New York Behind the Curve on LGBT Rights

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Tony Infanti

New Yorkers have apparently been engaging in self-flagellation following the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples, putting “flyover” country ahead of New York in the vanguard of advancing LGBT rights. Now a Democratic state senator is criticizing the state’s governor for insulting the newly installed archbishop of New York by introducing legislation to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples at a time when it is unsure whether this legislation will be able to clear that chamber of the state legislature.

As if that isn’t bad enough, these developments come at the same time that the First Department of the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division issued a  decision in Debra H v. Janice R.  in which that court followed a nearly two-decade-old precedent that “provides that a party who is neither the biological nor the adoptive parent of a child lacks standing to seek custody or visitation rights under Domestic Relations Law § 70, even though that party may have developed a longstanding, loving and nurturing relationship with the child and was involved in a prior relationship with the biological parent.” Following that precedent, the court summarily dismissed the case, not even allowing a hearing on the petition for joint legal and physical custody filed by the registered domestic partner/civil union partner who had “served as a loving and caring parental figure during the first 2 ½ years of the child’s life.”  Sadly, this decision is even behind the curve with regard to my home state of Pennsylvania, which does not recognize same-sex relationships but which does permit both (1) second-parent adoptions and (2) nonbiological, nonadoptive parents to seek custody of a child using the doctrine of in loco parentis. I would expect more from the New York courts  in dealing with nontraditional family arrangements,  especially when that state’s highest court so famously articulated an inclusive definition of family in Braschi v. Stahl Associates, Co. some twenty years ago.  

For me, however, this case is even more disturbing as one in what seems like a line of many cases in which lesbians and gay men appear to be all too willing to embrace oppressive legal precedent to achieve their own immediate ends in preventing someone who was formerly such an integral part of their and their children’s life from having any further contact with those children. To me, at least, this seems short-sighted on a number of different levels.

-Tony Infanti

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Infanti on “Dismembering Families”

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Prof Tony Infanti (Pitt) has posted to SSRN his article Dismembering Families.  Here is the abstract:

In this paper, I explore how the deduction for extraordinary medical expenses, codified in I.R.C. section 213, furthers domination in American society. On its face, section 213 probably does not seem a likely candidate for being tagged as furthering domination. After all, this provision aims to alleviate extraordinary financial burdens on taxpayers who already suffer from significant medical problems — and who, by definition, lack the help of insurance to relieve those burdens. But, as laudable as this goal might be, careful attention to the text and context of section 213 reveals that it does not apply to all taxpayers equally. In fact, section 213 draws sharp distinctions between different types of families. Looking at this provision from the perspective of those who require the help of assisted reproductive technology to form a family, I explain how section 213 furthers the hegemony of the so-called traditional family and concomitantly contributes to the subordination of lesbian and gay families as well as many other nontraditional American families.

I heard Tony present a short version of this piece a few weeks ago and highly recommend it.  The  full article is available here.  

-Bridget Crawford

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“Contraception and Abortion”

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Ann Bartow

In this FindLaw column Sherry Colb “discuss[es] a recent speech by a spokesperson for Feminists For Life (FFL), in which she said that FFL does not take a position on contraception (because some members favor it and some oppose). [Colb] criticize FFL’s failure to take a position and argue that especially for an organization that is categorically opposed to all abortions yet prioritizes feminism, it is critical to support women’s access to contraception.

In a post at Dorf on Law, Colb considers:

… an argument that some people have made about one form of contraception: birth-control pills. The argument has several components. First, birth-control pills have side effects that its makers did not initially fully appreciate and thereby gave women the illusion that they could “harmlessly” avoid the risk of pregnancy. Second, birth-control pills provide protection against one risk of sex (pregnancy) without doing anything to protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s). As a result, some have suggested, various S.T.D.’s have proliferated to a point at which virtually everyone above a certain age is a carrier. And third, birth-control pills suppress women’s natural hormonal cycles, which has the consequence of obscuring an important physiological basis for selecting a mate: pheromones (which, among other things, attract women to men with whom they are unlikely to be close genetic relations).

Via Nariessa Smith

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Brave Afghani Women Protest Law Change

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Jessica Slavin

Did you see this article in the New York Times this morning, about the 300 women protesting a new law that would give men in the Shiite minority community virtually complete control over the lives of their wives?  The NYT describes the law this way:

The law, approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by President  Hamid Karzai, applies to the Shiite minority only, essentially giving clerics authority over intimate matters between women and men. Women here and governments and rights groups abroad have protested three parts of the law especially.

One provision makes it illegal for a woman to resist her husband’s sexual advances. A second provision requires a husband’s permission for a woman to work outside the home or go to school. And a third makes it illegal for a woman to refuse to”make herself up”or”dress up”if that is what her husband wants.

And the protest itself:

The women who protested Wednesday began their demonstration with what appeared to be a deliberately provocative act. They gathered in front of the School of the Last Prophet, a madrassa run by Ayatollah Asif Mohsini, the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric. He and the scholars around him played an important role in the drafting of the new law.

“We are here to campaign for our rights,”one woman said into a loudspeaker. Then the women held their banners aloft and began to chant.

The reaction was immediate. Hundreds of students from the madrassa, most but not all of them men, poured into the streets to confront the demonstrators.

“Death to the enemies of Islam!”the counterdemonstrators cried, encircling the women.”We want Islamic law!”

The women stared ahead and kept walking.

A phalanx of police, some of them women, held the crowds apart.

As a refugee law professor, dramatic confrontations like this one always lead my thoughts back to the legal definition of “refugee,” and the absence of  “gender” among the enumerated categories of persecution.  For instance, the U.S. defines “refugee”  as a person “unable or unwilling to return to . . . [his or her home] country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion . . . .” I have considered the arguments, legal and practical, against trying to add “gender” to the Refugee Convention’s definition as a separate ground.  But I think I disagree.  For that reason and so many others, it seems like time to revisit the convention and protocol that established the international definition of “refugee.”

Back to the main point, the courage of these Afghani women is inspiring. And the NYT article suggests that the law change might possibly be halted before becoming enforceable.

