“Big Hugs and Special Thanks” to Besame, Eyesbright, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, and ramara for all the links. Go team!
If you haven’t already visited WOW2, please check it out after you’ve gone through all the news here. WOW2 is the monthly sister diary to This Week in the War on Women, which covers “Women Trailblazers and Events in OUR History” for the current month. www.dailykos.com/...
MISSING THE STORY
WOW members sent me links for stories from three different media outlets this week covering the news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the findings of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice.
Oddly, not one of the links worked when I clicked on them —“Story not found” or “404 error”— I hope a coincidence. It’s easy to become paranoid when so many stories that are important to women are under-reported or not covered at all by the “mainstream” media.
I first became aware of this journalistic bias in 1982 when I volunteered for a “letters to the editor” campaign by the L.A. Chapter of NOW during the fight to get the ERA ratified. Of the hundreds of letters written over the year of the final push for ratification, only two were published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner (paper now defunct) and one in the L.A.Times.
I began to track the reporting on the ERA in the front page section of both papers, and consistently found the ERA buried “below the fold” on the inside pages after page 3, if it was reported at all in the “real” news section. There were a few short pieces in the Lifestyle or Entertainment sections, but not on the front pages of those either.
A disproportionate amount of coverage concerned Phyllis Schlafly and her white-gloved ladies. Her pronouncements were often given the same weight as Women’s Movement leaders, even though there were thousands of women working for the ERA compared to the small group of women actively supporting Schlafly’s efforts to derail it. Her insistence that the ERA would force all public restrooms to become unisex was such a ludicrous argument that feminists didn’t take her seriously — which should be a warning to anyone who is still not seeing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as an all-too-real threat.
More than 11,530 proposed amendments to the Constitution have been introduced in Congress since 1789. Of these, only 33 have ever been sent to the states for ratification — 27 of those were ratified. The first 10 were done all at the same time — we now call them the Bill of Rights. So you would think that an amendment which had been proposed in every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972 before it was finally sent to the states for ratification would be regarded as a Big Deal, especially as the time limit imposed by Congress for getting it passed was drawing closer, and only a handful of states were still needed to get it ratified.
There was plenty of drama if the editorial powers-that-be had been interested in covering it. Lack of media interest in women’s issues is nothing new or unusual.
However, stories disappearing are a novel twist. I did a new search, and found yet another blank where the story should be — but my next try finally turned up these United Nations links that were working:
Women in US lagging behind in human rights, UN experts report after ‘myth-shattering’ visit http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52797#.VnQy5LYrJQI
More Details of the Report:
UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice finalizes country mission to the United States www.ohchr.org/…
The UN Working Group report inspired me to call this section
A WOMEN’S STATE OF THE UNION
- Yes it IS “that bad” out there for women, but risks so common we take them for granted…
www.upworthy.com/…
- Working Women and Motherhood – Damned If You Do, Damned If
You Don’t
fortune.com/…
- Social Security is a Women’s Issue – Growing Older and Poorer
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
- Tennessee Woman Charged With Attempted Murder for Failed Self-Abortion
rhrealitycheck.org/…
- Alaska Judge Censured for Comments about “Temptresses” Who Are “Asking for It”— still on the bench, assigned a “mentor” judge, encouraged to undergo training on “gender sensitivity, cultural awareness, and domestic violence.”— After only three years of complaints — So harsh!
theslot.jezebel.com/…
- Violence — Gender Parity? Women Aren’t Equal to Men — In This Case, That’s Good News
womensenews.org/…
- Eight Chicago Elementary School Teachers, Fired for Being Pregnant, Win $280,000 Settlement
chicago.suntimes.com/…
- If You Missed It, here’s a diary from our own Eyesbright on an appalling story:
www.dailykos.com/...
And the news report: www.rawstory.com/...
Sign Ultraviolet’s petition here to get shelter back for these outcasts: act.weareultraviolet.org/…
- Women Under Siege Releases Report: Media Coverage of Campus Rape, Gender Violence
www.womenundersiegeproject.org/…
- Police-Badgered Rape Victim Charged for “False” Report — then her picture is found with other photos taken by a serial rapist of his victims — TRIGGER WARNING —“An Unbelievable Story of Rape” from ProPublica— www.propublica.org/...
INTERNATIONAL
- UNITED NATIONS—
Worldwide 16 Days of Activism
Against Gender-Based Violence
womensenews.org/…
- ASIA-PACIFIC —
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
- FIFA—Women’s World Cup Breaks TV Viewer Record
www.fifa.com/…
- BANGLADESH— Power of Women’s Wallets Heard, But Not Women Workers
- www.huffingtonpost.com/...
- CANADA — Stopping Violence Against Indigenous Women
www.huffingtonpost.ca/…
- CROATIA — Hardship for Women and Children in Refugee Camps
womensenews.org/…
- EL SALVADOR— Where Miscarriage or Premature Birth Can Lead to a Murder Charge
viralwomen.com/…
- JAPAN — Court Rules on Women and Marriage
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
- KENYA — Women At Risk
On Public Transport www.trust.org/...
When Home Isn’t Safe for Girls womensenews.org/…
Police Rescue Girls About to Undergo FGM www.theguardian.com/...
16 Days of Activism in Kenya www.huffingtonpost.com/…
NEW ZEALAND — Prime Minister John Key accused of making light of rape after participating in a radio stunt referencing sexual assault in prison.
www.theguardian.com/...- SAUDI ARABIA — Women Vote and Run for Office
First Time Voting — www.huffingtonpost.com/...
And Running for Office — www.huffingtonpost.com/...
New Reason to Divorce a Saudi Woman — CAMELS?!— www.dailymail.co.uk/…
MEDICAL NEWS
- Hope for Reducing Ovarian Cancer Deaths?
www.nbcnews.com/…
- Pregnancy and Abortion Rates Down, but Birth Rates Starting to Rise Again
www.nbcnews.com/…
- Doctors vs. FDA on Uterine Fibroids – New Restrictions Force Open Abdominal Surgery?
www.nbcnews.com/…
- The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA) Joint Amicus Brief –“No Medical Basis” for Texas Abortion Restrictions
www.nbcnews.com/…
- What Medical Science Doesn’t Know About Menopause
www.theguardian.com/…
American Society for Aesthetic Surgery — labiaplasties performed in U.S. up 49 percent from 2013 to 2014. Plastic Surgery Portal, a network of professional healthcare sites, describes similar jump, suggesting “market for vaginal plastic surgery has skyrocketed.”
www.attn.com/...
OP/ED — Some Things to THINK ABOUT
- Surina Khan on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
- Danielle Campoamor Reminds Us What Women’s Bodies REALLY Are
www.huffingtonpost.com/...
…and tells us: What Happens When We Don’t Believe Rape Victims www.huffingtonpost.com/…
AND ALL THE REST
- Myth That Women Talk More Than Men
www.pbs.org/…
- For Black Girls Trying to Find Their Voices
www.blackgirldangerous.org/…
- Men Don’t Rape Women, Penises Do — Rapist Acquitted After Claiming His Penis "Fell" Into Sleeping Victim, leaving Semen and DNA
jezebel.com/…
- UNICEF Report — A Baby is born in a war zone every 2 seconds — www.salon.com/...
- Rutgers Cancels Black Feminism Class Because Beyoncé— www.theguardian.com/…
- Lawmakers Pass Something Sensible –“Teach Safe Relationships” Act – Prevention Training at the High School Level for Girls AND Boys — womensenews.org/…
- Suspended Wheaton College professor seeks reconciliation with leaders — http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wheaton-professor-suspended-1218-20151217-story.html
MoveOn Petition to reinstate Wheaton College professor petitions.moveon.org/…
Supermarket manager shows how to be good neighbor to a Muslim woman harassed in the store — www.nytimes.com/…
Petition to drop charges against students in the "Officer Slam" case, and to charge him for assaulting a non-threatening girl.
act.colorofchange.org/…Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards — how she manages to remain resilient when Republican lawmakers and misogynists try to shut her down — www.lennyletter.com/…
NOTE: Some of the links may not work — many of the links forwarded to me at KOS Mail didn’t work for me, so I had to track down the original stories — I’m crossing my fingers that the renewed links will work here.
I wasn’t able to find all of the stories — if something you sent me isn’t here, please know the reason ISN’T that I thought it was unworthy of inclusion.
Jane Fonda's note to her younger self:
“Your biggest strength will be that you
won’t shut down and become cynical.
You will become an activist.
You will discover that doing this will give your life
a meaning you don’t think is possible right now.
It will be the rent you pay for life.”
Looking at this pretty-doll-perfect but empty face from the 1960s,
I’m struck by how much more alive her face is in the 2015 picture above —
THAT’S a beautiful woman!
