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Ohio Republicans, get out of my uterus

Yesterday, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to ban abortions after a fetal heart rate is detectable – which can be as early as 6 weeks into the pregnancy. If enacted, the law would challenge the guidelines set in place by Roe v. Wade – which gives women 22-24 weeks to make that decision (the first trimester).

To put into context of how ridiculous it is, consider this:

• Women only menstruate every 28 days
• If you just had your period a couple of days before having sex, and used proper protection, and then don’t realize until your period is a week late, You have only one week to decide what to do.

How is that even a remotely productive option? Women who get abortions come to that decision over a number of days or sometimes weeks, and it is not an easy decision to make. The point is to have the option open for women for them to consider, not for them to have an abortion just because they feel pressured by deadlines.

Not to mention what an assault on women’s rights this is. These lawmakers are invading my right to privacy as a woman, and violating my constitutional rights. I sincerely hope this doesn’t pass the senate, but I have a feeling that’s exactly what will happen since Republicans are the majority in the state Senate as well.

Brave: A New Kind of Cartoon Heroine?

I’m a Pixar Fan (and, like everyone else, I was disappointed with Cars 2) – not only because their animation is gorgeous, but because they tell real, heartfelt stories that make your heart soar. I cried with Carl when Ellie died in Up, when Andy gave his toys to Bonnie in Toy Story 3, when Wall-E held hands with Eva –  you get the idea. But the one thing I didn’t love was that it was constantly male heroes and lead characters – while Pixar never had a real red-flag-worthy portrayal of a woman, their heroes were constantly male – Flick, Buzz, Woody, Andy, Carl, Russell, Wall-E, Lightning McQueen – all dudes.

So when I heard that Pixar was coming out with a film in Summer 2012 that had a female lead, I became antsy with anticipation – will they do girls justice? Will I be happy with this or write a blog of disappointment? And when the trailer came out this week, I was on the edge of my seat…

And from what I can tell so far, it’s going to be great. Here’s why:

• She is presented as a thing of legends, important in her own right – so often, girls in fairy tales or epic adventures feel that they are just a nobody at first (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan) – but she is presented as important right off the bat.
• She is synonymous with the word “brave” – something girls usually aren’t synonymous with. Yay!
• Her hair is down and flowing, but not polished and primped – in order to be strong and courageous, she doesn’t need to be masculine or hide her femininity, but she also doesn’t need to primp herself in order to be a girl and important female figure.
• She is alone – no chaperones, no companions – just herself. Too often in fairy tales, the girls and women involved get there thanks to an older woman who they turn to for guidance or a man. Pocahontas has Grandmother Willow, Mulan relies on the Cricket and Dragon, Cinderella on her fairy godmother, Rapunzel on her rescuer, Snow White on the 7 Dwarves, etcetera. Instead, this is her adventure- and nobody else’s.

Even the Synopsis has me twiddling with excitement (from the official website):

Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In “Brave,” a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.
Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.

She makes mistakes, but hopes to fix them herself with her skills (Archery) and her determination to be her own person. I’m SUPER pumped for what seems like it’ll be such an amazing strong female figure for girls (and women)!

Time heals all wounds – and changes all minds.

Empire State Building on Friday night!

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about being a New Yorker and continuing the fight for marriage equality in NY State after the State Senate  didn’t pass the bill. I remember being angry and sad, and a little ashamed of my home state.

A year and a half later, I couldn’t be prouder. By now, you’ve all heard the news: New York State legalized gay marriage Friday night. There were celebrations all over my facebook, my twitter, and, of course, the streets of NYC – both that night and at Pride on Sunday. I’m excited, and simply pleased with my State Legislature! Who would have thought?

Now, of course, this was a controversial vote. It passed by a margin. Speeches on the senate floor ranged from full to cautionary to zero support for the bill. Our society still isn’t, unfortunately, progressive enough for everybody to treat gay people as just that – people.

However, one thing happened that is worth noting: In 2009, the vote was strictly among party lines. not a single Republican voted for the bill. But this time, Republicans were the deciding factor in passing this bill – many quoted as saying they wanted to be on the right side of history, do the right thing, even if it might spell trouble for them in their districts.