–Jessica E. Slavin

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“A Struggle to Make Ends Meet: Three residents of Columbia, S.C., do their best to cope with the economic crisis.”

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Ann Bartow

NYT video here.

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“Friday Night Lights and the Teenage Virgin”

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Ann Bartow

That’s the title of this Freakonomics post by Ian Ayres. In it he writes:

… I was somewhat concerned that the last senior on the show lost her virginity. The show has reached what the Supreme Court calls the”inexorable zero.”I am not a fan of”socialist realism,”the idea that art needs to move society toward a better equilibrium. But viewers may get the subtle message that it is really unusual to graduate from high school as a virgin. …

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Schick Outdoes Itself

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Now public hair is racialized as well as pornified. (For a prior ad, see this post by Bridget):

–Ann Bartow

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Concurring Opinions is hosting a Symposium on Danielle Citron’s article “Cyber Civil Rights”

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Frank Pasquale introduces it here and   here. Participants include: David Fagundes, Michael Froomkin, Nathaniel Gleicher, James Grimmelmann, Orin Kerr, Feminist Law Profs Nancy Kim and Susan Kuo, Daithí Mac Síthigh, Helen Norton, David Post, David Robinson and yours truly.

–Ann Bartow

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Women’s Scholarship, SSRN and the”Other”Approach to Law

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

In a recent post it was observed that SSRN downloads for male authors substantially exceed those for authors who are female. Among the many reasons why this difference should be important is the fact that many female authors almost surely speak with a”different voice”from most of their male colleagues.

Especially in a field like law it is plausible to assume that there may be gender differences of consequence. This is because the law deals at its core with questions of right and wrong and, as research pioneered by Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan points out, there is substantial reason to think that women characteristically use forms of moral and ethical reasoning that are different from those that are more usual for men.

Specifically, according to Gilligan’s research, women tend to stress relationships and healing rather than the rigid application of rules, employing an ethic of care and stressing interconnectedness rather than the rule-bound ethic of justice predominantly employed by males. These differences reflect, in her view, a whole different moral orientation between men and women:a wholly different way of approaching and solving moral and ethical problems. While legal problems are of course not”simply”moral and ethical problems, our ideas of right and wrong nonetheless play an enormous role in shaping the law and legal thought. So this gender difference may be a matter of real significance.

There is certainly much to be said for what Gilligan’s research identifies as the more characteristically feminine mode of ethical problem-solving (a mode which, by the way, I personally find superior, as I have previously written here). For one thing, if Gilligan is correct, the”ethic of care”is the approach to problems that is more usual and expected among half the population, all of whom are, of course, equally subject to law. But the law has, until very recently, been almost solely a project of men, so it is not surprising that the characteristically male mode of thinking about right and wrong is the one that suffuses the law.

As more women come into the profession and legal academy, there is hope that this may be changing. Alas, however, there is evidence that, rather than women changing the law, it is the law that is changing the women who study it. According to research by psychologist Sandra Janoff, the first year of law school causes a substantial modification of female students’ moral reasoning. See Sandra Janoff, The Influence of Legal Education on Moral Reasoning, 76 Minn. L. Rev. 193 (1991). While”women and men revealed significantly different response patterns [to moral dilemmas] at the beginning of the year,”they”showed no significant difference at the end of the year.”They are drilled to learn to think like lawyers, but what they really learn is to think like male lawyers, for it is males who set up the game.

This is a situation that cannot change until efforts are made to specify and highlight the differences in moral orientations between the genders and to confront forthrightly the tendency of legal culture to assimilate the minds of all who enter. We can hope that, despite Janoff’s results, the characteristic moral orientations of female law students are not truly”lost”in the first year (for people rarely actually”lose”knowledge; the old is merely overlaid with the new). But it is obviously not enough for female legal scholars to reawaken distinctive moral orientations and make them felt in their scholarship. The writings need to be read. If legal scholars are giving short shrift to the conceptions of right and wrong that are usual and expected among half the population, they are making a bad mistake.

– John Humbach

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“Impossibly Beautiful”

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Ann Bartow

On photo retouching.

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The Univeristy of Michigan Law Review’s lastest issue is almost women free.

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Via Concurring Opinions, the ToC:

2009 Survey of Books Related to the Law

Foreward

Erwin Chemerinsky, Why Write?, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 881 (2009)

Classic Revisited

Rodney A. Smolla, Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 895 (2009)

Reviews

Gene R. Nichol, Nussbaum: Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America’s Tradition of Religious Equality, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 913 (2009)

Jonathan Weinberg, Spiro: Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 931 (2009)

Orin S. Kerr, Slobogin: Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 951 (2009)

Edward K. Cheng, Ayres: Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 967 (2009)

Antony Page, Greenfield: The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 979 (2009)

Amy L. Wax, Polikoff: Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 999 (2009)

Leonard M. Niehoff, Baker: Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters , 107 Mich. L. Rev. 1019 (2009)

Jeffrey L. Dunoff, McCrudden: Buying Social Justice: Equality, Government Procurement, and Legal Change, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 1039 (2009)

William Michael Treanor, Epstein: Supreme Neglect: How to Revive Constitutional Protection for Private Property, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 1059 (2009)

Anthony V. Alfieri, Sullivan, Colby, Welsh Wegner, Bond, & Shulman: Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 1073 (2009)

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Avoiding a Biased Exam: Always Expect Students to Know the Law But Never Expect Them to Know the Facts

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Colin Miller

(Cross-posted at PrawfsBlawg)

I remember being a law student and taking the class Women and the Law with the terrific  Susan Grover  when a topic came up that would (thankfully) inform the way that I draft my law school exams when I became a professor. The topic: Biased exams. One student brought up a Torts exam she had taken her first year that left her perplexed. The exam was in the fall of 2000, and it involved an  XFL  fact pattern with, if memory serves me, running back  George W. Bush  assaulting linebacker  Al Gore  either as part of a football play or immediately after it had concluded. The reason for the student’s confusion was that she didn’t follow football and therefore had difficulty answering this  torts in sports  fact pattern because she couldn’t figure out what role the running back plays on the football field, making it tough to analyze how out-of-the-ordinary W’s conduct would have been.  

