Four hundred women are being held for moral crimes in Afghanistan. Women so desperate to escape intolerable situations they ran. They live in a country where that decision will leave them at a societal deficit, if they are ever released from jail. If released, families often shun such women, leaving them to die on the [...]
May 16, 2013
In response to Hayley’s piece from yesterday, the question about how the three young women who were prisoners in a Cleveland home for a decade, go on, I have no answers. I’m sure that balloons and stuffed animals are not going to make things right. I work with young women and grown women and young [...]
May 15, 2013
I can’t take my mind off them. Of the details that continue to emerge. Today on Jezebel sources said there’s a reason we’ve only seen photos of Amanda Berry and haven’t seen photos of Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus. Apparently Amanda Berry was treated differently–special, oh, so special, that lucky girl–than the other girls who [...]
May 8, 2013
26,000 attempts of sexual assault occurred in the military this year, says a new report released by the Pentagon yesterday. Worse, the leader of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit (yes, you read that right), Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, has been charged with “misdemeanor sexual battery” by the Arlington County police. His face [...]
April 4, 2013
No spoilers. (Yet. I can do recaps if enough people are interested.) I’m going to try to convince you to watch the series without giving too much away. Top of the Lake, starring Elizabeth Moss (yes, from Mad Men), can be found on Sundance. The short synopsis: it’s a crime drama about a 12-year-old pregnant [...]
February 26, 2013
Marilyn Monroe: A woman whose bleached hair was definitely part of her package. Hair is connected to whether or not we feel sexy. Whether or not Monroe felt sexy or just acted sexy, is debatable. But she knew what was sexy. Was Monroe, the blond bombshell, a feminist? Can a feminist also be the first [...]
January 14, 2013
Oh the linguistics of rape. On Twitter Saturday night, Eve Vawter of Mommyish argued over whether or not it’s correct to call the Steubenville Jane Doe‘s rape “brutal”. But she had a dissenting view. Lee Stranahan who is described as a “former leftist activist” would like to make the point that not all rape is brutal [...]
January 3, 2013
I saw Django Unchained over the weekend, and the similarities in vigilantism between that movie and what’s currently happening with the Steubenville, Ohio rape case are hard to ignore. Of course, the victim in this case–a 16-year-old who was raped repeatedly over the period of one night in Steubenville, Ohio–wasn’t the vigilante-in-charge as Django became. [...]
November 29, 2012
As reported all over the US this past weekend, the article below is from the Daily Mail online. I looked and listened for a trace of dismay (other than the fake shock accompanied with a smile on Fox News) in the voices of television reporters, or the mention of child abuse. I didn’t find either. This is [...]
November 5, 2012
As a child, there was no character I revered more than little orphan Annie. (Though Tatum O’Neal in The Bad News Bears tied Annie for my first place hero.) My grandmother took me to see Annie when I was eight and I quickly fell in love. What’s not to love? She sang like a champ. [...]
"A thoughtful, provocative look at the not-so-pretty and the sometimes-out-there sides of parenthood."--Kristen Kemp, Baristakids.com
May 22, 2013
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