My Womb is Not a Vehicle for Your Agenda

I left lovely Sacramento, CA a few days ago to come home to Florida and visit with my mom and her 800 cats. (Just kidding – she only has four, two of which are purring next to me right now). I basically fled Florida at the age of 18 because I knew as an ambitious, left-of-the-left, queer liberal feminist,   my chances for personal and professional success would probably be greater elsewhere. At least one of the measures filed in this year’s Florida Legislature remind of why.

Sponsored by Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka, HB 1097 would criminalize most abortions now allowed under state and federal law, increase penalties for physicians who perform such services and require pregnant women to receive more information on adoption.

The bill is 53 pages long (you can read the whole thing here), and plainly seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade. In the rambling findings, HB 1097 says it is “fundamentally unfair” to base the constitutionality of a law on a women’s liberty interest. Indeed, our right to privacy is certainly less valuable than the right to say, own a gun. Among the measure’s major provisions:

·         Makes induced abortions illegal and punishable by up to life in prison

·         Allows doctors and hospital to refuse to provide abortion services.

·         Continues judicial bypass that allows minors to seek a judge’s order instead of telling a parent or guardian.

·         Prohibits abortions resulting from pregnancies involving rape or incest.

·         Requires a second physician to sign-off on the procedure when a doctor believes an abortion was medically necessary to save the life of the mother.

·         Requires women to receive information on adoption as an abortion alternative

The sad thing is that the House Speaker here, Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, is actually taking this bill seriously. “He is a very passionate guy and he believes that needs to have some public discussion,” Cretul said of Van Zant. “I told him, ‘Work your bill, and we’ll see what happens.’” The state director of Planned Parenthood states the obvious demise of this bill, however: The bill is totally unconstitutional. "This is the most rigid and inflexible ban on abortion in the United States…Not only does it ban abortion, it also has absolutely no exceptions for rape or incest."

Perhaps Van Zant forgets that we are in the 21st century.

Woman's Last Stand

Weeks have gone by since the 2010 Super Bowl, but the flurry of criticism from women’s rights groups hasn’t ceased. And well it shouldn’t – in this year’s much-hyped advertisements, women were compared to chattel, incubators for future sports heroes, and bluntly called pains in the ass that warrant some form of relief (i.e. a masculine Dodge Charger).

This of course is nothing new. As Jaclyn Friedman writes:

“I'm hardly the first to point out that the Super Bowl's fans, athletes and institutions aren't always friendly to independent women. The commercials that air during the game seem to actively compete for the Most Jaw-Droppingly Offensive Ad Award, and they feature only two kinds of women: one the one hand, sexually available and easily manipulated hotties invarious states of undress, (as in this ad, in which men can literally control elite racecar driver Danica Patrick and compel her to take off her clothes, get into a shower and make out with another woman); or, on the other hand, unlovable shrews who make men miserable (as in this ad, in which we discover that football refs know how to keep their cool under pressure because they're already used to their wives screeching at them at home). For decades, these spots have appeared to target either 12-year-old boys, or men with the equivalent level of emotional maturity. This, despite evidence that the actual Super Bowl audience is now nearly 40 percent female.” 

 So its no surprise that this year, women are hitting back with mocking ads of their own. Taking on a Dodge Charger ad, in which men lament the difficulties of “being civil to your mother” and “carrying your lip balm,” women respond with a biting ad that mocks the self-entitled whiney-ness of Dodge men:

EQUALITY NOW executive director Taina Bien-Aimé told POLITICO that the Super bowl ads were "saddening." "What they tell us is that women are either considered as fungible objects or emasculating individuals when a man chooses daily responsibilities (cleaning up after yourself, participating in the household) versus enjoying what social masculinity offers (football game)."

Upcoming event at McGeorge Law School - Defining what Feminism Means Today

In from the McGeorge Women's Caucus

We invite you to join McGeorge Women's Caucus in a candid and interesting discussion about what feminism means today. We are thrilled to announce that Professor Pruitt of UC Davis Law School will be our keynote speaker.


When: Tuesday, February 23rd, 5pm-6pm
Where: Rotunda, McGeorge library

WINE AND APPETIZERS WILL BE SERVED. All are welcome! Please join us!


Professor Lisa Pruitt teaches feminist legal theory, law and rural livelihoods,sociology of the legal profession, and torts at the UC Davis School of Law. She will speak about the aspirations, expectations, and career prospects of the generation of women now in law school—women who sometimes embrace the term “third-wave feminist.” Before joining the UC Davis law faculty in 1999, Professor Pruitt worked abroad for almost a decade in settings ranging from international organizations to private practice. Professor Pruitt’s past positions include Gender Consultant at the International Criminal Tribunal in Kigali, Rwanda; Judicial Clerk to the Honorable Morris Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and Legal Assistant to Judge George H. Aldrich of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in TheHague, The Netherlands.

Professor Pruitt has been an active advocate for increasing opportunities for women within the legal profession and legal education. She is currently the Chair-Elect of theSection on Women in Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), has previously served on the No Glass Ceiling Task Force of the Sacramento County Bar Association, and has been a rape crisis victim advocate. Professor Pruitt’s publications include Toward a Feminist Theory of the Rural (2008); Place Matters: Domestic Violence and Rural Difference (2008); and A Kinder, Gentler Law School? Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Legal Education at King Hall (2005).

Professor Pruitt earned her J.D. from the University of Arkansas, where she was Robert A. Leflar Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of the Arkansas Law Review. As a British Marshall Scholar, Professor Pruitt also earned her PhD in Laws at the University of London, where her thesis was a gendered critique of the legal regulation of speech. Prior to joining the UC Davis School of Law, Professor Pruitt also taught at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and at the Northwestern University School of Law.

 

 Best,

Catherine

MWC President

 

Fem Dems 2010!

Save the Date! The next Fem Dems general membership meeting will be on Wednesday, March 10th at 6pm at 1121 L Street, Suite 102. Meetings will be on the second Wednesday of each month in 2010. An agenda will be emailed out in early March.

 

Be sure to check out the California Young Democrats homepage to find Young Dem activities in the area and in the state. There are some great YD activities in the coming weeks to participate in. Please note that the CYD endrosement meeting is on the weekend of Feb. 26th - 28th here in Sacramento. All young dems are strongly urged to attend. If you are interested in going please email your interest back to femdems916@gmail.com. We definitely need to have representation and feminist votes there!