I could sympathize with my fellow student’s comment even though I had taken the same Torts exam and not realized the difficulties it could create at the time. I once had a Sri Lankan friend attempt to explain  cricket  to me (I remember this involving both explanations and diagrams), and I had about as much success in figuring out what she said as the  XFL  had as a sports league. I imagine that I would have struck out if given the  wicked googly  of  an exam with a  cricket  fact pattern if I decided to get an  LLM  in England (except, wait, there is no  strike out  in  cricket). I therefore could easily imagine a football-averse  J.D.  student, whether male or female, going  three-and-out  on an exam with a football fact pattern, and I could see the same thing happening to an  LLM  student from a country not as American football crazy as us Yanks (i.e.,  every other country in the world).  
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Call for Participation: National Security and Constitutional Law

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

From the Law Review at my home institution, this call for participation:

Call for Articles, Essays, and Book Reviews:  National Security and Constitutional Law

Proposals due May 15, 2009

The editors of Pace Law Review invite proposals from scholars, researchers, practitioners, and professionals for contributions to a special issue on the relationship between national security and constitutional law to be published in Winter 2010.  

Pace Law School is dedicated to advancing a greater understanding among scholars and the legal community concerning the role of constitutional law in national security concerns.  This law review issue will promote an ongoing discourse on the balance between constitutional rights and effective national security.

Please submit proposals of no more than 500 words by attachment to plr@law.pace.edu by May 15, 2009.   All proposals should include the intended author’s name, title, institutional affiliation, contact information, and should concern issues related to the relationship between national security and constitutional law.   Book review proposals should also include (a) the title and publication date of the book proposed for review; (b) a description of the importance of the book to the general topic; and (c) any other information relevant to the book or proposed review (e.g., the reviewer’s expertise or any relationship with the author).   Authors are also welcome, but not required, to submit a CV.   We expect to make publication offers by June 1.   We encourage clear, concise, and accessible writing that will be of use to lawmakers, attorneys, and students.  

Completed manuscripts of book reviews and essays will be due July 15, 2009.   Completed manuscripts of scholarly articles will be due August 1, 2009.

-Bridget Crawford

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Some observations about rape.

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Here.

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The “Citizen Lawyer” is apparently almost always a dude.

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Via Concurring Opinions, the ToC for the most recent issue of the William & Mary Law Review:

Symposium: The Citizen Lawyer

Paul D. Carrington & Roger C. Cramton, Original Sin and Judicial Independence: Providing Accountability for Justices

Lawrence M. Friedman, Some Thoughts about Citizen Lawyers

Robert W. Gordon, The Citizen Lawyer–A Brief History of a Myth with Some Basis in Reality

Bruce A. Green & Russell G. Pearce, “Public Service Must Begin at Home”: The Lawyer as Civics Teacher in Everyday Practice

Sanford Levinson, What Should Citizens (As Participants in a Republican Form of Government) Know About the Constitution?

James E. Moliterno, A Golden Age of Civic Involvement: The Client Centered Disadvantage for Lawyers Acting as Public Officials

W. Taylor Reveley III, The Citizen Lawyer

Deborah L. Rhode, Lawyers as Citizens

Edward Rubin, The Citizen Lawyer and the Administrative State

Mark Tushnet, Citizen as Lawyer, Lawyer as Citizen

Notes

Troy L. Gwartney, Harmonizing the Exclusionary Rights of Patents with Compulsory Licensing

**********************************************

With the exception of Feminist Law Prof Deborah Rhode, everybody listed is male. And since it is a Symposium issue, presumably participation was specifically engineered.

–Ann Bartow

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“This job is easy for people who’ve never done it,”Justice Thomas said later.”What I have found in this job is they know more about it than I do, especially if they have the title, law professor.”

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Ouch. Those are the concluding words of this article.

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Genetic Mother May Adopt Child Birthed by Life Partner

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen has issued a decision (here) in the case of In re Sebastian.  Surrogate Glen approved the issuance of a certificate of adoption to the genetic mother of a child gestated and delivered by her same-sex partner.  The women are married in Holland; it was an uncontested matter.  

Here’s how the New York Law Journal describes the case:

A Manhattan surrogate judge has granted an adoption petition filed on behalf of a woman whose donated egg was fertilized and then implanted in her same-sex partner.

Although the couple’s Dutch marriage is recognized by New York and the donor’s genetic relationship to the 15-month-old boy is “unquestioned,” the donor filed for adoption in order to safeguard her parental rights under federal law and in the states that do not recognize the same-sex marriage.

The issue, Surrogate Kristin Booth Glen wrote in  Matter of Sebastian  is whether adoption is appropriate and permissible when the petitioner was not only legally married to the child’s mother at conception and birth, but in fact is the child’s genetic mother.  * * *

The surrogate concluded that adoption may not be a perfect solution, but it is the best one.

For the full NYLJ article, see here.

-Bridget Crawford

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Death of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

 

Duke University Press issued a statement (here) about the death yesterday of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.  

I think everything we do as critical thinkers about gender and sexuality draws on her work, either directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously.   Her ceaseless inquiry into the architecture of identity radically shifted our discourse.   Now, all contemporary work in these areas builds on and/or reacts to her ideas.     Sedgwick’s work reframed the way we conceptualize these identities.   It created the space us to contemplate how the law interacts with and creates identities of sexuality and gender.   Whether we’re debating cases such as  Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins  or  Oncale, or scholarship by the many people working on gender and sexuality in the law, Sedgwick’s work colors our understandings.   Her death is a great loss, but it is also a call to continue to challenge the law’s radically problematic constructions of gender and sexuality.

-Darren Rosenblum

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Racial Stereotyping For Jeebus

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

This is so over the top in terms of the way it portrays race, you’d think (and desperately hope) it was satire, but it probably wasn’t intended to be. Instead, chances are the creators thought they were being open minded and inclusive. Warning: Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.

