Feminist Law Professors

Women, Happiness, and the Marketing of Positive Thinking

Posted on October 18, 2009 by rrobson

Barbara Ehrenreich has a great debunking of a study that purports to show that women have become unhappier since 1972 – – – as a result, most likely, of feminism. Ehrenreich writes that the statistical variable (one percent) is not significant, especially when the measurement is of something as “slippery” as happiness. Moreover, the “objective” measurement of suicide rates does not support the conclusion of declining women’s happiness.

Barbara Ehrenreich

The fuss, according to Ehrenreich is well-timed. The two-year old study has become

a launching pad for a new book by the prolific management consultant Marcus Buckingham, best known for First, Break All the Rules and Now, Find Your Strengths. His new book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently, is a cookie-cutter classic of the positive-thinking self-help genre: First, the heart-wrenching quotes from unhappy women identified only by their email names (Countess1, Luveyduvy, etc.), then the stories of “successful” women, followed by the obligatory self-administered test to discover “the role you were bound to play” (Creator, Caretaker, Influencer, etc.), all bookended with an ad for the many related products you can buy, including a “video introduction” from Buckingham, a “participant’s guide” containing “exercises” to get you to happiness, and a handsome set of “Eight Strong Life Plans” to pick from. The Huffington Post has given Buckingham a column in which to continue his marketing campaign.

Ehrenreich’s new book, Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America, takes up these themes. Although not always as explicitly feminist as I would have liked, Ehrenreich mounts a popular and devasting critique of the ubiquitous emphasis on “being positive.” Being positive has come to mean not only eschewing the negative, but the rejection of critiques of the status quo. If you are unhappy with the situation, change your attitude!

She traces the “positive thinking” idea to the 1860s rejection of Calvinism and discusses some of its current manifestations including psychological studies of happiness, medical care, corporate “motivation,” the current economic turmoil, and mega-churches (“God wants you to be rich!”).

It’s a relatively short and important book, worth reading. I discuss it further, including some of the academic and legal ramifications, on ConLawProf blog here.

– Ruthann Robson

Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminism and Economics, Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Science, Links, Sexism in the Media | Comments Off

Pepsi Amps Up the Sexism

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Ann Bartow

See this post at Tennessee Guerilla Women (the frat boyz at Pepsi provide a little how-to manual to help frat boyz “score” with 24 “types” of women.)

For similar posts at this blog go here, here and here.

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–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Culture | Comments Off

Name That Generation

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

In today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (pay site – sorry – day passes available), this Student Affairs column looks at the terms used to describe different generations at any point in time. Here are some that made the list.

The Lost Generation

Joe College

The Rioting Mobs

The Grinders

The Veterans

The Beat Generation

The Uncommitted

The Disaffiliated

The Underachievers

The Silent Generation

The Me Generation

The Collegiates

The Vocationals

The Nonconformists

The Disengaged Generation

The Shopping Mall Generation

The Organization Kid

Generation X

Generation Y

Generation O

The Draft Dodgers

The Digital Generation

Effete Corps of Impudent Snobs

The Bums

The Young Radicals

The Pampered Generation

The Searchers

The Hip-Hop Generation

The Sandwich Generation

The Echo Boomers

The Tidal Wavers

The Woodstock Generation

The 13th Generation

The Boomers

The Slackers

The Numb and Dumbers

The Ritalin Generation

The Twentysomething Generation

The Millennials

Gen Next

The Consumers

Generation Jones

The YouTube Generation

The Rock the Vote Generation

The Baby Boomers

The Whiners

The MTV Generation

The Dot-Com Generation

The War Babies

The Third Wave Feminists

The Greatest Generation

I can recognize more easily the terms that that don’t apply to my age cohort than those that do. I know I’m not a Boomer, War Baby or a member of the Greatest Generation, Beat Generation, or Silent Generation. I think I’m Generation X, but I did wear Pampers as a kid, I went to college, I sometimes whine or disengage, I remember the early MTV VJ’s, have grinded, uncommitted, shopped at a mall, searched, eaten a sandwich and danced a little hip hop (ok, maybe “The Worm” doesn’t count).

The categories aren’t clearly circumscribed, but they reflect a point someone wanted to make about how life experience at a particular place and in a particular time shapes human attitudes and behaviors.

More interesting that what label fits is what kind of human being each of us chooses to be. Here, now, today.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Downsized Men on Page One of the New York Times

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Katherine Franke

The gendering of the current economic downturn was the subject of a page one story in the New York Times today: Still on the Job by Making Only Half as Much, by Louis Uchitelle – but that’s not what Uchitelle intended. His story demonstrates an utter cluelessness in his coverage of how hard it is for men to lose their identities as “breadwinners,” find themselves home taking care of the children, while earning less income than their wives. The fact that the New York Times printed this story at all, no less put it on the front page, is flabergasting. Uchitelle tells the story of Bryan Lawlor, a good guy who tried to do right for his family by becoming a commercial pilot, but whose pay and status were cut in half when airline revenues dropped in the last year. As a result, Lawlor’s blue pilot hat sits, not proudly on his head, but idle on a bookcase at home. You see, with his new downgraded status, he is prohibited by airline rules from displaying authority as he used to by wearing his full uniform. He can’t walk through the airport wearing the captain’s hat anymore – it “made me feel in command, and capable and powerful.” It’s hard not to laugh out loud at the unwitting (really?) reference to the well-known trope of the “hat” as penis-fetish and hatless-ness as a sign of castration. But just in case you missed the subtle implications of Lawlor’s downgrade to his masculinity, Uchitelle connects the dots for you: Lawlor underwent a vasectomy shortly after his “downgrade” because he could no longer afford his former potency. Uchitelle, (who did the Times coverage of the Nobel prize in economics this year that went to Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win this prize, and failed to appreciate the gendered nature of her research) fills out the story with another (phallic) anecdote about how, after the downgrade, Mr. Lawlor had to sell his prized Harley which he had bought when things were going well, “imagining that he would take it for spins on his days off, the wind blowing in his hair [sic] as he raced along the sparsely populated roads in Richmond’s semi-rural suburbs. ” Yes, Uchitelle really wrote this. The photograph that accompanies this part of the story has Mr. Lawlor looking wistfully at his Harley while his son figures in the background next to a bicycle – and with his father’s captain’s hat on. Get it? There’s so much wrong about this piece. Editorializing such as: “Mrs. Lawlor praises her husband’s adeptness in the routines of child care. But money also drives him.” Or, in describing Lawlor’s work for the pilots’ union mediating (yes, mediating – clearly a feminine approach to conflict) pilot disputes, Uchitelle writes: “That is not the same as commanding an airliner “” walking through the airport wearing the captain’s hat “” but it brings him part way back.” Or maybe my favorite (but it’s so hard to choose): “His father’s two unmarried sisters, both retired teachers, insist on helping their only nephew [Bryan]”” the one family member perpetuating the Lawlor name not only in this generation but, through his three sons, the next generation.” It seems that not only is Bryan Lawlor’s masculinity at stake in his “downgrade” at work, but so too the entire Lawlor family patrimony. Uchitelle hesitates not in bringing the women in Bryan’s life into the gendered picture as well. His mother, who surely loves her son, Uchitelle uses to round out the masculinity harm here:

“His mother, Patricia Lawlor, anguishes over this scaling back of his exuberance and the psychological effect of the pay cut. “œLet me put it this way,” she said of her only son, the oldest of her three children. “œWhen we went out to dinner and he was a captain, with a captain’s pay, he for the first time picked up the check. He would say, “˜I’ll get it, Dad,’ instead of letting his father pick it up. It gave him a great deal of pride to do that. “˜Let me buy, Dad, for once.’ And now he does not say that anymore.”

I somehow thought we were beyond this kind of reporting, reporting that is really loosely-veiled melancholia for the loss of a never-realized ideal of a particular form of masculinity.

-Katherine Franke, cross posted from Gender & Sexuality Law Blog

mother, Patricia Lawlor, anguishes over this scaling back of his exuberance and the psychological effect of the pay cut. “œLet me put it this way,” she said of her only son, the oldest of her three children. “œWhen we went out to dinner and he was a captain, with a captain’s pay, he for the first time picked up the check. He would say, “˜I’ll get it, Dad,’ instead of letting his father pick it up. It gave him a great deal of pride to do that. “˜Let me buy, Dad, for once.’ And now he does not say that anymore.”

Posted in Academia | 1 Comment

The Gloria AnzaldÃºa Reader Published

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Duke University Press has released The Gloria AnzaldÃºa Reader, edited by AnaLouise Keating (Women’s Studies, Texas Woman’s Univeristy). Here is the description from the Duke U. Press website:

Born in the RÃo Grande Valley of south Texas, independent scholar and creative writer Gloria AnzaldÃºa was an internationally acclaimed cultural theorist. As the author of Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, AnzaldÃºa played a major role in shaping contemporary Chicano/a and lesbian/queer theories and identities. As an editor of three anthologies, including the groundbreaking This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, she played an equally vital role in developing an inclusionary, multicultural feminist movement. * * *This newly available work offers fresh insights into crucial aspects of AnzaldÃºa’s life and career, including her upbringing, education, teaching experiences, writing practice and aesthetics, lifelong health struggles, and interest in visual art, as well as her theories of disability, multiculturalism, pedagogy, and spiritual activism. The pieces are arranged chronologically; each one is preceded by a brief introduction. The collection includes a glossary of AnzaldÃºa’s key terms and concepts, a timeline of her life, primary and secondary bibliographies, and a detailed index.

The full blurb is available here.

Professor Keating has done the academy a great service with this book, as many of AnzaldÃºa’s works had gone out of print.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Recommended Books | 1 Comment

Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millett

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Ann Bartow

From this site:

…[R]adical feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys talks about the influence of Kate Millett on the course of feminist thinking, most particularly through her book Sexual Politics (1970). Jeffreys gives a summary of the key ideas of Millett’s work and goes on to propose the greater-than-ever need to apply these ideas to society today.

Watch Part One here.

Watch Part Two here.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Politics, Feminist Legal History, Feminists in Academia, Recommended Books | Comments Off

Congratulations, Maggie Chon!

