Girls Forced to have Sex-Changes in India

I am hearing more and more about sex-changes for children in the media. Today I read an article regarding the recent surge in sex-change operations for girls as young as one and as old as 14 in India - keep in mind that 14 years is considered the age of consent for these surgeries in India. Essentially girls are being sterilized and robbed of their bodily autonomy and their parents are paying for it. All of this is occurring within well-known hospitals and clinics in Indore, India where parents send their daughters to be "corrected" for about £2,000. This practice is being undertaken in order get rid of girl-children as boys are viewed as more valuable and girls as "too expensive," according to the article. The extreme nature of son preference is being revealed with these drastic measures and real girls are being harmed.


What do you think is driving the recent increase in sex-change surgeries in children all over the world, including the West? Leave a comment!








Notes: 


Image found here

Links - May 8, 2011

A Place for Everywomon ~Bin Laden Caught, but War on Women Continues 


A Place for Everywomon ~ Because We Know you Like To Watch


Racialicious ~ When will Glee Stop Ignoring Race?

A Radical Profeminist ~ "Hideology": the ideology of the ruling classes...

Linda Radfem ~ Lib Fems Erasing Feminism 

Sociological Images ~ Muslim Women and Their White Saviors 

Anti-Porn Men Project ~ Pornography + Self Harm

A Radical Profeminist ~ Black Swan 

Sociological Images ~ A week's Food: Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel

Bolshevik Chick ~ Victims Don't want Your *Power*

In the News

Clashes in Cairo Leave 12 Dead and Two Churches in Flame

UN Chief Presses Israel to Release Palestinian Funds

Anti-abortion groups shaped Tory funding policy on Planned Parenthood

And here are some photos for your Sunday! (or Monday, depending where you are!)

 I truly love treehouses!

all photos from weheartit.com

April 11 Burqa Ban is Implemented in France, two women arrested

Today the full veil (the burqa) ban has been put into action. Two women have already been arrested for leaving their homes while covered. In addition to the burqa, France plans to ban the niqab next. The niqab covers all but the eyes. 

One would imagine that something would need to be pretty "problematic" for an entire country to create a ban. However, it is interesting to consider the actual number of women who wear the full veil. According to a BBC News article on the Islamic veil in Europe, there are 50 million Muslims in France - only 2,000 women wear the veil.


Are these 2,000 women really that threatening? Or are people convinced that the European lifestyle is a one size fits all for the rest of the 

population? 


Sarkozy claims its because he cares about women's liberation - he claims the veil oppresses women and thus is "not welcome in France" 


The man clearly just cares about Muslim women and their interests...


So much so that he also banned the wearing of the hijab (covers only the hair) in schools. The only time they could be legally worn within educational facilities is in universities. Obviously, this man cares a lot about Islamic women!


*eyes roll back into head*


Do I really think, for even a slight moment, that this man really cares about women's liberation? Nope! I truly believe that Islamophobia is a huge problem, one that many do not want to talk about. We have countries in Europe and North America that run governments that pretend to "care" about women's liberation in order to legitimize their invasion of basic human rights. I mean, why do European rulers of the dominant class get to dictate everyone else's reality?


Everyone thinks we have come along way in regards to racism and ethnocentrism, but it's clear in popular culture, government buildings and even other religious institutions that Islamic people are "bad." This causes the entire Muslim community to be misrepresented and stereotyped in the media. 


What kind of progress is that?




BBC News read more about the veil in other European countries

Disowning of Women's Rights in America. Cutting Funds and Slashing Choice.

The amount of rage I feel inside regarding the recent cutting of funds for essential women's reproductive and general healthcare in inexplicable.  Since the extreme-right wing got into some position of power in America recently, the country is launching assaults on various groups, but most recently, women. The extreme cuts will encompass planned parenthood and various other women's health facilities and access to contraception, abortion and so forth. 


