off our backs back issues from July 2007:
From the collective.
Jul 01, 2007; ... Men's voices, men's concerns, men's stories and men's money dominate public discourse worldwide. Why does this continue? What does it mean for women? Have women made inroads into the male-controlled public media? How would media run by women, or rather, feminist media, differ from the ...
Sudan, Zambia, Central African Republic: little justice for mass rapes.(AFRICA)
Jul 01, 2007; ... A judge in Zambia sentenced two men to 35 years in prison for raping underage girls, the toughest sentence in the country's history for such crimes. The sentence was called a "milemark of justice" in a country that is facing increased problem of sexual violence against women and girls ....
India: new program lowers maternal deaths.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... The State of Rajasthan, best known for the intricate architecture of its desert forts and its colorful festivals, has one of the highest maternal death rates in India. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), India accounts for almost 20 percent of the world's maternal ...
Kuwait: education minister refuses to wear veil.(ASIA)(Nouriya al-Subiah)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... When Nouriya al-Subiah took her oath of office as Kuwait's new education minister, she refused to wear a veil during the ceremony. A public outcry ensued, which reveals the conflicting attitudes and policies toward women in Kuwait. Women are being appointed as diplomats, can run businesses ...
Officials call for lifting abortion aid ban.(AUSTRALIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... SYDNEY -- A group of fifty politicians started a campaign to force the Australian government to lift a ten-year-old ban on foreign aid for abortion counseling. The ban on funds for abortion counseling was implemented ten years ago to appease a conservative politician who at the time held ...
Poland: Poland guilty of discrimination against lesbians, gays.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Warsaw's banning of a 2005 lesbian and gay rights march constituted discrimination, the European Court for Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, France, ruled on May 3. At that time, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, then Warsaw's mayor, prohibited ...
Mexico: Mexico City legalizes abortion.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... On April 24, Mexico City's legislative assembly voted by a large majority to legalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard signed the bill. Abortion had been limited to cases of rape and danger to the woman's life. Backers of the bill said up to ...
United States: crimes against Native women more frequent, less often prosecuted.(NORTH AMERICA)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Native American women face high rates of violence but have little recourse, a new study from Amnesty International reports. Men rape more than one in three Native American women, compared with a national average of 18 percent of women, the Justice Department said. Although most U.S ....
United States: New Hampshire passes civil union bill.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... New Hampshire, the most conservative state in New England, has enacted a bill permitting civil unions for lesbians and gays. That's in part because, for the first time in years, Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the governor's office. Lawmakers voted along party lines ....
United States; Ultrasound: latest tool in battle over abortion.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... South Carolina has drafted a first-of-its-kind mandatory ultrasound bill that would require women seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound of the fetus before obtaining an abortion. Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter (D-SC) has called the new requirement "emotional blackmail." Ten states ...
United States: supreme court limits time period to file for wage discrimination.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... A Supreme Court ruling issued in May 2007 will limit the ability of many workers to sue for wage discrimination. The 5-4 decision prohibits an employee from legally challenging a case of wage discrimination more than 180 days after the original discriminatory act occurred. The ruling in ...
Argentina: International Day of Action spurs call for legalization of abortion.(SOUTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... May 28 marked the 20th anniversary of the International Day of Action for Women's Health. This year's call for action, published by the Women's Global Effort for Reproductive Rights, focused on "Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Repoliticizing our Perspective, Repoliticizing our ...
Brazil: subsidies for contraception to the poor.(SOUTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007; ... President Lula de Silva announced a plan to subsidize birth control pills for the poor, an initiative spearheaded by Health Minister Jose Temporao. Lula described this program as aiming to "protect life" by helping people take care of themselves. Brazil already gives away free ...
Stunting Ashley.(news commentary)
Jul 01, 2007; ... It's too late for Ashley, but the organized disability community will not soon forget the injustice done to her--especially because it may open the door to violations of other children's rights. Recent headlines about the deliberate medical stunting of this young girl continue to haunt me ...
Honor thy father.(news commentary)
Jul 01, 2007; ... She is dragged out of her home; her head is in a headlock. For a split second, a close-up shows her face shows distorted by fear, her eyes wild. There was shouting from the crowd. A sense of pandemonium. A raised fist clutches a rock dissolved in a blur of motion as the cellphone video ...
Women in media.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... After more than 35 years of feminist activism, legal action and social change, male dominance and centrality still characterize our culture. This control is much in evidence in our media. Control of the media is control of a huge social force. And the media is still controlled ...
A chilling effect: the oppression and silencing of women journalists and bloggers worldwide.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... In the spring of 2007, what began as a series of insults and criticisms of blogger and game developer Kathy Sierra of the blog Head Rush (1) took a grim and sobering turn as the insults became increasingly threatening, progressing to threats of death and sexual violence, including via ...
Threatened into silence: an interview with Kim ("BB") of the "Den of the Biting Beaver".(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... In 2005, a blogger named Kim, writing under the screen name "BB," began a blog entitled "The Den of the Biting Beaver," with the subtitle, "Exposing the Heart of the Patriarchy and Destroying It." Kim wrote thoughtfully, empathetically, honestly and passionately about the plight of women, ...
Publishing the patriarchy: reviewers in the white, western tradition still exclude and trivialize women writers.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... In 1929, Virginia Woolf, the emblematic face of female literary triumph, set out to unearth the reasons why her generation, and generations of women before her, did not practice the craft of writing. She concluded what many feminists after her would echo: women were prohibited from ...
