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Don’t believe everything you hear on TV (as if you didn’t know that already!)
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Lynn at The New Homemaker brings up a good point today about how the media tends to exaggerate how often kids are kidnapped.
She points out that according to the Justice Department there are only around 115 kids kidnapped each by someone who intends to hurt them in some way.
We don’t have any kids yet but are in the process of adopting – and I know it will be something I will worry about once I am a parent, but at least I know now that the reality is that it really isn’t that common.
You just can’t trust the media – they are more interested in their ratings and in being entertaining than in reporting facts.
Thanks Lynn!
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Related Posts:
- What’s the scariest thing about being a parent?
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- Hug the Monkey – the science of oxytocin
March 8, 2006
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International Women’s Day/Blog against Sexism Day!
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Today is International Women’s Day and also Blog against Sexism Day!
For International Women’s Day I started a new section on my site about women’s history and issues.
I decided to participate in the Blog against Sexism Day a while back – so now is the time for to do my blog post against sexism.
But what should I write about? I’ve been pondering this all day. Some news stories I saw about International Women’s Day discussed all the progress women have made so far. I don’t feel like making some positive things-are-all-better now posts. I’d rather be more negative, as there is still a long ways to go.
I see where Chantel is doing a ‘how have I experience sexism in my personal life’ type of post. I don’t really feel like examining my life at the moment and reliving any sexism that I’ve experienced.
I spent quite a few hours today reading news stories about International Women’s Day as well as other blog posts about the current state of women.
I now finally and clearly understand that we in the US are living in an ‘oppressive misogynist theocracy’. (Thanks for Twisty for this realization.
The current story in the US that illustrates this point so very convincingly is that South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation this past Monday to make forced pregnancies legal. (Otherwise known as making it illegal to have an abortion in that state unless the woman’s life is in danger.)
Which means that a woman raped through incest would be forced t o give birth to her sister, niece, etc.
And worse yet was the comments made by SD state senator Bill Napoli on NewsHour discussing the only circumstances in which he thinks an exception should be made:
“A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.”
So apparently to him if a woman is not a virgin or religious she’s not been traumatized enough to be able to avoid a forced pregnancy. Once again any woman who is not a virgin is a slut who deserves whatever happens to her.
He also seems to be saying that its her loss of virginity that is really an issue, not her well being.While in the US we live in country with forced pregnancies and state-owned uteruses – we also have a so called ‘religious leader’ like Pat Robertson who calls feminism a “socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
Elsewhere in the world 583 million women are illiterate – 66.7% of the 876 million worldwide who are illiterate.In Afghanistan, as an example, the literacy rate among women is 14 percent and more than half of young women there are married before they are 16.
In Libya women who are raped get sent to prison indefinitely.
An average of 5 women in India are killed each day in ‘accidental’ kitchen fires because dowry payments have not been met or considered good enough.
Female genital mutilation, honor killings – the list goes on.
When will it end? Or will it?
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March 3, 2006
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Better watch out or you might end up looking strong and capable!
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Building up muscle mass is really important for women to help avoid developing osteoporosis and yet, many men’s sexist attitudes discourage women from doing so. A great example is here in the post: Hey Lady, You’re a Freak! (Link removed – blog no longer there).
In this post Liz talks about how once in the gym some guy commented to his girlfriend about her muscles and says ‘Better watch out or you might end up looking like that’.
Those kind of comments and attitudes just perpetuate the belief women are and are supposed to be weak and helpless. And is just one more example of how we still live in a very sexist society.
Some of the other things that men have said to Liz, sexualizing her strength, are just disgusting, as if it is ok for any man to just come up to a woman and comment about whether or not he finds her body sexy. Just another example of how men see women as sexual objects rather than equal human beings.
I’ll admit though, I do have some of those small pink weights, but I don’t use them so much anymore. I’m a small sized person so I doubt I will ever be ever to use really heavy weights, but I do do some strength training exercise – and I would love to be stronger and have muscles big enough to be seen!
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Related Posts:
- The importance of strength training exercise for women’s health
- 3 Exercises Every Woman Should Do
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March 1, 2006
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Women’s History Month!
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It is Women’s History Month and the 8th is International Womens Day! I have been planning some special features for the site for it.
Why do we need to remember women’s history and issues?
Because many women before us struggled for many years just to have the right to vote, to be able to own property and to have many other basic rights.
And because even now in many parts of the world women still do not have the basic rights that all people are entitled to.
In India some women are still burned to death because the groom’s family didn’t think her dowry was good enough. Many women who have been raped in middle eastern and persian gulf countries are killed by their family to ‘preserve the family’s honor’. And female genital mutilation is still common in some African countries.
We represent half the population – and yet many of us still have a long ways to go before we will be treated as equals to men.
Please spend some time this month appreciating the rights you do have and thinking of ways to improve the conditions for women elsewhere. If you have a blog, the 8th is also ‘Blog Against Sexism Day’ – for more information see: Blog Against Sexism Day.
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Related Posts:
- International Women’s Day/Blog against Sexism Day!
- March is Women’s History Month!
- International Women’s Day 2007!