A piece in the New York Times states that, 

The egregious cuts in the House resolution include the elimination of support for Title X, the federal family planning program for low-income women that provides birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and testing for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. In the absence of Title X’s preventive care, some women would die. The Guttmacher Institute, a leading authority on reproductive health, says a rise in unintended pregnancies would result in some 400,000 more abortions a year.

Everything listed above is a basic human right. These are basic rights for women and women's healthcare. These services and facilities must be written in stone - plastered in the constitution like a stain. Patriarchy, capitalism, and religion are all institutions working to put women in America back into full-on submission with little to no bodily control, reproductive choice or basic access to necessary health care.


I feel such a sickening anger for those who believe women are worth nothing. This disregard of basic human rights in America - the robbing of women's bodily control, reproductive choice and access to necessary health care. This is intolerable, absolutely unacceptable. I can barely believe it is happening in America, that the clock could be turned so far back. What can women do, what can we do? How do we upturn the pedestal that these so-called representatives stand on when they give their speeches about women's bodies, experiences and wombs. We must uproot it, burn it, slash it - destroy it forever. Then we must cement the rights of women in the government's concrete so that the hands of greedy godbags and misogynists cannot reach them, touch them, or destroy them. 

Links – January 31, 2011

Links – January 31, 2011

Jennie Rubie “Women-Only Spaces: An Alternative To Patriarchy” 

Melissa Farely “Ten Lies About Sadomasochism”

Radical Profeminist “Questioning M2F Entitlements that Cisgender Women Don't Have: More on Trans Political Agendas, Practices, and the Challenges of Radical Feminism (or Radical Pro-Feminism)”

 Lizz Pearson “Teenagers suffer the kicks of abusive relationships”

Montreal Gazette “Oscar nominations an all-white affair”

I Blame the Patriarchy The rape economy, Part 1

Guardian "Tony Blair criticised for 'Israeli bias'

Creatures of the Night: When Men Keep Women in a State of Fear

**TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE CASE DETAILS and VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN***

                                                                        photo from here

It is the holidays here in Canada - people are supposed to be cheerful and festive. We are expected be kind and helpful to one another. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in my city. In just one week, three young women have fallen victim to horrible acts. The first occurred a few days ago. A young woman was raped after she fell asleep while intoxicated from a night with friends in a city train station by a 15 year old boy while another 15 year old boy kept guard. The boys were caught due to high definition security cameras. 

Last night, another woman was walking through a city train station parking lot when she was struck over the head several times by an unknown male. He covered her mouth and warned her that he would rape her. However, before he had a chance to do this he fled the scene and escaped before the police arrived. Sadly, it continues. Yesterday a 15 year old girl was held captive in the home of a 15 year old boy she was previously in a relationship with. The boy had tied her to a chair in his house. Eventually, she tried to escape only to have the boy chase after her. Luckily, the police had arrived on scene at the same time and sent a police dog after the boy. 


This all occured in one week. Three young women were violated emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally and socially. They had their basic rights robbed by being raped, assaulted, harrassed, threatened, scared, held captive, bound and beaten. 


Three of the males in this case were boys. 

What happened to helping our neighbors out? Why, instead of helping a young woman who was unconcious in a train station, would someone rape her instead?


If I was 15 years old and living in a large city, my parents would not allow me to just hang out at 3:30am. Why were these boys roaming in empty train stations at 3:30am? Why were these boys walking around with this idea that it is okay to violate and rape another human being?


It disgusts and scares me to know that this is happening so frequently in my city. I am forced to stay in my home at night. I don't have a large group of people I could go out with and without a group, I am putting myself in a dangerous spot. This is an infringement on my basic right to leave my home and be able to safely get to where I need to go. Is wanting to have a night out, free of rape, harassment and assault too much to ask? 

We have to stay inside, we're told. Women who walk around at night are just asking for trouble, right? It's always our fault - we should have just stayed in with our doors and windows locked. This force, this hidden law of society is barbaric and a real threat to the lives of women. This idea that men can roam freely during the night but women have to remain at home lest they get raped, beaten or murdered by a man is unfair and archaic. 

