sunlit_music: (Default)
This entry is scheduled to appear on 24th January 2019.Page of the Wind - talks about Patrick Rothfuss’s novel The Name of Wind. Very smart, funny, and has great tips on social cues, manners in America, art, fantasy fiction, conflict resolution and great discussions on music.

Savor- interesting and funny, food etiquette, history of food, food from around the world, pros and cons of working as a cook, mental health, sexism in the food and hospitality industry and how to improve this.

Loa - music, sport, news, technology for Vietnamese people around the world.

Say Me Vietnam - Vietnamese language podcast with songs, music, poetry and history. The podcast is held on a radio channel in New Zealand.
sunlit_music: (Default)
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] baeraad at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] ladyhadhafang at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] lk737 at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] shadowkat67 at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
[Some one actually created a bill about this? Forget about sexism for a second... In a world with teenage pregnancies and overpopulation, hunger, famine, high unemployment, and bone crushing poverty? Are they frigging insane?


Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] rozk at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] cluegirl at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] aubergineautumn at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] enchanted_jae at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] mandatorily at Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Arizona Sentate, Arizona State Legislature, Debbie Lesko.

----------------
Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

If this bill passes the senate then women of Arizona would be forced to provide documentation that birth control is for medical purposes only. The "company" would not be required to cover birth control if it was for prevention of conception. Additionally this bill would give companies the right to fire women if they discovered that she was using a contraceptive to prevent pregnancy
----------------

http://www.change.org/petitions/arizona-sentate-arizona-state-legislature-debbie-lesko-stop-the-arizona-birth-control-bill#

sunlit_music: (Default)
Trayce Shaw's helpful youtube videos to straight people and GLBTIQ people (on having GLBTIQ friends, coming out, dealing with bullying and homophobia):

http://www.youtube.com/user/TrayceShaw

The Tyra Banks show has many invaluable episodes on important issues people from all walks of life face (teen dating abuse (domestic violence), homophobia, advice from doctors, racism, harm caused by prostitution)
http://www.youtube.com/my_favorites?feature=mhw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx3SrhmqOtQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10fJ1h5xDaA

Anti Pornography blog: Youtube account with loads of videos. These onlione videos reveal the ugly truth about how pornography creates demand for prostitution and sex trafficking: http://www.youtube.com/user/AntiPornographyBlog
sunlit_music: (Default)
Disturbing news:

http://www.lookatvietnam.com/2009/12/little-interest-in-domestic-violence-law.html

For the record, I am Vietnamese Australian. And I think this is shameful.

Culture and Information Bureau official Xa Van Son said that few people in the northern province of Hoa Binh understood the law.

He attributed the ignorance to a shortage of funds to explain its contents to people through leaflets, advertisements, performances and at clubs. “I myself only found out about the law a short time ago,” he said.

Other problems cited include understanding legal language, differences in people’s cultural standards, cultural values in remote communities and disregard by local authorities on implementing the law.

Chairwoman of Lai Chau Province Women’s Union Mai Thi Hong Van said local leaders were not pleased about condemning domestic violence in the media since they saw it as exposing bad nature for others to see.


Hiding domestic violence isn't going to make it go away (quite the reverse). I am sick of people thinking that domestic violence is a private issue that ought to be swept under the rug. It is not private, it is personal for all of us. It hurts many of us. It hurts women, men, people of other genders and children. It hurts families.

Read more... )
sunlit_music: (Default)
Who to contact and where io go and wat to do if you experience domestic violence in the Phillipines:

http://filipinaimages.com/where-do-filipina-women-seek-help-for-domestic-abuse-violence/

Excellent suggestions on what changes the government and the law must carry out to reduce domestic violence in the Phillipines:

http://www.unifem-eseasia.org/resources/others/domesticviolence/PDF/Philippines.pdf

Women advocates have been lobbying for a law on domestic violence for almost a decade, but the Philippine Congress has yet to enact one. The passage of a law on domestic violence will address the issue on the following fronts:

first, it is a recognition that violence in the home, particularly genderbased violence, is a social concern, not merely a private one.

Second, it will provide the impetus for setting standard government responses to cases of domestic violence – from the national agencies to the barangay (the lowest political unit in the country). Third, it will help in preventing further harm and ensuring the safety of the victims with comprehensive provisions on protective orders, civilian arrest, and the like. Fourth, additional measures will be instituted to help the victim recover and establish a life free from violence and abuse.

