The War on Women

[Project Willow]

I cannot believe this happening.

Mi Reps ousted for using the word vagina!

When are they going to just start locking us up in rape camps? That's what I want to know. And I don't want to go through the grief of watching as people whom I thought were reasonably level headed and progressive fail to speak out against this stuff, as so much of the punditry did and still does in the aftermath of the in-your-face craziness of 9/11 and the Bush wars. Is everyone going to drink this back-to-the-19th century coolaid too?

The male newscaster in this channel 4 clip is scary.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/15/michigan-lawmakers-barred-from-floor-after-vagina-vasectomy-remarks/

http://www.freep.com/article/20120614/NEWS15/120614049/Michigan-house-representatives-abortion-comments?odyssey=nav|head
With video: Two female Michigan lawmakers silenced after vagina, abortion comments

Freedom of speech has it limits – at least in the state House of Representatives.

State Reps. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, and Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, were told today that they wouldn’t be recognized to publicly speak on any matters before the House because of comments they made Wednesday during an emotional debate on a bill that puts new restrictions on abortion providers.

Brown, who voted against the legislation, told supporters of the bill, “I’m flattered you’re all so concerned about my vagina. But no means no.”

And Byrum was gaveled out of order after she protested when she wasn’t allowed to speak on her amendment to the bill that would have required proof of a medical emergency or that a man’s life was in danger before a doctor could perform a vasectomy.

Today was the last day of session for the House before it takes a long summer break.

The House bill, passed on a 70-39 vote, provides for sweeping new regulations and insurance requirements for abortion providers, makes it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion and regulates the disposal of fetal remains. It won’t be taken up in the state Senate until at least September. A companion bill that would have outlawed abortions past 20 weeks, with only an exception to save the life of the mother, was tabled by the House.

Ari Adler, spokesman for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said it was the prerogative of Majority Floor Leader Jim Stamas, R-Midland, to maintain order and decorum during session of the House.

They “will not be recognized to speak on the House floor today after being gaveled down for their comments and actions yesterday that failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives,” Adler said.

“House Republicans often go beyond simply allowing debate by welcoming open and passionate discussion of the issues before this chamber,” he added. “The only way we can continue doing so, however, is to ensure that the proper level of maturity and civility are maintained on the House floor.”

Brown and Byrum weren’t immediately available for comment.

"Both Representative Byrum and I were gaveled down without cause yesterday while voicing our opposition to the Republican's war on women here in Michigan," Brown said. "Regardless of their reasoning, this is a violation of my First Amendment rights and directly impedes my ability to serve the people who elected me into office.”

Brown wondered whether she was being silenced because of her comments that bill was forcing others' religious beliefs on her or that she used the word “vagina, which is an anatomically medically correct term. If they are going to legislate my anatomy, I see no reason why I cannot mention it.”

Byrum added, “I was ignored by the majority floor leader and not allowed to speak on my amendment which would have held the same standards for men and women when it comes to legal, voluntary procedures in reproductive health and now I am being silenced for standing up for women. This is yet another example of this Republican majority's misogynistic and cowardly tactics."

[Allegro]

.
The primary victims in today’s wars
are women and children.

The PBS introductory paragraph below as well as the first few minutes of the documentary lead those unaware that women have recently begun brokering peace, and of course that is not entirely true.

Women in increasing numbers for at least 20 years have been planning together, negotiating peace in foreign and domestic policies while teaching and assisting other women to do the same across borders and continents. Still, conflicts, wars, rapes and genocides persist.

_________________
Women, War and Peace | PBS | Oct 2011

Premiering in October 2011, Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain. The five-part series reveals that women have become primary targets in today’s armed conflicts and are suffering unprecedented casualties; yet, they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict. Visit the Women War and Peace website.

[Canadian_watcher]

[Project Willow]

What one young feminist faced when she launched a Kickstarter campaign.

