If you haven’t heard yet California has become one of my favorite states this week. How? By finally realizing that everyone has the right to get married if they want to. Crazy idea, I know.
Even though I use MomLogic advertising on my blog I wanted to share this article from Momocrats about Hillary and MomLogic dropping the ball. Hillary Clinton was interviewed by MomLogic, which I’ll admit I did not read. Luckily a few other women were reading and were able to put together exactly why it was poorly done. As commenter cynematic said:
Well holy geez, I never thought I’d use a variation on a neocon phrase, but I *hate* when women audiences are treated with the “soft sexism of lowered expectations.”
It’s a damn shame these companies, marketers, PR flacks and social media opportunists don’t actually READ the blogs of the Moms they target. They would learn an awful lot in a very short period of time if they did.
See, we already know we are moms. Yes laundry, dinner time, and guilt are already a part of our daily lives. I don’t need a president that knows how to get grass stains out of a white shirt, I need one that knows how to get Bush stains out of the country. Moms we may be, but that doesn’t mean we can’t wrap our pretty little heads around the big issues. Read the blogs of the women, the moms, that Hilary and MomLogic were trying to appeal to and you will see how many of us are thinking and writing about the things that matter in this country.
I guess Hillary’s fluff piece was another attempt to show how she’s not “elitist”. Hey, she’s just a regular mom like you and me. But if “elitist” gets honest talk about race in our country and no holds barred talk about the bitterness many are feeling (and oh yes, here in the Bible Belt there is a whole lot of bitter going on) then I choose elitist. Because that’s what I need from a president, not baking tips.
Some days I’m really sad to be an Oklahoman. It’s not enough that we have hate-filled bigots holding public office, now we have legal rape for women who dare step out the tiny confines of sexuality allowed them.
Here’s a clue: when you stick something, anything, inside a woman’s vagina without not only her consent but without giving her the choice to not consent it is rape. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, lawyer, gardener, or crazy hobo. It doesn’t matter if it’s a penis, handle, toy, or medical instrument. The point, which seems to be so missed on “pro-life” people is consent and choice. A woman’s body does not belong to her husband, father, politician, or president. She and she alone gets to decide what goes in, and out, or her body. Because, hey, it’s her’s.
The Oklahoma House has recently voted 80-12 in support of the Freedom of Conscious Act. This act was sold as letting pharmacists decide to get the pay without doing the job so they can look down on women with an air of moral superiority, however it also includes this fun little tidbit. [via Alternet]
Under the guise of obtaining informed patient consent, this new law requires doctors to withhold pregnancy termination until an ultrasound is performed. The law states that either an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound, whichever gives the best image of the fetus, must be done. Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest.
In case it’s not clear the law says that before a woman can even obtain consent to have an abortion she has to get an ultrasound, which ever gives the best image of the fetus. Which gives the best image in almost all cases? The vaginal ultrasound, a painful and sometimes humiliating process. Why? Why would you mandate a woman having something inserted with no medical reason? There’s a great discussion going on about it here.
Anti-choicers are willing to do anything — even make women suffer through invasive, sometimes painful procedures (as anyone who has had a vaginal ultrasound can attest, they are not pleasant) — to punish women. It’s not about “life,” and it’s not about saving babies. It is about controlling, punishing and doing harm to women who make unapproved sexual choices.
And there’s a discussion on the entire bill going on at Menstrual Poetry that you should read as well.
One fundamental flaw in things such as this is this idea that some have about their own power. An idea that seems to dictate that if they just say “no, you can’t” you will immediately stop. Heh. I can’t get my toddler to stop peeing on the cat and they think passing a law that turns women into walking wombs for the state will make them stop having abortions?
Making abortion illegal does not stop it.
Figures show that 10,000 women die every year in Nigeria from unsafe abortions, carried out by untrained people in unsanitary conditions.
Did you catch that? Here, let me try again. Making abortion illegal does nothing to stop it.
In Peru alone, an estimated 50,000 women a year either die or suffer serious complications after an illegal abortion. [link]
No, still not sure? How about this. Making abortion illegal does not stop it, does nothing to affect the circumstances surrounding abortion, and conveniently overlooks that some of those clumps of cells they are fighting so hard to save will, in fact, grow up to be the very women they hate.
“Pro-life” Where life means a clump of cells floating in someone’s body, yet a fully formed human being doesn’t count if it has a uterus. I feel a Friday Feminist Fuck You coming on, if only I had a webcam.
