Feminism & Women's Liberation

[Emiloid]

Mod note:

Thread being closed AGAIN in order to do cleanup on aisle 4.

Please, please, please... if you're posting mainly about abortion, do it in the abortion thread. I realize there's a lot of overlap between feminism and abortion, since they both involve women's rights, BUT I still think it's possible to keep this thread more generally about feminism.

[La Végétalienne]

We don't get very many radio stations here, so every once in a while I find myself listening to the Focus on the Family station, you know, just for kicks. Anyway, today I listened to about 10 minutes of an interview with a woman who wrote a book for women to help them better understand the men in their lives, and use this knowledge to become more dutiful wives. You can read the first 20 pages here.

It bothers me that it's still seen as the woman's job to be supportive of her husband and to understand how his mind works and be supportive of that and blah, blah, blah with no expectation of reciprocity. I suppose this kind of attitude doesn't surprise me so much given that it was a Christian radio station, and as goodone points out:

Originally Posted by goodeone

To wives, the Bible gives this direction: “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation . . . The wife should have deep respect for her husband.” (Ephesians 5:22, 23, 33) Do you not feel that a wife who follows this advice when she speaks to—or about—her husband will be deeply loved by him?

But it's not just religious folks, either. It seems like every issue of every women's magazine ever promises to reveal the secret sex tips that will "really drive your man wild." Why don't they ever talk about the secret tips to "really drive YOU wild"? And, um, I think I had another example, but have since forgotten it.

In other news: Afghan Women Protest New Law on Home Life

[oldradical]

Speaking of women, peace, and Afghanistan...

There are a number of organizations of Afghani women who can use all the support they can get. The Afghan Women's Mission (afghanwomensmission.org), the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (rawa.org), and MADRE (madre.org), all are worth a look. You can keep up to date with events via the Afghan Women's Mission newswire (afghanwomensmission.org/breaking_news).

Thanks to The Nation magazine's current issue for those links and info.

Also, peace be aware of the Feminist Peace Network, http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/ .

p.s. I have a really good friend who lives in Walkerton, IN.

[oldradical]

Pray The Devil Back To Hell–Lysistrata For Real

http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/...rata-for-real/

Inspiring as this is (which is why I'm posting it), I can't help but remember that there are many women who sustain the violence of "real men." Not to mention the female soldiers and warmongers.

Still, what hope there is in the world, is largely with/in women.

[oldradical]

Disarm! Disarm! The Sword of Murder Is Not the Balance of Justice.

CODEPINK at their 2006 White House Vigil. There is another one today.

Happy Mother's Day, which began, not as a Hallmark marketing moment, but as an effort by activist-poet Julia Ward Howe to establish a Mother's Day for Peace in the wake of the Civil War violence she had witnessed. In words more apt than ever, her 1870 Proclamation called on women to recognize their common values, commit to finding peaceful resolution to conficts, and rise up to oppose war, all war:

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/05/09-0

I feel so grateful for this; in a world of selfish, violent people, there are women who truly lead. All blessings be upon them.

[nauthiz]

Couldn't it have been one of the myriad other "Mother's Day for X" holidays that activists have launched? There seems to have been something of a fad for them in the 19th century.

[oldradical]

...I predict this candidate will be barred from competing. The Revolutionary Council (I believe it is called) is constituted of the nation's leading clerics, and they have the power--which they routinely exercise--of preventing people from running for office if their views aren't in line with the official theology. All the same...this is a brave and progressive action, worthy of admiration:

Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has vowed to review laws that discriminate against women in Iran if he wins an upcoming election.

Watched by his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, Mr Mousavi told an audience of female supporters in Tehran: "We should reform laws that are unfair to women."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/middle_east/8075603.stm

[KaliMama]

Hey, look! It's the Feminism thread!

Check out this video. The class sounds amazing.

Female Sexuality: Radical Sexual Pedagogy at UC Berkeley