Welcome to My World

This past weekend was PrideFest in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prior plans meant we did not attend the festivities downtown. In order to make up for it, I went to all news avenues in the area to read about the success of the event. We went last year and while it is no San Fran or DC pride, it was at least our local version of it and we were proud. At the very least I expected some sort of coverage this time around (I never looked last year since we were watching the parade in person). Apparently, even after five years of living here, I am still incredibly naive about the homophobic culture of this region of the United States.

Here is the coverage I found:
NOTHING

Some PrideFest, eh? I assure you...if we are still here next year, we will be there out and proud because we are not second class citizens, as much as my friendly neighbors may want that to be so.

Haiti: Not Forgotten

Today I have seen two new articles that bring Haiti back to the forefront of my mind. So much of me has been trying to deal, from afar, with the devastation that is happening in the Gulf from the oil spill. It has indeed caused me to forget other parts of the world. It's funny how life will conspire to make you come back to the realization that much effects many at any given time.

Story One:
I was trying to find something to watch this morning; I landed on ESPN E60. One segment was about the Haitian Women's Under 17 team. No part of me can possibly write about this story better than what ESPN brought me. I've not been able to locate a re-release about this story yet as it just aired today. The best I have been able to find is a synopsis of the piece located here and this is what is said:

Haiti Women’s Soccer Team – With their country devastated by an earthquake that killed thousands, including their coach, the Haitian Under 17 Women’s soccer team had to regroup to train and prepare for a tournament that would qualify the team for the U17 FIFA World Cup. Lisa Salters followed the team’s courageous effort that fell short when they were eliminated from contention.

“It’s one of the most difficult stories I’ve ever had to work on,” said Salters. “We spent three weeks with those girls. When they didn’t win, for them, it’s not just the team is over, it’s now we go back to our life. And we went back (to Haiti) and saw what they went back to and that is sleeping on the streets, with no food. It was just awful. It’s like soccer could have saved them, and it didn’t.”

I urge you to keep on the lookout for this piece. All I know is that sport has always gotten me through tough times. This is a story about sport almost getting young women through tougher times than most of us can ever imagine. And to hear how it all fell short for them. Well, it left me gutted.

Story Two:
Right on the heels of one story that left me reeling I ran across another at NPR. It also jarred me. Haiti is in ruin and people go about every day simply trying to surive in any location that they can.

South of Port-au-Prince, just over 1,000 people are living on an 8-foot-wide stretch of median in the middle of Route Nationale 2, a torn-up, six-lane road that is one of Haiti's busiest.

I have no point to this post. I find that sometimes a lack of a point is even more powerful. It seems to suggest that there needs to be nothing beyond the realization that life can be devastating. It is our job to find a way to ease the suffering for others in any way that we can.

There is not enough woo in the world!

The fake feminism of Sarah Palin

Today, however, Palin is happily adopting the feminist label. She's throwing support behind "mama grizzly" candidates, describing the large number of women in the "tea party" as evidence of a "mom awakening" and preaching girl power on her Facebook page.

It's not a realization of the importance of women's rights that's inspired the change. It's strategy. Palin's sisterly speechifying is part of a larger conservative move to woo women by appropriating feminist language. Just as consumer culture tries to sell "Girls Gone Wild"-style sexism as "empowerment," conservatives are trying to sell anti-women policies shrouded in pro-women rhetoric.

For Love

When silence is not golden.

Keeping Score: University of Virginia tragedy could have been prevented

"People can't close their eyes anymore," Kaplan said. "They can't pretend it's not happening. I hope there will be more support on a state level and more specifically on each campus for mandatory, thorough education on gender-based violence.

"In the meantime, if students have friends who are in questionable relationships, they can't stay silent anymore."

Three Cups of Tea

One Man’s Journey to Change the World, One Child At A Time
By Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

I just finished reading this book and find myself still in awe of it. If you've not read the book, it is a must read. Check out some information here. Greg Mortenson established the Central Asia Institute whose mission is described as follows:

Central Asia Institute’s mission is to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The philosophy is to empower the local people through their own initiative. As of 2008, Central Asia Institute has successfully established 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide (or have provided) education to over 51,000 students, with a emphasis on girls’ education. Over the first decade of CAI’s evolution, our programs and projects expanded to several regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan with an emphasis on education, health issues, environment and cultural preservation.

I came away from reading this book with three things:

(1) A deep, intense need to see this part of the world.
It isn't a realistic dream, really, but I want to see this region. No part of my imagination can come up with a vision of what these mountains must look like. I can't picture the severity. It has to be an extreme combination of rugged, raw, unadulterated beauty and a harshness beyond my ken. I even looked at Google images for the region and I still can't see it.