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Kudos to Feminist Law Prof Margaret Chon (Seattle) who will be installed on March 25, 2010 as the Donald and Lynda Horowitz Chair for the Pursuit of Justice at Seattle University School of Law.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Chutes and Ladders | Comments Off

Juxtaposed Parenting Decisions

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Tony Infanti

Last week, the highest courts of Montana and Missouri issued rather different decisions in the ongoing debate over LGBT parenting. The Montana Supreme Court held that the partner of an adoptive mother of two children was entitled to parental rights with respect to those children, while the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a ruling against a woman whose lack of a biological or adoptive connection to a child that she had raised with her partner meant that she had no legal right to remain involved in that child’s life. While the Missouri Supreme Court apparently had no comment to make when denying that appeal, Justice Nelson of the Montana Supreme Court had plenty to say. It is worth reproducing his concurring opinion at length:

Maniaci and her defense team attempt to avoid the one issue that makes this case uniquely important–the elephant in the room: whether homosexuals in an intimate domestic relationship each have the right to parent the children they mutually agree that one party will adopt (or, presumably, conceive). The District Court and this Court have properly answered that question in the affirmative based on the facts of this case and on the statutory scheme discussed. I agree with the District Court’s decision, and I concur with this Court’s decision.

Sadly, however, this case represents yet another instance in which fellow Montanans, who happen to be lesbian or gay, are forced to battle for their fundamental rights to love who they want, to form intimate associations, to form family relationships, and to have and raise children–all elemental, natural rights that are accorded, presumptively and without thought or hesitation, to heterosexuals.

The Court’s decision is grounded in the statutory scheme which was raised and argued. I remain absolutely convinced, nonetheless, that homosexuals are entitled to enjoy precisely the same civil and natural rights as heterosexuals as a matter of constitutional law. I wrote extensively on this and on the discrimination homosexuals face daily in my special concurrence in Snetsinger v. Montana University System, 2004 MT 390, PP 38-111, 325 Mont. 148, 104 P.3d 445 (Nelson, J., specially concurring). I argued that this Court should recognize: (a) that laws and policies which deny people their fundamental rights on the basis of gender or sexual orientation violate the inviolable human dignity clause of Article II, Section 4 of the Montana Constitution; (b) that classifications of persons on the basis of gender or sexual orientation are sex-based and are, therefore, arbitrary and suspect under conventional equal protection analysis; and (c) reading Article II, Sections 4 and 34 together (which I believe is the better approach), that classifications based on gender or sexual orientation are suspect classifications in their own right and are in addition to those enumerated in the third clause of this State’s equal protection provision. See Snetsinger, PP 71-97 (Nelson, J., specially concurring).

I stand by my concurring opinion. Unfortunately, though, nothing has changed. I am convinced that until our courts, as a matter of law, accept homosexuals as equal participants with heterosexuals in our society, each person with exactly the same civil and natural rights, lesbian and gay citizens will continue to suffer homophobic discrimination. Regrettably, this sort of discrimination is both socially acceptable and politically popular.

Naming it for the evil it is, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is an expression of bigotry. And, whether rationalized on the basis of majoritarian morality, partisan ideology, or religious tenets, homophobic discrimination is still bigotry. It cannot be justified; it cannot be legalized; it cannot be constitutionalized.

Every person in Montana is entitled to human dignity; every person in Montana is entitled to individual privacy; and every person in Montana is entitled to seek happiness in all lawful ways. These are fundamental rights guaranteed, respectively, by Article II, Sections 4, 10, and 3 of the Montana Constitution, and no person may be denied these elemental, natural rights because of his or her sexual orientation. Indeed, while it will, no doubt, come as a shock to some, the fact is that lesbian and gay people are not excepted out of the protections afforded by the Montana Constitution. Lesbian and gay Montanans must not be forced to fight to marry, to raise their children, and to live with the same dignity that is accorded heterosexuals. That lesbian and gay people still must fight for their fundamental rights is antithetical to the core values of Article II and speaks, in unfortunate clarity, of a prevalent societal cancer grounded in bigotry and hate.

Kulstad v. Maniaci, 2009 MT 326, ¶ ¶ 99-104 (footnotes omitted).

Bravo, Justice Nelson!

-Tony Infanti

Posted in LGBT Rights | 3 Comments

Human Rights Defender Keith Goddard, 1960-2009

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Stephanie Farrior

null Keith Goddard, a human rights defender of tremendous courage and tenacity, died this weekend after a short illness. The Director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), Goddard helped transform what had been primarily a social organization with a mostly white and middle-class membership into a political group whose membership both reflected and served the broader LGBTI community in Zimbabwe. (photo credit)

GALZ made international headlines in 1995 when President Robert Mugabe hurled vicious verbal attacks after the group applied to participate in the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. The group was ultimately prohibited from participating in the book fair, whose theme that year was”Justice and Human Rights.”

Ironically, the president’s vitriolic statements gave GALZ the coverage it had been denied for over a year when its access to media was banned by the state-controlled newspapers and radio, as the President’s remarks were covered extensively. People all across the country learned of GALZ, and, as noted by the organization in its account of the Book Fair Saga, “the membership of GALZ, especially amongst younger black lesbian and gay people, increased dramatically.”

The membership of GALZ also grew to include straight allies of the movement, as seen in the remarkable story of prominent lesbian activist and GALZ organizer Tsitsi Tiripano, profiled here by Ms. Magazine in its “Uppity Women” series.

International law “provided the backbone to much of the work of GALZ,” Keith Goddard wrote here:

Although their contents have not been translated into local domestic law, these international instruments give GALZ the moral authority to formulate policies on lgbt issues which are in line with modern international thinking.

In its statement announcing Goddard’s passing, GALZ wrote:

Although of small stature he had a voice that commanded authority and silence any room he was in. Keith dedicated his life to the advancement of LGBT rights, human rights and his passion for music. The struggle for LGBT rights is a difficult struggle and in many instances in the history of GALZ Keith stood gallantly in the frontline. He dared where most men would not go.

Keith Goddard was arrested multiple times and beaten by police. He endured smear campaigns and harassment. But he persisted, lived to see some changes, and worked hard to secure more. An August 2009 article in the Guardian, headlined “Gay rights campaigners in Zimbabwe see chance to push for equality,” describes the push to include a prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the new Zimbabwe constitution. “I think we’ve got a 50:50 chance,” Goddard is quoted as saying. “We live in hope.”

– Stephanie Farrior
Cross-posted here at IntLawGrrls

Posted in LGBT Rights, Sisters In Other Nations | Comments Off

Carol W. Greider of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine was one of three women who won a science Nobel last week, and she sounds like a sister!

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Excerpt from a NYT interview with Nobel Laureate Carol W. Greider:

…Q. MANY REPORTERS HAVE ASKED WHY TELOMERES RESEARCH SEEMS TO ATTRACT SO MANY FEMALE INVESTIGATORS. WHAT’S YOUR ANSWER?

A. There’s nothing about the topic that attracts women. It’s probably more the founder effect. Women researchers were fostered early on by Joe Gall, and they got jobs around the country and they trained other women. I think there’s a slight bias of women to work for women because there’s still a slight cultural bias for men to help men. The derogatory term is the”old boys network.”It’s not that they are biased against women or want to hurt them. They just don’t think of them. And they often feel more comfortable promoting their male colleagues.

When Lawrence Summers, then the Harvard president, made that statement a few years ago about why there were fewer successful women in science, I thought,”Oh, he couldn’t really mean that.”‘ After reading the actual transcript of his statement, it seems he really did say that women can’t think in that sort of scientific fashion. It was ridiculous!

I mean, women do things differently, which is why I think it would be important if more women were at higher levels in academic medicine. I think people might work together more, things might be more collaborative. It would change how science is done and even how institutions are run. That doesn’t mean that women necessarily have a different way of thinking about the mechanics of experiments. I think it’s more a different social way of interacting that would bring results in differently.

Q. DO THIS YEAR’S NOBELS MEAN THAT WOMEN HAVE FINALLY BEEN ACCEPTED IN SCIENCE?

A. I certainly hope it’s a sign that things are going to be different in the future. But I’m a scientist, right? This is one event. I’m not going to see one event and say it’s a trend. I hope it is. One of the things I did with the press conference that Johns Hopkins gave was to have my two kids there. In the newspapers, there’s a picture of me and my kids right there. How many men have won the Nobel in the last few years, and they have kids the same age as mine, and their kids aren’t in the picture? That’s a big difference, right? And that makes a statement. …

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Science, Feminism and the Workplace, The Underrepresentation of Women | Comments Off

Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University is the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in the 41-year history of the award

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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From the NYT:

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to two American social scientists for their work in describing the numerous relationships within a company or among companies and individuals that shape market behavior.

The prize committee cited Elinor Ostrom, 76, at Indiana University, and Oliver E. Williamson, 77, at the University of California, Berkeley, for work done over long careers. Ms. Ostrom is the first woman to receive the economics prize in the 41-year history of the award. She is a political scientist, not an economist, and in honoring her, the judges seemed to suggest that economics should be thought of as an interdisciplinary field rather than a pure science governed by mathematics. …

The Nobel Prize in Economics is a bit questionable in terms of significance, and also legitimacy and is more properly referred to as “The Bank of Sweden Prize for Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” Although it is not actually a Nobel Prize, the Nobel Foundation administers the prize along with the ‘real’ Nobel Prizes. Be that as it may, as long as it is going to be awarded, it’s nice to see a woman finally recognized.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Economics, Firsts, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Single Mothers Stigmatized in Korea

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The New York Times has an article here on the stigma that single women face in Korea. For those who chose to become mothers outside of marriage, the social pressure can be significant.

[E]ach year, social pressure drives thousands of unmarried women to choose between abortion, which is illegal but rampant, and adoption, which is considered socially shameful but is encouraged by the government. The few women who decide to raise a child alone risk a life of poverty and disgrace.

Nearly 90 percent of the 1,250 South Korean children adopted abroad last year, most of them by American couples, were born to unmarried women, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. * * *

[One woman], 27, who gave birth to a boy last month, said:”My former boyfriend’s sister screamed at me over the phone demanding that I get an abortion. His mother and sister said it was up to them to decide what to do with my baby because it was their family’s seed.”

Thanks to Nancy Kim for pointing out this article.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Families, Sisters In Other Nations | Comments Off

Oklahoma Wants to Publicize Your Abortion

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

A law taking effect on November 1, 2009 will require public internet reporting of very, very specific information about every abortion performed in that state. Here’s the information that will be required by law:

1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
____ Live Births
____ Miscarriages
____ Induced Abortions

***

10. Method of abortion

***

15. Reason given for abortion

Feminists for Choice have more here. Salon covers the story here. A Tulsa paper has the story here.

