Assaulting Women

Jane Arraf is a journalist who covers war and conflict. She has reported from Iraq and the Middle East since 1991. On npr today Ms. Arraf writes about women journalists writing in wartorn areas. It is particularly timely since Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Egypt. A sidebar article regarding comments posted on a story about the attack on Lara Logan explains why comments have been flagged and removed from the story. npr had to explain that the rules do not allow hate speech, sexist, bullying or obscene comments. While schoolgirls in Iraq are leaving school because of the violence against them by teachers, commenters in America can't keep their comments civil. Violence against women is on the rise. Iraq, Sudan, Middle East. And the United States. The 112th Congress is busy assaulting women's reproductive rights. Blaming the victim is an old, tired game, but it is a game that is played daily in the world. I honor the women who speak out. I shout the names of women who speak the truth and speak it often. Jane Arraf, Ann Jones, Christiane Amanpour, and so many others who observe and then report.

Serious Feminists

Today began reading npr, then wheeling through Huffington Post, I found a post by Ann Jones. I'll read anything Ann Jones writes because she's a serious person doing world-changing work on behalf of women. Her post linked to the HRRAC (Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium [Afghanistan] Report, which I downloaded and read, and UN Resolution 1325 which I read over 10 years ago. The United Nations passed another resolution in 2010 to recommit. Then I found Elayne Boosler's post about the comments she received about guns. I thought about the victims in Tucson. I got the creepy realization the gun was aimed at women primarily. Could that be true? Why can't I find any news information to confirm or deny? One of the search results was a Current TV/InfoMania show called "Target Women." This is comedy with crosshairs. Sarah Haskins. I watched some of the episodes, including the handoff to the new host, Erin Gibson. The segment is now called Modern Lady. Then I went ziggity boom for a half hour. My recovery from ziggity boom is usually intense research. The HHRAC Report has a chart showing percentages of men and women in positions of authority in Afghanistan: legislators, judges, military, police. Tried finding the same information for USA. I don't have enough lifespan left to sort that out. Search Google for anything and you'll get two serious results, and thousands of garbage results, just using the word gender. To create some art for this post, I searched Google for "scientific symbol for female" and the 5th of 7mm results is an infected website with a stock illustration of a man strangling the scientific symbol for female. I feel sick.