Archive for November, 2010
Nov
24
To add to the public sexism we’ve seen over the last week, Cowen yesterday told party leader Gilmore to ‘try and rein her in now and again’ when the Labour spokeswoman on finance interrupted him during an announcement in the Dáil.
Cowen apologised, but did not think the subject was worth getting into an argument about.
Thanks to the brilliant Journal.ie, you can listen to the sound bite here.
Tagged: Politics, Sexism, Women in politics
Nov
24
A reference to sexual orientation on a list of discriminatory grounds on which killings are often based was removed from a UN Resolution last week.
The resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions aims to highlight groups of people who are specifically targeted for killings. Sexual orientation has been on the list since 1999, but was removed after a vote in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly November 16th.
Removing this reference means that sexual orientation is no longer one of the grounds of discriminatory killings on which states are called on to protect and investigate.
Benin proposed the amendment based on the following statement :
sexual orientation [has] no legal foundation in any international human rights instruments and there [is] no legal justification to highlight it
The amendment was passed with 79 states for and 70 states against (see list here).
Recognition of the vulnerability of LGBT people in many countries is now considerably weakened, and many human rights and LGBT organisations including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Watch have expressed worry and anger about the situation.
Tagged: LGBT, UN, Violence
Nov
22
[...] a shed is to a man what a handbag is to a woman.
Both contain all the essentials for surviving in the modern world.
The ‘Men’s Shed’ project in Meath provides a meeting place for older men. A sweet idea, however I think the handbag is given a little too much credit here…. Irish Times, 15.11.10
[...] the clever people at Lancashire County Council are much smarter than you or I, and have spotted something which could, conceivably, be offensive.
To a mad person.
Yup, they have now instructed their schools to change the name of gingerbread men to gingerbread people in case anyone thinks this is discriminatory against women.
All those mad anti-discrimination people out there! Can’t get away with anything these days! Ian O’Doherty, Irish Independent, 15.11.10
[S]he really needs to think about a diet
Alan Sugar’s very relevant response to Kirstie Allsopp’ tweet that Sugar tweeting about his new book during a two minute Twitter silence was unforgivable.
The female sex falls into two distinct categories. The first is that of the women I personally know, who are bawdy and girly and talk about food and fashion and clothes and sex and breasts and like dirty jokes and gossip and celebrity magazines.
And then there is this other female sex, who are funless and dour and oppressed and always being picked on by society and by men, and whose existence I know of only because I am told of them by the minnies in the media. It’s not that I seldom meet the Second Oppressed Sex, I NEVER meet them.
The world according to Kevin Myers. I hope his female friends don’t mind being branded as the ultimate one-dimensional female stereotype in a national newspaper. As for never having met the ‘Second Oppressed Sex’ Mr. Myers, that might be related to the fact that unless you’re a character in a Murakami novel, the likelihood of meeting people who are products of your own imagination is pretty slim.
[M]edia minnies [Myers' newly invented word for feminists] love a good whinge, and [...] part of the feminist dogma is that women only enjoy sex within a concerned and caring relationship
News to me! Myers somehow have more knowledge about feminism than feminists. Kevin Myers, Irish Independent, 17.11.10
I often ask myself what is my purpose in life. If I can supply milk to premature babies, that’s enough for me.
Donating milk is a kind gesture, but that’s selling yourself a bit short in my book. Breast milk donor to the Irish Times, 16.11.10.
Tagged: Quotes
Nov
21
Undocumented women working in the U.S. food industry are regularly exploited and humiliated, and are viewed as ‘perfect victims’ by sexual predators, according to a new report.
Sexual harassment and violence is a constant threat, said the women interviewed in the report ‘Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry’.
In addition to the commonplace exploitation of immigrant workers, undocumented female workers also suffer from the gendered aspects of abuse.
They are isolated, vulnerable due to the lack of legal status, generally have little knowledge of their rights and are thought to lack credibility.
Many do not report the abuse and attacks out of fear of losing their jobs or being deported. As women are often the primary carers for their children, such fears are often more widespread among women than men. Losing their job might mean that they will be unable to support their family. Deportation could even mean being separated from them.
The men harassing and abusing them are often their supervisors or other men who the women depend on to keep their jobs as well as for practical aspects of the job, such as transportation to and from the fields.
In a similar report from California released in the mid 90’s, a worker told the the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that one of the fields was referred to as the ‘field of panties’, because so many women had been raped by their supervisors there.
These women are some of the most vulnerable women in our society. They work under excruciating conditions for extremely low wages. They have few entitlements, and often face too many barriers to execute the few entitlements they are aware of. Their human rights are grossly violated.
Lack of papers does not justify the constant fear of and actual sexual harassment and abuse, just as it does not justify all the other forms of abuse these women endure on a daily basis.
No woman should be the ‘perfect victim’ of rape and sexual abuse.