A lawsuit has been filed challenging the constitutionality of the law.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Reproductive Rights | 2 Comments

Meier Receives ABA Sharon Corbitt Award

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Professor Joan Meier (GWU) has received the first-ever Sharon Corbitt Award from the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence, in recognition of “exemplary legal service to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.”

GWU’s announcement is here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Chutes and Ladders | Comments Off

The Wal-Mart Effect: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Reinstates Punitive Damages Award in Gender Discrimination Action Against Wal-Mart

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Colin Miller

A plaintiff brings an action against her former employer for discrimination. That action seeks punitive as well as compensatory damages. The plaintiff does not have evidence that the employer acted with knowledge that its conduct violated the terms of the specific statute in the employer’s state deeming discrimination unlawful (who could?). The plaintiff does, however, have evidence that the employer acted with knowledge that it was interfering with the plaintiff’s right to be free of unlawful discrimination. Should the plaintiff be able to recover punitive damages? According to the recent opinion of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Haddad v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2009 WL 3153155 (Mass. 2009), if the plaintiff is claiming gender discrimination, the answer is “yes,” and I agree. But the court also indicated that the answer is “no” if the plaintiff is claiming age discrimination, and I don’t see why that’s the case.

Continue reading →

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Employment Discrimination, Feminism and the Workplace | 2 Comments

Gender Equality?

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The gender of judging implicates constitutional as well as “rule of law” concerns. A new article, Judging Women,posted on ssrn has been garnering attention. The study comparing male and female judges provides an empirical perspective:

“Primarily using a dataset of all the state high court judges in 1998-2000, we estimate three measures of judicial output: opinion production, outside state citations, and co-partisan disagreements. We find that the male and female judges perform at about the same level. Roughly similar findings show up in data from the U.S. Court of Appeals and the federal district courts.”

Yet judicial “output” and quantitative measure aren’t the only approach. There is also so-called anecdotal evidence of differences between male and female judges. This snippet, reported yesterday, from an en banc oral argument in the Eleventh Circuit on the issue of whether the frequent but non-severe harassment was sufficiently pervasive to survive summary judgment in a sexual harassment case, is illustrative:

When Judge Edward E. Carnes asked a lawyer about a hypothetical workplace where derogatory, sex-specific terms for men were used in equal measure with derogatory terms for women, Judge Rosemary Barkett raised a problem.

“I can’t think of many words that are derogatory toward men,” she said. Barkett suggested “bastard” and “prick,” saying, “that’s the only two I can come up with.”

The en banc court is reviewing the panel opinion, Reeves v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. 525 F.3d 1139 (11th Cir. 2008), in which the court found that the evidence was sufficient to survive a summary judgment motion in a Title VII claim.

The post continues here.

-Ruthann Robson

(partial cross-post and link to Constitutional Law Prof Blog)

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

The Yale Law School Information Society Project’s Upcoming Conference is Entitled: “JOURNALISM AND THE NEW MEDIA ECOLOGY: WHO WILL PAY THE MESSENGERS?” and 32 Out of 39 Listed Speakers Are Male.

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Website here, program here. New media conference, same old YLS misogyny.

Not so random aside: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) launched an Ethical Journalism Initiative in 2008. The IFJ considers fair gender portrayal as part of ethical journalism, and sees it as a vital ethical challenge in journalism. Yale Law School, not so much, apparently. If you are interested in helping to address discrimination against women in the media, get involved with this:

Global Media Monitoring Project 2009/2010

In November 2009, the world news media will once again come under scrutiny during the 4th Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). Volunteers from women’s rights organizations, media associations, academia, etc across the world will collaborate in a one-day global research on gender in their local news media. GMMP research results are applied as a tool for change towards gender equality in and through media.

The GMMP is a longitudinal news media research and advocacy project running since 1995 aimed at achieving fair and balanced gender representation in and through the news media.

The global media monitoring day for GMMP 2009/2010 will be in early November, 2009.

The most recent GMMP in 2005 found that women are more than twice as likely to be portrayed as victims than men in news stories. 86% of all â€˜spokespeople’ in the news are men while women are featured as â€˜experts’ only 17% of the time. Women make up more than half of the world’s population but are featured in only 21% of the world’s news headlines. News media are twice as likely to reinforce gender stereotypes than to challenge them. How has gender representation and portrayal in and through the news media changed since 2005? Participate in GMMP 2009/2010 this November to find out.

The success of previous iterations of the GMMP owes largely to the commitment of hundreds of volunteers around the world to monitor their local radio, television and print news media. The volunteers apply GMMP monitoring guides to code news stories appearing in each media during the set global media monitoring day. Numerous more volunteers are needed in every participating country. Volunteer as a monitor at www.whomakesthenews.org/contact-us.html.

Visit the GMMP online discussion forum to post discussion topics or react to comments.

Join the GMMP community on Facebook and invite your friends! Help spread the word about the GMMP and inversely, trigger critical reflection on the ways in which news media are implicated in perpetuating or dismantling gender-based inequalities.

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–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Law, Sexism in the Media, The Underrepresentation of Women | 3 Comments

“Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA’s Lost Female Astronauts”

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Women were more qualified to to go into space than men. Having the wrong gonads kept them grounded. This Wired.com article reports:

… In the late 1950s, the United States government contemplated training women as astronauts, and newly released medical test results show that they were just as cool and tough as the men who went to the moon.

â€œThey were all extraordinary women and outstanding pilots and great candidates for what was proposed,”said Donald Kilgore, a doctor who evaluated both male and female space flight candidates at the Lovelace Clinic, a mid-century center of aeromedical research.”They came out better than the men in many categories.”

The clinic’s founder, Randy Lovelace, developed the health assessments used to select the Mercury 7 team, and thought that women might make competent astronauts. It was a radical idea for the era. Women’s liberation had just begun to stir, and only a quarter of U.S. women had jobs.

But Lovelace was practical: Women are lighter than men, requiring less fuel to transport them into space. They’re also less prone to heart attacks, and Lovelace considered them better-suited for the claustrophobic isolation of space.

In 1959, Lovelace collaborator Donald Flickinger, an Air Force general and NASA advisor, founded the Women In Space Earliest program in order to test women for their qualifications as astronauts. But the Air Force canned it before testing even started, prompting Lovelace to start the Woman in Space Program.

Nineteen women enrolled in WISP, undergoing the same grueling tests administered to the male Mercury astronauts. Thirteen of them : later dubbed the Mercury 13 : passed”with no medical reservations,”a higher graduation rate than the first male class. The top four women scored as highly as any of the men.

â€œThey were all motivated to a degree you could not measure. They knew they were ideal candidates, but NASA regulations kept them out of the game,”said Kilgore.

The results of the women’s tests are described for the first time in an article published in the September Advances in Physiology Education, and show just how capable they. One set of results, from the sensory deprivation tests, are especially striking.

â€œBased on previous experiments in several hundred subjects, it was thought that 6 hours was the absolute limit of tolerance for this experience before the onset of hallucinations,”write Kilgore and his co-authors.”[Jerrie] Cobb, however, spent 9 hours and 40 minutes during the experiment, which was terminated by the staff. Subsequently, two other women (Rhea Hurrle and Wally Funk) were also tested, with each spending over 10 hours in the sensory isolation tank before termination by the staff.”

During the test, the women were immersed in a lightless tank of cold water. By contrast, John Glenn’s memoir recounts being tested in a dimly-lit room, where he was provided with a pen and paper. Glenn’s test lasted just three hours.

The would-be Mercury 13 astronauts would ultimately be held to a different standard than their male counterparts. Some NASA officials speculated that female performance could be impaired by menstruation. Others wanted pilots who had already flown experimental military aircraft : something only men could have done, since women were barred from the Air Force.

In August 1961, WISP was cancelled. It was not until 1995, when Eileen Collins piloted the STS-63 shuttle around the MIR space station, that the Mercury 13 met again. Collins was the first woman to become a space pilot, but not the first woman who deserved to. …

The abstract for the referenced article is as follows:

“In 1959, Brigadier General Donald Flickinger and Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II suggested that it would be more practical from an engineering standpoint to send women rather than men into space due to their lower body weights and oxygen requirements. When the Air Force decided not to pursue this project, Dr. Lovelace assumed leadership of the Woman in Space Program and began medical and physiological testing of a series of accomplished women aviators at the Lovelace Medical Clinic in Albuquerque, NM, in 1960. The tests that these women underwent were identical to those used to test the original Mercury astronauts, with the addition of gynecological examinations. Thirteen of the nineteen women tested passed these strenuous physiological exams (for comparison, 18 of 32 men tested passed); a subset of these pilots was further tested on a series of psychological exams that were similar to or, in some instances, more demanding than those given to male Mercury candidates. Despite these promising results, further testing was halted, and the Woman in Space Program was disbanded in 1962. Although the Woman in Space Program received a great deal of publicity at the time, the story of these women was somewhat lost until they were reunited at the 1999 launch of the shuttle Columbia, commanded by Colonel Eileen Collins.”

Read the full article here.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Employment Discrimination, Feminist Legal History, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Guest Blogger Kate Blacker: Rape in Guinea

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

I am horrified by the recent events in Guinea. I also find the world’s response insufficient and disturbing. The media seems to be differentiating this type of ‘gang rape’ and ‘rape in broad daylight’ from other ( less unacceptable?) forms of sexual abuse and assault. Not only are these rapes being characterized as worse than ordinary rape, but in addition the world response has been, to say the least, underwhelming. This is sending a message that even the ‘worst’ type of rape will not spark true outrage, discussion, education, and worldwide advocacy for victims- so why should survivors of “run-of-the-mill” rape even bother coming forward?

As a rape crisis counselor, I have spent countless hours in emergency rooms listening to women (and men…don’t forget teenage girls and boys) speak dismissively about being raped. Many blame themselves, minimize the seriousness of such an assault, are ashamed as though they were the criminals, and don’t believe anyone will care. Sometimes hospital staff and law enforcement treat them like blameworthy criminals. More often, they are treated with indifference peppered with intolerance…which I have sadly come to expect.

