15 November, 2007 | 23 Comments

I have not really been following the 2008 presidential race. The election seems like such a long way off, though I guess the primaries are looming. Even though I haven’t been following the coverage closely, if I had to pick the person I’d choose to represent the Democrats, I’d choose Hillary Clinton. Why? Because she’s a woman.

Gasp!

Yes, I know that’s not the “correct” thing to say. Most women I know trip all over themselves to declare that they would never (never!) vote for a woman because she’s a woman, that a candidate’s gender does not influence them at all.

My question is, why the hell not?

I will [most likely] vote for a Democrat for president. Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president — she’s a senator and has a long history in politics. So I prefer her over the other candidates because she is a woman. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m sure people will ask me why I just don’t vote for the most qualified person. This question annoys me in many ways. Implicit in this question is the idea that female candidates are less likely to be qualified than men. Secondly, I am not an idiot. I would not vote for someone who is not qualified and who does not believe in values that are important to me. What I am saying is that gender is a factor that I will consider. In a circumstance such as this Democratic primary, it can sway my vote.

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12 November, 2007 | 11 Comments

Just a follow-up to my recent post on bias in the British media. I had to laugh when I saw this headline. The papers just can’t help themselves. How is the fact that Amanda Knox is American even relevant to this story? I can understand that her national identity will come up in the coverage of the case, but why is it the persistent focus? It seems like a childish reaction on the part of the press. It’s as if all of Britain has been wronged by this American — and by extension, all Americans somehow had a hand in creating this monster before she was unleashed on the innocent people of Europe.

There are at least two (possibly three) other people involved in this murder of a British student, one of them an African immigrant, but even the potential explosiveness of that cannot take the focus away from Amanda Knox, the media obsession. I’ve noticed many stories in the press here about young British women who have gone abroad and have ended up savagely murdered. Two women who went to Japan to teach English were killed in horrific fashion and there are other stories. I wonder if any British men who travel abroad are ever killed? I have no idea. Men being killed is not as interesting, since when a woman is killed, there’s often some kind of sexual component. We all the know the media gets off on that.

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3 October, 2007 | 11 Comments

I’ve always been irked by Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which in my view just co-opts the language and ideals of feminism to sell beauty products. But their latest commercial is really just brilliant. It’s heartbreaking and it’s true. See below or here.

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I" width="425" height="350"][/gv]

Also check out this older commercial. Working in the magazine industry, I saw this happen with my own eyes.

What kind of world are we creating for young girls — and for young boys? It’s too painful to even think about.

15 August, 2007 | 2 Comments

Yesterday’s terrorist bombings in Iraq — the deadliest attacks since the war began — targeted Yazidis, the Kurdish religious sect. Sunni Muslims view the Yazidis as infidels and devil worshipers and there is much sectarian violence. I’m mentioning this because Du’a Khalil Aswad, the teenage girl horrifically murdered in April about whom I wrote so much in the spring, was part of this minority community. Tonight’s leading report on the BBC’s Newsnight about the bombings showed part of the video of Dua’s death at the hands of a bloodthirsty mob. Dua’s murder inflamed tensions between the warring religious factions and has been a justification for further violence — but not because of any concern over the horrific treatment of women in this region. That’s not even an issue for these groups, given that they’re all guilty of it. Instead, Dua’s death is used for propaganda purposes, thus further dehumanizing her and her unspeakable suffering.

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13 August, 2007 | 8 Comments

Yesterday I left the building where I live and there was a guy standing outside holding two bibles. He approached me and said he wanted to talk to me, but I said no thanks and kept walking. I assumed he was the usual kind of Christian-African missionary I encounter in London — annoying but harmless. But the weird thing is that he started to follow me. I’ve written before about how my neighborhood can be eerily deserted, especially on weekends. So there was literally no one else around. I could hear this guy walking behind me. Finally, after about a block and a half, I turned around and told him in very strong terms to stop following me, that I was not going to speak to him, that I wanted nothing to do with him. Then I crossed the street.

