tagged w/ Feminist
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Local feminist are upset over recent cleavage photo taken during a protest in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC for Boobquake Day.Local feminist are upset over recent cleavage photo taken during a protest in Dupont... more
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by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Christian groups are trying to create a run around health care reform by setting up alternative, unregulated religious health care bill collectives—and movement conservatives are cheering them on.
Religious right-watcher Sarah Posner reports on so-called Christian health care-sharing ministries in the American Prospect. Health-sharing ministries (HCSM) bill themselves as godly alternatives to health insurance. HCSM are groups of Christians who promise to cover each other’s heath care costs. About a hundred thousand people nationwide belong to these collectives. The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries and its army of lobbyists convinced Senate lawmakers to exempt HCSMs from health care reform’s individual mandate.
Obliterating patient privacy
According to Posner, anti-reform conservatives are talking up these groups because they see them as a way to undermine the individual mandate. But if you think HCSM are a convenient loophole to avoid paying for insurance, think again. Posner describes the criteria for joining Samaritan Ministries International (SMI), one of the largest HCSM:
“To join the HCSM, applicants must agree to a statement of faith that they are a ‘professing Christian, according to biblical principles’ set out in Romans 10:9-10 and John 3:3. They must agree to adhere to guidelines that include no sex outside of “traditional Biblical marriage,” no smoking or drugs, and mandatory church attendance.
SMI members pay their own health care costs out of pocket and seek reimbursement from the group. What about privacy? In order to get reimbursed, they have to publish their health care “needs” in a monthly newsletter and hope someone sends cash. Lifetime benefits are capped at $100,000. Members waive their right to sue for any reason. SMI won’t cover treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, addictions, or the pregnancies of single mothers.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that this free-for-all won’t end well. You can’t just start a quasi-health insurance scheme in your garden shed and expect it to work out. Real insurance companies are subject to oversight to make sure that they have enough money on hand to cover their claims. Who knows what HSCM are doing with people’s money? These outfits have all the disadvantages of private insurers and none of the benefits. Members are a single major illness away from bankruptcy.
Bartering for health care?
Speaking of wacky alternatives to health insurance, Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) main Republican challenger, Sue Lowden, insists that patients can pay for their health care via a barter system, as Rachel Slajda reports for TPMDC. Great! How many chickens for an appendectomy?
Medicare expansion doesn’t equal bankruptcy
At Mother Jones, Kevin Drum debunks the latest right-wing myth about health care reform, that Medicare expansion will bankrupt the states. States pay part of the cost of Medicare, so it’s true that any expansion of the program will cost the states some money. However, the talking point is that the expansion will push state budgets to the breaking point. That’s false.
Drum explains that the health care reform bill exempts states from the extra cost until 2016. Even after that, the costs to the states will be minimal:
“[Health care reform] won’t cost states an extra dime through 2016, by which time our recession will presumably be over, and even after that states will only pay for a tiny fraction of the increased costs. As CBPP points out, states will pay about 4% of the total costs of Medicaid expansion over the next ten years. This represents an increase in overall state Medicaid spending of slightly over 1%.”
Abortion and ‘convenience’
Jessica Valenti of Feministing has been taking on manipulative, anti-choice ads in the New York City subway. These ads are sponsored by an anti-abortion group. They feature various distraught-looking models staring wistfully into space. The tagline is “Abortion Changes You.” The message is that if you have an abortion, you will be a guilt-racked wreck for the rest of your life. Some feminist with a wry sense of humor and a little glue pasted in another sentence on the ad (pictured above): “Now I can go to college and fulfill my dreams.”
Anti-choice blogger Lori Ziganto was scandalized by the anonymous culture jammer’s message. She sneered at the idea that women’s lives and hopes actually matter: “Want to go to college, but there is a pesky baby growing inside of you? Abort! A life is far less important than your co-ed fun and career plans, right?”
Valenti’s response: “It isn’t that anti-choicers don’t understand why women get abortions – it’s that they care so little about women’s lives that any reason given to obtain an abortion is seen as “convenient.” Some things that are convenient: Providing for your existing children. Going to college. Having enough money to eat, pay rent, keep the electricity on. Not dying.”
HSCMs and the subway ads are part of an enormous rift in contemporary politics: Opponents of health care reform say that they’re defending freedom, but in reality, they’re advocating control.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Christian groups are trying to... more
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New research suggests sexual objectification hinders some women’s cognitive ability.
April 10, 2010 |
Guys, here’s something to consider the next time you ogle an attractive woman: Your desirous gaze may be reducing her capacity to think.
That’s the startling implication of a research paper titled “My Body or My Mind,” recently published in the European Journal of Social Psychology. It suggests some women who are objectified by men internalize this perception and think of themselves as “a sexual object to be scrutinized.” For reasons that are not entirely clear, this process appears to undermine their cognitive ability.
