- Image via Wikipedia
A study released this week has shown that racial minorities in the U.S. are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia than whites are, suggesting once again how powerful the link between social status and health can be.
When people write about intersectionality, it can seem impersonal: this force and that force intertwine to create oppressions that are at once worse and more complicated than they would be if only one factor were involved. For some of us, it easy to fall into a cold analysis that takes these forces as merely social things which are experienced abstractly and as if they were, ultimately, divisible from each other. But this is a mistake. To quote cripchick,
“intersectionality” is not simply the meeting place of single issue politics. it is something where pieces of our experiences are so intertwined and so entangled together that they cannot be pulled apart into strands.
Henrietta Lacks, photo: Lacks family
I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The book has been highly praised and rightly so. Rebecca Skloot is a poised and passionate storyteller who doesn’t absent herself from that which she weaves, nor does she impose upon it. The story is so compelling that she is at once invoked and dwarfed by it.
The book is about a woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, and the cells taken, without consent, from her metastasized tumor, which became probably the most famous cells in the world. They live on and multiply almost effortlessly, the first cell line to do so, thus enabling a myriad of scientific research.
While the world has heard about, and benefited exponentially from the cells, dubbed HeLa, the story of this woman has remained untold. She is Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American mother of four from Baltimore. read more…
The Sexual and Reproductive Rights Situation Report is a monthly column devoted to international policy issues and current events around these critical rights.
Reproductive healthcare clinic damaged in the quake. Image care of IPPF partner in Haiti PROFAMIL
Since the devastating 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti on January 12, 2010, Haitians have dealt with shortages of basic needs like water and food; flooding; and even churchy American do-gooders coming for their children. As in any humanitarian crisis, the women of Haiti have been struck harder and in different ways than men because of existing inequality and gender disparities. As the humanitarian community continues to formalize and learn from its major challenges, it is paying increasing attention to women’s rights and gender issues in the post-disaster setting. I’m going to focus more specifically on women’s reproductive and sexual rights and the ways in which they are threatened in humanitarian crises.
Image courtesy of www.dwtickets.com
It’s no secret that Florida is an unfriendly environment for its LGBT residents. So it should not come as a surprise that the state is now attempting to censor the portrayal of LGBT people — and other images of “nontraditional family values” — in the media.
From The Palm Beach Post:
Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a “family-friendly” tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state.
The bill would prohibit productions with “nontraditional family values” from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn’t define what “nontraditional family values” are, something the bill’s sponsor had a hard time doing, too.
Live Blog #6 (the last and final live blog for IWD) and THANK YOU: What YOU have to say about equal rights
This post is a part of the Blog for IWD BLOG
Today is International Women’s Day, and we’ve asked you to blog about your thoughts about equal rights.
This is our last live blog for Blog for International Women’s Day. We are so happy to see that many of you participated, and we thank you for taking the time to write about equal rights! There are many other blogs that wrote about equal rights on IWD which we weren’t able to include in our live blogs . . . but that doesn’t mean that they’re awesome. They’re worthwhile to read, so please check them out – you can find them by clicking on the blogs listed on the Blog for IWD Blog Directory. Thanks again!
We have now closed the sign-up form for Blog for IWD 2010. If your blog is not listed on the blog directory but you had signed up before closing, please contact us immediately at info@genderacrossborders.com.
And without further ado, here’s what some of you are saying about equal rights:
(Featured blogs after the jump: If She Cry Out, Tiens moi au courant!, Sex. Justice. Change., Science Club for Girls, Musings by Rebekah Stewart, Of Language & Adventures of a Young Feminist) read more…
This post is a part of the Blog for IWD BLOG
Today is International Women’s Day, and we’ve asked you to blog about your thoughts about equal rights. Here’s what some of you are saying:
(Featured blogs after the jump: Voracious Vegan, Small Strokes, Change.org Women’s Rights, Heartfeldt Politics, Hello Ladies & Impulse Thoughtz)
This post is a part of the Blog for IWD BLOG
Today is International Women’s Day, and we’ve asked you to blog about your thoughts about equal rights. Here’s what some of you are saying:
(Featured blogs after the jump: The Undomestic Goddess, The Big Five, Feminist Teacher, Dust in a Sunbeam and A Pittsburgh Feminist)
This post is a part of the Blog for IWD BLOG.