(2) A realization that I do not truly comprehend the power of education.
It seems so simple. Education opens the doors of the world. I know that is true, but this country (for the most part) takes education for granted. I recently had a family member lament on how horrible homework is. It doesn't often occur to us how a lack of education is a root cause of so many struggles. This book did an amazing job at hammering this home for me. It also made me more sure than ever that the long term solution to terrorism is to give the future a better option.

(3) I do not do enough.
True...it is unrealistic to think I could have imagined and brought to fruition what Greg did, but still...I do not do enough.

More about the CAI and Pennies for Peace.

Ring in 2010

Check out the Women's eNews link about the May 6, 2010 Gala Benefit Dinner Honoring 21 Leaders for 21st Century 2010. Seriously...go check it out!

With seven individuals in three categories: Seven Who Invent a Better Future, Seven Who Rewrite the Rules, and Seven Who Seize Autonomy, I cannot think of a more inspiring way to open the 2010 season of The Feminist Underground. True, posts have been limited. They are probably going to remain that way. In order to compensate for that, I feel that it is important to make the ones that do pop up for you all count. So here you have my first step. These are amazing people and deserve to be heard.

Go forth and read about the winds of change.

May your 2010 be all that it needs to be.

Breast Cancer Awarenes Month

Lest we ever forget that for all the struggles we move through each and every day, there have been many before us who have forged the path, endured, and challenged us to fight the very thing that wishes to tear us down.

Fanny Burney Pioneered Breast Cancer Awareness

Here's to those brave women we have known who continue on in the legacy we choose to honor them with and to those brave women we know who continue to show us what bravery, strength, perseverance, and life is all about.

My Gay Soapbox

Let me see how many people I can annoy with this post. If there isn't a one, then I guess Habladora might have a leg to stand on as far as this blog not reaching the people who need to be challenged. However, I believe I can annoy someone. I've managed to do it before on topics that I fully anticipated to be innocuous. So, come on people, don't let me down now. Read the following article by Bill Maher about how the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy can be obliterated by one swipe of the pen from a man with Noble Prize winning character.

Let me just provide snippets to get you going:

But there is one thing the president can do with the stroke of a pen: He can let gays serve openly in the military. It's called an executive order. Harry Truman wrote one in 1948 for blacks in the military, and that was that.

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

Health care and the environment are complicated, but it's not hard to keep track of the places that God allows you to put your pee-pee. I mean, you can count those places on one hand. And that hand isn't something you should be using either. A year ago, if you had asked your average wing-nut neighbor what he thought about health care reform, he would have shrugged his shoulders and gone right back to eating his Moon Pie. But he's pissed-off about it now, why? Because it's in their nature to be pissed-off. They have a pre-existing condition called the Conniption Fits. The tea-baggers have taught us all an important lesson in modern politics: If you want to be taken seriously, act like a fucking loony-tune.

In fact, let me explain how the right-wing mind works: wing-nuts get up in the morning, get their "news" from Fox or Drudge, and then spend all morning drinking coffee and getting all worked up about whatever Fox and Drudge tell them to get worked up about. "Mexicans - Grrr! Socialism - Grrr! Van Jones - I don't know who he is, but sure... Grrrrrr!" By the time Rush comes on at noon, they're ready to just start demanding we build a wall around Andy Dick. And when Glenn Beck shows up at five, they're seeing red - right through the blue from the Viagra.

I've got to admit here. On those rare days when I force myself to go to the gym and swim rather to drive home and have a beer on the deck, I am greeted in the locker room by Glenn Beck. Delightful I tell you. Not much beyond Grrr moments that I can tell. I promise that I will write a comment card about this next time I am there. Put on the local news. Put on Food Network. Don't put on shows that are designed to do nothing but incite.

Until I accomplish that, here is my proactive post. Don't Ask Don't Tell is ridiculous. Banning gay marriage is ridiculous. I'd like to say I have faith that Obama, Mr. Yes We Can, believes that we can indeed provide equal rights. Maybe a skosh of optimism is bleeding through there. In fact, it probably is. That doesn't mean it can't be done. It just might not start with him. It might start with you all out there reading this. You might be giving a supportive head bob or you might be seething. Either way, it's got you thinking that equal rights are equal rights and religious beliefs that engender fear don't automatically grant the right to oppress perfectly beautiful human beings.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

P.S.
Air Force Academy Censors Professor for Discussing Gays in the Military

Reported Rapes on the Decrease

I've written posts and responses in the past that have landed me in some hot water. I've been in trouble for trying to explain the backlog that exists in forensic science, especially when it comes to sexual assault cases. I've been in trouble because my job as an unbiased scientist who has to testify in court is bound by the notion that it is not my place to label the sexual assault a rape. Oh yes, I have played the role of devil's advocate in a way that is uncomfortable for me.

So, it pleases me to be able to provide a post that has a glimmer of hope. True, it is only a glimmer, but hope has to start somewhere. If it didn't, I wouldn't be able to face my job each day. USA Today provided the following post: Reported Rapes Hit 20-year Low.

