Prudie on “real” rape
Dear Prudence addresses every MRA’s straw-rape scenario:
...read moreQ. Friend Has Revised One-Night Stand Story: A friend recently called me and said she had a one-night stand after drinking too much. She was beating herself up over drinking too much and going home with a guy she met at a bar. I reassured her that everyone makes mistakes and didn’t think much more of the account. However, since then, she has told many people that she was a victim of date-rape—that the guy must have put something into her drink . She spoke to a rape crisis line, and they said even if she was drunk, she couldn’t have given consent so she was a victim of rape. She now wants to press charges—she has the guy’s business card. I have seen her very intoxicated on previous occasions, to the point she doesn’t remember anything the next day. I’m not sure on what my response should be at this point. Pretend she never told me the original story?
What Komen Reveals About the Ugly Truth of American Politics
A must-read by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker:
...read moreThe people who have urged Komen to stop supporting Planned Parenthood aren’t opposed to breast-cancer screenings; they’re opposed to other services Planned Parenthood provides, which include contraception and abortion. But a campaign to sever the ties between a foundation that’s raising money to find a cure for breast cancer and a health-care provider that advocates for reproductive rights exposes more than a division over contraception and abortion. It exposes a gruesome truth about politics in this country.
Victory!
...read moreThe Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation reversed its decision to cut funds for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood affiliates and apologized to the American people for what it said was casting doubt on its “commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.”
Facts, myths, and blankety-blank lies about Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Komen Foundation
As the furor over Komen’s de-funding of Planned Parenthood continues, more and more myths about PP, its mission, and the impact of this cruel and foolish decision are getting thrown around. Frequently, those myths get lost and go uncorrected in the presence of bigger and more ideological arguments.
That’s really not fair.
Alas, this is merely the tip of the bullshit iceberg. As the Komen debacle is nowhere near coming to an end, we can expect new and exciting myths and lies to arise, like the head of a Hydra, as others are debunked. To that end, watch this space, and by all means contribute your own debunkings in comments.
...read moreWomen refuses to give raped daughter EC, brags about it on internet.
Ah, the kindness of pro-lifers: [trigger warning]
...read moreMy Dark-Haired Daughter, who suffers from bipolar disorder and limited cognitive abilities, went missing last Monday. For more than 48 hours, we had no idea where she was. Without all the gruesome details, after she was found, it came to light that she’d been brutally and repeatedly sexually assaulted. She’d been taken to the local women’s shelter, where (at least in our area) they do the exams in such cases.
Congrats, Washington!
...read moreWashington appeared almost certain to become the seventh state to allow same-sex marriage after the State Senate voted late Wednesday for a measure that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry beginning this summer.
Disabled Bodies in Able-Bodied Contexts
No one wants to be pitied, but many people are comfortable having others to pity. And it’s easy, if you haven’t thought it out, to pity someone in a wheelchair, or someone who walks tapping her way with a white cane. It’s much more complicated to think about that wheelchair, or that cane as something that opens up the person’s life … and would open it up much more if buildings and streets were more accommodating to a variety of needs. It’s not only complicated, but potentially deeply disturbing, to think about high-tech prostheses, maximized for the needs of a particular person with particular skills at a particular time in his or her life, to think that a “disabled” person perhaps has something that works better than what “normal people” are issued with.
[Nudity below the fold]
More on Komen and Planned Parenthood
...read moreThe truth is that anti-Planned-Parenthood sentiments aren’t about abortion; they’re about hostility to women, and particularly to female sexuality. Abortion makes up 3% of its services. Cancer screening and prevention are 17%.
Five Ways to Support Health for All Women
As Caperton covered yesterday, the Komen Foundation recently pulled $600,000 in annual funding for Planned Parenthood, making it even more difficult for low-income women to get necessary cancer screenings. Nona over at GOOD offers a list of five other ways to support women’s health, and offers organizations to support that don’t put so-called “pro-life” values ahead of actual women’s lives. If you’ve got some extra cash, consider putting it toward actual health care.
...read moreFNTT Season 8, Round 1: the Slutty Slut-Sluts edition
Background on FNTT here. Click through to read this round’s contenders. The usual reminder: Comments below are abusive, insulting and may be triggering.
...read moreFNTT Season 8, Round 1: the REAL FEMINISTS edition
Background on FNTT here. Click through to read this round’s contenders. The usual reminder: Comments below are abusive, insulting and may be triggering.
...read moreThe Komen Foundation decides not to stand with Planned Parenthood after all
As Planned Parenthood faces repeated attacks on federal funding from legislators who seem happy to disregard women’s health as some minor fringe issue, it depends more and more on individuals and organizations that see women’s health as an essential and integral part of people’s health in general–because women are people, see–and are willing to open their hearts and wallets. This used to include Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to fund breast cancer screenings and education through Planned Parenthood. Used to. Komen is in the process of breaking off its partnership with Planned Parenthood, pulling back funds in the neighborhood of $600,000 a year.
...read more
Recent Comments