goddessing

cosmology, consciousness, contrariness
goddess religion: pagan blog
www.goddessmystic.com


Lest we forget... 

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Lest we forget... posted by Sage -- 9:10 AM.
Blogger: Comment (0). Haloscan: . .

“It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
Morgan Robin quoting Hillary Clinton's speech defying the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, and so much more, in her rousing article, "Goodbye to All That (#2)"


Charter 

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Charter posted by Sage -- 6:33 AM.
Blogger: Comment (2). Haloscan: . .

I called my local cable company yesterday, made my way to the "remove service" department, told the young woman that I needed to cut some of my services to meet my budget, and after some this-and-that'ing ("you could drop the sports channels and save $5.00"), she found me a whole new price structure for my bundle (telephone, broadband, cable TV). Poof! My monthly fees are now $30.00 less, with all services intact. I probably would have dropped sports channels, and movie channels, and whatever it took to lower my bill by $25, but I love living in an era when I can watch women's collegiate basketball on television.

Now it seems criminal to me that they didn't automatically switch me to the new bundle price when it became available, but that's neither here nor there. That they found a way to make me happy by lowering my monthly bill without making me give up anything is, well, a good thing.

Score 1 for the little guy gal.

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The P Word 

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The P Word posted by Sage -- 12:30 PM.
Blogger: Comment (2). Haloscan: . .

I understand my hopeful friends who think an Obama button will change America. But I'm sticking with Hillary. I trust her because all her life, her pro bono work has been for mothers and children. And mothers and children -- of all colors -- are the most oppressed group in our country. I trust her to speak for our children and grandchildren -- and for us. She always has.

My feminist friends are not likely to be part of a voting bloc. I'm the only one of us who is a firm vote for Clinton. Oh, they'd like to vote for her. Of course they would. And of course they think she'd make a great president.

So what's the problem? Practical concerns mainly. Which Democrat is most electable? Did I say concerns? No, something stronger. Fear? PTSD? Understandable really, given the hijinks that put a little bush in the White House two terms in a row. But it's an interesting question nonetheless. A few months ago, I'd have said Hillary was most electable, because she's proven herself to be a brilliant campaign strategist in several electoral contests, including those of her husband. Obama's ability to outfundraise her recently is a concern, but it points to an interesting difference between the two: her strongest support is from families that make less than 50K per year, his from families that make substantially more. He's charismatic. I like him. But I'd guess he's as conservative as Hillary, and as Erica Jong says, "I have nothing against him except his inexperience."

Republicans are praying, literally, for Hillary to win the Democratic nomination. I guess they don't think she's electable. Or maybe, they know what research and experience alike show -- no one likes women in charge. Have you heard more emphatic derision of an intelligent capable candidate in your life? The anti-Hillary venom is toxic, isn't it? All sorts of reasons are given, but in the end they come down to one thing -- gender bias aka sexism.

And we all know that's not a one-way street. We pagan women do our own fair share of struggling against female authority. I won't try to convince you, I'll leave that to others who've looked at the research and put it out there for us all to examine:

Clinton Battles Unconscious Bias Against Strong Women (Daisy Grewal and Elena Grewal, The San Jose Mercury News

When Women Rule (Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times)