This week a sitting member of Congress tweeted out a photoshopped cartoon portraying him “killing” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a frequent target of right-wing harassment, and not coincidentally a woman of color. The Republican leaders who get outraged over the slightest “uncivil” word from a Democrat have gone mysteriously mute on this. In a functional country, he would be expelled from Congress and arrested for making death threats. Instead he offered a smirking “apology” that took zero responsibility, the only consequence being seriously considered so far is censure, and the media continues to normalize this behavior.
As always, this diary is a team effort. Thanks to elenacarlena, SandraLLAP, mettle fatigue, officebss, and the WOW crew for links and discussion.
Reproductive Rights:
With the fate of Texas’s abortion vigilante law still unclear, at least 11 states not sharing borders with Texas are providing abortion care for Texans. Meanwhile, over 80 US companies have denounced the law.
Women — frequently women of color — are being jailed for miscarriages.
In Poland, a 22-year-old woman died as a result of a “fetal heartbeat” law. AliceNYC diaried the story earlier this week:
Isabela’s doctors acted unethically and yet rationally in terms of their own self-interest. The punishment for “killing” a fetus with a heartbeat, regardless of whether it will die soon anyway, is years in prison. Punishment for allowing the unnecessary death of a woman suffering from a stalled miscarriage is perhaps an increasing price for malpractice insurance.
Violence and Harassment:
“Female-friendly” parking spaces in Perth spark debate. They’re intended for safety — but they also tell creeps where women will be.
Fast-food companies have one easy trick for avoiding liability for sexual harassment. In one recent case, managers saw security footage of an employee groping a 14-year old co-worker, but they did nothing until his conduct escalated to rape.
The emergency department of a rural hospital in France enhances its domestic violence care by bringing law enforcement officers to help victims file reports.
A former California police officer fired after being charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor is fighting the California Public Employees Retirement System to keep his industrial disability pension.
Holding aloft crosses bearing the names of murdered women, hundreds marched in Mexico city to protest violence the day after the Day of the Dead national holiday. 762 women are known murdered between January and September 2021, a 5% increase over the same period in 2020.
Health:
Eating alone may be a recipe for heart trouble, especially for older women.
It’s routine to bar anyone pregnant — and in some cases, anyone who could get pregnant — from medical trials. Sometimes that amounts to “protecting” them to death.
Asperger’s in women appears significantly under-diagnosed.
Maybe not technically a “war on women” issue, but if we get the word out that COVID-19 can impair men’s sexual performance, do you suppose more people will get vaccinated?
Workplace and Economic Issues:
In Massachusetts, more women are going into trades. And the infrastructure bill is creating more opportunities for this.
UPS workers sue over gender bias.
Michigan ends the “tampon tax.”
BBC: Women are warned that working from home may harm their careers.
Even though the gender pay gap in Saudi Arabia stands at 49% and some employers still ask women for their male guardian's approval during the job hiring process ... women now make up 33% of Saudi's labour force – nearly double what it was five years ago.
Nurses aren’t asking to be hailed as “heroes” during the pandemic — the hero narrative sets them up for harmful expectations. What they want instead of that is the resources and support for being able to do their jobs rather than have to leave nursing before it destroys them.
Indigenous women honor their sisters lost during the pandemic as winter closes in on Montreal. 6 shelters have been hit with COVID-19 outbreaks. Logifem, a donation-supported emergency shelter and support service for women, is on track to open an 8-family women's shelter
Intersectionality:
Violence against Indigenous women is a crisis.
Real cancel culture: Kansas school district orders 29 books removed from circulation. No surprise, the books deal with racism, GLBTQ+ issues, and feminism — including such luminaries as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. [Update: the school district has now reversed the decision.]
It’s not just the US: Black women in the UK are 4 times as likely as white women to die in childbirth.
Climate:
The African women showing why gender justice equals climate justice.
Climate-related disruptions also affect reproductive care.
Uncategorizable:
“Men’s Rights Activist” plans protest of “gynocracy”— but his “activism” leaves all the activity up to others.
After 13 years, Britney Spears’s conservatorship is officially over.
Meanwhile, here’s Amanda Marcotte on Josh Hawley trying to make “masculinity” the center of his campaign:
On "Axios on HBO" Sunday night, Hawley defended a speech he made at a gathering of conservatives last week, in which he insisted that liberals are trying to create "a world beyond men" because liberals hate "traditional masculine virtues" like "courage and independence and assertiveness." In response, the supposedly braver, more independent, and more assertive gender, according to Hawley, is "withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games." True men of courage, it's well-known, react to even the slightest criticism by pouting in their mancaves like toddlers throwing a tantrum.
Action items:
Petition to expel Paul Gosar from Congress for his video that was one long terrorist threat against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.