Feminism

The Combahee River Collective disbanded in 1980, but their emphasis on a written record helped the collective’s work find a home within academia, contributing to its continued popularity. In the intervening decades, though, the surviving members have seen their statement get chopped and screwed into morsels, divorced from its context. Notably, Okazawa-Rey points to the statement’s most quoted line, “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression,” as a point of common misunderstanding. “There’s a line about for Black women to be free, the institutions would have to be changed,” Okawaza-Rey said. “So if you change the institutions to be non-misogynist and non-racist, then all women would be free. This is what we’re saying: not that we’re the most oppressed, and if we are free, then everybody will be free.”

They were not precious: Smith started our conversation by announcing, “We are facing horrors, horrors untold.” But so many of them are, sadly, the horrors we already know, the same ones the Collective had sought to address. (Each of them pointed to issues that they had failed to cover, like trans rights, land reclamation by Native peoples, and disability justice.) When I asked about the efficacy of the text, its ability to endure, Okawaza-Rey turned it around on me — the Statement wasn’t just an ideology; it was a blueprint. As soon as it stopped serving me, it would be time to pick up my pen. “My question, Jazmine, to you and people of your generation is: What’s the statement you would write now?”

Research from the University of Westminster has identified a gender gap in accessing online safety advice and technology. We found that men are more likely than women to engage with and be informed about security and privacy technologies aimed at keeping people safe online.

A recent report includes the following recommendations for researchers, technology developers and providers, online safety advocates and policymakers to consider, if we are to make digital safety protection more inclusive of women’s needs.

(1) Encourage support in the community Some community NGOs that focus on protecting women and girls, such as End Violence Against Women, have in-depth, first-hand experience of safeguarding women’s online safety. They can offer specialised support to women who have encountered online abuse or cyber attacks. These types of support methods tend to be more effective for women, as our study shows women are about twice as likely as men to seek face-to-face advice.

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(2) Make online advice more accessible Our research suggests that revamping online safety advice so it makes sense to people without technical backgrounds would be helpful. Jargon and technical explanations can put people off, and act as a barrier to the dissemination of sound advice.

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(3) Tailor advice to scenarios faced by women Unfortunately, women disproportionately face many specific online threats such as intimate image abuse, cyberflashing and online harassment. Safety advice in response to such harms is usually provided on the websites of NGOs who support women. However, we need such advice, which is tailored to abuse, to be more widely distributed across the online sources mentioned above.

(4) Develop safe online spaces Safety advice in response to online violence against women and girls is often embedded in the support packages that are given to help victims recover from abuse and trauma, via NGOs. But it is also important to develop new online spaces for communities of women who’ve experienced abuse to share advice and support for digital safety.

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(5) Empower women and girls with the right skills Our research suggests there should be greater focus on ensuring women and girls have the right digital skills to understand and take action regarding their online safety. This means making training courses available – these could be offered in schools and local community centres and libraries, via a national effort.

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(6) Analyse risks before releasing new technology When a new technology or online platform is developed, it’s vital to gather different parties with a stake in the issue to assess whether it could contribute to gender-based online harm. Importantly, this should take place before the technology enters public use, rather than only after it has been misused to harm specific users, including women.

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cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17772988

A helpful guide on how to be less frustrating towards people of color.

The 19th: For those unfamiliar with the term “petro-masculinity,” what does this rhetoric around oil and gas dominance have to do with gender and identity?

I first thought of this term after Trump was elected in 2016 because I saw this trend of support for fossil fuels and climate denial on the one hand and misogyny on the other. They were usually treated as separate problems, and just coincidentally appearing together.

I come from a critical eco-feminist background where scholars connect the domination and exploitation of the natural world to the justifications for the domination and exploitation of work that is often done by colonized peoples, and by women or feminized bodies. Historically, this process developed under colonial capitalism. It helps me understand that these are not coincidental, that these two go together. In the United States, for example, it can be seen in the way that care work is devalued or taken for granted, in the same way that nature is considered a resource, something free to be taken.

Both of these are background assumptions that drive the capitalist economy. So the separation of them into the economic sphere and the private or identity issue sphere is really making it hard for people to see that these are not separate. These actually work together.

