Some things that caught my attention this week, with bonus “this week in misogyny” content.

I don’t know how many people noticed, and I assume it won’t go anywhere, but Michele Bachmann introduced a forced ultrasound for abortion bill in the House. It’s been sent to the Subcommittee on Health.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has launched a new website, Bedsider, about birth control and says it’s intended for women ages 18-29 years. I haven’t looked through it thoroughly, but it includes comparisons of different methods of preventing pregnancy by factors like cost, immediacy, STI prevention, ease of getting and using the method, ease of hiding it from a partner, and degree of mistake-proofed-ness. It is focused through a pregnancy prevention lens, so the site is focused on penis-in-vagina sex, not other forms of sex or prevention. I haven’t reviewed the site thoroughly, but let me know what you think. Some of the language seems a little, uh, teen magazine-y for my tastes and for a target audience that is actually made up of adults, but perhaps it’s my advanced age talking there (early 30s).

Over at OBOS, between C and I we’ve covered Mississippi, personhood, and reproductive justice, and new research on in vitro fertilization and ovarian cancer risks.

The CDC released the final data on 2009 births [PDF] in the United States. It’s full of data on the number of births, birth rates by things about women, like their age and marital status, and rates of cesarean (another all-time high), low birth weight, preterm, and out of hospital births. [hat tip to Jill]

Jaclyn Friedman, who I met briefly at the Our Bodies Ourselves 40th, has a new book out, What You Really, Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety. I haven’t read it yet, but there’s a Twitter chat happening at 9pm Eastern tonight using the hashtag #shamefreesex.

B points out the ridiculousness of news coverage taking the “vodka-soaked tampon” story seriously. Notably, liquid-soaked tampons expand and are not exactly convenient for insertion. Aside from which, alcohol+mucous membranes would probably hurt. And the likelihood of it being widespread for teenage boys to be inserting said vodka-soaked tampons rectally is just absurdly small. And then there was the follow-up to B’s post, which takes a quick downward spiral in the comments to “if we take your picture without permission but link to you, you should be glad of the traffic”-land.

The FDA released a new statement on Makena, a drug intended to help prevent preterm birth. It has been the subject of controversy because versions of the same ingredient in Makena has been available for pretty cheap through compound pharmacies for a long time. FDA’s approval of Makena with it’s extremely high price, have generated strong reactions and concerns about access. The FDA’s new statement basically says, “The company that makes Makena says those vastly cheaper compound pharmacy products vary in their strength and purity, so we’re going to look into it.”

The agency also approved the first therapy derived from cord blood cells.

Jill at Feministe had a note left in her suitcase by the TSA when she checked what she’s referring to as a “personal item.” A note that read, “get your freak on girl.” Jill follows up that the TSA agent who left that note has been suspended, and Jill responds to the lack of response to the real problem here: “…I get no satisfaction in hearing that someone may be in danger of losing their job over this. I would much prefer a look at why ‘security’ has been used to justify so many intrusions on our civil liberties, rather than fire a person who made a mistake.”

This week, the CDC is running a campaign focused on the smart and appropriate use of antibiotics. Go to the website to learn more about why you don’t always need antibiotics and why it’s bad for all of us to use too many.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is coming up on November 20th.

The Abortioneers ask when to speak up, when to keep your mouth shut, and how to know the difference.

The fact that women prisoners often get shackled during labor is discussed at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, in an interview with a fiction writer who covered this practice in a book.

Sometime this week, I stumbled across #occupyhealthcare and the accompanying website. The contributors seem to be mostly healthcare providers and adjacents, focused on increasing access to healthcare.

The government has issued a “Leading Health Indicators App Challenge,” soliciting developers to create apps that promote the use of key measures of health (“indicators”) to improve the health of communities.

The Census released new data with the headline, “Half of First-Time Mothers Receive Paid Leave, Census Bureau Reports.” Before you get too excited, “paid” leave included not just official paid maternity leave, but using up your own existing balance of paid sick and/or vacation leave, if you’re fortunate enough to have that. They also noted that women who got some type of paid leave were *more* likely to return to work within 3-5 months, making me wonder if they are often returning to work when they exhaust their reserves of paid sick or other time. Then there’s this limitation: “Given that FMLA and other leave policies in the United States do not allow for leave for more than 12 weeks, it is not entirely surprising that new mothers return to work relatively soon.”

ePatientDave writes about how impossible to understand an “explanation of benefits” document can be and how we’re prevented from stopping errors and reducing costs because of this lack of transparency.

