A New Wave

Six Other V-words and Phrases and Why They Matter

It started last Wednesday.

Two Michigan State Representatives were censured by GOP House leaders for using v-words: vagina and vasectomy – apparently unmentionable when Democrats use them.  

The silencing of women’s voices this year alone on matters of health, life and death for women is sobering – as is the antidemocratic message it sends. I see it as part of a larger Election Year pattern that seems to be especially pernicious whenever a Democrat is in the White House, but that now goes well beyond even election year politics. More on this in a later post. 

To warm up the conversation about duck-taping women's mouths while taking away our rights I’ve prepared a list of six other v-words and phrases that alone and together are equally important to vaginas this year and the war being waged on us. 

Let’s start with this one –

Voter: As we know from Fifth Grade Civics/Government class, voters are the heart of our little democratic experiment. No voters. No democracy! Voters hold the keys: to who runs local, state and national government and determine whether schools, libraries, safety net programs and other worthwhile services get adequate funding. Voters increasingly have the power to support or deny rights like same-sex marriage and amendments defining when life begins, for example. Voters matter.

 

GRAPHIC: NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin

 

In 2010, the U.S. had 217 million voters, more than half of whom are female.

Politicians – especially those on the far-right – don’t much like voters. Rightwing politicians don’t like government or, apparently, democracy, given the zeal with which they put their thumb on the scale in every election, to tilt it in their direction, which is why we in turn have widespread cases of:

Voter suppression: Just as state lawmakers are working hard to regulate what vaginas can and can’t do, extremist lawmakers in other states are regulating who can and can’t vote. Over 5 million eligible voters are affected by voter suppression in 41 states via new photo I.D. laws, change in requirements for voter I.D., proof of citizenship measures, elimination of early voting, terminating same-day registration, disenfranchising those with past felony convictions, and outright purges of legal, registered voters.

Voter suppression matters for vaginas. Women outnumber men according to the U.S. Census, so when a group of people is denied voting rights – whether they’re older, college students, or minorities – women are affected disproportionately.

Voter participation: Here’s a news flash for all you vaginas: women are so important this year that the media are writing articles about us, candidates are designing strategies to “win” us, and women’s groups like the American Association of University Women and HERvotes are already engaged on the ground to register women nationwide and get us to vote in November.

As it turns out, vaginas DO vote and in higher numbers than men. In every presidential election since 1984, women have outnumbered men at the polls:

'84 -- 61/59 percent

'88 – 58/56 percent

'92 – 62/60 percent

'96 – 55/53 percent

'00 – 56/53 percent

'04 – 60/56 percent

'08 – 60/56 percent.

Women also outnumber men among registered voters.

Voter registration: Vaginas – especially unmarried ones – are the key this year to V-for-victory in November. 

A few salient facts about VR for Vaginas. There are 55 million single/unmarried women eligible to vote this year. Some of those – 22 percent (12.1 million) were registered to vote in 2010 but did not. Finally, 38 percent of those 55 million single vaginas (20.6 million) aren’t even registered to vote.

If just half of 20 million women register and vote in November, the difference in our politics will be the difference between elected officials that actually care about and support our rights and freedoms, as well as jobs and our economic well-being, and more of the same war on women.

Here’s what the unmarried vagina vote looked like in 2010:

 

GRAPHIC: www.voterparticipation.org

Of the 55 million eligible single female voters, over one-third weren’t registered to vote. Another 12 million (22.8%) were registered, but didn’t vote. 

 

GOTVote: Personally, I’d change this to GOTVV. If you’ve followed along this far, you’ll know what that extra V is. We already know that unmarried vaginas overwhelmingly support and vote for progressive Democratic candidates and issues. So, imagine what can happen if all 55 million of us vote. 

 

In other words, ladies, we are our own best friends.

Victory:  This is the last – and best – V-word in my opinion and the best possible outcome in November. But here’s the moral: unless we connect the vaginas to voter registration and voter participation, a lot of people – including women – will be in seriously deep trouble for a very long time to come. The gender gap, it turns out, does matter. A lot.  

There you have it: Six other V-Words and Phrases. 

ELECTION 2012: The battle for women's rights - Part 1

Over the next few months A New Wave will devote its blog posts to the battle for women's rights and those mobilizing and organizing to fight it. 

Part I and II are an overview of what's happening nationally and around the country in state legislatures. None of this will come as a surprise to readers of this blog, but since extremists stay busy 24/7/365, what's happening changes almost daily. So stay tuned. 

Let's start with Congress.

Example A: This year the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) came up for reauthorization, as it did in 2000 and 2005, after being introduced in 1994, when it passed both the House and Senate, and was signed into law by President Clinton.

But VAWA has become "a heavy lift" for Republicans to support: the party of the white male wants to rewrite this law to exclude Native American women, LGBTQ individuals and battered illegal immigrant women from its protections, in addition to watering down how the Act is funded.

So, two weeks ago the GOP-controlled House passed its own VAWA that eliminates these protections and sets up another battle with the Senate, which passed its version on April 26 - including these protections. 

Example B: Although there are any number of examples that qualify as extremist "war on women" measures from the U.S. House, the most recent is symbolic of how laser-focused Republicans are on dismantling women's reproductive rights.

This time they've dressed it up as "nondiscrimination": The Prenatal Nondiscimination Act (PRENDA) seeks to ban sex-selective abortions by making it a federal crime to abort a fetus based on its gender and prescribing prison time for medical providers that engage in this practice.

The bill solves a problem that is almost non-existent in the U.S. and does not one thing to solve the many gender inequities that lead to male favoritism - even in the womb.    

The rhetoric, however, is heavy with irony: The National Right to Life Committee, along with Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), chief sponsor of PRENDA, says this law is needed to "stop the war on baby girls." A truly heartwarming focus group phrase meant to soften the blow of how Republicans really feel about women - even "baby girls". See here, here and here for examples.

