Feminists For Choice

Just when you thought science couldn’t get any better, a new article in Nature is about to shake up our ideas of sex and biology.

Contrary to an old view of sexual development, Michael Clinton and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh say in the March 11 Nature, individual chicken cells can maintain their own strong male or female identities during development instead of being directed by hormones.

Clinton says his research group ended up considering hormones and sexual identity in the course of studying three peculiar chickens donated to the Roslin Institute. Each bird looked like a rooster on one side, with a long wattle jiggling under its chin, robust legs and bulging muscles. The other half of the same bird — the right side on two birds and the left on the third — had the darker plumage, reduced wattle and dainty ankles of a hen.

Such male-female mashups, called gynandromorphs, have turned up spontaneously in zebra finches, pigeons and parrots as well as in other kinds of animals, Clinton says. These cases challenge the traditional view that genetics takes a back seat to hormonal signals in guiding vertebrate sexual differentiation.

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It’s finally Friday!  Here’s to some fabulously feminist plans for the weekend, plus a little bit of light reading to get it kicked off in high fashion!

An Interview with Michael Moore – Poponthepop
A Ban on Race-Based Abortions? – Broadsheet
“Famine Marriages” a Biproduct of Climate Change – IPS News
Mifepristone (aka “The Abortion Pill”) is Ruled Out as HIV Treatment – AIDSmeds.com
Let’s Appreciate Abortion Providers Every Day – The Abortioneers
Is Violence Against Women Really Taken Seriously? – Womanist Musings

House Bill 1155, an outgrowth of Georgia Right to Life’s current billboard campaign, is making its way through the Georgia General Assembly – and both local and national reproductive justice and pro-choice groups are concerned about its repercussions. Yesterday, the bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and moved to the House Rules Committee, which decides what bills will be debated on the House floor. State representatives expect that the bill will make it to the floor, and pass.

According to the Women’s Media Center, HB 1155, or the “Sex and Race Selection Bill,” seeks

[T]o ban the solicitation and targeting of women of color by abortion providers throughout the state. If implemented, this bill will adversely impact abortion providers by requiring them to prove that they are not targeting women of a certain race or ethnicity. … While the anti-choice HB 1155 legislation might seem at first glance to be a positive step in preventing gender and race discrimination, SisterSong and other reproductive rights organizations believe that it is important to discourage sex selection while still protecting abortion rights. Abortion bans have not stopped sex selection and they are additionally harmful to women

For more information about the bill, check out SisterSong, an Atlanta-based reproductive health collective.

“No one has ever given me a good reason why we should obey unjust laws.” Helen Keller, 1914.

The same year that Helen Keller made the above statement, Margaret Sanger was publishing articles advocating birth control in her journal The Woman Rebel, and knowingly breaking anti-obscenity laws by doing so.

Margaret Sanger and Helen Keller shared more than a love of justice. The two women had remarkable lives that were intertwined in many ways.

The women’s names were first associated in 1915 when Keller publicly commented on the Bollinger baby case. In a manner similar to the Terri Schiavo controversy, the Bollinger’s story acted as a line in the sand for individuals to publicly proclaim their position on birth control and eugenics. And just like the Schiavo case, everyone in America seemed to have an opinion, making it one of the year’s biggest news stories. (more…)

Colorado Pershonhood Bill Fails to Qualify for Ballot – National Partnership for Women & Children
An Interview with Gloria Steinem – LA Times
Are Smaller Condoms for Teens the Answer? – AlterNet

HIV/AIDS is typically thought of as a gay man’s disease, despite the fact that the World Health Organization released statistics in November 2009 that show HIV/AIDS is the #1 killer of women ages 15-44 worldwide. Since March 10th is the National Day of HIV/AIDS Awareness for Women and Girls, I thought that it was important to focus on some of the reasons why women and girls are particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV.

According to a recent article in Poz Magazine:

The particulars of women’s heightened risk include the specifics of female biology; high rates of sexual abuse and gender-based violence; battles for self-esteem and respect; women’s need to be accepted by sexual partners; a chronic lack of resources and income; and homophobia, which can drive lesbians to unsafe and unhealthy practices.

Another part of the challenge is that the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS prevents women from getting tested or seeking support services for themselves. One woman interviewed in another Poz article about HIV and women pointed out that if you have breast cancer or heart disease, there are races and other public events for people to show their support. But with HIV, people would rather look the other way. (more…)

When we think of spies, the image of a man in a black trench coat, or a dashing gentleman in a tuxedo usually comes to mind. Women are not the first thing that comes to mind, and that’s perhaps why they make such excellent spies.

Aline Griffith was born in Peal River, New York in 1923. She was a model before she obtained a job with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a precursor to the CIA. Griffith had been eager to join the military after the outbreak of World War II, but she was repeatedly rejected because of her age. Her age eventually became an invaluable part of her cover as a spy.

Griffith worked by day in the American code room of Madrid, enciphering messages, carrying out missions, and supervising a group of agents. At night she traveled in Spain’s elite social circles and used her social standing to glean intelligence from Nazi sympathizers. After the war, Griffith remained in Spain, married into the Spanish aristocracy and became the Countess of Romanones.

Griffith wrote three books about her life in espionage: The Spy Wore Red, The Spy Went Dancing, and The Spy Wore Silk.

For More Info:
People

Demand for Home Births Rises – My Best Birth
Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules Abortion Bill Unconstitutional – Feminist.org
Abortion Tweets Met with Death Threats – Broadsheet @ Salon.com
Arizona Senate Passes Bill to Ban Abortion Insurance Coverage – AZ Capitol Times
Mexico City Approves Gay Marriage – CNN
No Surprise: Teen Birth Rates Fall After Comprehensive Sex Ed – Sacramento Bee

The women’s suffrage movement was characterized by many outrageous acts, but one of the most radical had to be a speech that was given by Sarah Walker Fitzgerald. The content of the speech wasn’t so radical – she was simply demanding that women be given the right to vote. What made this speech so scandalous was that Fitzgerald delivered it in her bathing suit.

Fitzgerald majored in political science at Bryn Mawr, where she founded the Student Government Association. This set the stage for Fitzgerald to become one of the first women elected to the House of Representatives after women finally obtained the vote. She served as an officer of several suffrage associations, and was a popular speaker on the suffrage campaign circuit.

In 1912, Fitzgerald argued that women were not equal to men, but that they should be given the right to vote in order to uphold the value of fairness.

The Government touches upon every phase of our home life and largely dictates its conditions while at the same time the woman is held responsible or them and is working with her hands tied behind her back . . . she asks the vote in order to do her woman’s work better.

For More Information:
Susan Walker Fitzgerald Papers at Bryn Mawr Special Collections
Wikipedia

First Woman President of Chile Score Points on Gender Front – IPS News
Malaysia Canes Women for Adultery – AWID
Honoring Dr. Mildred Hanson – Physicians for Reproductive Choice & Health
Did the US Military Spy on Planned Parenthood? – AlterNet
Rachel Maddow on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – Pam’s House Blend