Feminism in News and Popular Media

[Kobi]

[femmeInterrupted]

[femmeInterrupted]

Yes, that’s right. Thank you, Mr. Paul Kramer. It’s not enough to have a poor body image and an eating disorder when you’re a teenager... Now they want to get one before you’re out of pigtails. Notice the image is not of an active healthy strong girl, rather, of a chubby girl looking at her thinner reflection, and a pretty dress.

[Kobi]

WASHINGTON (AP) — As senior military leaders and government officials grapple with how to reduce sexual assaults in the military, a Pentagon report provides details of the problem. The numbers may not add up in all cases due to rounding or smaller categories that were not included.

Key findings:

—Overall, there were 3,374 reports of sexual assault during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

—Based on that number and anonymous surveys of service members, the Pentagon estimates that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year.


Breaking the numbers down:

—Of the 3,374 reported sexual assaults, there were 3,604 victims, because there often is more than one victim or more than one crime in a report. Of those victims, nearly 3,000 were service members.

—Nearly 800 cases involved victims who did not file complaints against their alleged attackers but simply sought help.


Victims in the 2,558 reports that triggered complaints were:

—88 percent women

—66 percent between 20 and 34 years old

—Mostly low-ranking service members

—More than 1,100 were in the Army, the largest military service; nearly 600 in the Navy; nearly 300 in the Air Force and 239 in the Marine Corps.

—573 were not members of the U.S. military.


The suspects:

—90 percent were male; 2 percent were female; others were unidentified.

—36 percent were between 20-24 years old; 30 percent were 25-34 years old. In two cases the suspect was 65 or older.

—Most were in the lower to middle enlisted ranks.

—More than 1,200 were Army; about 550 were Navy and more than 330 were either Air Force or Marine.


Alleged crime:

—Rape, 27 percent; aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault 28 percent; aggravated or abusive sexual contact, 35 percent; nonconsensual sodomy, 6 percent

— More than 2,100 cases involved a male suspect/female victim; in 194 cases both were male; in 23 cases it was a female suspect/male victim and in 26 cases they were both female

—The alleged attack took place most often on a Saturday or Sunday, in the very late night or early morning hours.


Judgment:

—1,714 suspects’ cases were resolved in the last fiscal year

—880 faced sex crime charges; 240 faced charges for another offense, such as adultery or underage drinking.

—In 509 cases commanders could not take action because there was insufficient evidence, the victim declined to participate or the statute of limitations had expired.

—In 81 cases, commanders determined the charges were unfounded.

—Of the 880 suspects facing sex crime charges, 594 were referred to court-martial. Of those, 302 went to trial, 238 were convicted and 64 were acquitted. Seventy were discharged or resigned; 88 had charges dismissed and 133 are still pending court action. The disposition of one case was not available.


___


Online:


The full report: http://bit.ly/143raa2

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...MEO/story.html

[Sweetfeme]

Originally Posted by Kobi

This picture illustrates the point perfectly raised in the interview on CBC, how man have a sense of entitlement to a woman's body!
When I first saw the picture I thought it was romantic because I thought it was her husband coming home from the war, when I read it was a stranger it just makes me shake my head!!

There is still so much work to be done, and I feel it needs to be done not just by women but also by men educating other men!!

[Kobi]

At the risk of sounding like I left my brain on the Vineyard, wtf is this supposed to mean?

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by Kobi

At the risk of sounding like I left my brain on the Vineyard, wtf is this supposed to mean?

It's one more item in a list of things I've been thinking about. Along with once having read in a history textbook that prior to Confucianism establishing influence in Japan and turning it towards patriarchy, Japan was a matriarchy; having once read that the reason--in legend, at least, I don't know if there's any evidence of it being the case in reality--that the Greeks played their great sports competitions in the nude was because once a woman had disguised herself as a man and won; having read in an anthropological study on differences between traditional tribal societies that permit female warriors and hunters and those that don't, that one severs the index fingers of its girls so that they will never be able to wield a bow.

What I'm starting to see is that patriarchy is in no way based on the idea that women are weak or unintelligent or otherwise unable. Not even remotely. It is only a symptom that appears after patriarchy has become established--after all, no society that thinks women are unable to be warriors would ever feel any need to sever their fingers to keep them from becoming warriors. Patriarchy originates from the knowledge that women absolutely are able, and the pants-shitting fear of that fact. I would not be surprised if that fear is exactly what Socrates is expressing in that statement.

It's a frightening thing to consider, though, as it means that patriarchy does not occur because of stupidity or ignorance, but very, very specifically because of evil. It is unpleasant enough to imagine that much ignorance in the world, and to be honest, I have enough trouble sleeping at night as it is.

[Kobi]

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's working mothers are now the primary breadwinners in a record 40 percent of households with children — a milestone in the changing face of modern families, up from just 11 percent in 1960.

The findings by the Pew Research Center, released Wednesday, highlight the growing influence of "breadwinner moms" who keep their families afloat financially. While most are headed by single mothers, a growing number are families with married mothers who bring in more income than their husbands.

Demographers say the change is all but irreversible and is likely to bring added attention to child-care policies as well as government safety nets for vulnerable families. Still, the general public is not at all sure that having more working mothers is a good thing.

