Feminist Link Round Up 10.15.14

SCOTUS blocks Texas law that from shuttering abortion clinics

The Supreme Court has blocked Texas from enforcing key parts of a 2013 law that would close all but a handful of the state’s abortion facilities.

In a 9-3 vote, the justices suspended a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed Texas to enforce a rule that would make abortion clinics spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades if they were to remain open.

In so doing the U.S.’s highest court granted a requests filed by abortion providers as part of  a courtroom battle that has passed through various jurisdictions.

The appeals court’s had earlier suspended an August decision by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, who found that such upgrades being demanded by the state were less about safety than about making access to abortion difficult.

This is a very good thing. In 2011, there were 44 abortion clinics in Texas. After the closing of 2 clinics in March, that number fell to 24.  There were significant concerns that a new, restrictive abortion law that was to take effect in September would close all but 6 abortion clinics in the state. Thankfully SCOTUS made the correct decision.  Abortion is an issue of reproductive freedom for all women, and they should all be entitled to it.  It doesn’t matter if a fetus is a person with the same rights as every other human being. No human has the right to use the body of another human being-and that includes a fetus feeding off of a pregnant woman. If the woman does not want to be pregnant it ought to be her right to end that pregnancy and there should be no restrictions. Anti-choice advocates (they are NOT pro-life advocates), if they had their way, would make abortion illegal throughout the United States, which would not end abortion, it would just cause a rise in unsafe abortions as well as maternal deaths. If they truly wanted to diminish the number of abortions, they would ensure that women have easy access to contraception, because contraception use prevents the need for an abortion.  But then anti-choicers/forced birthers don’t want that either. They don’t want women having abortions, nor do they want women using contraception. They want women to have sex-but only in the context of a marriage with a man, and only for the purpose of conceiving. They hide this agenda behind their anti-abortion activism, but it’s not hard to see through their rhetoric because they aren’t consistent in their views.

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Femvertising

Dove’s Real Beauty campaign paved what is now a very well traveled road of female empowerment-focused advertising. It’s a special genre of content (slogans and short doc-style videos) in which the messaging (you are more beautiful than you think you are! stop using gendered double-standards in the workplace!) takes center stage while the company name appears as an afterthought; products sold often go unmentioned.

But does this kind of advertising actual increase brand recognition and sales? According to lifestyle site SheKnows, it does. After surveying 628 women about the “fem-vertising” phenomenon, 52% of respondents said that they had bought a product specifically because they liked the way the company portrayed women in the ads, and 56% of those respondents were in the key millennial demographic. Adweek reports that 46% of those polled then followed a brand on social media because of that messaging. (Yes, people do follow advertisers by choice.)

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 #Iammorethanadistraction

As a parent of three teens, I am accustomed to the routine. As I wrote in a June essay for Slate, my youngest daughter was dress-coded two years ago, when she was in sixth grade. Her offense: shorts that didn’t meet the school’s dress code (which requires that shorts and skirts must “reach to the fingertips of the extended arm”). She spent the day donning an oversize shirt to cover her body as a punishment.

Predictably, my article raised a lot of questions: Do I see what these girls are wearing? (Yes.) Would I dress that way for work? (No.) Do I think the school is entitled to set limits? (Yes.) Do I place my daughter above following the school rules? (No.) Trust me, I know the drill.

The rules applied across the country, however, go well beyond short shorts. For example, a school in North Dakota recently banned skinny jeans, leggings and yoga pants. What these examples tend to have in common is the targeting of girls — and not just of bare skin but of the female silhouette itself.

The trend has created a new front in the dress code wars. Refusing to be shamed, girls are instead raising their voices. They are demanding to be treated with fairness — as more than the sum of their body parts and more than a classroom distraction to boys. Students at Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York, and Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah, have recently walked out of classes, protesting strict and unfair dress code enforcement.

A group of girls from our community in South Orange have launched a social media campaign, #IAmMoreThanADistraction, on Twitter and Facebook. The hashtag has unleashed an outpouring of personal stories from their peers nationwide. The world is listening. Various domestic and international media outlets, including the BBC, “Good Morning America,” Le Monde and Al Jazeera America have featured the perspectives of these students and their parents.

The controversy has raised a key question for educators nationwide: What should an ideal dress code policy look like? In our New Jersey school district, a coalition of parents and students is working with district leadership to create a fairer policy. In June student-led advocacy forced South Orange Middle School to change its discriminatory swimsuit policy, allowing girls the option to wear two-piece suits to school swim events (which had been banned). This is a step in the right direction.