The consulting firm Deloitte estimated in November 2023 that women’s sports would generate more than $1 billion in global revenue this year for the first time ever, which the company said is up about 300% from its last estimate in 2021. Skyrocketing viewership and corporate sponsorships were major factors.

While many point to the WNBA as a blueprint for success in women’s sports, accomplishments in 2024 went far beyond one league or athlete.

Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis superstar, was the world’s highest-paid female athlete this year with $30.4 million in earnings, according to Sportico rankings. Gauff could not defend her 2023 U.S. Open title, but ended her 2024 season with a WTA finals title and a $4.8 million check — the biggest payout ever for a women’s tennis event, per Sportico.

The Olympics neared complete gender parity for the first time among the more than 11,000 men and women who competed in Paris this summer.

More than 34 million people across all NBC platforms in the U.S. watched Biles exorcise the demons of her surprising exit from the Tokyo games three years earlier. The 27-year-old shared a message of resilience and redemption as she added four gold medals to her resume. Nearly everything she did in Paris made headlines — a clap back at social media trolls, a revelation about her mental health, a moment of triumph. Her TikTok showing Team USA’s gold medals from team competition has more than 139 million views.

Archived version

The bill pushes the doctrine of “fetal personhood,” and makes religious references to “God’s image” within its text.

The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which was introduced originally in 2023 but dropped from consideration in early 2024, has been refiled by state Rep. Rob Harris (R). The bill has seven other Republican co-sponsors, and is set to be considered by the state House Judiciary Committee early next year.

The bill defines fetuses and embryos at any stage of pregnancy as legal persons, thus defining any type of abortion — including those that happen before the state’s six-week abortion ban — as homicide, effectively creating a total abortion ban. Although the legislation’s language makes exceptions for cases where a person’s life is endangered due to their pregnancy or a miscarriage, critics of the original bill noted that the proposal requires a person to prove their own innocence in such cases, meaning that even those who meet the exception criteria could be subjected to criminal punishment.

Notably, exceptions for miscarriages or to save the life of a pregnant person are rarely granted, as these kinds of laws generally have ambiguous language regarding exceptions, leaving health professionals unsure of when a situation qualifies. The latest iteration of this bill’s life exception also requires “reasonable steps” to be taken before a life-saving abortion can occur, likely resulting in lengthier delays to such care, including in cases where immediate action is necessary to save a person’s life.

The authors of the legislation make no effort to hide their far right religious agenda, referring to life as being “created in the image of God” in the text of the bill in an attempt to justify its passage.

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For women from Central America and Mexico who suffer violence at the hands of a domestic partner or gang member, internal relocation to escape gang or domestic violence usually isn’t an option because of law enforcement corruption and ineffectiveness, as well as the widespread belief—often borne out of experience—that internal relocation won’t provide safety.

An application for asylum in the United States offers hope for survival and a future. Yet while a cliché dubbing the United States a “nation of immigrants” persists, most asylum seekers face a path fraught with legal obstacles.

Over the course of this century, research has probed how laws force migrants into spaces of limited rights and numerous social harms. As a result, there exists an extensive corpus of scholarship delineating how shifting statuses constrict life for those who do not have fully legal status.

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Undocumented immigrants [...] exist outside the law while at the same time occupying a hyper-legalized space—one in which laws constrict and limit their life options as they enjoy minimal legal protections but abundant restrictions. Efforts to conform and abide by the law, including completing tax forms or obtaining a child’s birth certificate, expose people with tenuous legal status to risk and immigration enforcement, causing suffering and limiting opportunity.

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Winning asylum is a fraught process, and women who seek asylum occupy a space of legal ambiguity and public opposition—a space we call compounded marginalization—as they await asylum hearings. For years, their lives are defined by uncertainty.

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Women are subject to the choices of individual immigration judges, changing interpretations of the law, and decisions made by politicians more focused on appealing to their constituencies and winning elections rather than humane and effective policymaking. Critically [...] asylum globally exists not to protect large numbers of people from the Global South who need protection in Western nations. Instead, the asylum system seeks to sort a limited population that must run a legal gauntlet—if they can cross the border or survive a perilous marine crossing—to prove they are worthy of protection.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/19499264

Women’s health research is underfunded in both the private and public sectors. A recent reportfrom The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine found that about 9 percent of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) research spending between 2013 and 2023 went to women’s health research. 

