Politics

Bishops, Keep Your Hands Off Health Care!

by Kathy Spillar · March 11, 2010

Is this a theocracy or a democracy? As Congress is working feverishly to pass health-care reform, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is once again trying to kill it. We’re having deja vu here. As Ms. reported in our current Winter 2010 issue, the bishops swooped in during House negotiations over a reform bill last fall and insisted on an oppressive amendment, known as Stupak-Pitts, to significantly restrict access to abortion. It would prohibit public or private health insurance plans participating in the ...Read More

Reproductive Rights

Criminalized Abortion: Coming to a State Near You

by Carol King · March 14, 2010

Utah State Rep. Carl Wimmer is running for re-election. Not exactly surprising news in that state, where he’s been basking in loads of media attention as the author of Utah’s latest assault on women, H.B. 462, otherwise known as the Criminal Homicide and Abortions Revisions. The anti-abortion bill that became law this week in Utah was Wimmer’s most recent attempt to weaken Roe v. Wade. If you’ve been following the Ms. Blog posts, you know that the new law criminalizes choice. Wimmer’s ...Read More

Global

Haitian Feminists Celebrate Lost Leaders

by Lina Abirafeh · March 14, 2010

What better place to have spent International Women’s Day than in solidarity with Haitian feminists? It was a moving event full of singing, speeches, candles and tears, marked by profound respect for Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan–feminist leaders who were lost during the earthquake. The event was organized by CONAP, the Haitian women’s umbrella organization, and the day was dedicated to promoting feminist values, reaffirming the struggle, strengthening solidarity and recapturing ...Read More

Music

Is Lady Gaga a Feminist or Isn’t She?

by Noelle Williams · March 11, 2010

Nobody could describe my relationship with Lady Gaga better than she does: We’re in a Bad Romance. She’ll say something feminist one minute and equate feminism with man-hating the next. Sometimes she seems too skinny, too blonde, too commercial–but then she explains how her Bad Romance video simulates the trafficking of women as commodities in the music industry and I swoon. So, with the newly released first unofficial biography of Lady Gaga in hand, I set out to settle the question: Is Lady Gaga a feminist ...Read More

Media

Jihad Jane Upsets Notions of “White” and “Woman”

by Renee Martin · March 11, 2010

Long before 9/11, Americans had a firm understanding of what terrorists looked like. They’re assumed to be of Middle Eastern descent and, predominantly, men. With these characteristics in mind, racial and gender profiling have been implemented to make the country safer (supposedly): Brown male bodies signify danger. The federal indictment of Colleen R. LaRose, a.k.a. “Jihad Jane,” has problematized this conception. LaRose is not only a woman, but a white, blonde, blue-eyed suburban American. The ...Read More

Life

What’s the “Scoop” About Groping?

by Shira Tarrant · March 12, 2010

What’s the “scoop” on sexual groping? There is no scoop. Getting felt up or fondled is old news. Ask any girl. Yet, on March 1, Los Angeles TV station KTLA 5 ran a news story titled “Scooping: Sexual Assault or Schoolboy Prank?” The report: An 11-year-old Castaic middle school student says she has become part of an alarming new trend called ‘scooping,’ which involves inappropriate touching by fellow students. As if sexual groping were a new discovery! And as if sexual assault could be misunderstood ...Read More

Ms.cellany

From the Stacks | Pre-1972 Women’s History Quiz

by Alexandra Tweten · March 12, 2010

Can you name 10 women who have made important contributions to American history and development? (No presidents’ wives, writers or singers–and no one living today.) If this was difficult, try naming 10 men. Easy? In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ve ...Read More

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