Aug 15 show: Feminist news roundup

This week Jennie and Allison host a feminist news roundup. These are the stories we've been reading, following, and think that other feminists will be interested in. Naturally, each story will be served up with a hearty spoonful of feminist opinion from the hosts.

Gloria Steinem calls for a boycott of upcoming TV show "The Playboy Club"

The race and gender gap in lifetime earnings - no surprises here, women make less!

A new study suggests gender equality leads to more sex - hooray for feminism!

The Scar Project - Breast cancer isn't a pink ribbon

Banned chemical levels are high in pregnant women in California - yikes.

Polygamist Warren Jeffs sentenced to life in prison for child molestation - thank goodness.

School-mandated sex education FINALLY returns to New York

Next show: Feminist news roundup

Here's what we'll be talking about on Monday, June 27 at 8 pm on CJSW 90.9 fm.

• UBC student Rumana Monzur was viciously attacked by her husband on a return visit home to Bangladesh.
  
  
  
  
• Badminton's new dress code: women must wear skirts or dresses.
  
  
  
  
• The head of Wimbledon says female tennis players who grunt are spoiling the game.
  
  
  
  
• Amp radio in Calgary is giving away a $10,000 breast augmentation in their summer contest "Breast Summer Ever"

Monday April 4: Interview with Roller Derby girls!

On April 4, Geea and Allison will interview two ladies from the Calgary Roller Derby Association, Lexi Fatale from the Thrashin’ Lassies and Cheetah von Teese from the B52 Bellas. Their season opener is coming up on April 16th at the Triwood Arena! Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Check the website for details!

After the interview, we'll discuss the following news stories:

Women hold fewer than 1/3 of top news media jobs - Women do not occupy positions in media management at nearly the same rate as men. Women hold 27% of managerial jobs such as CEO, and 39% of senior management/editorial positions, like managing editor or bureau chief. Even for lower news gathering/writer/editor jobs, women only make up 41% of these positions.

How does Charlie Sheen get away with abusing women and become the highest paid actor on TV? Feminist blog Jezebel lays out 20 years of Sheen's history of abusing women, reminding us that he's been accused of assaulting, threatening, harassing, abusing, and—in one incident—shooting women.

In an excellent article from the New York Times, The Disposable Woman, Anna Holmes discusses how nobody's talking about Sheen's abusive history, and instead shrug him off as being just a "bad boy" or "rebel."

Tonight: interview with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Assault... plus feminist news & views

Tonight we’re interviewing a few ladies from Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA). We’ll be talking about the services and programs offered by CCASA, and how they help the community to understand issues around sexual violence.

After the interview we’ll share some feminist news and views on the following stories:

Eleven-year-old girl gang raped in Texas – if the story of 18 men and boys raping an 11-year old girl in an abandoned trailer home isn’t horrific enough, the New York Times added insult to injury with its appalling coverage of this story. Read the story yourself and see how the reporter victim-blames the girl and sympathizes with the rapists. The Feminist Philosophers have an excellent post discussing the problems within the New York Times article.

Generation Y women losing “female skills” – This article was posted in the Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia) on January 30, 2011. I was drawn to it because it manages to be both sexist and really interesting at the same time! The fact that Generation Y women are losing skills such as cooking and baking is super interesting from a feminist perspective... but why did the article need to be framed in such a sexist overtone? According to Aussie feminist blog The Dawn Chorus, this is a “cheap, distasteful reporting strategy aimed at enraging readers who will circulate the story and comment on it, generating advertising revenue.” They may have a point – the story has 398 comments.


Egyptian Million Woman March ends in Tension - Numerous reports (including this one) recount what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration of Egyptian women and men demanding equal rights at Tahrir Square in the nation's capital last week as part of an International Women's Day commemoration. The demonstration was met with anti-feminist chants and eventually aggressive behavior from those opposing the demonstrators and their message, saying women are meant to remain in the home and are not to become involved in political affairs. We'll discuss some of the details of the event, it's purpose and the peoples' reactions to what took place at Tahrir last Tuesday.

Tonight's Show: Feminist News & Views

Tonight we discuss the following recent events:

• The B.C. inquiry into missing women was opened last week.
  