This week in misogyny:
Rick Perry’s “departments I would close” gaffe has received most of the news coverage, but in the same GOP candidate debate, Herman Cain referred to Representative/former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy.” He or his team reiterated this remark on Twitter, before offering the fauxpology that he “probably shouldn’t have” made the remark, but “was trying to make a point.” A point that required a gendered diminishing and dismissal of a powerful woman politician, apparently. I guess he thought he had built up too much goodwill with women over the course of his sexual harassment scandal.

Using the #mencallmethings hashtag (which Sady Doyle apparently started), feminist women bloggers took to Twitter to talk about some of the vile things that have been said to them in the course of their writing, including rape and death threats. I contributed a rape threat I received through the comments here because I had the temerity to dislike a rape joke on tv. Just another humorless feminist who deserved threats of violence because of it, right? @metalmujer and others pointed out that the hashtag itself would be better focused on misogyny rather than “men.” Yes, most of the excessively hateful and threatening remarks I’ve been subjected to have been made by men, but the problem is not something about all men, it’s the misogyny these particular men have carried out and a culture that encourages them to do so.

I also keep seeing this image on Facebook intended at a critique of dubstep and its fans. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other about the actual quality of dubstep or its fans over time, but I do know that when the main critique is presented as “it was good when it was a bunch of men standing around, now it sucks and is by/for little girls,” that’s misogyny.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Contraception, Drugs, Events & Observances, Government, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Sex & Sex Education, Web Resources

For the clinical folks among you, I wanted to pass along that the new, 40th anniversary edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves is available at a 70% discount to clinics and other groups providing health counseling services.

As detailed on the clinic discounts page, “The discounted price is currently $7.80 per copy plus plus applicable tax and shipping. Orders must be for 12 or more copies.”

There are some additional details online about how you can pay, and what documentation is needed to get the clinic or non-profit discount. There are also discounts on some of the other books, including OBOS: Pregnancy and Birth and OBOS: Menopause.

Note: I contributed to some pieces of the book and am a blogger for OBOS but do not receive any direct payment from sales of the book.

Filed under: Abortion, Adolescent Health, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Contraception, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Menstruation, Mental Health, Pregnancy, Sex & Sex Education, Vaginas & Vulvas, Women’s Health

This Saturday, Our Bodies Ourselves will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the original book on women’s bodies and health, editions of which have informed and inspired women ever since.

To mark this milestone, the organization is holding a free public symposium this Saturday at Boston University, with speakers including Loretta Ross of SisterSong, Jacyln Friedman of Women, Action, & the Media, Bylle Avery of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and OBOS’s own Judy Norsigian. There will also be panels on OBOS’s global initiatives, activism, and change, and partners from 12 countries there to “share their extraordinary journeys transforming ‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ for their own countries.” Last but not least, the 40th anniversary edition of the landmark book will be released on the day of the event.

I’m super-excited.

Realizing that everybody who might be interested in these sessions – which include a great deal of representation of OBOS’s global partners – might not be able to attend, the event will be live-streamed online starting at 9am on Saturday.

If you’re following along at home and want to tweet about it, the hashtag we’re using is #obos40. There will be a post-event round-up at Our Bodies Our Blog.

Filed under: Events & Observances, Global Issues, Women’s Health

A few things of interest from the past week:

RHRC has a whole series on obstetric fistula.

March 3 was International Sex Workers Rights Day.

As Naomi shared in the comments of a previous post, Rachel Maddow recently had on two Republican women who are Wyoming state reps and who reject recent state anti-abortion efforts. The two women describe themselves as small government conservatives, and state that they don’t believe government should interfere in such private decisions. The video is here, with a transcript mode option.

Book Nerds! Deeply Problematic has an essay, “Hermione Granger and the Failures of Feminism.” It focuses primarily on how Hermione tries to bust in and forcibly “free” the house elves without actually talking to them about what they want and need. It made me smile.

Via Feministe, a link to this piece: Ask an Abortion Provider. It’s a worth-reading piece that covers the contrary-to-the-popular-narrative “possibility that [abortion] doesn’t have to be the worst thing that ever happened to you,” who gets abortions, abortions obtained by anti-choice women, the way the system fails women who want to control their childbearing or access abortion, and more. I wish they hadn’t used “craziest” in one of the section headers, but that’s a word I still work on myself.

INCITE! has a post on Black Women Re-Defining Agency, Organizing for Reproductive Justice, which talks in part about how black women are demonized and pathologized *both* for choosing abortion and for having children.

Via @metalmujer: “Latino bigot Israel Luna’s hate film premieres in Australia http://hoydenabouttown.com/20110225.9558/open-letter-to-mqff-attendees/.” And at TransGriot, We’re Sick Of ‘You People’ Screwing Us Legislatively, Del Pena-Melnyk.

At the Wall Street Journal, A Push for More Pregnancies to Last 39 Weeks – that’s “at least” 39 weeks, not “exactly” or “only” 39 weeks.