This report has identified these women as just that. We can not allow for them to be identified, but not helped.
Tagged: Immigration, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Sexual violence, U.S., Violence against women
Nov
18
Fellow feminists, fear not. There is still hope for all of us to become ‘actual girls’!
Oh Lord, the relief! (And besides, it looks really nice to be able to wear shoes)
From ltcconline.net
Brought to you by http://www.ltcconline.net, which states:
‘This web server is designed to provide the faculty of Lake Tahoe Community College with web space to post instructional materials for classes and programs.’
Tagged: Beauty, Feminism, Stereotyping
Nov
17
Illustration from Flickr
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) launched the National Rape Crisis Statistics 2009 yesterday . The numbers confirmed that rape and sexual assault is still grossly underreported in Ireland, with only 26 per cent of survivors attending the rape crisis centres reporting the assault to the Gardaí.
The numbers also showed that a shocking 69 per cent of survivors of childhood sexual abuse had been abused by more than one perpetrator. Only 3 per cent had been abused by a stranger, indicating that the vast majority of perpetrators are family members or members of the family’s social circle.
The report also showed that rape and sexual abuse by someone known and most likely trusted is also a common occurrence amongst adults. Statistics from the 13 rape crisis centres showed that almost one third of sexual violence against adult women was by a current or ex-partner.
The statistics provide valuable information about sexual violence in Ireland, a subject by many claimed to be under-researched.
Earlier this week, the RCNI called for ‘urgent changes’ in legislation regarding sexual abuse after a man was acquitted for oral rape of a woman with an intellectual disability due to a legal loophole.
The law specifically addressing the vulnerability of people with an intellectual disability to sexual crimes (Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, Section 5) only name ‘sexual intercourse’ and ‘act of buggery’ and thus excludes a whole range of sexual acts.
Commenting on the specific case, the judge said that it seemed like the Oireachtas ‘did not fully appreciate the range of offences needed to give protection to the vulnerable’ when they introduced the act, and that it was ’with great reluctance’ he asked the jury to return the not-guilty verdict.
Tagged: Law, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence against women
Nov
15
Illustration from amazon.co.uk
This is how Amazon describes this delightful new cook book: ’How To Feed A Man is a thoroughly modern and super stylish take on the traditional cook book concept. A nod to post feminist sensibilities, How To Feed A Man is a celebration of family life that is both engaging yet different’.
(And I ask the following without knowing whether to laugh or cry about it:) Could they get ANY more innuendo squeezed onto that book cover?
Tagged: Cook book, Innuendo. Sexism
Nov
15
I read about this funny comic in the Observer Magazine this weekend, and thought I’d share it. It’s from www.gabbysplayhouse.com. The comments are also worth a read (if you have a few hours to spare)…..
From gabbysplayhouse.com
Tagged: Blogging, Cartoons, Sexism
Nov
15
[T]he mother opened her blouse and began to breastfeed the baby. Naturally, I felt a bit embarrassed but kept staring straight ahead as if all was right with the world.
As I approached my destination, (…)the woman was still feeding the baby. I glanced at the woman and decided that she was someone not to be messed with, so rather than disturb her act of babyfeeding I stayed in my seat and continued on to the town of Z. At Z she had completed her task and I left the bus after she disembarked.
I then had to pay €20 to a taxi to get back to my destination Y . . .
Reader describing the nightmare of breastfeeding mothers in the Irish Times, 09.11.10
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — GLAAD, to you and me — have been busy working their little socks off recently.
Ian O’Doherty involuntarily justifies the existence of GLAAD. Irish Independent, 11.11.10
Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.
Birmingham Councillor Gareth Compton’s ‘humorous’ Twitter response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown after she said on Radio 5 Live that no politician had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran. Irish Examiner, 12.11.10
FYI. New clunge.
Apparently the way some senior accountants in PricewaterhouseCoopers introduce new female trainees.
Those [in PwC] who passed [the sexist email] on may have a better chance of keeping their job. The company couldn’t do a major cull because some of those involved are their best staff in whom they have invested hundreds of thousands of euro
It’s all about the money….(‘Cull’….good ol’ Daily Mail) Laura Lynott, Irish Daily Mail, 12.11.10
This is not a feminist issue, it’s a humanist issue
Panelist on the Marian Finucane Show, 14.11.10, on the PwC email controversy. (To which Blathnaid Clarke brilliantly responded that feminists are humanists)
Nov
11
Photo from washingtontimes.com
President of the Croatian Football Federation, Vlatko Markovic, has said that as long as he’s president of the federation, ‘there will be no homosexuals playing on the national team’.
Asked whether he had ever met a gay soccer player, he replied; ‘luckily, only normal people play football’.
Now would probably be a good time to retire, Mr. Markovic….
Tagged: Discrimination, LGBT, Sport
