The War on Women

[justdrew]

This page is dedication to my wonderful Daughter who was smart, beautiful, and full of life with a deep compassion to animals. The Person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys…one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral. Because the boys already had a “slut” story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a SLUT. This day changed the lives of our family forever. I stopped working that very day and we have all been on this journey of emotional turmoil ever since.
Rehtaeh was suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew, the harassment was so bad she had to move out of her own community to try to start anew in Halifax. She struggled emotionally with depression and anger .Her thoughts of suicide began and fearing for her life, she placed herself in a hospital in an attempt to get help. She stayed there for almost 6weeks. The bullying continued, her friends were not supportive. She needed a friend and eventually along the way a few new friends came along and a few old friends came forward.
Rae then moved back to Dartmouth, always with the concern of what will be said about her, said to her. Again, she was the one raped…she was the victim being victimized over and over again. One year later the police conclude their investigation to state that it comes down to “he said, she said” they believed the boys raped her but the proof in a court of law was difficult to gather. The photo sent…”well Leah, that’s a community issue!” The bullying never stopped but she learned to keep her head high and surrounded herself with the ones who truly cared. I will have eternal gratitude for her friends Jenna, Dawid and Mike for the past few months. They are the ones she leaned on for strength and courage.
Just two weeks ago she stopped smoking pot, started looking for work and with the help of one of her teachers and a new therapist she was making progress. When the calming effects of the pot subsided, her feelings of anger began to re-surface and she was struggling. I will say that she has told me many times that “Mom, although I often feel like killing myself…I could never do that to you because you would be devastated.”
This past week she was having lots of mood swings and her boyfriend Mike and Jenna wore the brunt of it but Thursday April 4th she had a great day, made plans for the weekend etc. Later that evening she had an outburst, acted on that impulse and locked herself in the bathroom. And to stop any rumors from spreading…. She acted on an impulse but I truly in my heart of heart do not feel she meant to kill herself. By the time I broke into the bathroom it was too late. My beautiful girl had hung herself and was rushed to the hospital where she remained on life support until last night.
This page is to celebrate the Rehtaeh we knew and loved. One of Rae’s pet peeves was that when someone passed away, suddenly they were liked and people cared. She wouldn’t want people who bullied her, talked about her, put negative statuses about her over the past year, and sent awful messages to be on this page. I know who you are because everyone message was a pain we shared together, there was not much that she didn’t tell me or show me. People were so very cruel to her so if you were one that felt it ok to bully someone in so much pain –STAY AWAY. Rehtaeh is gone today because of The four boys that thought that raping a 15yr old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun. Secondly, All the bullying and messaging and harassment that never let up are also to blame. Lastly, the justice system failed her. Those are the people that took the life of my beautiful girl. Rehtaeh stood up for others, showed compassion to animals and people. She was an amazing artist .She made my life complete. When Rehtaeh was born I dedicated everything to her and promised her the world. Others in this world took that away from her.

[seemslikeadream]

Wonderful Are Your Works, Especially Those Cool Little Fetus Dolls That Are So Perfect for Plugging Toilets
by Abby Zimet


We are not making this up: A New Mexico school district did not violate the rights of students when it barred them from distributing small rubber "fetus dolls" with an anti-abortion message at two high schools, a federal appeals court has ruled. The students, members of a small religious group called Relentless in Roswell - yes, that Roswell - planned to distribute 2,500 dolls, but got shut down when the giveaway proved so disruptive one school official called it "a disaster." Tearing the small heads off the dolls, students threw them at each other, bounced them around classrooms and stuck them on the tops of their pencils; they lit the dolls on fire, plugged toilets with them, threw them against ceilings so they would stick, and hung them outside their pants like penises. Who ever said youth was wasted on the young?

