Is the U.S. a Developing Nation?

23 Wednesday May 2012

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I am in Costa Rica right now visiting family and friends as well as taking in some beach time. Making my way around the country, there is so much to see. Among the many amazing sights, I also notice the roads and the potholes, the bars on the houses, people walking around with things for sale.

In some circles people say the terms “third world” and “developing nation” are offensive because they classify certain countries as inferior to more industrialized nations. The origins of these terms “third world” and “developing nation” have different meanings that I find interesting.

Wikipedia says the term Third World “arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World), or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Due to many of the Third World countries being extremely poor, it became a stereotype such that people commonly refer to undeveloped countries as “third world countries,” often used in a pejorative way.”

The PBS definition of a developing nation is this: A country with a low standard of living, generally indicated by severe poverty, low income and education levels, high birth rate, and poorly developed social, economic, and technological infrastructure. 

The Global Health Equity Foundation defines Developing Nations as “nations with underperforming economies, undervalued currency, unstable democratic governments, lack of infrastructure and low standards of education and healthcare.”

I look around and see the potholes and bars on the houses and wonder about those  classifications of “developed” or not. I’m not sure whether Costa Rica would be classified as “developed” or not (nor am I exploring this in order to figure it out or argue it either way), but I do know the U.S. is considered a “developed nation.”. But what does that mean? Is it about the potholes or the street vendors, the police force, the military, poverty, wealth, freedom?

What are we using to define nations as developed? What is our criteria for developed versus developing? For complete rather than in progress?

As a nation, are we “developed” if women have less rights than men?

Are we “developed” if people have no health insurance, cannot access healthcare, or cannot get needed medications?

Are we “developed” if some people are not protected from violence? (immigrants, Native Americans, lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual Americans, all women)

Are we “developed” if we put much more money into weapons and war than we do into education and arts?

Are we “developed” if we have a high standard of living that we can’t afford to pay for and continue to live in debt?

Are we “developed” if we have people living in extreme poverty and who have no food to eat but we blame them and say they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

Are we “developed” if we make it illegal for women to make decisions for their bodies and encourage high birth rates, high infant and maternal mortality by attempting to outlaw birth control, abortion, and miscarriage?

We are certainly a “first world” nation as we are more Capitalists than humanists. Our corporations have more rights than women and money buys power.

I come from a nation of wonderful people who have had many opportunities and achievements, but we are at a crossroads. At this point, the freedom of all Americans is being threatened. The more rights taken from women, from poor people, from immigrants, from Native Americans, from LGBT Americans, the more violence and hardship for people all over the world is accepted and seen as the norm.

My conclusion: The United States is a developing nation.

We should see this as a compliment. We haven’t arrived yet- we are still getting there. Shouldn’t we always be developing and growing better and stronger?

We are still developing. We are even developing what it means to be “developed” or not. Let’s not think we have arrived, let’s see we have more to do to the best we can be.

Many of our roads may not have potholes, but the roads to freedom, liberty, equality and justice- all need paved. Adelante Estados Unidos! Adelante!

Republican Power Plays Are Tactics of the War Against Us All

16 Wednesday May 2012

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If you would have asked me several years ago, I would not have said the whole world comes down to Republicans Versus Democrats.

Sadly, I’m changing my answer. For me, it hasn’t been that simple until recently. The Republicans are voting for things that set a frame for their ideal America. In this America, women have few rights, there are no lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, there are immigrants-but only for purposes of exploitation, and people still are under the illusion we have the greatest system in the world.

I bought a pack of forever stamps the other day and each one had one of the following words: “Freedom,” “Justice,” “Equality,” and “Liberty.” Those are words that have come to be trademarks of the United States of America, and yet their meanings are unclear.

When entire groups of people are being denied human rights by others, I think that certainly, those words must mean different things to different people. Whose justice, whose liberty, whose freedom, whose equality are we speaking of?

I would say life, freedom, and our happiness and wellbeing come before politics. Freedom is based on equality. If all of the people of our nation are afforded the same rights to participate in the society, there is equality. When there is equality, there is justice. When there is justice for all, there is liberty and freedom for everyone. Right now, this is not the direction we are headed.