Read more... )
sunlit_music: (Default)
Ideas on how to combat domestic violence in the Phillipines at a widespread level. Fighting domestic violence successfully must involve all aspects of government and law enforcementworking together:

http://www.synergos.org/bridgingleadership/04/d_2_case_study_tessie_fernandez_philippines.pdf

The info is extremely invaluable (especially from page 9 onwards):

Getting the police to address domestic violence properly:

Rape cases were different altogether. The police had to record these incidents because rape was clearly a criminal offense and more "controversial" in nature. One time, the police called to say that the woman Lihok-Pilipina sent over merely kept on crying and refused to talk. They had scolded and needled her, so a Lihok-Pilipina staff reported. This made Tessie Fernandez livid.

Eventually, she arranged for the traumatized woman to be interviewed in the Women's Support and Crisis Center with a police officer present. She instructed the policeman not to speak a word and to attest merely that the woman's sworn statement was made in his presence.

Tired of what she called an "anti-woman system" and the organization’s many battles with the police, Ms. Fernandez approached the Police Chief in charge of staff development and offered to train the police on gender sensitivity. The Chief was interested but confessed that they had no budget for such. Ms. Fernandez sought the help of the Mayor instead, and received initial funding. Soon, gender sensitivity trainings were conducted one after the other for the police force of Cebu City.


Read more... )
sunlit_music: (Default)
Please read the email below. Add your voice. We must act now to stop the Stupak/Pitts Amendment bill doesn't get passed.

This bill would prevent women and young girls from getting coverage to pay for an abortion. Even if they pay for it.

Sign here:

http://stopstupak.com

Email from stopstupakcom:

This amendment goes further than any previous federal law to restrict access to abortion - and it's up to us to ensure it is removed before the legislation is enacted into law. It would prohibit millions of women from getting coverage for abortion in their health insurance plans, even if they pay for it themselves!

We know our candidates in the House and Senate will fight tooth and nail to prevent this new restriction on women's rights from becoming law. They are the firewall against any new restrictions on a woman's right to choose, but they need our voices to join with theirs if we are going to win this battle. We must act now to tell Congress that we will not accept a new restriction on our rights.

I have already added my name to this call to action. Will you join me to send a clear message: We will not stand for health care reform that makes women less healthy and less safe.
sunlit_music: (Default)
[Error: unknown template qotd]

Best books

'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo. It's melodramatic, yes, but so incredibly moving. An unforgettable story of redemption of a criminal who tries to evade a police officer. A story that tells how the very outcasts of society struggle to survive. Basically tells how if we want to reduce crime, we must eliminate to conditions that lead to people committing crime (poverty, ignorance). Hugo had revolutionary ideas (and was lighyears ahead of his peers) for a person of his time.

'Looking for Alibrandi' by Melina Marchetta. A bildungsroman novel on an illegitimate born teen who comes to accept her Italian heritage. She deals with first love, death and finally meeting her father for the first time.

A tie between 'First Test' and 'Page' by Tamora Pierce. These first two books are part of a Fantasy quartet about Kel, the first girl to train as a knight in the European medieval world of Tortall. Simply written and for young teens, but told so well. The first book deals with hazing and bullying, and how to deal with bullies. The second one covers violence against women, self defense, bullying. These books have their flaws (Kel overcomes her fear of heights too quickly), but I love them all the same.

Worst books

Left Behind books, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins. Read hilarious and insightful summaries by slacktivist (Fred Clark, a liberal Christian) here:

http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/2007/01/index-to-slactivists-left-behind.html

Awful far right wing Christian propaganda. Sexist, racist, homophobic, prejudiced against other religions, with flat characters, awful Gary Stus who are more hateful than the villain...Fred Clark describes these books as having anti-Christian values, and I couldn't agree more.

Read more... )

There was someone who came up with the great quote that bad morals make for bad writing(I think it was baeraad) . All in all, I can only agree.
sunlit_music: (Default)
Hi there all,

Fantastic articles on how homophobia and sexism in religion don't make sense:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/not-another-word-on-gay-m_b_152282.html

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html?page=-1

Sexism hurts all of us. Respecting the rights of women and girls will enrich our livess so much more:

It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

Racism and cultural appropriation. Fascinating info and a gentle look on how Indians see yoga:

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/680

Some passages from the article above I found to be interesting eye openers:

India, to me, is not spiritual; it is a raucous, exhausting, intense, and yes, at times, violent experience.

Yet I was also curious about the particular form of yoga she was studying, a layer of India with which I am not familiar. I had never met an Indian who went to an ashram; most I knew thought of it as a white person's paradise that cost too much, or it just hadn't crossed their minds to go. At the same time, I knew that yoga was practiced in India, but in subtler, less obvious ways.