That year and a half was so formative to changing the outcome of the vote on gay marriage – so many more supported it, called their senators, action groups were successful – that it changed people’s minds. Not just any people – politicians.

But time alone wasn’t the only thing that helped pass this major victory for equality and human rights. Advocacy groups, people, and activists did. And this isn’t the end of the fight – there are 44 more states where gay marriage is still illegal. The fight isn’t over – but I wouldn’t be surprised if this makes people consider reintroducing laws legalizing gay marriage where they’ve been shot down before. Let’s hope so!

Post on what being a girl means to me over at Experimentations of a Teenage Feminist!

Check it out here.

The F-Bomb cross posted my piece on Weinergate…

feel free to read it on a page with a slightly different layout here.

Actually, The F Bomb has a really awesome post up about loving the body you’ve got – it’s well-written and such an important issue for women and girls in our super-media-saturated society. Check it out here.

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t get the memo: is it 1962?

So as a newly minted unemployed graduate from college, I’ve been scouring the internet for job postings that I find interesting. Today I got the tip to check out the Village Voice’s job postings, and I found three postings in which (presumably) male bosses are advertising that they specifically want either a female assistant or a sexy female assistant.

Um, what?! In today’s world of being an equal-opportunity employer; harassment lawsuits, and the strive for full equality for women, I can’t believe this is still happening. A few excerpts from these ads:

Female Personal Assistant Needed by Busy Health Care Professional/Office Also

• Female Personal Assistant needed who can do the following
  paper work/filing
  errands, shopping
  routine and simple home office tasks
  cooking nice
  massage better, lol send info, resume, pic, etc what ever you think would be helpful to help me evaluate and choose who to call

Oh, great. Some skeezy old man who calls himself a “health care professional” wants me to come to his house, run his errands for him, cook him dinner, and give him a massage. And he used “lol” in the job posting. GROSS.

Sexy Secretary/Personal Assistant for Construction Company

• Various office duties including sales, lite bookkeeping,lite cleaning,and personal duties for the owner.Must be ultra responsible,bright,and playful.Rapid advancemnet for correct lady.please respond with resume and pic,as well as personla bio.Live in possible.Knowledge of quickbooks and drivers liscence helpful.

Is this what these guys are looking for?

Since when is being “sexy” a requirement for the job? Why do these guys need pictures of me? I have to be freaking playful? This guy didn’t even spell advancement, personal, or license right. Speaking of which – “rapid advancement”? “personal duties”? This reeks of requiring low-cut tops and the occasional sexual favor.

The other postings on the website that specifically request female workers simply specify female without the same skeezy undertones, but the idea is the same – that men and women shouldn’t be doing the same jobs.

This is coming on the tail of a number of disturbing developments re: women in the work place. Just today, the Supreme Court blocked a huge sex discrimination lawsuit by women working at Wal-Mart, taking away their power to bargain and pressure Wal-Mart as a collective unit; and studies have shown that the pay gap between women and men not only still exist, but is alive and kicking – Even right out of college, women still make less than men – and that pay gap often only gets worse over time. Our equal and free society needs more laws protecting women in the workplace and ensuring equality across the board – society will only change when we push it to.

Friendship in the Digital Age

These days, everyone has a Facebook – myself included. It’s not just a website, it’s a major communication tool –  I had a barbecue with family friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and one of them said “Facebook me!” as they said goodbye, and his sister scoffed, “he’s always on Facebook.” I learned about a free movie I wanted to see in Bryant Park thanks to Facebook. I exchanged messages with friends to plan a beach trip and with an old babysitter to receive updates about her pregnancy. I’m friends with my host parents from Spain, my old professors, friends from college, high school, old summer camps. I’ve even received breaking news from Facebook – particularly updates about things going on at American or DC. When I got my iPhone, it was the first app I installed. And I’m not even on it as often as some people I know!

You get the idea – Facebook has become part of the social fabric of our lives, whether we like it or not.