The report also found that NIH grant funding has increased overall since 2013 in funds spent and projects funded. But the agency’s funding for women’s health research shrank every year between 2013 and 2023.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17481809

An excellent video about how (long) covid and other diseases/pandemics are awful and how capitalism and governments loves to ignore them in hopes that things will 'carry on' as normal thus creating social stigma and work policies that disable people more and more.

Sexual violence, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), includes any sexual act or attempt to obtain sex through coercion, regardless of the relationship between the parties. This encompasses rape, unwanted sexual touching, and non-contact forms of sexual violence.

One of the factors that differentiates healthy intimate partner sex from violent sexual encounters is consent: the voluntary, ongoing agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is essential in every sexual act, regardless of relationship status or prior interactions. And it can be withdrawn at any time.

Yet, deeply rooted cultural and societal beliefs continue to shape how consent is understood. A new wide-ranging study conducted by South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council sheds light on the scale of the issue. The results offer a sobering look at how South African women’s autonomy in sexual matters is often dismissed or undermined.

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7.9% women had experienced sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. That means an estimated 1.1 million women in South Africa have experienced sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. And, 7.5% of male participants self-reported that they’d perpetrated sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. This translates to an estimated 917, 395 men who have sexually violated a partner. These grim statistics cannot be ignored.

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Here is tbe report: No Escape: The Weaponization of Gender for the Purposes of Digital Transnational Repression (pdf)

Exiled and diaspora women human rights defenders targeted through digital transnational repression face not only the same digital threats as men human rights defenders, but also gender-specific forms of online harassment, abuse, and intimidation, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto says in a new report.

The focus of the research is on human rights defenders who identify as women (cis/trans), non-binary, and gender-diverse individuals. Drawing on the lived experiences of 85 women human rights defenders originating from 24 countries of origin and residing in 23 host countries, the report examines how gender and sexuality play a central role in digital transnational repression.

Key findings:

• Technologies and techniques used in digital targeting: Activists are digitally targeted using a range of tools and techniques including social media surveillance, hacking of electronic devices or social media accounts, online harassment and disin-formation, and the use of false or private information to discredit them.
• Profile of perpetrators: Perpetrators, as identified by respondents, included govern-ment actors, state-backed trolls, inauthentic accounts, regime supporters, and other diaspora members with chauvinist and misogynistic ideas.
• Gendered dimensions of online threats and attacks: Participants were exposed to gendered online attacks and threats that included sexual slurs, harassment, vulgar comments on social media platforms, messages with detailed sexual fantasies, rape threats, and attacks related to targets’ personal lives which reflected profoundly patri-archal ideas and attempted to deny women the ability to speak up on political and social issues.
• Motives and triggers of gender-based digital transnational repression: Threats typically targeted women human rights defenders who were in a position to mobilize international attention, causing authoritarian governments reputational damage and increased external scrutiny. Many research participants saw a direct connec-tion between the threats they experienced and their work on their home country government’s power abuse and human rights violations. Attacks were further directed against women who challenged state censorship and patriarchal norms in their country of origin with their online presence and expression.
• Impacts of gender-based digital transnational repression – mental health, wellbeing, and social relations: The digital attacks experienced by respondents impacted their mental health and wellbeing. Respondents described feelings of exhaustion, stress and anxiety, burnout, sleeplessness, and depression. The attacks profoundly altered women’s sense of security and their social relations. Relationships with family and partners deteriorated under the stress and uncer-tainty caused by such online harassment, attacks, and surveillance. The mistrust seeping into diaspora communities and online networks led research participants to isolate themselves and withdraw from others.
• Impacts of gender-based digital transnational repression – activism and profes-sional work: Research participants exposed to smear campaigns were anxious about the negative impacts of such targeting on their work, in particular in undermining their reputation and credibility. Many started doubting the costs of activism and whether it was worthwhile to continue. Their deteriorating mental health affected productivity and work routines. Some were forced to withdraw, at least temporarily. Other respondents, however, seemed undeterred. These research participants saw the attacks against them as a sign their work was having an effect on the regime and its affiliates. But, even when they persisted in their activism, research participants had to constantly evaluate and navigate the associated risks. Fearing spying and surveil-lance, some renounced the attendance of larger gatherings with other exiles. Instead of speaking out in public, others engaged in research and writing, behind-the-scenes organizing, or met within smaller, trusted circles.
• Managing security risks – securing practices and behavioural changes: Research participants took a number of steps to mitigate the harms of digital attacks. They adapted their online behaviour and relied on different tools and practices of digital hygiene. However, the burden of such “preventive labour” clearly lay on the shoul-ders of targeted research participants. They were constantly assessing the risks of their online environment and had to invest time and effort to seek out solutions to improve their digital security and other protective measures.
• Coping with gender-based digital transnational repression: To deal with the impact of attacks and mitigate psychological harm, research participants came up with different coping strategies. They tried to build mental resilience, took active care of their mental health and wellbeing, and sought support from family, friends, and peers. These responses carried emotional, social, and professional costs, requiring considerable effort and resources.
• Seeking support from host states: Host state authorities continue to provide insuf-ficient support to respondents. This protection gap is even larger for women targeted with gender-based threats from state actors in their countries of origin because law enforcement often lacks an understanding of the political motivation for such attacks and the necessary gender and racial sensitivity required to help victims of online abuse. As a result, many research participants doubted the benefits of reporting incidents to the police in their country of residence.
• Social media platforms and gender-based digital transnational repression: Research participants rely on large social media platforms for information sharing, advocacy, and activism. As a result, these platforms are also the primary sites of threats and attacks. Perpetrators exploited the technical affordances of platforms, manipulating crowd- and algorithm-driven news feeds for the viral distribution of harassment and defamation. The platforms’ content moderation often failed to detect and prevent online abuse, particularly outside the context of English-speaking communities. Some research respondents reported having their accounts taken over or blocked by false mass reports. They often felt left alone as platforms were unresponsive. Overall, activists experienced uncertainty and anxiety over how to safeguard accounts and their content, adding to the psycho-logical burden of digital threats.

