Engendered Opinions

Eager to radically rethink the human condition. This is a sex- and body-positive, gender-conscious, antiracist safe space for thoughtful dialogue, where you will find original posts as well as RTs and RBs of important things from other places (credited, italic text). I'm on Twitter @aebutts.

[engenderedopinions]

✨disappears into the forest ✨

[engenderedopinions]

A note on encouraging workers to exercise the right to exit during a pandemic.

My mum is a preschool teacher. For the past 20ish years she has taught at a small private school (attached to a church, but otherwise secular) in a wealthy enclave just outside DC. In March when the COVID pandemic shut down schools and businesses so everyone could safely shelter in place, the school followed county guidelines and implemented distance learning. Since that time, administrators at my mum’s school have revealed to staff that they are in fact licensed as a daycare facility and that because they are private they can and will be returning to in-person learning at the start of the fall semester. 

My mum was furious. 

Her first impulse was to do nothing.

See, my mum, a white woman in her mid-60s, is used to things mostly working out. Perhaps equally if not more salient, she prides herself on ‘keeping the peace’ even when it comes at her own expense. She fully expected not only her school, but the people she voted for in local government, to do the right thing. I personally don’t understand the basis for this expectation. At her school, when there is a conflict between what the parents want and what the teachers want, administration has historically sided with the parents and given them what they want. Going back to school has been framed as necessary not so much for the education of the kids but so parents can get back to work. Many parents at her school are doctors, lawyers, scientists, politicos: the high-powered and highly-educated. Many parents drop their preschoolers off at “Before Care” around 8 AM and pick them up at “After Care” around 4 or 5 or even 6 PM.

For people, especially I think those from the same background as my mum, who find themselves in a similar position of having to make the call about what is right for them as individuals during this pandemic vs. what their employers expect of them in the context of starkly manipulative, “good for society” messaging, the dissonance can be immensely uncomfortable. There may have been times in the past where they let decisions positioned along a similar dichotomy slide in the interest of being “team players” but the urgency that belies this moment is different. Because of this, even though it really is the icing on the cake of all the times they could have advocated for rights they were entitled to but chose not to, they feel compelled to make a different decision this time around. 

This is where I’ve personally found I can support my mum, by helping to frame this as a rights issue. When her school says any staff over the age of 55 needs a note from their doctor stating in-person learning does not pose an increased medical risk, my mum has the right to not be discriminated against based on age and medical conditions. She also has the right to keep her medical information private. These rights are encoded in federal laws like the FMLA and the ADA. Since those apply to the school where she works, they supersede any policy written in the handbook or unilaterally declared by the director. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly (from an existential perspective, at least), my mum has the right to exit. The contract she signed for the upcoming school year does not at all reflect the on-the-ground reality that will be taking place, where her 4-year-old students are required to stay masked throughout the day, maintain social distance, and be vigilant about hand hygiene while she diligently screens them for symptoms each morning and vigorously scrubs the classroom each afternoon. Roughly two weeks out from the start of the new school year there is no provision put in place extending paid sick leave to include time spent in quarantine, nor is there any concrete protocol as to how many sick people in the school community would necessitate shutting down the building and for how long. The contract she signed lacks a lot of clarity and it also lacks morality. Maybe that is what was missing from past frustrations. Making this an issue of rights and morality has made a difference, however small initially, and from that starting point she has taken a stand. 

[engenderedopinions]

Welcome

Greetings friends/strangers/fellow impassioned feminists. Welcome to my blog, Engendered Opinions. The idea for this blog came to me suddenly, when I realized I had a cache of feminist material I wanted to archive and discuss for others interested in the topic.

With any purposeful endeavor it is probably best to begin with a definition of terms, to get a better understanding of what we’re really dealing with. My intention is not to focus solely on things that easily fit a feminist label; actually, I’d like to use the term to more broadly discuss issues of equality, whether it is between men and women or different “types” of women (class, race, marital status, sexual preference, gender identity, where we live, how old we are, who we choose to represent us- to name a few). We see these issues in our daily lives, and see how they play out in different ways.

I hope you enjoy the content you’ll find here. And I hope you’ll join the conversation!

