Women in Parliament Statistics from around the Globe

Did you know that China has a greater percentage of women in politics than the USA does?

23.4% of politicians in China are female.

Many other countries have surprisingly high rates of women in politics.

Rwanda leads the world, with 63.8% of politicians are female.

Andorra is #2, with exactly 50% of politicians are female.

Cuba is #3, with 48.9% of politicians are female.

Canada is #55 with 25.1%.

The UK is #64 with 22.6%.

The United States is tied with San Marino for #85, with 18.3%.

You can browse the detailed stats by visiting http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

Keeping in mind there is only about 190 countries in the world, so the the USA is really in the middle - halfway, which means it is getting beaten by countries like the Czech Republic, Bosnia, Peru, Croatia, Vietnam...

So what countries is the USA beating in terms of women in politics?

The United Arab Emirates. Oh and the DPRK (aka, North Korea). So the USA is only slightly better than UAE (a country that uses bits and pieces of Sharia law, where women are still flogged or stoned in public) and only beating North Korea by 2%, a country so backwards and scary they could declare nuclear war at the drop of a pin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_North_Korea

And to be fair, the UK and Canada isn't much better.

For example lets compare heads of state...

The United States has NEVER had a female president. Not once since 1776.

The UK had Margaret Thatcher (who was so conservative it defies belief), who was the first and only female PM in British history.

And then there is Canada's Kim Campbell - who didn't even win an election. She was placed in the PM's chair by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who was leaving politics. She was only in power from June 25th to November 4th 1993. Less than 5 months.

What this tells us is that the USA, the UK and Canada really has barely only scratched the surface when it comes to women's equality and women in politics.

It tells me that more women in these countries need to be entering politics. It tells me that women in these countries are being discouraged from entering politics, and that means their voices are not being heard because they are being shouted down by men who still think women belong in the kitchen.

Sorry guys.

Women belong in the House. And the Senate. And the Oval Office.

Get used to it.

Anita Sarkeesian Vs Sexism in the Gaming Industry

Guest Post By Sheelah Kolhatkar

One night in October, before the media critic Anita Sarkeesian was scheduled to give a speech at Utah State University, someone e-mailed the school, threatening to commit mass murder. “This will be the deadliest school shooting in American history, and I’m giving you a chance to stop it,” the message read. “I have at my disposal a semiautomatic rifle, multiple pistols, and a collection of pipe bombs,” it went on. “I will write my manifesto in her spilled blood, and you will all bear witness to what feminist lies and poison have done to the men of America.” The message mentioned Marc Lépine, a man who shot and killed 14 women at an engineering college in Montreal in 1989 before killing himself.

Sarkeesian had been invited by the university’s Center for Women and Gender to give a talk about sexism in the video game industry, which has lately become the kind of topic that generates death threats, in large part because of Sarkeesian’s work. As her plane made its way toward Salt Lake City, school officials quickly discussed the e-mail with police and decided it was safe for the talk to go on—it wasn’t the first time someone had promised to create havoc at one of her appearances, they reasoned, and nothing too terrible had happened before. The “terror threat,” as it was called, was reported in a local newspaper, and Sarkeesian learned about it after she got off the plane and checked Twitter. Her friends were e-mailing: “Are you OK?” She was too scared to leave the airport and called the school. After learning that the event staff couldn’t screen for weapons because of Utah’s concealed-carry laws, she canceled her talk, got back on a plane, and returned to California.

“Harassment is the background radiation of my life,” says Sarkeesian. “It is a factor in every decision I make. Any time I tweet something, or make a post, I’m always thinking about it. When I post our videos, it’s a consideration. It affects where I go, and how I behave, and how I feel walking down the street every day.”

The strange part is that Sarkeesian is essentially an academic who has spent the past two years putting together a scholarly criticism of video games as a medium, through a series called “Tropes vs Women in Video Games,” published on her website Feminist Frequency. She finds disturbing, recurring themes in the ways that women are depicted in games, from blockbusters such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty to obscure titles such as Splatterhouse and MediEvil 2.

The Utah State incident raised her profile yet again, landing her on the front page of the New York Times the following day. She broke 200,000 followers on Twitter and is in demand on the speaking circuit, where she talks about online harassment almost as much as she does video games, deconstructing and dissecting it like one of her game motifs. “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” was on track to become the kind of minor academic work that professors make their assistants churn out to help them get tenure. But it tapped something that was waiting to explode. And it might change an industry that’s by some measures now larger than Hollywood.

Petite and fair, with long, shiny hair the color of merlot, chunky boots, and nails painted gold, Sarkeesian, 31, telegraphs an earnest grad student—part activist, part literary theory major. She was studying for her master’s at York University in Toronto when, as a kind of hobby, she started making videos about women in popular culture. Her degree was in social and political thought—her thesis was called “I’ll Make a Man Out of You: Strong Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Television”—and she was interested in creating something that might make feminism more accessible. After graduating in 2010, she produced “Tropes vs Women,” a series of six videos about movies and television, looking at the show Glee, rap lyrics, the marketing of toys for boys and girls, and so on. She hoped that by focusing on “tropes”—storytelling devices—through popular culture she could help viewers become more critical consumers of media.

In 2012, Sarkeesian was invited to speak about creating strong female characters at Bungie, the game studio near Seattle that made the Halo series. She got surprisingly good feedback and decided to push her thinking into video games, which she’s loved since playing on a Game Boy as a kid. Sarkeesian started a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter: “Have you ever noticed that with a few notable exceptions, basically all female characters in video games fall into a small handful of clichés and stereotypes?” she asked at the start of her pitch.

She set a goal of $6,000 and reached it in less than 24 hours. Two weeks later, after passing the $22,000 mark, she posted a video describing the project on YouTube, and it started to draw the attention of hard-core gamers. Thousands of comments flooded YouTube, Kickstarter, and Sarkeesian’s own website. Some asked why she wasn’t looking at male characters and argued that the things she was pointing out weren’t sexist, necessarily, but realistic or historically accurate. But many comments were couched in vicious language: “I hate ovaries with brains big enough to post videos,” “f-‍-‍- you feminist f-‍-‍-s you already have equality. In fact you have better s-‍-‍- than most males be glad what you got bitch,” and “get back in the kitchen, if you hate it go make your own games.” Sarkeesian took screen grabs of the comments and posted them, which in turn drove more comments, and more people to contribute money on Kickstarter. The campaign ultimately raised $158,922 from 6,968 backers during the 30 days it was open.

Then Sarkeesian got to work. There are games stacked in piles around her San Francisco home, where she has a Wii; a WiiU; a PlayStation 2, 3, and 4; an Xbox 360; Xbox One; PS Vita; Nintendo 3DS XL; iPhone; iPad; and a gaming PC spilling out of various Ikea shelves and TV stands. The place is a jungle of cables and wires—she has three power strips behind her TV—and also includes capture equipment to record segments of games, as well as a recording studio where she creates the scripted portions of her videos.

Each video can require hundreds of hours of game playing, which she does herself or with the help of her co-producer, Jonathan McIntosh, who’s created his own share of viral cultural critiques. Getting the right snippet of a game—the appearance of a particular character, for example—can require playing it 10 or 15 times to drive the narrative up to the desired point and in such a way that the footage will be clear to anyone watching it later. A common joke among gamers, Sarkeesian says, is that even when you’re inhabiting one of the rare playable female characters, you can leer at her butt up close—you’re playing a woman and checking her out at the same time. At one point, Sarkeesian spent two days replaying every game to satisfy a hunch that first-person characters had the capacity to stare at the butts of female characters, but not at the backsides of men. She was right.

Some of the images of women she assembled were subtly diminishing—a princess trapped in a crystal, for example—but many were brutal. In a clip from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, a marquee game made by Ubisoft Entertainment and introduced with a national TV campaign, the throat of a barely dressed maiden is slashed. Women are beaten and kicked in other games. They are slung over horses, dumped in trunks, and run over with sports cars. Often, when they are killed, a player is rewarded with money. Each trope video opens with a similar disclaimer: “I need to stress that this video comes with a content warning and is not recommended for children,” Sarkeesian says to the camera. “This episode includes game footage of hypersexualized female characters as well as extremely graphic depictions of violence against women.”