I don’t condone separating sexual assault into degrees of unacceptability but that’s the way it is done right now. Working within this paradigm- I am horrified that this ‘worst’ kind of rape has faded from the headlines. This could be an opportunity to raise awareness and mobilize people. This could be an opportunity for the world to demonstrate that rape will not be tolerated. Then maybe the next time I’m sitting in the emergency room, just maybe I can refute the claim of the terrorized woman crying on the exam table when she says that no one cares about her sexual assault.

For news coverage of the situation in Guinea, see the NY Times here and here and YouTube here and here. Below is a video recapping the protest and response to the situation in Guinea.

-Kate Blacker

[Kate Blacker is an LL.M.candidate at Pace University School of Law]

Posted in Acts of Violence, Sisters In Other Nations | 2 Comments

Learning About Family Tax Credits

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The National Women’s Law Center is sponsoring two on-line training/education sessions about family tax credits. Here’s the info:

Did you know that federal tax credits for families have been expanded and are now more valuable than ever? We’re not talking about a few dollars more for families, we’re talking about potentially thousands of dollars.

But unfortunately, millions of families don’t even know to ask for the credits they are eligible for.

That’s why your help is needed to spread the word. And to give you the information and tools you need, we are offering two free webinar trainings. In these free trainings, you’ll learn about family tax credits and get access to free easy to use resources.

Part I : Tax Credits: What Working Families Need to Know
Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1 hour)

Get the facts about how tax credits can give working families a leg up, and learn how to help spread the word.

Part II – Tax Credits Outreach: Tips and Tools for Service Providers and Advocates
Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1 hour)

The sessions are free, but pre-registration is required. More info and registration available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Families, Women and Economics | Comments Off

The Pornification of a High School Sports Rivalry

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Actual “show your school spirit” shirt sold by students to “support team.”

Via an anonymous and concerned parent.

ETA: To be clear, the parent is not anonymous to me, s/he simply prefers not to be named. Another artifact from the same rivalry, taken from the Jezebel comments thread:

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–Ann Bartow

ETA2: The shirt was discussed by the Houston media, see e.g. here, here and here. For an eloquent exposition on rape jokes, go here.

ETA3: Jezebel has a wrap up post here.

Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminism and Sports | 4 Comments

Pruitt on Latina/os, Locality, and the Law in the Rural South

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Prof Lisa Pruitt (UC Davis) has published her essay Latina/os, Locality, and Law in the Rural South, at 12 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 135-169 (2009). Here is the abstract:

In this era of municipal anti-immigrant ordinances and federal-local cooperation to enforce immigration laws, legal issues associated with immigration are playing out at multiple scales, from the national down to the local. Legal actors at the municipal, county, and state levels have become front-line policymakers and law enforcers in relation to immigrant populations. This essay calls attention to phenomenal surge in Latina/o immigration into the rural South in recent years, and it considers how that socio-spatial milieu may influence these legal matters at the local level.

Among other issues, the essay discusses the enhanced opportunity for racial profiling in the context of communities where law enforcement officers are more familiar and socially integrated with the populations they patrol. It also considers how bias may be fueled by the static nature of rural communities, many of which are historically ethnically and racially homogeneous, while others have been socially and racially defined by a Black-White divide. In assessing these legal issues, the essay considers how rural places in the South construct the Latina/o experience differently than “gateway” cities and states in the West and Southwest. In turn, it looks at how the Latina/o in-migration is remaking these rural places, these “quintessentially ‘American’ spaces.”

While the impact of this demographic shift is ongoing, studies suggest that Latina/os are revitalizing the South economically, as they also re-shape the rural socio-cultural milieu. Nevertheless, many of the deep-rooted economic and social problems associated with the region persist, as does distrust between long-time residents and Latina/o newcomers. Just as sociologists, demographers, and economists are studying the phenomenon of immigration into the rural South, this essay argues that it also merits the attention of legal scholars.

Pruitt’s full essay is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminist Legal Scholarship, Immigration, Race and Racism | Comments Off

“By watering down the content of what used to be Women’s Studies, students are no longer inspired by feminism and by the prospect of feminist activism and research.”

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Ann Bartow

That is a sentence from this essay, excerpted below:

… There have been two competing forces in the theorising of Women’s Studies since its inception. On the one hand there are those who wish to â€˜transform the curriculum’ and incorporate Women’s Studies into other disciplines and be prepared to shift naming conventions as it becomes expedient (Friedman et al. 1996). On the other hand, there are those who have fought for the establishment and continuation of Women’s Studies as an autonomous discipline (Bowles and Duelli-Klein 1983; Bowles 2009).

Those who have fought for the first option have had some achievements, but the curriculum has not exactly been transformed. Were it transformed it would have had the effect of challenging the structures in which such courses are taught. We would also be now seeing social change occurring in which hatred of women and violence against women was reduced. Such changes have not occurred indeed, hatred and violence are on the increase.

Those engaged in the project of transformation have not appeared to be too worried about calling Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies, Gender Studies or Cultural Studies or indeed subsuming what was once Women’s Studies into courses on Politics, Sociology, History or any other discipline (Robinson and Richardson 1996:179â€“187). However interesting such courses may be, they are not courses in Women’s Studies. Gender Studies and Cultural Studies are widely available, and many of them encourage students to read postmodern theorists whose work is not informed by feminism or by the discipline of Women’s Studies. Again, however interesting this is to particular students, it does not constitute Women’s Studies (see Bell and Klein 1996:279â€“417).

By watering down the content of what used to be Women’s Studies, students are no longer inspired by feminism and by the prospect of feminist activism and research.

Those who argued for Women’s Studies as a separate and independent discipline have attempted to make courses challenging, women-centred and inspired by feminist research methodologies and feminist pedagogy or gynagogy (Klein 1986). Where Women’s Studies has successfully maintained an autonomous existence, students and teachers speak of the energy of courses, of the ways in which their lives are transformed by reading, discussion, writing and research (Ã…s 1996:535â€“545). Gender mainstreaming has led to the demise of many autonomous Women’s Studies programs, or the invisibilising of the research of feminists whose work has disappeared from the curriculum in less than a couple of decades. The result of this will be the need for the next generation to reinvent the wheel. …

Read the whole thing here and see what you think.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Politics, Feminists in Academia, Sociolinguistics | Comments Off

“Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer. It was the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.”

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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From here:

… Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that builds telomeres : telomerase : and the mechanism by which it adds DNA to the tips of chromosomes to replace genetic material that has eroded away.

The prize-winners’ work, done in the late 1970s and 1980s, set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses.

“The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” the prize committee said in its citation.

Blackburn, who holds U.S. and Australian citizenship, is a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Greider is a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore….

Official announcement here, that’s where the photos came from.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Medicine, Feminism and Science, Firsts | 1 Comment

Something Here is Very Strange.

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Ann Bartow

So, The Nation published an article called “The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking” by Noy Thrupkaew. This article focuses on one organization only, “the International Justice Mission, an evangelical Christian organization devoted to combating human rights abuses in the developing world.” But a number blogs of blogs are linking to the story in a way that encourages generalizations about all organizations that are trying to address sex trafficking, for example the link at Feministing asks: “Do organizations and officials that try to help women out of forced prostitution hurt more than they help?” According to the article in The Nation, the International Justice Mission uses brothel raids, and this approach is counterproductive. Supposedly there will be a follow up article that “will explore alternative approaches to addressing the problem of trafficking for the purposes of forced prostitution.” I look forward to reading that, because the strong impression I got from this article was that working as forced prostitutes is the best these women and girls (some as young as 8) can hope for out of life, and the IMJ should just mind its own creepy Christian Bush loving icky sex-hating Christian business.

Something very strange – Here is an except from the article:

Ping Pong is frowning, her formidable charm dampened by memory. The sex worker is mulling over IJM’s work in Thailand. As a health and legal-services advocate with the sex-worker organization Empower, she’s seen the aftereffects firsthand.

“Oh, yes, there were problems,” she says at last. “The deportation–and back to Burma! They were desperate to leave in the first place. The long detention. The girls running away. And the way they treated other NGOs, just expecting them to clean up the mess afterward. Even the other anti-trafficking groups couldn’t get along with them.”

The name “Ping Pong” stirred a memory about something I read previously about Empower, which was this:

.. Unlike brothels or strip clubs,”Ping Pong Shows”do not lure clients through promises of sexual arousal, but promises of sexual perversion : if not sexual torture. They offer freak shows where women’s bodies are reduced to grotesque objects exploited for tourists’ entertainment.

Thai women who have lost their jobs in villages during the economic downturn often travel to cities such as Bangkok for work and are hired not as sex entertainers, but circus animals.These shows are inherently misogynistic; after all, there is no equivalent of a “ping pong show” for men, in which they use their anal muscles to pop out frogs and pull out razors.

One older woman with a scar across her belly from a c-section confides after her performance at a Ping Pong Show,”I don’t like being here, I feel dirty.”She adds,”I left my village when my factory closed.” Nobody knows when, exactly, Ping Pong Shows began, but they’re increasingly raunchy and dangerous as tourists’ threshold for shock increases. One Bangkok organization, EMPOWER, even instructed women in bar prostitution how to insert and pull out razor blades from their vaginas, according to Melissa Farley, Executive Director of Prostitution Research & Education. “This is understood to be a job requirement in the bar-show setting where tricks are sexually excited by the possibility of the genital mutilation of Thai women,” notes Farley.

Maybe it makes sense that a sex worker working with a sex worker organization would call herself “Ping Pong” but I have to think this was some kind of bad joke on Thrupkaew, who quotes another Empower representative for the proposition that “sometimes the best interests of the women and what they want fits more closely with brothel owners than with the rescue organizations or police.”

Thrupkaew may not acknowledge this, but there are NGOs other than IMJ working on sex trafficking issues in Thailand. Read about a couple of them here.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Sisters In Other Nations, Women and Economics | 2 Comments

Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Cornel West’s autobiography, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, has been released.

I look forward to reading it!

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Recommended Books | Comments Off

Nicole Hurt, “Komen Goes Feminist: Breast Cancer Activism, Advertising Design, and Third-Wave Feminism”

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Ann Bartow

This is an academic paper written in 2008 by a U. of Georgia student which critiques the 2007 “Punch It” Komen Foundation campaign:

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The shirt says:”When we get our hands on breast cancer, we’re going to punch it, strangle it, kick it, spit on it, choke it and pummel it until it’s good and dead. Not just horror movie dead but really, truly dead. And then we’re going to tie a pink ribbon on it.”