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6 August, 2007 | 5 Comments

To follow up on my previous post, click below to read WH Smith’s response to my complaint, followed by my reply to them. I also heard back from the station manager at Waterloo. He said he was going to discuss this issue with the shop. When I returned to Waterloo the next day, the magazines were not displayed outside the shop. This may just be a coincidence though.

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31 July, 2007 | 6 Comments

Today my travels took me through Waterloo Train Station. I went into WH Smith and was disgusted by what I saw. All over the shop — inside and outside at the entrance — was the latest issue of Maxim magazine, featuring two naked women in an explicit pose. [If you live in London, I bet you've seen this.] Just the other day a co-worker and I were discussing the fact that men’s magazines like Maxim, FHM and Stuff are marketed as mainstream publications, when in fact they are porn, plain and simple. Would WH Smith display a porn magazine all over their shop? Of course not. But there’s Maxim and other similar trash publications sitting right next to mainstream publications at eye-level in the most prominent spots. And the covers of these magazines are becoming evermore explicit — the women are completely naked and the accompanying text is a disgrace.

I had a strong reaction to seeing these magazine covers everywhere inside the shop this evening. As a professional woman, I felt humiliated and degraded. Looking around the shop, what kind of men do we see on magazine and newspaper covers? Gordon Brown and other political and business leaders. And what kind of women do we see? Whores. Yes, whores. People who sell their bodies for money are whores. It’s bad enough that these magazines exist at all, but there is no need for WH Smith to plaster them everywhere in our faces. If they want to sell these magazines, the covers should be concealed.

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25 July, 2007 | 29 Comments

I’ve been getting a lot of flack lately for my anti-Harry Potter stance. The other day on the phone, someone (who may or may not be a blood relative) called me evil. Gee, y’all sure do get defensive over Harry Potter. Millions of people love these books but if a handful of people like me say anything, we’re attacked!

Well, here I go again. This evening I was in a bookshop and I saw the new HP book and picked it up. I read the first page. WOW did it suck. I mean, the writing is bad. Atrocious. I was pretty surprised. I know it’s genre fiction, but I didn’t think the writing was that poor. A big fat cliché in the first sentence? Eeek. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I have been reading Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, so my literary brain suffered quite a shock. It was like feasting on lobster one moment, then dining on three-day old garbage from the dumpster the next.

I am a book snob, I admit it. I’ll watch trashy movies and TV shows and listen to Duran Duran, but books are sacred to me. And furthermore, what would you say if someone like me was in favor of Harry Potter? That would be no fun. I like to wind people up, true. And not everyone thirsts to suck on the teat of mass-produced crap culture with the rest of society

I think I need to explain why I don’t like Harry Potter, besides just the fact that the writing is dreadful and I have no interest in hobbits or fairies or wizards or leprechauns or trolls. I have good reasons, you know, and what follows is rather lengthy. You have been warned.

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23 May, 2007 | 5 Comments

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has written on his blog about his heartbreak and rage over the savage murder of Dua Khalil Aswad. This story has clearly shaken him and moved him to take action, just as it has done for me and many others. On his blog, he rails against the misogyny that exists everywhere in this world:

Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence — is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.

I’m glad that someone in Hollywood is aware of these issues, since Hollywood plays such a key role in women’s worldwide exploitation and dehumanization. (Wheedon’s comparison of the Dua videos to a current Hollywood movie trailer is a must-read.) It’s important that someone like Whedon is writing about this because he has a much louder voice than the rest of us. And I think it’s important he is urging people to do something about this, not just rant and rave.

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22 May, 2007 | 7 Comments

Thanks to Joanne for alerting me that there’s now a letter writing campaign on Dua’s behalf organized by Amnesty International. If you care about this story, please take a moment to send a letter. Though Dua’s killers have apparently been arrested, the Iraqi penal code offers reduced sentences to men who kill women for reasons of “honor.” These murderers could serve as little as six months in jail. We can only hope that by launching this campaign, the Iraqi officials will take this case and other cases more seriously if they know the international community is watching.