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles have scoffed at my constant checking of my Facebook feed – but as a recent study shows, this is the way friends interact. Contrary to popular stereotypes:

• People who use the social network multiple times a day have an average of “9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users,” the Pew study says. And yes, they have actually met almost all their Facebook friends: Only 7% of their friend list consists of people they’ve never spoken to in real life. (via)
• Those on Facebook get more support, companionship, and “instrumental aid”—when they’re sick, for example, friends lend a hand.
• Facebookers are also more politically involved than other people on the Internet: Those on the site several times daily are 2.5 times more likely to go to a meeting or rally, 57% more likely to affect another’s vote, and 43% more likely to say they’ll vote, notes Politico.

Facebook isn’t a way of avoiding contact, it’s a way to streamline it into one easy to access location. As Anthony Weiner’s downfall shows, we’re using Social Networking in important ways more often than ever before. Basically: Our lives and relationships are changing, and there’s not a thing we can do about it – but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of true friendships, it just means the beginning of a new type of friendship.

Schoolhouse Rock for Sex Scandals

Jimmy Kimmel had a HILARIOUS piece on his show past night with a song to explain sex scandals (the pursuit of hap-PENIS) to our nation’s children:

Enjoy!

The Best Comebacks in History

This week to me seems to be all about Comebacks. Keith Olbermann just started his new version of Countdown on Current, Rebecca Black removed ‘Friday’ from Youtube (no worries – it’s been reposted elsewhere) and has a role in Katy Perry’s new video (Last Friday Night) with a huge all-star cast, and Anthony Weiner is in need of a major comeback (my prediction? He’ll be offered an MSNBC contract by the end of the year. Just look at some of his speeches in congress).

So, here are my favorite comebacks. Maybe Anthony Weiner can find some inspiration this way…

• Conan O’Brien:Everyone is familar with the famous Tonight Show debacle of 2010. Conan was given the Tonight Show

  

  reigns by NBC, only to have them yanked away a few months later to give back to former host Jay Leno. Conan was depressed after losing his job, and battled his own demons with perfection as a preformer and failure as a host of an iconic comedy show. But he made it work for him – O’Brien came out of his dark place and became one of the most popular celebrity personalities on Twitter, got his new gig at TBS, and shot the the documentary about his tour after losing the Tonight Show which comes out this summer. His show at TBS has been very successful so far, with all of his famous pals on Team Coco stopping by for a chat and perchance a little bit of the string dance. Nicely played, Conan.

 

• Richard NixonOne of the most controversial figures in US Politics, but you can’t argue that Nixon did experience quite

  

  the initial comeback. As a Republican Senator in both the House and the Senate during the 1950’s, he contributed to the controversial Alger Hiss case and earned the nickname “Tricky Dick”. As Vice President in Eisenhower’s Administration, he gained alot of support from the Republican Party with the “Checkers Speech” and took trips of goodwill with his wife. However, when he ran for President in 1960 against John F. Kennedy Jr., he came off in the Kennedy-Nixon Debates as looking sweaty, nervous, and tired under the hot lights and TV cameras. The enthusiasm around the young Kennedy automatically overshadowed Nixon – but only 8 years later he was able to become President of the United States – a comeback if there ever was one. (Of course, the story of what happened later? Not so great of a comeback.)

• Christina Aguilera first broke out into the pop music scene on the 1990’s as an innocent star with songs like ‘Genie in a Bottle.’ Many felt that she was simply a Britney Spears imitation. and a passing phase. But with her next phase as an artist (the ‘Dirrty’ phase), Aguilera showed that she had some real edge with songs like ‘Dirrty‘, but also some real heart with songs like ‘Beautiful‘ – but she was able to shed that image in favor of the 40’s pin-up glamour put forward in her third album, withsongs like ‘Candyman‘. She was able to grow and shift with her audience and gain new fans with ever change that she made in her life – from pop star to legit artist. Today, Aguilera has starred in ‘Burlesque’ with Cher and  bounced back from a number of personal hardships to become the highest-paid judge on the NBC show “The Voice”, which has awesome ratings and a huge fanbase. Way to go, Xtina!

I doubt Anthony Weiner will find much inspiration in these, but I will add one more just in case he’s reading my blog (he’s not): Elliot Spitzer made his sex scandal work for him – he took time to be out of the spotlight and improve himself, and now he has his own show on CNN. Take the hint, Weiner: Don’t do anything for a bit and lie low.