  
• Saskatchewan's government has decided that marriage officials can't opt-out of marrying gay or lesbian couples.
  
  
• January 21st marked the 38th anniversary of Roe V. Wade - the historic Supreme Court decision to make abortion legal in the United States.
  
  
• Republican leaders are introducing legislation that would permanently bar any taxpayer subsidies for abortion - a.k.a. the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act."
  
  
• In the Bountiful, B.C. case, pro-polygamy women are set to testify in court. The testimony will offer a rare glimpse into the life of polygamous women.

Tonight's Show: Feminist News & Music

Tonight we spin some tunes and discuss some recent events in the news.

Links to news we're discussing:

• American couple sets up the website BirthOrNot.com and asks the public to vote on whether they should abort their pregnancy or carry through with it. Needless to say, this has insulted/pissed off almost everyone in some way... and bloggers at Jezebel and Feministing can't help but think it's a pro-life publicity stunt.
  
  
• Edmonton has a new ad campaign that targets men who prey on drunk women. The ads feature slogans like "Just because she isn't saying no... doesn't mean she's saying yes" and are meant to resonate with young men.
  
  
• Ok, so this isn't "news," but it's quite interesting. A bunch of Playboy memorabilia is up for auction at Christie's, and most interesting are the copies of centerfolds from the 90's and early 2000's that are marked up by editors in the art department. The message is clear: no matter how much dieting, plastic surgery, tanning and waxing you do, you'll never be perfect enough to be a fantasy woman. Check it out.
  

Track listing from tonight's show:

Janelle Monae  (feat. Big Boi) - Tight Rope

Je Suis Animal - Sparkle Spit

Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather

Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own

Woodpigeon - Knock, Knock

Bjork - Declare Independence

London gallery displays tribute to Mexico's missing and murdered women

Since 1993, hundreds of women in the in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez have been declared murdered or missing. No one knows exactly how many women have been affected. Local rights groups estimate that 300 women have been killed this year alone; official figures are significantly lower. And no one is able to give an accurate estimate for the number of women missing.



Most of the murdered young women were poor local factory workers and students, and many of the killings were truly horrific, involving sexual violence and rape.



When the murders first began they captured the world's attention for a while; dozens of journalists investigated, and numerous books and songs were written. But to date, most cases remained unresolved, and it is still a mystery why women are being targeted in this way.



Two hundred artists from around the world are involved in the 400 Women exhibition, which is is showing at Shoreditch Town Hall in London, England until November 28.



Here are three examples of the portraits:

Rosa Maria Rivers was raped and strangled in July 1999. She was 36 years old.

Artist: Anita Klein

Elizabeth Rodriguez Perez has been missing since November 1999.

Artist: Jane Archer

Melissa Gonzalez Luna was 16 when she disappeared more than three years ago.

Artist: Andres Basurto

To read more about this exhibit and see more portraits, click here.

Female snake's "virgin births" produce 22 baby snakes!

Ok, so this is pretty random... but I thought it would be fun to give a shout-out to the females of the animal kingdom!

BBC News reports that a female boa constrictor snake has given birth to two litters of extraordinary offspring. The 22 baby snakes do not have a father, and their genetic make-up is unlike any previously recorded among vertebrates.

Virgin births do occur in the animal kingdom - many insects can produce offspring asexually, but among vertebrate animals it remains a novelty, having been documented among less than 0.1% of vertebrate species. Other vertebrates that have been known to reproduce asexually include komodo dragons and hammerhead sharks.

Even though it's pretty rad that some female animals can reproduce asexually, it's not all that great for the "kids." Without the genetic material from the father, the babies have reduced genetic diversity, which makes it more difficult for them to adapt to changes like environmental conditions or new diseases.

French women protest Burqa Ban in niqābs and booty shorts!

On October 8th, France’s Constitutional Council approved the “Burqa Ban” – a law that bans burqas, niqābs, full body and face coverings in public spaces. However, the law will not apply to places of worship. The new law will impose a fine of approximately $190 and/or a citizenship course for a woman wearing a niqāb or a burqa. Additionally, any person forcing a woman to wear a full-face veil will face a year in prison or a $19,000 fine.

I think this new law is pretty ridiculous, and xenophobic to say the least. We don’t need laws that control women’s bodies and women’s choices. I realise some may claim that not all women choose to wear a veil and that it’s forced upon them. This is probably true in some circumstances, but I bet there’s a lot more women that wear it by choice – to honour their culture, religion or traditions. Either way, I don’t think the government belongs in any discussions about what we wear.

In response to the new law, two anonymous French students recently geared up in niqābs and booty shorts and strutted through the streets of Paris. They stopped at several government ministry buildings to protest the Burqa Ban.

The women, one of whom is Muslim, call themselves Niqabitches. “We were not looking to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists – each to their own – but rather to question politicians who voted for this law that we consider clearly unconstitutional," they said. "We want to de-dramatise the situation."

Tonight's Show: The UofC Women's Centre undergoes unwelcome changes

Over the past few months, changes have been brewing at the University of Calgary's Women's Resource Centre (WRC). The space that the WRC occupies has been changed to include a new Centre for Community-Engaged Learning, which is supposed to enhance civic consciousness and educate students about the value of community service.



Student volunteers with the Women's Resource Centre are upset about these changes. According to their petition to save the WRC, their number of volunteers has been severely reduced and capped at 50, some of their programs have been cut (including the very successful Women-Mentoring-Women program), their annual WRC Awards have been postponed indefinitely, and gender-reserved times have been eliminated.



Tonight we are speaking with two women who are involved with the WRC and have been fighting to return the space back to it's original intent. This is quite a personal issue for me as well, because when I was a student at the University of Calgary I was part of a group of women that fought hard to get the Women's Centre on campus in the first place. Prior to the WRC opening in 2006, the University of Calgary was the only significant university in Canada that did not have a women's centre. I know first-hand how hard the struggle was to get the Women's Centre on campus, and now to see it's space and it's programs being dwindled down to practically nothing is very upsetting.



For more information on this:

• Save the WRC facebook page
• Women's Centre Changes Concern Students - The Gauntlet, September 9, 2010
  
  

Tune in from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. on CJSW 90.9 fm in Calgary, or listen from anywhere in the world via the CJSW website.

Tonight's Show: Canada's Sex-Trade Laws

Last week Justice Susan Himel invalidated parts of Section 212 and 213 of the Criminal Code, which basically means Canadians can’t be charged with keeping a bawdy house, communicating for the purpose of sex and living off the avails of prostitution. This is far from being law, as appeals are promised by both provincial and federal governments. Yet the decision has stirred up massive controversy across the nation and sex-trade workers are hailing the ruling as a victory.

Tonight we chat with special guest, Farrah Alladin, about Canada's sex-trade and what this new ruling may mean for those who make their living in the sex industry.

Gang rape video and pictures spread on Facebook

The CBC is reporting that images and videos of a gang rape outside a rave in Pitt Meadows, B.C. are going viral on the internet.

A 16-year old girl was drugged and raped by 5 to 7 men in a field early Saturday morning. Police say that a 16-year-old boy took photos and videos of the gang rape, and posted them on Facebook. The images and video were then re-posted by others, and police are having a hard time stopping it.

RCMP Inspector Derren Lench said, "This victim is having to relive it on a daily basis, because we get the photos taken off, and then all of a sudden they're redistributed and others are viewing it." People caught posting these videos can be charged with child pornography, as the girl is under age.

This story is incredibly disturbing, and raises many concerns about how the police will deal with these types of incidents as we move into an increasingly digital world. Videos and images can go viral within minutes, even seconds. How can we protect the privacy and dignity of victims in situations like this?

Jezebel also has a post on this, discussing the victim-blaming that has been going on. Apparently anonomous commenters wrote things like, "Straight up WHORE," a "complete slut," and "Cmon who's not down for a gang bang" on Facebook. Additionally, a guy identified as Justin said to CTV, "We are thinking it's being over-exaggerated. I don't think she was as messed up as she's making it out to be," he said. "I don't think she was raped.... Apparently she was saying stuff."

It makes me disgusted and embarassed to be a member of the human race when I see this kind of victim-blaming and the backwards notions of consent that so many people in our society have.

Women outperform men in school, but still earn less

Canadian women do far better than men when it comes to school, but in the year 2010 we STILL lag way behind men in terms of salary.

Findings from Education Indicators in Canada show that when compared to 30 other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Canadian women make about 63% of the salary of a similarly educated man. That's only up slightly from 61% in 1998.

Women are earning less than men despite that fact that women achieve better academic results than men at all levels. High school girls graduate at a rate of 8% higher than boys. In college that number jumps to 11%. When it comes to university degrees, women graduate at a staggering rate of 18% higher than men.

How come we’re better educated than men and still making way less money? It may be due to a number of reasons:

(a) Canada is actually quite a ‘traditional’ country when it comes to child rearing. Women are still mainly responsible for childcare and place more importance on family than men, causing them to work fewer hours or part-time. Statistics Canada figures from July show that more than twice as many women as men work part-time jobs in Canada.

(b) Women still face biases in the workplace. A study by Catalyst shows that women with MBA’s from top business schools around the world earn an average of $4,500 less as a starting salary than men with the same credentials. Women are also less likely to move into leadership roles than men.

(c) Perhaps companies are willing to pay men more than they are women. Or perhaps women are willing to work for less. I remember reading in Naomi Wolf’s book The Beauty Myth that too many women don’t believe they’re “worth it” and will settle for lower wages. Maybe men are more likely to ask for a raise, or more driven to be financially successful.

None of this really comes as news to me, because studies have continuously shown that women make far less than similarly educated men. But there’s definitely a part of me that thinks, “Really? Come on! It’s 2010 people!” Although I believe that much of this inequality is caused by patriarchal norms that are embedded in society, along with a long-standing belief that men just deserve more, I do think that women themselves need to be more demanding, more confident and more sure of what they're worth.

Source: Women at work: still behind on the bottom line - The Globe & Mail

Study Finds 1/4 of Lap Dancers Have Degrees

The Independent UK reports:

A British study (and the first academic research project into lap dancing) has found that one in four lap dancers has a degree and has been attracted to that career because of the money.

Dancers took home an average of £232 ($378 Canadian) a shift after paying commission and fees to the club, with most working between two and four shifts a week – giving them annual incomes of between £24,000 and £48,000 a year ($39,000 -78,300 Canadian).

Girls entering puberty and growing breasts as young as seven

From the Globe and Mail:

Girls as young as 7 and 8 are developing breasts and entering puberty earlier than they did just one decade ago.

A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at 1,239 girls aged 6 to 8. By age 7, 15% have started developing breasts; by age 8, that number increases to 27%. Those numbers are alarming because they're significantly higher than numbers reported in a landmark study from 1997, which showed that only 5% of white girls had those signs of puberty at age 7.

Additionally, overweight or obese girls are far more likely to grow breasts at an early age. Race is another contributing factor: The study found that 23% of black girls begin puberty at age 7, compared to 15% of Hispanic girls and 10% of white girls.

The danger of girls maturing physically at such a young age is that they may look like teenagers - and may be treated like sexually mature young women while they are actually still children. The authors of the study also mention other dangers associated with early onset of puberty: “Earlier maturation in girls is associated with lower self-esteem and less favourable body image, as well as greater rates of eating problems, depression and suicide attempts. They were more likely to be influenced by deviant peers, with earlier onset of sexual intercourse.”

14-yr-old girl attempting to sail the world solo!

Fourteen year old Laura Dekker is attempting to sail around the world solo! If she is successful, she will become the youngest person to do so. Interestingly, the person who currently holds that record is also another young woman - Jessica Watson from Australia. Jessica completed her trip around the world just a few days before her 17th birthday. So in order to beat that record, Laura must complete the trip before she turns 17 in September 2012. That gives her a little over two years to sail the world. Can you imagine being on a small yacht for two years?! ALONE?! AT AGE 14?! Pardon the expression, but this gal's got eggs! (Not balls).

Laura was born on a yacht off the coast of New Zealand and has been sailing solo since she was only 11 years old. Good luck Laura, stay safe and have fun!

Should kids be pole dancing for fitness?

There's a really interesting article in the Calgary Herald today about Tantra Fitness, a company that operates in BC, which offers pole dancing classes for kids.



Tammy Morris, owner of Tantra Fitness, says that pole dancing does not have to be erotic. Pole dancing is a great work out that requires fitness and technique. Morris acknowledges that the activity is steeped in sexual history, but nonetheless, thinks any moral panic around its instruction to young people is misplaced. She says that children don't associate the pole as a sexual thing - they see poles at the playground or in the circus, and just see it as something fun to play on.



So, is pole dancing just a fun way for girls to get some exercise, or is there something sinister about sending your daughter to a pole dancing class?



On the one hand, I can totally see Tammy Morris's point. If I was a 9 year old girl, I would probably LOVE to swing around on the pole, hang upside down and learn all kinds of cool tricks. The problem is that pole dancing is inherently sexual... in our society everyone associates it with erotic dancing. So, while it may be perfectly legal to teach pole dancing to kids, our society dictates that it's immoral.



Scanning through the comments on this article, I see that almost everyone is disgusted or outraged by this idea. I am still undecided... what do you think?

Feminist issues in the news

Here are links to the feminist news stories we're covering on tonight's show (July 26).

Is cheerleading a sport?
A federal judge in Connecticut ruled that cheerleading is NOT a sport.

Man in Jerusalem convicted of "rape by deception"
An Arab man and a Jewish woman meet randomly and had a fleeting sexual encounter. Later when the woman discovered the man was an Arab, she accused him of rape.

Lesbian teen banned from prom will receive settlement
A lesbian teen who was banned from taking her girlfriend and wearing a tuxedo to prom sued her school earlier this year. In March, a US District Court judge ruled that the school board infringed upon her First Amendment rights.

Obama Administration Announces New Programs and Action for Equal Pay
"Paycheck discrimination hurts families who lose out on badly needed income. And with so many families depending on women's wages, it hurts the American economy as a whole. In difficult economic times like these, we simply cannot afford this discriminatory burden." - Barack Obama

Argentina legalizes same-sex marriage & adoption

From guardian.co.uk:

Argentina's senate passed a same-sex marriage bill today, clearing the way for the country to become the first in South America to allow gay couples to marry and adopt children.

Following more than 14 hours of charged debate,the upper house voted 33-27 for the proposal.
Argentina's female president, Cristina Fernández, supports same-sex marriage on human rights grounds and is expected to sign the bill into law after her return from a state visit to China.

Not everyone was in support though... tens of thousands of opponents, from children to elderly nuns, braved near-freezing temperatures to protest outside the congress since Tuesday, causing traffic jams in Buenos Aires.

However, opinion polls show a majority of Argentines support same-sex marriage, but there is less backing for same-sex couples to adopt children.

Same-sex marriage currently is legal in Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Argentina. In the US, same-sex couples can marry in five states and in the capital, Washington.

Polish Rapists Face Chemical Castration

I came across this article about Polish sex offenders via CBC this morning during my daily news check.

Turns out the article (which came up in my recommended reads) is from a while back, so I decided to hunt down a more recent update and found the following at NY Daily News:

Poland will use chemical castration on convicted child rapists once they finish prison sentence


Tuesday, June 8th 2010

Poland now has a harsh punishment on the books for perverts convicted of raping children or committing incest - chemical castration.

And that's after the sex fiend serves a prison sentence!

The new law, which went into effect Tuesday, states that anyone convicted of rape of a minor under 15, or a close family member, "can be obliged by a court ruling to undergo pharmaceutical and psychological therapy in order to reduce sex drive."

The Poles also increased prison terms for incest or the rape of a minor to three to 15 years from the current two to 12 years.

Also, the new law imposes prison terms of up to three years for anyone convicted of attempting to seduce a minor under 15 over the Internet.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk proposed putting chemical castration on the books in 2008 after the country was shocked by revelations that a 45-year-old man had held his 21-year-old daughter captive for six years and fathered her two children.