If you click “more” below, you will see the text of the letter that Amnesty suggests sending to the Prime Minister of Iraq. It is in the white box and you can simply copy and paste it into a Word doc, print it out, sign it and mail it. While Amnesty’s letter is addressed to the Prime Minister in Iraq, I really can’t imagine it ever being delivered to the correct government office. Even though the letter is addressed to the Prime Minister, I think it makes more sense to send these letters to the Iraqi Embassies in the US and the UK, where they are more likely to fall into the correct hands and will be read by people who can speak English. I have included the embassy addresses as well. I think a physical letter is preferred, but I also included the e-mail addresses. This campaign will only work if they receive lots of letters. Please spread the word!!! If you have a blog, please post about this. There are thousands of people doing web searches about Dua right now.

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19 May, 2007 | 2 Comments

“The political climate in Iraq is such that anyone can carry out crimes against women. You can come upon women’s bodies anywhere.”

This is a quote from Houzan Mahmoud, Kurdish feminist and activist based in London. The quote appeared in today’s Guardian in an article by noted US feminist author Katha Pollitt, who wrote about Dua Khalil Aswad and the upsurge of brutal and unspeakable acts of violence against women in Iraq since the US-led war began. It is truly horrifying but necessary reading. Women in Iraq were already subjected to horrible violence under Saddam, but now, with the complete and total breakdown of social order, it’s open season on women. Literally.

I corresponded with Ms. Mahmoud briefly this week regarding a meeting tonight at Amnesty International concerning the situation regarding Dua Khalil Aswad and the larger issue of violence against women in Iraq. I trekked over to the Amnesty Int’l Human Rights Centre in Shoreditch this evening for the meeting, but there was a power outage in most of Shoreditch, which affected the Tube and shut down Amnesty’s office. Sigh. I got there very late and found out the meeting was moved to Amnesty’s office in Clerkenwell, which is apparently not easily accessible by public transport (or so said their security guard). And it was raining and there were no cabs. So to make a long story short, I didn’t make it. But I did meet other people who had also planned to attend the meeting, one who had come all the way from Germany. I will try to find out what action is being taken as a result of the meeting and let you know.

Nearly 4,000 people hit my blog on Friday alone while searching for information about Dua Khalil Aswad. I am truly astounded. I hope that we can all turn our collective disgust and rage into something productive to help the women in Iraq. Those of us who are American and British really have an obligation to help, even if we were against the war. Ms. Mahmoud is a representative of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, described in today’s Guardian as an “underground railroad” for Iraqi women at risk of being murdered. Supporting their campaigns is one way to help. I will keep posting updates as well on everything I find out. I think it’s worth pointing out that bloggers have brought this story to the world’s attention and now the media is catching up.

Link: CNN reports that four have been arrested so far in Dua’s murder.

14 May, 2007 | 32 Comments

I wanted to post a few links to recent news stories concerning the public stoning and murder of Du’a Khalil Aswad:

ABC News seems to be one of the only mainstream news outlets to have covered this story. “The Dishonorable Death of Doa.” From the story: “Women in Kurdistan and Iraq are oppressed. The few rights they do have are very limited and in most cases they are treated as subhuman. Killings, suicide, and violence against women are an everyday occurrence in this region.”

Voice of America’s article quotes Yousif Aziz, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s “human rights” minister (that’s laughable), as saying about honor killings: “I think it takes place daily, some [women] are killed, some burn themselves, so there are many cases.” Apparently, many women who have “dishonored” their families light themselves on fire and commit “suicide.” A woman who runs a women’s center in the region is quoted as saying that since the video footage of Dua’s murder began to circulate, honor killings have increased. “Since the seventh of April, so many women have been killed. So many women, it has just been packed, packed with killing women. Because it just made it okay. When people saw that, people who have got this idea about killing a woman for whatever the reason: whether she did not listen to you, did not obey your orders, did not want to get married to so and so. Well then, if that happens then I can do the same thing.”