The study also contains recommendations to address gender-based digital transnational repression.

“We’ve begged for a seat at the table. We begged for funding. We’ve begged for national organizations, green organizations, big funders, to listen to us, support us,” said Roishetta Ozane, a Sulphur resident and founder of the Vessel Project of Louisiana. “And we said, if we had the funding and the resources, we could win this thing. We could save our communities.”

Those pleas have finally been heard. Millions of dollars from both private and public sources have poured into Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” and other communities overburdened by pollution. The federal government has made $600 million available for environmental justice projects through the Inflation Reduction Act, but much of that money from the 2022 spending plan still hasn’t trickled into target communities.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has pledged $85 million for such efforts through its Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, including support for Louisiana-based environmental justice nonprofits Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Hip Hop Caucus and Rise St. James.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5320326

A string of prominent sanitary pad brands in China have become embroiled in a scandal about the quality of their products. The controversy began in early November when consumers complained that that the advertised lengths of many sanitary pads were misleading.

Then, a few days later, customers discovered that many pads had pH levels similar to textiles such as curtains and tablecloths that do not come into frequent contact with skin, potentially causing irritation or harm to users.

The anger only intensified when ABC, one of the companies at the centre of the controversy, responded dismissively to concerned consumers. ABC emphasised that it was complying with national standards, and reportedly replied to a complaint with: “If you cannot accept it, then you can choose not to buy it”.

Chinese companies have since apologised for their sub-par products, and ABC has even said that it was “deeply sorry” for its “inappropriate” response. But for many women in China, this scandal is about more than just defective products. It is part of a troubling pattern in which women’s health and dignity is blatantly disregarded.

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As an honest 25-year-old in college who wanted to understand other people’s views, I took a feminist course! Also because my girlfriend challenged me to do so. Gender classes are not a part of the Computer Science articulation at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and I had witnessed sexism towards the minority of women in our classes. So, I wanted to understand what feminism actually thinks about men like me. I have a good relationship, but I’m not completely immune to “toxic masculinity.”

