Happy Birthday to Me!

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Education, Personal, Politics, Feminism, Omnia Vanitas, Current Events, Money, Give, Random.

For my birthday, my boyfriend sent me the most wonderful gift I received this year. Instead of sending me the usual bouquet of flowers (a staple of the long distance relationship dance we’ve been doing for the last decade or so), Ed made a donation in my name through Changing the Present to educate Afghani girls. Not only did this thoughtful gift show an understanding of three of the causes most important to me — education, feminism, and the promotion of human rights on the global scale — it really made me feel loved. I wish I could have made the actual email card I received display properly, but during this busy season I simply don’t have the time to futz with the code. To find out more about how you can honor a loved one with a charitable gift, click the link above, or if you’re interested in the cause of educating Afghani girls, click the banner below. Trust me, it’s a gift that will keep on giving!

ChangingThePresent

Problem

Under the Taliban, education was prohibited for girls. Now, the hard-won right of simply attending school in Afghanistan for girls is becoming more and more difficult. Experts estimate that every day in Afghanistan a girls’ school is destroyed or a teacher is murdered. Attacks have closed schools in several entire districts in Afghanistan — nearly one-third of all districts have no schools.

The Gift

We cannot allow the destruction of women and girls’ education to continue, with education so crucial to long-term empowerment. The Feminist Majority Foundation is working to keep Afghan girls’ schools open, as well as to reopen those schools that have been closed. We must do all we can to ensure that the rights of Afghan women and girls do not slip away again.

Your donation of $60 will pay the salary of a teacher in Afghanistan for one month. Without teachers, who are being targeted by extremists in Afghanistan, the right for girls to go to school is meaningless.

3 comments.

Rings Like Anchors

Posted on May 29th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Personal, Politics, Feminism, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors, Sponsored Posts, Random.

So my 11th anniversary is coming up in July. Because we’re not married, we celebrate our relationship from the day we met, and since we do not plan to let the government tell us that our commitment matters, we probably will continue to do so until we die or implode, just like other couples, rings or not. But I think its impossible to be a girl in this society, and not feel the pressure surrounding the “Miss” or “Mrs.” divide (BTW, I’m a Ms., thank you very much). From pity to scorn, those of us not wearing diamond rings on our left hands get to experience the whole gamut of judgments from everyone around us. Just to be clear, while I understand the important role marriage plays in our society, I personally believe it is an antiquated tradition that is going to die out within a few generations, for a number of good and not-so-good reasons. I’ll blog more on that later. But I do believe that commitments for life should be recognized and celebrated by the couple, their family, and community. They should be personal and relevant to the people concerned. This is the primary reason I like PrimeStyle’s concept of how to buy jewelry. They state that:

Jewelry requires thought. It should fit your looks, personality and lifestyle. Personal style should be reflected in jewelry. It’s important to find the right piece for the right person. If you approach a jewelry store for something special, they’ll ask questions before showing jewelry, like “ask you what your job is, what your life is like” and try to learn all about you.

Recently, my boyfriend and I have been considering getting rings (okay, he doesn’t want to wear one, but I won’t if he doesn’t! :) ) for ourselves. Not diamonds, which we oppose on both moral and economic grounds, but something that represents us and our personal feelings of commitment to each other. PrimeStyle would probably be one of the places we’d look in our quest, although I’m pushing for iolite as previously mentioned. Rings, like tattoos, can serve as a reminder of the other half of your life when you’re apart. Like an anchor, a ring is meant to keep you grounded. How much more effective they are when they are special, meaningful, and not tarnished by the ugliness of the diamond trade!

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Lord of War

Posted on May 26th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Personal, Feminism, Omnia Vanitas, Money.