In her essay Nicole Hurt writes:

We might dismiss the image as oppressive at first sight because of what it appears to be asking us to do to the female body. However, I hope to get beyond this initial knee-jerk reaction to fully assess what is going on with the image. In this analysis, I try to give equal weight to both the design and the words in the message. As such, I claim that the design actually supports third-wave feminist themes even when the words in the image are trying to do otherwise. In this section, then, I explain my analysis of Komen’s”Punch It.”First, I discuss how the design of the image is illustrative of the third-wave feminist characteristic of individualism. Second, I discuss how the image represents the”girl power”theme that seems popular in third-wave texts. And, finally, I explain how the image upholds the third-wave embrace of both bodies and consumption as political tools. After I explain the image, I discuss the political implications of my analysis.

A Komen spokesperson acknowledged to the NYT that “Punch It” was part of an effort to “serv[e] younger audiences and more ethnically diverse audiences,” as was this:

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I came across the essay when I was trying to figure out a polite and diplomatic way to respond to what seems like the 2 millionth time people I like and care about (friends, colleagues, relatives, students and former students) have asked me to provide financial support for their breast cancer walk. I post the link not because I necessarily endorse the conclusions Hurt reaches but simply because I think it is an interesting read.

Links that are far more critical of the Komen Foundation can be found here. I blogged the “Punch It” shirt previously here; the point of that post was to send you here to have you read paragraphs like this:

… Komen, it can’t have escaped your eagle eye, is the author of those asinine, pink-visored”Race For The Cures,”as well as that most pernicious arm of the megatheocorporatocracy responsible for turning breast cancer : which used to be a vile disease that kills people but is now a sweet little personal struggle that gives middle aged white women the golden opportunity to grow : into branded”awareness.”Breast Cancer Awareness the Brand, with its army of unpaid pink volunterrorists, sells, with unprecedented success, everything from cars to football to potato chips. All, remarkably, without making the slightest dent in breast cancer deaths.

Thus it is through the narrowed eye of resigned cynicism that I view this pornalicious poster: the chest-o-centric pose, the decapitation, the mood lighting, and of course, the snuff film script. Komen stops at nothing, for hundreds of corporations rely on pinkribbonnity to wholesomize their tarnished public images every October during Breast Cancer Shill Month. …

Meanwhile, over at the Komen Foundation website you can buy a pink feather boa for $10, and 25% of the purchase price “will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure ® in the fight against breast cure.” But what does that mean? Komen gets $2.50 if I buy a boa but what exactly does Komen do with the money? All I learned from the most recent Komen Annual Report is that it spent the following on “Program Services” in 2008:

Research $98,548,000
Education $134,195,000
Screening $37,804,000
Treatment $22,024,000
Total Program Services $292,571,000

Based on expenditures the Komen’s biggest priority is “education” and I wonder if that includes advertising campaigns like “Punch It.”

In the past I’ve donated to Breast Cancer Action, which asserts:

“BCA is targeting Eli Lilly with this year’s Think Before You Pink campaign. Eli Lilly is now the sole manufacturer of rBGH : the artificial growth hormone given to dairy cows that increases people’s risk of cancer. Eli Lilly also manufactures breast cancer treatment medications and a pill that”reduces the risk”of breast cancer. It’s a perfect profit circle. Eli Lilly is milking cancer. Tell them to stop making rBGH.“

Go here to learn about Breast Cancer Action’s efforts to “liberate” breast cancer genes.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Medicine, If you're a woman, Sociolinguistics, Women's Health | Comments Off

The Problem Is That Women’s Choices “All Suck”

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Over at the Huffington Post (here), Marcus Buckingham explains reports of (white) women’s declining happiness (previously noted by Ann here and here, for example). He says, “The hard-won rights, opportunities, and advantages were supposed to have netted women more than just another burdensome role to play — ‘you at work.'” A column in today’s Double X takes issue (here) with Buckingham (and Maureen Dowd’s related NY Times column):

Women are in the workforce in greater numbers, and men do more of the housework. But things haven’t changed nearly enough. It turns out, the problem isn’t that we have too many options:it’s that they all suck. Without real accommodations for working women, the choices are all still pretty disappointing. It may feel as if we should be done with”work-life issues”:the term itself sounds so ’90s, evoking upbeat, pre-BlackBerry workshops. But we still haven’t fully confronted, let alone resolved, the unpleasantness of trying to do too much at once.

Let’s also not forget that Mr. Buckingham has a book to hawk, too. Some women may have come to the conclusion that they don’t need a man to make them happy, but the marketing for Mr. Buckingham’s Find Your Strongest Life assumes that we all need a man to explain why we’re unhappy.

Blech.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Culture | 2 Comments

A U.S. District Judge ruled that school officials in Dillon County, South Carolina had acted reasonably in compelling a teenage student to not wear clothing with images of the Confederate flag.

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Ann Bartow

From here:

U.S. District Court Judge Terry Wooten has decided in favor of Dillon School District 3 in Latta in a 2006 lawsuit involving clothing bearing the Confederate flag, Superintendent Dr. John Kirby said.

On March 30, 2006, the Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) filed a lawsuit on behalf of then-15-year-old Candice Hardwick, a Latta High School student who it said was unfairly punished for wearing Confederate-themed clothing to class.

Kirby said Wooten entered a summary judgment Sept. 9 for the district, which determined that the district had a preponderance of the evidence in the case, and that the plaintiff didn’t have enough evidence to warrant a trial.

Wooten said in his ruling that the school board had the duty to develop appropriate policies for a safe school environment, Kirby said.

Kirby said the decision proved that the district carried out dress policies fairly, appropriately and legally.

â€œThe decision reaffirms the community’s right to expect safe schools,”he said.

It also empowers other school districts to enact and enforce similar policies designed to ensure student and staff safety, Kirby said. …

… Kirk Lyons, chief trial counsel for the SLRC, represented the Hardwicks, who were seeking to have the school board amend its dress code to allow Confederate symbols, expunge Candice’s school records of any”damaging marks,”and pay an unspecified amount for punitive damages arising from Candice’s treatment.

Lyons said Wednesday he will appeal Wooten’s decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

While Lyons said he would have liked the case to have gone to trial :”I think we were entitled to one,”he said : he couldn’t ask for better facts to take to the Fourth Circuit.

â€œThere is no evidence of disruption at the school to justify either the school’s actions or the judge’s opinion … It’s an opinion that must be appealed,”he said.”The facts are not in controversy … The school concedes there was no disruption.”

Lyons said he’s confident Wooten’s ruling will be overturned on appeal, citing the Tinker v. Des Moines School District case in which three public school students were suspended from school for wearing black armbands to protest the government’s policy in Vietnam. The Court of Appeals ruled in 1969 that”A prohibition against expression of opinion, without any evidence that the rule is necessary to avoid substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others, is not permissible under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”

â€œA student doesn’t leave his rights at the schoolhouse gate,”Lyons said. …

Posted in Academia, Race and Racism, South Carolina | 2 Comments

Girls Educational and Mentoring Services’ (GEMS) mission is to empower young women, ages12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential.

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Ann Bartow

MESSAGE FROM HALLE BERRY
October 1, 2009

Dear GEMS Friends,

Being a girl isn’t easy.

Today in New York City, a girl will flee an abusive home, only to be approached by a pimp-trafficker who will promise her love and protection. He will not deliver on these promises. Instead, he will assault and degrade her, and later sell her repeatedly to johns.

I have never met this girl, but she is my daughter.

In Houston, a girl trafficked and sold by a pimp will be arrested. Most likely, she will not be viewed as a victim of child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. She will be deemed a ‘teen prostitute’ and sent to jail. It will devastate her but she will have no one to tell her she is loved, that she will be okay, that she is not to blame.

She is my daughter.

In Chicago, a girl will have her picture taken and posted on a popular social networking site, a virtual marketplace for johns interested in buying very young girls. Her pimp will force her to meet these johns in motels and brothels and apartments around the city, and will punish her mercilessly if she refuses.

She is my daughter.

And in my hometown of Cleveland, a girl will arrive in an emergency room with extensive injuries resulting from a brutal assault by a john. The doctors may treat her, but it’s possible they will not have the training to identify her as a victim and connect her with services that can help her heal from her physical and emotional trauma.

She is my daughter.

Across the nation, between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are at risk for child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. In most cases, resources do not exist to care for them, help them heal, advocate for them in the courts, and empower them to reach their full potential. That’s why I am a member of The Council of Daughters, a new national network launched by GEMS to mobilize women and girls to encourage stronger legislation, better services, increased community awareness, and real social change to protect and empower girls who have been trafficked as they fight to recover from their exploitation.

The Council of Daughters is a core part of GEMS’ Girls Are Not for Sale Campaign, and I encourage you to join us. Imagine what we can accomplish if millions of women band together to fight for the needs of girls at the national and local level. Imagine the power we can wield if we all agree that every girl in America deserves the right to grow up and live her dreams. Imagine the enormous change that is possible if we each commit to a simple pledge: Every girl is my daughter and I will do whatever I can, whenever I can, to protect the girls I know and the girls I may never meet.

Together, we can ensure that girls are educated and empowered to know their self-worth and beauty. We can demand that service providers, doctors, educators and police officers are informed and prepared to respond to the needs of children who have been victimized. We can ensure that comprehensive recovery services are available in all 50 states. We can help young survivors rise to the forefront of a nation-wide movement to end child sex trafficking in America. We can build a nation where girls are celebrated, not sold.

I need you to do three things for me today. First, if you haven’t seen it yet, I want you to watch the GEMS film Very Young Girls to learn just how much girls in recovery need our support. The film is available online and on DVD at Netflix. Watch it this week or accept GEMS’ One2One Challenge and share it with a friend on our National Viewing Night on October 17th.

Go to GEMS One2One Challenge page:
http://bit.ly/one2one

Second, I encourage you to donate $10, $25, $50 or any amount to support the GEMS Girls Fund. Inspire a friend by inviting them over to watch the film with you on October 17th and make a donation to GEMS in honor of this friend. Any amount is a gift.

Go to GEMS Facebook Causes page to donate:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/29463/60530330?fb_page_id=74771361055&m=6d54c0aa

And finally, if you are not already a member, I want you to join me on The Council of Daughters by visiting http://councilofdaughters.ning.com.

I know we can do this. I know we can change the world for girls.

