Romney and Ryan have gone silent

 

With the arrival of Hurricane Sandy Romney and Ryan have gone oddly quiet about their stance on cutting FEMA and Disaster Relief.

What are acceptable Halloween costumes?

In the spirit of Halloween I felt that this was only fitting. I remembered last year seeing an ad about what kinds of Halloween costumes are offensive. In particular those that portrayed certain cultures in a less than flattering manner. They used the slogan “We’re a culture, not a costume.” How do you feel about this? Where do we draw the line on what makes a clever costume and what may offend someone more than we realize?

Gender differences in sports

I read this article in which University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma suggests the hoop height should be lowered in women’s basketball so more people will be interested. He argues that women are usually shorter and have more difficulties making layups and other shots which makes the games feel slower and less interesting. In softball the fields are smaller, in women’s volleyball the nets are shorter; are these genuinely to help female players be at a level of men or are they gender biased to discount women’s achievements in sports?

just another music monday…

The music that celebrates women’s empowerment is old.  And it’s new.  And it’s Chaka Khan.

I’m Every Woman from 1978.

Positive female role models on NBC

MissRepresentation got me thinking about why no one attempts to have positive female role models and when our role as a female is decided. I realized little girls watching princess movies are conditioned to think that is how life should be from a very early age. This week NBC’s The Office put on a Halloween episode that addressed a parent’s role in making positive role models for children. I thought it was interesting that NBC made it a parent’s role yet they are also a media outlet providing this insight. It was almost a double whammy on who should be responsible for creating the role models: parents or the media? Take a look at around the 1 minute mark.

Don’t Marry a Career Woman, Don’t Marry a Lazy Man

The ongoing battle between the sexes will never die down. I read this opinion article by Forbes.com that expressed the concerns of one pompous, arrogant man and his views on how men shouldn’t marry career women. The counter argument was written by his colleague who couldn’t have silenced him any better. He felt that men who marry women with a career will not be happy and are opening a can of slimy worms. There’s a lot more that I could go on and on about, I rather you read both sides through this link. Let me know how you feel. I had to take a couple of minutes to myself after this article. He couldn’t have been more wrong about successful women. Ugh, women can’t win for nothing. Men want smart, intelligent, beautiful, and inspiring women, but once they achieve that the woman has to dumb down to accent you pride and ego…get over yourselves!!!! Give women the credit where it is due, and take advantage of having a woman on your arm that is on her A- game. Let me know what you think.

Here’s the link: http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/23/Marriage-Careers-Divorce_cx_mn_land_print.html

Politicians on Women’s Rights

After Indiana Senate candidate, Richard Mourdock added his take on abortion rights, its hard to ignore that reproductive rights are on the national stage this election season. Some comments politicians have made, like our potential Senator, are incredibly offensive. Here’s a list of quotes, courtesy of a few Cosmo articles. I think it’s very important to fight misinformation and challenge views that could potentially take rights away from women.

1) “I would hope that when a woman goes into a physician with a rape issue, that that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage, or was it truly caused by a rape.” (R) Idaho State Senator, Chuck Wilder

2) “These Planned Parenthood women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness…We are not going to have our men become subservient.” — Rep. Allen West (R- Fl.)

3) Life begins “from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman.” —Statement from an Arizona bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer

4) “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country…. Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” —Former Presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum (he almost beat Romney, guys)

5) “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” — Texas gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams

6) “Understand though, that when we talk about exceptions, we talk about rape, incest, health of a woman, life of a woman. Life of the woman is not an exception.” –Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Il.)

7) “I realized that life is a gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen.” –Indiana Senate hopeful, Richard Mourdock

8) “I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life,” Paul Ryan, VP hopeful

9) “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare [pregnancies from rape]. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” — Todd Akin

 

Hopefully holding politicians accountable to what they say may make the country more vigilant towards intolerance. The best way to protect our rights is to show politicians that we are truly a moderate country, a majority of people do not support radical views on reproductive rights.

Then maybe our elected officials would be sensitive to their female constituents, instead of leaving them out of this extremely important national conversation.

just read it…

There is a reason that I adore John Scalzi.  He doesn’t mince words.  (Warning:  triggers for victims of rape/sexual assault.  He gives the same warning and he’s not joking.)

A letter from a rapist.

 

 

God’s Response to Mourdock

God’s Response to Mourdock

This was written by The Onion and apparently even God wants to distance himself from Mourdock.

prepare to start behind…

Female workers continue to financially lag behind, earning roughly 79 cents for every dollar their male colleagues earn.  (That’s an increase of a penny from the 2009 survey.  YAY!  Ahem.)

Where did the gap happen?  When did it start?

A new study, conducted by the American Association of University Women, concludes that women in the workplace didn’t just gradually slide behind over the course of their careers.  Rather (and more alarmingly) they contend that women begin their careers being compensated less than their male counterparts, right from the start, even in female-dominated areas, such as teaching.

Feel free to discuss in the comments.