I have a better solution to this problem. How about we try and understand why society has created this rule for women and try to figure out how we can actually fix the problem instead of continuing to simply ignore it. We are letting the rapists, murderers and batterers win when we keep telling women that they are not safe to walk the streets. This does not address why these crimes are so common. It does not address the system that allows such crimes to flourish. 


This is why radicalism is so important. We must not alter or accommodate such violations of human rights. We must find out why it exists in the first place. Liberalism and other semi-leftist groups do not seek to abolish or challenge the systems of oppression that maintain the violations against human rights. This leaves the radical viewpoint which, in my most humble opinion, is the only realistic solution. It is the only ideology that will kill the oppression at the root. 

Reproductive Tourism: The Commodifcation of Pregnancy and Women

We all know about surrogacy, the practice where an individual or family decides they cannot or do not want to carry a pregnancy. This could be for various reasons such as infertility and age. It occurs predominantly in the Western and European world. Many privileged women in the West have careers that keep them from having children until later in life causing them to seek surrogate mothers. By the way, for anyone living under a rock, a surrogate mother carries a pregnancy for another woman.

Now that we understand that surrogacy exists in the West, let us discuss the extent of this business.

The Young Turks here  made a fantastic video that examines the globalized aspect of this business. The United States, as we know, commodifies just about everything and wants everything at a very cheap price. How do you get cheap prices? Well, you leave your privileged country and go to a less privileged country and exploit their workers and their women by paying them next to nothing and weakening laws to protect them. This is exactly what is happening in India right now, according to The Young Turks and it is dubbed Reproductive Tourism. Tourism implies that one travels a significant distance to receive some sort of service or commodity. We all have heard about sex tourism, where women and children can be bought and sold for sexual purposes by tourists.. There is big money in the selling of female bodies and now you can rent a woman’s womb in India for a much lower cost than you could rent a womb in the U.S. Capitalism finds a solution to our inconveniences yet again! 

If it is too expensive then just find a place where you can do it for next to nothing and can take full advantage of the lack of regulations. That is the way of the West!

One case that TYT brought up regarded an Indian woman who had sent her child to what she thought was a boarding school only to find out that American women were actually using that so-called school to adopt children. This means that the American woman believed it to be an orphanage while the Indian woman believed it to be a school. Clearly, someone is lying to both of these women.

What does this mean for the women living in India? It likely means that they are trying to make some much needed money to survive. TYT brought up the point that many women in India will try and make extra money selling organs and that they would rather get pregnant for nine months than sell a necessary organ like a kidney.

However, it is important to note that these women are not paid until they deliver the child. How would a woman, who is not making much money any way, take care of herself during her pregnancy? How will she be able to pay for pregnancy health care and other necessities?

Why does this system of capitalism and the globalization that stems from it, make carrying a child for another woman across seas the only real option for survival, paying off debts and managing a family? The question same applies to sex tourism and various other global slave trades. There is something deeply wrong with this system.

 In the video by TYT they also state that many of these women have to hide themselves during their surrogate pregnancy lest they be found out by their communities. TYT mentions a woman from a wealthy Indian family and her experience living with a wealthy US family whose baby she is carrying. The Indian woman went to live with the family and the family accused her of stealing and kicked her out and rejected the child she was carrying for them. This means that the woman was left to take care of the child without much money to do so.

The families looking to have a child by using the bodies of other women are willing to go along with the lack of regulations in order to recieve an affordable surrogate. This means that these families do not really care about the surrogates. These surrogates are merely being used and are facing hardships because of the lack of regulations surroudning the practice in India. 