And, like so-called voter fraud that the GOP cites as reasons for voter ID laws that target minorities, poor, elderly, and college students, PRENDA targets Asian American women, who will risk "intense questioning" about the decision to seek an abortion if this bill becomes law.

And so, this bill is just one more missile launched in the war on women by a Party that is hemhorraging women's support as fast as it is introducing extremist anti-woman bills.

Part II will look at the battle for women's rights in states. Here's a sneak peek at one major piece of that battle: Anti-choice bills.

23% less and what it means for women

The U.S. Senate prepares to introduce Paycheck Fairness Act...again. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody when it doesn't go anywhere.

We're in an election year - and a pretty nasty one, by all early indications - so GOP will continue to obstruct and drive wedges. They're engaged in an all-out assault against women and women's rights, of which Paycheck Fairness Act is a major piece. When women have economic parity, we're able to control our lives without being dependent on powerful (men) to determine what we can and can't do.  

I'm overjoyed to see young women standing up for Equal Pay, as well as reproductive choice and abortion rights. Now, if we will all just commit to getting 10 women who didn't vote to the polls in November, the Paycheck Fairness Act can finally become law. 

 

Doing Right By Women and Girls

The president's signing of an Executive Order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls is a small victory with great possibility for ensuring women's equality in myriad ways, from employment to health care, from education to work and family balance.

President Obama understands that this council doesn't exist in a vacuum separate and apart from the policies and programs developed and implemented throughout the federal government and that if women are ever to be on the same footing with their male peers a coordinated and interconnected effort is required at all levels of government.

The White House Council on Women and Girls will ensure that agencies across the federal government, not just a few offices, take into account the particular needs and concerns of women and girls. The Council will begin its work by asking each agency to analyze their current status and ensure that they are focused internally and externally on women.

Were the Department of Labor, for example, to develop guidelines on, say, new "green economy" jobs, there is a real possibility that women won't be forced to put up with discriminatory patterns of hiring, training, promotion and wages -- especially as they existed and became embedded into blue-collar occupations.

Or health care: imagine if HHS, Labor and Commerce were to be fully cognizant of the gender bias that exists in rates for health and other forms of insurance and finally generated changes that made such bias illegal.

Oh, the possibilities.

It's too soon to know how successful the Council will be, but Obama has the right vision: the concerns of women and girls must be integrated into every level of public policy and not treated as something separate and apart from the welfare of the country and the world.

1920-2008: Women's Rights Then and Now

Imagine the thrill and the deep sense of satisfaction among women on August 26, 1920 when Congress ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the legal right to vote and thus extending voting rights guaranteed to all "men" in the 15th Amendment.

By way of perspective, my maternal grandmother was 15 years old; my paternal grandmother was 30 years old; and my mother was 1-year old. My maternal grandmother, no doubt, danced in the streets or something equally exhilarating, since she was a feminist in every way that counted. She was my introduction to feminism and created a powerful image for me of what was possible: an independent woman who did what made her happy rather than what made her husband happy; a woman who frequently spoke truth to power, in spite of her 5-foot, 4-inch frame, and for whom nothing seemed impossible.

 

 

Bush Administration continues to undermine abortion rights

The ways in which Bush & Co are shredding or completely reformulating federal laws --- as they leave office --- boggles the mind.

That they pay no heed to U.S. Senators and that they use their last months in office to weaken long-established laws and to embolden ideologues leaves little doubt that they won't leave office with a whimper.

The latest effort (which met with stiff Senate opposition several weeks ago) is a revised HHS regulation that will limit women's access to reproductive health care services, including information and access to contraceptives and abortions:

Tim Kaine on Obama's Short List! Really?

Let me preface my comments with this note: I'm not one to really follow the "veepstakes". I consider it a waste of time and energy, especially when, where I live, summer is really short.

However, after several days of online murmers that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is at the top of Obama's short list for VP, I have to weigh in.

Bernie Mac's lowball, emotionally-stunted humor

On a scale of 1 to 10 - 1 being "really, really outrageous and twisted" misogyny, Bernie Mac's attempts at humor on Friday (at an Obama fundraiser) rank about 3 on my misogyny meter. But Joan Walsh is less incensed than I am:

Anyway, soldiers are dying in Iraq, the mortgage industry is imploding, banks are closing, our civil liberties were seriously eroded this week (with Obama's support) and we're expected to be outraged by Bernie Mac? I'll pass.

Walsh happens to like Bernie Mac's humor. I don't. He's one of a long line of (especially) Black male comedians who use women as comedic punching bags. Friday's fundraiser for Obama was no exception:

Hillary: Is She Or Isn't She?

If Howard Wolfson has it right, Hillary Clinton isn't being vetted by the Obama VP team:

On Fox, former Clinton chief strategist Howard Wolfson indicated that Hillary Clinton is not being formally considered as Obama's running mate, in that she has not been asked to undergo the formal vetting process.

"Not as far as I know," Wolfson, who remains close to Clinton, said in response to a question from Sean Hannity. - more -

Equal Pay Should Actually Mean Something

On April 28 the U.S. Senate failed to pass a significant piece of legislation: H.R. 2831, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007. 

This bill was a remedy to the 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled against Lilly Ledbetter in her pay discrimination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber The bill would have "reset the clock" for filing pay discrimination lawsuits with each and every discriminatory wage practice by employers (issuing a paycheck for example). SCOTUS ruled that workers who face wage discrimination have only 180 days to legally challenge the initial discrimination. 

Both Democratic senators and presidential candidates (Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) voted in favor of the bill. John McCain, the Republican, missed the vote.

Typical, right?

I thought so but then I found this interesting tidbit: