#national organization for women

[undergroundrockpress]

National Organization for Women, 1970.

[haggishlyhagging]

In the years since I became associated with the National Organization for Women, its national leaders have never, to my knowledge, participated in an arrestable action on behalf of women. Even when the ERA was seriously endangered, they frowned upon civil disobedience. So when I read in The Washington Post in February 1985 that the president of NOW had been arrested in front of the South African embassy for protesting apartheid, I felt as if I'd been kicked in the stomach.

I deplore apartheid. And I'm glad that it's now become politically and socially acceptable—even sophisticated—to protest racism, even if it's only racism abroad. Senators, congresspersons, movie stars—the cream of society is doing it. Protesters gain in stature and risk nothing.

Racism as an issue has prestige because it involves the freedom of men. Almost everyone understands the necessity—at least in theory, at least rhetorically—for men to be free.

But women? Let's not be ridiculous. I am willing to bet that if apartheid applied only to Black women in South Africa, no one "important"—and I mean no one—would be paying the slightest public attention to it, to say nothing of being arrested over it—least of all the National Organization for Women. Women's freedom as an issue has no prestige.

Sonia Johnson, Going Out of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation

[soberscientistlife]

Today we are celebrating 56 years of NOW! We wouldn't be who we are today without our incredibly fierce membership and chapters. With the falling of Roe, that resilient activism must continue. We appreciate every single one of you and the work you have done to bring us to this anniversary. 💜 💜 💜

[loverslibraries]

Just finished The Women's Revolution by Muriel Fox

Review:

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Women's Revolution by Muriel Fox reminds me of Azealia Banks and Ronnie Radke, in that Muriel Fox writes about feminists and their accomplishments and then BOOM! they think one of the following: a) black people are bad b) lesbians are bad c) transgenders are bad

Nonetheless, this is a good starter book looking to get into one's own journey with feminism, especially since Muriel can't seem to form an opinion on anything that plagues the modern women (see: thinks that TERFs are "complicated"). But I can't deny that NOW, despite their very clear issues, have irrevocably changed how women are viewed in the United States, and thus this book is a good jumping off point for someone wanting to read something basic and accessible with no "complex" political influence.

3.43 rounded down

[seileach67]

[frauenfiguren]

18/2023: Del Martin, 5. Mai 1921

Sie gründete mit ihrer Partnerin Phyllis Lyon die Daughters of Bilitis; nach 50 Jahren Beziehung konnten die beiden heiraten.

Fair use Dorothy Louise Taliaferro kam in San Francisco zur Welt und studierte Publizistik an der University of California, Berkeley und dem San Francisco Stat College. Einen Doktorgrad verdiente sie sich am Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Sie heiratete einen Mann, der ihr den Nachnamen Martin gab, doch die Ehe, aus der eine Tochter hervorging, endete nach vier…

[lightdancer1]

Where possible I like to note movements that a person founded, so....

Friedan's NOW was the classical Second Wave Feminist archetype organization and it shows at every level. It defined woman as 'upper middle class white housewife' and didn't bother to stir itself for around 20 years to even start trying to include white lesbians, let alone anyone else.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

The majority of Black women of reproductive age in the United States live in areas that restrict access to abortion, a new report has found. Out of the 11.8 million Black women between the ages of 15 and 49, 57 percent (6.7 million) have little to no abortion access, according to a study from the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF) and In Our Own Voice.

Of the Black women in states that prohibit abortion, 43 percent live in just three states — Florida, Georgia, and Texas. 2.7 million are already “economically insecure” and 1.4 million work service jobs where wages are lower and sick days are not mandatory. "Nearly two years later, the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade continues to significantly harm millions of people across the nation, impeding their access to abortion, disrupting their economic futures, and putting their health and even their lives at risk," the report states. "The impact of this decision is particularly harmful for women of color, who are less likely to have access to high-quality, culturally competent health care and face greater economic barriers to getting abortion care." The report noted that "abortion bans and the harms caused by Dobbs are especially egregious in light of this country’s ongoing maternal health crisis." Black women and birthing people are three times more likely to die in childbirth as compared to white women and birthing people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to a study conducted jointly between National Partnership for Women and Families and In Our Own Voice, a majority of Black women of reproductive age live in areas that don’t have access to abortion services.

The 2022 Dobbs ruling exacerbated those harms even further.

See Also:

HuffPost: Report Shows How The Fall Of Roe Will Hit Millions Of Black Women

[eretzyisrael]

by Suzanne Downing

In an era marked by women’s rights militancy, a deafening silence looms over the savage atrocities experienced by Jewish women and girls at the hands of Hamas terrorists.