–Ann Bartow

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Posted in Race and Racism, Sociolinguistics | 1 Comment

“Why Do Female Tax Profs Do Better in the SSRN Rankings Than Their Nontax Counterparts?”

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Paul Caron asks that question in a post here. He observes that in the most recent SSRN rankings, 25% (5) of the faculty in the Top 25 downloads (both all-time and recent) are women, which is wonderful and encouraging. These lists include fabulous Feminist Law Profs Francine Lipman and Bridget Crawford.

Yet for those who think citations are a far better, if still imperfect, measure of scholarly impact, the picture is less encouraging. Of the “Most Cited Scholars in Tax Law Since 2000″as compiled by Brian Leiter, only one out of the nine “Most Cited” is a woman.

Some people post their articles at BePress, which reduces their SSRN download numbers. So it’s hard to know how meaningful SSRN rankings really are. But it is still nice to see women at the top of something in this profession.

–Ann Bartow

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Male Infertility: Let’s See if the Next Study Gets Any Funding

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

("Father and Child," sculpture by Mauro Perucchetti, currently exhibiting at Halcyon Gallery, London)

I was looking at back issues of the  American Journal of Human Genetics for my current research project (on surrogacy and taxation – I jest not), and I came across this  article: “Human Male Infertility Caused by Mutations in the CATSPER1 Channel Protein” (abstract here).  Here’s how  Health Day summarizes the article in part:

“We have identified CATSPER1 as a gene that is involved in non-syndromic male infertility in humans, a finding which could lead to future infertility therapies that replace the gene or the protein. But, perhaps even more importantly, this finding could have implications for male contraception,” co-study author Michael Hildebrand, a postdoctoral researcher in otolaryngology at the University of Iowa, said in a university news release.

He and his colleagues discovered the gene mutations while analyzing the genetics of families in Iran — where there are relatively high rates of disease-causing gene mutations — to identify the genetic causes of deafness. * * *

During their study, the researchers identified two families in which male infertility appeared to be inherited. Further investigation revealed that both families had mutations in the CATSPER1 gene. It’s believed the mutations affect sperm motility, the motion sperm use to enter an egg during fertilization.

“Identification of targets such as the CATSER1 gene that are involved in the fertility process and are specific for sperm — potentially minimizing side effects of a drug targeting the protein’s function — provide new targets for a pharmacological male contraceptive,” Hildebrand said.

(The full Health Day article is  here.  The full Am. J. Hum. Genetics article is here for a fee, unhappily.)

Wow!  Maybe this is (finally) research that will lead to a male Pill.  If it is pitched as a male potency study, maybe it will get funded.  Viagra did, after all.  

-Bridget Crawford

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Another reason to avoid Burger King…

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Via the f-word blog, which notes:

This is Burger King’s new ad for its 99-cents kids meal. Yes, because nothing sells fast food to children better than provocatively-dressed women shaking their asses to a remix of Sir-Mix-a-lot’s”Baby Got Back”: the same song once judged by MTV to be too sexual for prime-time television.

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Posted in Feminism and Culture, Sexism in the Media | 1 Comment

It’s vegetarian!

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Out of stock, too.

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Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Allied Media Conference, July 16-19, 2009

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Information here!

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In Support of Mark Lemley

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

This blog reports:

The National Law Journal reported yesterday that a U.S. District Court is allowing Anthony Ciolli, former Chief Education Director for AutoAdmit, to move ahead with his lawsuit against Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley and others for wrongful initiation of civil proceedings, abuse of process, libel, and a host of other claims.

Professor Lemley was a member of the legal team for Heide Iravani and Brittan Heller, two Yale Law students who sued Mr. Ciolli and others for statements made on AutoAdmit.com. …

Nobody really understood why Mr. Ciolli was named in the suit, because he didn’t actually write anything on the site and, as an administrator, he was protected from liability by statute. Regardless, Mr. Ciolli’s post-graduation offer was rescinded by his law firm due to his association with AutoAdmit and the lawsuit.

Mark Lemley got involved with this case, in my opinion, because he is a progressive, good-hearted, moral and generous person. He and Heide Iravani and Brittan Heller were brave   enough to take on AutoAdmit because they are trying to change the law. Agree or disagree with their methods or even their goals as you will, but it’s obviously not a project that is likely to benefit any of them personally. Quite the contrary, as the post linked and excerpted above indicates.

I’m not involved in the litigation at all, in any way, but it seems pretty obvious to me why Anthony Ciolli was named in the original law suit. ISP immunity under Section 230 does not apply to the authors of contested material. Ciolli was clearly posting comments at the AutoAdmit discussion board under at least one pseudonym, “Great Teacher Onizuka.” The plaintiffs had every reason to suspect that he was posting under others as well, and that he could have been personally responsible (and liable)   for some of the actionable material.   They could not rule him out without conducting discovery in the context of litigation, and they could not do a thorough investigation of the matter unless Ciolli was a named party. Once the plaintiffs knew either that Ciolli was not a bad actor or that they would be unable to prove that he was a bad actor, they dismissed him.   Any competent lawyer would have done the same thing. This is Civil Procedure 101.

For background on the AutoAdmit case, go here.   Note also that the National Law Journal article referenced in the excerpted post above is quite misleading.   The judge did not reject Lemley’s personal jurisdiction argument; he said he was inclined to grant the motion but gave Ciolli 30 days to conduct further discovery if he wished.   And he dismissed one of the two Ciolli causes of action (abuse of process) on the merits. See for yourself here.

My theory on why Ciolli is suing Lemley and the plaintiffs? To scare away other potential plaintiffs, and to discourage other lawyers from representing them.

–Ann Bartow

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Effective or Offensive?

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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The text of the ads reads: “Protect your valuables.” The press release from the Quebec Coalition Against AIDS (COCQ-Sida) explains: “The campaign focuses on objects highly appreciated by homosexuals, using evocative symbols to offer the target audience a different take on the issue.” Via.