[engenderedopinions]

Holy smokes, this was written 8 years ago when I first created this little corner of the internet to share my thoughts. I’m struck by how relevant it remains, both personally and in terms of the conversations we are having as a global society. So much has changed, yet the struggle continues. Looking forward to jumping back in here. 

[engenderedopinions]

Yippee! The newest edition of SQUAT Birth Journal is here! My favorites were Ynanna Djehuty's article about cultural competency and trust in healthcare and the poem "How to date a midwife" by Kayla Q. Still to read: midwifery in rural Guatemala and a profile of a full spectrum clinic in Buffalo, NY. 

[engenderedopinions]

The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site'

"The secretive warehouse is the latest example of Chicago police practices that echo the much-criticized detention abuses of the US war on terrorism. While those abuses impacted people overseas, Homan Square – said to house military-style vehicles, interrogation cells and even a cage – trains its focus on Americans, most often poor, black and brown."

[engenderedopinions]

Satanists Demand Religious Exemption From Abortion Restrictions, Cite Hobby Lobby Ruling

Humanists masquerading as Satanists have launched a new campaign to exempt themselves from laws that restrict abortion access on the grounds that it violates their religious belief in bodily autonomy. 

[engenderedopinions]

3 Things I Love About AUSTRALIA

It's no secret to the people who know me in RL: I bitch a lot about Australia. I never realised before moving here how enmeshed I was in American culture, so the shock of adapting to life here was pretty brutal. I pined for things I never even really noticed back home, like stores staying open til 8 or 9 PM and NPR.

But. Since moving here way back in February, I've accumulated a few things that have come to represent what I love most about life here.

Australian hip hop. I fell in love with Aussie hip hop almost the second I heard it, because it felt familiar but with a completely fresh and positive perspective. Stay in school, respect other people (including women and your parents). Have fun. Love is the best drug. The energy, the flow, the beat in the background is all there, and when you pause to give it some thought it's actually surprising hip hop has so long been identified by its aggressive messages. It doesn't have to be. Even when songs specifically engage with race somehow they manage to maintain this feeling of being inclusive. Like there's no point in making enemies of friends. When Remi prefaced a song about racism to a predominantly white audience at his show (my first!) in Perth, it was a surprisingly genuine moment of solidarity because he was saying "fuck racism, it's got to go and I think all of us here are in agreement on that." Then again *sigh* I could fangirl hard about Remi...

Slow, simple living. The other day I went to the post office to mail a letter to the States. The post man pulled out a binder full of stamps and we picked out them out one by one. He actually had to roll them on a little thing I'd never seen before to get the backs wet because they weren't self-adhesive stamps. He positioned them carefully on the envelope, held it up approvingly, and said "Ah, someone will be very happy to get this letter." I walked out feeling so pleased, like something awesome and beautiful had happened just because I'd needed to do something the old-fashioned way. That's true of other little things, too, like the fact that I make my own sauerkraut now because there's virtually none of the good stuff around.

The weather! I'm not even kidding. I thought it was hilarious when locals would refuse to go down to the beach because of the tiniest bit of wind, preferring the perfect conditions or something else entirely. Then I hipped to it. Because there's more than one way to appreciate waves, sand, and sun, especially when daily life takes you past it at least once every single day. Why force it? Plus, if you can wait 10 minutes, the weather will be completely different. Appreciating this meant being more aware of what the world around me was doing, and being mindful of change outside my control. It's about taking the rainbows together with the rainy days, and knowing that nothing is permanent.

[hydrolases]

Lavoisier is having none of your shit.

[mermaidskey]

Heeeey so fun fact: the woman in that painting is Lavoisier’s wife, Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, who not only acted as Lavoisier’s lab assistant but also translated English and Latin texts into French so he could read them. But she didn’t just translate, she pointed out errors in the chemistry in some of the texts. Her observations of these errors convinced Lavoisier to study combustion, which led to his discovery of oxygen. She was also critical to the publication of Lavoisier’s Elementary Treatise on Chemistry in 1789. She kept strict records of every experiment they conducted together and drew detailed diagrams of all their equipment. She also threw amazing parties and invited all the brightest minds in science so her husband could pick their brains. After Lavoisier was guillotined she secured all of his notebooks and equipment for posterity.

In short: NOBODY KICKS MADAME LAVOISIER OUT OF THE LAB.