The videos last about 20 minutes to 30 minutes each, with Sarkeesian narrating, often using dense terminology imported from feminist theory (“building off of philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s work on objectification theory …,” etc.). She focuses on the darkest, most violent and sexualized parts of the games and the limited range of their female characters, whom she terms “nonplayable sex objects”—often barely dressed streetwalkers, pole dancers, and barmaids spilling out of their corsets; helpless mistresses outfitted in shredded dress-bits with double-D cleavage; and the ongoing parade of women who are stabbed, shot, and mutilated in service of plots about heavily armed male antiheroes.

The first three videos in the series examine the “damsels in distress” trope and the ways in which women appear not as characters with power to take action but as victims in need of rescue and “a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest.” Sarkeesian draws an engaging line through history, from Perseus and Andromeda, to King Kong and Fay Wray, to Popeye and Olive Oyl, to Super Mario and Princess Peach. Two more installments look at a second trope, “women as background decoration.” They open with a clip from a Sega game called Binary Domain, set in a purple-hued brothel. “Sorry, all booked up,” says a hooker breathily, puffing on a cigarillo. “Too bad, too, ’cause I would’ve given a stud like you a free sample.” As Sarkeesian illustrates through clips of Grand Theft Auto and other games where “whore” is often a synonym for “woman,” the nonplayable females are just elements sprinkled into the environments to make them edgier and more titillating to men. There are more trope videos coming, including one about women as rewards and another about women as erotic sidekicks.

Each time a new video comes out, the harassment spikes. People impersonate Sarkeesian, creating fake accounts with her photo. Some spread false information. There was an effort to get the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of Feminist Frequency. She gets private messages and pictures showing her image being raped by video game characters, some with her face Photoshopped onto porn stills, in addition to the standard threats and insults.

In August an independent video game designer named Zoe Quinn was swept up in a separate Internet storm when her ex-boyfriend posted a rambling 9,000-word essay about their relationship on several online forums. Quinn was best known for a game called Depression Quest, about suffering through mental illness, something she has experienced. The angry boyfriend’s post led to accusations that Quinn had a romantic relationship with a video game critic for the gaming website Kotaku. Although Depression Quest is available for free and the critic never reviewed the game, Quinn became the target of rape and death threats, obscene calls to her father, and online petitions to try to sabotage her career.

The campaign grew and morphed and got a name, “gamergate.” Very few people came out looking good in the ensuing hashtag war—an example of social media at its worst, with childish insults, sarcasm, disingenuousness, and threats of rape and other violence. Quinn fled her home in Boston and hasn’t been back in months. She periodically gets reports that strangers are lurking outside. She’s working with criminal prosecutors and the FBI on some of the more serious threats, but she says that her life has been practically destroyed. “I talk to my therapist,” Quinn says, via Skype from London. “She says, ‘I don’t even know what to tell you, this is so f-‍-‍-ing far outside anything I’m aware of.’ ” Other women involved in game development were affected as well.

When Sarkeesian released a new trope video in the weeks after the Quinn incident, the threats against Sarkeesian escalated yet again. “In several hours I’m going to drive a truck loaded with ammonium nitrate into your apartment,” someone tweeted to her, including what was purported to be her home address. “I’m sitting outside your apartment … with a loaded gun,” read another Twitter message, which also included a home address. “The moment you step outside, I’m going to blow you away.” Sarkeesian was “doxxed,” online slang for when a person’s personal information, such as phone numbers and bank data, are made public with an implicit invitation for further stalking, and people called and menaced her parents. The FBI got involved.

Unfortunately, law enforcement hasn’t shown a willingness to take online threats seriously, says Danielle Citron, a law professor at the University of Maryland and the author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace. There have been some successes prosecuting so-called revenge porn websites, for example, which encourage the posting of nude photographs of ex-wives and girlfriends, and often demand money to take the pictures down. But in other cases, the FBI and police say that virtual threats aren’t as serious as other types of threats, urging the victims to not look at their e-mail if they don’t like what’s there. “The Internet brings out the best and the worst in us,” Citron says. “Anonymity lets us be our true selves, so the domestic violence victim or the LGBT person can communicate in a way they couldn’t before. But the trolls and the stalkers also act with impunity, because they can.”

McIntosh, Sarkeesian’s male co-producer, was also harassed online, but nowhere near as vehemently, and it had a less sexist tone. “It’s really important that women be free to share their opinions online without being shouted down,” he says. “In the video game industry right now, women don’t want to speak. There’s a real fear, and it really is silencing people.”

Sales of video games already exceed Hollywood’s box office revenue, with console games generating $25 billion in the U.S. in 2013, compared with $10.9 billion for movies. Video games may someday surpass Hollywood in cultural and economic relevance, but the industry will first have to develop an inclusiveness and breadth of artistic expression that reaches beyond guys in their man caves. In March 2013, game designer Cliff Bleszinski, a creative force behind Gears of War, the post-apocalyptic game that features female soldiers who fight alongside men, acknowledged as much when he wrote on his website of a “cancer” plaguing the industry.

“[I]f we’re going to grow up as an industry, we’re going to need the consumer to grow up a bit as well,” he wrote. “The latent racism, homophobia, and misogyny online are black marks on an otherwise great hobby. Anonymity is the gasoline on the fire of hate that flares up on forums, chat rooms, and Xbox Live on a daily basis.”

The industry’s main trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, tries to emphasize how mainstream the industry is, even as many of the games themselves undermine its message. The ESA trumpets the fact that the proportion of women playing all video games—not just on Xbox-style consoles, but also on tablets and other devices—has grown to 45 percent, and that 51 percent of U.S. households own at least one video game console. The range of games being produced overall has grown, with a far broader swath of the population engaging in online play as it’s become a fixture of smartphones and iPads. But a single hit console game, such as Call of Duty, can generate more than $1 billion in revenue a year, and anything that might disturb that revenue stream presents obvious economic risk. A clip from the latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, produced by Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, features a first-person character who picks up a sickly looking hooker on the street, has sex with her in his car, then gets annoyed with her chattering and punches her in the face before running her over and driving away.

In October the ESA issued a statement. “Threats of violence and harassment are wrong,” it read. “They have to stop. There is no place in the video game community—or our society—for personal attacks and threats.” Most of the individual game companies in whose name the war is being waged haven’t spoken about it. When asked to comment, a spokesman for Take-Two Interactive referred to the ESA’s statement, while one for Activision Blizzard, which makes World of Warcraft among other titles, pointed out that the company’s co-founder Mike Morhaime recently said at a conference that the industry should “take a stand” against online harassment. Ubisoft did not respond to requests. John Reseburg, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, says: “We strongly support the ESA’s position, and believe there is absolutely no place in games for threats, harassment, and abuse. It is behavior that simply must stop. As a company, we are focused on continuing to take steps internally to protect our employees and make sure they feel safe.”

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo this year, an Electronic Arts executive addressed the question of why so many games seem to exclude women. “My thesis is that it’s a male-dominated business,” said Patrick Söderlund, an executive vice president at the company, which publishes a much-praised game called Mirror’s Edge featuring a ninjalike woman protagonist and several other titles with strong female characters. “I’m not sure that flies, but I think it overall may have something to do with it—that boys tend to design for boys and women for women. I’m just happy that we have a game with a female heroine.”

“As a woman with a background in technology—I started in computer science—the issue I’ve seen is the lack of balance,” says Robin Hunicke, an independent game designer who began her career at Electronic Arts working on The Sims. “There’s a ratio issue, in technology and computer science and the sciences in general. But the lack of balance creates problems, and the problems begin with that skewed ratio.”

“Major publishers need to enforce a zero-tolerance policy of sexism and racism and homophobia,” says Sarkeesian. “Developers need to start moving away from the entitled macho-male power fantasy in their games. They need to recognize that there are wider stories that they can tell.” She has drawn up her own schematic for such a game. It would start with a princess trapped in a tower. But no one would come to rescue her. Eventually, she would have to break out herself.