Students Lose Fight Over Rubber Fetus Campaign
By MATT REYNOLDS

(CN) - Teenagers who were barred from distributing rubber fetuses at their high schools to protest abortion do not have a discrimination case, the 10th Circuit ruled.
The five plaintiffs in this case are or were enrolled at public high schools in Roswell, N.M., when they attempted to distribute 2,500 rubber fetuses on Jan. 29, 2010.
All five belonged to a religious youth group called Relentless in Roswell.
Earlier that year, members of the group had handed out more innocuous religious materials, including candy canes and painted "affirmation rocks."
Though the previous events had proceeded without incident, the students caught heat for passing out the rubber dolls along with a Bible verse and contact information for a church-affiliated pregnancy counseling center.
Relentless has described the dolls as 2 inches in length, "the actual size and weight of a developing unborn child at 12 weeks' gestation." The attached scripture states: "For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are your works."
After the assistant principal of Goddard High noticed the distribution, he shut it down and confiscated the dolls, minus the 300 that had already been passed out. Alerted to the Goddard High distribution, the principal at Roswell High School directed campus security to confiscate dolls there if the distribution is disruptive to the educational process.
When Relentless members attempted a second distribution of the dolls, both schools again took action. Later that year and the next, the group's members distributed additional Christian-themed products without much incident.
In a June 2010 federal complaint, the students and some of their parents challenged the constitutionality of the on-campus distribution policies for the Roswell Independent School District.
At the close of discovery, a magistrate judge granted the district summary judgment on all claims.
A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit affirmed Monday, noting the massive disruptions that both high schools experienced because of the doll distribution.
"Several students covered the dolls in hand sanitizer and lit them on fire," Judge Scott Matheson wrote for the Denver, Colo.-based panel. "One or more male students removed the dolls' heads, inverted the bodies to make them resemble penises, and hung them on the outside of their pants' zippers."
Calling the students' expression "neither silent nor passive," Matheson said the "sheer number" of fetus dolls handed out "created strong potential for substantial disruption."
"Furthermore, these fetus dolls were made of rubber - a material that could easily be, and was, pulled apart, bounced against walls, and stuck to ceilings," according to the 55-page ruling. "The dolls' small size made them tempting projectiles and toilet-clogging devices. This scenario carries more potential for disruption than the passive, silent act of wearing a t-shirt or a black armband. And that potential quickly came to fruition," Matheson wrote. "The record is replete with reports of doll-related disruptions throughout the day on Jan. 29, 2010, including substantial disruptions to classroom instruction, damage to school property (the ceilings and plumbing), and risks to student safety (the fire-starting and doll-throwing)."
The panel also upheld the district policies, which the students challenged as unconstitutionally vague.
Finding that the policies passed "constitutional muster," Matheson noted that the policy requires schools to approve or deny a student request within five school days, and lets students appeal denials.
"The policy is not unconstitutional under the prior restraint doctrine because it constrains official discretion and contains adequate procedural safeguards - and because it applies to the school environment where greater deference is given to school officials," Matheson wrote. "It is not void for vagueness because students of ordinary intelligence can understand its meaning and it neither authorizes nor encourages arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement."
Matheson stressed that the ruling does not permit the district to apply its policy unconstitutionally.
"They must provide a fact-based explanation for why officials reasonably forecast that a particular distribution will cause a substantial disruption," Matheson wrote.
He added that the district did not ban the dolls "based on religion."
Furthermore the plaintiffs were not "treated differently from similarly situated students," according to the ruling.
"The only reasonable inference from the record is that the district disallowed the rubber fetus dolls for the neutral reason that they were disruptive, and that it allowed the other distributions and expressions for the neutral reason that they were not disruptive," Matheson wrote.
Four of the student plaintiffs - Seth Taylor, Lacy Corman, Arielle Green and Reed May - have since graduated. The fifth, Jacob Cobbs, is expected to graduate this year.
Judge Paul Kelly and Judge William Holloway joined the unanimous decision.

[FourthBase]

To be fair, in some other time and place and manner, that might just be the most effective anti-choice (anti-abortion, pro-life, pro-adoption, whatever) marketing stunt of all time. Just, you know, without the Bible verse and church shit. Then again, it could also backfire and simply desensitize people. I'm not even counting these high school kids, because when you give teenagers something like this, especially this generation of them, you are guaranteed to have them upend your solemn intentions and turn whatever your sanctimonious symbol is into postmodern high jinks, and generally speaking I admire that tendency in the youth, the instinct to shrug off weighty memes. On the other hand, I can't really imagine a better way to complete the intended symbolism than to flush the thing down a toilet.

[Pele'sDaughter]

Senate GOP blocks Democrats' equal pay bill

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic bill calling for equal pay in the workplace. But President Obama and his congressional allies aren't finished appealing to women on the No. 1 concern for all voters: the cash in their wallets on the heels of recession.

As expected, the pay equity bill failed along party lines, 52-47, short of the required 60-vote threshold. But for majority Democrats, passage wasn't the only point. The debate itself was aimed at putting Republicans on the defensive on yet another women's issue, this one overtly economic after a government report showing slower-than-expected job growth.

Unlike past taunts over access to contraception and abortion, Republicans this time didn't take the bait.

In Fort Worth, Texas, presumptive Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney focused instead on unemployment among Hispanics.

"Of course Gov. Romney supports pay equity for women," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "In order to have pay equity, women need to have jobs, and they have been getting crushed in this anemic Obama economy."