But more needs to be done. Our coalition is seeking a change of perspective and focus away from the culture of punishment, blame and shaming and toward one of equality and respect. Our goal is to create a districtwide policy that ensures equal treatment of girls, including fair messaging to and expectations of boys. We hope to promote a healthy dialogue among students and faculty about sexism and stereotypes. In consultation with district leadership, we formed a task force this fall to help gather input from the community and provide feedback to and meet regularly with the local school board, district superintendent and school principals to establish a new, collaborative and appropriate dress code policy that will be in place by spring 2015.

These are some of the concerns and questions we have identified:

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The benefits of publicly funded family planning services 

Publicly funded family planning programs help save taxpayers billions of dollars each year by averting costly medical expenses, according to a new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute. It’s the latest data point in an overwhelming body of evidence illustrating the societal benefits of expanding access to affordable birth control.

It’s not hard to understand why that’s the case. Low-income women are at the highest risk of unintended pregnancy, largely because they don’t always have access to medical resources like contraception. But, when publicly funded programs like Title X help those women get affordable birth control, it can make a big difference. Guttmacher researchers estimate that the care provided at publicly funded family planning clinics helped prevent 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies in 2010.

With so many fewer pregnancies among this population, appropriating funding for family planning works out to be very good deal for the government. It eliminates a significant amount of potential Medicaid spending, since states don’t have to pay as much for abortions, for miscarriages, or for maternity and infant care. “This investment resulted in net government savings of $13.6 billion in 2010, or $7.09 for every public dollar spent,” the researchers conclude.

And investing in women’s health can influence more than pregnancies. Title X clinics also provide screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, something that helps prevent patients from transmitting those infections to their future sexual partners. Guttmacher estimates that helped reduce chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV infections by 99,100 cases, 16,240 cases, and 410 cases respectively. Plus, providing resources for low-income women to get tested for cervical cancer helped identify 3,600 cases early enough to prevent more than 2,000 deaths.

“This analysis quantifies, for the first time, many of the myriad benefits of publicly funded family planning services beyond enabling women to prevent unintended pregnancies,” the lead author of the new report, Jennifer Frost, said in a statement. According to Frost, the research provides “the most comprehensive portrait to date of the value of taxpayers’ investment in these services.”

Despite the well-documented benefits of family planning programs, states continue to slash funding in this area as women’s health issues have become a politicized issue. Title X has been cut by more than $23 million over the past two fiscal years, and back in 2011, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted along party lines to defund the program altogether. Plus, recent attempts to attack Planned Parenthood clinics have left some low-income women — particularly in Texas, where the family planning infrastructure has been devastated — without any access to these services at all. Indeed, according to previous research conducted by Guttmacher, publicly funded clinics can’t keep up with the demand.

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 A guide to the laws and policies concerning street harassment around the world