On Oct. 30, Sarkeesian is drinking tea at a cafe near Columbus Circle in Manhattan the morning after she appeared on The Colbert Report. It had gone relatively smoothly, although the comedown was almost as intense as the buildup. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” she says. “I woke up at 3 a.m., and my mind was racing.”

“I speak for all gamers when I say the media should stop talking to critics like Anita Sarkeeeeeesian,” Colbert had said by way of introduction. “Let’s call this what it is,” he went on in his pretend right-wing pundit character. “You and the other feminazis in the gamer world are coming for our balls, to snip ’em off, put ’em into a little felt purse, and take ’em away so we have to play your nonviolent games.”

“No, that’s not true,” Sarkeesian said, with an uncertain smile.

“It’s a culture war!” Colbert replied, grinning. “It’s a subculture war!”

The segment ended with Colbert asking if, as a man, he was “allowed” to be a feminist. “Do you believe that women should have equal rights to men and that we should fight for those rights?” Sarkeesian said. “Yes,” Colbert replied. “Great!” Sarkeesian said. “Then you’re a feminist.”

As online hatred has continued to pour in, Sarkeesian’s voice has only gotten louder. The morning of her Colbert appearance, the New York Times published an op-ed she’d written, “It’s Game Over for ‘Gamers.’ ” In it she tries to cast a hopeful spin on the way the culture of video games is evolving as more people who aren’t young men have started to play them.

“People are talking about women and games seriously; people are taking the critiques seriously,” Sarkeesian says as she stirs her tea. “It’s been a huge shift. This discussion is becoming more mainstream.”

A blond woman sitting at the next table before an array of New York City street maps begins squirming excitedly in her seat. “Are you talking about the article about gaming in the New York Times yesterday? I read it!” she says excitedly. “Did you write that? It was great!”

Sarkeesian, looking a bit embarrassed, says yes. She turns back around on her stool. “On any given day,” she says, “I can feel super hopeful or super depressed.”

Year 2000 Women - Amazonian Superwomen?

Back in the 1950s Associated Press writer Dorothy Roe made a series of predictions for the fantastic future of what she thought women and gender equality would be like 50 years later in the year 2000. Among her prognostications about greater gender parity was the belief that women of the future would evolve into Amazonian Superwomen.

Below is part of the text written by Dorothy Roe:

The woman of the year 2000 will be an outsize Diana, anthropologists and beauty experts predict. She will be more than six feet tall, wear a size 11 shoe, have shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver.
Chances are she will be doing a man's job, and for this reason will dress to fit her role. 

Her hair will be cropped short, so as not to get in the way. She probably will wear the most functional clothes in the daytime, go frilly only after dark.

Slacks probably will be her usual workaday costume. These will be of synthetic fiber, treated to keep her warm in winter and cool in summer, admit the beneficial ultra-violet rays and keep out the burning ones. They will be light weight and equipped with pockets for food capsules, which she will eat instead of meat and potatoes. 

According to 1950s futurists, women of the year 2000 would be giantesses. Her proportions will be perfect, though Amazonian, because science will have perfected a balanced ration of vitamins, proteins and minerals that will produce the maximum bodily efficiency, the minimum of fat. 

She will go in for all kinds of sports – probably will compete with men athletes in football, baseball, prizefighting and wrestling.

She'll be in on all the high-level groups of finance, business and government.
She may even be president.

So they would be Amazonian giantessses who like to go "frilly only after dark".

Wow. I wish such a turn of events had come true.

 such a magnificent turn of phrase — it sounds like the Victorian equivalent of Skinemax, which would consist solely of a salacious sousaphone solo.

The illustration above is from a December 24, 1949 Associated Press piece by weight-loss entrepreneur Ann Delafield. In this similar article, Delafield cited sunshine as a catalyst for women becoming Amazons. Except for two problems. As a biochemist I know that sunshine makes almost no difference on growth patterns, and two, even if that was true modern women spend way more time indoors than any previous generation.

The difference between 1900 and 1950 was largely due to better food and healthier conditions. The difference between now and 1950 also has other factors like rising rates of anorexia, obesity and the fact that women are still loath to enter male dominated fields.

Despite the 60 years that have passed since the 1950s Wonder Woman is still running around in her tight clothes and showing lots of skin. Some things never change apparently.

How to deal with an abusive boyfriend

Want to know how to deal with an abusive boyfriend?

Step One

Resist.

Step Two

Seek help.

Step Three

Kick the bastard in the balls and walk away.

* Note - Helps if the person doing the kicking is a taekwondo champion. See the video below. :)

Don't let haters get you down

By Suzanne MacNevin

I want to apologize to every fat person I have ever made fun of. Including Rob Ford.

Historically I thought that my "tough love" approach with the obesity epidemic was my way of promoting fitness and motivating fat people to stop coddling themselves, get off the sofa, and start exercising / eating healthy.

I thought that obese people needed both positive and negative reinforcement in order to motivate themselves to change.

What I have since realized is that obese people have no shortage of negative reinforcement, what they really need is more positive.

Furthermore I have also realized I was being a hater.

Not that I hate fat people. What I hated was what you stood for. Laziness and gluttony. It was nothing against the people themselves, but an indictment of their lack of willpower and a society that feeds upon laziness and gluttony, turning people into food addicts.

I came to this epiphany while I was chatting online with a friend in Canada, a personal trainer who lives in Toronto who uses sports to help motivate his clients to lose weight.

What he said was "Haters are going to hate and you can't let haters get you down. You have to stay up, keep going forward, keep trying harder, because quitting will only let the haters win - and you cannot let them win. You have to take your own hate for the haters and turn that into positive action - but you are never going to do that unless you have the support of people who are not haters and tell you to 'go for it!' "

And that was when my brain just clicked. I realized that my brand of negative reinforcement wasn't very supportive. My mindset was all screwed up and my friend had opened a window in my brain, letting a flood of light in and suddenly I could see clearly.

So now I feel I need to spread three messages.

One, I apologize. I am very sorry for all the times I made fun of fat people. I know that isn't a very good apology, but it is sincere.

Two, to other haters out there: Please realize that your hate only drags other people down.

Three, to all the people out there who are feeling a lack of motivation: You can do it. I believe in you.

Note - I want to point out that my friend was speaking broadly about haters and motivation. He wasn't speaking about exercising, the conversation turned in this direction because of some jackass who hates him just for the sake of hating him (and is probably just jealous of his physique). If you have encountered this type of person you know what they are like. The hardcore haters will find any excuse to hate people - even perfectly likable people who can speak so eloquently about turning hate into positivity.

But what he said was truly profound because it applied to all kinds of hate and to many different activities - not just motivating yourself to exercise. It also easily applies to sexism, racism, and any of discrimination.

With that said I am going back to all my old articles and blog posts on the topics of obesity, exercising, etc and re-writing them so they are more supportive. It will take awhile but I will do it. So I apologize if you read any of my old articles in which I make fun of lazy fat people and defended my negative reinforcement. It will take some time and effort to re-write everything.

And you can do it too. You just have to set your mind to it and ignore the haters!

Busy, busy and more busy

Some of you may have been wondering why I have not updated suzannemacnevin.com recently.

Well the truth is I am busy working my cute little *** off to make ends meet.

I call it the bane of all activists, artists and do-gooders. You still have to make a living regardless of your political, social or even artistic goals. I am not a starving writer by any means, but I certainly do feel like one sometimes.

This means little time to write, to organize, to paint, or whatever it is you do.

Being busy all the time is also emotionally frustrating. You want to be doing other things, but you are so busy from working that when you come home you just want to sit around eating ice cream and watching old Seinfeld episodes.

Why? Because laughter requires almost no brain power.

And when you are emotionally and creatively spent, working on artwork, writing or social activism ends up taking a backseat to the simple need of going to work, coming home and just chilling before you fall asleep and have to do it all over again.

For me this feels like patriarchy is winning. As if all the rapists, anti-feminists, deadbeat daddies, femicide murderers and other pricks in the world are getting away with whatever they are doing simply because I am too busy to talk about them and raise awareness.

As if the entire weight of the world rests on my tiny shoulders.