Reported rapes have fallen to the lowest level in 20 years as DNA evidence helps send more rapists to prison and victims are more willing to work with police and prosecutors, victims advocates and crime researchers say./

It is clearly a combination of factors of which forensic DNA analysis is only a small piece of the puzzle. DNA evidence obviously makes it easier to establish a link between perpetrator and crime. The national DNA database allows for the linking of heretofore unsolved crimes. Prosecutors are able to rely on something beyond eyewitness identification, which during times of stress on the victim are historically inaccurate. The truth to that is made all the more obvious by the presence of The Innocence Project.

I'm not suggesting that the system is perfect yet. In fact, if you look at one of the links at the bottom of the article above you will find the following: 1-Year Rape Conviction.

Two state lawmakers are questioning a plea agreement that will allow a man to serve only one year in jail on a conviction for raping a 4-year-old girl.

Nineteen of the 20 years of a sentence against 64-year-old David Harold Earls were suspended as part of a plea agreement reached with Pittsburg County prosecutors.

I have to believe, however, that despite some clear failings by our legal system, that the criminal justice system is starting to get it right. There is a long way to go. There is still a backlog of sexual assault cases, which is a direct result of lack of funding. There is only so much a department of five scientists can do.

Still, it does seem as if the pieces are falling into place and that provides me with a reason to keep doing what I do...not that I ever really needed a reason in the first place.

I Used to Be... A Blogger!!!

Once upon a time (long ago) I used to post regularly - daily - here on The F.U. And then I got a full-time job. A job that pays in dollars rather than hits and links. A job that has nothing to do with either writing or feminism. And this life, my blogging life, faded away - making way for the life that pays the bills.

But the need to pay the bills wasn't the only reason I stopped writing. I stopped writing because I became confused about who I was writing for, and who I should be writing to.

You see, as a blogger, I found I was mainly 'preaching to the choir' or fighting trolls. Both are fun, really, in their own ways - but they were things I was doing for myself. And right now it seems as though perhaps we should be trying to communicate, and to sway, those in our country who are still undecided about many of the issues facing our nation right now. About health care. About war. About elections, corporations, and free speech. About torture and rendition. About what is good, and what it means - or should mean - to be American.

Months have passed since my last post, and I'm no closer to an answer. How do we reach an audience that might be convinced by our arguments, and how do we change people's minds if we feel the issues we care about are being misrepresented and misunderstood? Should we all be writing op-eds for our local papers, explaining why we believe universal health care will help our nation? Should we continue to write for our blogs, in the hopes of rallying the troops? Should our language be conciliatory or a call-to-arms?

As I try to decide what's next for me, and for The Feminist Underground, these are the questions that are still unresolved. While I miss the community I had as a writer for The Feminist Underground, it feels like community is no longer enough. We need to be speaking to one another, of course, but who else should we be speaking to -and how do we reach them?

How to Explain the World in One Post

Ah...The Onion...such a bright spot in my day.

TV Review: 16 & Pregnant

This is another post I have up on Jump off the Bridge for the Blogathon. I've been blogging for almost 24 hours now to raise money for READ Foundation.


I have to admit that I had zero interest in watching 16 & Pregnant when I learned about it. MTV is all about reality tv nowadays, and a lot of it is crap, so I just assumed this would be too. But people were posting about the show all over the blogosphere, and I started to get curious. So I set my DVR and decided to watch some of the episodes.

To say that I have mixed feelings about this show is an understatement.

My initial discomfort came from getting the sense that this might glorify teen pregnancy. But, considering the fact that the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, I suppose we need to just keep trying things until they work. Still, there is a bit of a sense that everything will turn out okay with these teen parents that might be misleading and not make for much of a deterrent.

I was then bothered by what other bloggers noticed as well, the fact that abortion and adoption were not being considered as practical options. I understand that the sponsors probably wouldn't be too thrilled about portraying abortion as an option for any age, and certainly not for teens. But it's reality. Isn't reality tv supposed to, you know, represent reality? Okay, no, I guess not...

To be fair, I did watch one episode where the teen couple ended up giving their baby up for adoption. It was actually my favorite episode because it showed the struggle over the decision itself, in addition to all of the other aspects of the teen pregnancy. But then I thought, what if it was too negative? Will people forget about adoption as an option because it's too painful? Reactions on twitter while the episode was on mostly commented on how sad the episode was.

It's really a big balancing act, but ultimately I think the series could do a better job. I'm not sure if there is another season planned but if there is, I hope they take it as an opportunity to highlight teens from various backgrounds in the hopes that it provides a richer range of perspectives.

All of that said, I did enjoy watching the show. It wasn't full of the unnecessary drama that often comes with reality shows on MTV. I was sort of expecting Sweet 16 with a bun in the oven, but it seemed much more genuine than that.

(Originally posted at Jump off the Bridge.)