A clue that this perception of society hating men is due to online propaganda and not any feminist theory might be that the types of men griping about this are mostly in their teens, twenties and thirties. AKA people who get their news from YouTube and TikTok. A lot of older men I know are under no impression the world hates men and are disturbed by the anti-women backlash among young men. Older Teamsters in this article talked about having to fight this propaganda infesting their young male union members voting to un-employ themselves over online feminism.

The real misandry doesn’t come from these feminist classes that these boys never enroll in, but from the manosphere. Male-oriented content on social media does everything it can to make men’s lives worse and offers no usable advice except self-pity. Teen boys and men in their twenties are watching TikToks and YouTube videos about how cool, sigma or alpha it is to be a loner and not have friends. How you should suppress your feelings and mental issues and never talk to women except for romance or sex. There are whole seminars by people like Jordan Peterson just telling you to clean your room and that women are teasing them by wearing makeup and sexy clothes.

In Mexico City, growing numbers of women earn their living as gig workers. As women bear the burden of care work, apps like Uber, Didi, and Rappi offer them flexible working hours, letting them decide when to connect and disconnect from their jobs.

But women in this line of work are not only constantly exposed to road accidents and crime but also suffer from gender-based violence.

Mexico City is a particularly dangerous place for women: on average, nearly 19 women were raped in the city every day in 2022, and the year prior, nearly half of women aged 15 and over were victims of some type of violence. Without proper legal protection, women delivery workers using bicycles, motorbikes, cars, and even the subway to get around the capital have been empowered by collective action and have come together to form a union.

Female gig workers say emergency buttons on their apps do not work. To better protect gig workers, unions and labor rights groups have created WhatsApp support groups, where they can report being victims of a crime or an accident. Female delivery workers have also established “Puntos Naranja” or Orange Spots, a place inside restaurants where they can rest, meet, connect to Wi-Fi, recharge phones, use the bathroom, and ask for help if necessary.

In Mexico City, Puntos Naranja function as gathering spots for members of these WhatsApp groups. These women are also hoping to make progress on labor rights. After two years of negotiations with the government and gig work platforms, a bill is due to be presented before Congress that aims to grant delivery workers and drivers labor groups certain rights, such as access to public healthcare and road accident insurance.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17133326

An absolutely wonderful and deep insight into all the problems with revolutionary and other social movements, from the self serious martyrs that base their ideas on being the hero and get burned out to the rejection of rest, older wisdom and other such things it is a very much necessary message in this time of so much uncertainty.

Know where you are going, not just what you're trying to move away from.

Women at the margins often face distinct challenges during the decades of their lives spent in perimenopause and postmenopause. For those living in poverty or affected by systemic racism, access to high quality healthcare is historically and abysmally low. With clinical menopause expertise in short supply (about 2,000 certified providers in the U.S.), access to quality care is further exacerbated. This is particularly true for those who rely on Medicaid, approximately 20 percent of all U.S. patients.

Digital healthcare provides one opportunity to break through barriers in the traditional healthcare system. It is crucial to make high-quality menopause care accessible to members across a variety of insurance plans, including Medicaid. But the problem also comes from within the system: Medicaid health plans often express a shocking sentiment to us: “We don’t think this population will be interested.”

"In all countries, we are finding many forms of violence:" One in eight girls and women alive today experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18, UN says

In a report released on Thursday, Najat Maalla M’Jid said that violence against children had reached unprecedented levels.

“Millions of children worldwide are victims of physical, sexual, and psychological violence both online and offline, including child labor, child marriage, female genital mutilation, gender-based violence, trafficking, bullying, and cyberbullying, among many others,” she said.

According to the report many more children are vulnerable to violence due to what it calls “multidimensional poverty.”

Half of the world’s children, around one billion, are identified as “at high risk” of being affected by the climate crisis.

One in six young people worldwide are also growing up in conflict zones.

“This is a pivotal moment. Violence against children has reached unprecedented levels, caused by multifaceted and interconnected crises,”, Ms. M’Jid said.

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“The problem currently is that no country is immune, no child is immune. In all countries, we are finding many forms of violence,” Ms. M’Jid stated, adding that “you can have the same child who is victim of various forms of violence in various settings.”

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Figures released by the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, ahead of International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October, estimate that more than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in eight, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18.

When ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse are included, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million, according to UNICEF.

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