[mermaidskey]

Also, a side note: My historian husband-to-be pointed some things out to me about this painting. Notice that Madame Lavoisier is looking at the viewer, and all the light is on her, while Lavoisier himself is physically smaller than her, in shadow, and looking up to her in reverence. This isn’t a candid photograph- all of these choices are deliberate. The painting isn’t of Lavoisier- Madame Lavoisier is meant to be the central subject. 

I can just imagine Lavoisier telling all his colleagues that his wife is really the one with all the clever ideas, and them patting him on the back and telling him he’s sweet for saying so.

[hemipelagicdredger]

more like

[mermaidskey]

I LOVE IT

[engenderedopinions]

Companies involved in illegal logging, forced evictions and child labour have been backed financially, report claims

Though it should no longer surprise anyone that big banks don't feel morally obligated to invest ethically, it is frustrating that CEOs et al seem to think they aren't accountable to the choices they make, that because they control the money there are no consequences.

After Occupy, I switched to a credit union for that very reason. How do you protest the big banks?

[engenderedopinions]

...the good news is that sexual activity is enjoyed into advanced age. Ageing doesn't end sex, it changes it.

Read more of "The Myth That Old People Don't Have Sex."

[worldofaliceandolivia]

[engenderedopinions]

worldofaliceandolivia:

Tuesday inspiration, courtesy of Lily Tomlin. 

[engenderedopinions]

Malawi President Joyce Banda introduced the Presidential Safe Motherhood initiative in 2012. Though results are limited to anecdotal evidence for the time being, it appears that the initiative is having a positive effect on mortality rates for mothers and infants. Notably, the initiative has:

outlawed traditional birthing assistants (who often worked in the capacity of midwives with little if any formal training)

encouraged women to use local health centres instead of birthing at home, and

used the influence of tribal chiefs to educate local communities.

Women’s groups in several areas have begun tending vegetable gardens in order to ensure that the nutritional needs of the community’s pregnant women are provided for.

[engenderedopinions]

Queer Sex 101.

[engenderedopinions]

rhrealitycheck:

blue-author:

The thing about being anti-abortion is that for most people, it is about making easy choices.

Once you’ve defined terminating a pregnancy (which is, by the way, the most likely natural outcome of a pregnancy) as “killing a child”, it really is a no0brainer. “Should I be for baby killing, or against baby killing?” is not a question most people need to ask themselves, or stop and think about.

Even better, this bit of mental gymnastics inexplicably leaves millions of people and the laws of many countries in favor of “baby killing”, which means there are that many million people you can feel better than.

You haven’t done anything. You have not improved anyone’s life. You have not made the world a better place. You have not helped any living soul on the planet, but already, you are better than millions of people.

And if you decide to “do something” about abortion?

Carry a sign. 

Put some pennies in a box somewhere.

Reblog out of context, mislabeled, or misleading pictures of babies, fetuses, and parts of pregnant bodies.

Now you’re a superhero. Now you’re a crusader. Now you’re fighting the neverending battle for truth, justice, and precious little babies at Christmas.

Of course, if you really believed deep down inside that millions of actual babies are literally being murdered all the time, you wouldn’t be putting pennies in boxes, would you? It’s convenient to your self-esteem to be able to tell yourself that the stakes are as high as the lives of babies and the soul of a nation, but it’s convenient to your lifestyle that you know, deep down inside, that they really aren’t.

If you’ve got a lot of time and passion, you can go down to a reproductive health clinic (where there may or not actually even be any abortions performed, and where there are certainly a myriad of other necessary health care services being performed) and scream misogynistic insults at anybody who braves your gauntlet .

Maybe she’s getting a pap smear.

Maybe she’s getting an ultrasound for the baby she plans on carrying to term.

Maybe she’s going to terminate a pregnancy she really wanted, but can’t have.

Maybe she’s going to have an already dead fetus removed from her body.

Maybe she’s going to have an abortion because she’s pregnant and doesn’t want to be.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to you. All that matters is sides: you’re on the right side, she’s on the wrong side. And you get to engage in the most vile impulses that wrack the human brain: shouting, screaming epithets, hurling accusations, attacking the vulnerable, reducing another human being to a mass of tears and convulsions and you can do it guilt-free because you have constructed a reality where this person in front of you, whatever might actually be going through in their life, is a proxy responsible for the deaths of millions of tiny precious little babies and you, you are the fearless Soldier of Good who will save them.