Locally, the Tennessean has also covered the topic of early inductions for non-medical reasons, and writes:

Last year, a pilot program in Davidson County that directed doctors to check a form if they were inducing labor for nonmedical reasons had the effect of discouraging such procedures. Early deliveries dropped by half.

Further detail on the rate change:

A 9.8 percent rate in the first six months of 2010 dropped to 4.8 percent in the second half of the year at the five hospitals — Baptist Hospital, Centennial Medical Center, Summit Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Nashville General Hospital at Meharry.

Hilary of Mom’s Tinfoil Hat has a Prezi up on ACOG and VBAC.

Wow – the round-up is much easier when one has a working “g” key on one’s keyboard.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, News Round-Ups

I just realized last night that I haven’t actually posted anything here since last Sunday’s round-up. In usual blogger style, I’m going to say how busy I’ve been. This week has been pretty packed at work, including work related to another women’s health topic comparative effectiveness review that might get done. I also found out that I get to go to the IHA health literacy conference this year, which I’m really excited about – but that of course took some unexpected time making arrangements and working with colleagues on a poster abstract.

At home, I’m currently reading “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” which I’m finding pretty compelling, and which talks about the ways in which dependence on foundation funding stifles organizations (especially social justice orgs) from doing what actually needs doing in their communities and effecting real change. In an odd coincidence, the Friday lecture I attended at work this week was on tips for obtaining foundation grants. Ha.

I also read the last volume of Y The Last Man (although I skipped book 9 because the library can’t seem to find it…it’s been “on search” for two weeks). People, the monkey made me cry. *embarrassing*

The spouse and I also built a computer together this week. For various work and home reasons, it’s running Windows 7 rather than being a hackintosh or something else interesting. It was a fun nerd project though, and a long overdue replacement for the Mac laptop bought ~2002 that is making ominous noises. I’m trying to get by with OpenOffice, installed the protein FoldIt game, and have set up a character in World of Warcraft. Let’s hope that last doesn’t lead to even fewer posts.

Over at Our Bodies Our Blog, I actually have a couple of new posts. One is on some recent attention to the potential (although relatively low) risk of atypical fractures in some long-term users of bisphosphonates (like Boniva and Fosamax), drugs intended to reduce hip fractures in folks with osteoporosis.

The second is on the U.S. Justice Department’s new task force to address violence against American Indian women. While this violence needs attention, I express my skepticism of a police/state/Justice Department solution and include an INCITE! report on police violence against Native women, especially violence against trans women. There are also links to recent news about violence against/disappearance of Native women in Canada. (Note: I checked several sources on the preference for “American Indian” over “Native American,” and AI seemed to win out, but I’m willing to be corrected.)

People are also sharing their OBOS Stories in anticipation of the 40th anniversary edition; please share yours if you have a tale of receiving or reading the book, in any edition.

For those who have inquired, my dad has finished his chemotherapy and has started some different chemo with radiation. They’re in east Tennessee and he missed an appointment last week when Knoxville was experiencing flash floods – I’m glad they were not caught out in it. Radiation is going to suck, but the doctors still seem optimistic about dad’s treatment. Thanks for your thoughts.

Filed under: Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Cancer, Events & Observances

A bit of what I’ve been reading this week, when I haven’t been outside getting a mild sunburn. In February.

Via fellow librarian Bobbie Newman, I learned of this piece, “The Hazards of Leading Culture Change” (click on the download link for the PDF). It’s kind of oriented toward businesses/organizations instead of movements/activism, but there were a few points I thought were relevant:

“When you are up to your backside in alligators,” goes the oft-quoted line, “it is hard to remember you were there to drain the swamp.” Organizations under pressure are fraught with alligators-those seemingly never ceasing crises that keep leaders up at night. But, if all the energy goes into simply fighting alligators, there will always be alligators. Culture change is about focusing on source, not symptom—cause, not contest.

the illusion of advancement is far worse than none at all

Three turtles sat on a log in the edge of the swamp. One decided to jump in. How many are now on the log? Nope, there are still three. Deciding and doing are not the same thing.

Culture change is hard work and requires enormous patience. Many leaders are by nature impatient people who think results can be produced with the snap of a finger and completed by the end of the week. Culture change takes a long time because it is complex and disruptive. Culture change involves unlearning old habits and acquiring new ways of thinking and behaving.

Lunapads has a couple of suggestions For the Bookworm On Her Period.

The New Black Woman asks, Why are white feminists silent on Limbaugh’s attacks on FLOTUS? Apparently Limbaugh criticized what Michelle Obama was eating on a trip (while completely misrepresenting her nutrition message, of course), and basically called her fat, saying she “does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.”

