This blogaround brought to you by stripes.
Recommended Reading:
Sam: [Content Note: Transphobia; bullying] When Your Violin Is Supposed to Be a Cello
Chauncey: [CN: White supremacist patriarchy; gun violence] There Will Be No Effective Gun Control Laws in America Until We Can Talk Honestly about the Connections Between White Masculinity, Guns, and "Freedom"
TS: [CN: Violence against sex workers] Want to Be an Ally to Sex Workers? Here's What You Need to Understand to Help Keep Us Safe
Kenrya: [CN: Police brutality; misogynoir] Sandra Bland Rally Ahead of Civil Hearing
Victoria: [CN: Police brutality; racism] Officer Involved in Amadou Diallo Shooting Promoted to Sergeant
Lyle: [CN: Colonialism] A New Test on Hawaii's Future?
Taylor: [CN: Displacement] The Little Icelandic Town That Survived an Epic Lava Flow
Angry Asian Man: [CN: Yellowface] Oh Hell No: Yellowface in the Absolutely Fabulous Movie
THV: Tom Hardy Arriving at the World Premiere of The Revenant (You're welcome!)
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Friday Blogaround
Anti-Muslim Crimes Are Sharply Increasing
[Content Note: Islamophobia.]
I've made no bones about the fact that I hold the Republican candidates responsible for the uptick in Islamophobic attacks on people and property. And I'm glad to see that the New York Times is reporting on the demonstrable connection between their inflammatory rhetoric and the attacks on Muslim people (or people wrongly assumed to be Muslim).
Hate crimes against Muslim Americans and mosques across the United States have tripled in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., with dozens occurring within just a month, according to new data.Among the many reasons I'm relieved to see this connection getting wider attention is the fact it centers the harm being done to Muslim people because of this harmful rhetoric. Much of the progressive pushback against the Republicans' Islamophobic alarmism has centered on the argument that their hostile rhetoric makes "us" (which is supposed to mean all USians, but we all know how that works) less safe; that it will play into the hands of terrorists, who will use it as a recruiting tool.
The spike includes assaults on hijab-wearing students; arsons and vandalism at mosques; and shootings and death threats at Islamic-owned businesses, an analysis by a California State University research group has found.
President Obama and civil rights leaders have warned about anecdotal evidence of a recent Muslim backlash, particularly in California. But the analysis is the first to document the rise, amid a crescendo of anti-Islamic statements from politicians.
...In recent years, there has been an average of 12.6 suspected hate crimes against Muslims in the United States a month, based on F.B.I. data analyzed by the research group.
But the rate of attacks has tripled since the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 by Islamic State operatives, with 38 attacks regarded as anti-Islamic in nature, according to the analysis, which was based on reports from the news media and civil rights groups.
Eighteen of the episodes have come since the shooting in San Bernardino on Dec. 2 by a Muslim couple who were supporters of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which left 14 people dead.
I'm sure it will be used that way, but to imagine that these statements, no matter how outrageously odious they are, are enough on their own to radicalize Muslims into terrorists all by itself doesn't say much for what the people making the suggestion think of Muslims.
The premise that there is some sizable number of Muslims who can be convinced to do harm to civilians in the US just because they hear that Donald Trump said something horrible implicitly suggests "they're all on the precipice of becoming terrorists!"—and that's just as fucking gross as what the Republican candidates are saying. It's just not as overt.
The real danger in what the Republican candidates are saying is not that it will turn Muslims into terrorists who will harm Good White People; it's that it will turn Muslims into targets for white supremacist terrorism.
And that needs to be the center of our objections. Not some hypothetical harm that terrorists may do to "us," but the actual harm already being done to Muslims by "us."
Daily Dose of Cute
"Zelly, who's such a good girl?"
"Is it me?! I hope it's me!"
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
Let's start out with some fun news: These Ghostbuster character posters are FUCKING AMAZING! Omgomgomg!
[Content Note: Violence; silencing; covers next three paragraphs] And now on to what tops the news all day every day—some more fuckery from Donald Trump: "During a Friday-morning interview with Donald Trump, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was baffled by the Republican front-runner's embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin. ...'Well, I mean, it's also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?' Scarborough asked. 'He's running his country, and at least he's a leader,' Trump replied. 'Unlike what we have in this country.'"
Okay, let's just stop right there for a moment to process that Trump just said that Vladimir Putin is a better leader than Barack Obama. Jesus Jones.