–Ann Bartow

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Posted in Feminism and Culture, LGBT Rights | 1 Comment

“Women and SSRN”

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Another “where are the women” post here, with a comments thread that is pretty much what you’d expect.   Condensed version:   “It’s your own fault you aren’t getting downloaded at the same rates as men, you dumb, lazy, inferior girls. Either that, or it’s nobody’s fault.”

–Ann Bartow

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A short compendium of sexist magazine ads.

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Here, at Stiletto Revolt.

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Check this out, Peeps

Posted on April 11, 2009 by lgoodmark

Apropos of nothing…but worth seeing.  The Washington Post’s Third Annual Peeps Diorama contest standouts are here!

–Leigh Goodmark

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Media Coverage of the Verdict in Allison Williams v. Advertising Sex LLC

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Ann Bartow

For background, go here.

From an account at the HuffPo:

… “I struggled every single day to maintain my law school studies, in the face of incredible stress and anxiety,” Williams said in a prepared statement. “Still, I refused to allow these pornographers to control my dream to graduate from law school and realize my goals.”

Williams originally sued 59 defendants in the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cayman Islands, Canada and South Africa that allegedly took part in distributing the videos. U.S. District Judge Irene M. Kelley dismissed 28 of those defendants, a decision Williams is appealing.

The nine defendants found liable during a bench trial are Castle Company Property Ltd., The Moles Trust, Russell M. Moles, Gwendoline E. Moles and Guy Blomberg, all of Australia; Vidbidness Inc. and Eric Ridley of California; and Etrax Productions and Ronald Yates of Texas.

They all chose not to participate in the trial nor have attorneys represent them.

Mascari said this has been a grueling experience for Williams, whose online presence is usually the first thing she has to address with people she meets, from potential employers to boyfriends.

The bogus videos also attracted a stalker who sent her thousands of disturbing letters, Mascari said.

“She’s been living a nightmare,” Mascari said. “This has been a really hard process for her, but she never gave up.”

Williams now hopes the first thing that pops up on an Internet search of her name is news about her vindication.

Very similar ABC News account here, and Yahoo news account here.

–Ann Bartow

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The Columbia Business School is having a conference on User Generated Content featuring nineteen speakers. Eighteen are male.

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Symposium schedule here. Maybe they should call it User Genderated Content instead?

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Nadya Suleman’s Art

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

A few days ago, in”A Pole-Dancing Mother of 14,”my colleague Bridget Crawford took strong issue with the view that”a woman who puts her body on display (in a lingerie contest, as a topless performer or as a mother of 14) is somehow less deserving….”I remember thinking at the time that Bridget could not have been more right.

Then I saw a report (here) about a judge in New York who ruled that pole-dancing is an ‘art.’ In reaching this conclusion, the judge reviewed DVDs of performances and considered the expert testimony of a cultural anthropologist and dance scholar from the University of Maryland. Citing this expert witness, the opinion referred to the”skill and training,”“symbolism”and”fantasy”that go into the dancers’ routines.

Obviously, many who patronize performances such as these may be drawn for other than artistic reasons. And, as the judge pointed out, many in our society take a jaundiced view of the erotic content that the performances express. But is it fair to the performers to judge them by the boorishness of their audiences or, even worse, by their detractors?

The expression by females of their sexual natures has long been the object of particular anxiety and disdain (as I have written at greater length here). However in this case, the judge concluded, the fact that”someone”may find the entertainment inappropriate or that there’s”titillation”of patrons”simply does not render such dance routines as something less than choreographed performances….”

So why the giddy interest in the”news”about Nadya Suleman’s night as a topless dancer and the snippy articles (e.g., this) when the item came out? Because she quit after only one day, and did not perfect her art?  Or because we cannot imagine how a capable adult making a free choice of her own could ever uncover her body?    

-John A. Humbach

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Documentary About the Porn Industry to be Offered Free to College Campuses

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Ann Bartow

From the FLP mailbox:

CONTACT: Media Education Foundation
Dr. Chyng Sun
(617)733-8091 | email: cfs1@nyu.edu

The way filmmakers Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker see it, the cure for bad speech is more speech. That’s exactly why they’ve come up with a plan to get their hard-hitting documentary film about the porn industry screened on as many college campuses as possible.

In response to the national controversy surrounding the screening of a hardcore porn film at the University of Maryland this week, Sun and Picker have cut a deal with their distributor to do exactly what Digital Playground, the makers of the porn film in question, are doing with their film: make it available at no charge to any campus that wants to show it.

“This is a great opportunity for this film to reach a wider audience,” Sun, a professor of media at New York University, said of her documentary, The Price of Pleasure. “Especially given that male college students were our target audience going in. We did numerous focus groups to find the right tone and approach to speak to them.”

The Media Education Foundation (MEF), one of the nation’s leading distributors of educational films on media and social and cultural issues, has announced that it will send a free copy of Sun and Picker’s devastating expose of the porn industry to faculty and students who are willing to screen the documentary on their campus.

MEF is asking those interested in setting up a screening of The Price of Pleasure to visit http://www.mediaed.org/wp/price-of-pleasure-press. Once there, they can watch a trailer and request a free copy of the film, on three-week loan.

“The reason we’re making this film available to screen for free is simple,” said MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally. “What’s needed on this issue is more discussion, not less, and this film is a perfect vehicle for achieving this. If faculty and students who supported the decision to show the porn film at the University of Maryland are serious about their defense of free speech and open debate, they’ll fight to make sure this documentary is shown as well.”

The firestorm at the University of Maryland ignited when students decided this week to screen a $10 million-dollar, 2 1/2-hour hardcore porn film called Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, which is being offered to campuses around the country for free by Digital Playground as part of an innovative marketing strategy. When state legislators tried to stop the screening, students on the College Park campus fought back, claiming their free speech rights were being threatened by overly moralistic politicians.

According to University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen, who is featured in The Price of Pleasure, one of the central aims of the documentary is to move the debate about pornography beyond precisely these kinds of predictable, and distracting, arguments about morality and free speech.