Honestly, I don’t pay any attention to Limbaugh. His comments are clearly problematic because, at the very least, they misrepresent her message (hello, healthy eating does not mean you never ever eat anything unhealthy – it means awareness, better choices most of the time, and balance – not “roots and tree bark” as Limbaugh suggested), they put him in the position of policing what she eats and looks like, and they hold up an unreasonable (and not even real; Limbaugh, meet photoshop) standard and call it “healthy.” They basically say, “if she’s not an object of sexual desire in my estimation, her opinions aren’t valid.” And that, my friends, is utter bullshit.

Renee at Womanist Musings has more on this issue, and writes:

There is nothing about her physical body that needs to change, and the fact that she isn’t willing to starve herself, or engage in harmful eating practices to attain a figure that is unnatural for her, sends a positive message to young girls and more specifically young girls of colour, that they are fine they way they are.

I have to say, too, that I’ve also been troubled by the comments that are basically, “Limbaugh’s fat, so he can’t say anything.” No, if Michelle Obama were saying everybody should try to eat better and she was eating ribs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, Limbaugh could say something. No matter his size, no matter how much we might dislike him. But that is not the case. I don’t think the way to respond to body size policing is with more body size policing. Let me be 100% clear that this is not in any way to defend Limbaugh. I think his comments were crap. But I think that if people are going to respond to his crap comments, the way to do it is to criticize the substance, not to attack another body. It just sounds like some version of “so’s your mom” – and doesn’t get us anywhere.

Also on body image, Marianne at The Rotund has this to say:

“Real women have curves” was a marketing slogan thought up to sell people overpriced, ill-fitting pants. It does NOT promote body positivity – it only perpetuates body policing by turning the tables on people who don’t fit into yet another arbitrary ideal.

The job is to BUST THE FUCKING PARADIGM APART, not shift it a little bit toward the fat side. The job is to remind people, bodies are not public property and your opinion about an individual’s body is only an opinion, not a valid judgment of their worth as a human being. The JOB is to destroy systemic oppression of nonconforming, rebellious bodies no matter what those bodies look like.

Trans woman Tyra Trent was found murdered in Baltimore, reminding us once again of the violence trans women and men are too often subjected to. The Baltimore Sun covered the story, but included several quotes from Trent’s family members calling her “he,” and a cousin used the word “flaunt.” Tyra was also called a “sex worker” in the piece, while the same piece notes she had not been arrested since 2008. Argh. Other coverage, were it exists, is no better.

The Vanderbilt Medical School is hosting its annual LGBT health week this year from March 14-19. Overall it looks more LG than T, although Friday’s “Case Presentations in Adolescent Hormonal Therapy” might be relevant to trans health (no additional description is available at the moment – here’s the site).

I don’t think there’s a chance in hell this Georgia bill will hold up, but here it is. HB 1 would make “prenatal murder” illegal/a felony. It excludes “naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a ‘spontaneous abortion’ and popularly as a ‘miscarriage’ so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event.” Most miscarriages are unexplainable and so it would be impossible to prove that there was absolutely no human involvement in it. There is a lot of scientific debate about what may or may not increase a woman’s risk of miscarriage, so that’s a huge potential can of worms that could criminalize the smallest of everyday choices, not only abortion. Aside from which, there is necessarily human involvement, given that a fetus resides *inside* another human! It also defines a fetus as a person from “the moment of conception” (nevermind that at conception, it’s not a fetus. biology, whatever!). Amie and Jill at RHRC have more.

I haven’t watched them yet so I can’t say anything about them, but Dr. Nicholas Fogelson (Academic ob/gyn) has provided video of a recent talk he did on delayed cord clamping.

Next time I wonder why people call out online feminism for ageism, I’m going to remind myself that somebody who is 32 said she should pull back in order to make sure there was “a place for younger feminists to build their careers and platforms.” Okay, then. Kathy at Her Five Dollar Radio brings this up and asks “what you do “graduate” to when you feel you’ve aged out of the feminist blogosphere?” Over 30 as “old” is a huge problem; so’s the focus on “careers and platforms” instead of social change.

Things to learn more about: “The Native Women’s Association of Canada reports that 582 indigenous women and girls have disappeared or were murdered over the last five years.” For a U.S. update, the Seattle Weekly points to a new federal task force set up to address violence against native women. Here’s the press release from the Justice Department.

The New York Times has an editorial on recent abortion and family planning-focused legislation, The War on Women.

From libraryland, library folks are talking this week about Harper Collins’s completely absurd approach to ebooks.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Government, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups

A bit of what I’ve been reading this week, when I haven’t been outside getting a mild sunburn. In February.