But then I realize that there is many more like me. You, my loyal readers, other feminist writers / activists who are fighting the good fight - fighting for freedom for all women. There are millions of feminist websites out there all pushing for equal rights for women and men.

And so I apologize that this is one of very few posts in 2014 so far. But I am still here. Still thinking the good fight even though I am not always able (time wise) to write about it.

And when I find more time I will be back to write more, spreading truth, justice and the feminist way!

8-Year-Old Girl Forced to Leave Christian School for being a Tomboy

Below is a story a friend sent me about a girl who was forced to leave her Christian school because she dressed and behaved like a boy. In other words, a typical tomboy. Tomboys are actually quite normal and tend to be the girls who get really into sports and other more male dominated activities.

What I find deplorable however is how the school has chosen to openly discriminate against tomboys - as if being a tomboy is a sin. Shame on them!

Source: ABC News

Eight-year old Sunnie Kahle likes to have short hair, wear sneakers and play sports. That’s also the reason why her school said she was no longer welcome there and her grandparents had to pull her out. The family received a letter from Timberlake Christian School telling them that if their girl did not comply by the school’s biblical standards, then she would not be allowed to enroll for the next academic year. Kahle’s grandparents pulled her out immediately and got her admitted to a public school.

[Note, by Bible standards all modest women are supposed to cover their hair in public. I wonder how many young girls at their school actually do that???]

According to Kahle’s grandparents, she is like any other girl who goes to Timberlake Christian School.

“She cries every morning to get on the bus, she cries when she comes home because she wants to go back to Timberlake Christian with her friends,” said Doris Thompson.

The letter received by Thompson states that fellow students have been confused about whether Kahle is a boy or a girl and that the administrators can refuse enrollment to a student based on grounds of sexual immorality, being homosexual or other alternative gender identities.

[Of which the girl in question is none of those things. She is not sexually immoral. She is not homosexual. And being a tomboy is not "alternative".] 

“You're probably aware that Timberlake Christian School is a religious, Bible believing institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment… We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education,” read Thompson.

[Where in the Bible does it say women cannot wear pants and do sports???] 

Doris and Carroll Thompson, Kahle’s grandparents adopted and raised the little girl when she was even younger.

“How do you label a child, eight years old, or discriminate against an eight year old child? It just don't happen,” said Thompson.

According to an administrator at Timberlake Christian School, the problem with Kahle goes “far beyond her hair length” and that the little girl is a good student, but that “things disturbed the classroom environment.”

“How do you tell a child when she wants to wear pants and a shirt, and go out and play in the mud and so forth, how do you tell her, no you can't, you've got to wear a pink bow in your hair, and you've got to let your hair grow out long, how do you do that? I can't do that,” said Thompson.

School administrators clarified that they had not accused Kahle of being anyone or anything and simply asked her family to make sure she follows the guidelines set forth for every student but the Thompsons say that they do not wish to re-enroll Kahle at the Timberlake Christian School.

[Apparently Timberlake Virginia is full of religious nutjobs who don't know that being a tomboy is perfectly natural - and that discriminating against women because they are tomboys is just like discriminating against women with red hair (because they might be witches, oh no!) or discriminating against women because they want to study science (because science is not in the Bible, oh no! And yet apparently it is okay for men to study science...) or discriminating against women because they happen to think for themselves (women can think? Oh no!)... Anywho, I rest my case.]

Patrick Stewart, speaking out versus Violence Against Women

Patrick Stewart is not just a Starfleet captain, X-Men’s Charles Xavier and an actor admired by millions of fans

The actor is also deeply involved in work that helps women who are victims of violence. At the recent Texas Comicpalooza, in reply to a question, he talked about how his father’s violence towards his mother inspired him. He also explains how he only recently discovered that his father suffered from PTSD dating back to his father's involvement in World War II.

Nobody is Immune to Breast Cancer

Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Storm and Catwoman are not immune to breast cancer.

What makes you think that you are immune to a disease that effects millions of women?

Regular breast self exams can help detect lumps early on and save your life.

Did Pussy Riot started a new wave of Feminism?

Hi Suzanne,

My name is Sandra Dwyer. I am a final year student doing Social Science in Cork University. As part of my research project, I am covering the Pussy Riot case in Russia, while drawing on the possibility of what some people have coined the term a new wave of transnational feminism. I read alot of the work on 'feminist ezine', which has greatly assisted any material I address on feminism. I think your opinion on this subject would add great depth to my work. I have a few specific questions, but in general terms, I am mainly concerned with your opinion on the entire situation that has taken place in Russia, and if you do think that these women have in fact started a new wave of transnational feminism?

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Very kind regards,

Sandra.

Hey Sandra!

A new wave of transnational feminism? No, I don't think that has been started.

Did you hear about this in the news?

"A 15-year-old girl in the Maldives who was allegedly raped by her stepfather has been sentenced to 100 lashes for having premarital sex.

Her stepfather hasn't faced trial for accusations he raped the teen and killed their baby, BBC reported.

The girl and her stepfather were charged in June 2012, Amnesty International stated, after the body of a baby was found outside their house on Feydhoo Island. The human rights group said the stepfather had allegedly sexually abused the girl for years.

Zaima Nasheed, a spokeswoman for the juvenile court, told BBC the girl was also placed under house arrest for eight months and defended the punishment saying the girl had willingly acted outside the law.

Under Maldivian law, the girl won't receive her punishment until she turns 18, Amnesty International said.

"Flogging is a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment," Amnesty International said prior to the sentencing.

The nation of islands is located southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean."

If a new wave had started people would be more worried about things like that and try and stop it.

Now back to your question...

No, there is no "new wave". If anything its the old adage "two steps forward, three steps backwards". Now I am not saying we aren't making progress, we are making progress. But it is a very slow process.

And if we want to make radical / rapid progress then we need to start thinking outside the box and going for more radical thinking.

Which is funny because I don't consider myself to be a radical feminist. Or a militant one. But the older I get the more I wonder if there is radical / militant alternatives.

Take for example Japanese whalers. I think we should be ramming their ships and sinking them. Torpedoes if necessary. Then rescue the survivors. Make it clear that whaling as an industry has to stop and that whalers will be dealt with the same way we deal with pirates off the coast of Somalia - we kill them. If we are killing pirates for hijacking oil tankers, why aren't we killing whalers for killing whales?

Now I realize that is a controversial thought. But lets apply that same logic to rapists. 99% of the world's rapists are walking around free. Why? Because only 10% of women report sexual assaults to the police. A tiny percentage of them goes to court. And convictions are rare, even when there is physical evidence. So it really is no surprise so many rapists walk free.

Plus, even if we do convict them... we later release them years later, back in to society. And many sexual offenders are repeat offenders. So the only permanent solution is to remove them from normal society entirely - which is why I think we should build a penal colony on Greenland or some other remote island and send all of the world's rapists there. Yes, it is an unusual solution, but it would work.

So if you're looking for a new wave of international feminism then it should be happening in the courts and in politics first - and it will require some radical new laws to deal with people not fit to live with the rest of society.

And then there is the matter of conviction rates. James Holmes (the Batman cinema massacre) may be forced to take a truth serum during his trial. If we can do that for mass murderers, why can't we do that for rapists? We evidently have the technology to get the truth out of people using drugs, why aren't we using this technology to improve our justice system?

On the topic of Russia, the Pussy Riot case is evidently motivated by politics - the silencing of political enemies. It isn't so much that Pussy Riot is a feminist group. They're a political group, and the Russian government wants to silence them. But it backfired and now the media spotlight has hold of it.

It would be nice if things backfired more often. Karmic, really.

Sincerely,

Suzanne MacNevin

Gadgets just make things more Complicated

You are probably familiar with the Microsoft Office Labs vision of what 2020 might be like. Its in the video below if you haven't seen it before.


However I want to point out something of interest...

The gadgets don't actually make your life easier. They just make everything more complicated and time-consuming. Yes, they look kewl and interesting, but most of the time (99% or so) people are just wasting time on such things and not actually "building" anything.

Now in the video they do, eventually, design a rooftop garden for buildings in the future. Which is a nice idea, absolutely. But did they really need to use all those gadgets to design such a thing?