Today is International Women’s Day, and we‘ve asked you to blog about your thoughts about equal rights. Here’s what some of you are saying:
At Eugenia de Altura, a graduate student studying in Bolivia, explores the different cultural perceptions of machismo and sexismo, which she argues are the same thing. She explains:
It’s time to wake up: machismo is sexismo. Unequal ideas about appropriate male and female behavior, about who men and women are- psychologically or biologically, and about what men and women deserve, are what justify, legitimize, and normalize unequal rights and unequal opportunities for men and women.
Continuing with a truly universal message, she writes, “So, this is what ‘equal rights, equal opportunity: progress for all’ means to me—it means recognizing that ideas about sexual difference are constructed, not natural, and it means exposing the lies that these ideas represent.”
Hello global feminists,
We know you’re in the middle of Blog for IWD, but wanted to take a few minutes to give you links to some interesting articles written last week. Be sure to check them out. Leave your links (i.e. what you’ve written last week) in the comments, we want to hear from you!
Blog for IWD will resume shortly . . .
From the blogs
Recommended Interview: Ann Cotton, founder of ‘Campaign for Female Education’ in Africa from the Daily Femme
No is no: More men file sexual harassment claims (via Salon.com)
The Biotic Woman: What Natural Disaster Means for Chilean Women from Bitch Blogs
Journalist on Twitter: “Black Women Slaves Weren’t All Victims” from BlogHer
A Missed Opportunity for Global Participation: Advocates Face Barriers to Access and Input at the 54th Commission on the Status of Women from Akimbo blog
Rape victim jailed for making “false” allegations from The F-Word
Beyond the Binary: Let’s Go To the Doctor! from meloukhia
This is Why We’re Always on about Language from FWD
Should Oh Canada Become More Gender Neutral? from Womanist Musings
From the news
Films can help combat violence against women (via the International News (Pakistan))
The happy hooker myth is a far cry from reality (via the Independent (Ireland))
Aung San Suu Kyi Isn’t Alone in Burma from the Utne Reader
Home Births Rise, Mostly By Choice from NPR News
JORDAN: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers (via IPS News)
Sexporting an image of American women (via the Global Post)
RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: Property Rights At Last for Women (via IPS News)
What do you mean you ‘had sex’? from the LA Times
Korean Women Flock to Government from the NY Times
Global Feminist Profiles on IWD: People who have made a change in the fight for equal rights
This post is a part of the Blog for IWD BLOG
For Blog for International Women’s Day, we’ve asked you to describe a person or event that has helped to fight for equal rights around the world. At GAB we decided to answer our own question, and each editor came up with her/his own Global Feminist Profile.
As some of you may know, a Global Feminist Profile [GFP] is a monthly column on Gender Across Borders that highlights feminist leaders all over the world who are creating change and empowering their countrywomen to demand equality. GFPs run on the third Monday of each month. Some previous Global Feminist Profiles have been: Audacia Ray, Marta Lamas, and Dr. Shershah Syed, to name a few. You can look at the complete archives of the Global Feminist Profiles by clicking here.
And without further ado, I give you the mini-Global Feminist Profiles from each of the GAB editors:
Dr. Lee Ae-ran, profile by Erin Rickard
Dr. Lee Ae-ran’s activist pursuits have risen out of her early experience with political oppression. Dr. Lee was born in North Korea, and when she was 11 years old she and her family were imprisoned in a labor camp. After suffering eight years of abuse she was released, and she went on to earn a college degree and eventually fled to South Korea. She has founded several aid organizations for North Korean refugees, including the Hana Defector Women’s Organization that provides women with education and child care; the North Korea Traditional Culinary and Culture Institute which trains women in culinary and entrepreneurial skills; and the Global Leadership Scholarship Program for students. Dr. Lee is one of this year’s recipients of the US State Department’s annual International Women of Courage Awards.
Hélène Cixous, profile by Kyle Bachan
Hélène Cixous is a French feminist writer, poet and playwright. With over seventy works detailing the relationship between sexuality and language, she is considered one of the mothers of poststructuralist feminist theory. Hélène’s body of work is considered to be a wealth of self-liberation, for herself, and for all others. She founded the first centre for women’s studies in Europe at the University of Paris VIII, and still teaches there today.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, profile by Emily Heroy
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, originally from Mumbai, India and now resides in the U.S., became influential after her essay “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” published in 1986 by Duke University Press. For me personally, this essay changed my outlook on what international feminism meant. Specifically, she breaks down the structure of the “Third World Woman,” and how oppression is very diverse, from country to country and from culture to culture. Mohanty writes about this subject further in a book of essays entitled Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Mohanty is currently the department chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. read more…