Via fellow librarian Bobbie Newman, I learned of this piece, “The Hazards of Leading Culture Change” (click on the download link for the PDF). It’s kind of oriented toward businesses/organizations instead of movements/activism, but there were a few points I thought were relevant:

“When you are up to your backside in alligators,” goes the oft-quoted line, “it is hard to remember you were there to drain the swamp.” Organizations under pressure are fraught with alligators-those seemingly never ceasing crises that keep leaders up at night. But, if all the energy goes into simply fighting alligators, there will always be alligators. Culture change is about focusing on source, not symptom—cause, not contest.

the illusion of advancement is far worse than none at all

Three turtles sat on a log in the edge of the swamp. One decided to jump in. How many are now on the log? Nope, there are still three. Deciding and doing are not the same thing.

Culture change is hard work and requires enormous patience. Many leaders are by nature impatient people who think results can be produced with the snap of a finger and completed by the end of the week. Culture change takes a long time because it is complex and disruptive. Culture change involves unlearning old habits and acquiring new ways of thinking and behaving.

Lunapads has a couple of suggestions For the Bookworm On Her Period.

The New Black Woman asks, Why are white feminists silent on Limbaugh’s attacks on FLOTUS? Apparently Limbaugh criticized what Michelle Obama was eating on a trip (while completely misrepresenting her nutrition message, of course), and basically called her fat, saying she “does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.”

Honestly, I don’t pay any attention to Limbaugh. His comments are clearly problematic because, at the very least, they misrepresent her message (hello, healthy eating does not mean you never ever eat anything unhealthy – it means awareness, better choices most of the time, and balance – not “roots and tree bark” as Limbaugh suggested), they put him in the position of policing what she eats and looks like, and they hold up an unreasonable (and not even real; Limbaugh, meet photoshop) standard and call it “healthy.” They basically say, “if she’s not an object of sexual desire in my estimation, her opinions aren’t valid.” And that, my friends, is utter bullshit.

Renee at Womanist Musings has more on this issue, and writes:

There is nothing about her physical body that needs to change, and the fact that she isn’t willing to starve herself, or engage in harmful eating practices to attain a figure that is unnatural for her, sends a positive message to young girls and more specifically young girls of colour, that they are fine they way they are.

I have to say, too, that I’ve also been troubled by the comments that are basically, “Limbaugh’s fat, so he can’t say anything.” No, if Michelle Obama were saying everybody should try to eat better and she was eating ribs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, Limbaugh could say something. No matter his size, no matter how much we might dislike him. But that is not the case. I don’t think the way to respond to body size policing is with more body size policing. Let me be 100% clear that this is not in any way to defend Limbaugh. I think his comments were crap. But I think that if people are going to respond to his crap comments, the way to do it is to criticize the substance, not to attack another body. It just sounds like some version of “so’s your mom” – and doesn’t get us anywhere.

Also on body image, Marianne at The Rotund has this to say:

“Real women have curves” was a marketing slogan thought up to sell people overpriced, ill-fitting pants. It does NOT promote body positivity – it only perpetuates body policing by turning the tables on people who don’t fit into yet another arbitrary ideal.

The job is to BUST THE FUCKING PARADIGM APART, not shift it a little bit toward the fat side. The job is to remind people, bodies are not public property and your opinion about an individual’s body is only an opinion, not a valid judgment of their worth as a human being. The JOB is to destroy systemic oppression of nonconforming, rebellious bodies no matter what those bodies look like.

Trans woman Tyra Trent was found murdered in Baltimore, reminding us once again of the violence trans women and men are too often subjected to. The Baltimore Sun covered the story, but included several quotes from Trent’s family members calling her “he,” and a cousin used the word “flaunt.” Tyra was also called a “sex worker” in the piece, while the same piece notes she had not been arrested since 2008. Argh. Other coverage, were it exists, is no better.

The Vanderbilt Medical School is hosting its annual LGBT health week this year from March 14-19. Overall it looks more LG than T, although Friday’s “Case Presentations in Adolescent Hormonal Therapy” might be relevant to trans health (no additional description is available at the moment – here’s the site).

I don’t think there’s a chance in hell this Georgia bill will hold up, but here it is. HB 1 would make “prenatal murder” illegal/a felony. It excludes “naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a ‘spontaneous abortion’ and popularly as a ‘miscarriage’ so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event.” Most miscarriages are unexplainable and so it would be impossible to prove that there was absolutely no human involvement in it. There is a lot of scientific debate about what may or may not increase a woman’s risk of miscarriage, so that’s a huge potential can of worms that could criminalize the smallest of everyday choices, not only abortion. Aside from which, there is necessarily human involvement, given that a fetus resides *inside* another human! It also defines a fetus as a person from “the moment of conception” (nevermind that at conception, it’s not a fetus. biology, whatever!). Amie and Jill at RHRC have more.