Nope. They could have done it a lot faster the "old fashioned way" and not wasted all that time playing with their toys.

Which begs the question... will so much of our society in the future be spent twiddling with gadgets and designing stuff (that rarely gets built) or will be actually putting our skills to use and BUILDING things.

I chalk it up to wasted "manpower". Take Britain for example, which has just over 2.5 million unemployed people right now (not counting me, I'm a professional writer).

That is 2.5 million people who could be building things. Building homes. Bridges. Roads. Parks. Rooftop gardens. Greenhouses. Windmills. Solar panels. Building things that would make Britain even more amazing than it already is.

Now what would it cost to employ 2.5 million people and give them a decent salary? Say 50,000£ per year (about $80,000 USD). Well it would cost £125 billion per year.

Now I admit 50,000£ is a lot. The average annual wage in the UK is actually 36,000£. So maybe we don't need to spend that much.

£90 billion would cover it and give those 2.5 million an "average job" building things that make the UK a greater place.

Well... let me put it this way.

The UK already spends £190 billion on "social protection services" every year. Another £119 billion on health care. £88 billion on education. £38 billion on defense. And so forth.

The pie chart on the right is from the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

So an extra £90 billion to give every unemployed person in the UK a job building stuff isn't actually that big of a deal. It is, ahem, controversial and a wild idea, but it would solve a host of problems simultaneously.

#1. It would pretty much eradicate unemployment and homelessness. As long as people are willing to work, they will automatically have a job waiting for them.

#2. Crime/theft would drop dramatically. People who have jobs have little reason to steal things if they are making a decent wage.

#3. Foreign investors would flock to the UK because our economy would be booming. Once the initial stages pass the private sector would start hiring more people and the amount of money being used for "building things" would drop dramatically over time.

#4. The UK government would get most of their investment back in income taxes anyway. Not just the newly employed people, but from everyone else as well. Why? Because people would be spending more, which means other companies will be making more, which means they too would be paying more in income taxes.

#5. More people doing manual labour means more people who are exercising as part of their daily routine. This would boost the overall health of the country. Which means health care costs would decline a bit.

HOWEVER THERE IS A BIG FLAW IN MY IDEA

And it is that many people simply refuse to do manual labour.

Pick up a shovel and do work with my hands? Pff!

I think this is because many British people now have this sense of entitlement, that they don't "need" to work. Myself included. I'm a writer / former teacher. I've never worked a manual labour job beyond when I did some gardening during high school.

But if someone offered me a job in a greenhouse tending plants, I would do it. I think that would be an awesome job. (I love greenhouses.)

The same thing is true of Canada and the USA. Nobody over there is willing to pick apples or do agricultural work. So instead they import hardworking Mexicans to do all the work instead. And its not just farming either... the food services industry is mostly Mexican and Asian people. Why? Because most white people are too proud to work in McDonalds.

White people are, frankly, lazy and feel overly-entitled. Many of them think they are too good for manual labour. They went to college or university, they got a diploma or a degree, but they cannot find work in their chosen degree because frankly how many psychologists and social studies majors does the world really need?

No. The real jobs are in manufacturing and in building / growing things. Which is why places like China, Taiwan, Japan, etc are now manufacturing superpowers compared to many other countries - because they mass produce things and their employees do it for relatively little - and they're not too proud to refuse to do the work.

Our Arrogance Will Be Our Downfall

Life With/Without a Cat

Cuz Cats are Funny regardless of what you do.

Pregnancy Complications = Death

Complications of pregnancy results in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 teen girls in developing countries (second world countries) each year. In third world countries the rates are even higher. Overall half a million women die every year in childbirth due to complications.

So what is it like in the developed country like the UK, Canada or the USA?

Honestly, its not much better.

In the USA pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women ages 15 through 19.

Its sad but true.

Certainly things could be done to prevent this, but the truth is that many teenagers who are not fully grown simply are not ready to bear children.

And the fact that health insurance in the USA is lagging behind the rest of the western world doesn't help either.

In the UK, where we have high standards for our hospitals we really are not much better. Part of it is societal. The kind of society the results in children as young as 12 getting pregnant and having babies.

FACT: In the UK girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s.

Its not just the mother's lives who are at risk either. Babies are 60 per cent more likely to die if their mother is under 18.

20 per cent of girls worldwide have their first child before the age of 18. Teen pregnancy living in a third world country is basically a death sentence and its not much better in 2nd or 1st world countries.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in 2006 there were 435,436 babies born to women ages 15 to 19 in the United States.

Teenagers in the USA are also more likely to have premature births. Premature births are 14.5% for teenage women in the USA, compared to 11.9% for women 20 to 29 years old. Premature babies are often grossly underweight. Babies born weighing less than 3 1/3 pounds are 100 times more likely to die than normal weight babies.

Babies born to teenage girls in the USA under the age of 15 are 240 percent more likely to die during or soon after childbirth.

And if you factor in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) then the statistics are even higher, since SIDS is much higher with premature / underweight babies...

All in all... teen pregnancy is a huge risk for both the mother and the baby. Even if you live in a developed country like the USA, Canada or the UK it still kills.

What is bizarre is that the majority (70%) of American women who get an abortion is NOT teenagers. Its actually women in their 20s who are single mothers and already have one or more children. They get pregnant AGAIN and decide that one extra mouth to feed is enough.

I think part of the problem is that teenagers think they are immortal and they don't know the risks of teenage pregnancy and that they have great faith in doctors. They think that even if something goes wrong that they will somehow survive. Teenagers are ever immortal optimists.

And its killing them. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women ages 15 through 19.

Something to think about.

Christmas Treat - A Holiday Film with Feminist Undertones

Behold my recommendation for your Christmas Day viewing pleasure...

A Holiday Film with Feminist Undertones...

BATMAN RETURNS.

At which point you might say, huh, what?

But what you might not know is that this film has Catwoman in it - and any film with Catwoman in it always has some kind of feminist undertone. Call it one of the few virtues of the comicbook industry, they love a heroine who has a feminist twist.



Of course its hardly the only such film with feminist undertones. There is also the Halle Berry "Catwoman" film - which tried so desperately to appeal to a feminist crowd it ended up being overdone and made the villain a beauty product heiress with diamond-hard skin.

Which is really rather lame.

And then to make matters worse it shows off a lot of skin - Which is one of the worst traits of the comicbook industry, their unrealistic flaunting of female skin.

As if women watching this film didn't know already that it was basically made for a male audience but they're trying to fool us with over the top mixed messages.



There is a long list of superheroines out there if movie producers want to make movies out of them... many of them are not well known, but that doesn't mean their stories aren't worth telling.

But sadly many of them would be showing a lot of busts and skin. I think that is one of the reasons why they keep failing to make a Wonder Woman film. Its because they know her character is a little two dimensional and they're trying to figure out a Batman Begins way of making the character come to life on the big screen - without it looking ridiculous.

Anyway, here is a long list of superheroines that could be made into films... if anyone ever steps up the plate and decides some of their stories are worthy.

My vote? I know She-Hulk will never be made, but I think BLACK CANARY would be a great film.


