Via 4th Wave Feminism http://4thwavefeminism.blogspot.com/
Picture – Feminism Is For Men, Too
Category Archives: Feminism
Arizona’s Scary New Law For Pregnant Women
Pregnant & Clueless - Just how Arizona wants you, ladies!
I’ve been holding off writing this in the hopes that it would not pass, but alas…
Arizona – what, what, WHAT are you doing?!
The AZ Senate has approved a piece of legislation that will block doctors from being hit with malpractice lawsuits if they fail to disclose a child’s disease during prenatal genetic testing.
Yes, I said disclose, not discover.
Because now it’s apparently okay to ignore the Hippocratic oath and not tell pregnant women about their own children’s diseases in case they decide to get an abortion.
The GOP is so worried about abortions, they would rather see women die, children die, and lives put into ruin than let people make their choices about their bodies.
Bringing a child into the world who has a severely debilitating disease can be devastating to an unprepared mother and family. The emotion, energy, worry, and cost put into just the post-birth care for a child who needs immediate and constant medical attention can turn what would be a joyous occasion into one of chaos and heartbreak.
And all for what? So a doctor can sit back proudly and say, “well because of me she didn’t have an abortion!”
Listen up, AZ Senate, it’s not up to you to worry about what she may or may not do with a fetus. It is in her legal right to abort – and it is her right to keep the child. To withhold such information from anyone is selfish, terrifying, and above all careless.
So fellow Arizonans, please contact your House representative & Governor Jan Brewer and let them know the “Wrongful Birth” bill is doing more harm than good – and helping no one.
Quote: The Future Of Feminism
My vision? A feminist movement that works toward a world where no one is limited or defined by their gender identity.
A quote from Miriam in her goodbye post to Feministing. Even if you’ve never followed her work, I strongly suggest reading about her thoughts on the future of feminism and where the movement needs to go in order to be successful.
What I Can Do With Birth Control Coverage
Barack Obama is asking women what it would mean to them if they didn’t have to cover the basic health care of birth control. Here was my answer:
This policy will impact my life because I’ll know that every month, I’ll be able to be safe.
I’ll be able to control my painful cramps enough to go to my job every day.
I’ll be able to know that if I choose to be intimate, I’ll be responsible about it.
I’ll know that every month, I’ll have that extra $50 to spend on food, necessities, and my asthma medication.
I’ll be able to know that even if I have to take a lower paying job some day, I won’t have to choose between birth control and dinner.
I’ll be able to control when or if I have children, and how many.
I’ll be able to work in a career and know there’s minimal chance of me getting pregnant and having to cost the company money with maternity leave.
These benefits are numerous and I know I am not alone in them.
This benefits everyone – women, men, children, companies, families. Everyone is effected by birth control access in some way – being able to control not only your own health, but your own family planning is what allows 50% of the population to move forward and, in that, progress America.
To put yet another hurdle to birth control in the way of women is to say, “I do not want America to move forward. I do not want our workforce strong, our population under control, or our people happy.”
Alcohol + Consent
“She was drunk, how could she be raped? She probably just regrets it.”
“If she didn’t want to have sex, why was she drinking so much with him?”
“Take some responsibility for getting too drunk, it’s not his fault you didn’t want to have sex.”
Sound familiar? It’s the standard victim blaming responses to people who are raped when drinking.
There are a large group of people who – for whatever reason – do not like acknowledging rape outside ‘angry deranged man jumping out of pushes at night to attack virginal catholic young woman who was jogging to church‘ scenarios. And because the thought of rape in other circumstances makes them uncomfortable/fearful/angry, they twist the situation around to blame the victim.
The same argument comes up whenever a person is brave enough to share their raped-when-drinking story – “Why weren’t you more responsible?”
Should we ALL look out for ourselves and watch our alcohol intake? Absolutely. Is it more important to watch what you drink rather than to, say, make sure you don’t forcefully stick your dick in someone incapable of stopping you?
There is never a reason to rape someone. Someone being drunk, asleep, sober, awake – is not a reason for rape to be acceptable.
Should we blame the person for not stopping at the 4th beer? Is it their fault another person decided to ignore law, ethics, morality, and humanity by raping a person who could not adequately defend themselves? Fuck no!
Stop blaming the victim for drinking, and start blaming the person who made the conscience decision to harm another person.
Small rant inspired by the excellent Laci Green Sex+ video that really, should be shown in schools everywhere:
“Because I Am A Woman…
“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.’”
