Red Light Politics
Welcome to my short form Tumblr blog. My name is Flavia Tamara Dzodan, I am a business developer, writer, public speaker, ideas instigator, content creator, media facilitator and trend watcher living in Amsterdam.
This Tumblr is about the spaces and intersections between politics, culture, race and gender matters with some humor and pop culture thrown in the mix.
My long reads blog is Red Light Politics.
I also blog at Tiger Beatdown.
If you would like to know more about me, visit this page .
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What did I miss?
I’ve decided that I am not even going to try to catch up on Tumblr since Friday. Nope. Not gonna do it.
So, did anything important...
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Interesting
Just got a job offer? I know the company, it has a good reputation. And awesome downtown offices.But it’s not quite my style - their...
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“The new rules, which were given the force of an executive order, are a clear improvement over a draft version. If monitored and enforced, they could...”
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Heroism in the Supermarket:
Vitamin Water wants me to believe that drinking their sugary concoction will help to make me a superhero rather than...
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…and The Onion for the win, forever.
Tl;dr: All 10 ways are “Revolutionary Terror.”
(via TheNoobYorker)
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Last night got the pleasure to met and chat with the German Tumblr team.
These women were totally awesome. Total girl crush!
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“The institution of marriage is not under attack as a result of the President’s words. Marriage was under attack years ago by men who viewed women as...”
Tag Results
44 posts tagged women's rights
Party at Dominique Strauss Kahn’s tonight!
France eliminated sexual harassment from the penal code. From the article, in French (translation mine):
The Constitutional Council decided on Friday the immediate repeal of the law on sexual harassment that was considered too vague, effectively creating a loophole called catastrophic by feminist organizations. Today, all pending proceedings for sexual harassment have been canceled.
For an illustration of who is behind this Constitutional Council, see here their photos and bios (out of 11 members, 9 are men).
So, you know, effective today, it is actually legal to sexually harass women in France.
H/T @scolastik
“In its less than two months in office, Spain’s new conservative government has begun to introduce sweeping educational and reproductive health reforms, prompting protests from the opposition and from civil society groups, which see them as a throwback to an earlier era.”
SPAIN: Conservative Government’s Reforms Draw Fire - IPS ipsnews.net
From the article:
The measures proposed by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the centre-right People’s Party include a modification of the law on sexual and reproductive health, known as the abortion law, in effect since July 2010.
Justice Minister Alberto Ruíz-Gallardón announced that he would seek legislative changes in the timeframes for legal abortions, and would make parental consent obligatory for girls aged 16 and 17.
For its part, the health ministry said it would seek restrictions on the emergency contraceptive pill, or “morning-after pill”, which has been available in pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription since 2009.
More at the link above. Also, this attack on reproductive rights seems to be spreading across continents, specifically, in virulence.
“A number of women airline passengers claim that TSA agents at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport have been singling out women they deem sexy or attractive to receive “random” extra security screenings.”
Some TSA Agents Allegedly Targeting ‘Sexy’ Passengers for Extra Screenings | AlterNet
From the article:
A Dallas woman says TSA agents repeatedly asked her to step back into a body scanning machine at DFW International Airport. “I feel like I was totally exposed,” said Ellen Terrell, who is a wife and mother. “They wanted a nice good look.”
Not to beat the agonizing horse but when legislators are trying to take away women’s rights at an alarming pace, I cannot be surprised when semi official policing organizations take a cue and proceed to objectify women in gross ways. I mean, it’s all part of the same sociocultural context, no?
“Many Women Who Get Pregnant Are Blasted Out Of Their Minds When They Have Sex. They’re Not Going To Use Birth Control Anyway”
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Recently a powerful tool for analysis—really a breakthrough, in my opinion—came in the form of a sociological study, “The impact of light skin on prison time for black female offenders.” I suspect that because it’s academic—you have to buy it to read the whole thing—and because it’s wonky as hell, this Villanova University study didn’t receive a quarter of the attention idiotic party promoters, tweeps and rappers like Yung “Dark Butts” Berg do when they floss their color bias.
But the key finding in this study of more than 12,000 black women imprisoned in North Carolina between 1995 and 2009 is that those who were classified as light skinned by one or more corrections officers during intake served 12 percent less time than dark skinned prisoners. Along with height, weight, build, hair and eye color, there’s literally a color code—0 for non-light skin and 1 for light skin. (And lest you think light-skinned women prisoners in the study committed less serious crimes than their dark-skinned sistren, the study controlled for crucial factors including type of arrest, previous record, recidivism and prison behavioral record.)
