Vintage Anti-Suffragette Postcards November 8, 2012

Sociological Images has posted some interesting postcards that were campaigning against women’s suffrage.

I find it fascinating that the implicit argument in these images is something like, “We can’t give women the same rights and privileges that we have, because then they might try to do to us what we have been doing to them, and that is just INHUMANE.”

I know the last bit doesn’t follow unless you have an essentialized view of gender where somehow it is natural and proper for women to wash clothes and babysit, but it is improper and dehumanizing for men to do it.

I just find it funny, especially with the postcard of the three women sitting around a table play cards, smoking and complaining about their lazy husbands.  There is an admission here of, “Yes, we men sit on our asses while our wives do all the work, but that is our RIGHT as men and husbands.  When THEY do it, it’s NOT FAIR and UNNATURAL.”

It’s amusing (in a sad way) to realize that the whole “equality for everyone!” slogan is so easily amended by the exception: “well, not for those people whose natural place is somewhere lower on the hierarchy.”  Or nowadays, it’s more “Equality for everyone–except for those who haven’t really earned it.”

Your first time: addition October 26, 2012

Lena Dunham compares…well, you’ll see. (Sorry about the beginning advert; just click on through.)

CNN says Republicans find the ad shocking! I guess anything sex negative is OK, but sex positive? Whoa!

The criticism in comment #5 is very important, I think. A different word or two could have made it much better, but I suppose there’s some political ad rule about keeping the message simple. Still…

Onora O’Neill confirmed as Equality & Human Rights Commission Chair October 18, 2012

Onora O’Neill has been confirmed as the new Chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission – as we mentioned before, she was the preferred candidate, and her appointment has been confirmed after a hearing held by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights.  The (uncorrected) transcript of the hearing does make interesting reading (excerpts below the jump).  

Do women need federal protection for their health care? October 13, 2012

Now here’s some good material for the next presidential debate:

In fact, Colorlines has a lot of columns about women in this issue; it’s well worth a good look.

Philosopher named as preferred candidate to chair UK Equality and Human Rights Commission October 3, 2012

Onora O’Neill has been named as the Government’s preferred candidate to chair the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission:

Following a recruitment process, Cambridge academic, Baroness Onora O’Neill of Bengarve, has been selected as the Government’s preferred candidate for appointment to the role of Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Culture Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Maria Miller has written to Dr Hywel Francis MP, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee will hold a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with Baroness O’Neill on 16 October.

The Committee’s conclusions will be considered carefully before the final appointment is decided.

If her appointment is approved, she’ll have  a tough job. The Commission has been heavily criticised from all sides since it was formed in 2007 – several much-respected commissioners resigned in 2009 - and the coalition government has massively reduced its budget.

Indian cartoonist arrested on sedition charges after criticizing government corruption September 10, 2012

Indian cartoonist arrested on sedition charges after criticizing government corruption

“India police have arrested a political cartoonist on sedition charges after his drawings criticizing government corruption irked the ruling Congress party…”

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Police had no grounds to arrest cartoonist Aseem Trivedi: Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil

“… ‘If telling the truth makes me [a] traitor then I am one… if I am booked under sedition for doing service to the nation then I will continue to do so.’…”

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Sedition: does it have any place in modern India? [pertinent info here - is it accurate?]

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India Against Corruption (IAC) Statement on Aseem Trivedi issue

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Cartoons Against Corruption‎ [what's up with/what about the "Gang Rape of Mother India" cartoon?]

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see also former post on:

Does Criticizing India Count as Sedition? Arundhati Roy Will Find Out

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http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/does-criticizing-india-count-as-sedition-arundhati-roy-will-find-out/

A very major cultural change? September 9, 2012

The following passage is from that liberal icon, The Nation. The idea is that now women reporting rape are automatically taken to be telling the truth, and the civil rights of the accused suffer as a result.

There is something about high profile cases, and perhaps she is trying to qualify her claim. If someone claimed Tom Cruise raped her, we’d all assume he did it? Maybe not so if he’s just your neighbor? (That doesn’t really make sense, I would have thought.)

If the Swedish claims against Assange had involved anything but sex, it’s unlikely that liberals, and even some self-described radicals, would be tiptoeing around this part of the story, either by asking “So I guess he’s a bad guy?” or by arguing “Of course he needs to answer for his crimes.” If it were anything but sex, we would insist on the presumption of innocence. We have instead gotten comfortable with presuming guilt and trusting in the dignified processes of law to guarantee fairness.

“Believe the victim” entered the lexicon decades ago for historically understandable reasons. Women had been denied their own due process, in a sense—their right to make a complaint and expect justice, not vilification or worse. They are still being denied and derided, as the idiot spewings of Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin illustrate. The mutation of basic rights into an imperative for belief, and of full citizens into victims, has not made women any safer, but its cultural manipulation—particularly in high-profile cases—has struck at the foundations of civil liberty in a way that may not have been anticipated.

For what it’s worth, I doubt that everyone believes Assange did sexually assault the two women in question. In any case, arresting someone means simply that there is good evidence of a crime. It isn’t a formal judgment of guilt. And I have certainly assume that those not consume by rage against him see the Swedish actions as heavily political.

Or have I missed out on a huge cultural shift? Are women claiming they’ve been raped automatically believed?

The TSA revises itself, sort of August 21, 2012

From the NY Times:

Transportation Security Administration officers who are in a behavioral detection program designed to spot terrorists at airports have been ordered to undergo special training after officers in Boston were accused of racially profiling passengers.

All officers at Boston Logan International Airport, where the profiling is said to have occurred, and managers of similar programs nationwide must attend a four-hour class on why racial profiling is not acceptable and why it is not an effective way to spot terrorists.

Not to criticize Janet Napolitano, but it takes a lot of optimism to think you can change anyone’s mind on anything much in 4 hours. Beliefs are not like jelly beans that can be scooped out and through away. They get invidious connections with all sort of other things, and they tend to reoccur. Just think how “Obama is not a US citizen” connects up in people’s heads. For example, producing a birth certificate is not going to move it.

I hope they add in a good bit of behavior modification along with the facts and figures. E.g., here’s what racial profiling looks like; keep it up and you’ll be fired.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu reveals himself to be a true legend, once again… July 21, 2012

(Stolen off someone’s facebook page.)

The Invisible War June 30, 2012

From Salon.

This is a movie that intends to reform the entire United States military. And it stands a very good chance of succeeding.

Inspired by Helen Benedict’s 2007 Salon story “The Private War of Women Soldiers,” “The Invisible War” is a gut-wrenching condemnation of the way the military has, across the board and in every branch, failed to protect its members from sexual assault – and then failed them again and again afterward. In a series of harrowing personal accounts, victims – mostly women but a sampling of men as well – recount the trauma of their rapes while in uniform and the sickening personal consequences they experienced for reporting them. It’s estimated that over 20 percent of female veterans have been sexually assaulted during their service – and some believe the real figure is even higher. It’s an epidemic….

Though it’s still making its way to theaters – it rolls out across the country slowly throughout the summer — it has already become a bona fide movement unto itself. In April, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta saw the film, and two days later he moved the authority to investigate sexual assaults higher in the chain of command, so victims no longer need to report incidents to their commander.