“The film tries to move the discussion beyond a clash between a rigidly moralistic position and the irresponsibly individualistic free-speech response we hear so often whenever the issue of pornography comes up,” Jensen said. “Instead of asking important questions about what a relentlessly sexist and routinely racist pornography genre says about our culture, conservatives try to assert control and liberals try to assert independence. Complex questions about contemporary pornography are too often derailed by a debate that never gets past First Amendment arguments.”

The Price of Pleasure intervenes in this debate by taking a sustained and often disturbing look at pornography itself, placing the voices of producers, performers, industry critics, and anti-porn activists alongside candid observations from men and women about the role pornography has played in their lives.

Campus organizers who request a free copy of the film will also be able to download a number of other resources, including materials to help promote their screenings and a study guide designed to help viewers navigate the troubling issues the documentary explores.

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Posted in Academia, Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Feminism and Culture, Law Schools | 1 Comment

CFP: Gender, Sport, and the Olympics (deadline: May 15, 2009)

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

From the Feminist Law Profs mailbox, this call for papers:

The editors of   thirdspace: a journal of feminist theory and culture (a Canada-based, peer-reviewed journal)
invite submissions for our forthcoming issue on gender, sport, and theOlympics.

Prompted by the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, we are  interested in exploring the central role which gender and sexuality play in  shaping ideas about athleticism, sport culture, and the body, and the  significant ways in which athletic events such as the Olympics work to  transform conceptions of public space, national boundaries and identities,  and gendered self-presentations and performances. This issue invites  contributions on:  

  • the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver
  • sport, athleticism, and ability
  •  the Para Olympics
  • LGBT participation in athletics and the Olympics
  • legal impacts on gender and sport (i.e. Title IX legislation in the  United States)
  • sport and masculinities/femininities
  • the role of gender in sporting competition
  • gendered perspectives on Olympic events
  • the use of prosthetics and technologies in athletic competition
  • the impact of the Olympics on the environment  sports/the Olympics and the use of public space, including  displacement of individuals/communities, the environment, and urban renewal
  • and other topics relevant to the theme of gender, sport, and the  Olympics.

We welcome submissions from a wide range of disciplinary and geographical  perspectives. Submissions from researchers working within, or among, the  disciplines of geography, sociology, literature, area studies, cultural  studies, film/media studies, art, history, education, law, and women’s/gender studies are particularly encouraged.

We accept the submission of work from scholars of any rank or affiliation,  and encourage submissions from emerging feminist scholars, including  graduate students.

All submissions to the journal must be submitted electronically through our  online submission process (details here). All submissions are peer-reviewed by established,  senior feminist scholars. For more information on our publishing policies  see here.  

Deadline: May 15, 2009.  

For more information, please contact the editors at info@thirdspace.ca.

-Bridget Crawford

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Texas State Rep. Betty Brown, when talking about the Voter ID bill proposed in the Texas Legislature, suggested the Asian community adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with”

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Watch it here:

The critical interval begins 3:20 in but the whole thing is compelling in its own disturbing way.

–Ann Bartow

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Posted in Race and Racism | 2 Comments

The University of South Carolina School of Law’s Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year is: Prof. Danielle Holley-Walker!

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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Hooray! Proof that our students have excellent judgment and taste.

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Posted in Academia, Law Schools, Law Teaching, South Carolina | 1 Comment

Men and Murder

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ann Bartow

See e.g. this.

Between March 10th and April 7th, this newspaper reports that mass shootings have claim 57 lives. Given the limits placed on the count, “mass” and “shootings,” the number almost certainly underestimates the number of people who were murdered during this interval. For example, this multiple murder by stabbing wasn’t included.

One thing all of the referenced killings have in common is that they were carried out by men. A majority of the victims were women. And in the “search for motives” women see to be accorded a disproportionate share of the blame, see e.g. this.

–Ann Bartow

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Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Culture, Sexism in the Media | 1 Comment

Somewhat of a law student is looking for romance…

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Oy. Via.

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Are there any women in U.S. prisons?

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ann Bartow

You wouldn’t know it from reading the New Yorker article described here.

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Breaking News: 7.2 million dollar verdict for women victimized by pornographers

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

The 7.2 million jury verdict was handed down this afternoon in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of West Virginia. Former Miss West Virginia, Allison Williams, filed a lawsuit in 2005 against 59 defendants who posted advertisements on pornographic websites that falsely indicated that a pornographic video available for downloading depicted “Allison Williams, Miss West Virginia.” Williams’ Complaint alleged defamation, false light invasion of privacy, misappropriation of name and likeness, and violation of the right of publicity.

Williams discovered the defamatory videos during her first weeks of law school at the West Virginia University College of Law as she was searching the Internet for a favorable newspaper article to give her mother. Included in some of these sites are photographs of Ms. Williams wearing her pageant crown juxtaposed with a video of an unidentified woman, purportedly Ms. Williams, engaged in sexual acts. Some of the photographs were doctored to make Ms. Williams’ eye color match the unidentified woman in the video. Williams felt compelled to disclose their existence to the Miss West Virginia and Miss America Organizations in an effort to avoid character investigations that could jeopardize her pageant related scholarships. CNN reported that Williams received a lot of negative attention after word of the video circulated, online and in real space.

The case is Allison Williams v. Advertising Sex LLC. It made new law when the judge ruled that e-mail may be used as an alternate means of serving process upon an evasive foreign defendant so long as the plaintiff demonstrates that e-mail is a reliable channel for communicating with that defendant. Williams had petitioned the court to serve several Australian-based defendants by e-mail after repeated efforts to serve process in person and by registered mail had failed. She successfully invoked Rule 4(f)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which permits service “by other means not prohibited by international agreement as may be directed by the court.”

–Ann Bartow

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Infecting Children With the Bug of Show Business

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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La, a note to follow so….

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

Via.

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Momentum: Is DC Next for Same-Sex Marriage?

Posted on April 8, 2009 by David S. Cohen

Well, to answer my question, not exactly, but the City Council voted yesterday 12-0 to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions (now Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and mid-2008 California).   The twist, of course, is that nothing becomes law in DC without Congressional approval, meaning Congress must vote on same-sex marriage.   With Democrats in charge of both houses, it would be an outrage if this does not make it through Congress.

