Feministgrrrl90's Blog

Sarah Palin…..Do We Still Care?

Source

Apparently…some of us do. Some of us are still caught up in her sexy, soccer mom, gun totin’, ultra conservative madness. I guess we are all waiting to see what she is going to do next since she is out of office now and is not under the constraint of the McCain campaign. My question is why? Why do we still care? We watched Mrs. Palin dig herself into a deep, uncomfortable, often times laughable, hole with her horrendously unprepared television interviews, debates full of pathetic comebacks, and how could I forget the infamous winky-eye?
It frightens me that society still cares enough and that we are that easy to captivate. We are a sucker for the image and not the product. Sarah Palin will be on Oprah on Monday….will you be watching?

Finally…Some Justice?

Source

According to this article, women who have experienced the highest form of violation will finally be able to take back their power and start walking the road towards justice…with the simple fact of their rape kits actually being tested. What a slap in the face to those 12,500 women in Los Angeles alone (this year), who seek out the protection of the authorities only to find out that their rape kits are completely neglected.
The article states that in 2004, Congress passed the Debbie Smith Act which provided enforcement agencies with federal funds to test DNA kits. Earlier this year, Los Angeles was provided with 8 million dollars in Debbie Smith Act funds, but nonetheless it has been discovered that there are more that 12,500 rape kits backlogged. Where did all this money go? What happened to our enforcement agencies protecting and serving? While these kits are being thrown to the wayside, innocent women continue to fall victim to perpetrators who could have been brought to justice if the initial DNA kits had been tested, as intended.

Women Movin’ On Up

Source

Is it really any surprise that women, who make up half of our world’s population, should finally obtain a dominant role in the workforce? Why has it taken decades for women to not only establish a prominent position for themselves within the workforce, but positions of power rather than classic subservient roles?
Even though women now dominate in the workforce, we are still not equally compensated for our work. We are still treated as second-class citizens in that manner. Why is that? Is our rising presence and success in the workplace threatening the falsified power that men have created in society? Are we threatening their masculinity by taking on more “masculine” roles? I guess the last thing that men can grasp onto to try to oppress us and create the feelings of inadequacy is the inequality of pay. Pretty soon guys, you’re going to run out of options. What will you do then?

Interracial Marriage Denied…in 2009?

Source

Yes, you read the tittle correctly…an interracial couple was denied a marriage license in the state of Louisiana. Yes, it is 2009. Yes, it has been close to 60 years since the Civil Rights Movement. But apparently…does that mean anything? Do laws concerning tolerance and segregation effect the way one acts in their daily life or better yet judge?
This judge comments on how his decision to not grant the marriage license was for the simple fact that he doesn’t want the prospective child that the couple would have together to “struggle.” He claims not to be a racist, but simply just doesn’t believe in “mixing the races that way.” Sir, how do you expect any child, who is mixed, to have an easier time if you keep on feeding the problem? Are your actions exempt from effecting the children, whom you seem to be so concerned about?
When I see stories like this, I often wonder how far we have really come.

Celebrity Splits: Big News?

I was on the site The Huffington Post earlier today when I saw under the category of “BIG NEWS”- celebrity splits. In general, The Huffington Post is a liberal news site and tends to write on topics that are current and pressing, but with a more leftist point of view. Along with “celebrity splits” in that category were the topics Roman Polanski, Press Freedom, Glenn Beck, and Health Action. The rest of the topics all are in my opinion, news worthy topics and are issues that pretty much everyone is discussing.
But, what makes something newsworthy? Is it the importance of the story or simply what the news moguls know we want to read and see on there and will be popular? It’s a fact that our society is obsessed with the celebrity culture. Just look at how many magazines there are as we check out at the grocery store that are dedicated to giving us an insider look into the life of a celebrity. One almost always see the rack of those magazines completely sold out, but when it comes to Time, Life, or Newsweek there are plenty of copies to buy. I think that The Huffington Post is just giving us what we expect on a news website. We have expectations that when we go to see what the new developments in healthcare are, that we will also find our needed info on gossip and celebrities.

Stripper Poles for Toddlers?

Source:

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how I would feel about my three year old daughter twirling round on a stripper pole. Or giving that same daughter a doll that would allow her to breast-feed this “baby.” If I was currently a mother and was browsing the shopping aisles in Toys-R-Us I would be horrified to what society as well as toy manufactures are offering my child as ways of having fun.

From this post by The Huffington Post it is beyond obvious that toys have become more sexualized- for little girls at least. For the boys, machoism and masculinity have become more pronounced. It’s funny-if you are ever wondering what society’s conception of gender are, just look at a toy aisle and you will see them clearly pronounced. Girls are to be associated with all things domestic and now all things sexual, such as stripper poles, stilletos for new borns, and learning to shave off pubic hair. Boys are pushed towards the G.I. Joe’s and other similar macho action figures, as well as tool sets and even tattoo guns. All these toys are very stereotypical and reinforce the patriarchal culture that we are submersed in.

Sudanese Woman Jailed

Soure: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8241894.stm

Ms. Lubna Hussein, who was jailed for wearing these trousers in public in Sudan.

I was sitting at breakfast with my mom the other day when she mentioned that a woman in Sudan had been jailed for 30 days for the simple fact of wearing pants. I was so intrigued that I had to go investigate so more. I took a look at the paper my mom was reading, The Los Angeles Times, and not suprisingly, the brief article was hidden in near the back of the front page section.

I found this article on BBC, which went into more detail- even including some video footage. This news does not surprise me, yet saddens me that women still fight the daily struggle of showing their independence by simply wearing trousers in our day in age. The male, misogynistic, patriarchal culture that we experience in America seems to only be fractional of what women live with in countries in the East. Women struggle to have a voice, to be seen, and to be acknowledged as subjects rather than objects. The liberation of women which we have continually worked for since the turn of the century, is something that women in Sudan and other countries in Eastern countries are sadly, far away from. If they are still getting “lashes” as their punishments from their courts as if they were little children disobeying their fathers they have a long road to walk- but it can be done.

Don’t get me wrong, there is hope. If we as women, have obtained the vote, moved into the corporate work force, obtained rights over our bodies, women in other countries will have these same freedoms that we have and more. Our fight is never done.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!