Continuing: "But again: He kills journalists that don't agree with him,' Scarborough said. The Republican presidential front-runner said there was 'a lot of killing going on' around the world and then suggested that Scarborough had asked him a different question. 'I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know,' Trump replied. 'There's a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that's the way it is. But you didn't ask me [that] question, you asked me a different question. So that's fine.' Scarborough was left visibly stunned. 'I'm confused,' the MSNBC host said. 'So I mean, you obviously condemn Vladimir Putin killing journalists and political opponents, right?' 'Oh sure, absolutely,' Trump said." Blink. Blink.
In other primary news: "Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, struggling with its low standing in the polls and underwhelming fundraising, slashed the salaries of senior staffers amid the departure of its top communications aide." Good. Get lost, asshole. Sooner rather than later.
[CN: Anti-choice terrorism] Rage seethe boil: "The lights are still dark at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood where on 27 November a shooter killed three people inside the clinic and wounded nine. But the protesters are already trickling back. ...The clinic itself is months away from being operational. ...But protesters are already prepared to take up old routines." My contempt for these people is a self-digging cavern that has nearly reached the core of the goddamn planet.
[CN: Fat hatred; disordered eating; childhood sexual abuse] I've written before about the correlation found between disordered eating and childhood abuse, so I was glad to see the issue getting some attention at The Atlantic, but I'm really pissed about this headline: "The Second Assault." Lest you imagine that means something other than getting fat, the subhead clears up any doubt: "Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults." I'm a fat survivor, and equating being fat with being sexually assaulted makes me incandescently angry.
[CN: Sexual assault] A major progressive PR firm, FitzGibbon Media, has abruptly shut down after "allegations of sexual harassment and assault by the company's president. Trevor FitzGibbon and his team worked with some of the biggest progressive organizations, including NARAL, MoveOn, the Center for American Progress, and the AFL-CIO, as well as Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, and The Intercept. The company sponsored an event with The Huffington Post earlier this year. Multiple female employees came forward with accusations of sexual harassment and assault against FitzGibbon, according to employees who spoke with The Huffington Post." Hmph. I wonder how long there were whispered warnings about this being ignored.
[CN: Rape culture; misogyny] This is rape culture: "National media heavily featured male reporters and sources in its coverage of campus sexual assault in 2015, although the majority of sexual assault victims are women, according to a new report released by the Women's Media Center on Wednesday. ...In their analysis of stories published between September 1, 2014, and August 31, 2015, researchers found stark gender disparities in both writing and sourcing related to sexual assault. Men wrote 55 percent of the sexual assault stories, compared to 31 percent written by women. Fourteen percent had no byline. Forty-eight percent of the quotes in the stories were from men, while 32 percent were from women. The researchers suggested that the gender of the writer affected how the stories were reported and written." Haha ya think?
Whooooooooooooops! Self-driving cars are getting into accidents because they drive too cautiously, i.e. actually follow the rules of the road, unlike human drivers.
And finally! "13 Funny Winners of the 2015 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards." Hahaha! Oh, animals. How I adore you.
Clinton's Factsheet on LGBT Equality
[Content Note: Homophobia; transphobia.]
Hillary Clinton has released a new factsheet, "Fighting for Full Equality for LGBT People," detailing her six-point plan for extending queer rights beyond Obergefell.
Though there are some things I wish I'd seen, like some detail in the section on transgender prisoners regarding appropriate housing, there's a lot of good stuff there. (I don't fail to appreciate the magnitude of the fact that I even have the opportunity to nitpick a section on trans prisoner rights on a presidential campaign website.) There was stuff I didn't expect to see and was pleased to see, like addressing the specific needs of LGBT elders.
Because of her delayed support for same-sex marriage, Clinton has a reputation of being a Janie Come Lately on LGBTQIA rights, but this isn't the document of someone who's brand new. Once again, I'll note that Clinton was the only candidate in 2008 who promised to make global LGBT rights an active "part of American foreign policy."
She's been thinking about some of this stuff for a long time, and it shows.
An Observation
I am tired of listening to Donald Trump talk. I am tired of reading about Donald Trump. I am tired of seeing Donald Trump's face on the news. I am tired of seeing Donald Trump trending on Twitter. I am tired of talking about Donald Trump. I am tired of writing about Donald Trump. I am tired of Donald Trump.
I would like nothing more than to not think about Donald Trump ever again.
But nothing would benefit Donald Trump more than people who really understand how dangerous he really is tuning him out and keeping silent.
Which is a real goddamn drag.
Because it means I have to keep thinking about Donald Trump.