The United Nations commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Saturday, while a blatant contradiction stared the world right in the face: The systemic rape and murder of Israeli women and children by Hamas terrorists, in what appears to have been a preplanned part of the terror campaign launched by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The systematic dehumanization of Jewish women and children challenges the selective activism that plagues the global women’s rights network. The failure to even acknowledge these war crimes contrasts with the movement’s relentlessly shrill stance on other women’s issues. Whatever happened to “Believe All Women”? (RELATED: BRYAN LEIB: The World Is On Fire And Biden’s Spineless Foreign Policy Isn’t Helping)

Do the women’s organizations not believe the account of a survivor, who hid during the Oct. 7 raid on Israel, but could see from her hiding place a girl who had been captured and was being passed from Palestinian to Palestinian terrorist, who took turns defiling her?

“As I am hiding, I see in the corner of my eye that [a terrorist] is raping her,” the witness recounted to Times of Israel. “They bent her over and I realized they were raping her and simply passing her on to the next [terrorist],” the woman recounted. Her story is not isolated.

Such accounts should catalyze immediate outrage and action, from the White House to the United Nations, yet there remains a baffling silence, a betrayal of the very principles that women’s rights movements say they believe.

On Oct. 13, even though the torture of Jewish women had already been documented, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres equated Hamas’s brutalities with Israel’s self-defense.

Guterres said of the situation in Gaza that Hamas had killed more than 1,200 people and injured thousands, but, on the other hand, Israel had killed 1,800 people in response and injured thousands. He went on to say that Israel was being unreasonable to call on Palestinians in Gaza City to move to the south of the territory within 24 hours.

[tomorrowusa]

Even though the percentage of fundamentalist Christians has declined in the United States, the influence of Christian nationalists has increased.

55% of Republicans have Christian nationalist views. That includes House Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson who thinks our planet is just over 6,000 years old.

Poll: Most Americans cool to Christian nationalism as its influence grows

Republicans (55%) are more than twice as likely as independents (25%) and three times more likely than Democrats (16%) to hold Christian nationalist views, the survey found. Majorities of two religious groups hold Christian nationalist beliefs: white evangelicals (66%) and Hispanic evangelicals (55%). Both groups are strong supporters of former President Trump, other polls have indicated. Between the lines: Christian nationalism is a set of beliefs centered around white American Christianity's dominance in most aspects of life in the United States. Many Christian nationalists believe the federal government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation. Many also believe U.S. laws should be based on Christian values and that God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society. What they're saying: "It's really a claim for an ethno-religious state, and so there's nothing democratic about that worldview," Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, tells Axios. Jones said some Christian nationalists view political foes as evil or demonic rather than as fellow citizens with different opinions, and see them as needing to be conquered.

We saw an example of Christian theocracy in the Alabama Supreme Court Decision on in vitro fertilization. The 2022 SCOTUS Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling was theocratic in spirit.

If you think the US should be governed by the Constitution rather than by fundamentalist extremists, Vote Democratic NOT Theocratic.

[haggishlyhagging]

And then, right at that moment (as it always happens in history when the powerless are at their most vulnerable) came the seductive voice of the powerful—the voice, in this case, of the Democratic Party—saying, "Oh, we're so sorry this happened to you. It breaks our hearts. Because, of course, unlike those other guys, we're your friends. And you're lucky you've got friends like us, because we've got power and can help you. Now if you'll just stop rampaging around and getting out of hand, stop being 'coarse and pushy' (as the New York Times called NOW during the 1984 presidential election], stop being wild-eyed, bra-burning dykes!—if you'll just be nice and good and join us, we'll give you some power. And then, you can change the system."

Ah, how sweet that sounded to our ears. But what we didn't realize was that they were giggling behind their hands as they said it, because they knew that our getting into the system and trying to stay in it would change us far more than we could ever hope to change it. Once we were in there—and under their thumbs—we would learn quickly that we had to conform even more if we wanted the privilege of being re-elected.

It must be amusing to men that they can so readily persuade us to put our prodigious energy and creativity into keeping them on their thrones. The irony must be delicious to them: women bolstering up the moldering, putrescent corpse of patriarchy as it drips with the blood of millions of their sisters.

Men in power strive to get the strongest, most dangerous women to join them, because as long as we are where they can see us, imitating them, working for their favor, acquiring a stake in the status quo, we are not fomenting revolution. They like us to think they have the only game in town, and they're delighted when we strive for nothing more than to play it. Because they own and control that game, they make all the rules, hold all the cards, win every time. As we saw in Illinois, when we begin to look as if we just might win a round, they simply change the rules. Since they devised the game and understand it perfectly, we can never best them at it. And they know it.

-Sonia Johnson, Going Out of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation

[coochiequeens]

"It is vital that women's voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected." -Steve Barclay. Finally a man I can quote without without an eyeroll emoji

Health secretary plans to bring back 'sex-specific language' to NHS

Steve Barclay wants to push back against what he calls "wokery" in the National Health Service, with a source telling Sky News "ideological dogma" is stopping women from being listened to when it comes to their health.

Tuesday 3 October 2023 12:01, UK

Transgender women will be banned from being treated in female hospital wards in England, under new proposals put forward by the health secretary.

