Will Native American women finally get equal protection under the law?
Right now Native American women on reservations are 3 times as likely to be raped as a white woman. Due to an insanely complex series of jurisdictional issues, limited law enforcement, minimal political will and racism, perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic violence against Native American women often commit their crimes with impunity, knowing they will likely never face prosecution. All of this was documented in sickening detail last year by Amnesty International's report Maze of Injustice
The legislation is designed to boost law enforcement efforts by providing tools to tribal justice officials to fight crime in their own communities, improving coordination between law enforcement agencies, and increasing accountability standards.
This title is not an exaggeration or misstatement, although I really wish it were. I did not go to Netroots Nation to learn that it was possible to rape a woman, right here in the United States and walk away with absolutely no consequences to the rapist. But that’s what I learned in a panel discussion on Friday morning.
Come over the fold and I’ll tell you exactly how this happens – and you can take an action, a small first step towards ending this nightmare.
A trip to the gynecologist is not a fun time. But yesterday’s was terrible. I left feeling angry and shaky, wishing I had been able to say something to him, but trying to accept that in my position it was okay to be upset and unable to respond. I still wish I had stuck up to my nurse, talked back, not just given him the smile-and-nod, waiting for it to be over. I know it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. I’m sure many experiences are much worse. But my nurse lied to me. I've never been particular about doctors, taking whoever's available at the office, trusting anyone that walked through the exam room door. Now I'm not so sure, because a person I trusted, who I've been taught to trust for his medical degree, deceived me.
Even though I had no response for the nurse at the time, as soon as I got home I started writing down what I could remember him saying, did some research, and went back in today. Fortunately, the problem was dealt with by my doctor, the head of the practice, quickly and well. Still, I want to share my story, as an example of how sexism and challenges to reproductive rights can come up when you least expect them.
The United States government should make women and men equal under the law by includng the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the constitution. The entire amendment consists of the following three sections:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/
In talking with others about the ERA I’m sometimes told that we don’t need the ERA because women already have equal rights under this or that law. For example, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prevents gender discrimination in education. And the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits gender discrimination by certain (not all) employers and grants both sexes access to public facilities.
McCain is intent on winning more women voters. Don't let him get away with distancing himself from his long record of hostility to issues women care about.
He is perpetrating a fraudulent campaign, assisted by surrogate to women Carly Fiorina, where he portrays himself as sensitive and a viable choice for women. Carly has lied on his behalf on the campaign trial.
In this clip when a reporter confronts on one such lie. McCain asked to defend his vote against requiring health insurance to cover contraception. After squirming and stammering (a delight to see) McCain professes not to remember and says, "I haven't thought much about this."
Warning: pedantry ahead. Let's distinguish between misogyny, misandry, and sexism. Misogyny is hatred and disdain for women in general. Misandry, hatred and disdain for men in general, is probably the most underused word in political debate. Although a lifelong feminist, I have always loathed knee-jerk male-bashing and defended men against stereotyping all my life. Wikipedia has a decent definition of sexism: "Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination and/or hatred of people based on their sex rather than their individual merits."
I struggle greatly with my own misogyny. I was much more comfortable being the only girl in my political science classes at Fordham than attending an all girls Catholic College in my freshman year. I credit my 5 younger brothers and 5 young uncles. My four daughters might have contributed to the misogyny too:) Working in the women-dominated fields of librarianship and social work has been a terribly bad fit for me with dire economic consequences.
How true are the allegations of racism and sexism in the highest ranks of stock car racing?
I don't know how many of you have been following the Mauricia Grant case. She's the black, female NASCAR inspector who has filed a $225 million dollar lawsuit against NASCAR over allegations of on-going sexism and racism that she endured during her two-plus years of employment with the sanctioning body.
I don't want to get into the merits of the case, since it appears that both Grant's complaints and NASCAR's defense have merits, and as the case goes on, legal disclosures and hopefully some good investigative journalism will shine a spotlight on where the truth lies.
I know none of the players personally, but I do have some experience as a racer and a crew member, as well as 25 years as a journalist, and hopefully my thoughts here will encourage you to view this case rationally and in a modern context.
I am new here, and I am trouble. Perhaps the Obama and Clinton supporters should stop squabbling with each other and concentrate on me. I do believe that she who laughs, lasts, so humor might temper my elder arrogance. My name is Mary Joan, and I am far more a Joan than a Mary. Imagine how much more fun Western art would be if Mary, the mother of God, and Joan of Arc had exchanged wardrobes.
I am one day older than the atom bomb, born the day after Trinity (I expect birthday greetings very soon if you know your history:) I was a 1960s radical nonviolent pacifist and am a card-carrying member of the War Resister's League. I can go spectacularly limp if you try to drag me from the demonstration. I have not changed as I raised 4 daughters, took care of my dying parents, worked as a public librarian and social worker. I am not a dried up old crone. My English husband, 16 years younger, gave up job and country to swim the Atlantic to marry me.