”MA State Rep. Fattman Says Rape Survivors Should Fear Reporting Crime
Apologies if this has been all over the place already but it’s a national holiday around these parts so I haven’t been online much.
MA State Rep. Fattman Says Rape Survivors Should Fear Reporting Crime via Change.org News
Massachusetts State Rep. Ryan Fattman believes that rape and abuse survivors ought to be afraid to report their assault, assuming they are undocumented. No really.
We hear a lot of justifications for the flawed “Secure Communities” program, which requires local law enforcement to fingerprint both criminals and victims alike and check these prints against a federal immigration database. While it sounds innocuous enough, this causes mass insecurity by deterring undocumented immigrant victims and witnesses from going to the police to report violent crime, out of fear that they will be the ones who end up behind bars. The justification usually rests on pooh-poohing these concerns and attempting to brush them aside as illegitimate. But State Rep. Fattman is taking a new approach: “My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward.”
He went on to explain to Mother Jones that his quote was taken out of context. The context? “If someone got into a car accident, it’s obviously a tragic event. But if they’re drunk and they crash, it’s a crime. If that person was drunk and survived the accident they would be afraid to come forward. I think if someone is here illegally they should be afraid to come forward because they should be afraid to be deported.” To recap: rape survivors are equivalent to drunk drivers.
In Fattman’s world a drunk driver, who puts other people’s lives in jeopardy by choosing to drink intoxicated, is the equivalent of a woman who lacks proper immigration status (which is an administrative violation, by the way, Mr. Fattman). A drunk driver who causes an accident — perhaps injuring or killing others — is equivalent to an immigrant who has never harmed or endangered another person, but has been herself raped. Meanwhile, if the survivor is discouraged from reporting, the rapist, the actual criminal, will get away with his crime and can go on to assault another woman.
More at the link above.
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A new law in metro Atlanta will limit breast feeding in public.
On Monday night, Forest Park passed a public indecency ordinance to prevent public nudity. Previously, the city only had a public indecency ordinance that covered adult entertainment businesses.
According to the law, no woman can breast feed anyone older than 2 years old in public. City manager John Parker called the law a proactive step.
“It sets up a process whereby we can try to control nudity throughout the entire city,” Parker said.
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A controversial US project that pays drug users and alcoholics to undergo sterilisation or long-term contraception, is setting its sights on women living with HIV in South Africa.
Founder of Project Prevention Barbara Harris has confirmed that they were making plans to offer similar services to women living with HIV in South Africa as well as drug users.
“We have had huge interest in South Africa from organisations and concerned citizens,” said Harris, adding that they would be joining forces with local non-governmental organisations.
”US project planning to sterilise HIV women in South Africa | SAfAIDS
Who are these “concerned citizens” contacting an organization widely known for advocating sterilization of the most disadvantaged on oppressed women in every society it operates?
More from the article:
While she declined to identify them, she said “we have many wanting to work with us”. “How can anyone object to anything that can prevent innocent children suffering needlessly?” asked Harris.
However, Professor Eddie Mhlanga, Chief Director for Maternal, Child and Women’s Health in the health department said they would approach the Human Rights Commission if the project started operating in South Africa.
He also warned that doctors found co-operating with the organisation in any medical interventions would be reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa. “We do not support it and we find it very worrisome,” said Mhlanga.
Project Prevention is already operating in parts of Kenya, where it is paying women living with HIV U$40 to accept long-term contraception. A doctor is paid U$7 per patient.
In Kenya, Project Prevention is working in Nyanza province where they place woman in groups of between 10 and 15 and give them a pooled amount of money to begin income-generating activities in return for accepting intrauterine devices (IUDs) as long-term contraception. Each woman then receives around R280 in return.
A Project Prevention statement released in December last year said there was a need “…to work on getting women living with HIV/AIDS on long term birth control to prevent future pregnancies that may result in suffering children.”
It also stated that long term birth control was the “only way those numbers will become fewer.”
Project Prevention co-ordinator in Kenya Willice Okoth also confirmed they were planning to work in South Africa and claimed they were teaming up with “individuals” from a doctor and medical insurance network.
