With thanks to Feministe
Showing posts with label gender issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender issues. Show all posts
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Aww, Hey Sugar
Obama had to apologize to a female reporter in Michigan not only for failing to answer her question but also for calling her "sweetie."
I know some will think this is a non-issue (look at the 241 tools who commented on that article), but I personally hate being called "sweetie" (or any derivative thereof). Especially by someone I don't know. It's one of those out-of-date diminutive nicknames that goes only to women. It's degrading and implies women's place as the complacent, innocent, sweet, non-threatening good little girls we're supposed to be. And it makes me want to gag.
I spent five years in the south, where they still seem to live by that last thing. You know, women aren't supposed to be loud or opinionated or free-thinking, and we're certainly supposed to be pure and sweet. I got called various forms of "sweetie" all the time and I wanted to slap people for it.
Oops, that's not ladylike.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
You Know What? You Can Keep Your Glaciers And Beautiful Scenery!
Ugh. Alaska just passed a bill reqiring parental consent for underage women to get an abortion. They had passed a similar bill way back in 1997, but after 10 years of legal battles it was ruled unconstitutional. Which it is.
OK, here's the deal. It would be wonderful if no teenage young woman ever needed an abortion. And if she did, it would be great if every young woman had the kind of family she could discuss this kind of thing with. But the sad fact of the matter is that there are many young women out there who CAN'T go to their parents about this sort of thing. For a multitude of reasons. In an extreme case, she could be a victim of incest and the father could be a member of her family. Her family could be abusive. Or it could be that her parents are crazy religious maniacs and would disown her, kick her out, or in some way severely punish her for a) having sex and thus getting pregnant and b) wanting an abortion. Teenage young women are much more responsible and perceptive than they are given credit for. In this situation, generally if they can talk to their parents they will. But if they choose not to talk to their parents there is usually a very good reason.
All these parental consent laws do is take young women who are already in a tough situation and make it worse. They also potentially put young women in danger. Think about it, if a family would harm a young woman for having an abortion, how will they react when she is visibly pregnant?
I guess you can't expect much from a red state.
Monday, April 7, 2008
A Stricter Standard For Women - Perish The Thought!
The New York Times website posted this article about weight bias. Basically, it says that women are scrutinized more harshly for weight and discriminated against at lower weights than men are. After weight gain, women receive more bias than men. Also, we receive it after a smaller gain (women only have to gain about 15 pounds to be discriminated against, men have to gain about 60).
Um...der?
Why do you think we have shows like King of Queens? Do you ever think we'd see a show with a heavy woman and a thin, attractive husband? Has there even BEEN an overweight female protagonist on TV since Roseanne?
I can tell this by living my life. I've been in the process of losing weight, and how I am treated is slightly better as I get smaller. Salespeople and waitstaff are nicer to me, people don't talk down to me as much, men look more, etc. I'm still considered "fat" but I'm smaller than I was and it's improved. It's really stupid, since I'm the same person I was 6 months ago, just with a little less meat.
Yes, this study is flawed. Self-report isn't the most reliable method of research. But I don't doubt the truth of the results. I've also seen this other study: this woman, who was thin to average, went into a store and looked around, and took note of how the salespeople treated her, how many greeted her, etc. She then went back to the same store a few minutes later wearing a fat suit and measured the same people and how they treated to her. It's probably no surprise that the same people were ruder to her and paid less attention when she was in the fat suit than when she was her thin self. At least after that was over she got to take off her suit and be treated nicely again. We don't all have that option. Fat suits are like blackface.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Roses Are Red, Nintendo Wii's Are Blue?
Here's a little something I found on Feminist Gamers: Best Buy held an event on March 30 called Wii for Women during which they gave away spa certificates as prizes.
I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't need spa prizes and pretty little giveaways to go get a Wii. All I needed was a Target ad that said "we have Wiis in stock" to get me to the store.
Women play video games. We don't need pedicures and facials and pretty little things to get us there.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
No Schwartzenegger Jokes, Please, Let's Be Adults
This is really interesting. There's an article on The Advocate about a transgendered man who is pregnant. He talks about how people act towards him, especially doctors who treated him differently or wouldn't treat him at all. His wife had a hysterectomy due to endometriosis many years ago so she couldn't carry a baby. Oh yeah, he became officially registered as male so he is legally married.
It's a really interesting article and apparently he is going to be on Oprah tomorrow. I hope she handles it well.
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