Politics are key to us upholding these values as important. Voting for or against the laws Republicans are setting into place that are anti-women, anti-gay, anti-anyone-who-does-not-fit-gender-norms or anti-immigrant may be ultimately the deciding factor about whether or not we have rights. It may mean whether American women are seen as equal participants in the nation as men or not. It may mean whether LGBT Americans are equally protected from violence. It may mean whether violence against women, LGBT people, Native Americans, and immigrants is elevated. We are not in a bubble. We are interconnected.

Pass laws here in the U.S. that say women are unequal and we raise the level of violence against women worldwide. In most places, women are still second class. Might as well set us back to third class, fourth, fifth- is there such a thing? It doesn’t matter. We are striving toward equality OR we still don’t have equal rights. The GOP has shown over and over again that they don’t care about or value women, LGBT Americans, immigrants or the poor.

While the Republicans continue to pass countless laws that suggest women are not equally participants in this society who can make decisions for themselves, while they have called women who want access to birth control sluts, while they pass laws that ultimately lead to women being seen as less than and put women at more risk for violence, while they take away protection and rights from women who are being hurt, beaten, raped, abused. While they say there is no wage gap. While they take away laws to lessen the wage gap. While they push for birth control to be banned,…

they also continue to say there is no War On Women.

While they push laws that take away rights from immigrants and bolster economic incentive for the private prison system, while they pass laws that profile people of color, while they push state constitutional amendments against lesbian and gay Americans getting married, while they push laws defining marriage as one man and one woman when couples and families in America don’t all fit into that category, while they push changes to laws that protect LGBT Americans and Native Americans from violence and from receiving support for violence committed against them, they put immigrants, LGBT Americans, and Native Americans at a greater risk for violence,…

they also continue to say they are for small government and freedom for all. 

Their actions have been loud and clear and yet they say women are delusional and the others groups (immigrants, LGBT Americans, and Native Americans) are second class and therefore not human and have no say so). By them saying we’re crazy, they are not listening. By reducing groups to non-human, they are saying very clearly that anyone in these groups has no say so. These power plays are also tactics of the War.

Their overall argument is that Democrats are creating something out of nothing for political gain. If the saying: “A politician is only as good as the people he/she listens to” is true- Who are they listening to?

It’s not LGBT Americans, immigrants, children of immigrants, Native Americans, or anyone advocating on behalf of these groups and equality for all. There is very little attention being paid to these particular groups of people; more and more, they are systematically being oppressed, invisibilized and made to be seen as non-human.

Women, LBGT Americans, immigrants, Native Americans and poor people all over are saying this is a War. We are saying that our rights are being assaulted, that we are being put at risk for violence. We are saying we are not happy with what the GOP is doing.

They are not listening and that shows they do not value a great percentage of Americans.

They are also saying women are ridiculous and delusional. Remember when Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, ”If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we’d have problems with caterpillars.”

About women, the real message is is this: women are dumb enough to believe anything they are told. Women are hysterical (which plays on an old theme). Women can’t figure this all out for themselves, they don’t get it.

About LGBT Americans, the message is this: you are second class and disgusting sinners.

About Native Americans: We conquered you once, we are just assuring you stay in your place.

About immigrants: We can do whatever we want with you to make money.

These messages are central to the War On Everyone. The GOP is messaging these deep and it doesn’t have to try very hard because those messages are built into the institutional structure of America.

Wage war and when the GOP is called on it, they tell everyone what a fiction it is- This is not only a tactic of the War, it makes the case that there is a war.

Equality, Justice, Liberty, and Freedom must be for everyone.

The GOP War Is A War On Everyone

10 Thursday May 2012

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Notification: Today’s post is the last post before Matrifocal Point moves to one post a week for the summer months. There will be a couple of exceptions for interviews posted, but otherwise articles will be published usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending. Thank you for reading Matrifocal Point. Please follow us to receive email notifications when postings appear.