While roughly 79 percent of Americans reject the notion that women should return to their traditional roles, only 21 percent of those polled said the trend of more mothers of young children working outside the home is a good thing for society, according to the Pew survey.

Roughly 3 in 4 adults said the increasing number of women working for pay has made it harder for parents to raise children.

"This change is just another milestone in the dramatic transformation we have seen in family structure and family dynamics over the past 50 years or so," said Kim Parker, associate director with the Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project. "Women's roles have changed, marriage rates have declined — the family looks a lot different than it used to. The rise of breadwinner moms highlights the fact that, not only are more mothers balancing work and family these days, but the economic contributions mothers are making to their households have grown immensely."

The trend is being driven mostly by long-term demographic changes, including higher rates of education and labor force participation dating back to the 1960s women's movement. Today, more women than men hold bachelor's degrees, and they make up nearly half — 47 percent — of the American workforce.

But recent changes in the economy, too, have played a part. Big job losses in manufacturing and construction, fields that used to provide high pay to a mostly male workforce, have lifted the relative earnings of married women, even among those in mid-level positions such as teachers, nurses or administrators. The jump in working women has been especially prominent among those who are mothers — from 37 percent in 1968 to 65 percent in 2011 — reflecting in part increases for those who went looking for jobs to lift sagging family income after the recent recession.

At the same time, marriage rates have fallen to record lows. Forty percent of births now occur out of wedlock, leading to a rise in single-mother households. Many of these mothers are low-income with low education, and more likely to be black or Hispanic.

In all, 13.7 million U.S. households with children under age 18 now include mothers who are the main breadwinners. Of those, 5.1 million, or 37 percent, are married, while 8.6 million, or 63 percent, are single. The income gap between the families is large — $80,000 in median family income for married couples vs. $23,000 for single mothers.

Both groups of breadwinner moms — married and unmarried — have grown sharply.

Among all U.S. households with children, the share of married breadwinner moms has jumped from 4 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2011. For single mothers, the share has increased from 7 percent to 25 percent.

Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, said that to his surprise public attitudes toward working mothers have changed very little over the years. He predicts the growing numbers will lead to a growing constituency among women in favor of family-friendly work policies such as paid family leave, as well as safety net policies such as food stamps or child care support for single mothers.

"Many of our workplaces and schools still follow a male-breadwinner model, assuming that the wives are at home to take care of child care needs," he said. "Until we realize that the breadwinner-homemaker marriage will never again be the norm, we won't provide working parents with the support they need."

Other findings:

—There is a gender gap on attitudes. About 45 percent of women say children are better off if their mother is at home, and 38 percent say children are just as well off if the mother works. Among men, 57 percent say children are better off if their mother is at home, while 29 percent say they are just as well off if she works.

—The share of married couples in which the wife is more educated than the husband is rising, from 7 percent in 1960 to 23 percent in 2011. Still, the vast majority of couples include spouses with similar educational backgrounds, at 61 percent.

—The number of working wives who make more than their husbands has been increasing more rapidly in recent years. Among recently married couples, including those without children, the share of "breadwinner wives" is roughly 30 percent, compared with 24 percent of all married couples.

The Pew study is based on an analysis of census data as of 2011, the latest available, as well as interviews with 1,003 adults by cellphone or landline from April 25 to 28. The Pew poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

http://news.yahoo.com/mothers-now-to...040224109.html

[Kobi]

[femmeInterrupted]

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Kobi

At the risk of sounding like I left my brain on the Vineyard, wtf is this supposed to mean?

Originally Posted by Allison W

It's one more item in a list of things I've been thinking about. Along with once having read in a history textbook that prior to Confucianism establishing influence in Japan and turning it towards patriarchy, Japan was a matriarchy; having once read that the reason--in legend, at least, I don't know if there's any evidence of it being the case in reality--that the Greeks played their great sports competitions in the nude was because once a woman had disguised herself as a man and won; having read in an anthropological study on differences between traditional tribal societies that permit female warriors and hunters and those that don't, that one severs the index fingers of its girls so that they will never be able to wield a bow.

What I'm starting to see is that patriarchy is in no way based on the idea that women are weak or unintelligent or otherwise unable. Not even remotely. It is only a symptom that appears after patriarchy has become established--after all, no society that thinks women are unable to be warriors would ever feel any need to sever their fingers to keep them from becoming warriors. Patriarchy originates from the knowledge that women absolutely are able, and the pants-shitting fear of that fact. I would not be surprised if that fear is exactly what Socrates is expressing in that statement.

It's a frightening thing to consider, though, as it means that patriarchy does not occur because of stupidity or ignorance, but very, very specifically because of evil. It is unpleasant enough to imagine that much ignorance in the world, and to be honest, I have enough trouble sleeping at night as it is.

I agree with what I highlighted in red above. I think what was being said is that if women are allowed true equality, they will quickly rise above men due to their inherent superiority. I admit it gave me a big smile.

[femmeInterrupted]

Cuntry Living played word association with people on the streets of Oxford, using terms pertaining to feminism, and got some really interesting responses

[femmeInterrupted]