Psychologists Robin Gay and Emanuele Castano of the New School for Social Research tested this thesis with a clever experiment that mimics and magnifies what many women experience in everyday life. The study participants — 25 women ages 18 to 35 — were told they were recruited to provide information on “the impressions people form about others solely based on their carriage and style of dress.”
Each was videotaped for two minutes — first from the front, then from behind — while they walked up and down a hall. To capture the experience of having their bodies evaluated while their faces (which presumably provide a better reflection of their individual personalities) were ignored, they were filmed exclusively from the neck down.
For half the participants, the person doing the filming was male; for the other half, the camera was held by a woman. “Although there is no doubt that women tend to objectify other women, the sexually objectifying gaze is more likely to come from a man,” the researchers write.
After the filming, each woman watched her video, reinforcing the experience in her mind. She then filled out questionnaires measuring her levels of Trait Self-Objectification (her overall propensity to view herself through the lens of others) and State Self-Objectification (her tendency to view herself through the lens of others when triggered by a specific event, such as being stared at).
To test their cognitive skills, the women were shown a series of random letters or numbers and instructed to reorder them (putting them in alphabetical order for the letters, in ascending order for the numbers). They completed 21 such tasks, which were presented in increasing order of difficulty.
The results: When women with a tendency toward viewing themselves through the lens of others were placed in a situation where they were objectified (that is, they were videotaped by a man), they made a greater number of mistakes on the cognitive test. They did just as well as other women on the easy initial tasks, but had trouble when the difficulty level went up.
After a follow-up study found anxiety and self-esteem levels were not a factor, the researchers concluded their cognitive difficulties “might be due to a split in perspective regarding the self.” (This notion was first described in a 1997 paper by Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts.)
A woman in this situation simultaneously sees herself as a unique individual and a generic sexual being. Dividing the psyche in this uncomfortable way “is likely to increase cognitive load, with a resulting decrease in the availability of cognitive resources for the tasks the individual engages in,” Gay and Castano write.
They suggest further research would be valuable to discover why some women are prone to self-objectification, while others seem protected against it. Gay and Castano’s data suggest about 20 percent of women have a strong propensity toward self-objectification and are thus particularly susceptible to triggers, such as being stared at.
The researchers propose a campaign of awareness and education regarding this phenomenon, which could help women “begin to gain control over, or at least buffer themselves against” its negative cognitive impact. They conclude “it stands to reason that the cumulative effects of objectification on the female body over a lifetime may severely disrupt cognitive processes,” at least among this sizable slice of the population.
This is your brain on wolf whistles.New research suggests sexual objectification hinders some women’s cognitive... more
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Left-Wing Icon: America Is Still Headed Towards Fascism Under Obama
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
April 1, 2010
When left-wing icon Naomi Wolf warned that America was heading towards fascism under George W. Bush, characterized by illegal surveillance, arbitrary detention of suspects, and paramilitary martial law, she was lauded, but when she continued to issue the same warning as a result of Obama’s failure to reverse any of those policies, many on the left abandoned support for her.
For Full Story...Left-Wing Liberal Icon Naomi Wolf: America Is Still Headed Towards Fascism Under Obama…VIDEO...http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/left-wing-liberal-icon-naomi-wolf-america-is-still-headed-towards-fascism-under-obama/
However, as Wolf’s recent interview with leftist website Alternet makes plain, liberals may finally be starting to understand that both political parties in Washington are part of the problem, not the solution.Left-Wing Icon: America Is Still Headed Towards Fascism Under Obama
Paul Joseph... more
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Postfeminism is that indicator that shows us the organism formerly known as feminism has grown into something far more complex than its liberal origins would lead us to expect. Cyberfeminism was born at a particular moment in time, 1992, simultaneously at three different points on the globe. Postfeminisms do not inhabit a network; they are the network of feminist discourse in virtual space and they are at their best when they are helping to forge communities of practice ...... http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/section-blog/273-from-cyborgs-to-hacktivists-postfeminist-disobedience-and-virtual-communitiesPostfeminism is that indicator that shows us the organism formerly known as feminism... more
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Candidate Anna Arrowsmith …’I'm proud of my porn films’
By Andrew McCorkell
14 March 2010
One woman attracted more than her fair share of nudges and stares at the Lib Dem conference yesterday. It seemed many of the delegates couldn’t make up their minds whether she represented the ultimate challenge to sexism, or the opposite.