The device for the choreographed showdown in Washington was a Senate debate over the "Paycheck Fairness Act," a measure that aims to strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act's protections against pay inequities based on gender.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would require employers to prove that differences in pay are based on qualifications, education and other "bona fides" not related to gender. It also would prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who ask about, discuss or disclose wages in response to a complaint or investigation. And it would make employers who violate sex discrimination laws liable for compensatory or punitive damages. Under the bill, the federal government would be exempt from punitive damages.

Proponents of the bill say it is the next step after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Obama signed into law in 2009. The law effectively overturned a Supreme Court decision that had strictly limited workers' ability to file lawsuits over pay inequity. Ledbetter said she didn't become aware of her own pay discrepancy until she neared the end of her 1979-1988 career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala.

Near the end of her career, she received an anonymous tip that she was earning less than her male colleagues. She filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A jury initially awarded her more than $3 million in back pay and punitive damages, a sum that a judge later reduced to $300,000.

Ledbetter herself attended the vote and scolded Republicans for their filibuster.

"Do not let these Republicans keep us from getting paycheck fairness," she told reporters, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at her side and a letter from her to Romney posted online by the Obama campaign.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke instead on the looming fight over student loan interest rates. Asked if he was concerned about alienating women with the GOP filibuster, the Kentucky Republican said the bill opened the door to more lawsuits against employers.

"We don't think America suffers from a lack of litigation," McConnell said. "We have a jobless problem. We have a debt problem. We have a deficit problem. We got a lot of problems. Not enough lawsuits is not one of them."

Democrats intend to test that discipline in the coming months by raising hubbubs nationally and in House and Senate races over several issues that disproportionately affect women, or just matter greatly to this group of voters that leans heavily toward their party. Independent women voters in exurbs and suburbs of states like Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina are particular targets, said these officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.

First up in this category is the looming Senate debate over preventing student loan interest rates from rising next month. Look, too, for hubbubs over raising the minimum wage, extending the Bush-era tax cuts, preserving Medicare and Social Security and access to women's health care, including contraception, the officials said.

The paycheck bill was aimed in part at putting Senate Republicans in tough races in the hot seat over a key women's issue. One, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, issued a statement emphasizing his support for pay equity but calling the legislation "the right cause but the wrong bill."

"On the heels of last week's dismal jobs report, the last thing we should be doing is putting more job-killing burdens on small businesses and employers," he said.

Tweeted challenger Elizabeth Warren: "Scott Brown voted NO on Paycheck Fairness, telling MA women he thinks it's ok that they continue to earn less than men."

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/was ... 55400316/1

[crikkett]

On the other hand, I can't really imagine a better way to complete the intended symbolism than to flush the thing down a toilet.

[JackRiddler]

Tearing the small heads off the dolls, students threw them at each other, bounced them around classrooms and stuck them on the tops of their pencils; they lit the dolls on fire, plugged toilets with them, threw them against ceilings so they would stick, and hung them outside their pants like penises. Who ever said youth was wasted on the young?

ROFL. MBO.

[Twyla LaSarc]

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would require employers to prove that differences in pay are based on qualifications, education and other "bona fides" not related to gender.

Ahhh, but therein lies the rub. The biggest problem with the resume of many women (myself included) are the gaps where we devoted time to child-raising -or supporting a mate in their business/work- or caring for a dying elder. It's lost years, wasted ones, as far as the work world goes. I've had to start my career over three times now because of such things.

There will always be some legal reason why we don't measure up unless we personally pursue an existence more centered on expectations of stereotypically aloof 'male' behaviour rather than the compassionate behaviour unfairly assigned by society to be 'female' and undervalued.

I am currently performing a job that has conferrred on men I have worked with with much the same experience (and a few of them sorely out of their league except for a piece of paper) with at least $400 dollars a month more than I am making. I didn't ask for this job, I was happy as an underachiever. But I was told to do it and I am not getting any of the sugar, let alone the money. I have been to the union, I have been to the Ombudsman. Due to 'technicalities', I am worth less than these men. Even though I could outperform some of these guys in my sleep and when I leave I won't piss on back of the food trucks while drunk either...

[Project Willow]

Hopeing it all changes for the better soon Twyla!

[Twyla LaSarc]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-575 ... s-suicide/

SAN JOSE, Calif. Eight days after allegedly being sexually battered while passed out at a party, and then humiliated by online photos of the assault, 15-year-old Audrie Pott posted on Facebook that her life was ruined, "worst day ever," and hanged herself.
For the next eight months, her family struggled to figure out what happened to their soccer loving, artistic, horse crazy daughter, whose gentle smile, long dark hair and shining eyes did not bely a struggling soul.
And then on Thursday, seven months after the tragedy, a Northern California sheriff's office arrested three 16-year-old boys on charges of sexual battery.
"The family has been trying to understand why their loving daughter would have taken her life at such a young age and to make sure that those responsible would be held accountable," said family attorney Robert Allard.
"After an extensive investigation that we have conducted on behalf of the family, there is no doubt in our minds that the victim, then only 15 years old, was savagely assaulted by her fellow high school students while she lay on a bed completely unconscious."
Allard said students used cell phones to share photos of the attack, and that the images went viral.
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Lt. Jose Cardoza said it arrested two of the teens at Saratoga High School and the third, a former Saratoga High student, at Christopher High School in Gilroy on Thursday. The names of the suspects were not released because they are minors.
Cardoza said the suspects were booked into juvenile hall and face two felonies and one misdemeanor each, all related to sexual battery that allegedly occurred at a Saratoga house party.
The lieutenant said the arrests were the result of information gathered by his agency's Saratoga High School resource officers. He said the investigation is ongoing, and Los Gatos police also continue looking into the girl's September suicide.
The Associated Press does not, as a rule, identify victims of sexual assault. But in this case, Pott's family wanted her name and case known, Allard said. The family also provided a photo to the AP.
The girl's family members did not comment and have requested privacy until a planned news conference Tuesday. Her father and step-mother Lawrence and Lisa Pott, along with her mother Sheila Pott, have started the Audrie Pott Foundation (audriepottfoundation.com) to provide music and art scholarships and offer youth counseling and support.
The foundation website alludes to the teen's struggles, but until now neither law enforcement, school officials nor family have discussed the sexual battery.
"She was compassionate about life, her friends, her family, and would never do anything to harm anyone," the site says. "She was in the process of developing the ability to cope with the cruelty of this world but had not quite figured it all out.
"Ultimately, she had not yet acquired the antibiotics to deal with the challenges present for teens in today's society."
On the day Pott died, Saratoga High School principal Paul Robinson announced her death, stunning classmates. Two days later other students and staff wore her favorite color, teal, in her honor.
Robinson wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday.
The Pott family is not alone.
In Canada on Thursday, authorities said they are looking further into the case of a teenage girl who hanged herself Sunday after an alleged rape and months of bullying. A photo said to be of the 2011 assault on 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons was shared online.
No charges initially were filed against four teenage boys being investigated. But after an outcry, Nova Scotia's justice minister appointed four government departments to look into Parsons' case.

[justdrew]

Parsons' death has provoked questions about the Canadian justice system. Nova Scotia’s Justice Department is reviewing the handling of the case by The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Canadian Press reports.


People within the hacking collective Anonymous piled further pressure on these deliberations by threatening to release the names of the suspects unless the authorities act. Although some members of the group have since U-turned on threats to name and shame the suspects, at the request of the family, other Anons have vowed to press on with the threat.


The hacktivists, acting under the hashtag OpJustice4Rehtaeh, denied suggestions they were vigilantes in a statement supplied to Salon:

Our demands are simple: We want the [Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police] to take immediate legal action against the individuals in question. We encourage you to act fast. If we were able to locate these boys within 2 hours, it will not be long before someone else finds them.


We do not approve of vigilante justice as the media claims. That would mean we approve of violent actions against these [alleged] rapists at the hands of an unruly mob. What we want is justice. And that’s your job. So do it.


The names of the [alleged] rapists will be kept until it is apparent you have no intention of providing justice to Retaeh’s family. Please be aware that there are other groups of Anons also attempting to uncover this information and they may not to wish to wait at all. Better act fast.


Be aware that we will be organizing large demonstrations outside of your headquarters. The rapists will be held accountable for their actions. You will be held accountable for your failure to act.

Elsewhere more than 115,000 Canadians have put their names down on a petition calling for Nova Scotia's justice minister to open an independent inquiry into the police investigation in the case.

[Twyla LaSarc]

Active post here:

https://whyweprotest.net/community/thre ... ng.110282/

Some good links in there for people following this.

[Pele'sDaughter]

If this didn't involve the military I don't think they'd give two shits. Should've been changed long ago.


http://news.yahoo.com/outraged-lawmaker ... 08517.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to overturn a jury's guilty verdict in a sexual assault case has Republicans and Democrats joining forces on ambitious legislation to change the military justice system.

On both sides of the Capitol, lawmakers have interpreted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's recent proposal to essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members as an opening to revise the decades-old Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Congress repeatedly has challenged the military's lack of resolve in fighting sexual assault in its ranks, an offense considered far more prevalent than the reported cases of 3,192 in 2011, the most recent figure available. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that because so few victims report the crime, the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults.

Hagel acknowledged the problem earlier this month in announcing his proposal to eliminate the discretion of a commanding officer to reverse a court martial ruling, except for minor offenses, and to require a commanding officer to explain in writing any changes that are made.

The crime of sexual assault in the ranks "is damaging this institution. There are thousands of victims in the department, male and female, whose lives and careers have been upended, and that is unacceptable," the secretary said.

A single case has set off a recent outcry in Congress.

Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a former inspector general at Aviano Air Base in Italy, was found guilty last year of charges of abusive sexual contact, aggravated sexual assault and three instances of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The incident involved a female contractor.

Wilkerson was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissal from the service, but Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, commander of the 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, reviewed the case and overturned the jury's verdict of guilty.

Franklin explained in a six-page letter to the Air Force secretary that he found Wilkerson and his wife more believable than the alleged victim.

The ability of a commanding officer to reverse a jury verdict creates a single impression for victims of sexual assault in the military, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told senior officers at a congressional hearing last week. Those women think "no matter what happens at the trial, no matter if they believe me, some general is going to decide I'm a slut," McCaskill said, capturing the frustration and anger over the case.

In the slow-moving Congress, lawmakers are quickly writing legislation to change the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which was established in 1950 and was revised in 1968 and 1983. Separate measures in the House and Senate are expected to become provisions in annual defense policy bills, one of the few pieces of legislation that Congress passes every year.

The Armed Services committees are expected to complete the bills in June.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the new chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee, is working with members in both parties on legislation to give Judge Advocate General prosecutors the discretion on whether to go to trial, and to largely strip commanding officers of the ability to toss out a verdict.

"Our goal would be to remove all decision-making out of the chain of command about whether to prosecute a case and whether to bring a case to the chain of command," Gillibrand said in a recent interview. "And it would not just be for sexual assault. We're looking at all violent crimes."

Commanding officers would retain their current authority in cases that are the equivalent of misdemeanors in the civilian courts under her measure. And under Hagel's proposal, members of the military who are convicted could still appeal.

Gillibrand said she also has been in contact with Defense Department lawyers, insisting that collaboration with the Pentagon is vital to ensuring that Congress gets the legislation right.

"Everyone knows the current system is not working. Everyone knows that 19,000 sexual assaults and rapes a year is unacceptable," she said. "I think the military has been trying to grasp this for a while now without success and so they may need some outside assistance in looking at it freshly. ... It's not one of those situations where they can say, 'We got this,' because they clearly don't."

In the House, Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., who have collaborated in the past on legislation to help sexual assault victims in the military, are again writing legislation to address the issue. This time, Turner said the focus is on reining in the power of commanding officers to ensure they cannot set aside a conviction for sexual assault.

"Each year that we have advanced remedies to try to affect sexual assault in the military, we found something unique and egregious was in the Defense Department system that would re-victimize victims of sexual assault. The case of Gen. Franklin setting aside the sexual assault is absolutely one of those," Turner said in an interview.

"When we've talked to representatives at the Pentagon, they've indicated that they in no way ever foresaw that someone would supplant their opinion for that of a tribunal," he said.

Turner's aggressive effort on the issue stems in part from the brutal death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, whose charred remains were found in the backyard of the North Carolina home of a former Marine corporal in January 2008.

Lauterbach had accused Cesar Laurean of rape and of being the father of her unborn baby. The two were assigned to the same unit at the Camp Lejeune Marine base. A jury convicted Laurean of murder in the death of his pregnant colleague and he was sentenced to life in prison in August 2010.

"The tragedy of the Maria Lauterbach case is the military knew she'd been subject to sexual assault, left her with the accused, told both of them that as soon as her baby was born that they would do DNA testing and then prosecute him. And then he murdered her and buried her to eliminate the evidence," Turner said. "It's just outrageous to think that she could be left in such a vulnerable position that resulted in her death."

[Allegro]

Highlights mine.

_________________
Men Step Up to Support Women’s Rights and Fight Violence ... Stars and Regular Guys Say They Are Ready to Show Up
AlterNet [1], Eleanor J. Bader [2] | May 13, 2013

In the immediate aftermath of the Steubenville, Ohio rape trial, many men, both prominent and not, spoke out against sexism, misogyny and what has become known as “rape culture.”

“All men should be feminists,” Grammy-winning singer John Legend announced. “If men care about women’s rights, the world will be a better place.” Olympian sprinter Andrew Reyes, Virginia Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Ronnie Cameron also got into the act, pledging their allegiance to the movement to end rape, sexual assault and domestic abuse.

One of my favorite reactions came from a young man named Charles that went viral on Facebook. Charles was photographed holding a hand-lettered sign [3] that said, “I stand with Jane Doe because when I became a victim of a sex crime, no one asked me if I was drunk or what I was wearing or what I had done to make it happen.”

For at least some men, it seemed to be a click moment. [4] Nonetheless, questions lurked in many women’s minds. Were these outspoken men truly embracing feminism or were they simply appalled by one horrendously awful incident? And, if they were claiming to be feminists, what exactly did that mean? Were they seeking to break down a rigid binary that positions men and women as gender opposites, or were they instead focusing more narrowly and working to end the behaviors that too often result in sexual assault?

Most women, whether part of the organized women’s movement or not, wanted to support this apparent groundswell of pro-feminist and anti-rape sentiment. At the same time, suspicion and distrust began to kick in. After all, the past four decades have seen overt anti-feminist backlash and the development of men’s groups that are hostile to the idea of women’s equality and the breakdown of ironclad gender categories. For example, Promise Keepers [5], an evangelical Christian men’s group, reinforces the notion of male dominance within (always heterosexual) marriage and family life. Secular groups such as the National Coalition for Men [6] are equally male supremacist and promote the idea of male victimhood, purporting that women batter men and boys as frequently as the reverse. Their response to the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) speaks volumes: “Boys, men and fathers increasingly will die at the hands of their violent mothers and wives as our worthless elected officials rush to issue press releases and pat themselves on the back, claiming victory for having ended ‘the War on Women.’”

Proof that women batter as frequently as men? It’s nowhere to be found [7].

In addition, a mythopoetic movement inspired by poet Robert Bly and Jungian psychologist Joseph Campbell encourages the cultivation of men’s “inner warrior” and masculine voice. While some mythopoets are apolitical, other mythopoetic strands posit men as sexism’s primary victims—yes, trumping women—because of socially imposed rules about gender roles and propriety. This ideology has led them to oppose the notion of gender as learned performance (a theory put forward by Judith Butler, Michel Foucault and others) and instead champion a worldview in which male and female are distinct species.

But let’s get back to the burgeoning movement of 21st-century male feminists, purportedly egalitarian individuals and groups that are taking aim at misogyny and the double standard that continues to limit who and what men and women—however they self-define—can be.

Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women [8], welcomes the spike in men’s involvement. “Just as in politics, you can’t get anything accomplished if you don’t work both sides of the aisle,” she says. What’s more, she says women’s attitudes toward men have shifted. “The Catholic Church abuse scandal ignited a change and people now realize that men can be victims, that abuse is as hurtful to men and boys as it is to women and girls.”

Recognizing this, writer and advocate Mandy Van Deven says, is an outgrowth of efforts to promote intersectionality, the linking of oppressions. “The idea of gender equity did not really permeate broad activist circles until the last decade or so,” she says. “When intersectionality became more of an organizing principle among liberal and radical activists, when people began to talk more about social justice as a multi-issue movement, it opened the door for men to feel more comfortable in feminist spaces.” The downside, she says, is that movements are sometimes taken over by those who have traditionally held power, and money and attention can then get diverted from programs benefiting women and girls and given to programs run by and for men. Lastly, she says, some men who take on feminist issues “act as if they’re special and more deserving of accolades” than the women who’ve been working on these concerns for decades.

Still, for the most part, contemporary feminists are eager to include men in their organizing efforts. Choice USA [9], a national reproductive justice group, recently launched Bro-Choice, “to disrupt the dominant narrative that reproductive justice is a woman’s issue,” and groups including NOW and NARAL Pro-Choice America encourage male involvement and gender equity.

It’s an increasingly palatable message, according to New York artist Linda Stein. Stein has created a traveling exhibit/lecture that she calls “The Fluidity of Gender.” During the past three years she has taken the project to 16 colleges and museums across the US. “There are now men who are very much on the same page as feminists. They are trying to understand feminism and are open to listening and learning from women. I’ve seen a big change in attitude which I think comes from increased talk about bullying. My audiences are young, old, male, female, straight, gay and questioning, and they are getting the fact that masculinity and femininity are fluid categories. They get that it is not horrible for a man to be nurturing and raise a child. Obviously, we are nowhere near gender equity but each year I do this presentation I hear less hostility from men.”

Stein finds this development extremely encouraging. Nonetheless, she is acutely aware that it is essential for men to reach out to other men and boys. While numerous programs run by men, for men, exist, most are confined to stopping sexual violence, with only baby steps being taken to deconstruct mainstream ideas about gender or promote the fluidity Stein champions.

The exception is academia, where groups like the American Men’s Studies Association [10] are ostensibly working—at least on paper and on screen—to encourage the questioning of gender norms and theorize about how best to advance “the critical study of men and masculinity.”

But even this can be contested terrain. A.B., an untenured professor at a college affiliated with the City University of New York, reports that despite efforts to eradicate sexism and promote tolerance on campus, progress has been glacial—and not just in the classroom.

Unlike Linda Stein’s perception, A.B. says that male faculty “who claim to be feminists—and who write books and articles and deliver papers on the subject—are often the worst colleagues. At least at the colleges in which I have worked, it seems as if the more vocal they are about their feminism, the more willing they are to use gender discrepancies to their own advantage. They delegate more service work and more work-intensive teaching assignments to female colleagues, and simultaneously congratulate themselves (not to mention increase their own opportunities for promotion through increased time for research) for offering such ‘opportunities’ to them. In many cases, claiming feminism is just another way for them to see themselves as better than the average person on the street. Their sexism has moved underground, and is better cloaked, but it is still obvious.”

A.B. is not the only academic to be disgusted by the veiled sexism she has encountered. C.D., a psychology professor who asked that neither her name nor her college be revealed, says she has seen so-called feminist men pressure female colleagues to have sex, as if doing so will liberate them from the constraints of bourgeois convention. She says these encounters invariably result in awkward personal dynamics that hamper productivity and limit scholarly collaboration.

It’s the kind of stuff that makes you want to crawl into a hole or scream in despair, at least temporarily. But as the responses to Steubenville indicate, many men are beginning to ask themselves why so many of their brothers rape, batter their partners, and think themselves superior. The resources of several longstanding feminist men’s groups are helping them formulate answers and strategize about changing male behavior.

The National Organization of Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) is one of the oldest efforts. (It has changed its name from the National Organization for Men, to the National Organization for Changing Men, to the current name, NOMAS.)

Robert Brannon, a retired college professor and member of the NOMAS National Council, recalls that, “back in 1975, a professor named Sharon Lord taught a women’s studies class at a college in Knoxville, Tennessee. Male students attended the class and she gave them a project: to plan and carry out the first national conference on men and masculinity. The conference was a big success. The second conference, in 1976, was scheduled to take place at Penn State, but a week before it was supposed to begin Penn State kicked the event off campus because of a program stance supportive of gay rights. Everything moved to a Holiday Inn.”

By 1980, Brannon continues, it became clear to many conferees that an annual gathering organized by an ad hoc committee was insufficient and a call was issued to not only plan the next confab, but to create a men’s group that would be pro-gay, pro-feminist, anti-racist, and open to challenging prevalent gender stereotypes.

“Many of us who got involved early on had come through the civil rights movement and all of us had been influenced by it,” Brannon says. “We wanted to be on the side of justice and right. At the same time we realized that if we were just a men’s auxiliary to the women’s movement, we weren’t offering much. We began to see the average Joe as a victim of sex roles. The demands on men—to control our emotions, to focus on work, to not have intimate friendships with other men—impoverishes us and we can live happier and more fulfilled lives if we unlearn social roles regarding gender.”

Self-interest, as well as overarching support for women’s equality, became central organizing precepts for NOMAS and the many men’s groups that have formed over the past 35 years.

Ted Bunch is the co-founder of A Call to Men [11], a 10-year-old organization whose website says it, “works to create a world where all men and boys are loving and respectful and all women and girls are valued and safe.”

“We were born out of the battered women’s movement,” Bunch told AlterNet. “Myself and Call co-founder Tony Porter were working with domestic violence offenders. From that work it became clear to us that men who batter have a lot in common with men who don’t. Batterers use violence selectively and direct it at women. It seemed to us that these guys had good anger management skills—they did not hit their bosses or coworkers. They could control themselves but had been taught to see women as objects and as property. This idea is embedded in most men, even those who don’t assault women. Most hold a belief that they should have the final word, that females are there to serve them.”

During the 10 years of Call’s existence Bunch estimates they’ve spoken to 100,000 boys and men in 30 states and seven countries. “We were forced to learn how to package and translate the message in a way that men can receive it,” he says. “It can’t sound like an indictment.” One of the keys, he adds, is speaking openly and honestly. “I talk about times when I wanted to tell my son not to cry, but then realized that he needed to express his hurt and fear. We talk about the fact that men can show anger; that’s the one emotion that is safe for us, but we have not been given the okay to show other feelings.”

Call to Men asks why this is so and also questions the role of homophobia in keeping men from bonding. “Homophobia stops men from getting involved in work that is supportive of women,” he says. “It makes us afraid to embrace each other or give affection to our sons. In addition, when you address homophobia you always get into bullying and challenge it since the bullied are often boys who don’t present with hyper-masculinity.”