– David S. Cohen

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“Lessons from the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society” by Ian Kerr, Carole Lucock and Valerie Steeves

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Ann Bartow

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From the publisher:

During the past decade, rapid developments in information and communications technology have transformed key social, commercial and political realities. Within that same time period, working at something less than internet speed, much of the academic and policy debates arising from these new and emerging technologies have been fragmented. There have been few examples of interdisciplinary dialogue about the potential for anonymity and privacy in a networked society. Lessons from the Identity Trail fills that gap, and examines key questions about anonymity, privacy and identity in an environment that increasingly automates the collection of personal information and uses surveillance to reduce corporate and security risks.

This project has been informed by the results of a multi-million dollar research project that has brought together a distinguished array of philosophers, ethicists, feminists, cognitive scientists, lawyers, cryptographers, engineers, policy analysts, government policy makers and privacy experts. Working collaboratively over a four-year period and participating in an iterative process designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary discussion and feedback through a series of workshops and peer review, the authors have integrated crucial public policy themes with the most recent research outcomes.

More information here!

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Not Your Grandmother’s Library of Congress

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The Library of Congress now has its own YouTube Channel (here)! For law profs looking for video clips to supplement teaching materials, this may become a valuable resource in the future.  For now, the channel has clips of discussions by authors and curators and a few older films. LOC plans to upload additional content. Cool!

LOC has a home page that organizes its women’s history resources (here), including links to “moving images” (early film, contemporary film, video) that is helpful if a researcher is looking for a particular clip.

-Bridget Crawford

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Call for Papers: Critical Perspectives on Taxation

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Tony Infanti

Bridget and I just received this call for papers. The call presents a nice opportunity to contribute to the discussion about the intersection between tax and social justice. At the same time, it highlights the international composition of the critical tax community. Please note that the deadline for submissions is April 20th and, thus, quickly approaching.

-Tony Infanti

Call for Papers for a special issue of Critical Perspectives on Accounting

Critical Perspectives on Taxation

Guest Editors:      

Rebecca Boden, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff,  Rboden@uwic.ac.uk

Sheila Killian, University of Limerick, sheila.killian@ul.ie

Emer Mulligan, National University of Ireland, Galway, emer.mulligan@nuigalway.ie

 Lynne Oats, Warwick Business School, lynne.oats@wbs.ac.uk

 

Critical Perspectives on Accounting provides a forum for researchers and practitioners who understand accounting practices and corporate behaviour as inextricably connected with the many allocative, distributive and ecological problems of our era. Taxation, as a highly significant point of interaction between states and citizens, is integral to these social justice concerns. However, tax is all too often viewed through the discrete disciplinary lenses of black-letter law and economics that imply/assert that taxation is a technical task that can be successfully governed by a set of axiomatic principles with unquestionable objectivity and neutrality. This special edition of Critical Perspectives on Accounting presents an opportunity to address both of these issues by drawing together studies in two complementary and overlapping areas: the role of taxation in questions of social justice, and the role of critical social theory in better understanding taxation.

Taxation is an instrument of government power, serving an important role in the social contract with citizens, and the relative power of international business. Aspects of taxation and social justice which warrant investigation include:   the relationship between governments levying tax at a national level and international business; how tax does /should impact on global issues such as HIV/Aids, poverty, migration, human rights, inequality and the environment; tax-justice issues around capital flight and tax competition; the taxation of international aid and development; environmental taxes and subsidies to the extractive industries; tax evasion/avoidance; the contribution of aspects of the tax code to injustices in society and the role of tax in the formation of democracy.

Critical social theory can be usefully applied to address questions around tax in society. These might include the diffusion of tax policy and practice across time and space, the role of power in tax policy formulation, the constant tension between accounting, law and economics in the tax arena, and the way organisations manage their obligations to pay tax. The role of ethnographic studies of taxation, or indeed other methodological approaches such as critical discourse analysis are of interest.

The guest editors welcome a variety of thoughtful and rigorous papers that approach the subject from diverse disciplinary, methodological and theoretical perspectives. Submissions should adhere to the CPA Instructions to Authors, which are included in each issue. Please note however that manuscripts for this special edition should be submitted directly by email (as a Word attachment) to one of the guest editors above by 20th April 2009. Early submissions and communications with the guest editors are encouraged. All papers are subject to the usual CPA double blind refereeing process.  Please approach any or all of the guest editors if you wish to explore the possibilities of submitting a paper. We would also appreciate your bringing this call to the attention of colleagues in other disciplines who might wish to contribute.

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LGBT Families to Roll the Eggs

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

In response to a “reach out” by President Obama, LGBT families have been encouraged to apply for tickets for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, according to the Family Equality Council.  That organization  previously organized LGBT families to participate in the event in 2006 (see press coverage here).  That’s cool, but I’ll bet lots of those families would benefit more from the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (and the President has said here that he supports the repeal).  Let’s see the administration put rights — not just eggs — in the hands of these taxpaying families.

-Bridget Crawford

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For the Feminist Seder

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

The kos miriam or “Miriam’s Cup” is a cup placed on the seder table next to Elijah’s.  The cup — filled with water — honors the story of Miriam’s well, given to the Jewish people during 40 years of wandering in the desert.  The photo at left is one example of a kos miriam.

I don’t think “Miriam’s Cup” has made it to most seders yet, but it is a lovely way of honoring women’s roles in the historic story of Passover.  According to the  Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 9b),  “If it wasn’t for the righteousness of women of that generation we would not have been redeemed from Egypt.”

For more on feminist rituals during the seder, see here.

-Bridget Crawford

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Living Well With Lupus: One Woman’s Journey

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Bridget Crawford

It began on May 23, 1996. A searing pain shot through my right hip as I stepped into a car. The pain spread into the other hip and my knees by nightfall.

The day before I had completed a year of intensive study by taking (and passing) comprehensive exams, a critical point in my path toward earning my Ph.D. I was jubilant and exhausted. Normally, I might have shrugged off a little discomfort after a tiring semester, but this was different, deeper and more intense than anything I had felt before.