Mint Aizawa (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Momoko Akatsutsumi (Cartoon Network)
Alisha (Misfits)
Alexandra/Alex (Totally Spies)
Alice (Resident Evil series)
Amber (Eclipse Comics)
American Dream (Marvel Comics-MC2)
American Maid (The Tick)
Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (DC Comics)
Andromeda (DC Comics)
Andromeda (Marvel Comics)
Angela (Image Comics)
Aquagirl (DC Comics)
Samus Aran, Metroid
Argent (DC Comics)
Arisia, the Green Lantern of Graxos IV (DC Comics)
Arrowette (DC Comics)
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall (DC Comics)
Atom Eve (Image)
Atomic Betty (television series title character)
Aurora (Marvel Comics)
Avengelyne (various)
B.Orchid (Killer Instinct)
Ballistic (Cyberforce member) (Top Cow)
Barb Wire
Barbarella (V-Magazine)
Batgirl (DC Comics)
Battle Angel Alita (Shueisha)
Batwoman (DC Comics)
Beautiful Dreamer (DC Comics)
Bella Donna (Marvel Comics)
Belphegor (DC Comics)
Big Barda (DC Comics)
Big Bertha (comics) (Marvel Comics)
The Bionic Woman (Ima)
Binary (Marvel Comics)
Vera Black (aka Sister Superior) (DC Comics)
Black Canary (DC Comics)
Black Cat (Harvey Comics)
Black Cat (Marvel Comics)
Black Cherry X (2000 AD)
Black Orchid (DC Comics)
Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)
Black Widow (Timely Comics)
Blacklight (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Blink (Marvel Comics)
Blitzkrieg (Antarctic Press)
Bloom (Winx Club)
Blonde Phantom (Marvel Comics)
Blossom (Cartoon Network)
Bloodberry
Bluestreak (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Boodikka (Green Lantern Corps) (DC Comics)
Boom Boom (Marvel Comics)
Bounty (Marvel)
Brandy (Image Comics)
Bubbles (Cartoon Network)
Buff (Marvel Comics)
Bulleteer (DC Comics)
Bulletgirl (see Bulletman and Bulletgirl) (DC Comics)
Bumblebee (DC Comics)
Buttercup (Cartoon Network)
Burnout (Eclipse Comics)
Callisto (Marvel Comics)
Captain Confederacy (Marvel Comics)
Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics)
Captain Universe (Marvel Comics)
Lenore Castle (Powerline) (Marvel-Shadowline)
The Cat (Marvel Comics)
Cat Claw (Malibu comics)
Catwoman (DC comics)
Celsius (DC Comics)
Cerise (Marvel Comics)
Chance (Marvel Comics)
Chandika (comics)
Chase (DC Comics)
Abbey Chase (see Danger Girl)
Chastity (Chaos Comics)
Cheetara
Cherry
Choice (Marvel - Ultraverse)
Chun-Li (Street Fighter)
Cammy White (Street Fighter)
Cimarron (Eclipse comics)
Cinnamon (DC Comics)
Circuit Breaker (Transformers)
Clea (Marvel Comics)
Cleopatra (Astro City)
Clover (Totally Spies)
Clobber Girl (Simpsons)
Clobberella (Futurama)
Coagula (DC Comics)
Cobweb (America's Best Comics)
Colt (AC Comics)
Comet Queen (DC Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes)
Copycat (DC-Wildstorm)
Copycat (Marvel Comics)
Anya Corazon (Marvel Comics)
Crane (Bon Comics)
Crazy Jane (DC Comics)
Crimson Avenger III (DC Comics)
Crimson Curse (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Crimson Fox (DC Comics)
Crystal (Marvel Comics)
Cutey Honey (title character)
Cybergirl (title character)
Cybersix
Cyblade (Top Cow)
Cyclone (DC Comics)
Dagger (Marvel Comics)
Darkstar (Marvel Comics)
Darna (Mango Comics)
Dart (DC Comics)
Dart (Image-Highbrow Ent)
Dawn (Sirius Comics)
Dawnstar (DC Comics)
Dazzler (Marvel Comics)
Dead Girl (Marvel Comics)
Karolina Dean (Marvel Comics)
Deathcry (Marvel Comics)
Debrii (Marvel Comics)
Deep Blue (DC Comics)
Destiny (Marvel Comics)
Devi (Virgin Comics)
Diamond (Blink Comics)
Diamond Lil (Marvel Comics)
Diamondback (Marvel Comics)
Brittany Diggers (Antarctic)
Diva (DC-Wildstorm)
Doctor Light (DC Comics)
Doctor Midnight (DC Comics)
Doll Girl (DC Comics)
Dolphin (DC Comics)
Domino (Marvel Comics)
Domino Lady (Pulps)
Dove as Dawn Granger (DC Comics)
Dragona (Mars Ravelo's)
Dragonfly (AC Comics)
Dream Girl (DC Comics)
Duck-Girl (Bon Comics)
Dumb Bunny (DC Comics)
Dusk (Marvel Comics)
Dust (Marvel Comics)
Dyna Girl (Krofft)
Dynamite Girl (Antarctic Press)
Echo (Marvel Comics)
Elasti-Girl (DC Comics)
Elastigirl/Mrs.Incredible (The Incredibles)
Electra Woman (Krofft)
Elektra (Marvel Comics)
Empress (DC)
Energizer (from Power Pack) (Marvel)
The Engineer II (DC - Wildstorm)
Fairchild (DC/Wildstorm)
Faith (DC Comics)
Fallen Angel (DC Comics)
Fantomah
Fantomette (Collection Rose)
Fathom (one of the Elementals, Comico Comics)
Fathom (Aspen Comics)
Feral (Marvel)
Fever (DC Comics)
Fire (DC Comics)
Firebird (Marvel Comics)
Firestar (Marvel Comics)
Flaberella ( the simpsons)
Flamebird III-V (DC Comics)
Flash (Just Imagine...) (DC Comics)
Flash (Tangent) (DC Comics)
Fleur-de-Lis (DC Comics)
Flint (WS)
Flora (Winx Club)
Forerunner (DC Comics)
Pudding Fong (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Free Spirit (Marvel Comics)
Freefall (DC-Wildstorm)
Tara Fremont (AC comics)
Adrienne Frost (Marvel Comics)
Emma Frost (Marvel Comics)
Zakuro Fujiwara (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Fury I (DC Comics)
Fury II (DC Comics)
Gamora (Marvel Comics)
Ganymede (Marvel Comics)
Garganta (AC comics)
Ghost (Dark Horse Comics)
Glitter (Marvel - New Universe)
Glory (various)
Gloss (DC Comics)
Godiva (DC Comics)
Miyako Goutokuji (Cartoon Network)
Grace (DC Comics)
Graphics Girl (Amy Scutter)
Gravity Girl (Birdman and the Galaxy Trio)
Max Guevara (from live-action TV show Dark Angel)
Gypsy (DC Comics)
Green Lantern (DC Comics)
Green Arrow (DC Comics)
Halo (DC Comics)
Harbinger (DC Comics)
Hawk as Holly Granger and Sasha Martens (DC Comics)
Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) (Marvel Comics)
Hawkgirl (DC Comics)
Hawkwoman (DC Comics)
Molly Hayes (Marvel Comics)
Hellcat (Marvel Comics)
Satana Hellstrom (Marvel Comics)
Hepzibah (Marvel Comics)
Hit Girl (Kick-Ass)
Horridus (Image-Highbrow Ent)
Heather Hudson, formerly Sasquatch, Exiles member (Marvel Comics)
Huntara (Marvel Comics)
Huntress (DC Comics)
Ice (DC Comics)
Icemaiden (DC Comics)
Indigo (DC Comics)
Infragirl (Tomorrow Syndicate member) (Image Comics)
Insect Queen (DC Comics)
Invisible Woman (Marvel Comics)
Natasha Irons (DC Comics)
Isis (DC Comics)
Ichigo Momomomiya (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Jack Phantom (America's Best Comics)
Jade (DC)
Jann of the Jungle (Marvel Comics)
Jayna (DC Comics)
Jet (DC Comics)
Jet (Wildstorm)
Jem and the Holograms (Hasbro)
Jocasta (Marvel Comics)
Jolt (Marvel Comics)
Jessica Jones (aka Jewel and Knightress) (Marvel Comics)
Rhea Jones (aka Lodestone) (DC Comics)
Joystick (Marvel Comics)
Jubilee (Marvel Comics)
Judomaster III (DC Comics)
Jungle Girl (various)
Jarella (Huk)
Jennifer Kale (Marvel Comics)
Bette Kane (DC Comics)
Nova Kane (First)
Karatecha (Kiss Comics)
Karma (Marvel Comics)
Kasumi (aka Batgirl) (Cassandra Cain) (DC Comics)
Katana (DC Comics)
Kendra Young (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Kelly (Misfits)
Laurel Kent (DC Comics)
Kid Flash (Iris West) (DC Comics)
Kinetix (DC Comics)
Kismet (Marvel Comics)
Misty Knight (Marvel Comics)
Knockout (DC Comics)
Kole (DC Comics)
KOS-MOS (Heroine of the Xenosaga series)
Kratha (Virgin Comiffcs)
Kristin (Comics Interview)
Krystala (ABS-CBN Television)
Kumori (Aftermath)
Kitty (Wolverine And The X-Men DVD Series)
Lady Blackhawk (DC Comics)
Lady Death (Chaos Comics)
Lady Luck The Spirit Section
Ladyhawk (Marvel Comic)
La Lunatica (Marvel Comics)
Lavagirl (Sharkboy and Lavagirl)
Layla (Winx Club)
Layla (Sky High)
Juniper Lee (The Life and Times of Juniper Lee)
Leeloo (The Fifth Element)
Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Liberty Belle (DC Comics)
Lightning Lass (a.k.a. Light Lass, Gossamer, Spark) (DC Comics)
Lightspeed (from Power Pack) (Marvel Comics)
Lime
Little Mermaid (DC Comics)
Looker (DC Comics)
Loria (see Blood Pack (comics) version) (DC Comics)
Lyja (aka Lazerfist and Ms. Fantastic) (Marvel Comics)(Marvel-MC2)
M (Marvel Comics)
Madame .44 (DC Comics)
Madame Mirage (Top Cow Productions)
Madame Xanadu (DC Comics)
The Magdalena (Top Cow Productions)
Magdalene (Marvel Comics)
Magik (Marvel Comics)
Magma (Marvel Comics)
Maiden Justice
Manhunter (Kate Spencer) (DC Comics)