Maintaining good relationships with women’s groups, Bunch says, is central to all Call’s work. “When we first formed the women we reached out to were welcoming but a bit skeptical,” Bunch says. “Why would men do this work? Could they trust us? There was a fear that we’d do what men often do: Come in, take over, and say, ‘Thank you, little lady.’ Our board is majority women and we now have a good track record so this reaction has lessened.”

A Call to Men is presently working with coaches to discuss better ways to train athletes and model behavior that is less aggressive and rigid. CBS sportscaster James Brown and Baltimore Ravens’ defensive lineman Chris Canty are working with Bunch and other Call staff to reach this demographic.

Like A Call to Men, the Washington, DC-based Men Can Stop Rape [12] challenges male supremacist attitudes and develops strategies to support non-violence. Through Men of Strength (MOST) clubs, mentors work with middle- and high-school-aged boys to discuss healthy relationships, empathy, machismo and essentialist beliefs about gender. The year-long program brings football players, computer geeks and troublemakers together and gives them 45 to 60 minutes a week to think and talk about masculinity. According to Patrick McGann, director of strategy and planning, “The goal is to make these young guys become change-makers in their schools, families and communities.”

The group has also launched a poster campaign of attention-grabbing artwork that is visible at bus stops and train stations throughout the District of Columbia, to make men aware of what they can do to stop abuse and harassment. “When Karl kept harassing girls on the street, I said: Stop being a jerk. I’m the kind of guy who takes a stand,” says one poster. Another depicts a crowded party: “When Nicole couldn’t lose that drunk guy, I called her cell to give her an out,” says another.

Schools need to pay for MOST’s 24-week curriculum—something cash-strapped programs often cannot do—but Men Can Stop Rape also promotes dialogue through social media and its website. In addition, a grant has enabled it to partner with youth-advocacy agencies across the US to create a Healthy Masculinity Action project. The project is hosting town hall meetings throughout the country and sponsoring campus conversations to explore gender roles and promote women’s equality and non-violence. “We are basing the project on the assumption that the majority of men can be made to care about these issues and will do something to change their behavior. It’s about persuading men to care and act,” McGann says.

These three organizations are far from alone. Over the past few years, an array of websites have sprouted up, making clear that men are eager to engage with women around gender, sex roles, feminism, patriarchy and sexism. They include: XYonline.net, malefeminists.com, voicemalemagazine.org, blackmasculinities.com, goodmenproject.com, everydayfeminism,com and the Five Minute Feminist on YouTube.

See more stories tagged with:
gender [13],
feminism [14],
steubenville [15],
rape [16]

Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/eleanor-j-bader
[3] http://uniteagainstrape.org
[4] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... amp;type=3
[5] http://promisekeepers.org
[6] http://ncfm.org
[7] http://ncfm.org/2013/03.action/ncfm-adv ... hs-of-men/
[8] http://NOWNYC.org
[9] http://choiceusa.org
[10] http://mensstudies.org
[11] http://calltomen.org
[12] http://mencanstoprape.org
[13] http://www.alternet.org/tags/gender
[14] http://www.alternet.org/tags/feminism
[15] http://www.alternet.org/tags/steubenville
[16] http://www.alternet.org/tags/rape-0
[17] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

[Allegro]

seeking assistance | Dr. Amanda E. Bauer, astronomer
astropixie | Sunday, June 2, 2013

at a recent event in the US, heather skye asked patrick stewart a poignant question: “Besides acting, what are you most proud of that you have done in your life?”

without hesitation, he talked about how his personal childhood experiences have influenced the (non-acting) work he has pursued in his adulthood.

for his mother, he works with an organization called refuge which provides safe houses for women and children trapped as victims of domestic violence. it’s frightening how quickly a domestic situation can get out of control. just a few months ago i read a disturbing story in time magazine - photographer as witness: a portrait of domestic violence. it is not clear what causes domestic violence to occur, from individual socioeconomic and psychological factors like substance abuse, mental illness and unemployment, to patriarchal cultural values. but what matters is that those affected need to be able to find a safe escape and those responsible need to be held accountable and offered assistance to recover.

for his father, patrick stewart works with the organization combat stress which helps war veterans deal with the intense psychological wounds that result from being in the armed forces. post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is anxiety that can affect anyone who has been through or witnessed a dangerous event - natural disasters, road accidents, active combat, etc. as a society, it’s time we began talking about the mental health of those around us: friends, family, coworkers, everyone.

it’s worth listening to patrick’s full response. a touching video...

[Allegro]

That drawing and many others can be seen at The Reconstructionists dot org. The work was featured by Amanda Bauer, astropixie, Thursday, June 20, 2013.