Coordinated attacks on her Wikipedia page.
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-and-misogyny-via-wikipedia/#more-2394

Thousands of hateful and violent comments and threats on her Youtube channel.
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-silencing-on-youtube/

The intimidation and harassment effort has included a torrent of misogyny and hate speech on my YouTube video, repeated vandalizing of the Wikipedia page about me, organized efforts to flag my YouTube videos as "terrorism", as well as many threatening messages sent through Twitter, Facebook, Kickstarter, email and my own website. These messages and comments have included everything from the typical sandwich and kitchen "jokes" to threats of violence, death, sexual assault and rape. All that plus an organized attempt to report this project to Kickstarter and get it banned or defunded.

“I have been running a web series on YouTube for a few years now that both deals with questions of sexism in the media and also has ‘feminist’ in the title, so I’m certainly no stranger to some level of harassment,” Sarkeesian said in an e-mail to Wired. “I knew that delving into videogames might provoke a bit of a misogynist backlash … [but] this level of organized and sustained harassment, vitriol, threats of violence and sexual assault in response to a project that hasn’t even been made yet is very telling.”

[JackRiddler]

What a bunch of lowlifes. All too common, but never lose your astonishment at the fact that such lowlifes exist. A great many of them are teenagers, and that's not only disheartening; a lot of them will acquire some modicum of civilization soon.

If it's any further consolation: for whatever reason, youtube comments always, always, always bring out the lowest and the dumbest of the low and the dumb. One should never allow comments on youtube. One should link instead to a real board with moderation.

[Simulist]

You know how 100 monkeys with typewriters, if given an infinite amount time, are supposed to be able to author a book?

In the meantime, their comments are published on YouTube.

[8bitagent]

A woman discussing important or interesting discussions on gender roles in society=torrent of ugly reactions from vile trolls

Women in hollywood, music and pop culture perpetuating the overtly sexualized, "like, oh-my-gawd" Ke$sha/Kardashian mentality=lionized, idolized and emulated
by zillions of suburban females and loved by males

[seemslikeadream]

Models With Black Eyes, Split Lips and Slit Throats? Fashion Hits New, Sexist Low
A fashion magazine's editors think we need to look beyond the injuries and start seeing "beauty" in a maimed female face?
June 19, 2012 |

Treating women like dirt is hardly a new tactic for the fashion industry, with its long history of objectifying the female body, idealizing physically impossible beauty types and glamorizing violence against women. Bulgaria-based 12 magazine, however, has hit a new low with an inexplicable photo spread in its latest issue titled, “Victim of Beauty”[TRIGGER WARNING].

The six images are all close-up portraits of young, attractive white models sporting various gruesome injuries: one boasts a black eye, another a slit throat and a third sports a split lip and a bruised neck. Scrolling through this montage of burns, bruises and gashes, it’s easy to forget you’re looking at a “fashion” photo shoot; the images more closely resemble police files of horrendous domestic violence.

Were the magazine spread a deliberate attempt to raise awareness and generate conversation about our society’sfailure to prevent and punish widespread violence against women, it might be possible to salvage an argument in its favor. But the spread contains no words or explanations to contextualize it, plus editors-in-chief Huben Hubenov and Slav Anastasov have actually gone on record arguing the photos can be interpreted as “beautiful”:

We believe that images such as ours can be seen from various angles, and we think that exactly that is what is beautiful about fashion and photography in general – that anybody can understand it their own way, and fill it with their own meaning. Where some see a brutal wound, others see a skilful (sic) work of an artist, or an exquisite face of a beautiful girl.
With these blithe words, Hubenov and Anastasov have not just admitted to cheapening violence against women but to actively eroticizing it as well.

We’re so accustomed to seeing the female body stripped, arranged in demeaning poses and digitally manipulated in fashion shoots that few even question what scantily clad, emaciated women have to do with selling a clothes. But the descent into sexualizing violence against women to hawk a few magazines is a truly dangerous trend. In Bulgaria,12 magazine’s country of origin, one in four women suffers violence at the hands of a male partner. Its neighborsTurkey and Serbia have even worse rates of domestic violence (40 and 54.2 percent of women, respectively). Yet magazine editors think we need to look beyond the injuries and start seeing “beauty” in a maimed female face?