But I'mma do it, dammit.
YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME WITH YOUR UBIQUITOUS ODIOUSNESS, DONALD TRUMP! I AM INDEFATIGABLE!
Sanders Campaign Improperly Accessed Clinton Voter Data
[Content Note: Privacy violations.]
The Washington Post reports this morning that the Democratic National Committee has shut off Bernie Sanders' campaign access to voter information after staffers exploited a glitch in the software to improperly access "confidential voter information gathered by the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton."
Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, acknowledged that a staffer had viewed the information but blamed a software vendor hired by the DNC for a glitch that allowed access. Weaver said one Sanders staffer was fired over the incident.So, first of all, I just want to underline that there is no indication that Senator Sanders directed his staff to breach Clinton's records. (And, for the record, I don't think he did.) What responsibility Sanders has is for his team, and this appears to be the third incident recently in which Jeff Weaver and Co. have made Sanders look bad: Weaver was the one who made the shitty comments about how Sanders' campaign would be "willing to consider" Clinton for vice-president, then defended his demeaning commentary as "edgy or snarky but nothing more"; Weaver was the one who "declared victory" after a Sanders staffer pitched a fit over last-minute changes to a debate format following the bombing in Paris, making the Senator look unable to effectively pivot to respond to crisis; and now Weaver is the one who is redirecting blame for his staff's unethical and illegal breach of confidential voter data that doesn't belong to them.
The discovery sparked alarm at the DNC, which promptly shut off the Sanders campaign's access to the strategically crucial list of likely Democratic voters.
The DNC maintains the master list and rents it to national and state campaigns, which then add their own, proprietary information gathered by field workers and volunteers. Firewalls are supposed to prevent campaigns from viewing data gathered by their rivals.
NGP VAN, the vendor that handles the master file, said the incident occurred Wednesday while a patch was being applied to the software. The process briefly opened a window into proprietary information from other campaigns, said the company's chief, Stu Trevelyan. He said a full audit will be conducted.
The DNC has told the Sanders campaign that it will not be allowed access to the data again until it provides an explanation as well as assurances that all Clinton data has been destroyed.
...Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said four Sanders campaign staffers accessed Clinton data, and that three of them did so at the direction of their boss, Josh Uretsky, who was the operative fired.
Further, the story reports that Weaver says "the campaign has flagged similar problems with the software for the DNC in the past," which he's obviously saying in order to reinforce his contention that the breach is the vendor's fault, but that raises the question as to why, if this was not the first time the campaign encountered the problem, the staff was not properly prepped to not exploit any breaches.
Also in the news today: "The week before the last Democratic presidential debate of the year began with Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign pulling a negative digital ad it was running against Hillary Clinton after reporters caught wind of it [despite the fact that Sanders] has said with pride that he doesn't run negative ads... The ad was pulled after reporters began asking about it. Aides blamed the spot on a misunderstanding."
Again, I don't think these things are happening under Sanders' explicit direction. But that raises concerns about how disconnected from and/or unconcerned with the actions of his staff the candidate is.
And it's important to understand that the sort of team a presidential candidate puts together for a campaign indicates what kind of administration they'd have in the White House. Campaigning translates into governing; campaign managers segue into chiefs of staff. The people with whom candidates surround themselves during campaigns are the people who end up surrounding them in the Oval Office.
So it matters a great deal that Sanders seems satisfied with Weaver, and satisfied with redirection of blame and "misunderstandings" as explanations for fuck-ups.
This is the nitty-gritty stuff of assessing candidates' ability to effectively govern. Positions are only one part of any candidate's qualifications.
Sanders is running for president, not polemicist.
What he says is important, but it's not the only thing that matters. The truth is, irrespective of what a strong advocate for terrific policy any president may be, that president will fail if s/he doesn't have an effective team.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker SteffaB: "What is the most prevalent color in your wardrobe?"
Probably blue, since jeans are the most crucial staple in my wardrobe, lol.
We Have Nothing to Fear Except You Know the Rest
[Content Note: Terrorism.]
Earlier today, President Obama gave an address at the National Counterterrorism Center in which he stated that there is no known "specific and credible" terrorist threat facing the US at the moment.
And he urged people not to give into fear:
"When Americans stand together, nothing can beat us," Obama said. "We cannot give in to fear or change how we live our lives because that's what terrorists want, that's the only leverage they have."Obviously, he didn't say it, but I have to imagine he was thinking: "There is no specific and credible threat...except the Republican candidates, who can't stop fearmongering like a bunch of dribblepiss cowards."