So, what is the problem? Well, as I do not judge the women in India, I feel that they are put in this situation because of globalization and capitalism. Why are people forced to live in poverty and forced to sell their kidneys, wombs and bodies to meet their basic needs? It is a shame that the bodies of women are used in such a way in such a systematic way. All of these issues stem from the same huge problem: capitalism. Capitalism keeps regulations diminished and keeps women down by maintaing their status of poverty. 

Check out the full video for more information and discussion

Push For Ireland to Reform Abortion Laws

According to the Guardian, Ireland is pushing to reform the country’s abortion laws as they put women’s lives at risk, infringing on their human rights. A referendum is necessary to change the constitution that asserts “the unborn child is an Irish citizen with full rights.”

"Today's decision is a landmark one for Ireland and, in particular, for women and girls," said Niall Behan, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association. "The very considered and clear view of the European court of human rights leaves no option available to the Irish state other than to legislate for abortion services in cases where a woman's life is at risk.”

Behan also stated that “no further violations of human rights take place because of the state's failure to offer safe and legal abortion services in – albeit – limited circumstances."

Since abortion is outlawed in Ireland, the majority of women turn to England and Wales to receive legal abortions. Read full article here

MAC Makeup Romanticizing Mexican Women's Oppression Ends New Line

MAC's new makeup line found here

TRIGGER WARNING for violence against women

Recently, my friend brought an article to class about MAC makeup's recent new line of cosmetics. MAC makeup has pissed off a lot of people for further sexualizing and glamorizing women's oppression and violence against women. MAC took it really far this time, they actually said they were "inspired" by the violence against women and the dead/sick women in Juarez.

Alison Fairbrother from Politics Daily here said, "Fashion and beauty bloggers around the world responded with revulsion to "Factory" nail polish and "Sleepwalker" eyeshadow, accusing the cosmetic makers of romanticizing and exploiting the difficult lives of the Mexican women."

Not only was this exploitation and romanticization but it's bordering on racism. When these wealthy upper middle class women working for MAC enter countries to "observe" conditions with hopes to be "inspired" by the women working there, they come off as blatantly ignorant, culturally insensitive racists. There is an obvious power struggle; an obvious and dangerous privilege that these women have. They want to be "inspired" by someones pain and anguish? Then they can return to their giant company buildings with a cup of coffee and discuss how to make money off these women? I don't think so.

Fairbrother continued to say that the bloggers and other activists pushed MAC so far that they pulled the line completely "out of respect for women and girls of Juarez and their families." The company did not follow up on where the money that was made would actually go, and if it would really go to help women and girls in Juarez.

MAC's Facebook page states that the company is "currently conducting due diligence to ensure we donate to organizations with a proven record of directly supporting the women and girls of Juarez."

According to Fairbrother in another blog post "A blogger at Vex in the City wrote, "I cannot help . . . feeling disappointed still. MAC has pledged to make a donation of $100,000, but this is totally disproportionate to the amount of money they could give."


For those of you who are unaware, like I was until my friend did a research project on it, here's the down low on Juarez's history of femicide from what I learned recently. Juarez is home to a lot of drug cartels and poor factory conditions. Women in Juarez are being found mutilated, maimed and killed non-stop and no one does anything about it. No one knows who is doing this either. These women are working in factories with horrible conditions, they are being found with their breasts chopped off and shoved in their mouths. These women have been ending up dead all over Juarez and no one is doing a damn thing about it, at least not the law enforcement.

The fashion industry constantly seems to fall in love with violence against women. They see something sexually redeeming about the quality of a woman who is unable to consent. Fashion is based around sadomasochistic principles - the bodies of women are harmed in order to be "fashionable", made to walk in heels and starve themselves to fit the violent criteria.

Also, this idea of violence as sexy in the fashion industry is not old. Magazines constantly run huge fashion label advertisements that show men pinning women down, women laying unconscious or even covered in blood. Fashion magazines, makeup lines and photo shoots are bombarding the world with images that illustrate the sexiness, the seduction of violence against women. This is a symptom, if not a large cause of rape culture in the world. This needs to stop.