I haven’t watched them yet so I can’t say anything about them, but Dr. Nicholas Fogelson (Academic ob/gyn) has provided video of a recent talk he did on delayed cord clamping.

Next time I wonder why people call out online feminism for ageism, I’m going to remind myself that somebody who is 32 said she should pull back in order to make sure there was “a place for younger feminists to build their careers and platforms.” Okay, then. Kathy at Her Five Dollar Radio brings this up and asks “what you do “graduate” to when you feel you’ve aged out of the feminist blogosphere?” Over 30 as “old” is a huge problem; so’s the focus on “careers and platforms” instead of social change.

Things to learn more about: “The Native Women’s Association of Canada reports that 582 indigenous women and girls have disappeared or were murdered over the last five years.” For a U.S. update, the Seattle Weekly points to a new federal task force set up to address violence against native women. Here’s the press release from the Justice Department.

The New York Times has an editorial on recent abortion and family planning-focused legislation, The War on Women.

From libraryland, library folks are talking this week about Harper Collins’s completely absurd approach to ebooks.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Government, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups

Via Siobhan, a project intended to train volunteer interpreters to provide services to survivors of torture, trauma, and sexual abuse.

Lyon-Martin Health Services in San Francisco, which serves a lot of people of color, gay and lesbian and transgender people, is raising money to try to stay open.

Vivir Latino is going to be tweeting on Monday from a media breakfast hosted by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Latina Magazine, on issues and inequalities in reproductive health care affecting Latinas.

I’m not terribly familiar with abortion laws in Mexico, but the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health network reports on the case of a woman apparently sentenced to a 23-year jail term for murder/abortion for what she states was a miscarriage.

The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance has news on Medicare coverage of Avastin for ovarian cancer.

Pamela Merritt at RH Reality Check has a great commentary about racist anti-choice billboards.

Also at RHRC, Tiffany Campbell writes about a disturbing bill in South Dakota to require women seeking abortions to first visit a crisis pregnancy center that pretty explicitly promotes an anti-abortion agenda to hear about other options and to ensure the woman is not being coerced (which reputable abortion providers already do). I don’t know what would prevent CPCs from just stalling on that required appointment until a woman was no longer gestationally eligible for abortion. The bill is HB 1217 in South Dakota.

Reuters on the pay gap between male and female doctors, *even though* women *are* choosing high-paying specialties.

Trans Talk has info on an upcoming National Transgender Health Summit.

The FDA approved a drug to prevent preterm births. News here, FDA release here.

The Disability Compendium with 2010 stats has been released, covering employment, poverty, disparities, health care coverage, and other data.

At AlterNet, 11 Women Found Murdered in Albuquerque Desert — Why Was This Not Treated As a National Tragedy?

I’m not going to provide the whole background on the Penny Arcade/Dickwolves controversy. To catch up, the best timeline/resources is at The Pratfall of Penny Arcade – a Timeline. Be warned that the materials will involve discussions of rape and rape culture, the hostility of gamer culture to women and assault survivors, and a near-fatal overdose of “you don’t have a sufficient sense of humor” and “let me explain it to you as though you hadn’t considered this….” It has included some pretty vile comments directed at rape survivors. Melissa at Shakesville depressingly points out why the whole thing was always going to go down the way it did, once it started. Unfortunately, I think there’s a lot of truth to that.

There was also a lot of controversy this week over Bitch magazine’s feminist YA booklist, including criticism of how Bitch responded to calls for books to be removed from the list and how the list was created in the first place. Someone in the comments points out that they could have referred folks to the Amelia Bloomer project list, an annual booklist of feminist works for young readers. The Amelia Bloomer folks have clear criteria you can evaluate, with information on the plot of each recommended title and its recommended age group. Sexual assault/rape is a factor in the discussions on the Bitch post, too; it also includes some interesting discussion of how people should act if they’re going to make booklists and refer to themselves as a “library.”

And so this seems like the natural place to link to this thing B has us mulling over, the conversations on feminist blogs, how often the leaders of those conversations fail, and how we should respond to that on an ongoing basis.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Cancer, Drugs, Global Issues, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Libraryland, Miscellaneous

My favorite books for 2010, consisting of books I *read* this year – most of these were not *published* in 2010. Links are to WorldCat records so you can find a copy in your local library.

First, the relevant-to-the-blog titles, loosely defined as encompassing health, feminism, science, sexuality, and the like:

Willing and Unable: Doctors’ Constraints in Abortion Care, by Lori Freedman – This book explores the issue of healthcare professionals who are trained to provide abortion and not opposed to the practice — the willing — but who for various personal and structural reasons are unable to do so. This is a thought-provoking work, and I recommend it for all pro-choice activists and advocates. My full review is here.

