Weekly Rants&Raves- July 12
Hello! I hope you all enjoyed your Fourth of July weekend eating hotdogs and watching fireworks and sporting red, white, and blue, and celebrating this totally awesome non-patriarchal, non-White Supremacist, non-heteronormative society we live in… Yah stick a firework in that! But now that the holiday is over, it’s time to shift focus back on the world and all the crazy, unbelievable, “is this real life” things that have been happening.
In not-new news this week, no one wants anyone to ever be able to have an abortion.
Well that’s the jist I’ve gotten from all the madness in Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Rehashing the details seems futile, but basically each state has introduced harmful laws and bills that would severely restrict women’s access, close down clinics, ban doctors, and increase cost and inconvenience.
Texas: wants to pass the HB2 bill that will effectively shut down all but five abortion clinics in the state (no worries they only have a population of 26 million people). It’s headed to the Senate now…
North Carolina: lawmakers added anti-abortion measures into a MOTORCYCLE SAFETY BILL (because your vagina is kind of like a motorcycle if you really think about it…?)
Ohio: Gov. Kasich signed into law last week a rule mandating that ladies get ultrasounds before they have an abortion. Which is really in hopes that they’ll see the fetus and decided to not terminate. Like having an abortion isn’t hard enough. Ridiculous.
D.C.: Stuff’s happening in D.C.? There’s too much craziness that it has been totally overshadowed that federal reps tacked a rule onto a budget bill that would ban Medicaid coverage of abortions for low income women within the capital… That’s cool because it’s not like DC residents have voting members of Congress. Oh wait, they don’t.
Wisconsin: Recap: On Friday Gov. Scott Walker passed a law requiring ultrasounds and putting severe restrictions on doctors who perform terminations. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood were so mad at this sneak attack that they filed a lawsuit! Which actually worked! So for now, the law has not been passed. But for someone as highly cynical as myself, I highly doubt that this will result in much good.
Welcome to the greatest nation on earth…
I can’t wrap my head around these men who work so tirelessly to devalue women and strip their essential human rights. I have always spouted the “no ovaries, no opinion” gospel: as someone who will never have to deal with the fear of becoming pregnant, will never face associated health risks, will not be faulted by society if they choose not to care for their child, and ultimately, will never have to carry a child to term, it seems overwhelming unfair. As some wise woman once said, “don’t tell me what to do.” If you don’t want to have an abortion, great, don’t have one. But don’t you daretry to tell me what to do. Don’t complicate further an already challenging decision.
That being said, I am so incredibly impressed by the groups of women and men storming statehouses across the U.S. and lobbying for fundamental rights. It is truly inspiring. Now if only we could revolutionize the world so that young girls feel empowered to run for office and reclaim their rights… Sigh.
But check out this video of a woman testifying in Texas, it’s badass:
Another things this week that made me swing from the rafters yelling WTF (lol I was sitting on my couch eating but mentally, spiritually, I was participating in said swinging) is the revelation that Calif. prison’s were sterilizing female inmates?! Seriously? Either they want us to be so pregnant babies fly out of our ears or they want to remove all ability to procreate? Can someone explain this to me? And you would think this took place in 1500 when people were still living in caves or something, but NO! Between 2006 and 2010 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY female inmates were sterilized WITHOUT state approval. And, many of the women said they were COERCED into receiving the surgery. Can I please be cryogenically frozen until Beyonce is president?
Big kudos to the Center for Investigative Reporting for their work in exposing this. I’m not sure what the solution to this is, or how anyone could properly compensate these women who have lost so much. Maybe they should switch places with the systems of power in place that allowed for the sterilization and see how THEY like being in jail… I joke… sort of.
Do you ever get catcalled? Not the positive kind where your cat gives you a ring to see how your day is going, but the sometimes scary/awkward/confusing “hey sexy where’d you get those crocs” sort of catcalling? Well I just found out about this awesome organization called “Hollaback!” which is an organization that works to combat and end street harassment! If you are so inclined, NYU is having an event called Hollaback! on July 25th which will be a forum for discussing street harassment, feminism’s future, etc. (and it’s followed by a cocktail hour!) Check out the facebook page here. NYC’s not that far away!
Now for unpopular opinion time… have you been hearing about how conservative host of The View Elisabeth Hasselbeck left the show this week. I have to admit something: I have seen the View, in fact, I kinda like it. It has that “sick-day home from school supposed to be doing homework but I’m watching mind numbing TV” sort of feel to it. And it has a very special place in my heart. As does Ms. Hasselbeck. But I can see that I loved her not for her feminist politics but for the fights she ignited. She’s a pretty backwards thinker. But, it should be said that Hasselbeck, despite her politics, is a human being, and so we shouldn’t get too excited criticizing her. So I’m going to take it as an overall positive thing that she has left the show to leave for her rightful home, Fox “News.” Let’s hope The View doesn’t replace her with another crazy conservative, although I do hear Rush Limbaugh is interested… Kidding.
Just realized I wrote about Hollaback and Hasselbeck…. hahaha.
Enjoy your week! Go see The Heat! It passes the Bechdel test, which has never happened in the history of the world (for the most part…)
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