So, we received some disturbing news this past weekend when we learned that the health care reform bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi put forth was falling apart in the House of Representatives. Namely, the Stupak-Pitts A mendment which is eerily reminiscent of the global gag rule. If included in the bill, it would deny women coverage of an abortion procedure, even if she decided to pay for it with her own money. Under the health care system we have now, a little more than half of private plans offer coverage of abortion services. read more…
Ever since the infamous break-up of Rihanna and her abusive partner, Chris Brown, fans have been waiting for Rihanna to release a song about Brown’s violence. Her new single, “Russian Roulette,” is Rihanna’s first attempt to make marketable pop out of her experience. The single’s release comes as Rihanna has begun speaking openly about her relationship with Brown in interviews with ABC and Glamour magazine.
The lyrics compare dating violence to a game of Russian roulette, in which an unnamed “him” forces “her” to play the deadly game. Russian roulette — a game in which the players alternate pulling the trigger of a gun containing only one bullet while the gun is pressed to each of their heads in turn — appears to be a metaphor for the feeling of helplessness that can come with abuse: the feeling that violence or death could strike at any moment. The chorus expresses a sense of the entrapment and self-blame that often characterize abuse: “I’m terrified, but I’m not leaving. I know that I can pass this test. So just pull the trigger.”
Image courtesy of Pinknews.co.uk
On Sunday, Eva Brunne was ordained as Bishop of the Church of Sweden. Brunne’s ordination is particularly historic, as she is now the first openly lesbian bishop in the world.
From SheWired:
Brunne, 55, who is in a registered partnership and has a three-year-old son, is believed to be the world’s first lesbian bishop. She was ordained as bishop of Stockholm’s diocese in a ceremony on Sunday in Uppsala Cathedral.
“It is very positive that our church is setting an example here and is choosing me as bishop based on my qualifications, when they also know that they can meet resistance elsewhere,” Brunne told The Associated Press.
Brunne, who was elected as bishop of Stockholm in a May said she hadn’t encountered much resistance within the church because of her sexual orientation.
Hello global feminists, here’s what we’ve been reading this week.
Leave your links in the comments—we want to hear from you!
From the blogs
Why don’t feminists think porn empowers women? from Salon.com’s Broadsheet blog
Some of us are not Yankees fans (go Cubs! or Red Sox! or Mariners!), but there’s a first for everything: first women ever to broadcast World Series baseball game via Feministing and Liza Donnelly’s “A girl’s view of the World Series — Yankees, Mets, and Senators” from dscriber.com
House Will Take “Up or Down” Vote on Stupak Amendment, Threatening Women’s Rights from RHRealityCheck.org
We also want to introduce you to a new body image blog called Weightless, brought to you from PsychCentral.com.
From the news
We are so sad about Maine: Maine’s anti-gay marriage ruling and feminism from the Examiner
Interesting, especially for those runners out there: Pollution Trips Up Female Marathon Runners from Discovery News
A review of a new British play called What Fatima Did commissioned by the Hampstead Theatre, about the reaction among her family and friends of a young woman’s decision to start wearing a hijab (via FT.com)
The obituary of Alice S. Rossi, one of the founders of Now (via NY Times)
Faith and Feminism, from Sirens Magazine
Kimberly Munley: The Hero Cop Who Ended the Fort Hood Rampage from the Huffington Post
——————————
And finally, remember to check out last Friday’s Circumcision series for awesome thoughts, questions, and discussion.
The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Situation Report is a monthly column highlighting advances or setbacks in SRHR policy internationally.
This month I’m focusing on sexual rights in Iran. First, let me give a quick overview of the concept sexual rights. According to a groundbreaking declaration by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, sexual rights are simply defined as “human rights related to sexuality.” They are listed in the publication linked above, and include the right to equality, equal protection of the law and freedom from all forms of discrimination based on sex, sexuality or gender. It’s important that they be defined and delineated so that they may be specifically protected, especially at a time period where fundamentalist policies are restricting the exercise of sexual and reproductive freedom here and around the world.
The ten rights specifically identified by IPPF are based upon treaty law and on the underlying principle of nondiscrimination, in this case based on sex, gender or sexuality; and the principle that “sexuality, and pleasure deriving from it, is a central aspect of being human, whether or not a person chooses to reproduce.” Violations of sexual rights in Iran range from arrests for “immoral” behavior or dress to sexual assault and rape by government agents, all in service of brutal repression and social control.