Alberta to Get Rid of Craigslist Prostitution Ads

My province may actually do something about the disgusting amount of prostitution ads on Craigslist. The US, to my best knowledge, recently has banned the selling of sex on Craigslist as it is a breeding ground for sex trafficking and exploitation.

Duh!

Apparently my province is joining the growing number of provinces taking a stand against this. It does not surprise me that my province is lagging behind, it was slow on banning smoking on public places, too.

But, I digress

The article from CBC news states:

The Alberta government has reversed its policy on Craigslist, demanding the removal of erotic ads on the website.

On Friday, Justice Minister Alison Redford and Solicitor General Frank Oberle sent a letter to the CEO of the online classifieds website calling for the removal of erotic ads, which experts say are used for sex trafficking.

This week, University of British Columbia law professor and human trafficking expert Benjamin Perrin slammed the Stelmach government for failing to follow the lead of several other provinces in cracking down on Craigslist.

The same day, the province condemned the ads but said writing a letter was not the answer.

However, Alberta Justice spokesperson Jody Korchinski said the government has reconsidered.

"Alberta has and will continue focusing on investigating and prosecuting any allegations of human trafficking whenever the evidence warrants," Korchinski said.

"However, the ministers also recognize that advocacy and awareness … does also play an important role, which is why they decided to lend their support to their colleagues which have raised this issue in past weeks."

Craigslist shut down its prostitution ads in the United States in September after complaints from attorneys general in 17 U.S. states.

A total of four Canadian provinces say they want Craigslist to remove the ads.

A West Vancouver man was charged in August with luring a child under 14 after police found an ad on Craigslist in which a man was seeking to meet a school-age girl for sex.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/10/23/edm-craigslist-erotic-ads-ban.html#ixzz13PXmiXOR

Finally! This site has absolutely no line it does not cross. I was actually browsing the "personal" ads in my city a few weeks ago to see the reality of online prostitution solicitation. I was saddened to see tons of women younger than me (this means under 21 but no younger than 18) attempting to solicit sex. It scared me that so many of the young women were posting their phone numbers right on the page.

Some of the ads on craigslist are hidden by being placed under "massage therapy" and so forth. Most of the prostitution ads i saw, however, were posted under "erotic services"

The first thing that came to my mind when i saw the postings were, "what if this woman is actually underage?" or "what if someone made this post to sell this woman for sex?"

I also saw a whole lot of racist prostitution ads for "exotic" women - "submissive Asian women" and so forth. My heart broke when I realized that a lot of these posts seemed like trafficking with statements like, "I just moved to Canada" and a lot of broken english. I wonder how many of these women were tricked, or how many were in desperate need of money because immigration is not the easiest thing in the world. But, what if they were forced here? It's terrifying to know that this is going on so close to me. Some of the neighborhoods were ones i spend a lot of time in - it is happening everywhere.

Here's a glimpse of the reality of craigslist Canada:

"SPANISH & MALGACHE DUO P*RNSTAR LOOK A LIKE!"
"Hi, Gentlemen: I am Korean Suger, 19 yr.old Korean girl."
"I am ASIAN nana, 20 yr-old LOCAL Japanese Visitor STUDENT offering my new sex experiment with you."
"You have officially found the Perfect Girl .... I am super pretty . petite & youngest girl in the town "


I'm just relieved that the government is actually going to do something about it. It encourages sex trafficking, sexual slavery and promotes rape culture and patriarchy. Good job, Alberta!

AIDS/HIV: A Woman's Issue rooted in Patriarchy + Capitalism

I really would like to share some information I received in my women’s studies class this morning. We had a speaker come to our class to talk to us about HIV/AIDS and women, which are disproportionately affected by this disease. Now, to be clear, my sexual education some 9 years ago did not really go into detail about HIV/AIDS. The teachers would just say “You can get STIs and/or HIV/AIDS if you don’t wear protection”, but they never went into details as to the reality of the disease.