Flesh and bones: pornography and high fashion as complementary mediums for the dehumanization of women.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Much has been written on the many sinister ways that the adult entertainment industry and the fashion industry work to objectify and exploit women. But social critics have the tendency to lump these two different creatures together, along with the snarling behemoth that is the rest of Pop ...
Incarcerated women create their own media.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Throughout her ten years behind bars, Yriada L. Guanipa, a federal inmate in Coleman, Florida, has written to every mainstream newspaper and media source in the nation to draw attention to issues affecting incarcerated women. The only response she received was a form letter from Donald E ....
The chick flick paradox: derogatory? Feminist? Or both?(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... I'm at a sleepover at a close friend's house: seven of us, all high school students, rent a few movies and hunker down for a fun night of "chick flicks and girl talk" (no judgments yet, please). On the agenda of chick flicks are The Holiday and Sense and Sensibility. A quick summary: The ...
The Toronto International Film Festival: reflecting on the films of oppressed women: gone but not forgotten.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... The Toronto International Film Festival, the largest film festival in the world, celebrated its 31st anniversary from September 7 to 16, 2006, illuminating a range of controversial issues through shorts, documentaries and full feature films. Moviemakers from Canada, France, Germany, India, ...
Desperately seeking women directors: at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.(women and media)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Santa Barbara is a hard place to cover women in a film festival. You have to walk past lingerie and bikini stores to even get there. One of the women journalists from Vancouver said to me on the Red Carpet (the line where journalists stand, and the celebs pass by for photos and questions, ...
March 23-25, 2007: pornography and pop culture: reframing theory, rethinking activism.(conference)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2007 ... This conference was the culmination of several years of feminist organizing against pornography. The conference was held in Boston, where Wheelock College provided the facilities free of charge. The organizers, among them Lierre Keith, Gail Dines, Bob Jensen and Rebecca Whisnant, were ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture.(conference)(Byron Hurt)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture By Byron Hurt With a conference title like "Pornography and Pop Culture: Reframing Theory, Rethinking Activism," one could assume some heavy-hitting feminist ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: The New Antipornography Slide Show.(conference)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: The New Antipornography Slide Show By Gail Dines Gail Dines, professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, has struggled uphill to educate people about pornography for the past 20 years. Pornography consumption ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: Putting the Text in Context; What is Pornography Really About?(conference)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: Putting the Text in Context What is Pornography Really About? By Gail Dines Dines began by explaining that mainstream porn is becoming increasingly violent, degrading and dehumanizing--that it has become much different than ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: Backlash; And a Feminism that is Contrary to Feminism.(conference)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: Backlash And a Feminism that is Contrary to Feminism By Rebecca Whisnant Whisnant briefly covered a 30-year history of antipornography activism--she explained that during the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was not much ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: Real Men, Real Choices.(conference)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: Real Men, Real Choices By Robert Jensen Jensen spoke about the importance of Andrea Dworkin's work in raising his consciousness about pornography and about violence against women. He began by honoring "her insight, her courage and most of ...
Pornography and Pop Culture: Pornography Prostitution & Sex Trafficking; How Do You Tell the Difference?(conference)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Pornography and Pop Culture: Pornography Prostitution & Sex Trafficking How Do You Tell the Difference? By Melissa Farley and Rachel Lloyd Pornography is prostitution. It seems like such a simple statement of fact, but hearing Dr. Melissa Farley say it ...
Angela Davis: not just a fair-weather activist.(activism)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Outside the Marx Hotel in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, October 20, 2006, Angela Davis spoke at a demonstration against the United States' occupation of Iraq. Syracuse activists stood in the freezing rain across the street from where the women's studies department of Syracuse University ...
Intimate and political: talking with Bettina Aptheker about abuse and recovery, activism and education.(activism)(Interview)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel is Bettina F. Aptheker's newly released memoir from Seal Press. It is a large and profound book. At over five hundred pages, the book is a fearless account of Aptheker's life as a red diaper baby, ...
Are Women Human? And other international dialogues.(Book review)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Are Women Human? and other international dialogues By Catharine A. MacKinnon Do women have human rights? First, states and international bodies--that is, in most cases, men--would have to see women as human, which they don't now seem to do. In Are Women ...
Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big.(Book review)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big By Mary Daly "Amazon Grace is a challenge and an invitation hurled out to Daring, Desperate Women everywhere." Those are the opening words of the new book by Radical Feminist philosopher Mary Daly, the woman who turned ...
Dykes to watch out for.(dtwof)(Brief article)(Cartoon)
Jul 01, 2007; ... Secrets and Spies [c]2007 BY ALISON BECHDEL 507 4/18 FOUR YEARS INTO THE WAR, ALLIANCES ARE GETTING ODD. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MEANWHILE ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
Women's festivals 2007.(on the calendar)(Calendar)
Jul 01, 2007 ... AUGUST Michigan Womyn's Music Festival August 7-12 Near Walhalla, MI (exact location given after ticket purchase) Set in the midst of Michigan's remote woodlands, this week-long festival is jam-packed with up to forty performances, hundreds of ...
Letters to oob.(Letter to the editor)
Jul 01, 2007; ... I'm extremely grateful for all your hard work, every bit of the fine journalism (an endangered species), that you've published for so long, against all the odds, in this horrible era of ongoing antifeminist backlash (when we don't even have a word that is the fe-male equivalent of ...