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On Thursday, January 29, 9-10 PM, Joy of Resistance will celebrate the end of the first month of the new year with a special treat–LIVE music and spoken word by the phenomenal 3-woman trio Mahina Movement –much of it relating to women’s experiences of street harassment. Allison Guttu, founder of the Women of Color Caucus of National Women’s Liberation and a former member of the pioneer anti-street harassment group: the Street Harassment Project (SHP) will also be live-in-the-studio and we’ll be talking about intersections of street harassment of women, and race.
The topic of race and street harassment recently got much attention, when hollaback, a group that fights street harassment, produced a video that purported to show a “day in the life” of a woman harassed on city streets by men–and all of the harassers shown in the video were Black men or other men of color! We’ll give concrete examples of how The Street Harassment Project tackled issues around racism that arose in the in the course of fighting street harassment.
We’ll also have feminist news headlines and announcements of feminist actions.
*On 3rd Thursdays, The Rape Declaration Forum airs 9-10PM.
News Stories and Links for Feminist News Round-up, January 29 Show
“March for Life” held up for 30 minutes by Stop Patriarchy on Roe Anniversary! Links with great pics of confrontation
Last Thursday, Jan 22, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v Wade, a day when Christian fundamentalists march, unopposed, by the 100’s of thousands in Washington DC–Stop Patriarchy, and others, blocked the “March for Life”, and surrounded by police, held it up for 30 minutes while holding huge signs of women who have died of illegal abortions. There were 7 arrests. You can see pictures of the confrontation, which was NOT picked up by mainstream media– through link below.
Mandatory Ultrasounds Proposed in Republican Congress
Shortly after House Republicans had to cancel a vote on Jan. 22, of an anti-abortion bill that some Republican women senators found to be too extreme, GOP congressmen introduced three new abortion restrictions, including one that would require women to receive an ultrasound procedure before an abortion.
The mandatory ultrasound bill, compels women to “receive an ultrasound and the opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion.”
One of the other bills prohibits federal education funds from going to schools with access to an abortion provider on campus, and the other requires states to report information on Medicaid payments to abortion providers.
Nearly half of U.S. states have passed some kind of mandatory ultrasound bill, but political backlash in some of those states has been significant. For instance in Pennsylvania, where former Gov. Tom Corbett sparked national outrage when he defended the state’s mandatory ultrasound bill by telling women, “You just have to close your eyes.” Corbett was not re-elected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/mandatory-ultrasound-_n_6535076.html
Among Women in Unions, Gender Gap Narrows Significantly
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has released an analysis of statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the gender wage gap, that discriminates against women–among union members–is 40 percent smaller than for non-union workers.
According to Joan Entmacher, VP for Family Economic Security (NWLC): “Today’s data show that union membership boosts wages for all workers—but especially for women,” “But last year the rate of union membership for women was flat. To promote equal pay for women, it’s time for lawmakers to stop the attacks on unions—and strengthen workers’ rights to organize.”
Among union women, Latinas experience particularly high financial benefits, making 46 % more than Latina non-union workers. African American women union members typically make 34 percent more than they would if they were non-union workers
SYRIZA Win in Greece, Significant for Feminists
SYRIZA, a coalition of left parties in Greece that is opposed to the austerity policies of the European Union–under which Greece has been plunged into poverty with a 25% unemployment rate and social services discontinued–has come to power in Greece. Although it will be an uphill battle to get all of their program implemented in the face of possible economic retaliation from the European Central Bank, their 40 point plan includes much that would, if implemented, improve the lives of women. Points include: support for single family households, increasing the public sector (unions, etc) and equal salaries for men and women. It is known that under austerity policies, women suffer the most, including, but not limited to: losing what gains they have made in public sector jobs, such as teaching and losing childcare services.
Marissa Alexander out of jail; Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Works Against Women Who Defend Themselves
Supporters of Marissa Alexander in the U.S. and all around the world are overjoyed that she has been released from jail after serving 3 years behind bars for defending her life. In 2010, Alexander, a black mother of three from Jacksonville, Florida, was forced to defend her life from a life-threatening attack by her estranged husband by firing a single warning shot that caused no injuries. State Prosecutor Angela Corey prosecuted Alexander, pursuing a 60 year mandatory minimum sentence. In November, Alexander accepted a plea deal that included time served of nearly 3 yearsand 2 years of probation while under home detention. Her time behind bars is now over.
In California, a prison study found that 93 percent of women who had killed their significant others had been abused by them. and that 67 percent reported that they had been attempting to protect themselves or their children when they wound up killing their partner. According to Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: “Most battered women who kill in self-defense end up in prison. There is a well-documented bias against women [in these cases]. Black wmn more likely to do real time–white wmn to get probation.
Mandatory minimum sentences, under which Marissa Alexander was sentenced, mandate that particular situations of women defending themselves against abuse not be taken into account in sentencing.
http://www.freemarissanow.org/fact-sheet-on-domestic-violence–criminalization.html
http://www.vawnet.org/applied-research-papers/print-document.php?doc_id=412
Femicide in Argentina and Around the World is Growing Phenomenon
On average, 21 adolescent girls in Argentina are victims of femicides every year, a growing phenomenon linked to domestic violence on the part of current or ex-boyfriends and husbands. But in the case of Argentina, some independent reports, such as one by the local non-governmental organisation La Casa del Encuentro, have begun to make it clear that not only are there more gender-motivated killings, but the number of victims under 18 is increasing. The local statistics are in line with a global tendency. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that three out of 10 adolescent girls suffer violence at the hands of their boyfriends. On her Facebook page, “Acción Respeto: por una calle sin acoso” (Operation Respect: for harassment-free streets), Veronica Lemi talked about an aggressive, sexist culture” whose worst expression is femicide.
And that is part of a much longer story that we urge you to follow on the links provided on our blog site (repeat)
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/01/teenage-girls-in-argentina-invisible-victims-of-femicide/?
TV Show in Peru Shows Men Sexually Harassing Their Own Mothers-in-Disguise–and the Mothers’ Response!
A TV show in Peru has captured the moment unwitting men have been caught wolf-whistling their own mothers.
The experiment took two mothers, whose sons were identified as repeat cat-callers, and disguised them using make-up, wigs and clothes. The women then women walked past their sons to gauge their reaction.
In the video, one of the mothers gets so angry, she tells off her son and hits him with her pocketbook.
In the second case, the mother, wearing a green dress, walks past her son, who calls her ‘piggy’. She then calls his name before taking off her wig and confronting her son, hitting him with her hairpiece.
She tells her son to he should be ashamed of himself, as he pleads with his mother to quiet down, as he is working. He then tries to claim he didn’t make the remark and it was a man in a nearby car, but he eventually apologizes, before his mother walks off.
The video ends with a warning saying men should start respecting women before they unwittingly harass their own mothers!
It comes after the video claims that seven in 10 women say they have experienced sexual harassment on the streets of the Peruvian capital Lima
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