"As a woman of color, it remains difficult to locate the voices and actions that may motivate me, and others like me, to connect with what remains a heterosexist, white male dominated popular left....(W)e have moved to a rudimentary center and made silent the theories and practices that could flourish by incorporating the voices and actions of those on the margins. The cost of what is in effect the intellectual segregation of the voices of radical women of color is immeasurable: by somewhat unconsciously choosing an easy center, we stifle the dialogue and critique which could meaningfully question what it is we stand for....Instead, we tacitly support pornographers like Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine. Flynt has gained credit for squeezing the work of progressive authors between images of violent degradation. By hiding behind this fact, Flynt is able to repel criticisms about the racist and misogynistic culture he perpetuates. Hustler Magazine now publishes articles of popular left icons such as Greg Palast and Christian Parenti. It is important to understand the type of magazine that Larry Flynt publishes: Hustler is not erotica or sex-positive in any sense of those terms, instead it is pro-capitalist hard-core pornographic degradation."

"Afghan Women's Mission recently asked RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) what they thought of the anti-US protests in Afghanistan, the desecration of the Koran, and the prisoner abuses. The answer of RAWA member Selay is printed below."

"To officials who rarely set foot outside Kathmandu Valley, it is difficult to understand how the conflict is affecting the health of women....Going by the child and maternal mortality figures at the number crunchers in the capital, the health status of Nepalis is improving dramatically. Government officials are in a state of denial. I have often heard them say: 'Our health programs are progressing on schedule, maternal mortality and morbidity rates have been reduced and our grassroots level health workers are doing a fantastic job....'The reality is very different."

"The federal government is set to announce $5 million in spending to help reduce the lost ranks of murdered or missing aboriginal women."

...

"It's part of a spending blizzard whipped up by the minority Liberals as they gird for an expected election. Politics aside, however, the Native Women's Association of Canada says the cash is needed to send a vital message."

"All levels of government are claiming to support childcare, but our study
exposes the reality for working class women," explains Monica Urrutia.
Quality childcare is completely unaffordable leaving women to `make do'
their own by quitting work or dropping out of school, relying on extended
family including siblings, or even being forced to leave young children at
home alone. The lack of universal childcare is really an attack on women's
equality and right to development."

http://redbetweenthelines.modblog.com/?show=blogview&blog_id=590087

Mom's labour worth $163,852 (Canadian)

Motherhood may indeed be its own reward, but that isn't stopping labour analysts from putting a price tag on stay-at-home parenting. And if their estimates are correct, Mother's Day is going to cost a lot more in compensation than a box of chocolates.

"The overwhelming majority of abortions after this point are performed only to save the health or life of the woman. In fact, only four one-hundredths of 1 percent of legal abortions are performed after the second trimester. And more than 95 percent of all abortions are performed during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

With ever more outlandish discourse, the Christian Right has gained the upper hand in the battle over abortion in Bush's second term. But the pro-choice movement has helped pave the way."

"The less a woman breastfeeds, the greater her risk of
breast cancer. So concluded a landmark meta-analysis
in 'The Lancet' medical journal, as reported on the
front page of 'The Oregonian' ("Study finds key factors
to lower risk of breast cancer," July 19)."

"News like this is often met with concern about
inducing guilt in women who don't breastfeed. But in
no other area of health are people seen as needing
emotional protection from the knowledge of risk. In
fact, concealing risk is unethical and violates the
principles of informed consent."

"The wage gap based on gender is still putting women at a significant financial disadvantage when compared to men in similar, or even the same, jobs, with equal qualifications. According to the American Association of University Women/AAUW (www.aauw.org/payequity), last year working women, with year round, full time employment, earned 24% less than males with the same employment perimeters. We see women of color taking the brunt of this inequity as well, with African American women receiving 34% less than men, and Latinas earning 45% less than men. It takes approximately 16 months of a woman's labor to equal 12 months of a man's."

I never realized how many people out there were making vulvic arts and crafts until I posted my online vulva museum (http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagevulvamuseum1.html). Since then, people have been recommending so many amazing vulva websites that I cannot keep up with them all! I am impressed at the wealth of positive, respectful,  women-centered, genital imagery and text that is available online. It gives me hope for our future, honestly.

"The case of a transgendered woman who was prevented from working as a peer counsellor at Vancouver Rape Relief will be heard in the B.C Court of Appeal beginning on Monday.

Kimberly Nixon won her claim of discrimination at the B.C. Human Rights tribunal. But that decision was overturned by a B.C. Supreme Court judge."

"Why is it that when things serve only males, is it not considered 'male-exclusive,' yet anything where women predominate is immediately labeled abhorrent, as subcultural (a women's something or other), or a subcategory of the all-maleness that is considered normalcy? I am stunned how male editors continue to pump out more and more male-exclusive websites, newswires, and magazines, and then have the nerve to call it "alternative" press."

"I have attempted to illuminate the stakes of feminist collusion in U.S. imperialism, by questioning which women the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have aided, and attempting to demonstrate how these occupations have only helped solidify patriarchal interests. Violence and sexual assault, unemployment, and political marginalization in Iraq and Afghanistan are only some impacts of occupation that have been gendered - rendering the political forces and concerns affecting occupied men and women distinct, even potentially at odds. However, meaningful change must be built and can be claimed by Iraqi and Afghani women and people as their own - without compromising appeals to U.S. military might and economic dominance."

"Turkish police have detained dozens of protesters after using pepper spray, batons and boots to break up a demonstration by women's rights supporters."

"The Bush administration was accused yesterday of trying to roll back efforts to improve the status of the world's women by demanding that the UN publicly
renounce abortion rights.

America's demand overshadowed the opening yesterday of a conference intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the Beijing conference on the status of women, an event seen as a landmark in efforts to promote global cooperation on women's equality."