Restrictive Laws on a Right to Abortion

It's scary how states are trying to restrict a woman's right to have an abortion. Watch this segment of "The Rachel Maddow Show" to learn more about this issue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#36839218

Don't let Roe v Wade disappear.

KP

A sister blog!

Local Albuq blogger Danielle Bauer - of New Mexico Independent fame -- has started a great new blog called "Queer: Oh, Dear!" and she kicks it off with a great post about fake mustaches (you'll have to read it, to get it) and you can check it out here.

SK

What the Hell?!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_nebraska_abortion_laws

KP

If Movies/Television Were Reality!!!!

I'm sure there are a lot of examples of male characters who "know what it is like to be a woman". I encourage that all who read this add their own favorites.

Here are a few examples:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the muscle man himself, played a pregnant man in "Junior" (it would have been hilarious to watch the baby's head crown out of his body!)

Charles Tucker III (Trip), played by Connor Trinneer, from "Enterprise" was pregnant for a short period of time with an alien baby (this is why you don't touch aliens until you know what will happen!)

I don't think there is any other actor "who knows what it's like to be a woman" more than Scott Bakula. While he starred in "Quantum Leap", his character leaped into the body of:

A secretary who is sexually harassed by her best friend's "married fiance" ("What Price

Gloria?")

A divorced mother who has to save her kidnapped son ("Another Mother")

A beauty contestant ("Miss Deep South")

A teenager who's mother has died and her father kicked her out when she became pregnant ("8 1/2 Months" - This one is my favorite since he has a craving and goes into labor at the end)

A teenager who is date-raped and is threatened by her rapist ("Raped")

A teenager in a singing trio ("A Song for the Soul")

A wife and mother who is caught between her backwards thinking husband and her Women's Lib thinking daughter ("Liberation")

Dr. Ruth (Yes THAT Dr. Ruth in , "Dr. Ruth")

A female inmate ("Revenge of the Evil Leaper")

KP

Spreading The Word!!!!!

..... on message boards!

.....at the fire station!.....at the bubble lounge!

....at the cafe!
....at blackbird buvette!

-KW/JZ

You've Got to Check This Out!

I watched this awesome movie I was a kid and I laugh EVERY time I watch it. This movie is "9 to 5". It stars Lily Tomlin as the woman in the office who has the most experience and is passed over for a man who has a family to support (because a single woman doesn't have kids to support, right?!), Jane Fonda as the mousey housewife who is recently divorced and trying her hand at her first job, and Dolly Parton as the married sexy secretary who is constantly sexually harassed by the boss. For those of you who have not watched it, it's a movie about women trying to get respect at the workplace. I don't want to go into too much detail, but the three women get high one night to blow off steam and discuss how they would bumped off their sexist boss. All three scenarios are hilarious (Jane Fonda's is my favorite and my sister's favorite is Lily Tomlin's-she's a Disney fan). The next day, they all somewhat live out their fantasies, get rid of the boss for a few weeks, make changes in the work place, and by the end of the movie, justice is served! While the hair, fashion, and technology is outdated, they do not detract from the enjoyment and hilarity of this film. In fact, for some, it is very relatable. For all feminists, I highly recommend this film!

ZINE!

Spread the word with Zines!

KP

Food For Thought

And by the way, my belief is that if men were the ones getting pregnant, abortions would be easier to get than food poisoning in Moscow. – Dennis Miller

With humans it's abortion, but with chickens it's an omelet. - George Carlin

Seventy-seven percent of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant. – Planned Parenthood Advertisement

No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg. – Frederica Mathewes-Green

George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war. – Rick Claro

I have met thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is not being pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is trusting the individual to make the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard. – Hillary Rodham Clinton

The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies. – Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Roe v. Wade, 22 January 1973

Where we are at today:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#36143617

KP

What Else Is New?

Isn't it awesome when a woman tries to defend herself against the 'man-hating feminist' stereotype by writing a piece on how women are actually hypocrites? According to Audrey Irvine, women are single, miserable and stupid because they fail to recognize the "nice guy", and all straight women go for the "bad boy" just to end up where they started.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/personal/03/25/rr.disappearing.nice.guys/index.html

Sa'more bullshit!

There has been a study titled "My Body or My Mind", published in the European Journal of Social Psychology. This study videotaped what women experience in their daily lives as far as being judged nonstop by their dress and carriage. Half the time, the camera was held by a woman and half the time by a man. The women then did a cognitive evaluation to determine that when the camera was held by a man they felt more pressured and made more mistakes.