Yet yoga was not altogether lost or forgotten; rather it was latent in the culture, sometimes woven into daily and religious life. Yoga, to an Indian, might mean meditation and breathing as part of a morning puja, a practice done quietly at home and without a name. Nearly everyone I spoke with told me the same thing: Yoga was something unremarkable...

The problem he sees--and it's by far the most significant-- is its effect of countering hatha yoga's aim: The heart rate and breath rate are actually increased rather than reduced. All of the teachers I spoke with were concerned about the Westerners misunderstanding yoga. Geeta Iyengar, B. K. S.'s daughter, states bluntly, "Popularity becomes a curse. Popularity introduces dilution. To maintain the purity of the original science and art of yoga is a difficult task. The careful balance between orthodoxy and modernity has to be maintained. However, dilution for the sake of convenience and popularity is not pardonable." Adds Ramanand Patel: "The objection is when these Western influences completely disregard what yoga has to say."
sunlit_music: (Default)
Read this.

"Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution
An Interview with Gunilla Ekberg
by the Rain and Thunder Collective
First published in Rain and Thunder: A Radical Feminist Journal of Discussion and
Activism, Issue 41, Winter Solstice 2008."

Read the whole article here:

http://action.web.ca/home/catw/attach/R%26T_Interview_with_Gunilla_Ekberg.pdf

From the article:

The other principle is that women in prostitution shouldn’t be criminalized - because
they are victims of male violence. Rather, it is the perpetrators — the pimps, traffickers,
and prostitution buyers — who should be criminalized. In Sweden, prostituted women
and children are seen as victims of male violence who do not risk legal or other penalties.

If you analyze choice you recognize that choice is only possible if you choose from equal alternatives. You have to distinguish between making a decision and having a genuine choice. We make decisions in all kinds of situations that are difficult because that’s part of everyday life. If I’m in a job I absolutely loathe, that pays badly, I may have to stay there. So I make a decision to stay there because I can’t get another job right now. That is not to have a real choice.


Read more... )
sunlit_music: (Default)
"Press for Change" - A guide for journalists reporting on the prostitution and trafficking of women
This is a press pack for journalists with an interest in stories which involve trafficking of women for the purposes of prostitution. The pack was originally developed as part of a joint project coordinated by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) entitled Promoting Preventative Measures to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation.

Download the press pack here:

http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=93526

The Links between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking: A Briefing Handbook
Author(s): Grainne Healy & Monica O’Connor (2006)
This handbook seeks to explore and elucidate the links between prostitution and trafficking, focusing on gender equality and the issue of demand. It was initially developed for the 13 countries participating in the joint Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) Project on Promoting Preventative Measures to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation: A Swedish and United States Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisation Partnership.


This handbook may be used as a resource for any NGO or governmental group or authority that is interested in addressing the gaps in anti-trafficking programmes: the links between prostitution and trafficking, the importance of programmes and policies that are based on gender equality, the legal status of the sex industry, and the male demand for prostitution that promotes sex trafficking.


Download the handbook here:

http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=89931
sunlit_music: (Default)
Hey everyone,

Sierra Leone has the worst rates of mothers dying in the world due to lack of maternal health care. Help women in Sierra Leone get the maternal health care that is they so desperately need and deserve. Sign the petition at http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/sierra_leone/slpetition.php?ICID=P0909A01&tr=y&auid=5377021

Feel free to read more information below.

Thank you so much if you do choose to help.

Email from Amnesty Inernational:

Adama Turay was supposed to be cuddling her newborn. Instead, she was fighting for life after the birth of her first child.

She was bleeding and sick after delivery. Her family knew something was wrong, but they didn't have money for a doctor.

They somehow managed to raise enough for a taxi to take her to the hospital, but during the 40-minute ride to the nearest medical facility, Adama died.

"The fear of what it would cost prevented her from seeking the medical attention that she really needed," said Sarah Kabbia, Adama's sister.

Help women in Sierra Leone get the maternal health care that is their human right. Sign the petition at http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/sierra_leone/slpetition.php?ICID=P0909A01&tr=y&auid=5377021

Amnesty's new report Out of Reach: The Cost of Maternal Health in Sierra Leone1 shows us a bleak, terrifying situation for pregnant women and their families:

• A higher proportion of women in Sierra Leone die in childbirth and pregnancy than almost anywhere else in the world
• Women and their families are forced to negotiate and pay for equipment and medications, and provide their own food and water, while they're in a health facility, at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives
• Most people live far away from a medical facility and cannot afford transportation costs to a hospital or doctor


Sierra Leone is recovering from 11 years of civil war, which ended in 2002. It will take time and a lot of outside help to rebuild what was already an under-resourced health care system.