When I read this article about domestic violence shelters in Baghdad, I began thinking about domestic violence victims living in conflict zones. As an advocate for DV survivors, the question most people ask me is, “Why did she stay?” My favorite way to answer this question is to make a chart: reasons to stay and reasons to leave. Every time I do this, there are always more reasons to stay than to leave. (If this seems dubious, try it yourself. Imagine your spouse/partner/girl/boyfriend is abusive and you have to leave today. Make your own list.)
Of the many reasons to stay, safety is not usually one of them. In New York City, where I work, there are plenty of provisions to ensure a woman’s physical safety if she leaves her abusive partner. (I say woman because the majority of people with whom I work are women. I also work with men and would never deny that they can be victims as well.) No such promise can be made in a war zone, however, adding one more reason to stay and making the escape to freedom from violence even more elusive.
Censorship in South Asia: Cultural Regulation from Sedition to Seduction Edited by Raminder Kaur and William Mazzarella
Indiana University Press
There is no use in burying the head of an ostrich in censorship and imagining the enemy knows nothing of what we are doing. — S.C. Lind
Censorship in South Asia dissects the history and socio-political dynamics of censorship in India, which have been transcribed into the public culture of the South Asian society over the years. The book digs deep into all forms of formal, state censorship, as well as unofficial censorship tactics that are employed by political and pressure groups—from blackening out images and words from advertising and cinema to street politics and political communication. The popular response to books like Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and films like Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Water show the way censorship has left its traces on everything that goes away from the tide. read more…
Female genital mutilation or torture: whichever way you say it, it sounds like something horrible. In the late 1970s, the name female genital mutilation (FGM) was adapted by organizations such as the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), and Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children. But many people have claimed that these names continue to reinforce the stigma of female circumcision. Therefore, some organizations have substituted “mutilation” with “cutting.” But those who continue to use FGM as regular terminology claim that because it is a violation of girls’ and women’s human rights, it promotes advocacy towards it abandonment. However, some see problems with this; for example, in an Innocenti Digest from UNICEF entitled “Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting,” many want to steer away from “mutilation” for the stigma that it creates:
Local languages generally use the less judgmental “cutting” to describe the practice; parents understandably resent the suggestion that they are “mutilating” their daughters. In this spirit, in 1999, the UN Special Rapporteur on Traditional Practices called for tact and patience regarding activities in this area and drew attention to the risk of “demonizing” certain cultures, religions, and communities. As a result, the term “cutting” has increasingly come to be used to avoid alienating communities.
As mentioned in the intro to the GAB’s Circumcision Series, female circumcision is referred to in many terms: female genital mutilation, female genital torture, female circumcision, and female genital operations. I choose to refer to the procedure as “female genital operation” (a term which Christine J. Walley uses in her article “Searching for ‘Voices’: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debate over Female Genital Operations” from Cultural Anthropology (this can be found on JSTOR)) or “female circumcision” because of their neutral charge. read more…
Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images
For the vast majority of my life, I never even considered questioning the ethics of male circumcision. When something is so ingrained in one’s culture, it seems strange to question it. And I’m not referring to the fact that the United States has a circumcision rate of 75%. Growing up in a Jewish community, in a Jewish family, with only Jewish friends (that is, until I entered high school), 100% of the boys and men I knew were circumcised. It was simply a part of one’s identity.
But as I grew up and met men who weren’t circumcised, and as I became more interested and knowledgeable in feminist and liberal discourse, I began to wonder why Jews cling to this particular ritual in the way that we do. I can’t truthfully call myself an observant Jew – I don’t attend synagogue and I eat ham, use electricity on the Sabbath and celebrate Christmas with my fiancé’s family – but Judaism is an intrinsic aspect of my identity and culture. And, for many Jewish families, circumcision is the ultimate embodiment of that intrinsic identity, a ritual not easy to dismiss, even for progressive Jews. So why is circumcision different from all other Jewish rituals? What has made circumcision a fundamental attribute of being a Jewish male, rather than a product of practicing Judaism? And is ritual circumcision compatible with feminism?
The last couple months have seen a flurry of reports in the media (particularly American media) regarding male circumcision and its potential health benefits. However, most of the coverage in the U.S. of male circumcision fails to discuss what I think is the most important issue, the ethics.
Before continuing, though, it is critical to discriminate between the significantly different situations under which circumcision may occur. These include therapeutic and non-therapeutic circumcisions performed on either consenting or non-consenting individuals. A therapeutic circumcision is one which is performed to treat a disease or disorder; a non-therapeutic circumcisions are those done for any other reason. Unless noted otherwise, I am only focusing on non-therapeutic, non-consensual circumcision since it’s the kind most often practiced, particularly in the United States where in my opinion the circumcision debates seem to leave out the most important question, is neonatal circumcision ethical? read more…