The reason I am sharing what I learned today is because I don’t want more people to be in the dark like I was, about the reality of HIV/AIDS for women worldwide. The speaker really opened my eyes to why this is a women’s issue and how we can help change it.

During class, she told us some alarming facts and statistics:

• There are 15.7 million women world-wide living with HIV/AIDS
• 33.4 people world-wide live with HIV/AIDS
• There are 8000 infections daily
• In Canada, there are 26% of new infections yearly in women (this is an 8% increase from 1998 to 2008)
• 58% of women aged 15-19 are tested positive in Canada
• 35% of heterosexuals are undiagnosed in Canada
  

• HIV/AIDS is the leading killer of women aged 15-49 worldwide. Making it a definite issue for women
• In the United States African American women are affected the most by HIV/AIDS
• The two main components in HIV/AIDS in women worldwide are

1) Power imbalances in societies world-wide

2) Gender inequality

• The age group in Canada that is being affected the fastest is between 15-24 years old
• In Alberta, Canada 41% of HIV diagnosis in women is in the aboriginal community. 31% in the black community and 21% in the white community.
• Women who have cross-generational sex (sex with someone much older) have a higher risk of contracting HIV.
• Women have a greater surface area of mucous membranes then men, putting them at higher risk.
• Insertive (PIV) sex either in the vagina or anus almost always causes trauma in the membranes (cuts or tears) which increases the possibility of transmission

(AIDS Calgary Awareness Association, 2010)

She then informed us about possible ways to transmit the illness. I always just assumed I knew all the ways in which HIV/AIDS could be transmitted, but I was wrong. HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through fluids exchanged during sex, as well as other mucous membranes including the foreskin, male urethra, vagina, anus, mouth, eyes and nose. It can also obviously be transmitted via needles and blood products. What I never considered, however, were the instances of medical transmission. Since so many countries are living in extreme poverty, there is a lack of medical services and knowledge surrounding sharing needles. I never even considered how all of these factors played in to transmission of the disease. Another way that it can be transmitted is through birth and breast milk. The scary thing here is since HIV is asymptomatic; symptoms will not appear for about 10 years. She actually told us a story about a young boy who, when he turned 18 got ill and tested positive for HIV/AIDS. He was a virgin.

Obviously HIV/AIDS is seen a lot in African countries because of the obvious poverty in those regions. Pathetically enough, the treatment options available in the developed nations do not ever reach people in developing regions. The pharmaceutical companies charge disgusting amounts, approximately $20,000 (CA dollars) a year for daily medicine to prolong the life of people living with HIV/AIDS. Since Canada has public health care, the government provides, but this isn’t the case in America or in developing countries. Since a lot of families are living in poverty in developing nations, they may take only a bit of their medication to reduce costs. The problem here is that if you only take part of the drug or some of the dose, you can easily become resistant. The big pharmacy folks don’t care, the more they charge the more millions they get to keep for themselves. I don’t know how these people sleep at night, or how people can actually believe capitalism doesn’t kill.

It made me so upset to think about the reality of HIV/AIDS. She told us alarming statistics about our city and about testing. At the beginning of class she asked “Who here thinks they are at risk?” and a few women raised their hands. I did not, since I don’t have PIV and never have. What scared me and a few other students was the fact that our health system does not automatically test for HIV when they check for other STIs. Most of the women assumed that this would be included or that it could be tested for automatically during a yearly physical exam. Apparently, in Canada (I’m not sure about the rest of the world) a patient needs to explicitly ask for the HIV blood test or they will not perform it in your regular blood work. This is bad news for anyone who doesn’t want to ask for such a test because of the enormous stigma attached to the disease. Women aren’t socially accepted to be sexually active or have more than one sexual partner, so testing is “taboo” to a lot of us because of the way society perceives our sexuality. This is making it more and more difficult for people to even know they carry the illness, which is causing numbers to climb in cases.