By August, right before I was to begin law school, I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) or just lupus.

My diagnosis came so quickly due to the persistence of my mother with the doctors at my HMO (she insisted that they keep seeing me until I had an answer), my family history of the disease, and the fact that I presented with so many of the symptoms so quickly. I had the arthritis, fatigue, skin rashes, mouth sores, high positive ANA test, pleurisy, hair loss, and photo-sensitivity.

The diagnosis was a relief and also terrifying. I had watched a brave aunt struggle with the disease for many years. Through her example, I knew it was possible to accomplish much with SLE, but I was unsure whether I had the strength to do what she had done.

And also, lingering in the back of my mind, appearing mostly in my nightmares, was the story of my great aunt who had died from the disease prior to the use of life-saving steroids. It is an illness that is very treatable, but nevertheless holds real dangers.

Anyone who has lupus will tell you that it can also be a depressing diagnosis and condition. Both the disease and the treatments can make you feel crummy, look different, behave differently, fall into despair.

I have both gained 30 pounds in a couple of months and withered down to frailty, my afro-textured hair has turned straight, or fallen out. I have, at times, been barely able to speak because of the large ulcers in my mouth.

I spent most of my first year of law school in bed, barely able to move and devastated when not a single”friend”in my section would share his or her class notes with me.

But I made some critical decisions early in my diagnosis. I decided I was going to learn everything I could about my disease from books and articles. I decided I was never going to assume that any rheumatologist knew my body better than I did. And finally, I was going to always listen carefully to those who had something to teach me about the disease — either because they’d had it, or they knew about it. Not all the input I got was useful. But some was golden.

An elderly woman with SLE told me”The best way to live a long life is to get a chronic disease and take care of yourself.”I have lived by that piece of advice ever since. What I took from what she said was that an autoimmune disease is a constant reminder. Every time you fall off the wagon of ample sleep, good nutrition and stress management your body will give you a signal to get back on track and you’d better heed it.

Within six months of my diagnosis I began acupuncture and vitamin infusions. At various points in the past 13 years I have also used massage, craniosacral therapy, yoga, dietary supplements, Chinese medicine, thoughtful nutrition (using a modified version of the Okinawa diet), and meditation as ways to treat my illness. I would never replace conventional medicine. It is absolutely necessary to go to a physician on a regular basis when you have been diagnosed with lupus. But I will always credit complementary health care for allowing me to maintain a high quality of life with Lupus. It has kept my body as strong as possible in order to fight the disease, and it eases symptoms phenomenally.

About 10 months ago, my doctor, who blends conventional and holistic medicine, had me do IgG food hyper-sensitivity testing. After eliminating foods to which the tests shows I had hypersensitivity to, I have seen at least a 75-80% reduction in arthritic pain.

But it is not just health care practitioners and eating habits that have allowed me to live well with Lupus. It has also been a product of understanding and working on the relationships in my life. Lupus is one of those diseases that can breed insensitivity very easily. Often a person with SLE does not”look”sick, and therefore people around him or her will expect that they have no impediments. On the other hand, some people will assume that you are incapable of living a normal life. You can often live a normal life with SLE, with some modifications. But you have to remember not to try to meet the expectations of those who assume you are able join in any and all activities as long as you are not flaring, nor can you allow anyone to put you into a little”sick box.”

I continue to learn my limit. But by now I know that I sometimes have to disappoint my friends and family.

I cannot talk on the phone at all hours of the night because I have to rise early to care for my kids. I cannot jet set across the country non-stop because the air pressure changes on airplanes usually leave me with a day or two of arthritic pain. I can’t be around a lot of toxic people. Nastiness, mean-spiritedness and cattiness are not part of my healthy living plan. I was astonished by the number of people who said really mean things to me once they learned about my disease. But I consider myself fortunate to have learned their true colors.

I also had to make some very difficult decisions about curbing relationships with people who I genuinely like but who drain my spirit. And I haven’t yet fully recovered from the friends who decided not to be my friends anymore after I got sick, but I know it is for the better that they aren’t in my life.

It is hard to disappoint and be disappointed by others. But that is all part of life anyway, right?

It has been my great fortune to have parents, a spouse, extended family and friends who will listen and accept what I tell them about what I need and what my limits are. This is not easy for them, I know. It is painful to watch a loved one suffer and sometimes there is a tendency is to lash out at the very person who is suffering.

For those of you who have loved ones with SLE, I urge you to do whatever you can to restrain yourself from expressing anger, frustration and insensitivity towards that person and instead seek their assistance in figuring out how you can provide support to him or her. Also, you must find your own support network if you are caring for someone with SLE.

In the 13 years since I was diagnosed I completed a Ph.D. and a law degree.

I have pursued a successful career as a professor. I got married, had two beautiful sons, and am living in a vibrant and nurturing neighborhood in Philadelphia. This was possible because of my efforts and those of the people who have had to courage to continue loving me well through this disease.

Recently, a family friend who is a physician told me,”All disease is a metaphor.”When I think of SLE, it seems to be a metaphor for all of the things that all of us do in our lives to attack ourselves- we run ourselves ragged, we internalize others’ meanness, we put ourselves down, thinking we aren’t ever good enough. When SLE and the other autoimmune diseases allow for your immune system to attack your body, it can seem as though everything is stacked against you.

But I believe that those of us with SLE bear a special gift because we have the opportunity to devote ourselves to being models for undoing the self-attack by practicing self-care.

Not everyone with SLE is able to follow his or her dreams. It is an unpredictable disease. It is not enough to plan, you have to be flexible enough to change the plan when your body demands it.

On those days when I flare, and yes they come occasionally, I push back against the disease with hot cups of tea, lots of anti-inflammatory fruits and vegetables, long hot baths in lavender scented water and sleep. I do not feel perfect when I wake up, but I feel very good about who I am.

I am living well with lupus.

-Imani Perry

(cross-post from afro-netizen.com)

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Posted in Feminists in Academia, Women's Health | 2 Comments