Love Always,
Halle

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Feminism and Law, From the FLP mailbox, Justice?, Women's Health | Comments Off

CFP: Catharine Stimpson Prize

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

From the FLP mailbox, this call for papers for the Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship:

The University of Chicago Press is pleased to announce the competition for the 2011 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship. Named in honor of the founding editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, the Catharine Stimpson Prize is designed to recognize excellence and innovation in the work of emerging feminist scholars.

The Catharine Stimpson Prize is awarded biannually to the best paper in an international competition. Leading feminist scholars from around the globe will select the winner. The prize-winning paper will be published in Signs, and the author will be provided an honorarium of $1,000. All papers submitted for the Stimpson Prize will be considered for peer review and possible publication in Signs.

Eligibility: Feminist scholars in the early years of their careers (less than seven years since receipt of the terminal degree) are invited to submit papers for the Stimpson Prize. Papers may be on any topic that falls within the broad rubric of interdisciplinary feminist scholarship. Papers submitted for the prize must be no longer than 10,000 words and must conform to the guidelines for Signs contributors. Guidelines for submission are available here.

Deadline for Submissions: The deadline for submissions for the next Catharine Stimpson Prize is March 1, 2010.

Please submit papers online here. Be sure to indicate submission for consideration for the Catharine Stimpson Prize in the cover letter. The honorarium will be awarded upon publication of the prize-winning article.

Papers may also be submitted by post to:

The Catharine Stimpson Prize Selection Committee
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
Rutgers University
8 Voorhees Chapel
5 Chapel Drive
New Brunswick , New Jersey 08901

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off

Betty Ford Was A Feminist

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Check out this post at Tennessee Guerilla Women, which notes: “In the 1970s, First Lady Betty Ford advocated the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), was openly pro choice and proudly told the world that she was a feminist.”

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Politics, Feminist Legal History | Comments Off

Pornography at the National Science Foundation

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Ann Bartow

The Washington Times is not a publication I ordinarily read or have any confidence in. Nevertheless, the allegations made in this article appear to be accurate:

… The budget request doesn’t state the nature or number of the misconduct cases, but records obtained by The Times through the Freedom of Information Act laid bare the extent of the well-publicized porn problem inside the government-backed foundation.

For instance, one senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected, the records show.

When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women. Investigators put the cost to taxpayers of the senior official’s porn surfing at between $13,800 and about $58,000.

“He explained that these young women are from poor countries and need to make money to help their parents and this site helps them do that,” investigators wrote in a memo. …

…. The foundation’s inspector general uncovers scientific misconduct that can force the return of misused grant money to the government but told Congress it was diverted from that mission by the porn cases.

The office was unable to immediately provide an estimate of how much money the projected decline in investigative recoveries will cost taxpayers. According to congressional reports, overall investigative recoveries by the watchdog agency totaled more than $2 million for the year ending March 31.

The pornography problem came to light earlier this year, when the inspector general’s office published short summaries of several recent cases in a semiannual report to Congress.

The report caught the attention of Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who launched an inquiry that generated unwanted media attention on the online activities of employees at the foundation.

The newly obtained documents provide fresh evidence that the problem wasn’t just an embarrassment: It was expensive and often went undetected for long periods of time.

The names of all of the employees targeted in the pornography cases were redacted from the more than 120 pages of investigative documents released to The Times. Names were withheld because none of the employees was subject to criminal prosecution, recent civil court action or debarment.

The documents don’t include cases that the foundation examined internally without the inspector general’s involvement.

“The employees who were investigated were disciplined in one way or another,” Ms. Topousis said, adding that she could not comment on individual disciplinary actions.

One foundation employee paid an unspecified sum last year after investigators found that during a three-week period in June 2008, the worker perused hundreds of pornographic Web sites during work hours. That employee received a 10-day suspension.

In an official notice of the decision, the foundation called the conduct “unprofessional and unacceptable,” but also noted the employee’s work history and lack of any previous disciplinary actions.

As for the unnamed “senior executive” who spent at least 331 days looking at pornography at work, investigators said his proclivity for pornography was common knowledge among several co-workers.

“At the same time, employees were generally reluctant to make any official report or complaint because the misconduct involved a senior staff member and employees feared that they would suffer in some form of complaining,” the investigators later wrote in a summary of the case.

Another employee in a different case was caught with hundreds of pictures, videos and even PowerPoint slide shows containing pornography. Asked by an investigator whether he had completed any government work on a day when a significant amount of pornography was downloaded, the employee responded, “Um, I can’t remember,” according to records. …

The NSF March 2009 Semiannual Report To Congress describes employee pornography concerns starting at page 39.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Technology, Feminism and the Workplace | Comments Off

Diagram of the 19th Amendment

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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From here, via.

Posted in Bloggenpheffer, Sociolinguistics | 3 Comments

“The Wisconsin Tourism Federation has changed its name, after being made aware that its acronym WTF had become crude internet slang.”

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Ann Bartow

null
Per The Guardian:

… It seems that the federation was unaware of – or unconcerned by – the modern meaning of WTF until its acronym featured on a blog that compiles unfortunate corporate logos earlier this year.

Commenters wondered whether an expression of foul-mouthed astonishment was the best way of boosting tourism to a state that would not be an obvious choice for most holidaymakers.

The federation, a coalition of local trade bodies, has now amended its website to reflect the more anodyne name, which has been changed for the first time since it was founded in 1979.

The website also features the group’s new TFW logo, complete with squashed text to find room for the extra word “of”. …

CFP: The University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center on Applied Feminism seeks submissions for its Third Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Ann Bartow

This year’s theme is: Applied Feminism and Marginalized Communities. For more information about the conference, please visit our website.

This conference seeks to explore the following questions: What do we mean by”marginalized communities”and what purposes does that designation serve? How has feminist legal theory created or contributed to the understanding of who is or is not marginalized? How has feminist legal theory rendered women universal and marginal simultaneously? How has feminist legal theory contributed to the erasing, shifting and/or merging of boundaries and how does that affect how we think about marginalized communities? How does feminist legal theory intersect with other critical theories regarding marginalization? How can feminist legal theory work towards alleviating poverty and other barriers faced by marginalized communities? How has feminist legal theory addressed marginalization relating to such issues as housing, welfare, domestic violence, family composition, human rights, immigration, and religious freedom? And finally, how has feminist legal theory made (or not made) a difference for those who are portrayed as marginalized or see themselves as marginalized?

This conference will attempt to address these questions from the perspectives of activists, practitioners and academics. The conference will provide an opportunity for participants and audience members to exchange ideas about the current state of feminist legal theories and how those theories are being actualized to help women in marginalized communities. From the conference, we hope that a new discourse about applied feminist legal theory and marginalized communities will begin and that this discourse will shape policy and practice. In addition, the conference is designed to provide presenters with the opportunity to gain extensive feedback on their papers.

The conference will begin the evening of Thursday, March 4, 2010, with a workshop for conference participants. Building from last year’s workshop, which addressed making space for feminist writing, this workshop will continue the tradition of involving all attendees to be participants in the interactive discussion and reflection. The workshop will be approximately one to two hours in length.

On Friday, March 5, 2010, the conference will continue with a day of presentations by legal academics, practitioners and activists regarding current scholarship and/or legal work that explores the application of feminist legal theory and marginalized communities. The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker Friday evening. Past keynote speakers have included Dr. Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem.

The requirements for paper and workshop proposals are detailed below. To be considered for the workshop presentation, please submit a workshop proposal by 5 p.m. on October 16, 2009 to Professor Margaret E. Johnson (majohnson@ubalt.edu). The proposed workshop need not focus exclusively on the theme of this year’s feminist legal theory conference, but should focus on the general area of feminist legal theory and other critical theories. A workshop proposal should detail the topic of the workshop, your approach for conducting the workshop, and the activities or other methods that you will employ to make the session interactive. The proposal should also identify how long the workshop will last and any technology or other materials required. Due to the limited time available during the conference, we will only be able to select one of the proposals for the Thursday, March 4, 2010, evening workshop. We will notify the selectee by November 13, 2009.

To submit a paper proposal, please submit an abstract by 5 p.m. on October 16, 2009 to Professor Margaret E. Johnson (majohnson@ubalt.edu). Abstracts should be no longer than one page. Practitioners’ and activists’ papers need not follow a strictly academic format but all paper proposals should address the conference theme. We will notify presenters of selected papers by November 13, 2009. We anticipate being able to have twelve paper presenters during the conference on Friday, March 5, 2010. All working drafts of papers will be due no later than February 12, 2010. All abstracts and drafts will be posted on the Center on Applied Feminism’s conference website to be shared with other participants and attendees.

We are very excited that the University of Baltimore Law Review has agreed to offer publication to a few of the selected papers presented at the conference. If you are interested in submitting your abstract for consideration by the UB Law Review, please so note on your abstract submission. To be eligible for publication in the UB law review, submissions must not be published elsewhere. Typically, the UB Law Review publishes pieces ranging from 25 to 45 pages in length, using 12 point times new roman font and one inch margins. The UB Law Review has asked us to notify everyone that if your paper is selected for publication, the final draft of the complete article will be due by January 10, 2010.

Finally, please note that a limited amount of money may be available to presenters for travel expenses.

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Feminists in Academia, Upcoming Conferences | 1 Comment

CFP – Law, Gender & Citizenship: Contemporary Issues for American Indians and American Immigrants

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The Wisconsin Journal of

Law, Gender & Society

Announces its 2010 Symposium:

Law, Gender and Citizenship:

Contemporary Issues for American Indians and American Immigrants

March 5, 2010

University of Wisconsin Law School

Madison, Wisconsin

The student editors of the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society seek original scholarship, from both scholars and practitioners, that addresses the intersections of law and gender in the daily lives of two populations, each of which occupies a unique space in American law: American Indians and Immigrants. Interested parties should send an abstract to WJLGS.Symposium@gmail.com by November 15, 2009. Those selected for the Symposium will be notified in early January 2010. The Journal’s Symposium issue will be published in Winter 2010.

Questions can be addressed to Symposium Editor Dan Lewerenz, danlewerenz@gmail.com, or Deputy Symposium Editor Kate Frigo, kate.frigo@gmail.com.