— Clare Booth Luce
Can I Be A Feminist If
I hear this a lot:
“Can I be a feminist if I shave my legs?”
“Can I be a feminist if I make a sandwich for my husband?”
“Can I be a feminist if I wouldn’t have an abortion?”
“Can I be a feminist if I am Catholic?”
“Can I be a feminist if I am a stay at home mom?”
The answer to all of these and more is a resounding YES! Yes, you can wear an apron, clean the kitchen, get married and have 100 babies and still be a feminist.
Unlike misogynists/sexists – feminism believes you should have the choice to do or be something, rather than having the choice made for you on the sole basis that you are a woman.
Feminism isn’t about how you look, what happens in your uterus (or even having a uterus), your religion, your marriage, your home life, your past, or who you make a sandwich for.
It’s about having the choice to be or not be something – and making that choice on your own time and benefit. To be a mother, or a wife, or a CEO, or a rockstar. It’s about choosing to be hairy or hairless, a breadwinner or a bread baker (or neither, or both), Catholic or Atheist or a worshiper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
So yes, you can be a feminist if you shave your legs. Or don’t have a uterus. Or do want to keep your baby. Or do want to stay at home. It’s not any of my business what you choose to do or be – but I will defend your right to choose it.
Boobs In Public: Not Cool Unless It’s Girls Gone Wild
Recently, the controversy of public breast feeding has been brought to light and debated again. Namely through a Target employee asking a woman to stop it, and a NASCAR driver calling breast feeding gross.
What the fuck is everyone’s issue with other people’s boobs?
Seriously, WHY is publicly feeding your child in a natural way a controversy? Breasts are there to feed babies! That’s their function!
Apparently there are people out there who don’t like to associate something they see as a sexual object with food for babies. Because like, ewww, a boob! That’s only for sexy time, why is it out here giving life to a child!?
“But Tegan, why don’t they just take it into a public restroom?”
Because would you eat your lunch in public restroom? I think it’s gross when people chew with their mouths open, but I don’t ask them to go eat in a toilet.
Also, breast feeding is natural, and not something that should be hidden away so we can all pretend it’s not happening. Chances are you were breastfed. There’s nothing gross about feeding a kid, and it’s not a breast feeding woman’s problem if you can only see her breasts as sexual objects.
There are large groups of society that condemn women who choose not to breast feed (a very normal and personal choice that shouldn’t be ridiculed) and yet, while we demand that they breast feed, we also demand that we don’t have to ever see or acknowledge it?
Also what’s with all these weirdos staring at women breast feeding their child? If you’re spending more than .5 seconds watching this, I am pretty sure you’re the one with the problem, not them.
Mississippi: “The best way to solve all our problems is to take away birth control.”
Mississippi sure knows how to solve a problem!
They have the highest poverty rate in all of North America.
They have the highest rate of childhood obesity.
They have the 8th highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the country.
And their shining crown of glory – the highest rate of teen pregnancy births in the country.
It’s a recession, people are out of work, fed up with wars, lack of resources, and fickle government. They’re getting knocked up all over the damn place and then feeding their children crappy food because nutrition education is lacking.
NEVER FEAR! yells a bunch of batshit insane ultra conservatives, WE HAVE THE ANSWER!
The answer to solve your most pressing problems of poverty, obesity, HIV, and teen pregnancy…
At last, something that focuses on the hard hitting problems that effect everyone: what is happening with someone else’s body.
Mississippi’s Amendment 26 looks to create a “protection of personhood for anyone of any developmental stage” meaning some sperm that’s wigglin’ it’s way in to an egg (or before, because conception is like fertilization, and pregnancy is a punishment for sex).
The poorly written, holier-than-though, white-top-class-privilege-denying load of shit defines personhood as beginning at fertilization or “the functional equivalent there of”, meaning the pill, Plan B, IUDs, the patch or anything that equals conception.
But that’s not a big deal, because sex is for procreation only which is why it’s a public matter and not pleasurable or natural, and therefor unneeded.
Also it solves the state’s problems, which was what again? Oh yeah, abortions and stuff. Priorities!
Mississippi readers, vote no on Amendment 26 so that rape and incest victims, those who enjoy sex, those looking to in vitro-fertilization, those who are married and don’t want more kids, those who cannot afford more children, and the common person don’t have to have their body and actions regulated by the government.
UPDATE: It didn’t pass, hoorah hoorah! While this is just a small victory (the amendment is going up in other states), it is still a big step! Keep fighting, uterus-defender!