Category: Women’s Rights

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / July 1, 2012

Warning for the faint of heart: Adult language ahead.

We were a small group, three women and three men, assembled at a coffeehouse last week to talk about a business venture. We were mostly strangers to each other, but for the meeting’s host. Still, the inevitable quests to establish credibility were civil and benign.

From San Diego Free Press

If it feels like open game season has been declared on women, your feelings are absolutely correct. Our putatively job creation obsessed Congress has been singularly incapable of delivering the goods. They seem instead to have settled for the deeply gratifying right wing pursuit of scuttling Obama’s and the Dem’s attempts to actually do something about jobs, tuition relief for students, tax fairness and infrastructure investments.

by Denise Mann / WebMD Health News

Many moms who want to breastfeed exclusively for three months or longer fall short of meeting this goal, a new study shows.

More than 85% of new moms said they intended to breastfeed for three months or longer, but just 32.4% met their mark. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that mothers breastfeed exclusively for about the first six months of their infant’s life because of health benefits for mom and baby.

By Nadin Abbott / Special to the OB Rag / June 9, 2012

Photographs Nadin Abbott

Women Occupy San Diego held a permitted event Saturday, June 9th, at Civic Plaza (Freedom Plaza). The arts event, free and open to the public, also featured Mexican and Azteca traditional dances, political speeches – including one from Councilmember Marty Emerald.

Folkloric dances from the State of Jalisco, by the group Ballet Folkorico El Tapatio, were presented, along with Calpulli Azteca which performed four traditional Nahuatl Aztec dances, to the delight of all present, wearing complex traditional costumes, as well as braseros and some fire. The day ended with a circus act.

Double Standard: Women on screen are always required to look their sultry, sexy best. Not so for their male counterparts.

From San Diego Free Press / June 7, 2012

Over the weekend I caught the movie X-men on TV and I have to say that women are really starting to get on my nerves. For those who are unfamiliar with the story (is that possible?), X-men is an action adventure about love, revenge, super human capabilities, violence and acceptance. And lots and lots of sex.

The characters don’t actually have sex in the film. In fact, there’s only one scene where you think it might happen, but no, it’s just a steamy kiss that’s been a long time coming.

By Mel Freilicher / Special to the OB Rag

Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life
By Vivian Gornick
Yale University Press, 2011; 151 pages; $25

Rather than write a political history of Emma Goldman’s very full life (which is already documented in great detail, including in her own hefty, 2 volume autobiography, Living My Life), Vivian Gornick has chosen to “concentrate on the force of her extraordinary rebelliousness and try to understand it in light of the existential drive behind radical politics.”

To illuminate what she believes to be at the heart of many dedicated radicals’ commitment, Gornick delivers a provocative portrait of Goldman’s soul, really: embodied in what’s famously paraphrased as, “If I can’t come to your dance, I’m not coming to your revolution.”

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / May 20, 2012

Traveling is a great occupation — for so many reasons, not the least of which is the differences between home and “there,” wherever there might be. In this case, it’s Spain.

In Spain, my normal breakfast of Weetabix with raisins and organic milk is replaced with hearty ham and goat cheese, fresh fruit and coffee with hot milk.

In Spain, our rampant consumerism is replaced with a two-hour midday siesta, when shops are shuttered and families and friends leisurely dine together.

In Spain, my country’s clenched sphincter is replaced with a mobile prophylactic dispensary.

Up at Venice Beach a hundred miles away and further north in Portland, Oregon, women – and men – are protesting laws against women going top-less in public.

In Venice Beach – a community of Los Angeles that looks a like like Ocean Beach, only three times larger – a protest was held by women going top-less as they protested and strolled down the Boardwalk. Men in support accompanied them wearing bikini tops. The men also wore bottoms. The protest was organized by a group called “Go Topless”. They say laws discriminate against women by forcing them to wear tops in public, and the laws are unconstitutional.

Another Endorsement That Hasn’t Happened Yet (But Still Could)

I didn’t realize that my House congressional district had been redrawn until a Juan Vargas campaign walker knocked upon my door in City Heights. I had to stop and think a moment. I had spent a number of yes, dramatic years, in Susan Davis’ district and it took me a moment to process the impact of the redistricting and that now I’m in the 51st Congressional District.

It took me less than a minute to respond to the question whether I would support Juan Vargas. When asked I said “No. Absolutely not and I’ll tell you why. He went missing on the single payer healthcare vote earlier this year.” Vargas ducked the vote, twice, despite receiving thousands of calls urging him to support the bill.

Vargas was presented with the “Spineless Rubber Chicken” award for sitting out a critical vote on this particular issue. We have a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the California legislature and the single payer health care option with dental coverage for our families and neighbor is dead, lacking two votes.

The OB Rag endorses Congressman Bob Filner for Mayor of San Diego.

We do not endorse Bob Filner because of this or that of his policies, or because of this or that of the policies of his opponents.

We endorse Bob Filner because of his character, the content of his character.

We endorse Bob Filner because his character has been honed by his work and struggle on behalf of the common person in San Diego over the last four decades.

This was demonstrated by his work, first, on the San Diego School Board, and then by his work on the San Diego City Council. While in these seats of government, Filner spoke truth to power and he – at times – was a lone voice that stood up against San Diego’s Republican establishment.

Then in Congress, Bob Filner continued his work on behalf of the people of San Diego and Imperial Counties. While in Washington DC Filner displayed that he was one of the most dedicated and committed Representatives for the common people. He clearly showed his commitment to the Mexican-American communities of the California’s most southern counties while in Congress. Plus he initiated many worthwhile programs for veterans, giving them a friend in Congress while those who sent them off to war, ignored them.

By East County Magazine / Originally published May 6, 2012

Congressional candidate Denise Moreno Ducheny has chastised her opponent, Senator Juan Vargas, for voting against a woman’s right to choose. Vargas voted in opposition to Senate Bill (SB) 1338 (Kehoe) during last week’s Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. The final vote on the bill was 4-4 with one Senator not voting, effectively killing the bill in committee.

Half of California’s counties currently have no abortion provider, including Imperial County, which Vargas seeks to represent in Congress. SB 1338 would have allowed an estimated 24,000 trained nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide non-surgical, first-trimester abortion.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / April 15, 2012

A few days ago, between classes, I ran to the Women’s Room, previously known as the Lady’s Room — until we were liberated from ladylike notions. Or so we thought. Maybe they’ll redo the door signs if Mitt Romney wins the presidency.

In the meantime, I had to get to class, but having birthed a child and lived half a century I had a greater need to pee.

Which I did, surprising myself with a faint moan I had neither intended to release nor felt vibrating past my gullet. Too distracted to give it much thought, I exited the stall, washed my hands, poked at a loose strand of hair, and then I noticed:

Four stalls, three empty. Three sinks. One pregnancy test package insert on the counter. And one faint moan that might have been mine, but was not.

When I was of traditional college age, I invested no thought in motherhood, other than to declare myself unfit for it for several years, and then disinterested for many more. I did, however, eventually succumb to the grandiose and mundane thoughts of parenting, so I found a proper partner and engaged in the physical performance of a lifetime, repeatedly reconfiguring my body to accommodate a growing second. And I never quite managed to put myself back together again. I don’t care what the glitterati say; we are never who we were before producing a child, physically and otherwise.