A quote on radicalism.

“[T]he more radical the person is, the more fully she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but she does commit herself, within history, to fight at their side.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Yes.

Rick Santorum: The best mind of the 13th century.

A shit show of homophobia.

So much racism, so little time.

No, but by all means, go ahead and vote for him.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be packing up my worldly possessions and real estate shopping in Canada.

Just in case you thought only one legislative branch was declaring war on women,

you were wrong.  The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision decided to kill a part of the Family Leave Act.  Because everyone knows women should be making their babies and staying at home, god damnit.

But good for Ruth Bader Ginsburg for being a BAMF and reading her dissent in court.  Like a bawss.

This is why I'll be at either the Harrisburg (goes to Jill McDevitt's blog, a constantly valuable resource!) or Washington, D.C. rally on April 28th against the War on Women.  I will rage and roar.

Alrighty, Idaho is also on the shit list.

Chuck Winder: your facebook is next.

Well, the wage gap is going strong.

An infographic.  Enjoy.

Okay, okay, maybe I'm being unfair to Arizona.

After all, there are plenty of other women-hostile states in this country.  Feministe rounds them up for us here.

Places where I will never live.  Good thing Emory University rejected me, dodged the Georgia bullet.

I had some dreams of fair access to birth control and reproductive health;

they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee.

You're so vain, you probably think this blog post is about you (Arizona, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas...)

Okay, hear me out on this one.

So... one of my old friends, with whom I'm facebook friends but don't otherwise really interact, is pregnant after having some difficulty getting pregnant.  I'm happy for her, she wanted this really badly.

Today, she posted a status about having one of those fancy 3D and 4D (what does 4D even mean?) ultrasounds that all the kids are talking about.  It was a cute status about being able to see her little girl's face and all that.  D'aww.  That's nice.

And then she said "I thank my husband for giving us this gift."  ...Uh.  Actually.  You see, it takes two to make a baby, ya know?  And actually, your body is doing and has done most of the work.  True, you wouldn't have spontaneously created a baby without his sperm getting involved, I'll give you that; however, give yourself a little credit!  Jeez, you're the one carrying it, nourishing it, gestating it.  Your vagina fed enzymes to his sperm that allowed those sperm to make it to your uterus so that your egg could get fertilized.

Why on earth do we talk about fertility in this way?  Why is this baby a gift from her husband?  He should be thanking her, if anything.

Sorry, I just don't think we're going to get anywhere if we insist on devaluing women's bodies and women's work.

Post-racial America looks like this, apparently:

A white man gets to start an altercation with a seventeen year old black boy because he was walking home and shoot him dead.  This is self-defense, obviously, because one always needs to leave one's home in order to pursue a black person who is minding their own business and go kill that person.  The white man in question
has not been arrested.

Good thing there's no more racism, or something really bad could happen.  Like justice.

Whoever has been besmirching David Albo's Wikipedia should be stopped.

Troll face.

He deserves it.  I've spent the afternoon activism-trolling anti-choicers.  Governor Sam Brownback is my favorite.

Edit:  Wikipedia removed my edit, so here's a screen cap of what I wrote:

And somehow we always come back to Santorum.

Apparently, in 1994 he stated that single mothers are to blame for a bad economy and crime.  Damn, ladies, what have you been doing?!  The link discusses his shitty track record, but it also points out his racially coded language at the end.  Well done.  It's important to remember that most of the time when a conservative says "poor," he means "of color."

I guess I'm just glad this doesn't involve Arizona?  I don't know, I'm grasping at optimistic straws...

I think I'm going to kick Arizona out of the country.

I don't think they're on the same page as the rest of us anymore.

Okay, so they've been fucking up for quite a while.  I'm sure it's tons of fun being Hispanic in Arizona...  And NARAL gives Arizona a D grade on choice-related laws.  But, ya know, I've been willing to accept them as a state, even if I accept them as one of the worst states.  Surely they'll realize how badly they've been acting and turn themselves around, right?

Nope.  Next, they pass a bill stating that doctors are allowed to withhold medical information from pregnant women if they think that information might lead to the woman deciding to have an abortion.  Okay, that's one of the most horrifying things I've ever heard of.  But, ya know, maybe they'll realize that allowing doctors to break the Hippocratic Oath isn't okay.  You guys are demoted to a territory, but you're still in the country.  For now.

And now, they're trying to pass a bill that would allow employers to fire women for using birth control.  NO.  NO.  NO.  NO.  NO.  All of the violations of liberty.  Oh no, get the fuck out of my country, and don't look back.

But wait, there's more!  Now they're trying to pass a bill that would allow employers to cover birth control only for those "good" women who use it for not contraceptive purposes.  Even more violations of liberty!  Seriously, Arizona, we've had some good times, but it is just not working out.  Maybe try some backasswards country?  Maybe they'll take you?

Okay, so I don't actually have the authority or power to kick out Arizona, but I do think I get to look upon them with all of the disdain I can muster, because they'd be hurling it right back at me since I'm a slutty slut slut ladypants and all.

Something I think we can all agree on--except Arizona and nine other states:

Withholding medical information from pregnant women is wrong.  Period.  It violates the Hippocratic oath.

But apparently Arizona disagrees.

Okay, so this admittedly is a little complicated.  I definitely think it's a little scary that many families/women choose to abort fetuses that would be disabled.  That's definitely a little eerie; however, I still think it's the family's/woman's choice to do so if they want to--for whatever reason:  can't afford the medical costs, they feel unprepared to raise such a child, there could be enormous complications in the birth/remainder of the pregnancy, etc.

Nevertheless, passing a law that says it's okay for doctors to not tell a mother that her fetus would have important medical issues (I love the example in the article of the child born with one leg and no arms) is unacceptable.  How about we try trusting women to make their own medical decisions, hm?

Other things to read today:

This is about this Kony 2012 debate that is sweeping the interwebz.  The short version:  white imperialism is not the best way to end injustice.

This is about the history of Rick Santorum.  You have to be armed for battle.  This is a history of his quotes on women his blatant misogyny.

And this is just a classic.  Rape Culture 101.  Always important.  I haven't posted it here yet, so why not now?

Happy International Women's Day!

I'm not doing anything to celebrate today, per se, but this week has been a very Women-y one.  On Monday, I gave a lecture on my research about the lesbian separatist movement, and on Tuesday I took part in a discussion panel with the editors of Feministing.com.  I'll be writing a guest blog for Feministing some time soon, so I'll be sure to post the link here when it's up.

For now, check this out and gather strength.  The battle isn't over.