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Global Gag rule gone!

Friday 23rd January, 2009 in Civil Liberties, News, Politics, Uncategorized, feminism by Suzi | 2 comments

If I wasn’t already cheering loudly for our cousins across the pond after Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, and immediately banned ‘trials’ there, I’m now positively HOWLING for joy.

Obama has lifted the Global Gag rule, that prevents organisations providing services in foreign countries from receiving US aid if they so much as mention abortion. And he yesterday said that:

“On the 36th anniversary of Roe v Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters,”

‘Nuff said really. Can we have an Obama now please??

There’s a piece of this puzzle missing Mr President…..

Thursday 22nd January, 2009 in Politics, Popular Culture, feminism, gender by Suzi | No comments

Reading through the Guardian today, re- celebrating the fact that America finally has a decent President, a guy who happens to be intelligence and have a social conscience I was struck by something. And that something was the absolute absence of commentary on women’s role in the Obama victory. In all the coverage I read there were TWO mentions of Michelle Obama and ONE mention of the Obama girls- the bulk of the commentary about Michelle was about how journalists couldn’t decide what colour her dress was. The one sentence regarding Sasha and Malia commented again on the colours of the dresses that they and their mother were wearing.

I watched the inauguration on the BBC. I wept a little, listening to the address, booed at Rick Warren and practically danced for joy watching Bush fly off out of public life. But, I noticed something. Of all the commentary on the BBC, there was only one female presenter and she was assigned to the route of the procession and largely redundant in the coverage. None of the guests were female- they were all men, and none of the commentary mentioned any of Michelle’s accomplishments or any of the sacrifices she would be making as her husband became president. Renee wrote a few days ago about the unpaid labour a First Lady performs and yet none of this was mentioned in any of the coverage I’ve seen. The one mention of Michelle’s role in her husbands presidency, was that she would be at the school gates each afternoon to collect Sasha and Malia. Her husbands role as a father was totally written out. It would seem, that, in the eyes of the world now, the Obama children have one active parent and that is their mother. Their father is just, obviously, going to be far too busy doing important manly things to be worrying about the trivialities of raising children. This portrayal annoys the hell out of me, because I’m damned sure that isn’t what the Obama’s think.

This total erasing of the women who are key in Barack’s life astounds me. The world really hasn’t changed that much. Michelle, a talented, intelligent successful woman, with her own career, her own achievements, her own dreams has been wiped out in effect, and reduced to being unpaid housekeeper to the worlds most ppowerful man. Or at least that is what has happened in the eyes of the media. She has ceased to be a dignified human being in her own right and become merely an extension of him.

I was bitterly disappointed. But, the fight for recognition goes on. Maybe one day, POTUS will have a wife who continues her own career, who employs ( at a decent and reasonable wage, let’s not perpetuate the exploitation here people)  someone to carry out the Housekeeping at the White House , and whose achievements are recognised, giving her a public identity of her own in the eyes of the media. Maybe the position of First Lady will change into a meaningful position of political power and social change, instead of being one of sacrifice and expectation. Maybe one day we’ll have a First Gentleman, or a female POTUS and First Lady. I live in hope.

For now, the fight goes on. The war isn’t won, even if the battle was.

The Inevitable post about Palin.

Wednesday 17th September, 2008 in Politics by Suzi | No comments

Being as I’m British, I haven’t really had much to say in Bloglandia about the American Election. I just wish our elections got as much coverage stateside as the American one gets back here in Blighty!!

That said though, I do have to question exactly what the hell John McCain was thinking when he picked Sarah Palin. I mean really, you would think that being an experienced Statesman (not to mention a POW *rollseyes*) he would have considred that picking a candidate with foreign policy experience, Senate experience and well general ‘has lived outside of Home-state at least for college’ to be important. You would think he would have considered that he is in fact old. And it’s a stressful job running America. Whilst I’m not for a second going to say someone old isn’t capable of running a country (because that’s bollocks and also highly ageist), I am going to say that given his age, he should have considered the likelihood that he MAY pass away whilst in Office and be looking to pick a candidate for the position of Vice President who is capable, at least on paper, of taking over the leadership of the USA at a moments notice and doing a good job of it.

Instead he picks a candidate who has no foreign policy experience and who appears to know very little about ‘truth’, ‘decency’ and ‘working for the good of the people’.

Palins pick is historical- for starters she’s a woman, she’s a working Mother (which is not an easy thing to be). The more I read about her though, the more I am absolutely convinced that either a) John McCain has taken complete leave of his senses and picked an idiot or b) John  McCain has made what he considers to be a shrewd political decision in picking a WOMAN regardless of her abilities or qualifications to be VP on the grounds that it will curry him favour with the scores of women pissed off that Hillary didn’t get the Democrat Nomination and the scores of women pissed off that Obama then chose Joe Biden to be VP.

Actually, I think both a) and b) are true. Thing is McCain hasn’t just picked a woman, he has managed to handpick perfectly a woman who represents just about everything I think is wrong with the Republicans and conservatism in general. She’s anti-choice, pro-abstinence, she hunts, she’s pro-drilling (and lying about it), her morals are distinctly questionable (*see Troopergate, ladies and gentlemen) and to top it all off, we all now know about how her actions meant that rape victims in Wasilla were forced to pay for their own Rape Kits leading to Alaska having to pass a State Law making this illegal.

So erm yeah. Palin = More of the same old Republican shit, dressed up in a package to try and appeal to women and fool the people generally that voting for McCain won’t be another 4 years of the last 8 years of shite.

Don’t do it people please. For the love of any deity/non-deity/the universe at large please vote for the nice people who have a reasonable grasp of economics, a non-isolationist approach to foreign policy and a decent track record of reproductive rights, women’s rights and fighting against VAW.