors of rape are equally supportive of the measure. Kathleen, a rape survivor who was interviewed by the AP, thinks "Just to let people know this option is out there is good, to say, 'It's OK, you don't have to prosecute if you don't want to."

"Jane Doe" Rape Tests To Go Nationwide [CBS]

1. Air Gun
The trick with this is to lodge the ping-pong ball in the victim's throat, thereby blocking the airway to the lungs and suffocating him. It may take some time, and isn't good for fast-moving targets. It is good for people who won't shut the fuck up, however.

2. The Nuclear Globe
This inflatable ball may look like tons of fun, but imagine sending your victim into shark-infested waters? Or a river that — unbeknownst to him — has a steep and rocky waterfall? There may also be a way to kill or maim someone with that "Floating Fiesta" thing but I haven't figured it out yet. Suggestions welcome.

3. Jäger Tap
Simple: Replace the Jäger with antifreeze or some kind of homemade hemlock juice. Cheers!

4. Lawn Aerator Sandals
A swift kick to the face with these spiked shoes will maim; a subsequent stomping should kill.

5. My Muletto
I find the word "muletto" vaguely offensive, but I like the idea of being able to somehow use these straps to drive the heel of your shoe into a victim's eye socket. They should make the strap out of bungee cord, actually, so the shoe boomerangs back after doing damage.

6. Animated Hitch Critters
All you really have to do is drive in front of someone with this crap on the back of your car. Surely they'll be all "WTF" and distractedly tailgate; just swerve away and you'll never be a suspect in the resulting fiery crash.

7. BodyGard 5-In-1 Emergency Tool
Between the glass breaker and the seat belt cutter, it should be easy to dispatch someone in an "emergency." Especially if you're on an airplane. Or in a submarine. (If only Charlie on Lost had been able to break that glass!)

8. Batman Begins Cane Sword
Self-explanatory. Adding the ring and money clip would be a nice touch, but is not mandatory.

Earlier: SkyMall: Shopping The Friendly Skies For Pointless Products
More SkyMall: The Mile-High Commerce Club
Searching For The Worst Outfit In 'International Male'
Urban Outfitters, Free People & Anthropologie: What's The Difference?

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.

"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."

"We brag about her music, the way she moves, we beg to get inside her, but disown her later when she has needs."

This year, Eve decided to concentrate the power of her tenth anniversary on the community who needs it the most: the women of New Orleans, who, as Ensler explains, have "survived the fallout of global warming, failure of public structures, racism, economic hardship, and domestic abuse." (She calls them "Katrina Warriors".)

As soon as we walked into the Superdome, we were overwhelmed by the Biggest. Vagina. Ever. Very hypnotizing, and reminiscent of Gene Simmons' tongue!

Right after I arrived at the arena on Friday, author Gabrielle Roth had everyone come to the front of the stage for a fifteen minute "ecstatic dance" designed to release grievances and to allow positive energy to flow. The crowd was LOVING it, and I wanted Gabrielle to crowd surf so badly, because we would have caught her and it would have been awesome.

Afterwards, I checked out the art that decorated the Superdome, created by activists from around the world. Pieces included the biggest bra ball ever...

...an activist comic titled "Fuck, I'm a Victim," and V-Day memorabilia from the past ten years. One really cool installment was the Intentions Hut, where people could go inside and write their dreams and goals and place them in a box aptly titled 'Intentions.' This is where I found out that nearly everyone working the event — from Rosario Dawson's assistant for the day to the translator for Congolese doctor Dr. Denis Mukwege — was a volunteer, and many were college students or retirees. (The volunteer manning the Intentions Hut told me that her husband took Eve Ensler to his prom!)

A large part of the decision to hold the anniversary event at the Superdome was to transform horrible memories for Katrina survivors into positive ones. To do this, V-Day created three healing stations for local women (with some services and samples open to everyone) on the upper levels. To get to the stations, which was also where the food was, everyone had to pass through a giant glowing vulva. Perhaps for rebirth?

Once upstairs, there were massage sessions, yoga classes taught by Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman, and free haircuts and makeup application for Katrina survivors, who were truly enjoying all of the pampering.

There was also a jam-packed activism room full of creative and inspiring groups and organizations, like the women from SAFER, who displayed edgy t-shirts...

...and Rha Goddess, who offered her new book We Got Issues.

There were so many younger kids swarming around and it was heartwarming seeing them studying the artwork and questioning the activists about what they do.

One of the best stage presentations included a girl who looked to be about ten and who proudly exclaimed that in her life from now on, she was "going to ignore stupidity and claim self control." She is now my new role model.

There were quite a few guys (a.k.a. "V-Men") around, too, both as participants and spectators. Authors and activists Jimmie Briggs, who brought his proud mom and aunt (aw!), and John Prendergast chatted with Tara from CosmoGIRL! and myself in between adoring fans (of which there were many).

On Saturday morning, Asia Rainey, local activist and the force behind the Daughters of Hope Rites of Passage, gave us our cues and got us all charged up, and Eve Ensler came in to say hi to the giddy teens, who were nervous and thrilled about being onstage in front of so many people, where they recited skills they'd learned in mentoring classes.

A lot of the girls were super-amped about the fact that they were going to meet Kerry Washington afterwards, worrying that their cell phones wouldn't get good enough pictures. As I was lining up to go onstage to give my presentation — during which I gave a motivational speech and presented my book — I bumped into Dr. Mukwege, an amazing Congolese doctor who is at the forefront of next year's V-Day focus on stopping violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even though I let loose with an embarrassing scream of glee and a big hug he was incredibly gracious, just chilling in the waiting room wearing a sparkly red feather boa around his neck. I was hoping he would keep it on for the whole evening but alas, he took it off before his Q&A with Eve.