Overview

This Guide outlines the legal recourse available to victims of street harassment, which
varies significantly from country to country. Thanks to the work of Hollaback! and other
campaign groups, governments, organisations and individuals around the world are
increasingly aware of and willing to tackle street harassment using legal means.
For example, prosecutions for street harassment have been rare in Argentina in the
past. However while this report was being compiled, a man who improperly touched
and said obscene words to a woman in the street in a Southern province of Argentina
faced criminal charges for sexual harassment after being captured by the police minutes
after the act. He faced a penalty of 6 months to 4 years of prison. In Belgium, there is
now a specific system for fining people that cause trouble, mainly in public places. Since
June 12, 2013, the city of Brussels imposed 69 fines for sexual remarks towards women
and same sex relationship abuse. In Canada, one-off incidents have led to prosecutions
for criminal harassment such as in the 2009 case where an offender jumped out from
behind bushes to block a stranger jogging in a residential neighbourhood at night,
chased her to a house and stared at her while she waited for someone to open the door.
In Nepal, police have the right to immediately arrest a person suspected of committing
street harassment without a warrant.
There remain significant legal barriers to successful prosecutions of street harassment.
In some jurisdictions there is no clear definition of unlawful harassment, although
jurisdictions including Colombia apply a number of general laws in cases of street
harassment. Prosecution may be discretionary or may result only in a minor punishment.
In contrast, other places do have very specific legal protections against harassment. For
example, in the state of Iowa, USA a comprehensive and specific law against harassment
exists under which a perpetrator was successfully prosecuted for making an obscene
gesture and grabbing the victim’s baseball bat during a heated discussion.
One key practical issue is that it is often difficult to identify the perpetrator where
they are previously unknown to the victim. In Ireland, it is recognised that even if the
reporting of a specific incident may not lead to prosecution and conviction in that case,
the information may help combat harassment in future. Therefore the police, An Garda
Síochana, log all complaints and are able to collate reports of a similar type to establish
patterns and detect repeat offenders. This issue has also been addressed in England
through British Transport Police’s (BTP) anti-harassment strategy on London’s transport system. Project Guardian was launched in 2013 and Hollaback! representatives were key
advisers to the BTP. The project includes several measures to identify offenders such as
the use of technology including CCTV tracking, data analysis (identifying harassment
hotspots) and text-based reporting services. It also includes targeted “weeks of action”
in which extra uniformed and plain-clothes officers patrol London’s transport network,
gather intelligence and communicate with the public, with the aim of sending a
message to harassers as well as achieving an increased number of actual arrests.
Even where perpetrators are identified, lack of witness and other evidence is a
significant barrier to successful prosecutions in many jurisdictions. In countries such
as Germany and Turkey, the principle of “when in doubt, for the accused” may apply,
meaning a defendant is unlikely to be convicted by the court when it is simply a case of
the victim’s word against the defendant’s and there is no other evidence. It is therefore
strongly recommended that where possible, victims of street harassment collect any
evidence that is available to them, including taking photos. Victims should also take
down the contact details of any witnesses and in cases of any physical harm, should
attend hospital as soon as possible and obtain appropriate medical reports about any
injuries they have sustained.
Many places recognise that the reporting of harassment can be a difficult process itself
and that victims require support and assistance. Croatia gives specific legal protection
to those who report harassment: there is a separate misdemeanour under which it is
unlawful to discriminate against any person because he/she reported harassment.
In New Zealand, victims have certain rights in relation to the way they are treated
and can complain if they are not treated with courtesy and compassion or are not
properly advised of services that are available to assist them. In South Africa, victims
of harassment are able to apply in the Magistrates Courts for a protection order (an
order that is enforceable by the police that prevents the person you are complaining
about from harassing you) and every Magistrates Court has a dedicated clerk trained
to deal with victims making such applications. The Jacksonville Police Department in
North Carolina, USA, has a victim assistance program that offers confidential services
free of charge to crime victims, including crisis intervention and short-term counselling,
information on the status of an investigation and an explanation of the criminal justice
system and the victim’s role in that system.
Other places recognise that the ability to report crime anonymously can eliminate
intimidation. In Australia, crimes can be reported on an anonymous basis until the
matter goes to court. The Czech Republic permits anonymous reporting of crimes
although this may affect the credibility of the allegations. Metro Crime Stoppers (a volunteer organization actively supporting law enforcement agencies in solving crime in
the City of Baltimore, USA) gives Baltimore residents the ability to anonymously report
crime tips to the police and potentially earn a monetary reward.
Some jurisdictions use civil or administrative laws as a tool to prevent street
harassment. In Lima, Peru, fines can be levied against those guilty of inappropriate STREET HARASSMENT: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
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behaviour (defined as unwanted sexual advances, obscene gestures, sexual jokes,
touching, etc.) in public commercial establishments or construction sites. In Poland, if a
victim feels that his or her moral rights (in particular honour) have been violated by the
perpetrator’s unlawful behaviour, under Polish civil law a victim of street harassment
can demand that the perpetrator apologise in public (also in the form of a newspaper
announcement) for his/her actions.
A key practical step in the fight against street harassment is making transport systems safe. Since 2012, the French railway company SNCF offers women travelling overnight
the option to reserve a bunk bed in a women only compartment. In Atlanta, USA the
MARTA Code of Conduct prohibits people who are using public transportation from
engaging in “disorderly or inappropriate conduct that is inconsistent with the orderly
and comfortable use of buses, rail cars, or transit facilities” and violators can be
prohibited from using public transport. In India there are provisions such as reservation
of seats in public transport including buses and separate ladies only compartments for
women in local trains. Mumbai, India also has special ladies only local trains operating
at different times during the day.
A number of private companies and institutions are also taking practical steps to
combat street harassment. In Rome, Italy there is a women-only discounted taxi
service that ensures passengers are safely inside their home before leaving. In Israel,
universities and many public institutions have their own anti-harassment policies.
Of course, a legal framework is but one element required to tackle street harassment.
Public awareness, changing attitudes, enforcement and prosecution are a number of
other components which are also needed.
It is our hope that through contributing to this important resource for Hollaback!
individuals and communities alike will be more empowered to take action against
street harassment.

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Feminist Link Round Up 10.15.14
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2 thoughts on “Feminist Link Round Up 10.15.14

  1. 1

    But availability of contraception and abortions leads directly to a reduction in the number of desperate, poverty-stricken cannon fodder young people, which leads directly to a short-fall in military enlistments, which leads to a Criminal Diminishment of our ability to jump straight to War as our go-to for international policy, which leads to reduced sales of armaments and civilian concessions, directly negatively impacting Profits (all genuflect)!

    It would mean the end of Life As We Know It!

    </snarky tone>

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