Yeah.

Being anti-abortion is all about the easy choices.

That’s why you don’t hear about many “pro-lifer” who decides to bravely die rather than terminate a life-endangering pregnancy, trusting in God to decide whether parent and/or baby shall life.

Oh, yes, they’ll find people who make the decision to carry on with pregnancies that are high-risk, and they laud these people as proof of the lies of the pro-choice movement… never mind that there are many pro-choice people who make the same decision. That’s the nature of choice.

I’m not talking about high-risk pregnancies. I’m talking about situations where it’s not even a risk any more. Where are the martyrs to life? I can show you pro-life women who went and had an abortion when it was convenient for them, not even medically necessary. And it’s not hard to find pro-lifers demanding that other people carry a diagnosed dead or fatal-to-the-parent fetus to term because “doctors can be wrong”. Where are the pro-lifers who make this choice for themselves?

When the wives of conservative politicians have an abortion to end an ectopic pregnancy or other similar condition, it gets reduced to “a medically necessary procedure” that’s certainly not an abortion, no, don’t call it that because if there are two things the pro-life movement is sure about it’s that abortion isn’t a medical procedure and that it is never necessary.

But anyone else undergoing the same procedure? That’s an abortion. And it’s wrong. 

Because the pro-life movement is about making easy choices and easy judgments. It’s convenient crusading. Invent an enemy so unconscionably horrific that you can’t help but look good and feel good opposing them, so widespread and close to home that you don’t have to give up your life at home to combat them, and so ultimately harmless that there is literally no risk to you in standing up to these horrible, bloodthirsty monsters.

But if it happens that you need an abortion, you’ll have one. Because you’ve been making the easy choices all along. And if you get pregnant and choose to keep it, in spite of… whatever… you tell yourself that’s a triumph against choice, when in fact it’s a triumph of choice.

Wow.

File this under: things I wish I'd written. It's absolutely perfect. So wow.

[engenderedopinions]

"Such articles fail to examine why one would possibly do these things, in favour of a very basic proclamation that this is unfeminist. On the flip side, something deemed feminist is considered above criticism, no matter how problematic it may be."

[engenderedopinions]

I believe we have to allow personal decision making for important life decisions, like when and whether to have a child. Each woman’s circumstances are different, and if someone is struggling just to get by, to get a better job, or take care of the children she already has, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to support her to raise a child, if she makes that decision—or to end a pregnancy if she decides that she needs to. Faith communities can support women and families as they face a difficult decision, and offer compassion and tend to their spiritual or moral needs while allowing each individual to follow his or her own conscience. Many progressive faith leaders share a commitment to reducing health inequities and a dedication to elevating women’s health. Their voices are a powerful force that is crucial to this conversation, and their willingness to speak out for women and families is a moral foil to those who would limit a woman’s access to important health care services.

Vernita Gutierrez, Director of Community Engagement at Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, talking about the intersection of faith, -isms, and choice in accessing healthcare. In an interview for the Center for American Progress.

[carrotflowered]

Collective movements for social justice do not gain traction through niceness. American women did not gain the right to vote by skipping down Pennsylvania Avenue while whistling cute songs about suffrage: they picketed, they marched, they yelled, they were arrested. Abusive partners and rapists will not be stopped by women having heart-to-hearts with their violators over coffee, because ghosts cannot talk and broken fingers cannot lift a latte. The patriarchy cannot be shattered by good vibes. In order to bring about change, old and oppressive structures must be destroyed. Destruction is not negative if what will grow from the rubble is something that will create a safer, healthier, stronger society.

Feminism is Not “The F Word” — Seventh Grove

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer said she doesn’t identify as a feminist because feminism is “too negative.” Here’s what I have to say about that…

(via forevercemetery)

broken fingers cannot lift a latte is going to stick with me.

(via flatbear)

It's not on women to make nice with abusers and rapists anyway. People mistakenly attribute this point of view to feminists being 'divisive' but I think it's more about understanding that people who have been oppressed, who have been hurt by systems created to keep them wounded and silent, don't owe the patriarchy anything.