In his conference speech, Steve Barclay announced plans to push back against what he called "wokery" in the NHS, saying it had led to women's rights being increasingly sidelined.

The government will consult on making changes to the NHS constitution, which will also include the right to request same-sex intimate care requests.

The health secretary also confirmed sex-specific language would be used when dealing with women's health.

Speaking to party members in Manchester, Mr Barclay said: "We need a common-sense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS - that is why today I am announcing proposals for clearer rights for patients.

"And I can today confirm that sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.

"It is vital that women's voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected."

In April, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said the government could ban trans women from entering female-only spaces, and asked parliament's human rights watchdog for its advice to change official wording from just "sex" to "biological sex", which she described as a "technical and contested area of law".

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Barclay also announced an expansion of NHS training and funding of new technology in the health service.

He also confirmed new medical schools in Worcester, Chester and Uxbridge, as well as an increase in the number of places up and down the country for students wanting to train to be doctors.

However, Labour said the three "new" schools announced already exist, and added that restrictions on the number of government-funded places mean they are only training international students.

Mr Barclay's speech comes with the backdrop of ongoing junior doctor and consultant strikes in England.

They are taking joint action, with Christmas Day levels of cover expected until Wednesday.

It follows two days of strike action at the end of September and coincides with Rishi Sunak's first Conservative Party conference as leader and prime minister.

The Conservatives will be hoping to grapple back control of its conference in Manchester, which has been dominated by leaks regarding the northern phase of HS2 - which Sky News understands will be scrapped in the coming days.

While Number 10 says no decisions have been made, it is thought the section of the high-speed rail project between Birmingham and Manchester will now be shelved.

[canichangemyblogname]

going absolutely fucking feral. fuck?

I’ve been getting a lot of TERF posts rec’ed to me through the #feminism tag lately. And they’re most often only tagged something like #feminism or #woman, so filters aren’t catching them. And it’s all just… anti-woman and anti-feminist take after take. Like. How have they hijacked the narrative and monopolized the meaning of feminism to be something so reactionary and reductive? They genuinely believe takes like, “women should be forced to abort children” are feminist. BFFR. They just hate other women having bodily autonomy.

I saw one just now where someone was like, “I was daydreaming about men just disappearing”— like being raptured— “and then realized that all women don’t know how to do male jobs and got angry” (and they did say ALL). They then went on to talk about how no women knows how to operate machinery because women have been prevented from EVOLVING to do the same things men do because men forced women to EVOLVE to serve them. Evolved. They were like, “all men could just… build a wood bridge but we women are kept from that knowledge. We have no teachers.”

Further fucking proof that these misogynistic asshats do not build community with black, brown, indigenous, poor, rural, or working class women. They live in a theoretical fantasy world daydreaming about men disappearing and “female separatism” rather than offering real fucking solutions. They live in a world where every last woman has the same lived experience as them. They assume all women are oppressed in the same way. They ignore intersectionality to purposefully minimize ableist, racist, classist, heterosexist, and cissexist structures so that everything is organizable into a simple and universal M > F dynamic. This way, in their chronically white movement, they, the white woman, is always oppressed and never responsible for the marginalization of others.

Oh. And the OP had the label “fascist” in her username. They’re self aware now, but at what cost?

Trans Exclusionary Radical Fascism, everyone:

The patriarchy is inevitable. Change is impossible. We are never escaping this hell hole.

Some other “gems” I saw, TW for racism, misogyny, ableism, and abuse:

The amount of Arabophobia, Islamophobia, racism, misogyny, and ableism I see in the #feminism tag every day is truly sickening. Like 1/4 of the posts anymore seem to be from white radfems sexualizing Arab, Asian, and Black women (while denigrating and singling out typically Arab, Asian, and Black personal-care and beauty practices) while another good 1/4 of the posts seem to be anti-queer. And then some 50% are porn bots with #sissy kinks. The tag has been trashed by bigots and bots, and I’m surprised that Staff hasn’t marked it mature content yet for the sheer level of porn bots using the tag. Oh, wait. I do know why. It’s because Staff employs JKR stans who would rather label #transfemme as mature content than combat the porn bots.

[judeesill]

here’s how YOU can Get Offline and do some Real Radical Feminist Political Action!

*lists charities to donate to and individual lifestyle changes you can make in an afternoon*

[historybizarre]

The “family-wage ideal” of a male breadwinner and female homemaker “never accurately reflected life for many U.S. women,” but it was strong in white, middle-class households in the mid-twentieth century.

[danadaria]

AFC Richmond - Men Team: Himbos, trying to dismantle toxic masculinity, weirdly spinsters, allies, "We would die for you Coach".

AFC Richmond - Women Team: 1/3 have a PhD, political activists, half of them are married to someone from a rival team (or country!), there's 5 token straights, "Rebecca Welton can kill me however she wants".