The Republicans continue to say there is no War On Women. I believe this is a tactic of the war. They continue to make attacks on people’s rights as they say we are delusional and there is no War On Women. There is a War On Women, but it’s not just women, it’s a War on Everyone, with specific groups being targeted in the overall interest in conforming America to be a homogeneous group.

This is not only impossible because there are so many different people, it is anti-American. One amazing thing about America is the many different people within our nation. This also means that we have many different families.

This is a War on Everyone and our freedom as individuals.

Why it is not just a War On Women:

* The GOP is pushing legislation that says Native American women and Alaska Native women should not receive the same protection or support from the Violence Against Women act. This puts Native American women at greater risk for more violence. Nationally, Native women are raped and assaulted at 2.5 times the national average. The U.S. Department of Justice has found the current system of justice “inadequate to stop the pattern of escalating violence against Native women.” Although Alaska Natives comprise only 15.2 percent of the population in Alaska, they comprise nearly 50 percent of the victims of domestic violence and 61 percent of the victims of sexual assault. By not protecting Native women, more women, children and families will be hurt.

*The GOP is pushing legislation that keeps immigrant women out of the VAWA act and pushes for them to have no confidentiality so that authorities can call their abusive partners and tell them they want to apply for citizenship. It caps the number of visas available to immigrant victims of violence and will cut options to apply for papers if victims work with law enforcement to stop abusers. This legislation gives abusers more tools to use to abuse immigrant women. This affects immigrant women and their children and other family members.

*The GOP is pushing legislation that excludes LGBT Americans from receiving benefits of VAWA. This is an attack on LGBT Americans. Using the term War On Women doesn’t include people who don’t fit into gender stereotype boxes. This means that a person whose gender identity doesn’t match the role society says is appropriate for their sex, might be identified as transgender but may not identify as women. The GOP changes to VAWA do not help them or protect them from violence. When there is no help available, people may not be able to leave abusive situations.

*The GOP continues to push an agenda that does not include rights and responsibilities for LGBT Americans that other Americans are afforded, like marriage. North Carolina just passed the amendment saying the only unions that will be recognized will be marriages between one man and one woman. Same sex couples are not only unable to marry in North Carolina, their relationships will not be recognized under the law, meaning benefits will be taken from them and their children and families will suffer.

North Carolina is one of 30 states to amend their constitutions in this way. These changes also affect families and partnerships where people are not married but are in committed relationships. It affects gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, and unmarried heterosexual couples.

Constitutional amendments like the one in North Carolina shape how LGBT people are seen in the country. If they are not afforded the rights of other people, they are seen as inferior and therefore at greater risk for violence.

*The GOP has launched extensive anti-immigrant laws that hurt immigrants and divide their families. Mexican immigrants in particular seem to be the target for these laws. The U.S. has a long history of recruiting Mexicans to work in the U.S. then kicking them out when it’s economically inconvenient for them to be here. Now, there is a major prison system being constructed that will economically benefit, more than any other prison system has benefitted in the past (this is major), from immigrant detention and labor. Companies creating this immigrant-prison system are informing the laws. This is BIG money and will continue to push stricter anti-immigrant laws. Here in a country of immigrants, this is a war on all immigrants.

*It has also been argued that the reproductive rights being taken away from women will mostly affect poor women and poor women of color. Are they included in the category of women? Of course, but if they are being targeted in these laws that take away peoples rights, we need to be clear about who is affected most to further define the tactics of war being used.

For more on how the War On Women language isn’t inclusive, please read the article by scATX: “WhyI Don’t Like the War On Women“

The War on Women slogan has caught on, and it is a War On Women, but it is also a war on everyone as all people of our nation are affected by legislation that pushes inequality and fascism. The GOP tries to use “tough love” in order to make people conform to who they want people to be and who they want in the country for what purpose, often (if not always informed by economics- and possibly religion).

When will America stand up for everyone to have rights rather than just a few people? Now is the time.

North Carolina Votes Hate Into Its Constitution

09 Wednesday May 2012

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North Carolina has amended its state constitution to say “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.” I have been reading that this is a defeat for gay-rights advocates and want to make a correction: this is a defeat for our entire country and for the world.