Porn Film Director Anna Arrowsmith, Aka Anna Span, Trades Sex for Politics..Click For VIDEO...http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/porn-film-director-anna-arrowsmith-aka-anna-span-trades-sex-for-politics-video/
Only weeks ago, many of her fellow conference delegates would have struggled to pick out Anna Arrowsmith, the newly selected Lib Dem candidate for Gravesham, Kent, from a line of two. They no longer have that difficulty: she has featured prominently on just about every newspaper front page and is well-represented on TV too.Candidate Anna Arrowsmith …’I'm proud of my porn films’
By... more
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Liz Lemon may be what we call an “accidental hero”: She never really set out to become a positive role model for women, but she’s become one anyway.Liz Lemon may be what we call an “accidental hero”: She never really set... more
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cclaes
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Sarah Lyon is a great person and a fantastic artist, but that is only the beginning. She is also a great adventurer and has done a beautiful job of documenting her travels as she rides across the country capturing images of other female mechanics for her calendars.Sarah Lyon is a great person and a fantastic artist, but that is only the beginning.... more
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Intelligence is sexy!
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asherp
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It starts with pink and blue birthday cards. Toy trucks for him and Barbie dolls for her. Prepackaged ideals judging children based on gender. And it doesn't stop there.
This article shows how, well into adulthood, ads force gender roles on us. Everything from ear plugs to chocolate to swiss army knives: soft & pink for women, tough & intense for men. Are people really this simplistic and predictable? http://www.stilettorevolt.com/?p=1916It starts with pink and blue birthday cards. Toy trucks for him and Barbie dolls for... more
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Sex does sell. But sometimes, it’s a bit of a stretch – especially when you're talking about dog food or toilet paper. This site looks at ads that go out on a limb to link their products to sex… sometimes a very, very long limb. http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=1788Sex does sell. But sometimes, it’s a bit of a stretch – especially when... more
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Everyone knows that women are denied rights in Saudi Arabia. And you may think that our fate is the same one that women in some other developing countries face, only a little worse. In truth, we endure a status that most Americans can scarcely imagine.
The guardianship rules are only part of a bigger system of subjugating women. Even with the permission of a guardian, a woman may not drive a car (except in some isolated rural areas and within the compounds that are home to many workers from Western countries). Obviously, there is nothing in the Koran that forbids driving. No, the reason we are not allowed to drive is that the power to transport ourselves would give men much less control over us.
Women in Saudi Arabia may not go out without an abaya, an ugly black cloak that we have to wear on top of our regular clothes. You can imagine how great that feels in 100-degree heat. Saudi men, on the other hand, always wear white. In 2006, I dressed in pink when I staged a one-person protest march. It was the anniversary of the ascent of King Abdullah to the throne. By Saudi standards, Abdullah is a liberal, but he has not done nearly enough to change our situation. So I made a simple sign: "Give women their rights."
Women are not allowed to participate in sports. How could you in an abaya? When I was very young, I was a tomboy. I loved to ride a bike, which my mother allowed, although most girls are forbidden because this activity might cost them their "virginity" by rupturing the hymen. When I was 7, my teacher tied my legs and beat me with a stick when she learned that I had been playing soccer with boys. Then she made me sit at my desk all day, without going to the bathroom or getting a drink of water.Everyone knows that women are denied rights in Saudi Arabia. And you may think that... more
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That pseudo-surreal glassy stare is a common thing in photography these days, thanks to photoshop and image retouching technology. Perhaps it's even worse with celebrities, whose careers depend on staying young and thin.
Here, see a gallery full of "before & after photoshop" celebrity images, and discover what Hollywood doesn't want you to see. http://www.stilettorevolt.com/?p=1329That pseudo-surreal glassy stare is a common thing in photography these days, thanks... more
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Lady Gaga talks about double standards in the music industry and equal treatment for female singers, but quickly shies away from the "F" word. See her interview at http://www.stilettorevolt.com/?p=1299Lady Gaga talks about double standards in the music industry and equal treatment for... more
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Apparently, the answer is "yes" in Hollywood more and more. Here, famous comediennes like Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Christina Applegate, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more, talk ageism in tinsel town: http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=1273Apparently, the answer is "yes" in Hollywood more and more. Here, famous... more
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With all the talk about sexism in comics and the struggle for female characters to exist beyond their triple F cup bras, StilettoREVOLT has decided to highlight some of the more well-rounded (so to speak) comics and graphic novels out there - great for girls who just want a little equality for a change! http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=1195With all the talk about sexism in comics and the struggle for female characters to... more
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With over 9,000 vendors at Comic-Con vying for attention from over 123,000 attendees, what can a company do to stand out? Well this year, EA Games has come up with a new way to beat the competition – pimp out their booth babes... http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=1149With over 9,000 vendors at Comic-Con vying for attention from over 123,000 attendees,... more
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Former President Jimmy Carter is leaving the Southern Baptist Church after 60 years of service. The reason? Gender equality. http://stilettorevolt.com/?p=1123Former President Jimmy Carter is leaving the Southern Baptist Church after 60 years of... more
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For decades, France has prided itself on being the world capital of seaside semi-nudity. Now the nation is facing a bikini-top backlash. A younger generation of women are covering up, citing new feminist priorities, skin cancer fears and a rebellion against the cult of the fetished body beautiful.For decades, France has prided itself on being the world capital of seaside... more
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