So I’m in the middle of watching this movie about the arms trade, with Nicholas Cage staring as Yuri, a dealer in illegal weapons.  It is very, very good.  But beyond the interesting international issues, these sort of movies always catch my attention for their portrayals of sex relations.  It seems that one of the oldest stories in the world is that boy loves girl, boy sees wealth & power as the way to the girl’s heart, boy marries girl, then sleeps around with all the girls that wealth & power can buy him.  In this movie, Yuri says his wife never asked questions, seeming to be content with the fact he was “a good provider, and far as she was concerned, loyal. Despite the other women, [he] always made love to Eva as if she was the only one.”  I can’t imagine this — the one requirement I have for a relationship is honesty, because I think you can get past even the worst offense as long as you don’t lie about it.  When will men learn that even when they don’t know, women might feel the deception?  Why is it worth the risk of hurting those they claim to love?  Why isn’t the fear of being caught enough to keep them honest, even if the comittment itself isn’t?  I’m not really making myself clear here, so I’ll edit this later.  Now FraBaby here’s, so the movie goes off. . . :)

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The Cost of Abstinence Education

Posted on August 15th, 2006 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Education, Politics, Feminism, Current Events.

Sex Ed Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens - Carolina news station WYFF issued a report today that a Canton, Ohio school board is expanding their sex education program from promoting abstinence to also teaching students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, following the revelation that 13% of one high school’s female students were pregnant last year.

“The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city school district’s health curriculum in line with national standards . . . Health textbooks, older than some students, will be replaced . . . The Ohio Department of Education doesn’t require schools to provide sex education, particularly when it comes to using contraceptives. The state curriculum calls for venereal disease education, which often is taught along with nutrition and the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco . . . According to the Canton Health Department, statistics through July 2005 showed that 104 of the 586 babies born to Canton residents in Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center had mothers between the ages of 11 and 19.”

Killfile, who seeded this story into Newsvine, states the obvious point: “Teens are going to have sex. They just are. If you tell them to say “no” and don’t prepare them in any other way the end result is going to be high pregnancy rates, high std rates, and high drop out rates. Why is this so hard to understand?”

Blogged with Flock

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If Only I Had Teeth Down There . . .

Posted on June 22nd, 2006 by gail helen.
Categories: Relationships, Politics, Feminism, Technology, Current Events.

Medgadget reported back in September ‘05 on a device by South African inventor Sonette Ehlers intended as an “anti-rape female condom” named “Rapex,” a “device bristling with internal hooks designed to snare rapists.” Apparently inspired by a rape victim’s comment that if only she “had teeth down there,” it is designed to both disable the rapist and force him to seek medical attention in order to have the device removed, after which hospitals and clinics could turn the perp over to police. Apparently the story was originally reported by the L.A. Times, but I wasn’t able to discover a permalink to that article. Some of the more ridiculous comments surrounding this story are that we should “be concerned at how normal rape has become” (duh!) and that this device is comparable to a chastity belt. Historically, a chastity belt isn’t within the woman’s power to remove, while the Rapex device is supposedly inserted and removed with a tampon-like applicator. Some worry that rapists will be more likely to kill their victims in revenge, although the pain of this device sounds pretty disabling. Probably won’t do much to deter a group of men from killing their victim, but it might stop one.

I felt like blogging this today because the BBC was reporting that Amnesty International has called upon the Jamaican government to do something about the “widespread sexual violence and discrimination against women and girls,” saying that “women’s freedom of movement, and therefore their freedom to work, to study and to access health care, can be severely restricted. Women are also more vulnerable to ‘protectors’ who may ensure safe passage in return for sexual favours.” Amnesty’s report “details the case of a 15-year-old, Enid Gordon, whose family filed a complaint after she was raped by two men. A week before she was due to testify in court, she was found dead, strangled with her school tie, in the same place where she had been raped.” Although Rapex sounds like a hoax, it doesn’t change the sad fact that in places like the Sudan this device might be worn 24 hours a day. Even in America, 15-year-old girls aren’t safe from the reality - at home, on the street, at school - that your average man could easily overpower her if that was his intent. Screw teeth, screw justice — where’s the wrath of God when it’s needed??

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