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9 May, 2007 | 2 Comments

I haven’t posted much this week because I am busy finishing up my class from hell. And work is crazy. I’m convinced there are numerous people out there — on both sides of the Altantic — who want to see me go bonkers before Friday night rolls around. The odds right now are 50-50.

Also, it’s tough to transition back to my normal fare after my recent posts on the murder of Dua Khalil Aswad. I have felt such horrible grief for this woman who I never knew. It affected me terribly for days. And my reaction surprised me. The news is filled with horrors on a daily basis. We obviously must distance ourselves from such things or we wouldn’t be able to function. But Dua’s story affected me in a way that few other news stories have since 9/11. I am taking steps to turn my rage and sadness into something productive, something that will make a difference for women. I will write about that soon. If you want to see a picture of Dua as she looked in life, I will link to a page in a moment that includes a photo of her and news stories. But please note that there are a couple of disturbing images on this page, so please take that into consideration before clicking through. Link.

Finally, thank you to The Vol Abroad for tagging me with the Thinking Bloggers Award! I’m very flattered, especially given how much her blog makes me think.  You know, she was the first blogger who linked to Anglofille, which was very exciting for me when it happened. I felt like a real blogger! I think now I am supposed to tag five bloggers who make me think. Hmmm, that would be tough. There are so many. Maybe I’ll just accept my award and be happy!

6 May, 2007 | 12 Comments

Continuing on from my previous post, I am haunted by the image of 17-year-old Du’a Khalil Aswad, the woman on the video who had been lynched by a mob of men. The subject of “honor killings” is nothing new for me – in fact, I’m sure I’ve written about it on this blog before. But I’ve never seen it with my own eyes. And seeing it for myself has affected me in a visceral way. It has changed me in ways I am still trying to understand.

Images have the power to affect people in a way that words cannot. Think about images from the Vietnam War or the Iraq War that changed the tide of public opinion. Though honor killings are nothing new in Kurdish areas of Iraq, this event – captured on camera phones by men who hoped to use the footage to terrorize the women in their community – has mobilized Kurdish and Iraqi women and activists around the world. If this horrible, repulsive video footage is a catalyst for change, then perhaps this poor tortured woman will not have died in vain.

As I thought about Du’a and her brutal murder, I couldn’t help but think of the murder of Emmett Till, whose lynching in Mississippi – and the photographs of him that were published – ignited the Civil Rights Movement. I feel that this event could have a similar effect on people in the Middle East. I hope so.

While I can’t necessarily recommend watching the video that I linked to before [which only contains footage after Du'a had already been killed and not the actual killing], in some ways I think it should be shown on television and people should be forced to watch it. Many people living their comfortable lives in America and Europe cannot possibly imagine such horror. You might think you can imagine it – but trust me, seeing it is something else all together. I was not able to finish watching it, but what I did watch caused me to feel quite sick. I also had difficulty breathing and nearly had a panic attack. I’ve felt sad and depressed all day and rather than doing the pile of work that’s waiting for me, I’ve been writing about this instead. Pages and pages of writing. Writing is the only way I can work through how I’m feeling about this.

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6 May, 2007 | 4 Comments

A commenter to my previous post provided a link to a petition you can sign that is part of the International Campaign Against Killings and Stonings of Women in Kurdistan. The woman in the video I wrote about was a 17-year-old girl named Doa who lived in Kurdistan. [I think the part of Kurdistan she lived in is within the borders of Iraq.] You can read more about her story if you click on the link to the petition. Please sign it. I am still upset about the video I watched yesterday and I will have more to say about it tomorrow. Part of the reason I feel so upset is that I want to help women like Doa, but I feel powerless. This petition is one small thing we can all do to help. I have been getting tons of hits on my blog post about Doa and I really hope there will be a big internet/blog campaign to shed light on her story.