In terms of why this is happening and why it is happening so often to young women has to do with capitalism, patriarchy and social constructions influenced by both. Capitalism allows huge companies that make and sell drugs to exclude those without money. They are literally killing people for being poor or just not having extreme amounts of extra cash for medication. Capitalism also sustains women’s lower class in society which plays a huge role in why we are disproportionately affected by this disease. If everyone was able to get decent health care, the spread would eventually stop because people would be aware they carried the disease and could receive treatment to prolong life. It hurts me on a personal level, too since my uncle passed away from AIDS in the late 1980s, before any real stable treatments for the disease were available. If he could have made it 10 more years, maybe he could have got the treatment and maybe he could still be alive today. It hurts to know so many people make money off the misery of others.

Patriarchy plays a major role here, too. Women are subordinate in every single patriarchal society (which, lets face it, is almost all societies right now) and this lower status allows us to become more vulnerable to violence and thus more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. In many countries there are few laws surrounding rape which leads to women being infected by force. Also, women are not meant to be sexually assertive, we are told to be passive and subordinate when a man doesn’t feel like putting on a condom. Its “unacceptable” to challenge a man who does not want to wear protection. This isn’t something that randomly occurs in non-western nations only, this happens everywhere. I always hear about young women who have boyfriends who use threats and anything else you can think of to get their girlfriends to go along with unprotected sex. According to the speaker, the most at-risk group (at least in my province) is heterosexual women. I must admit, I was not surprised when I found this out. Why? Because many heterosexual relationships struggle with power, thus women lose power and men gain it. When men gain power they make decisions for us and our sexuality. This is patriarchy in practice. This is patriarchy in private that greatly affects the public. Women are dying because men do not want their privilege challenged. If a woman carries condoms in her purse, she’s a slut. If a man does it (keyword: if) he’s a champ – he fucks lots of women and thus is rewarded by his male friends. A woman requesting a condom just isn’t living in the moment. Not to mention how many men downright lie about how many sexual partners they have.

So, what can be done? Well, education, for one. If I was not educated today, I wouldn’t be able to share the information with my readers. Education is tricky, however, because so many principles of patriarchy, capitalism and the like are ingrained deep into the roots of our culture. Trying to reconstruct institutions of oppression are difficult – how are you supposed to get a Christian minister on board with teaching kids about safe sex? How are you supposed to get a devoted group of Roman Catholics to teach their kids about condom use? It’s not so cut and dry. Things need to change on a global and policy level. Laws need to be made; the government needs to wake up.

It saddens me that we are left to work within systems like capitalism and religion that have oppressed people for so long. I wish we could overhaul it all and start again, but that’s just the idealist in me.

Please, share what you can amongst friends – this disease is a woman’s issue…it has everything to do with our struggle and ending oppression is the first step in finding a way to save lives.

Why We Still Need Feminism

Why We Need Feminism

Information and statistics gathered from Shawn Meghan Burn's text on Women Across Cultures (2004) and The Penguin Atlas of Women in The World (2008) by Joni Seager

photo found here

1) Only 15% of the world's lawmakers are women.

2) Kuwaiti women are not even able to vote, let alone run for office.

3) In many countries, baby girls are killed based on the culture's preference for sons (this includes femicide and sex-selective abortions)

4) 100 million girls are "missing" world-wide because of this son preference

5) Dowries still exist in many countries, women are literally bought and sold to other men

6) In Pakistan, a father can take his daughter to court if she marries without his permission

7) In the majority of African groups as well as some other regions, Grooms purchase their wife's hand in marriage by giving goods, money or livestock to her parents.