***

In response to my question, Mr. Lewerenz clarifies via e-mail (reprinted with permission) that the call refers to:

the indigenous peoples of the United States. In both legal practice and scholarship, ‘Indian’ and ‘American Indian’ are almost always preferred over ‘Native American’ because most of the primary legal sources (e.g., the Constitution’s Indian commerce and treaty clauses, the Indian Reorganization Act, the Indian Self-Determination Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act) use ‘Indian.’ (But see, e.g., the Native American Arts and Crafts Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.) The body of law is generally referred to as ‘Indian Law.’

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation, Upcoming Conferences | Comments Off

More Polanski

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Ann Bartow

From the HuffPo (incredibly enough):

The Washington City Paper‘s Amanda Hess does a fine job in running down and refuting many of the extant arguments that carry a brief for Polanski. There’s the L.A. Times Patrick Goldstein’s “Polanski’s punishment is that he doesn’t get the same privileges of all the other members of the Director’s Guild who haven’t committed crimes” defense. There’s the “Wouldn’t incarcerating Polanski be exactly like Auschwitz?” argument. There’s HuffPost blogger Kim Morgan’s creative convolution, which asserts, “Roman Polanski really understands women when he’s not drugging and buggering them,” and her fellow HuffPost blogger Joan Shore’s “Her mother offered up her thirteen-year old for the taking” defense, a premise that belongs in one of Saudi Arabia’s finer legal journals.

For idiocy completists, you should check out the apologias from Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen, as well. But I’ll add to this pile of sidesteppery the arguments offered by The Nation‘s Katrina vanden Heuvel, who really has done her publication a ton of good today by taking to Twitter to say: “Very Rarely agree with Anne Applebaum [who wrote a defense of Polanski in the Washington Post without disclosing a major bias conflict], but do in Polanski case,” and then following up with, “Watch “Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired”–doc made last year. Detailed claims of prosecutorial wrongdoing at time of RP’s original arrest,” and “I am a feminist, declared and proud, but also hate prosecutorial misconduct. How to reconcile? Don’t call me apologist for Polanski.”

Prosecutorial misconduct: It’s uhm…bad, mmm’kay? It’s especially bad when it happens to anonymous defendants who slip through the criminal justice system, who cannot afford to mount the best appeals, and whose fates go largely unnoticed by the media. It should be fought. But Polanski had all sorts of resources at his disposal to fight it: he had wealth, he had friends, he had access to fine legal representation… why, I am reliably informed by Katrina vanden Heuvel that they even made a movie about the prosecutorial misconduct in his case. Polanski had the opportunity to expose prosecutorial misconduct — and who knows whether that misconduct didn’t extend to other defendants? But he didn’t fight it. Instead, he fled, taking that fight with him.

Why did he do that? I’m guessing it’s because he drugged and raped a thirteen year old girl.

But don’t call vanden Heuvel a “Polanski apologist.” He’s just totally helping to raise awareness of rampant prosecutorial misconduct! Forget it, Jake, it’s crazy town!

See also Shakesville, if you haven’t already, here, here, here, and especially here.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Feminist Blogs Of Interest | 1 Comment

Alienate My Affections: The Market (In)Alienability of Attending to Others (Or, Aynnie Did You Dun?)

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

I have been away from my blog for quite some days now as I plunge into teaching, writing, editing articles, and finalizing my dissertation. Anyway, with all of the intellectual cross-pollination going on in my life, I find myself thinking about the ways in which a number of the concepts I teach about and write about have value and meaning in my real life:yes, my other, mostly non-scholarly life, the one where I make extra strong lattes and watch the wind blow while hanging out with family and friends. I also inevitably end up thinking about just how limited and valuable time is. Both of these thoughts occurred to me the other day after teaching a Property class on “Market Inalienability.”

“Market Inalienability” is an article in which the author, Professor Margaret Jane Radin, discusses the extent to which and whether society should ban (or continue to ban in the case of existing prohibitions) the commodification of certain human activities, aspects or attributes while allowing the non-pecuniary transfer of the same goods (if the use of the word “goods” doesn’t beg the question). So, for instance, in the case of prostitution, there have long been rules that forbid such activities. In contrast, certain exchanges of sexual favors without direct payment, such as sexual intimacy in marriage, are completely permitted and even encouraged. Of course, a crucial question in the latter example is what it means to get paid for sexual services (how much marital romantic feeling is premised on the desire for general economic well being or even for more specific economic recompense, after all?), but for the most part our broad, modern social understanding of marriage marks it as the ultimate in sanctioned sexual exchange for non-pecuniary purposes. One significant reason for banning the sale of sexual services is, says Professor Radin, the notion that commodification of this deeply intimate, personal human capacity could ultimately lead to dehumanization. Hence, maintaining a system of non-commodification of sexual services (or, at least, “incomplete commodification” which may allow for some commercial activity in the realm of sex as an acknowledgement that values of autonomy and basic human need may require this) helps to promote “human flourishing” by preventing the objectification of human beings.

Well and good, I say. But does this still hold true when considering the “sale” of other forms of non-sexual interpersonal relations such as affection, caring, concern, or even attending to others in the form of working on their behalf? As to the latter point, isn’t working for others for pay a form of human commodification? Indeed, working is one form of commodification that can have truly dehumanizing consequences. Thinkers such as Proudhon and Marx didn’t call it “wage slavery” for nothing. We (mostly) non-Marxists in the Western world just call it a “job” and call truly dehumanizing situations “bad jobs.” Ultimately, it’s mostly all good if you can just get paid enough. “Get paid” has become one of the mantras of postmodernity.

Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law | 1 Comment

Where Are the Women? Not in Michigan Law Review (Again)

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Michigan Law Review, Issue 108:1 (October 2009)

ARTICLES

A Benjamin Spencer, Understanding Pleading Doctrine, 108 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (2009)

Michael A. Carrier, Unsettling Drug Patent Settlements: A Framework for Presumptive Illegality, 108 Mich. L. Rev. 37 (2009)

NOTES

Nathan Somogie, Failure of a”Basic Assumption”: The Emerging Standard for Excuse Under MAE Provisions, 108 Mich. L. Rev. 81 (2009)

Eric A. White, Examining Presidential Power Through the Rubric of Equity 108 Mich. L. Rev. 113 (2009)

Yes, you see it with your own eyes. Michigan Law Review’s October, 2009 issue contains not a single article by a woman. This is the third time in fewer than six months that Michigan Law Review has prompted us to ask, “Where Are the Women?” The June 2009 issue, the 2009 book review issue . . . now this one.

C’mon Michigan students, you can do better.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Academia | Comments Off

“The word”rape”has been disappeared from the English language”

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Ann Bartow

That’s the title of this interesting post at Historiann. Below are the first two paragraphs:

At least in the coverage of Roman Polanski’s arrest it has! I keep hearing about how he was arrested in Switzerland this weekend on a 32-year old charge of”having sex with”a then-13 year old girl. (This New York Times story will stand as representative of the chicken$hit coverage.) Funnyâ€“he was actually charged with rape in 1977 (aggravated with the use of drugs and alcohol to incapacitate the girl), but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of statutory rape.

Here’s something even more inexcusable: the Denver Post ran a Los Angeles Times story that featured a photo with a caption of the victim in which she is described as the girl who”accused Polanski when she was 13.” (The Denver Post’s headline in their print and online editions this morning is”Polanski held in 1977 rape case,”however, so”rape”is OK in a headline presumably because it’s shorter than saying”sex case”or”having sex with 13-year old accuser.”)

And as Historiann points out, Kate Harding has written a fantastic column about Polanski. Here is an excerpt from her post:

Let’s keep in mind that Roman Polanski gave a 13-year-old girl a Quaalude and champagne, then raped her, before we start discussing whether the victim looked older than her 13 years, or that she now says she’d rather not see him prosecuted because she can’t stand the media attention. Before we discuss how awesome his movies are or what the now-deceased judge did wrong at his trial, let’s take a moment to recall that according to the victim’s grand jury testimony, Roman Polanski instructed her to get into a jacuzzi naked, refused to take her home when she begged to go, began kissing her even though she said no and asked him to stop; performed cunnilingus on her as she said no and asked him to stop; put his penis in her vagina as she said no and asked him to stop; asked if he could penetrate her anally, to which she replied, “No,” then went ahead and did it anyway, until he had an orgasm.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Feminism and Law, Sociolinguistics | 1 Comment

Expanding Hyde to Cover All Insurance Plans?

Posted on September 29, 2009 by David S. Cohen

One of the goals of feminists going into the health reform debate this year was to work on repealing the Hyde Amendment (the federal budget clause that prohibits Medicaid from paying for abortions in all but the most limited of circumstances). Instead of moving toward that goal, it appears that the complete opposite is gaining momentum — using health reform to ban private insurance coverage of abortion.

This article from today’s Times is chilling. It sounds like a good number of Democrats are joining Republicans to push for a clause in the health reform bill to prevent any federal money going to any plan that covers abortions. Because one of the health reform ideas is to allow public money to be spent by private individuals to purchase private plans, this prohibition would extend to private plans. In effect, this would end private insurance coverage of abortion. So, not only would Hyde be preserved, but it would be expanded to eliminate any insurance plan from covering abortion.

– David S. Cohen

Posted in Reproductive Rights | 1 Comment

Could the next Dalai Llama be female?

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Bridget Crawford recently noted that the current Dalai Lama considers himself a feminist. Last March, there was this report:

After struggling for almost five decades, speculation is growing on who will lead and guide the Tibetans after the 14th Dalai Lama”TenzinGyatso”.

Speculation grew last November, when the exiled Tibetan leader hinted at a press conference, that a female Dalai Lama may succeed him. Many attendees were surprised, since history has never seen a female Dalai Lama.

His comments came after a historic Tibetan’s exile meeting ended, which discussed the future course of action in their nearly 50 years of freedom struggle.

In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, the possibility of a female incarnation of the Dalai Lama, or other reincarnating lama lineages, is known collectively as tulku. Tulku is used to refer to the corporeal existence of enlightened Buddhist masters.

â€œAlthough there are female lamas, or living Buddhas, men are predominant and it is rare for reincarnated lamas not to share the sex of their predecessors,”said His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

This comment follows his surprising remarks that he might choose his successor before his death, or even hold a referendum on whether he should be reborn at all.

â€œIf people feel that the institution of the Dalai Lama is still necessary, then it will continue,”he said.

â€œAll the Dalai Lamas, â€˜til now, have been male,”says the Dalai Lama.”Now, we want a female Dalai Lama. Women have to play a more important role to play in today’s context.”