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us, by Carol Joffe – Stories and information about the effects of anti-choice activism and legislation on women and abortion providers.

Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore – I really liked this book, a collection of essays on passing, gender, race, and identity. Some of the essays are better than others, but the whole book is worth a read for an interesting meditation on dominant narratives, the ways in which so many individuals don’t perfectly fit our assumptions about who/what people are, and how we create and convey our identities along the way.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot – This book, published in 2010, is on pretty much everybody’s year-end list of the best non-fiction. The author explores the case of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were collected and distributed for research without the knowledge or consent of Lacks or her family, raisin issues of medical/research ethics, race, consent, and more. A brief overview of a talk I attended by Skloot is here.

Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, by Sarah Schulman – This is not my absolute favorite Sarah Schulman book, but I think it’s well worth a read for people contemplating how their own families perpetuate homophobia and how their own actions can either suppress or encourage homophobia.

My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story, by Abraham Verghese – This non-fiction work explores the experiences of a physician in east Tennessee in the early days of AIDS, and the effects of homophobia, rural life, and fear.

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Novels:
(which I read a lot of this year)
The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman – I’ve read 10 volumes of this zombie apocalypse title – it’s grim, tragic, and fantastic. I haven’t read it with any critical eye on issues of sex, sexuality, race, or other social issues, except to note that the one character who expresses a same-sex desire is viewed by the recipient of her affections as weird and misguided, and is repeatedly portrayed as somewhat mentally unhinged and unwilling to accept that someone might not alter their own sexuality to suit her. There is also an incredibly brutal series of rape scenes in one of the volumes which I think could be problematic for many readers – I don’t want to spoil it here, but ask in the comments and I’ll tell you which volume it is.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud – This is a great instructive work on reading and appreciating comics, a description that doesn’t quite do it justice. I highly recommend it for comics readers and those interested in general art appreciation and improving their skills at seeing.

Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson – Fiction work by the author selected to finish out the Wheel of Time series. I also liked Sanderson’s Alcatraz vs. the Knights of Crystallia (third in the series in which protagonist Alcatraz battles evil librarians) and Elantris, but couldn’t really get into Way of Kings. I also found the first half of Alcatraz vs. the Shattered Lens just plain annoying, but the second half was enjoyable.

Maus, by Art Spiegelman – Yes, I just got around to reading this. If you are just starting on graphic novels, this Holocaust tale is a classic.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card – I really loved this book as pure sci-fi entertainment, but the story suffers if you look too closely at key assumptions of the plot. I’ve been told by a reader I respect that things go downhill from here – I made it through Ender’s Shadow (a parallel story from Bean’s perspective) before flipping through a couple of other related titles and deciding to just stop here.

A City of Ghosts, by Betsy Phillips – This book of new Nashville-centric ghost stories is a wonderful read from the writer at Tiny Cat Pants, and an excellent choice for ghost story read-alouds. My full review is here.

Robot Dreams, by Isaac Asimov – I just finished this books of short stories, and really enjoyed almost every story in the book. One of them includes a brief description of a medical library, which I have excerpted here.

Everything is Miscellaneous:
B is for Beer, by Tom Robbins – Some people didn’t really like this book, but I found it just perfect, from concept to cover to content. It’s described as a children’s book for grown-ups, or a grown-up book (about beer) for children, and really succeeded at copying the style of writing in children’s reading instruction books while incorporating humor about beer and drinking. It’s a quick read, and one of my favorite Robbins works.

A few other good reads from the year:
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Hear Me Out: True Stories of Teens Educating and Confronting Homophobia, from Planned Parenthood of Toronto
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks
Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, by Paul Farmer
Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters, by Scott Rosenberg
Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction, edited by Devon Carbado, Dwight McBride, Donald Weise, and Evelyn White
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, by Randy Shilts
Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Allison Bechdel

I keep up with the books I’m reading and want to read on a continuous basis at Goodreads, and would love to get recommendations for things to read in the coming year.

Filed under: Libraryland, Miscellaneous, Reviews

First things first: the Senate voted on Saturday to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Hurray! The roll call vote for all of the Senators is here, reflecting the 65 votes for repeal and 35 votes against. The votes for repeal came almost exclusively from Democrats, with just eight Republicans voting yes. My own Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, were unsurprisingly among the Republicans who voted against repeal; I’m disappointed in them for voting their party and their prejudice to be on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of human rights and dignity.