Hubenov and Anstasov do scramble to state that they “do NOT support violence of ANY kind, and this is NOT a shoot glamorizing or encouraging or supporting violence against women.”

But being part of an industry which refuses to take responsibility for constantly spewing out misogynistic images, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

[Pele'sDaughter]

[Canadian_watcher]

i love betty white

[Pele'sDaughter]

Code Pink Wants You to "Bring Your Vagina" to RNC in Tampa Bay

The Republican National Convention is coming to Tampa Bay in August, and along with it will comes thousands of protestors. Women's rights group Code Pink, which isn't shy about causing a commotion, is already planning its protest and is asking members to "bring their vagina to the RNC." Yes, they're putting out a call for "vagina warriors."

Remember in 2011, when a Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives upset his Republican colleagues by using the word "uterus" on the House floor? History repeated itself recently in Michigan when Democratic state Rep. Lisa Brown read a letter from a voter that included the sentence, "Finally Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but no means no."

The Republican Speaker of the House in Michigan promptly barred Brown from speaking on the floor the next day, because apparently "vagina" is a no-no word.

So now, Code Pink is looking for "vagina warriors" to "help us encourage Republicans to honor vaginas!"

"Join CODEPINK to bring your vagina to the Republican National Convention!" reads its website. "Together, we will form a V-team of women (and vagina-friendly men) unafraid to speak up for our rights and our lives. We will bring our resilient, creative, powerful Vagina Warriors to Republican fundraisers and to the convention hall. We'll take part in the Coalition March on the RNC and in the March for Women's Rights."

Code Pink is no stranger to causing a commotion. At the 2008 RNC, a member was arrested for trying to heckle John McCain. However, in the past they've also pulled off stunts to protest Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama.

The group also caused a ruckus in Miami back in 2008 when they started a protest in Little Havana that nearly sparked a riot at Versailles.

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/ ... ring_y.php

[seemslikeadream]

Women’s Health Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Arizona Abortion Ban

July 12, 2012
American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Arizona Join Center for Reproductive Rights Against Most Extreme Ban in the Nation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

PHOENIX – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona today sued to challenge an Arizona law banning pre-viability abortions on behalf of two Arizona doctors whose patients include women in need of this essential medical care. Today's lawsuit was also filed on behalf of a third doctor, who is represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The law, the most extreme ban in the nation, criminalizes virtually all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and contains the narrowest possible exception for only immediate medical emergencies. The ban would force a physician caring for a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to wait until her condition imposes an immediate threat of death or major medical damage before offering her the care she needs. The ban also contains no exceptions for a woman who receives the devastating diagnosis that the fetus will not survive after birth.

“Any number of things can happen during a pregnancy, and a woman has to be able to make the right decision for herself and her family,” said Talcott Camp, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “Whether a woman decides to continue with a high-risk pregnancy or terminate it, the important thing is that women, families and physicians make these decisions – not politicians without any medical training.”

Although very few abortions occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a woman who has an abortion at this point does so for a variety of reasons, including the fact that continuing the pregnancy poses a threat to her health, that the fetus has been diagnosed with a medical condition or anomaly, or that the pregnancy has failed and miscarriage is inevitable. The Arizona Section of the American Congress of Obstetrics & Gynecology has criticized the ban as violating standard practice and interfering with the doctor-patient relationship in a way that is adverse to women’s health.

“No court has ever upheld such an extreme and dangerous abortion ban,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the ACLU of Arizona. “Instead of passing unconstitutional laws and blocking women’s access to critical health services, our legislators should be working to ensure that all women get the care they need to have healthy pregnancies and protect their families.”

More information about this case can be found at: www.aclu.org/womens-rights/isaacson-v-horne

on our way to Roe v Wade

[Luther Blissett]

What a bunch of lowlifes. All too common, but never lose your astonishment at the fact that such lowlifes exist. A great many of them are teenagers, and that's not only disheartening; a lot of them will acquire some modicum of civilization soon.

If it's any further consolation: for whatever reason, youtube comments always, always, always bring out the lowest and the dumbest of the low and the dumb. One should never allow comments on youtube. One should link instead to a real board with moderation.

YouTube is the second-most popular search engine, which is both astonishing and due to its extremely young demographic. I was shocked when I learned this, and have lost many SEO fights over it, despite my protestations that people who use YouTube for search shouldn't be anyone's intended audience. I don't look at the commenters on various YouTube pages that I manage as part of my profession as even human; in many cases I actually believe its some vulgar HBGary form of persona management.

But it does sound as if it went way beyond this for her and that she was receiving organized attacks from all digital angles. It's hard to combat that stuff.

[Luther Blissett]

A woman discussing important or interesting discussions on gender roles in society=torrent of ugly reactions from vile trolls

Women in hollywood, music and pop culture perpetuating the overtly sexualized, "like, oh-my-gawd" Ke$sha/Kardashian mentality=lionized, idolized and emulated
by zillions of suburban females and loved by males

See: the public's almost preemptive reaction to Lena Dunham.
Also, the reason why I simultaneously loved and feared for Lana Del Rey. Clearly, she's beautiful, but I also thought that first single was a scathing, timely, and apt critique of her generation. I could have been and could still be wrong about her, I don't really know what to think. But I anticipated an explosion of seething anger from a culture that can't handle a combination of intricate intelligence and beauty. One is either a Katy Perry and therefore valuable, or a Jezebel writer worthy of contempt. Not a perfect example but I struggled with this comparison.

[Allegro]

.
I wanted to remember Eve Ensler, for a moment.

^ Ms. Ensler at TED 2004 → → ^ TEDWomen 2010


^ Congolese women are her passion.
Eve is cancer free.

---

Several links in original.

_________________


Vagina enters stage left—or is it right?
by Wayne Drash and Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Wed March 28, 2012

(CNN) — If anyone is comfortable speaking openly and boldly about women’s bodies, it’s Eve Ensler. The playwright and activist behind “The Vagina Monologues” has been at it for years.

So when she watches American politics of late— especially the conversations swirling around women’s reproductive rights —she feels both amused and vindicated.

“The vagina has become so real, so present, so powerful that people are going after it directly,” she said. “It’s evidence that we’re winning.”

America is abuzz about women’s issues.

The Republican Party, which has long fought big government in favor of privatization, has turned to regulating women’s private parts— or at least that’s how many on the left see it.

Rush Limbaugh calls a graduate law student a “slut” for advocating contraception. Planned Parenthood gets vilified as a house of horrors for promoting women’s health. And a new term has emerged for the leaders of states where abortion laws have tightened: “gyno-governors.”

Fonda, Morgan and Steinem: Boot Limbaugh from airwaves

What’s unfolding has been fodder for TV laughs, with “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show” and Stephen Colbert getting in on the game. Garry Trudeau took on state-mandated vaginal ultrasounds in his “Doonesbury” strip, telling the Washington Post that “to ignore it would have been comedy malpractice.”

A site called Government Free VJJ has launched “The Snatchel Project” with tips on how to “knit or crochet a vagina or uterus” and send it to men in Congress. “If they have their own,” the site says, “they can leave ours alone!”

On Facebook, a viral campaign has targeted at least five “gyno-governors,” with women asking anything from intimate questions about their vaginas to advice on menopause.

“I’m hopeful the sleeping giant of women and men across the country that has been awakened … will help put the brakes on what has been a runaway train,” said Susan Cohen, director of government affairs at the Guttmacher Institute, an organization established to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Women’s groups had been closely monitoring conservatives since the tea party revolution of 2010. Their fears quickly became reality: State legislators in 2011 enacted 92 restrictions on access to abortion services, which nearly tripled the previous record of 34 restrictions adopted in 2005, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts research, policy analysis and education.

Feminists of old see this fight as a pivotal point for the new generation, a carpe diem moment that could get younger women more active in health issues and policy.

“In every generation there are moments when the activism reaches a new level, and I think we’re seeing that because of the vile rhetoric from anti-choice politicians and radio show hosts,” said NARAL Pro-Choice America spokesman Ted Miller.