I like my music politcal. That’s why I’m mostly drawn to old protest songs from the 60s and 70s and poli-punk of today. I like songs that mean something, that say something that I can get behind. Generally metal isn’t on my radar. Sure I can appreciate a little Kitty or Slipknot from time to time, but that’s not really style.
That is until I was introduced to OTEP over at Anachroclysmic. Check out those vocals. In a male dominated musical genre hearing a woman belt out stuff most of the guys can’t come close to knocks my socks off. And of course the lyrics won me over.
More capitalist crimes.
More enemies than allies.
No WMD’s - who gives a f**k if they die?
Just kill ‘em all, watch ‘em fall,
Skin the world with their lies.
It’s the rich man’s war,
But its the poor that fight.
Stand up.
Speak out.
Strike back!
Stand up.
Speak out.
Strike back!
They don’t know, what they started…
CONFRONTATION!
However, Victoria Marinelli does more than just share some kick ass music. She also knows when to bring out the big guns. That’s probably why Erin (Queen of Spain) handed over her keys to Huffington Post and let Victoria call out a few people. Even if you’re not a metal head go read her post on why racism and sexism are competing. Both are destructive forces, surely the Obama supporters and Clinton supporters can come together to agree on that.
Since The Business Of Being Born has came out on Netflix childbirth in America has been a very popular subject. Childbirth is a huge business here in the states, one that many are looking at new eyes. We are often told how safe and wonderful birth in a hospital setting is, the drugs to ease the pain and the doctors and machines protecting us against all the dangers. And yet the more we learn the more we see that is just an illusion.
As Amy points out women are dying in the US. It’s the dirty little secret of the medical industry, one they work hard to keep under wraps. We have the second highest maternal death rate right here. In the country boasting advanced medical care and amazing leaps forward in science mothers are being killed and swept under the rug.
The maternal death rate in the United States is the highest it’s been in decades - 13 deaths per 100,000 live births and, even more startling, for black women 34.7 deaths per 100,000, in 2004. Gaskin asserts it also may be seriously underreported. According to the Center for Disease Control in 1998, “there is so much misclassification in the US system of maternal death reporting that the actual number could be as much as three times greater than the number officially published each year.”
But do we hear on the news about these women dying? Only if the deaths are related to a home birth or midwife. Maybe I’m outing myself as a conspiracy nut, but it seems that those who are charge of protecting women seem to be connected with those who make money off of them. We have already seen this mixture of politics and medicine in our country with the Govenor Rick Perry/Gardisal controversy. Perry was the one to push for manditory Gardasil vaccinations for all girls in Texas. He also has strong ties to groups that Merck lobbies through as well as receiving political donations from Merck. Is it really so hard to imagine similar things happening in the birth arena?
I wanted to end this on an uplifting note, something inspiring and encouraging. The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is just what we need right now. This powerful project, created by the famous Ima May Gaskin helps us to remember the women who have died from childbirth, the women not mentioned on the news or discussed in the real childbirth debates (unlike the fake debate that I won’t even link here, you know who you are).
The quilt is made up of individually designed squares; each one devoted to a woman in the U.S. who has died of pregnancy-related causes since 1982. One quilt square is designed and dedicated to each mother’s memory and may mention the date and place of death and the name of the woman. The Safe Motherhood Quilt is the voice for women who can no longer speak for themselves.
When faith alone is not enough,
To keep our heads barely above,
We look for reason and come up empty-handed.
And when our children fight our wars,
while we sit back just keeping score,
Were teaching murder not understanding now.
We’re setting the fires to light the way,
We’re burning it all to begin again,
With hope in our hearts and bricks in our hands,
We sing for change.
Their lives are bearing such a label,
Cancel debts we’ve yet to pay,
How could we justify anything now,
As long as we blindly obey and do exactly what they say,
We’ll have no one to blame but ourselves now.
We’re setting the fires to light the way,
We’re burning it all to begin again,
With hope in our hearts and bricks in our hands,
We sing for change.
We run on the fumes of injustice,
We’ll never die with the fuel that you give us,
Keep it coming ’cause I’m prepared to burn,
Keep running from me at every turn.
Your life around,
(into something true, into something true)
So turn your life around,
(into something true, something true)
We’re setting the fires to light the way,
We’re burning it all to begin again,
With hope in our hearts and bricks in our hands,
We sing for change.
I could say so much, but still not say anything at all. 5 years. 5 years we have been at war. For what? Oil, ego, false promises. Instead I’ll just hand the mic over to the people who say it better.
Even though I use 
Since 