..."My highest priority is the security of the American people," Obama said. "We will not be terrorized. We have prevailed over much greater threats than this. We will prevail. Again."
That's sure what I'm thinking, anyway.
Quote of the Day
"Everyone is the same size when they race."—Rico Abreu, the first person with achondroplasia dwarfism to win a NASCAR race, which he did earlier this year.
[If you can't view the video on the page, it is also viewable here.]
CNN Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in voiceover, over video footage of Rico Abreu, a young man with dwarfism wearing a racing suit, getting into a car: Rico Abreu, was born with achondroplasia; it's a bone disorder that's the most common type of dwarfism. But hasn't quelled the race car driver's competitive streak.
Race Car Driver Rico Abreu, sitting and speaking to the camera: I don't think my stature has affected, you know, my driving style or what I do on and off the racetrack—and anything I've ever done, I've wanted to win.
Gupta, over footage of Abreu racing: And win he does. Abreu won nearly a quarter of his races in 2014 and grabbed his first ever NASCAR victory in July.
Abreu, on camera: I got the lead with numerous laps to go, and then lost the lead again, and got the lead back with about 10 laps to go, and ended up winning the race. Crossing the checkered flag when you win—there's not much more of a feeling than that.
Male voiceover on video clip showing Abreu crawling out of his racecar and lifting his arms to the crowd: And the celebration is getting ready to get under way as Rico crawls out of the car.
Gupta, over footage of Abreu tuning a vehicle: At just 4'4", Abreu has his cars adapted to fit his height, and wants to inspire others with dwarfism to find a way to do what they love as well.
Abreu, over footage of fans coming up to him to shake his hand and ask for his autograph: A lot of people come up to me and say how inspiring I am. I really feel that you can push yourself to, you know, do what you love.
Gupta, over footage of Abreu holding the checkered flag and high-fiving his team: After all, on the racetrack, it's not about how tall you are.
Abreu, on camera: Everyone is the same size when they race, and it's just about having the biggest heart. [grins]
Gupta: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
Discussion Thread: Holiday Dread
[Content Note for Christian Supremacy, privilege, and various dysfunctional family dynamics and abuse, covering the entirety of the thread.]
Does your family look like this? Mine, neither.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Except for when it's not. And if you aren't happily preparing to celebrate the most perfect Christmas with your perfect family, it can feel pretty lonely—mostly because there aren't a whole lot of places where it's acceptable to talk about your holiday anxiety, or sadness, or contempt, without disguising it as some kind of joke. There aren't a whole lot of places where it's okay to have a grown-up conversation about how genuinely hard the holidays can be.
So, here's a thread to do that. Whether you're facing time with a dysfunctional family of origin, facing time alone you'd prefer to be sharing with someone else, exhausted even contemplating the travel ahead, sad because you can't afford a gift you'd really like to get your kid, pissed off because you don't celebrate Christmas and OMFG enough with the Christmas shit, dreading the comments about your body, your ideology, your choice of partner, dreading your dad's sexist jokes or your mom's racist jokes, dreading seeing that uncle who should be in jail, dreading having your parenting skills audited, dreading coming out which you are totally doing this year, or just generally fed up with the holidays, go for it.
(If you are having urgent thoughts of self-harm, do not leave a comment; please contact emergency services immediately.)
And if you are undilutedly joyful about the holiday season, can't wait to see your family, and are walking on a cloud of sparking white snowflakes, enjoy the absolute fuck out of it. That's not snark; I mean it. That is a rare and precious gift, worth lingering moments of conscious appreciation.
As always, please don't offer advice, unless it is explicitly solicited. Sometimes people just need to grouse, and need solidarity rather than the offer of solutions they may well have already tried.
[Image via.]
Daily Dose of Cute
This guy, lol.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
Vladimir Putin ♥s Donald Trump: "'He's a very lively man, talented without doubt,' Putin said according to the Interfax news service after the three-hour news conference. He added that Trump is the 'absolute leader in the presidential race.'" Sounds about right.
[Content Note: Terrorism; guns] "Federal prosecutors have decided to bring criminal charges against the friend and former neighbor of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Several federal law enforcement officials tell NBC News that the first criminal charges to stem from the massacre will be brought against Enrique Marquez, a long-time friend and former neighbor of gunman Syed Rizwan Farook. ...Investigators have said Marquez bought the two assault rifles three years ago that wound up being used in the shooting."
