Wonder what happens when abortion is illegal? Then take a look at Kenya. Every year, more than 2,600 women there die from complications of unsafe abortion, accounting for 35 percent of the country’s maternal deaths. Close to 30 percent of the Kenyan women hospitalized with abortion complications suffer highly severe problems, including uterine perforation, hemorrhage, sepsis, […]
Month: May 2010
Female Genital Mutilation vs. Female Breast Mutilation
Female Genital Mutilation is thus wrong, even in its ritualistic formulations but so then is “FBM or Female Breast Mutilation” which imposes similar burdens and yet is considered acceptable perhaps purely because of its production by the American mainstream.
Lane Bryant Ad Sparks Weighted Discussion
Before hearing from a Lane Bryant employee on what she thinks about the recent controversy over her company’s overtly sexy ad featuring a non-emaciated model in a bra is really about, do me a favor: Name a beloved fat male celebrity. Jack Black, Jonah Hill, Ruben Studdard, Santa! Now, how about a fat female celebrity? […]
Ms. Takes On Miss USA
We Ms. staffers don’t normally gather ’round to watch the Miss USA pageant. In fact, feminists have long protested such pageants and considered them exploitative of women. But we found a little something to cheer about this year. Rima Fakih, 24, is the first Arab American to win the pageant, and probably the first immigrant. […]
Haiti Post-Quake: In Unity We Find Strength
Today is Flag Day in Haiti. This symbol of Haitian freedom was sewn by Catherine Flon–I mentioned her in a previous post–on this date in 1803. Catherine created a symbol that represents the struggles for freedom in Haiti and the heroes and heroines who made it possible. The flag is blue and red, with the phrase […]
Roman Polanski, the Undetected Rapist?
Merely two weeks after Roman Polanski issued his first mea culpa to the press since his September 2009 arrest, new allegations against the award-winning director seek to ensure his extradition to the United States.
If Sister Margaret McBride is No Catholic, Neither Am I
The Catholic Church has punished a hospital nun for recommending a life-saving abortion. This week, Sister Margaret McBride of Phoenix, Ariz., was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church and demoted from her administrative position at St. Joseph’s Hospital for her participation in a panel that recommended an abortion to save a woman’s life. The patient […]
Where Are the Women Comedy Writers on Late-Night TV?
I was expecting horror tales of discrimination and sexist exclusion when I attended a gathering of some of the most talented women late-night TV writers in New York City last week. Instead, what I heard was that there just aren’t enough funny women submitting material and applying for comedy writing positions. That late-night comedy is […]
In Arizona, Both Racial Exploitation and Resistance Run Deep
On the heels of controversial immigration law SB 1070, which allows police to detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, Arizona’s legislature has passed a law targeting ethnic studies programs. The bill, which bans these programs because they supposedly teach “ethnic chauvinism”, represents another misguided effort by Arizona’s policymakers. As a professor of gender […]
NY Domestic Workers Deserve a Bill of Rights
“If the New York City Council can pass a bill mandating that carriage horses deserve two days of rest per week, we can certainly do better for the domestic workers of this state,” declares Diane Savino, sponsor in the New York State Senate of a pending Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Private household workers are […]