And then in his characteristic style, he adds, in a lighter vein,”The female Dalai Lama will be more attractive, so we will have more followers.”But then, is he a feminist?

â€œYes, I am a feminist and a humanist too,”he says.

The Dalai Lama scotched all rumors of his possible retirement, saying,”There is no point or question of retirement. It is my moral responsibility â€˜til my death to work for the Tibetan cause.”

â€œMy body and flesh is all Tibetan. I remain committed to the Tibetan cause,”he says.

â€œThere are various ways of doing it [having a successor],”says the Dalai Lama.”The point is whether to continue with the institution of the Dalai Lama or not. After my death, Tibetan religious leaders can debate whether to have a Dalai Lama or not. The successor can be a young girl. Girls show more compassion. Also, women are dominating things all over the world.”

Tibetan girls were delighted. They said it was unexpected but not unlike the Dalai Lama to say this.

â€œNo one expected the Dalai Lama to say such a thing,”says Tenzing Nyesang a young Tibetan women outside the temple, minutes after his speech.”But one expects the progressive leader to have such an outlook towards equality of women.”

Tibetan women in exile have been quick to adapt to the new social life in exile and have contributed in the field of social welfare, community building, economics and the political struggle of Tibet in particular. Tibetan women have established themselves as a strong force in assisting the Tibetan government in exile through social and political activities and are the backbone of the refugee community.

Life in exile has given Tibetan women an opportunity to raise their issues to the international community, by working with international womens’ groups and attend various conferences related to women’s causes. Participating in these international gatherings has enhanced the outlook of Tibetan womens’ perspectives and taught them to work on a variety of issues concerning women in the global village. This has helped focus the international community on the Tibetan cause from a woman’s point of view.

As refugees, Tibetan women are displaced people who cannot return home for fear of persecution. Tibetan women refugees have had to adapt to a new way of life and at the same time struggle to maintain the Tibetan culture and identity in which the best effort to restore things are being done by them.

Even as the Dalai Lama stated that there is no question of his retirement until the Tibetan cause is resolved, he is still a visionary, looking ahead, keeping with the times, and breaking tradition.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Religion | 2 Comments

Former assistant public defender found guilty of having sex with a client in return for promising to work harder on her case.

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Ann Bartow

From the (Albany NY) Times Union:

… The six-member panel convicted Matthew Swedick, 39, of one misdemeanor count of official misconduct. He was acquitted on two other counts of the same charge.

The case against him goes back two years when he was assigned to represent Latoya Gorton on drug charges following an April 2007 raid on the Albany home Gorton shared with a boyfriend.

Gorton testified when the attorney-client relationship started Swedick essentially told her he would work harder, prioritize her case and treat her as a private-paying client if she engaged in sex with him. Those allegations constituted criminal activity because of Swedick’s role as an attorney on the public payroll, Special Prosecutor Michael Koenig said. …

Had Swedick been privately retained, it is unlikely he would have been criminally prosecuted for the identical behavior, though he might have received professional sanctions, see e.g. this, this, and this. In a recent Florida case, now disbarred lawyer James Harvey Tipler: “represented a client, an 18-year-old mother, in Bay County, Florida, on a charge of aggravated assault. Tipler charged his client a fee of $2,300 and entered into a fee agreement with her that allowed a”credit of $200 for each time she engaged in sex with Respondent”and a”$400 credit if she arranged for other females to have sex with him.”For his misdeeds, Tipler was charged with racketeering and four counts of prostitution. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution” per this article.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Coerced Sex, Feminism and Law, Legal Profession | 1 Comment

The NYT Adulates Christie Hefner, Delicately Refrains From Substantively Mentioning the Hardcore Porn that Generates Most of Playboy’s Revenues

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Here’s a curious and alarming excerpt from this incredibly sycophantic article:

Her father lent his support to causes like birth control and abortion rights, but activism was at her core. She campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment and gay rights and was chairwoman of a drive that raised $30 million for an AIDS treatment and research clinic in Chicago. Gloria Steinem, who made sport of attacking Hef (â€œa woman reading Playboy,”she once said,”feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual”) brought Ms. Hefner onto the board of Voters for Choice.

Ms. Hefner lives in Chicago and is heavily involved in politics. She has donated $201,000 to Democrats and liberal causes over the last 30 years, according to federal data collected by the NewsMeat Web site.”It’s not unusual for someone running for Senate in Illinois to come see me,”she said.

For 25 years she was on the board of the Magazine Publishers of America, and in 2005 arranged for one networking friend, Barack Obama, to speak at its annual conference.

So Barack Obama is more than happy to take her porn money and her phone calls. Great. And what to make of the sentence: “Gloria Steinem, who made sport of attacking Hef (â€œa woman reading Playboy,”she once said,”feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual”) brought Ms. Hefner onto the board of Voters for Choice.” Unsubtle (not to mention false) implication that Steinem is perfectly fine with pornography now. I notice she apparently wasn’t interviewed for the piece, though.

The only references to the hardcore porn that is now the mainstay of the Playboy corporation were these two sentences: “She stayed 33 years, building a profitable Internet operation and creating a $1 billion brand licensing division that is the company’s biggest profit maker. While Hef bragged about not crossing the line into hard porn, she did, buying Spice TV and Club Jenna and defending the move as business. Interesting to contrast that with Supposedly Very Liberal Dood Victor Navasky’s description of her in the article:

â€œShe’s certainly a liberal feminist and a liberal Democrat,”said Mr. Navasky, former editor of the liberal Nation.”People would say, â€˜so what’s she doing putting out a magazine and running clubs catering to horny men?’ But she found a way to make it work consistent with her values, to serve Playboy and her father and give them an opportunity to do socially useful things.”

Consistent with her values, according to the article: “She recently signed a deal with the Canyon Ranch resorts to build a brand-licensing business for health products modeled on her efforts with the Playboy brand.” Consistent with her values, I’m wondering how healthy those products are actually going to be.

–Ann Bartow

ETA: Coverage of the NYT article and of this post at Jezebel contains the surprising observation that “…Playboy Enterprises represents a very corporate end of the porn spectrum. Annie Sprinkle they are not.” Given that Playboy is a privately held company, not all of its involvement with pornography is easily ascertainable. Some of the pornography associated with Playboy may be on the less vile end of the porn spectrum. However, the Playboy corporation also produces and distributes large quantities of hardcore pornography chock full of violent and degrading acts, but they do so under subsidiary trademarks, because, according to a 2002 NYT article about Christy Hefner, â€œthe racier fare â€˜is a complementary and separate business from the Playboy business’:one in which the Playboy logo and brand”are obfuscated. Playboy also owns hardcore pornography cable channels such as The Hot Network, Vivid TV and The Hot Zone. The movies on these channels are advertised with descriptions like:”a comical adventure with 10 of the nastiest sex scenes ever filmed!”

Posted in Coerced Sex, Feminism and Culture, Sexism in the Media, Women's Health | 2 Comments

More Proof That Men Should Not Be the Only Ones Controlling Resources

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Here.

Arrgghh.

-Darren Rosenblum

Posted in Feminism and Politics | Comments Off

The Devil is in the Dictum: Second Circuit Makes Troubling Statements in Dictum in Rape Shield Ruling

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Colin Miller

A female employee allegedly flashes her breasts to co-workers at the workplace. That female employee later brings a sexual harassment action against her superior, claiming that he touched her thighs and breasts, offered her job security in return for sex, and showed up uninvited at her residence. The superior, who was not present during the alleged breast flashing, seeks to present evidence of this flashing in his defense. How should the court rule? Clearly, the answer should be to deem the evidence inadmissible. And indeed, that is what the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held in hearing a case with these facts: Basile v. Spagnola. Moreover, the Second Circuit recently affirmed that decision in its recent opinion in Basile v. Spagnola, 2009 WL3015489 (2nd Cir. 2009). So, what’s the problem? Well, in this case, the devil is in the dictum.

Continue reading →

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and the Workplace, Sexual Harassment | 1 Comment

Chung on “From Lily Bart to the Boom Boom Room: How Wall Street’s Social and Cultural Response to Women Has Shaped Securities Regulation”

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Christine Sgarlata Chung (Albany) has accepted an offer from the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender to publish her article “From Lily Bart to the Boom Boom Room: How Wall Street’s Social and Cultural Response to Women Has Shaped Securities Regulation.” The abstract is available here.

Professor Chung writes:

This paper examines links between Wall Street’s prevailing image of women and case law, legislative and regulatory activity as a first step in understanding how Wall Street’s gender norms have affected securities regulation. Going forward, this paper urges scholars to ask hard questions about the unexamined underpinnings of our system of securities regulation (including but not limited to unexamined gender stereotypes), so that our regulatory regime might be as effective and efficient as our times demand.

In essence, she argues that “Wall Street’s social and cultural response to women has become embedded in our system of securities regulation.”

Looks like a great paper and I love the Edith Wharton reference!

-Bridget Crawford

(h/t to Jill Gross)

Posted in Feminism and Law, Women and Economics | Comments Off

Oral Sex, Animals, and the Criminal Code

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

image source: animalplace.org

Is oral sex a crime? Not necessarily, of course. But absent consent, it sounds like a crime to me.

Not so if the mouth belongs to an animal, according to a Burlington County, New Jersey judge who dismissed charges against a police officer accused of putting his penis in the mouths of at least 5 calves for the purpose of gaining sexual pleasure. The judge said it was questionable that the acts constituted animal cruelty. Why don’t calves deserve protection from sexual predators? It doesn’t make any sense.

The New York Daily News (of course) has the story here.

The same police officer has been accused of sexual assault of three minor children, in a separate case (details here).

-Bridget Crawford

(cross-post from the Animal Blawg)

Posted in Feminism and Animal Law | 1 Comment

Mansploitation for the Animal Cause

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

image source: The Stranger, Sep 24 - 30, 2009, Vol. 19, No. 3

Ummm…this Seattle alt paper (think Village Voice, left-coast style) takes a page from PETA’s playbook (see here, e.g.) and then flips it, exploiting men’s bods for the animal cause. That’s not ok, either.

The image is an interesting visual play on an affectionate name for a cat and a (sometimes-not-so-affectionate) name for a woman’s genitalia. I imagine the guy out in front of a pet store saying, “Look at my ….”

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Animal Law | Comments Off

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Global Media Monitoring Project 2009/2010

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