Manitou Dawn (DC Comics)
Marionette (see Micronauts) (Marvel Comics)
Marrina (Marvel Comics)
Marrow (Marvel Comics)
Marvel Girl (Marvel Comics)
Mary Marvel (DC Comics)
Masada (see Youngblood) (various)
Matilda (Matilda from the Roald Dahl series)
Kaoru Matsubara (Cartoon Network)
Aspen Matthews (Aspen Comics)
Maxima (DC Comics)
Maximum Ride (novel series and manga)
Maya (DC Comics)
Medusa (Marvel Comics)
Meggan (Marvel Comics)
The Menagerie (DC Comics)
Mera (DC Comics)
Anna Mercury
Merry, Girl of 1000 Gimmicks (DC Comics)
Lynn Michaels (a.k.a. "Lady Punisher") (Marvel Comics)
Lettuce Midorikawa (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Mighty B
Nico Minoru (Marvel Comics)
Mirage (DC Comics)
Miss America (DC Comics)
Miss America (Marvel Comics)
Miss Fury
Miss Martian (DC Comics)
Miss Pell (Dexter's Laboratory)
Mockingbird (Marvel Comics)
Ichigo Momomiya (Tokyo Mew Mew)
Moondragon (Marvel Comics)
Musa (Winx Club)
Moonstar (Marvel Comics)
Moonstone (Marvel Comics)
Monstress (DC Comics)
Mother-One (see Wetworks) (DC-Wildstorm)
Motormouth (Marvel Comics)
Ms. Liberty (Antarctic Press)
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) (see also Binary and Warbird) (Marvel Comics)
Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura) (see also She-Thing) (Marvel Comics)
Ms. Mystic (originally Pacific Comics, then Continuity Comics)
Ms. Victory
Namora (Marvel Comics)
Namorita (Marvel Comics)
Negative Woman (DC Comics)
Nelvana of the Northern Lights (Hillborough Studio)
Nemesis (Marvel Comics)
Nemesis II (DC Comics)
Neon Queen (Mystery Inc. member) (Image Comics)
Night Girl (DC Comics)
Nightcat (Marvel Comics)
Nightshade (DC Comics)
Nightstar (DC Comics)
Nightveil (AC comics)
Nikki (Marvel Comics)
Niobe (The Matrix)
Nocturne (Marvel Comics)
Angel O'Day (see Angel and the Ape) (DC Comics)
Scarlet O'Neil (Newspaper Strip)
Aleta Ogord (see also Starhawk) (Marvel Comics)
Onyx (DC Comics)
Oracle (DC Comics)
Oracle (The Matrix)
Owlwoman (DC Comics)
Pantha (DC Comics)
Violet Parr (The Incredibles)
Penance (Marvel Comics)
Phantom Girl a.k.a. Apparition (DC Comics)
Phantom Lady
Phoenix (Marvel Comics)
Photon (Marvel Comics)
Pilgrim (see Wetworks) (DC-Wildstorm)
Pink Ranger (Power Rangers)
Pixie (Marvel Comics)
Polaris (as Overdrive) (Marvel Comics)
Poison Ivy (from the comic series)
Kim Possible (from the self-titled cartoon series)
Power Girl (DC Comics)
Power Princess (Marvel Comics)
The Powerpuff Girls
Princess (Gatchaman; Battle of the Planets)
Princess Projectra a.k.a. Sensor (DC Comics)
Princess Kakyuu (Tokyopop)
Promethea (America's Best Comics)
Psylocke (Marvel Comics)
Psynch
Jenny Quantum (DC - Wildstorm)
Queen Hippolyta (DC Comics)
Queen of Swords
Jesse Quick (DC Comics)
Rad (AC comics)
Rainbow (Eclipse Comics)
Rainbow Brite (Hallmark comics)
Rainmaker (DC-Wildstorm)
Rampage (DC Comics)
Raptor (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Rapture (Image-Highbrow Ent)
Rapture (Transformers)
Raven (DC Comics)
Raven (Teen Titans)
Red Guardian (Marvel Comics)
Red Sonja (Marvel Comics)
Red Tornado (All-American Comics)
Rescue (Marvel Comics)
Revanche (Marvel Comics)
Cecilia Reyes (Marvel Comics)
Ellen Ripley (Alien series)
Riptide (see Youngblood version) (various)
Robin as Stephanie Brown or Carrie Kelly.
Rocket (DC Comics)
Rogue (Marvel Comics)
Ronin (Marvel Comics)
Roxy (Winx Club)
Rose and Thorn II (DC Comics)
Rose Tattoo (DC - Wildstorm)
Rouge the Bat (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Sabra (Marvel Comics)
Sage (Marvel Comics)
Sailor Jupiter (Tokyopop)
Sailor Mars (Tokyopop)
Sailor Mercury (Tokyopop)
Sailor Moon (Tokyopop)
Sailor Neptune (Tokyopop)
Sailor Pluto (Tokyopop)
Sailor Saturn (Tokyopop)
Sailor Uranus (Tokyopop)
Sailor Venus (Tokyopop)
Sailor Star Fighter (Tokyopop)
Sailor Star Healer (Tokyopop)
Sailor Star Maker (Tokyopop)
Sailor Chibi Moon (Tokyopop)
Sailor Quartet: Sailor Vesta, Sailor Pallas, Sailor Ceres, Sailor Juno (Tokyopop)
Sakura Kinomoto (Tokyopop)
Saturn Girl (DC Comics)
Savant (DC-Wildstorm)
Scarlet Witch (Marvel Comics)
Scorpion (Carmilla Black), (Marvel Comics)
Secret (DC Comics)
Amanda Sefton (Marvel Comics)
Selene (Underworld)
Sepulchre (Marvel Comics)
Sersi (Marvel Comics)
Shadow Hunter (Virgin Comics)
Shadow Lass a.k.a. Umbra (DC Comics)
Shadowcat (Marvel Comics)
Shakti (comics) (Raj Comics)
Shamrock (Marvel Comics)
Shanna the She Devil (Marvel Comics)
Violet Song jat Shariff (Ultraviolet)
She-Dragon (Image Comics-Highbrow Ent)
She-Hulk (Marvel Comics)
She-Hulk (Lyra) (Marvel Comics)
She-Ra She-Ra: Princess of Power
She-Thing (Marvel Comics)
She-Venom (Marvel Comics)
Sheena (Wags)
Liz Sherman (Dark Horse, Hellboy)
Shi (Crusade)
Shikari (DC Comics)
Shining Knight (Ystina) (DC Comics)
Shrinking Violet (DC Comics)
Sif (Marvel Comics)
Silhouette (Marvel Comics)
Silk Spectre (DC Comics)
Silver Fox (Marvel Comics)
Silver Sable (Marvel Comics)
Silver Scorpion
Silverclaw (Marvel Comics)
Samantha Simpson/Sam (Totally Spies)
Skids (Marvel Comics)
Skyrocket (DC Comics)
Snowbird (Marvel Comics)
Songbird (Marvel Comics)
Emma Sonnett (aka the 10th Muse) (various)
Jenny Sparks (DC - Wildstorm)
Sparx (see Blood Pack (comics) version) (DC Comics)
Speedy II (DC Comics)
Spellbinder (Harmony Concepts)
Spider Girl (DC Comics)
Spider-Girl (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Spider-Woman (Marvel Comics)
Dorothy Spinner (DC Comics)
Spitfire (Marvel Comics)
Spoiler (DC Comics)
Spy Smasher (Katarina Armstrong), (DC Comics)
Squirrel Girl (Marvel Comics)
Stacy X (Marvel Comics)
Star-Spangled Kid (DC Comics)
Stardust (AC comics)
Starfire (DC Comics)
Stella (Winx Club)
Stargirl (DC Comics)
Starwoman (Astro City)
Stature (Marvel Comics)
Stepford Cuckoos (Marvel Comics)
Stinger (Cassandra Lang) (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Storm (Marvel Comics)
Stripperella
Stunner (Marvel Comics)
Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Sun Girl (Marvel Comics)
Supergirl (DC Comics)
Supergran (TV series)
Superwoman (DC Comics)
Suprema (Awesome)
Surge (Marvel)
Swift (DC - Wildstorm)
Sydney Savage (see Danger Girl)
River Tam (Firefly/Serenity)
Tank Girl (published by Dark Horse Comics)
Tara (Marvel Comics)
Gwen Tennyson (Ben 10)
Tecna (Winx Club)
Terra (DC Comics, Teen Titans)
Thor Girl (Marvel Comics)
Thunder III (DC Comics)
Jonni Thunder (DC Comics)
Thundra (Marvel Comics)
Tigra (Marvel Comics)
Timeslip (Marvel Comics)
Titaness (Mansion Comics)
Topaz (Marvel Comics)
Traci 13 (DC Comics)
Triplicate Girl a.k.a. Duo Damsel, Triad (DC Comics)
Troia (DC Comics)
Donna Troy (DC Comics)
Tsunami (DC Comics)
Katma Tui a.k.a. Green Lantern of Sector 1417 (DC Comics)
Turbo (Marvel Comics)
The Untalkable
Ultrawoman
Ultraviolet
Valda the Iron Maiden (DC Comics)
Valkyrie (Marvel Comics)
Valkyrie (Alpha-Omega Comics)
Vampirella
Velocity (Top Cow: Cyberforce)
Venus (Marvel Comics)
Vigilante (Patricia Tryce) (DC Comics)
Vindicator (Marvel Comics)
Violet (The Incredibles)(Film)
Violet (J/C)
Virtuous Venus (Harmony Concepts)
Vixen (DC Comics)
Vogue (various)
Void (DC-Wildstorm)
Voodoo (DC-Wildstorm: WildCats)
Jakita Wagner (Dc-Wildstorm: Planetary)
Jenny "XJ-9" Wakeman (My Life as a Teenage Robot)
Wallflower (Marvel Comics)
The Wasp (Marvel Comics)
Web Woman (Filmation)
WhirlGirl (Web series title character)
The White Witch (DC Comics)
Wild Thing (Marvel Comics-MC2)
Wind Dancer (Marvel Comics)
Colleen Wing (Marvel Comics)
Winged Victory (Astro City)
W.I.T.C.H: Will Vandom, Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale and Hay Lin (Disney Italia)
Witchblade (Top Cow Productions)
Witchfire (DC Comics)
Witchfire (Marvel Comics)
Wolfsbane (Marvel Comics)
The Woman in Red (Standard Comics)
Wonder Girl (DC Comics)
Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) (DC Comics)
Wonder Tot (DC Comics)
Wonder Woman (DC Comics)
Wonder Woman (Just Imagine...) (DC Comics)
Word Girl (Television series title character)
X-23 (Marvel Comics)
XJ-9 - see Jenny "XJ-9" Wakeman
XS (DC Comics)
Yellow Ranger (Power Rangers)
Gertrude Yorkes (Marvel Comics)
Zatanna (DC Comics)
Zealot (DC-Wildstorm)