The mere idea that a man checking out a women would lower her intelligence level seems like a pretty common incident in our society, and I have a hard time believing that it was really necessary to do a "study". This is gender privilege at it's core. Men produced this study, carried it out, and came up with conclusions. Men don't know what it's like be a woman and have cat calls haunting you if you're walking on the street, men don't know what it's like to constantly be a secondary citizen in a world made for males. It's like women's lives are so mysterious and novel that we are being commoditized and put into some sort of 'special' category.

It's like how one of my courses is titled "Psychology of Women". Sometimes people ask why there isn't a "Psychology of Men"or "why is the former necessary?", my response is typical. Every other Psych class I am taking is centered around a hetero-normative, white, middle class male viewpoint. By offering a class on women, with a book written by a woman, taught by a woman, and case studies that have to do with WOMEN, we are actually learning things from a different viewpoint. This is another way in which institutions are forced to accommodate women because we are learning from a male perspective in all other areas. Therefore, affirming the notion that we are indeed treated as a deviation of the norm (hetero-normative, white, middle class male) and not just as humans.

That's all.

http://www.alternet.org/story/146396/new_discoveries_suggest_that_sexual_objectification_is_more_damaging_to_women_than_you_might_think

Zine Drop Offs #2, #3, #4, #5

I feel like a Zine Easter Bunny.

I hope the wind doesn't take off with this one!

Aaah, refreshing feminism:

Sneaky Dissent!















SK

Boo-ya, Zine Drop off #1

Our zine is out and about. If a girl named Penny finds this and is "saved" by feminism, that would be double great. Super literal.

SK

Project Zine!

There's nothin' like making a zine!

What's a zine, you ask? Why, I think you'll find this video helpful in explaining them (and teaching you how to start one of your own)!

We here at ABQFeminsts have put together a wee lil' zine -- in addition to this blog, which i feel is like an ever-growing eZine.

Though forms of zines have been around since the Printing Press, the contemporary, non-digital DIY-version we think commonly about has some deep ties to the Riot Grrl movement of the 90s, (and the punk era of the late 70s and early 80s). The tie between zines and feminism, is explained in Melanie A. Ferris' article Resisting mainstream media: girls and the act of making zines. That link might not work, so let me do some summing up for you:

• Basically, Ferris examines "how young women in North America have resisted mainstream media through the act of making zines." (Ferris, 2001)

• She ends the article by explaining that zines are "important in the lives of young women because they act as a form of resistance to dominant messages about how a girl is supposed to define herself. Zines serve not only as a forum for self-expression, but also as a way of creating a community and promoting communication amongst young women." (Ferris 2001)
  

Woo, empowering! Hand me the scissor and glue stick!

One of my favorite steps in the zine creation process is distribution, so, expect to see some pictures in the coming days of where we dropped off our zine around town.

Have you found one of our zines? Tell us your story in the comments section.

SK

The Princess and The media Giant.

Sometime in 2009 Disney released the movie "The Princess and the Frog" which featured the first African American princess. I haven't personally seen the movie. I stopped watching Disney Princess movies long ago but I have heard that the movie is typical and features a woman who needs help from a man in order to improve her life. Although this is not anything new, Disney has once again fooled us. The Disney princess cast is something that everyone should be proud of. Many ethnicities are represented. Pocahantas is a Native American, Jasmine is Middle Eastern, Mulan is Asian, and now Tiana is African American. Overall an achievement from Disney, a company who in the past had a cartoon character of a crow that was a crude caricature of an African American and whose name was Jim Crow. We should be celebrating this diverse group of women and young girls should be shown this as a way to show them that if your skin is darker than someone elses that does not make you different.

Jim Crow.

However, if you don't have children and you don't spend your time in the Disney store or at Disney Land, you will miss an important fact. There are OFFICIAL Disney Princesses. For the most part, these "official" princesses are used for merchandising and marketing purposes. So who makes up these "official" Disney princesses? Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and interestingly enough, Jasmine. Don't believe me that there are "official" princesses. Go to google.com and type in "disney princesses" and do an image search. There may be a couple pictures that have all the princesses but for the most part, the pictures will consist of the princesses I named before.

So what does this mean and why does it matter? Putting the "white" princesses up on a pedestal while ignoring the other princesses of color further racist ideology that is still rampant in America today. Mulan and Pocahantas in particular are strong, brave women! Mulan went to war to save her family and Pocahantas built relationships with invaders of her home! Aurora slept the whole movie while everyone else did the work! These strong women are heroes and should be treated as such, not shoved in the background!

The official Disney Princesses with the addition of Alice

My other Why, oh WHY?!!!

It's bad enough that some people think that being a girl means that we should wear pink all the time. When I had my daughter, I warned people not to buy her pink clothes (which sadly she did receive some pink clothes, but thankfully it did not dominate her clothes). What pisses me off lately is when I see normal toys that are designed for BOTH boys and girls now being designed for "girls". Example? How about the stack of rings. Normally, it comes in the colors of the rainbow. For girls? It's in pink and purple, including the stand. Another example is a ball or box that comes with blocks of different shapes. Manufactures also make them in pink and purple. They've gone beyond that. Take the traditional "meant only for girls" toy - the tea party set. Those are also made in pink and purple!!!! I mean, what the f@&*!!!! Growing up, I liked colors like red and green. My favorite color for a long time now is black. Why is it that girls are limited to just two colors in play time?! Girls are just like boys: they want to play, they don't care what the toy is so long as they can play.

And it goes both ways! I was at a store a couple of years ago and a mother told her son that he could have a drink. So he picked a drink. He's mother took it away and she along with her four daughters (who were all older that the boy) made him cry. All the boy wanted was a drink, but all they could think about was that it came in a "girly cup". These attitudes about what it "means" to be a girl or a boy starts as soon as they are born and it pisses me off. Children are children. Love them for who they are, not what society deems to be acceptable!

KP

Why, oh WHY?

This morning on 100.3 The Peak, some lady seemed shocked at a couple who had just recently bought their thirteen year old daughter a training bra. She thinks that the parents should have bought the training bra years ago for their daughter. In fact this lady said that she was going to buy her own daughter a training bra when she turns 9 because training bras are meant to get girls ready for wearing regular bras. I found this to be ridiculous. They are meant for when girls' chests start to pop out a little, but have yet to develop into a cup size. This lady should know that girls' breasts develop at different ages, not at a "one age fits all" rate of development. I mean we don't simply give girls tampons and pads to "train" with; they are given when a girl has reached the point of her first period (which also comes at different ages). Diversity does not just come in culture, it also comes in puberty.

A little history.

If you're new to the blog -- or heck, new to the women's rights movement in general -- you're gonna need to get caught up on your history, sister.

Just ask for it! "Info, please"

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the fight for women's rights didn't just start with Suffrage. It's been a looooooong journey (and we've still got work to do).

What do you think has been the most important historical moment in regards to women's rights?

Why does stuff like this even exist?

Please read and comment about this.

20 Girls Being Jealous of Other Girls

The site that posted this is called Manofest, and it's tagline is "Masculinity Times Infinity."

Why does 'masculinity' have to be defined as the opposite of 'femininity?' Can't it exist as its own entity? Do we have to polarize gender, and then rip 'the other' apart, for the sake of definition?

If gender is a social construct, then maybe hurtful generalizations are the only way to keep norms reinforced and in existence.

More than half of these girls -- labeled as 'jealous' -- look like victims of inopportune timing. Just because of their positioning and eyeline on the sidelines of the picture, they are chalked up as envious of the picture's main focus: traditionally attractive girls. And by 'traditionally attractive,' I mean attractive to men or the 'feminine ideal' of what the 'masculine ideal' decides is worthy.

I sound angry . . . and maybe I am.

I'm not man-hating. I'm label-hating. "Man"-hating, if you will.

SK

"Taylor Swift is a Feminist's Nightmare"

Click here.

I couldn't say it better myself.

SK

Respect the ladies . . .

With April starting, and March 6 days gone, we say goodbye to Women's History Month and hello to Sexual Assault Awareness month.

It's like the calender itself is telling us first to honor and remember our ladies and then also reminds us to respect them and their bodies.

Now, granted, sexual assault isn't only a 'women problem,' but according to RAINN, the statstics read that 1 in 6 women vs. 1 in every 33 men will be sexually assaulted in their life. College-aged women are 4 times more likely to be attacked.

This isn't just a woman's issue, but it most certainly is an issue women face.

Respect the ladies, everyone. And ladies, respect yourselves.**

SK





**60% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. If you are a victim of sexual assault, TELL SOMEONE. Click here for more information from the RAINN website.