“What they didn’t count on, or what they may have underestimated, is just how out of touch this agenda is with the country’s values and priorities.”

Evangelical leaders urged to mobilize against administration contraception policy

Not so fast, say those on the other side of the debate. If you believe all that, then you’re buying into the Obama campaign’s brainwash machine-led by a group of radicals whose goal is to pull women and girls “into the abortion facility as fast as possible and perform that abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

“I think there is a war on women,” Tobias said, “but it’s not coming from the Republicans or the so-called right.

“A lot of this is orchestrated by President Obama’s campaign and his supporters. They’re hoping to increase their support among women for the election, and I really don’t think it’s going to work.”

Opening the ‘gates of hell’

While campaigning last year for Mississippi governor, Republican Phil Bryant declared that if the state’s “personhood” amendment failed, then “Satan wins.”

“This is a battle of good and evil,” said Bryant, who swept into office in November. “What times are we living in when it is politically incorrect for somebody to say, ‘Satan has a hand in this.’ … We’ve got to fight against the gates of hell to prevail here.”

The measure defined a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization,” and conservatives believed it was a slam dunk: a Bible-thumping state with a broad anti-abortion contingent.

Mississippi voters ultimately sided with women’s rights. And ever since taking office, Bryant has yet to live down his remarks.

Whenever his Facebook page gets updated for things such as “Attend the Mississippi Employment Expo tomorrow,” the digital onslaught begins.

“I heard Walgreens does pap smears for free, but the one in my town refuses. What should I do?” wrote Cristen Hemmins.

“I’m just a woman, isn’t my place in the home? I need to just make babies, right?” added Melissa Sauer.

“Brother Phil, will women be allowed to attend the Job Expo? Isn’t that contrary to Scripture?” said Alan Alexander, who got 36 “likes.”

At times, the governor’s office deletes offending posts, which promptly results in even more messages.

Bryant is not the only “gyno-governor” facing this Facebook graffiti. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rick Perry of Texas, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Bob McDonnell of Virginia have been targeted for supporting similar legislation.

The digital warfare starts at the grassroots level, regular folks within a state united by a common cause: those who don’t want women’s rights trampled. Groups like NARAL and moveon.org join in, drawing even more comments.

Soon, it’s viral.

McDonnell has been dubbed “Governor Ultrasound” for legislation that requires women to view ultrasounds before having abortions.

For his part, McDonnell is taking the Facebook attacks in stride.

“The governor is always pleased to see individuals exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech,” said McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell.

A sisterhood of lawmakers

Not to be outdone by comedy writers, political cartoonists and the Facebook gyno-surgency, state lawmakers have proposed bills and amendments that have garnered plenty of snickers, if not signatures.

In January, amid debate over the abortion ultrasound legislation, state Sen. Janet Howell of Virginia introduced an amendment to require that men seeking erectile dysfunction drugs get rectal exams and cardiac tests.

Oklahoma state. Sen. Constance Johnson in early February introduced a handwritten amendment to the Health and Human Services Committee which read, “Any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”

“I asked myself, ‘Is there another word for ejaculation or vagina?’ I couldn’t think of any,” she said, her drawl thick. “I wasn’t trying to be funny. As ludicrous as I thought my proposal was, I was dead serious. If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander.”

Johnson has worked in the Oklahoma Senate for 32 years, first as a longtime staffer before she became an elected member in 2005. As a staffer, she drafted the bill in the late 1990s to mandate coverage of Viagra, she said.

“They passed that thing so quick. It was the fastest bill I’ve ever seen go through the legislature,” Johnson said.

And until prevention of unintended pregnancies gets its due— through sex education and access to contraception —she’ll keep making noise in support of a woman’s right to an abortion.

“Some people call me a smart ass,” she said. “But I come from a legacy of smart asses. And the scary part is I have smart-ass daughters.”

Other lawmakers have followed: mock bills to ban vasectomies have been offered in Georgia and Missouri, suggesting the procedure deprives potential children from ever being born. In Illinois, one measure would require men seeking Viagra to view a graphic video showing the drug’s potential side effects.