This is potentially big news: "Doctors say there is now 'encouraging' evidence that an annual blood test may cut ovarian cancer deaths by a fifth. Ovarian tumours are often deadly as they are caught too late. A 14-year study on 200,000 women, published in the Lancet, has been welcomed as a potentially landmark moment in cancer screening. But the researchers and independent experts say it is still too soon to call for mass screening because of concerns about the analysis. ...The results are now in, but the interpretation is a bit messy and the researchers admit it is 'controversial.' Their initial statistical analysis of the data showed no benefit to screening. But there was a benefit when they removed the data from any women who may have already started to develop ovarian tumours. ...Trial leader Prof Usha Menon, from UCL, told the BBC News website: 'Is there clear evidence? I would say no. We don't have clear evidence to go ahead with screening, but what we have are really encouraging estimates of around a 20% reduction, which we need to confirm.' ...The researchers are continuing to follow the patients for what is expected to be another three years to confirm whether there is a benefit."
[CN: Toxic water] Yesterday, I wrote about the lead-poisoned water in Flint, Michigan. Today: "Flint's 'toxic soup' polluted water worse for children than thought, doctor says." Fuck.
[CN: Islamophobia; violence] "We Asked GOP Candidates About the Surge in Anti-Muslim Violence in the US. Then Things Got Awkward. ...The reason for the awkwardness is pretty clear: Many on the political left have blamed Republican politicians for inspiring the acts of violence through their rhetoric. After describing a death threat he recently received, Muslim American Rep. André Carson (D-IN) said last week that the 'rise in Islamophobia' can be linked to the 'demagoguery' of Donald Trump."
[CN: Police misoconduct; rape culture; misogyny] "The Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 15 took steps toward preventing gender bias in police responses to sexual assault and domestic violence with a 26-page guidance document. Developed in collaboration with advocates for survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse, the guidelines call on law enforcement officers to recognize and address their assumptions or stereotypes about domestic violence, treat victims with respect, and refer them to appropriate services, properly identify the assailant, and thoroughly investigate all reports of sexual abuse." Also, one hopes, officers will be told not to commit acts of violence on women themselves.
Hey, remember Martin Shkreli, the drug company magnate "who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750"? Well, he "was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities fraud related to a firm he founded." Aww! I hope the judge who oversees his bail hearing will take into account what he views as reasonable pricing!
[CN: Christian Supremacy; violent rhetoric] Good grief: The Republican Texas Commissioner of Agriculture posted on Facebook that "If one more person says Happy Holidays to me I just might slap them. Either tell me Merry Christmas or just don't say anything." Do these dipshits understand that "Happy Holidays" was A Thing long before people even intended it to be sensitive to non-Christians? Its origins were basically "happy time of year in the US that starts with Thanksgiving and ends with New Year."
"Watch Missy Elliott and Pharrell Crush 'WTF' on The Voice Season Finale." Okay! P.S. Missy Elliott 4ever.
A new study shows that dogs demonstrate prosocial behavior, i.e. the "act of helping another animal without necessarily benefiting from it in any way," which was previously observed in, and assumed to be expressed only by, primates.
And finally! Some absolutely stunning photos of Friesian horses by photographer Brian Musson.
Today in Rape Culture
[Content Note: Sexual assault.]
I have been writing about the rape culture for 11 years, and this is, perhaps, the most egregious example of disbelieving a victim in favor of believing a rapist, no matter how absurd his story, that I have ever seen—which is really saying something.
Ehsan Abdulaziz, a Saudi millionaire property developer, was cleared of rape charges in London this week after he claimed that he had tripped and fallen on an 18-year-old girl who was sleeping at his apartment after partying with him, penetrating her by accident.I don't even have words. All I have is a primal howl of grief and injustice.
...Abdulaziz had already had sex with the 18-year-old's friend and he said his penis might have been poking out of his underwear when he happened upon the young woman sleeping off a night of drinking. The millionaire accounted for his DNA being found in the woman's vagina because she had allegedly seduced him when he was offering her a T-shirt or a taxi ride home. He also said that he had semen on his hands from having sex with the woman's friend earlier. In court, Abdulaziz maintained his innocence, saying, "I'm fragile, I fell down but nothing ever happened, between me and this girl nothing ever happened."
A jury reportedly deliberated for only 30 minutes before acquitting Abdulaziz of one count of rape.
BOOM!
In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here, via Planet Ghostbusters, is the first official image from the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot:
L-R: Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones
You can see a wider crop of the image showing more of the set design here.
*jitters with anticipation*
Greatest Country in the History of the World
[Content Note: Misogyny; anti-choice terrorism.]