The good news is that a strong groundwork was already laid during that time when the government declared a policy of free health care for vulnerable people, including pregnant and lactating women. But it's up to us to see to it that those policies are enforced.

Reducing maternal mortality should start immediately. Right now is our window of hope.

Sincerely,

Sameer Dossani
Demand Dignity Campaign Director
Amnesty International USA
sunlit_music: (Default)
Hi all,

Check out the following Domestic Violence links here:

http://www.dvrc.org.au/ Info on Domestiv Violence in Australia

http://www.dvconnect.org/ free DV help for people in Queensland, Australia


http://www.iwdvs.org.au/  The Immigrant Women's Domestic Violence Service

http://www.dvsa.asn.au/cgi-bin/wf3.pl Domestic Violence services in South Australia

http://www.speakout.org.au/ From the IWSA website: "Immigrant Women's Speakout Association is the peak advocacy, information/referral and research body representing the ideas and issues of immigrant and refugee women in NSW.The Association also undertakes community development projects and provides direct services including in the areas of domestic violence and employment, education and training. Speakout is a community-based organisation, managed by women of non-English speaking background."

http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/SALV/LANDING/PC_60248.html Salvation Army (provides refuges and childcare facilities for DV survivors

http://ssdv.acon.org.au/gethelp.htm List of helpful links on services (accommodation, counselling, homelessness, Legal Aid) for people experiencing same sex domestic violence.
 

sunlit_music: (Default)

http://projectrespect.org.au/about

The following text in italics is from the website:

Project Respect is a non-profit community-based organisation that aims to empower and support women in the sex industry including women trafficked to Australia.

Established in 1998 we began as a direct service conducting outreach and offering support to women in the sex industry across Victoria.

Project Respect works towards:

  • Adequate support given to women in the sex industry, including trafficked women, such as access to shelter, health care, legal support, compensation, and alternative employment pathways
  • Eradication of the abuse and inequalities, including between men and women, different cultures and different classes, which underpin and are strengthened by the sex industry
  • Individuals, organisations and communities informed and mobilised to support women in the sex industry

You can make a difference with Project Respect by:

  • Donations
  • Volunteering
  • Joining a campaign
  • Staying informed
  • Joining a network

Project Respect at times needs volunteers for various activities, including administration, research, fundraising, organising courses, English classes, translation, etc.


sunlit_music: (Default)

Check out the Guerilla Girls website at www.guerillagirls.com/index.shtml. So who are the Guerilla Girls? They're true tricksters, activists, artists, and *hilarious*. You gotta love artists/activists who wear gorilla masks, and take on the names of deceased female artists. The mythology and comics geek in me loved this declaration:

we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger.
I LOL'ed at the last sentence of their answer in one of their interviews:

Q:Why did you write the Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art? Aren't there already lots of books out there about women artists?

The work of feminist art historians over the last 30 years has shown how the means of art production in western cultures was denied to all but white male artists until well into the 20th century. Still there have always been creative and adventurous women who bucked the system and lived creative lives of their own invention. Some achieved success while alive, only to later be written out the history books. Others were unacknowledged in their own lifetime, only to be discovered after death.

In Bedside Companion we wanted to tell the stories of these courageous women artists and also to make fun of the standard art history canon for ignoring them. Another goal was to write the first humorous art history book, mean to be read in the bathroom, and intended to make readers laugh, not put them to sleep. It's also thin, with sharp edges and can be used as a weapon!

Nothing seems to stop them in exposing sexism, racism and corruption in the art world and in politics. They've brought about changes in the art world for female artists and artists from culturally diverse backgrounds.

sunlit_music: (Default)

Please READ this. The following text in italics is a must read article. It's on the discrimination women and other minority groups face, once they become leaders in their workplaces.

From wikipedia: A glass cliff is a term coined by Dr Michelle Ryan and Prof Alex Haslam of Exeter University, United Kingdom, in 2004.

Their research demonstrates that once women break through the glass ceiling and take on positions of leadership they often have experiences that are different from their male counterparts. More specifically, women are more likely to occupy positions that can be described as precarious and thus have a higher risk of failure - either because they are in organizational units that are in crisis or because they are not given the resources and support needed for success. Extending the metaphor of the glass ceiling, they evoke the metaphor of the ‘glass cliff’ to capture the subtlety to the phenomenon and feeling of teetering on the edge. [1]

Michelle Ryan is a Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Exeter. Alex Haslam is a Professor of Psychology at University of Exeter and editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology. Their research into the glass cliff is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the European Social Fund, and the Economic and Social Research Council.