The world looks to America to see what we are doing and how we act as a nation for the entirety of our people. The world will see we only care about some people in this country. The world will see we value only heterosexual married couples where each person fits into traditional gender roles.

But aside from the world seeing this, we will see this. The many different people of our nation see that we don’t value, respect, or believe people should have rights. Again we have determined by law that some people are better than others and some couples and families are better or more real or important than others. By doing this, we have framed  our world as one that does not accept lesbian, gay, transgender people. We have said that families can only be defined in one way. We are giving the message to children that hate of difference is okay rather than un-American. For young people this often translates to bullying and violence.

This is a constitutional amendment for the state, which is huge. Same-sex marriage has been illegal in NC for 16 years, but can now only be legalized by another vote by the people.

It is the 30th state in the union to ban same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment. This America is so threatened by difference that we pass laws to say how everyone should be.

Anyone would say, “Everyone’s different.” In North Carolina and 29 other states, when they say it, they mean we all have different fingerprints, they don’t mean some of us are gay, lesbian, transgender, from families that have unmarried parents, or in relationships not currently recognized by the law.

America is signing hate into its state constitutions. By not allowing same sex couples to have equal rights under the law, we are legitimizing the belief only some people hold that gay, lesbian and transgender people are inferior. When people are seen as inferior, they are targets for more violence. We are encouraging hate crimes.

Basically we have made constitutional amendments in 30 states to say it is okay to be violent against people who identify in this way. If America is a country where you cannot live freely without fearing violence against you for who you are, America is not free.

We must stand up for our freedom. We must stand up for our people. All of our people.

Can a First Grader Sexually Harass?

08 Tuesday May 2012

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D’Avonte Meadows was suspended last week from his Elementary School near Denver, Colorado. His suspension notice from the school claimed that the boy said the line to a female classmate, ”I’m sexy and I Know It” from the LMFAO hit song. It was the second time he had done so.

Is this sexual harassment? The school said yes.

I’m going to say no. I’m going to say he’s 6 years old and that song is all over the radio. Plus, what’s wrong with saying that? 

Isn’t the message of our culture: “Be sexy” ? He’s saying he is and affirming it. It’s funny. He’s six. Come on- lighten up!

I went to a holiday party two Decembers ago where there was a DJ. My boss, a stylin’ 55 year old woman, was out on the dance floor, as were a bunch of her employees. Then that T-Pain song came on:

She’s got those apple bottom jeans, boots with the furs…
The whole club was looking at her…

It goes on-

That’s what I told her, her legs on my shoulder
I knew it was ova, that Henny and Cola
Got me like a Soldier
She ready for Rover, I couldn’t control her
So lucky oo me, I was just like a clover
Shorty was hot like a toaster
Sorry but I had to fold her,
Like a pornography poster

Completely inappropriate, in my opinion- we’re at a work party and it’s a song that totally objectifies women. Rather than continue dancing, I sat down because though the song is catchy, it puts women in a horrible light. Plus, it felt odd to be dancing to it in that environment.

It’s a song that used to be on the radio all the time, just like the LMFAO song.

Was that sexual harassment by the DJ of the party. It could be, I suppose, depending on what definition you are using of sexual harassment.

These songs are all over our media. Are they bad pop songs that objectify and sexualize women? Yes! Do six year olds and other children hear them? Unless they are locked in their rooms, yes.

Here are some of the lyrics of the Sexy and I Know It song by LMFAO:

(Ahhh) Girl look at that body (x3)
I-I-I work out
(Ahhh) Girl look at that body (x3)
I-I-I work out
When I walk in the spot, (yea) this is what I see (okaay)
Everybody stops and they staring at me
I got a passion in my pants and I ain’t afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it…
I’m sexy and I know it (x2)
Yo, when I’m at the mall, security just can’t fight them off
When I’m at the beach, I’m in a speedo trying to tan my cheeks (whaat?)
This is how I roll, come on ladies it’s time to go
We headed to the bar, baby don’t be nervous
No shoes, no shirt, and I still get service (watch!)

Some of those lyrics, I doubt he even understood. But he didn’t even sing them, he said the words “I’m sexy and I Know It.” So what?

If it was a distraction to other students and to the girl student he was trying to impress, couldn’t the school have handled it differently? It might make learning difficult for the girl or she might be uncomfortable, but why was there no other way to address his behavior? Why was there not another method of discipline that would work.

The assistant principal talked to him once the first time after he danced around and then he said it without singing and dancing. It sounds like he got the message that he shouldn’t sing and dance the lyric, so he spoke it. If it’s being viewed as harassment, the school should help him learn how the girl feels when he does that, help him understand that he might be intimidating her. Suspending him is ridiculous. If this is real sexual harassment, the school needs to help him understand why his actions were unacceptable, not get him out of their hair by suspension.

I feel sad for this little guy. They are setting him up to get in trouble in the future and in this case, for something as minor as repeating a song lyric. If I had a child in his class, I would be mad that my child was seeing this as an example of someone being told to shut up and then calling it sexual harassment. And if it was my child, I would be livid- at the school, not him.

Plus-  what does it say about serious sexual harassment that happens to women and teenage girls all the time? 

It makes it seem trivial and absurd when it is serious and often dangerous and can lead to women being torn between supporting their families and being sexually assaulted.

This is a six year old who is still learning how to be in the world. He has been on the planet for 6 years- that’s not a long time. I don’t consider this to be a serious case of sexual harassment and it is insulting to the many people who have dealt with sexual harassment and who have been hurt by it.

It also gives the American people the idea that sexual harassment is trivial, not real, or absurd.

The school should be suspended for not working out another alternative and educating like they are supposed to. This is a serious case of a kid being a kid and getting a horrific adult reaction. Give the kid a break. 

Immigrant Women, VAWA and the Party of Hate: GOP

07 Monday May 2012

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The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is being contested by Republicans because it offers protection to Native Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Americans, and immigrants. They have made provisions to get rid of support for any people who fall within these categories and tucked them into the bill which has the backing of the full House leadership. It is headed for a vote in the Judiciary Committee tomorrow, Tuesday 5/8/12.

I have to ask: Do we want all of the people in our country to be safe from domestic/intimate partner violence and have measures in place to assure that safety?  

The world we live in is a world that does not, in most places, afford equal rights for women. It is a world that objectifies and sexualizes women. And it is a world that not only permits violence against women, but in some places, mandates it and almost everywhere encourages it.

When societies do not view women as equal participants or as equal people and do not reinforce those beliefs legally, more violence is inflicted upon women. This is the encouragement of violence against women. This violence means more rapes, more domestic violence, more street harassment, more sexual harassment in the workplace and in schools, more sexual violence of all kinds, more intimate partner violence, more psychological and emotional violence, more murder of women.

The United States of America is in the context of a world that does not view women as equals. Women who are citizens of this nation are at risk of violence for the simple fact that we are seen as less than or second class citizens. Women of color, transgender women, disabled women, and lesbian women are at an even greater risk because of those identities.

And immigrant women who don’t have citizenship? They are also at greater risk.

If an immigrant woman is in a relationship with someone who is a citizen, that person ultimately has power over them. So even aside from the gender privilege, just starting out, there is a power differential in the couple because of citizenship.

For a relationship between a man citizen and an immigrant woman, where there is violence by the man toward the woman, she is often led to believe she has very little recourse.

I speak fluent Spanish and have worked, as a clinical social worker, with hundreds of Spanish speaking immigrant women over the years, many of them dealing with domestic violence and rape. Immigrant women who are battered, are often told that if they call the police, they will be deported. Some are told that if they leave their homes, they will be deported. They may be told that they can’t do anything without their partner who is a citizen. They may be told they will never see their children again. Their immigration status is often held over their heads.

Many people think that when you get married you are automatically a citizen when in fact it is a long drawn out process that you must apply for.

Immigrant women who are battered often don’t know that there is anything they can do or that they have any rights at all. In the past, they have had some options with the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Now, Republicans are pushing for immigrant women to have none.

In 1994, VAWA created a “self-petitioning” process that allows immigrant women who are married to U.S. citizens to confidentially apply for protected immigration status on their own so as not to tip off the violent husband that they are thinking of leaving. Protections for immigrant women have been strengthened in subsequent reauthorizations of the bill. The Republicans want to take that away because they say they think women are taking advantage of the law to get citizenship. There aren’t that many visas given to victims of domestic violence as it is, but not only do the provisions in the bill not add more, it virtually takes those away and it takes out confidentiality.

By notifying their husbands that they are applying for citizenship, immigrant women are not only put at greater risk for violence, they are clearly identified as their husbands’ property.

Without the options and protection afforded by VAWA as it is, undocumented victims will be discouraged from working with law enforcement officials and therefore also from leaving perpetrators of violence to go free. These provisions would eliminate any path to citizenship for victims/ witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases.

The provisions are tucked into a bill that reauthorizes the act, and the bill has the backing of the full House leadership, and is headed for a vote in the Judiciary Committee  tomorrow 5/8/12.

With the new provisions, more women will be killed (as cycles of violence escalate), more children will grow up in violent households, more children will have difficulty concentrating at school, more boys will grow up angry and being perpetrators of violence, more girls will grow up to be victims, more women will be enslaved to a life they hate and more women will hate themselves.

More and more women’s rights are being taken away. More women are being hurt and are at risk for more violence. This is my country too. To answer my own question: I do not want the United States to continue to promote violence against any women, no matter who they are. I want my country to take an active stand to protect the people here.

The GOP‘s War On Women continues to rage on. They must be stopped.

Weekend Thoughts on Love, Life and the War On Women

05 Saturday May 2012

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Life is too large to be summed up in a saying, a novel, a hug, a political war. 

I am inside of this life, shimmying up the rib cage, pulsing through heart beats. Laughing bare chested on mountaintops, wading in turtle water toward the fountain of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

This is my life. 

But our lives share this space and I don’t need to look to the dark shadows to hide who I am. I wouldn’t ask that of anyone. This is an up front movement. It is a call for truth. For equality. For respect.

If I could invite each person who disagrees with me about the War On Women to sit at my kitchen table and talk over tea, we might get somewhere.

But even with Mapquest, so many of my proposed guests would be lost trying to find the table, they wouldn’t entertain the invitation.

There are different levels of importance in this world, in this life. I hold them to assess their weight.

In one hand I hold the War On Women. This political porridge slopped into our troughs.

In the other, I hold a level that is my family member dying. My sister feeling like an orphan. My baby growing out of being a baby and into being a child. This is right now, for me. But these things change with the moment, with the day, with the month.

This political fight stays. It is the long path we did not choose. Mastermined to enslave us one day at a time, even as our resistance grows.

The War On Women is my fight, it is the fight of many. Ultimately it must be the fight of the majority. As a woman, I risk my life if I do not stand up against it, though I know it will go on longer than me. I know it is bigger than just me and hope others will see the injuries its weapons incur and say “No more.”

Many things are more important than this political infighting. They tug on emotions and values and repeat the word, LOVE over and over again. But, if this War On Women continues its course, I won’t have rights to be who I am. Other people won’t have rights to be who they are. All women will be in more danger of violence being perpetrated against them.

What about this love? What about holding on to who and what you love while you are here? Making it worth it? Enjoying it fully? 

Life is about being free to fully enjoy life and make of it what you can, what you will.

What about loving myself for who I am?

What about loving women?

What about loving one another enough to respect everyone?

If the GOP continues to take my rights, will I be free to live, to love, to be?

The answer is No. They have already taken rights from more than half of the population. Including me. They have made it clear women will not be valued, all the while calling us crazy.

This life is a juggling of the battles we want to fight and the battles we must fight. It is a juggling between the tears we cry and those we hold back. It is a fight for laughter and joy and love. It is a fight for life. 

Stupid are those who say it is not a war.

Levels of importance.

Love. Equality. Justice. Freedom.

Feminist Resistance

04 Friday May 2012

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“What a feminist is- is a humanist in a sexist culture.” This is what the minister at the rally in Austin said last Saturday. I wish I knew his name.

His statement is absolutely correct. Feminists are asking for human rights for women. If the culture didn’t have institutionally built in structures against women and ways of seeing women as inferior, if laws protected women and viewed us as equal, there would be no need for feminism. If the culture wasn’t sexist, feminists would be humanists.

As a feminist, I want a balanced world where all women are afforded the same rights, legal protection, an equal level of participation in the society as men, and where work that women have traditionally done is valued.

I have been thinking about his statement since he said it. I have also had the word “Resistance” in mind.

Resistance can mean many things, including violent overthrow. I am not suggesting anything violent. The resistance I speak of is about stopping the Republican party from institutionally taking rights away from women by:
1. passing laws that take those rights
and
2. by pushing legislation to take away laws that protect women.

When women’s rights to make decisions for their bodies and selves are taken away, women are seen as inferior and therefore at greater risk for violence.

When women are being institutionally oppressed in a way that increases violence against them, (violence that includes physical beating, emotional and psychological torture, rape and all sexual assault, and murder) it is war. 

The resistance to the War On Women must continue. It must be more organized and it needs to grow because while the GOP is laughing at women for saying there is a “War on Women,” they continue to pass laws that attack women.

Think on Resistance.

Resistance to laws that take away women’s right to make choices for their bodies.

Resistance to women being framed as “sluts” and “prostitutes” for wanting access to birth control.

Resistance to the government making decisions about women’s bodies and wellbeing.

Resistance to women’s concerns being brushed off as ridiculous, hysterical, stupid.

Resistance to oppression of women being put into law and/or reinforced by law.

Resistance to women being put down, objectified, sexualized, belittled.

Resistance to the government allowing for women to be paid less.

Resistance to people who say there is no wage gap.

Resistance to laws and any unofficial cultural belief setting that implies women are second class citizens, inferior, less than.

Resistance to anything within the society that suggests women are not equals.

Resistance to people who want to say feminists hate men, are absurd, want to be men, are nazis.

Resistance to cultural acceptance of women as “blonde” (meaning stupid), likened to animals of any kind (cows, cats, pandas, dogs,…), hysterical (War on Caterpillars).

Resistance to women being blamed for violence against them.

Resistance to notions that women cannot make decisions about their bodies and lives.

Resistance to extreme gender stereotypes that close all people off from the range of options, rights, and responsibilities that should be afforded to us.

Resistance to hatred and oppression of people because of gender, gender identity, skin color, sexual orientation, ability, ethnicity, language, culture. Recognizing these pieces of identity intersect.

Resistance to ignorance about the importance of women’s equality.

Resistance to the belief that women have no voice and don’t need to have a voice in public matters.

Resistance to the belief that inequality doesn’t lead to violence- It does.

Grrl Code: Resistance to the false belief that women can’t get along, unite, work together, be strong, fight for our equality. 

12 Worthy Notes Gathered From The Rally

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in War On Women

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News happens and then it’s gone. Unless it is replayed incessantly by the media, we often forget what happened exactly. Sometimes I’m still stuck on the news that happened rather than moving to the next best thing.

I read a few quick blurbs about the marches that happened across the country last Saturday, but from what I see, there wasn’t a lot of press coverage and it was blown off as the Republicans hoped it would be.

Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but it sure seems to have gotten little play.

I have been thinking back on the messages from the rally in Austin and wanted to give a quick run down on 12 points that stood out and were inspiring to me.

1. The amount of people there and the diversity of who those people were was encouraging and inspiring.

2. The signs being carried were motivating and often clever!
I vote with my uterus.
Keep Your Mitt(s) Off Birth Control
To Take My Rights Is To Dehumanize Me & Raise the Risk 4 Violence Against Me
Far Right Hijacking Women’s Rights
Abort the GOP

3. “A fire has been lit and it’s going to burn this November.”

4. “If you don’t trust women, know that a woman brought every politician into this world and this November, we’re going to take some out.” 

5. Is the religious freedom of some is being upheld while that of others is not? Along that line, State Representative Dawnna Dukes spoke about how she was banned at her church from speaking about African American history because she spoke up for women’s rights.

6. The GOP continues to make attacks on women’s rights and then say there is no War On Women. The crowd was asked: “Are you simple minded?” Everyone roared, “NO.”

7. A Presbyterian minister said that a feminist is a humanist in a sexist culture and said it was time to put feminism the F word (feminism) back into our vocabulary.

8. “God bless the nuns who are standing up for women.”

9. The Presbyterian minister spoke about tithing and said he was going to give to Annie’s list to get more women involved in politics.

10. Kathy Miller, president of Texas Freedom Network said that far right extremists have always driven the War on Women in policy.

11. Congressman Lloyd Doggett expressed concern about women today and our daughters and grandaughters and said he believes in pro-life once a child is born.

12. Doggett asked the crowd whether this was a movement or a moment? The crowd screamed it was a movement.

12 points of inspiration taken from the rally in Austin. Not to be forgotten like yesterday’s news.

Are Women Interested in the Economy?

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in economic

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In the crazy fuss to distract people from strategic GOP moves to make women second class citizens, women have been accused of not caring about the economy.

There are so many tactics being used to shut women up, I can’t keep up with them all. It’s like playing Dodge Ball when a lot of people are throwing numerous balls at you and you have to explain why you are dodging each ball being thrown at you.

The idea that women don’t care about the economy is so ridiculous I don’t believe I’m going to argue it. It is not the Either/Or package that the right wing is framing it as. We care about our rights AND we care about the economy.

Saying women don’t care about the economy is further reinforcing the idea that women are petty ignorant creatures who aren’t capable of being full citizens. At the same time this happens, we are being told the fact that our rights are being taken from us is trivial and that we’re crazy to even suggest that is happening.

It’s not only a great distraction technique, but also a way of spreading the nasty rumor to everyone that we don’t care about our country and we’re stupid. Here we are in a recession and look, women don’t even care about the economy.

It’s just insulting.

Of course women care about the economy. And No Wisconsin state Senator Glenn Grothman, money is not more important to men.

Right now there is buzz about whether the economy or women’s rights will be the deciding factor for the election in November. I’d say both.

For women it should be and will be both.

The War On Women is pushing for women to have less ability to make decisions for their bodies and lives.

The GOP is pushing for women to have less access to information about contraception and to contraception itself. They are pushing for women to have no decision making capacity around abortion. These decisions affect the choices women have in their lives and the direction their lives take. These decisions affect whether women will be able to work outside of their homes, whether they will have children and how many, whether they will use daycare, whether they will have healthy children, whether their health will be stable and whether they will have outrageous medical bills or not.

The decisions being made are affecting whether or not women will be paid a fair wage if they work outside of the home, whether their work as mothers has any societal or economic value, whether they will live well, less well or in poverty.

The decisions being made affect whether there will be services available if a woman is raped or beaten, whether she will be able to get therapy that will help her continue to work and live her life, whether she will be able to escape a violent perpetrator and make it on her own.

Yes women care about the economy. These issues are all very connected.

Women also care that when our right to make decisions for our bodies and ourselves is taken away, we are seen as less valuable, less worthy, less than. We are at risk of not being able to make other decisions for ourselves in the world, like about what we want to wear, whether we want to be sold into marriage or slavery, whether we want to have sex or not, whether we are allowed to work outside of the home, …

When we are viewed as inferior, the rates of violence against us go up and we are at greater risk of dying and being hurt.

I am a woman and I care about the economy, but when it comes down to it, I will vote to maintain my rights and to push for full equality. The economy is important, but not to me if I am valued only as an object to be owned.

Grrl Code: Women, don’t be swayed by the Either/Or dynamic being posed. Caring about women as people is to care about the economy and the greater society.

economy will be the deciding factor-

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/30/3583882/war-on-women-ignites-a-battle.html

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