8) 40-70% of women killed in America, Canada, Australia and Israel are murdered by their own husbands or partners

9) In America, battery is the leading cause of injury to women with a whopping 700,000 cases reported each year

10) One third of Egyptian women report they are beaten at home, where the penalty for killing an 'adulterous wife' is one to three years in prison

11) On average, there are 2 honor killings a day occuring in Pakistan and only 20% are prosecuted

12) In America, 350 women are raped a year on college campuses with 10,000 female students

13) In America, 74 women are raped every hour

14) It is estimated that pimps control 80-95% of prostitution

15) 94% of women in Egypt believe that it is okay for a husband to beat his wife.

16) In Canada, 11% of women have been stalked in the last five years

17) In many countries it is legal to rape your wife

18) In Burma, rape is not considered a crime unless the victim is under 14 years of age

photo found here

19) In Morocco, victims families may offer rapists a chance to marry their victim in order to preserve family honor

20) 70% of the world's poor are women

21) An estimated 50,000 women are trafficked into the U.S yearly

22) In Egypt, 90% of girls who have undergone female genital mutilation were under 14 years old. 90% of female genital mutilations are performed by doctors and other trained medical personnel.

23) In Mali, 50% of girls were under five years old when they had undergone female genital mutilation

24) 42% of girls in grades 1-3 in the U.S want to be thinner

25) 81% of 10 year old girls in the U.S are afraid of being fat

26) 11.7 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2007, which is up by 2 million from 1997. 91% of these procedures were performed on women

"Corrective Rape" In South Africa

There is an enormous human rights problem sweeping South Africa. A disgusting trend called “corrective rape” is prevalent in South Africa and lesbian women are the targets of such abuse. To be clear, this violation of human rights isn’t just happening in South Africa, but it is by far the most rampant there. According to amplifyyourvoice.com, "corrective rape," often accompanied by vicious beatings or even murder, is intended to punish lesbians for not being heterosexual.” According to the same source, South Africa has rather liberal policies regarding LGBTQ community but homosexual women are being targeted by males as well as the highest levels of government. The Times Online states that there are 150 rapes a day reported in South Africa.

Possibly the most well-known case of “corrective rape” in South Africa involved Eudy Simelane, an openly lesbian soccer player who was beaten, gang raped and murdered in 2008. Since then, this “corrective raping” has increased as the men in South Africa feel their male dominance is being threatened. The justice for these women appears to be bleak for according to ActionAidUK, for every 25 men brought into court for rape, 24 will walk free.

The question that comes to mind here is: Why? Why is this still happening and why aren’t these men being punished? It appears to be less of an individual issue and more of a collective and societal problem. ActionAidUK affirms,

This shameful record of male domination and violence has helped build an increasingly brutal and oppressive culture, in which women are forced to conform to gender stereotypes or suffer the consequences.
As part of this oppression, the country is now witnessing a backlash of crimes targeted specifically at lesbian women, who are perceived as representing a direct and specific threat to the status quo.

So, why isn’t anything being done? Why aren’t other countries stepping in?

I wish I knew the answer.

I wish a lot of things.

I wish we could live in a world where women were free to express themselves fully and live in a way that made them happiest without being threatened with extreme violence and hatred. I wish that the women who were harmed and killed could have justice. Sadly, this cannot be solved by wishful thinking, only action. Action needs to be taken worldwide to help these women – they are our sisters. We cannot simply leave them without hope or assistance, we need to use our resources and step in.

In the west, we must realize that this is a hate crime and it is just as serious. We need to, even in the west, realize that heterosexuality is not the “right” sexuality. The whole idea of “normal” sexuality is what is keeping so many people in danger throughout the world. This horrible trend of “corrective rape” is ingrained into the social culture from centuries of male dominance and heteronormativity. There is a definitive root to this problem that needs to be examined and changed in order for these women to be saved. We must focus our energy to help save these women and bring them justice. We must take what we have and work towards helping all women worldwide in combating rape, violence and murder. To quote the fword.org,

“If we are to stand any chance of eradicating the injustices we suffer, then securing equality and rights for all women must be our priority - and to achieve that, one of the first steps must be a concerted effort internationally to tackle violence against us.”