One of the things you hear a lot from Republicans during an election is that the United States is the greatest country in the world. Sometimes even in the history of the world! They say this to shame Democrats, who have the temerity to believe that there are things about the US that could be improved. President Obama, they sneer accusingly, doesn't even believe that the US is the best nation that has ever existed. (This, even though their entire premise is that the country needs to be "made great again.")
Just during the last debate, Senator Marco Rubio said, "One of the things my grandfather instilled in me, was that I was really blessed because I was a citizen of the greatest country in the history of our mankind." And Dr. Ben Carson said: "I thank God everyday that I was born in this country—the most exceptional country that the world has ever known."
Maybe that's true, if one is an obscenely wealthy, straight, white, cis, able-bodied white man with a suit that renders him impervious to random gun violence. So, like, if you're Iron Man.
But most of us aren't Iron Man.
If one responds to this sort of nationalistic hyperbole by gently suggesting that the US is, in fact, a pretty rough gig for lots of people from marginalized populations, the immediate pushback is invariably the invocation of a place where people in that class have it even worse.
Which is a red herring. Because just because marginalized people might have additional hurdles in other nations doesn't erase the ones they have in the US. And it ignores that there are places where they would have it better, in some or all ways.
That's the conversation that conservatives want to avoid. That there are actually places where lots of USians would be better off—safer, more financially stable, with better opportunities, more respected.
To address that reality means they would have to acknowledge that we can do better here.
Which we could. If only there was the will to do so.
Instead, there's just a lot of bellicose posturing about how we are the greatest country in the history of the world. As if merely saying it, loudly and often, will make it so.
Recently, the United Nations sent a delegation of three women who are human rights experts—Eleonora Zielinska of Poland, Alda Facio of Costa Rica, and Frances Raday of the UK—to the United States. Over ten days, they toured parts of Alabama, Texas, and Oregon to assess gender equality in the US. They evaluated "a wide range of US policies and attitudes, as well as school, health, and prison systems." And they were "appalled by the lack of gender equality in America."
They discovered that the US was "lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas," including abortion access, the pay gap, livable wages, paid maternity leave, affordable childcare, the treatment of female migrants in detention centers, safety from gun violence, and parity in political representation.
Naturally, women whose identities exist along multiple axes of oppression are disproportionately affected by these failures.
Raday said: "The lack of accommodation in the workplace to women's pregnancy, birth, and post-natal needs is shocking. Unthinkable in any society, and certainly one of the richest societies in the world."
But the group told reporters that the "most telling moment" of their trip "was when they visited an abortion clinic in Alabama and experienced the hostile political climate around women's reproductive rights."
"We were harassed. There were two vigilante men waiting to insult us," said Frances Raday, the delegate from the U.K. The men repeatedly shouted, "You're murdering children!" at them as soon as they neared the clinic, even though Raday said they are clearly past childbearing age.Huh. Almost like abortion is treated as though it's basic healthcare.
"It's a kind of terrorism," added Eleonora Zielinska, the delegate from Poland. "To us, it was shocking."
In most European countries, she explained, abortions are performed at general doctors' offices and hospitals that offer all kinds of other health services, so there aren't protesters waiting to heckle the women who enter.
Abortion is discussed in the United States as something outside of basic healthcare so routinely that most US women can't even imagine that it would be treated any other way. Just like rhetoric around the US being the "greatest country in the history of the world" is designed to mask the fact that women in the US are not living in the greatest country in the world for us.
Indeed, the delegation also "discovered during their visit that women in the United States have 'missing rights' compared to the rest of the world," but aren't even aware of it.
While the delegates were shocked by many things they saw in the U.S., perhaps the biggest surprise of their trip, they said, was learning that women in the country don't seem to know what they're missing.It's not just that the Republicans—and, to a lesser extent, the Democrats, too—refuse to enact policies that would meaningfully improve life for women in the US. It's that they endeavor to convince women (and men) that those politics don't even exist, anywhere in the world.
"So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world," Raday said. "They would say, 'Prove it! What do you mean other people have paid maternity leave?'"
"You couldn't have it any better than this," they suggest. But we could.
Not in some radical utopian future. Just in another country, right now, with better priorities.
And it's not like countries that, say, provide paid parental leave don't still fail women, especially less privileged women, in other ways. But at least they don't have to hear a bunch of men tell them as though it's unassailable fact that they live in the greatest nation the world has ever known, before those men retreat to strategize about how to make their lives even worse.