Harris started the organisation in 1997 and has famously been quoted as saying in reference to drug addicts: “We don’t allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally having litters of children.”
Yet again, the Wolf in sheep’s clothes
She is right but the double standards sting. Not only that, they piss me off and make me rage-y because this is the same woman that, a mere three months ago was saying stuff like this:
I see that Julian Assange is accused of having consensual sex with two women, in one case using a condom that broke. I understand, from the alleged victims’ complaints to the media, that Assange is also accused of texting and tweeting in the taxi on the way to one of the women’s apartments while on a date, and, disgustingly enough, ‘reading stories about himself online’ in the cab.
Both alleged victims are also upset that he began dating a second woman while still being in a relationship with the first. (Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That’s what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!).
But then she is portrayed as the champion of women’s rights everywhere. Not just “one of us” but more so, “one above us”. And for me, she has sadly lost all credibility. Moreover, give me the likes of Sarah Palin, transparently working to undermine rights rather than a “Wolf in her sheep’s clothes” because, honestly, her hypocrisy is sickening.
“The establishment of women’s police stations (WPS) in the four countries included in this study, namely Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Peru, as well as in others in the region, has its roots in social and political processes. One is the struggle by feminist and women’s movements to break the silence on domestic violence, demand integrated and comprehensive services, and defend women’s rights. The other is the recognition of the state’s obligations to provide access to justice and to prevent, punish, and eliminate violence against women. The two are interrelated and have been carried out at the local, national, regional, and international levels. As is described in what follows, in a relatively brief period, women’s right to a life free of violence has been formally recognized and several mechanisms have been created so they can exercise that right, among which the WPS play an important role.”
You can read my latest post @ Tiger Beatdown › Women’s Police Stations in Latin America and access to justice
And you know, comment if you feel like…
via Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn) proposes tax code to promote ‘family formation’ @ Examiner.com:
Beginning at the (4:15) mark in the video Bachmann proposes implementing a tax system that would encourage “family formation.” The context of Bachmann’s remarks make it clear that she would like to either give tax credits, or lower tax rates to people who are married as opposed to those who are single. Given Bachmann’s past statements on gay rights, the lower tax rates and/or tax credits would also only apply to heterosexual couples. If implemented, single mothers would likely be taxed at a higher rate than mothers who are married.
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A college professor was stripped of her teaching job after university officials found out she had a yen for performing burlesque shows.
Sheila M. Addison, an Alameda County resident, received a termination letter from John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill last year for one offense: Performing in San Francisco’s Hubba Hubba Revue, which provides political and social commentary on gender, sexuality, and body image stereotypes.
She has filed a claim against the university, saying that her termination was illegal and the result of gender discrimination. Addison, who holds a PhD and teaches psychology, believed the content of the skits were pertinent; they revealed much about feminist theory and human sexuality.
”Burlesque-Performing Professor Gets Fired - San Francisco News - The Snitch
That she has to defend her performance under the pretext that it was “pertinent” is sad enough (I mean, why does it matter in the first place?), but this part of the article had me spitting fire:
And here is the real show stopper: Addison says that a male professor also had participated in a show outside the university, and disrobed onstage, yet he was never fired from the university, according to her claim.
Female sexuality has to be justified on the basis of “relevance”. Male sexuality is, once again, viewed as inconsequential.
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The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof. A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000. That’s because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved.
But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE’-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get.
None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike, though — especially since most of the cost for development and research was shouldered by others in the past.
”Premature labor drug spikes from $10 to $1,500 - Health - Pregnancy - msnbc.com
Also from the article:
Doctors say the price hike may deter low-income women from getting the drug, leading to more premature births. And it will certainly be a huge financial burden for health insurance companies and government programs that have been paying for it.
Two issues come to mind: 1) the talks about potentially criminalizing miscarriages - what happens when a woman who cannot afford this drug miscarries the fetus? and 2) we read about the case a few days ago, when a woman was forcefully hospitalized to carry a fetus to term - what would happen when a hypothetical woman is forced to undergo treatment with this drug and she either has to incur in long term debt or risk legal consequences for not taking the treatment?
The increase in price of this drug alone is reason enough to be concerned for the welfare of pregnant women. However, the increase in price combined with the systematic attack on reproductive rights is just terrifying.
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That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
”Soujourner Truth, born a slave in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851.
As relevant today, on International Women’s Day as it was 160 years ago.