We need a nonviolent revolution to transform America into a children-friendly, family-friendly, elder-friendly, human-being-friendly society that is not the disgrace of most of the world. If you want to have children or take care of your aging parents, you would be better off moving almost anywhere in the world.
Remember Pretty Bird Woman House(PBWH)? The Lakota Sioux women’s shelter the progressive netroots raised $87,000 to buy them a new house when their old one was destroyed by arson? Many of you expressed an admiration for PBWH Director, Georgia LittleShield – a woman who had managed PBWH through threats of closure due to lack of funds, burglary, threats of violence and even arson. She faces down rapists in court, convinces hostile police to enforce domestic violence laws, literally enters homes to rescue battered women.
Georgia LittleShield is coming to Netroots Nation to tell you about life is like for women and children on an Indian reservation in one of the poorest parts of the country. She’s here to tell you how you – the netroots – can help change things. And Georgia isn’t coming alone. She’s bringing her posse.
No, it's not spam. It's an important issue. I bought this book at an Office Max the other day--I'm not going to plug it here by name, but it's on a very interesting topic.
According to author (and just about every feminist I've read for the past thirty years), women are often marginalized in the workplace, at meetings, at decision making forums. That's due to sexism, but this author claims that it's also due, in part, to the fact that American women have been socialized into adopting a "weak" communications style.
I've sat silently in horror watching this decade unfold while this generation of women revolt against modesty. Am I the only one who longs to see starlets with their underwear on? Do we really have to see so many bare vajayjays everywhere? What is so wrong with fried-egg sized bustlines? Do men really find giant-sized, surgically carved, scarred, distorted plastic breasts sexy? Why are so many women having wardrobe malfunctions? It's not that difficult to tell that your body parts are exposed. Why is this generation of women working SO hard to look hot? Sometimes I feel like our young women are losing their way, no longer striving to be doctors, scientists, teachers and lawyers. We have witnessed the rising popularity of sex industry jobs: video vixens, pornographic actresses, strippers, prostitutes; nearly naked cover girls. So many women are shedding their clothes and letting their brains lie dormant. Young girls are going under the knife, putting their lives in danger and swelling the coffers of plastic surgeons. Some lose their lives in the process.
Hello. This is my first diary here, and I'm sorry that I'm about to piss everyone off, but I feel like no one is saying this, and it is important for people who want Obama to win in November to take this into consideration.
I’ve been reading a lot of books about religion lately—not surprising when I write so much about it, particularly about the Religious Right. This time, most of the books were about women coming to terms with faith, and how it changed them. In two cases, women discovered feminism and began to ask the hard questions. I found myself wondering how women (and men) here at DailyKos had handled issues of faith and feminism.
In 2007, the progressive Netroots reached out to a tiny women's shelter on a Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Pretty Bird Woman House, named for a Sioux woman who was raped and murdered, faced closure. Lack of funds crippled their ability to function and staff labored without pay. Then, they lost their home to extreme vandalism and arson.
Over 2,000 individual members of the netroots raised in excess of $100,000 to keep Pretty Woman Bird House open, functioning with paid staff, and in the end, bought a new house for PBWH to carry out their mission.
But PBWH is just the tip of the iceberg. Native American women are subject to much higher levels of sexual and domestic violence than any other women in the United States. Come join us on Friday, July 18th 9:00am for: Examining the Maze of Injustice: Our Nation's Failure to Protect Indigenous Women From Violence. This panel will explore what can be done to ensure equal protection under the law for Native American women and the role the Netroots can play in combating these injustices.
Longtime lurker, first-time diarist. Please be gentle!
The finally-over primary season has made one thing crystal clear: almost nobody (including many who call themselves feminists) has a very good idea of what feminism is. This has manifested on both sides of the Clinton/Obama divide, and continues to show up in the media pretty much daily.
I've been an Obama supporter since late 2007, and it seems like a handful of us think that feminism is a way of behaving based on dualistic and oppositional thinking (men and women are at WAR!!!) and hypersensitivity to the possibility of slights. The label "feminist" has occasionally been tossed out as an insult against overzealous Clinton supporters, which is unsettling. To a certain extent, this is the fault of incomplete gender awareness among some of us, but the blame also belongs to some Clinton supporters, and especially the mass media.
The point of making this list was to document the media narrative that Obama, and, by extension, Democratic men are unfit for office because they don't wear codpieces and talk tough, or do whatever the going stereotype for real manly men is. It's important to note that it's a narrative, not a few isolated instances of a couple of jerks on TV calling him a "pussy." It's a concerted effort.
The narrative does a pretty good job of pushing the country further to the right, and I'll get into that more after the jump. But, really, I'm also just tired of people using "fag" and "that's so gay" as insults, even if they think they're clever.
In recent weeks, our traditional media outlets have decided to give voice to Senator Clinton's supporters and review their coverage of her groundbreaking campaign. I understood the pain of Clinton's supporters because I would have been equally upset if Senator Obama lost his quest for the nomination. Many feminists leaders have rightly denounced the coverage and placed the media on notice. But what I don't understand is their absence in the current coverage of Michelle Obama.