Feminist T-Shirts for Christmas

Looking for last minute Christmas gift ideas?

Get them a custom made feminist t-shirt!

If women took up arms to protect their rights...

"If women took up arms to defend their rights and freedom, the men in power would ban assault rifles so quickly your panties would fall off." - Suzanne MacNevin.

Feminist Quotes of the Day

"You can't stop me. If you push me down I will only come back stronger than ever." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"If every woman in the world carried a secret bottle of pepperspray on her there would be a lot less rapes." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"Exercising is a woman's tool for proving that she can do anything a man can physically do. Some women just don't know their own strength." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"We have to stand up to the bullies and rapists in the world. If we don't we are nothing more than sex slaves." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"You can't push me down because I push back." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"When in doubt remember that inside every woman there is a person who wants to be seen, heard, touched, and liberated." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"Never attribute to men the intelligence required to pull off a 'patriarchal conspiracy'. Its not a conspiracy that men are out to push women down. Its a travesty and purely the result of most men being pigs." - Suzanne MacNevin.

"Live a little. Have sex and enjoy life. But never forget that the joys of life must be fought by freedom fighters and that for 51% of the population those freedom fighters are called feminists." - Suzanne MacNevin.

Disturbing Video - 600 lb mother paid to eat

Below is a video of a 600 lb mother in the USA who was paid by men to make videos of her eating. The phenomenon is known as feeders and chubby chasers.

Eventually she reached a point where she was confined to a bed and couldn't walk any more, so she finally decided it was time to try and lose weight. So now she can walk again, but it will be a long and hard road for her to travel in America, a country which celebrates gluttony and "bigger is better".


In related news a friend of mine in Canada recently got his personal training certification from Elite Trainers. Congratulations!
And myself I am working on my weightlifting and yoga routine, trying to find new ways to jazz it up. (Maybe I should exercise while listening to jazz music???)
My point is for those seeking to lose weight and eat healthy, if you can find the motivation, then do it. Just do it and then stay motivated. You will live longer, be healthier, and be able to enjoy life more fully.
Because quite frankly being stuck in a bed or a wheelchair is something nobody should wish for.

Religious fanatics killing each other only serves to make the atheists happy

Religious fanatics killing each other only serves to make the atheists happy.

Confused?

Let me explain:

#1. Religious fanatics killing each other means there are less religious fanatics going around, spreading their fanaticism.

#2. Normal people see the idiocy of the situation and become disenfranchised with god and decide to become atheists.

Together these two factors only serve to swell the numbers of atheists. In recent years the number of people who identify themselves as "no religion" has risen to 16% world wide, surpassing Hinduism in popularity.

If religious wackos want to keep killing each other, serving as negative role models for the religious, it will only serve to boost the atheist and non-religious numbers.

Conclusions

If people adopted religious tolerance and pacifism, this wouldn't be a problem. We could all live peacefully and respect one another's beliefs.

However since mankind's resources (oil, water and food) are also at stake people are going to continue to use religion as both an excuse and as a weapon of war. Thus this guarantees that people will continue to have wars, and continue to use religion in such a foul way. This will doubtlessly continue to swell the numbers of atheists and non-religious people globally as religious people kill each other off and serve as negative role models for new generations.

So while I will continue to preach pacifism (and agnosticism: the belief that we don't really know if there is/isn't a god, the nature of that god, or even whether he cares about us) the atheist numbers will continue to grow until eventually atheism surpasses Islam (27%) and Christianity (33%). I would like to be hopeful that it would also swell the numbers of agnostics who are more willing to say "Meh, there might be a god, but even if there is, god certainly doesn't care about us anyway."

Food for thought for both the religious, the atheist and the agnostic... and also the war-monkeys and the pacifists.

:)