President Bush threatening access to birth control?

I woke up this morning to read an article about a proposal from the Bush administration that is supposed to protect health-care workers who are opposed to abortion and birth control methods. The proposal would deny federal funding to any health plan or facility that doesn't accommodate employees who want to opt out of performing abortions, giving out emergency contraceptive pills, or any other care/procedure that goes against their personal beliefs. People who are against this plan believe it will limit access to birth control and abortions to all women. I really don't know how I feel about this proposal. I don't think that the government should be able to take away funding for birth control or abortions. The health-care workers applied for the jobs they are in. If they don't believe in abortions, they should not be working in that field.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25940818/

Hiring Women in the Workplace in 1943

I was doing some research for my paper a couple days ago and I found this article. It's really an article within an article from 1943 with 11 tips on how to hire the right woman for a job. These tips are the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! One of them says to pick young married women because they have more of a sense of responsibility and they're less likely to be flirtatious than unmarried women. It's really sad to see how men viewed women when they were first coming into the workplace. Thought you might all get a laugh out of these tips as I did!

http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2008/03/women_in_the_wo.html

Rowling for Charity

With all the upsetting and horrible things that have been posted I thought I would lighten up the post a bit and talk about a woman that is doing something good for the world. I am sure everyone knows who J.K. Rowling is, the famed author of the Harry Potter books. She was a single mother who was writing in her free time and struck gold with the Harry Potter series. I believe she is now the second richest woman in the world next to Oprah. Well, the series has come to an end but she is now making another book that semi goes along with the Harry Potter series and is planning on giving everything she makes off of the book to charity, which they say is going to be around $8 million. I just think that she is such an inspiration to women everywhere. Coming out of complete poverty, raising children on her own to becoming a multi millionaire maybe even billionaire and she is now writing books for fans who love them and donating the money to charity. It's a good and short article to read. She is just such an inspiration to tell women that you can work your way out of nothing and become an everyday name.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25946599/

Queen Victoria's Bloomers!

This article just caught my eye and cracked me up. If you are having a bad day, this wil definitely make u smile...

A pair of Queen Victoria's bloomer were sold for $9000 dollars at an auction. She was said to be 5 ft tall and the bloomers are about 50 inches in waist.

"The handmade knickers — which date back to the 1890s — bear the monogram "VR" for Victoria Regina. They are open-crotch style, with separate legs joined by a drawstring at the waist, a popular style in the late Victorian era."

Her chemise, with a bust of 66 inches sold for $8000 and her nightgown for $11,000.

More on the article,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080730/ap_on_en_ot/britain_victoria_s_bloomers

"Queen Victoria lived from 1819 to 1901. She became queen at age 18 and was the U.K.'s longest-reigning monarch. Her reign is noted for both imperial expansion and the decreasing political power of the monarch."

I really thought this was interesting...

Sex Testing for Olympics

This is another article I found from the Feminist Majority Foundation. As if women didnt already have issues but recently because of high athletic performance women in the olympics are being accused of being men. This is definitely outrageous. Recently Beijing Olympic officials are setting up sex determination tests for females suspected of being males. Each female suspect will be evaluated based on external appearance and blood samples tested for sex hormones, chromosomes, and genes. Sex testing began in Eastern Europe in the 1960's and the first athlete to be tested was in the 1968 Mexico City games. In the 1996 Games in Atlanta eight athletes were tested and failed. Later on these same athletes were cleared which just goes to show that these tests may not be as accurate as people may think. This kind of testing affects and destroys the lives of many women. Two famous olympic runners from Poland and India were stripped of their medals after failing sex tests. This type of testing has become a very controversial issue in athletics. Chromosomal abnormalities in women can cause them to fail the test and these same women have no competive advantage over other female athletes. Women who fail are required to take a physiological exam which just turns out to be an invasion of privacy. It is so sad that women have to be accused of being men just because they are highly skilled at what they do.

Here is a link to a site that gives more info about Olympic sex testing.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-07/27/content_6880175.htm

Passports Handed Out in Kosovo

Thought this was interesting that the first passport handed out was to a woman. Very short story (see below) http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/30/kosovo.passports.ap/index.html

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) -- Kosovo authorities have handed out their first passports, replacing travel documents issued by the United Nations.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has handed out the state's first passport.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci gave the first passport to a woman during a ceremony in the capital Pristina on Wednesday.

Kosovo's citizens are expected to be able to use the new passport in 43 countries that have recognized Kosovo's independence, declared on Feb. 17. U.N. documents will remain valid in countries that have not recognized Kosovo as a state. The U.N. in Kosovo will not issue new documents.

Citizens applying for the documents will pay €25 ($39) for the blue passport.

gender non-absolutism

This morning, I saw the following headline in my NYTimes morning email:

"A Lab Is Set to Test the Gender of Some Female Athletes"

And with that, my hackles went up. "What is this?!", I thought. "Are we still attempting to define gender by, as the article says, 'an athlete’s external appearance, hormones and genes', as though this will give definitive answers? Has Anne Fausto-Sterling's work reached no one of influence?"

Then I read the article, and was delightfully surprised by the discussion, which included the following complex statements, reported matter-of-factly:

Although the verification test has changed to adapt to new scientific understandings about gender — athletes are now evaluated by an endocrinologist, gynecologist, a geneticist and a psychologist — critics say the test is based on the false idea that someone’s sex is a cut-and-dried issue.

“It’s very difficult to define what is a man and what is a woman at this point,” said Christine McGinn, a plastic surgeon who specializes in transgender medicine.

Because of a range of genetic conditions, people who look like women may have a Y chromosome, while people who look like men may not, she said. Many times, the people do not learn of the defects until they reach adulthood. “It gets really complicated very quickly,” McGinn said.

Might our understanding of gender actually be advancing? I'm tentatively excited.

Read the full article by following the title link, or by clicking here.