6 May, 2007 | 5 Comments

I’m posting a link here to a blog post that contains a video that is probably one of the most horrific things I have ever seen in my life. I wish that I hadn’t watched it because it has upset me in a terrible way. It is video footage of a woman in Iraq who has just been stoned to death by a mob of men as part of an “honor killing.” These men are filming this woman with camera phones and laughing. This act of misogyny and pure savagery is incomprehensible to me. I can’t even begin to explain how I feel right now so I won’t try.

I think it is important that this video is posted on the Web as a testament to this poor woman and to the thousands of other women who have died similar deaths — anonymous women that no one cares about. This woman’s battered and bloodied body is evidence of what patriarchy does to women. Feminism is about ending patriarchy. If you’re a woman or a man who scoffs at feminists like me, or who cowers in fear at the word “feminism,” why don’t you go ahead and watch this video and educate yourself. Please.

24 March, 2007 | 4 Comments

Nothing says fashion like nooses and a hanging.

See my previous post on dead women chic.

[Via Alas, a blog. Click there for more info.]

27 January, 2007 | 3 Comments

It’s really not my intention to keep writing about Chinese women, but this story is just one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever read: In a region of northern China, dead women are sold as brides. From WaPo:

The tradition, called “minghun” or afterlife marriage, is common in the Loess Plateau region of northern China, where a recently deceased woman is buried with a bachelor to keep him company after his death.

Obviously, the women who become ghost brides are already dead; it’s not as if women are killed for this purpose. Well, not normally. This news article is about a man who “bought” a woman for $1,600 to sell as a regular, old-fashioned bride (you know, with a pulse) but then he killed her when he discovered she was worth more as a ghost bride. He then killed a prostitute for the same purpose but didn’t get as much money for her because she was “less pretty.” The authorities have said that this isn’t an isolated case. As Salon stated in their coverage, this issue is obviously tied to the millions of missing Chinese women. Given that many men do not have the opportunity to marry in life, their families want female companionship for them after deaths. If that doesn’t sum up the horror of the Chinese gender imbalance, nothing does.

23 January, 2007 | 4 Comments

China’s top “family planner” has stated that it will take 15 years to reverse the country’s gender imbalance. The government has now vowed to crack down on those performing gender testing via ultrasound and sex-selective abortions. I imagine the worldwide revulsion and horror over recent reports of the millions of missing women in their country contributed to them taking action – or at least, their claim that they will take action.

I’m pro-choice, even if the choice is made for the vilest reasons. As such, I think that anyone who wants to abort a fetus because it is female should be allowed to do just that. Why should people with such views be forced to have a daughter? They don’t deserve to have one and no little girl should be sentenced to life with parents like that. Rather than focusing on punishing those who facilitate this kind of behavior, the government should put all of their energy and resources into creating a society where girls are valued as much as boys. Such programs are in place, apparently, but they seem completely inadequate.

The most interesting part of the government statement is this (summarized by China Daily):

The authorities also pledged to improve protection of baby girls, saying that people who kill, abandon or injure infant girls or ill-treat their mothers, should be severely punished.

The Chinese government’s position is that infanticide and neglect of females is rare. I guess not. Apparently, this sort of behavior must exist at an alarming level. And they’ve just acknowledged that those who commit such heinous acts are not, at this point in time, severely punished. It’s sickening that there is now such urgency in protecting little girls, when they’ve known about these practices for decades and have done nothing. Only now that the government is stuck with a gender imbalance have these issues taken priority. But then I guess the one-child policy needed to be enforced no matter what and those who would kill or abandon little girls were just doing the government’s dirty work for them.

22 January, 2007 | 1 Comment

Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Never go back.