Category: feminism

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Slut = Trans Ally

It turns out the woman who Rush called a slut is also a pro-trans advocate, too, who has written on the discriminatory practices of health insurance companies which don’t cover GRS. And this from an article that wasn’t happy and excited about it except to expose her as “out there”.

So, trans community, what we’ve got here is an amazing synergy of arguments for bodily autonomy and personal agency. In other words, a trans feminist has just helped clarify exactly why the trans & feminist communities are innately related and politically coherent.

Sounds like my kinda bandwagon.

In the meantime, something like 28 advertisers have pulled out of Rush Limbaugh’s dumb-ass show. Amazingly enough, it doesn’t take an advanced degree for people to figure out that a man who thinks taxpayer-supported birth control means the public owns women’s bodies is, well, an atavistic, arrogant jerk.

Or, as we used to say: FLUSH RUSH.

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Bonsoir, Mademoiselle

France has officially dropped Mademoiselle from the lexicon, as there is no equivalent for young men. Abbreviated Mlle., the term was often used to imply a woman’s unmarried state; symbolically, her virginal or simply youthful state.

But there is no equivalent for men, as “monsieur” is used for married & unmarried (& we assume, virginal and sexually experienced) men.

Long overdue, in my opinion, but it’s great to see this change codified.

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Really.

“You know who’s not ‘all Catholics now’? All Catholics now. 98% of Catholic women have used birth control and the other 2% are the ones always trying to get the softball team started.”

Speaking of: if the real thing is making birth control free, I highly recommend homosexuality, but I’m pretty sure Santorum won’t get behind that.

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Komen News: Not So Fast

Yay, everyone’s happy Komen changed their decision. But I am a cynical, suspicious type, and I read their statement, which says:

“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

That last bit, the “while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions” just left a back door, wide, wide open. By which I mean, Komen just figured out a way to say, the next time they don’t fund Planned Parenthood, that their FUNDERS choose not to. And if they tend toward finding funders that are more conservative – which this current Director of Komen seems likely to do, Komen will have found an official way not to fund Planned Parenthood and to Pass the buck.

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Roe v. Wade…

… is 39 years old today, & still, thankfully, the law of the land. It is not, of course, guaranteed, and the pro life forces are quite aware that the next presidential choice of a Supreme Court justice is incredibly important, and they’re feeling pretty cocky after the 2010 elections.

So for those of you who are “fiscal conservatives” – I put that in quotes because I don’t think you can separate fiscal issues from social ones, since how we make and spend money, is, ultimately, a moral issue – who are thinking of voting against Obama, but who are feminists, think twice.

Being Pro Choice is not being Pro Abortion. I have yet to meet anyone – feminist or not – who is pro abortion. What we are, rather, is feminist, and think a woman’s life – which is actual, apparent, and breathing – should have at least some influence on the potential life – which is debatable, uncertain, and not breathing – she is carrying.

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Cho Fierce

Wow. Margaret Cho rightfully lost her shit & in so doing wrote us all a manifesta:

I grew up hard and am still hard and I don’t care. I did not choose this face or this body and I have learned to live with it and love it and celebrate it and adorn it with tremendous drawings from the greatest artists in the world and I feel good and powerful like a nation that has never been free and now after many hard won victories is finally fucking free. I am beautiful and I am finally fucking free.

I fly my flag of self-esteem for all those who have been told they were ugly and fat and hurt and shamed and violated and abused for the way they look and told time and time again that they were “different” and therefore unlovable. Come to me and I will tell you and show you how beautiful and loved you are and you will see it and feel it and know it and then look in the mirror and truly believe it. If you are offended by my anger and my might at defending my borders and my people you do not deserve entry into my beloved and magnificent country.

Read the whole thing at Jezebel or on Cho’s blog.

I am beautiful and I am finally fucking free.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re not pretty enough, that you curse too much, that you don’t like the right things, that you are “‘different’ and therefore unlovable”. They are only keeping you from your freedom.

It’s profoundly moving to see that someone like Margaret Cho – famous, funny, rude Margaret Cho – still needs to punch back so hard against someone who is telling her to be something other than what she is. Makes me feel an ounce better about having felt the need to do the same thing when I was told what I needed to do to fit in here. Sometimes I wonder if those of us who “grew up hard and am still hard” get read as a lot tougher than we are, & so people feel free to critique when they might not if a person were obviously vulnerable. Hrm.