The repeal will not become active for at least 60 days; HRC has a Pathway to Final Repeal document [PDF] that explains the necessary next steps, and warns service members about the interim:

The Human Rights Campaign issues this critical warning to service members: Repeal of DADT is not effective immediately and service members are still at risk of being discharged on the basis of their sexual orientation until certification occurs and 60 days have passed.

Also, as @polerin was clearly pointing out yesterday, the repeal of DADT does not protect trans service members, and passage of ENDA is still needed to protect trans workers everywhere. Trans Talk has a copy of a statement on this issue from the Transgender American Veterans Association.

Of course, the Senate also failed to pass the DREAM Act, which would have provided some avenues to education and citizenship for young immigrants brought here as children. I keep reading the “DREAM Act defeated” headlines as “DREAM Act deferred…”

In other news, Kate Harding has a completely amazing post, Some Shit I’m Sick of Hearing Regarding Rape and Assange. You really just need to read it if you have heard the commentary that Wikileaks’ Assange *just* didn’t use a condom, are tired of that commentary, or don’t yet understand what’s so problematic about that line of Assange defense. It’s a crash course in recognizing and combating rape apology.

Relatedly, Sady of Tiger Beatdown has had some internet drama related to Michael Moore’s reaction to the Assange situation and his minimizing comments related to the rape accusations – Sady has been demanding that rape victims’ stories not be thrown under the bus of Wikileaks worship. It involves a Keith Olbermann Twitter flounce. Thanks to Sady for tirelessly afflicting the powerful. Just go catch up over there. Kate Harding has also posted her support in Why I’m On Board With #mooreandme.

I just finished reading “Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity,” a collection of essays on passing, gender, race, and identity. Some of the essays are better than others, but the whole book is worth a read for an interesting meditation on dominant narratives, the ways in which so many individuals don’t perfectly fit our assumptions about who/what people are, and how we create and convey our identities along the way.

I have issues with this story and the reactions it has generated that probably need to be explored in a longer post. I never saw the “Is She A Hero Or A Danger?” language CNN purportedly used to discuss this woman who had a home VBAC after three cesareans (VBA3C); that’s not the headline now, but I think the answer is probably “neither,” and “these are the very cases against which we test our principles about what a woman can and cannot be compelled to do with her body for the sake of another person’s body.”

New sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines are out from the CDC; they also include screening and prevention recommendations.

Renee at Womanist Musings shares a video about images of women in advertising.

Cara at The Curvature points to a local story I’d missed: Nashville Police Officers Charged With Domestic Violence Get to Keep Their Jobs. Ugh. This reminds me that I need to contact Nashville police to follow up on an incident of police action I witnessed/reported.

In other local news, the story of Coach Howe’s dismissal from Belmont University because of her sexual orientation made the New York Times. For ongoing coverage, the Belmont Vision student newspaper and Pith in the Wind (blog of the local alt-weekly) seem to be doing the best job.

At Feministe, Hospital saves woman’s life; is told by Catholic leadership not to do it again, Oops, I forgot to have babies!, and two posts related to the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers – It’s not just violent clients who abuse sex workers, and Whore Stigma Makes No Sense.

RHRC is also hosting a series to explore and combat violence against sex workers.

Perhaps I’m entirely too skeptical, but I find it hard to buy this official story that the 36 LGBT books damaged with urine in a Harvard library were “accidentally” damaged by a staff member who just *happened* to spill a nearby open bottle of urine on said books. I’m a librarian, and a spilly/messy one at that, but this really strains my credulity.

As always, please check out Our Bodies Our Blog – this week we’ve been talking about genetic testing and privacy, and Avastin.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Ethics, Events & Observances, Government, Infectious Diseases, Libraryland, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Reviews

I’m reading Isaac Asimov’s “Robot Dreams,” and found this decription of a medical library in the short story, “Hostess.” The copyright date for the piece is 1951. In the relevant excerpt below, our protagonist, Rose, is doing a bit of surreptitious research. Certain aspects will be familiar to librarians now:

The New York Academy of Medicine had been enlarged both vertically and horizontally in the past two decades. The library alone occupied one entire wing of the third floor. Undoubtedly, if all the books, pamphlets and periodicals it contained were in their original printed form, rather than in microfilm, the entire building, huge though it was, would not have been sufficient to hold them. As it was, Rose knew there was already talk of limiting printed works to the last five years, rather than to the last ten, as was now the case.

Rose, as a member of the Academy, had free entry to the library. She hurried toward the alcoves devoted to extraterrestrial medicine and was relieved to find them unoccupied.

It might have been wiser to have enlisted the aid of a librarian, but she chose not to. The thinner and smaller the trail she left, the less likely it was that Drake might pick it up.

Our print volumes go back 35 years, but we’d never tell your creepy husband what you were looking up.

Filed under: Libraryland