These like-minded lawmakers, and others (including some men), didn’t work in cahoots. But Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner would like to change this. She sent a letter to her “sister legislators,” inviting them to join in on a conference call.

“We must work with the utmost urgency and forge a sisterhood of lawmakers to more effectively defend the rights our foremothers worked to attain,” she wrote earlier this month.

Turner was the force behind a bill that would require men seeking erectile dysfunction drugs to submit an affidavit from a sexual partner to certify impotence, see a sex therapist, receive counseling, undergo a cardiac stress test and be warned of risks and complications.

“The men in our lives … generously devote time to fundamental female reproductive issues,” she wrote in her press release. “The least we can do is return the favor.”

‘Two different planets’

Election cycles always bring out the most ardent activists on both sides of the abortion debate. Yet recent months have shown an intensified rhetoric around women’s health policy, as exhibited by Rush Limbaugh’s tirade against Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke.

That incident, combined with the increase in abortion restrictions, was the tipping point among women’s rights groups, they said.

But what is wrong, anti-abortion groups ask, with having a woman look at an ultrasound before going through with an abortion?

An ultrasound helps humanize what is about to happen, they said, something urinating on a stick and seeing a positive sign on plastic can’t do.

“If she can be shown a picture of her unborn, that just helps her make a more informed decision,” said Tobias with the National Right to Life Committee. “We think that a woman deserves to have all the medically relevant information that’s available.”

Tobias noted she’s one of many women leading the “pro-life movement.” The ultrasound measure in Virginia was introduced by a woman, state Sen. Kathy Byron, not by a gray-haired white man.

Virginia’s ‘personhood’ bill is latest front in the culture war

“This is not an anti-woman campaign,” she said. “Women are leading the charge. Pro-life, intelligent women in this country are not going to be fooled into thinking that there’s a war against them.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser said the left began steering the conversation away from abortion and toward contraception— which she calls a “non-debate” —after it realized “attacking the idea of the humanity of the fetus wasn’t working anymore.”

“It’s as if we’re on two different planets,” said Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization established to advance and mobilize “pro-life” women in politics.

The idea that the GOP has declared war on women, she said, is “jaw-dropping.” A war has been waged, she said, but it’s “a war on religious liberty … and a war on our ability to exercise our consciences.”

“Women are fully aware of what’s going on. They’re tired of gender politics that divide women from men and women from children.”

Opening the window

All this debate is enough to invoke hot flashes. So CNN tracked down Eve Ensler, the expert on all things female anatomy. Her global V-Day movement, an outgrowth of the success of “The Vagina Monologues,” is set to celebrate its 15th anniversary next year with an event called “One Billion Rising.”

What does she think about the resurgence of the vagina on the national stage?

“For so many years, people told me I was too vaginally centric,” she said by phone from Paris. “And clearly, I wasn’t vaginally centric enough!”

That the political conversation has swung to talk about contraception and mandated vaginal ultrasounds may be “the gift that keeps on giving.”

Those on the right, she said, “don’t even know what they’ve stepped into.”

In her mind, she sees several images. One is a window that leads to women’s liberation. Right now, Ensler says, it is only halfway open. Women can’t quite squeeze their whole bodies through, but she believes what’s happening now could change everything.

“This is the moment for women to come together. This is the moment to understand feminist rights and civil rights are here to stay,” she said. “Women are going to rise up and push it all the way.”

She references studies that outline women’s progress— how they’re more often the major bread-winners, how girls are prospering in school. And she sees a “patriarchal dragon” rising up to fight that progress and taking its “last gasp.”

Those driving this dragon, she said, have made it their mission to deregulate protection of the environment, deregulate corporations and finance and, in many respects, deregulate war, she says.

“The only thing they want to regulate is our bodies,” she said. “It’s profound if you think about it.”

In a way, Ensler pities those trying to control women’s reproductive and sexual rights.

“To some degree, the world has changed,” she said. “And they don’t know what to do in the new world.”

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