Next up was a Hollywood panel with Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson, Amber Tamblyn, and Ali Larter; it was a huge hit, and the ladies really opened up about a lot of the sexism and weight concerns that they deal with in the industry.

Women are actually lambasted for crazy things like their ARM size, y'all! When asked about racial stereotypes of females in the media, Kerry expressed her frustration about the few roles for black women that aren't maids or prostitutes, and said that when she had to play one of those roles she tried hard to make the character a real person and not just the stereotype. There were girls who started CRYING in the audience when the celebs came out, and a few teens were brave enough to sneak backstage to get hugs and pictures, and everyone was really cool and gracious about it.

For that evening's star-studded performance of the Vagina Monologues, the Superdome was packed and full of energy.

Eve's adopted son Dylan McDermott was sitting right in front of me next to one of his daughters.

For me, the Vagina Monologues are like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and other movie classics...even though I've seen 'em a million times and I have most of the lines memorized I still love watching from beginning to end. Seeing Eve perform live injected new life into the decade-old words, and I loved her vulva pantsuit.

The celebrities added an interesting flavor and there were some new monologues that had been introduced since the last time I did the show. After watching the touching monologue "They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy" in homage of the transgender experience, I had to Google one of the performers, Calpernia Addams, and I have found my new favorite time-killing video channel.

Towards the end of the performances, Jennifer Beals stole the entire show with her rendition of the crowd favorite "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy", aka "The Moaner".

Her and her backup moaners' renditions of the Irish Catholic orgasm moan "Oh, Oh, Oh PLEASE forgive me!" and the African-American moan "Oh SHIT! Oooooh SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT!" were absolutely hilarious.

At the afterparty at the W, I finally got a good look at Rosario Dawson's shoes and they were as I suspected - the infamous backward heels!

What's really funny is that earlier that evening, while we were both backstage, she seriously questioned whether or not my gold wedge heels were comfy. Anyway, she said her shoes felt fine but I wished I had asked her where she got them because my Google-fu is failing me and I NEED THOSE SHOES!

There was tons of food at the party, including made-to-order FREAKING chicken and waffles, y'all! (Eve and her people know how to throw a party.) Everyone was into the music and the atmosphere and the people and it was just a room full of hot, happy vaginas and their guy friends...a perfect end to an amazing weekend. Hope to see everyone in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009!

The V Day Event Of The Decade: V To The Tenth [V10.VDay.org]

Earlier:
"Here At The Hospital, We Have Seen Women Who Have Stopped Living"
New York Interviewer Accuses Vagina Book Author Of An "Anti-Waxing Slant"
Badass, Self-Described Feminist Jane Fonda Drops the C-Word On Today

Related: Body Drama [Amazon]

Girl-on-girl crime has reached a shocking high, as 25% of high school girls have reported being in a fight in the past year, according to a CDC survey. (CNN reporters, searching for the term "girl fight" on YouTube — got thousands of results.) And the Florida teens are not alone in the current news on young females engaging in fisticuffs: In Pennsylvania, a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl beat another 10-year-old girl so severely on a playground the night of April 3, that the victim has a shattered hip. The lawyers for the perpetrators are attempting to get them tried as dependents instead of delinquents. (If the girls are determined to be delinquents, they could be put in juvy until they're 21.) According to an AP report, the girls' lawyers are arguing that they're "too emotionally immature to understand the criminal charges against them." The victim, however, understands that she is still in the hospital and may need a hip replacement, simply because she was trying to defend her little sister from bullies.

Suspects In Video Beating Could Get Life In Prison [CNN]
Attorney: Girl Too Young For Attack Case [AP via Breitbart]

Earlier: The Meanest Girls At School Are Often The Most Popular

The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo [HBO]

Related: The Greatest Silence Official Site The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo [Women Make Movies]

Earlier: Critics Find The Greatest Silence "Chilling" But "Frustrating"
"Here At The Hospital, We've Seen Women Who Have Stopped Living"
In Congo, They Rape Three-Year-Olds

Though the attack shocked Sheriff Grady of Polk County — "That is animalistic behavior. It's pack mentality," he says — it's probably not that shocking to anyone who has witnessed a roving pack of schoolgirls firsthand. Growing up in New York I learned that girlfights were almost always scarier than any rumble the guys could muster up. Scratched eyes, pulled hair, ripped earlobes from snatched earrings — girls can be vicious. And the victors in these battles gain respect and support, as scientists have now "discovered."

According to the Telegraph, more than 600 students were asked to rate their school's cliques on popularity. Casey Borch, a professor of sociology at Alabama University, who worked on the study, says, "A lot of popular kids may not be well liked, but they are relationally aggressive and their peers think that they are popular." He also noted that girls as young as nine learn that being nasty can boost their "social visibility" and that girls are more likely to use aggressive behavior than boys.

And it's not just aggression: In a savvy marketing move, the Florida cheerleaders intended to post the video online, where it would not only serve as a testament to their dominance, but as a warning to others. Sheriff Judd says, "When we had them in custody at the station, they were laughing about it, saying, 'Well, I guess this spring break we won't go to the beach.' One of the suspects asked the detective, 'Am I going to get to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?' They showed absolutely no remorse at all." Maybe because they were so secure, so sure that nastiness and treachery would earn them respect and recognition — and it has.

Cheerleaders Pummel Girl For 30 Minutes In 'Animalistic' Ambush Attack, Police Say [Local 6]
Cheerleaders Tape Themselves Giving Former Friend 30-Minute Violent Beat-Down [Breitbart]
Teens Arrested Over Filmed Beating [CBS News]
'Mean Girls Are The Most Popular Students' [Telegraph]