In 2005 research into the glass cliff was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education's Research Project of the Year and will feature in New York Times Magazine'sIdeas of 2008.


"It therefore appears that after having broken through a glass ceiling women are actually more likely than men to find themselves on a "glass cliff", meaning their positions of leadership are risky or precarious." [2]

The official website on the glass cliff is: http://psy.ex.ac.uk/seorg/glasscliff/

 

sunlit_music: (Default)
At vitoexcalibur's livejournal, I came across a link to a brilliant community for dealing with the problem of people being groped and harrassed and creating safer environments at http://community.livejournal.com/backupproject/profile

At http://shaysdays.livejournal.com/344566.html
shaysdays has a great list with practical specific advice on
-how to help someone leave a person who is harrassing them,
-when to tell someone that someone is being needlessly polite to them and wants to be left alone,
-why 'saving' someone from a harrasser does not reinforce victimhood, and
-Why are the men responsible for their actions, but the women aren't responsible for their reactions.

vitoexcalibur's post is a response to the Open Source Boob Project, which was developed at a convention where theferret and some of his friends talked about how it would be great if they could ask to touch someone's breasts and not be considered creepy, but as people 'appreciating' a person's beauty, never mind that it is creepy for strangers to invade a person's private space by asking to grope them.

violaswamp has an excellent post in response to the Open Source Boob Project here:
http://violaswamp.livejournal.com/63159.html#cutid1

chash also has excellent points to make about the OSBP (The following in italics is by chash and is from chash's livejournal):
If a group of people comes up to you, clearly outnumbering you, and asks if they can do something which they consider inocuous, then even if to you it isn't, it can feel pressuring--you start trying to justify your reasons for refusing, and somehow "I don't feel comfortable" becomes an insufficient reason. This might not be the group's intention at all! But that doesn't change the power-dynamic, or the way that power dynamic makes you feel...

theferret has made edits and statements that seem to say that he doesn't think everyone should participate in this kind of activity, and that it is not for everywhere. But that doesn't change the incredibly strong feeling that I get from his initial post that he does think that, and that this is a huge amount of where the hostility in the comments is coming from. It does not read to me as if he thinks this was a cool one-off thing that happened. It reads like he thinks this should become the attitude of the world. It's interesting to note that although theferrett's original post does not contain the word "movement," a number of commenters use it. It reads like it's supposed to start a social upheaval. And there are people in there agreeing. And then it gets to sound worryingly like it's going to happen. And that's scary to me, and apparently to others. Because cons can be fun. But they're already skeevy and weird and a kind of creepy environment for me. I try to never be alone at a con, because there's safety in numbers! And theferrett's post just reinforced that for me on every level.

I think that theferrett's initial post was incredibly creepy and quite offensive. I don't think this was the intent of the actual events, and I'm sure a lot of people felt okay with it. I feel just as sure that had I been there, I would have felt very uncomfortable with it. Which doesn't mean that it shouldn't happen, just that I think it should stay far away from me. I don't think any of the women involved were necessarily in the wrong, but I think that it's important to remember that many of us might already feel weird and judged at cons, and that this kind of atmosphere would make us uncomfortable regardless of how we did or did not interact with it. Just knowing it exists and that some people advocate it--even on a small, selective scale, which is its own kind of creepy--is skeevy to me. It's not that it's primarily men or primarily women. It's that if one person did this independentally, without any help from anyone else, I doubt it would have been acceptable. The fact that it was a group, that the fact that women were also being involved is being used as an argument that this means it cannot be offensive--those are the things that make me really upset by this debate.

TO SUM UP:

1. theferrett could have done so much fucking better with his presentation of this.
-Don't write about it like it's a project or a revolution
-Don't talk about how this girl was obviously displaying her aspects, how some girls were clearly "amenable," etc.
-Don't expect the fact that women were also on your side to mean that you could not have been in the wrong to some other women

2. I think women on both sides of the matter ended up feeling pressured, targeted, and deeply uncomfortable about their personal feelings.
-I don't think anyone meant to say that the women who were involved in this were objectifying themselves. HOWEVER, theferrett's post sure as hell made it sound like everyone involved was objectifying women.

3. The event was clearly different from the post about it made it sound.
-THAT DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE REACTIONS TO THE POST. If we weren't there, we don't know. I am somewhat more informed from comments about how things supposedly went down, but that does not change the fact that one of the people who originated this presented it in a way that was not only different from the reality, but downright offensive to many readers.

Profile

sunlit_music: (Default)
sunlit_music

January 2023

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 9th, 2025 08:17 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios