About
[updated 09/06/12]
If you have articles, video clips, etc. you want me to post about or if you have any comments or would like to chat, please email me at pizzadiavola (on gmail). I’m tired of getting comments full of links to YouTube clips saying, “Please post this!”
[updated 08/09/19]
This is my sandbox, which means that prejudiced, bigoted (including but not limited to misogyny, racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, and classism), or otherwise pointless, non-value add comments are not allowed. Don’t like it? Mark off your own patch of cyberspace.
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[updated 08/04/11]
This blog is a feminist blog.
Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. And when women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse. I believe that now, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break the silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.
These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words. But the voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard loudly and clearly:
It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution for human greed — and the kinds of reasons that are used to justify this practice should no longer be tolerated.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.
It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.
Women must enjoy the rights to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries, if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend — or have been prohibited from fully taking part.
Now it is the time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care. Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly, everywhere, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.
As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled, subjected to violence in and outside their homes — the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.
Let — Let this conference be our — and the world’s — call to action. Let us heed that call so we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future. That is the work before you. That is the work before all of us who have a vision of the world we want to see — for our children and our grandchildren. — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Remarks to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Plenary Session in Beijing, China: 5 September 1995 (emphases mine)
Lauren said,
2008 February 13 at 1:52 AM
[EDIT] and I were talking about Hillary and she ended up giving me the link to a recent post of yours. You’ve probably already seen this article, but if not check it out. http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html
pizzadiavola said,
2008 February 17 at 10:24 PM
Hi Lauren, thanks for the link! It’s an interesting article.
Heather said,
2008 October 21 at 9:24 AM
Hi,
I just finished reading your blog. As someone who is interested in putting a stop to violence against women and domestic and sexual abuse, I wanted to share some info that I thought might be of interest to your readers:
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. You deserve to know where the candidates stand: http://www.feministsforobama.org/Issues_domesticviolence.htm
Did you know? Senators Obama and Biden have sponsored and supported legislation, including funding, to reduce violence against women and to assist women survivors of domestic abuse.
Biden authored the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Obama cosponsored the reauthorization of VAWA and authored legislation on violence against women as an Illinois State Senator.
Not only did McCain vote NO on VAWA, but he also failed to co-sponsor VAWA reauthorization although many Republican and Conservative Senators did.
Feminist Majority has just released a striking PSA that illuminates some of the grave truths about the McCain/Palin record on women’s issues.
Unholy Trinity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFrEzQAOvM
“John McCain voted against funding to fight and prevent domestic violence”
Below I’ve included more details about the campaign for you to grab info off if you deem it worthy of a post on your blog. If you have any questions or extra material that you’d like, just let me know.
Also, if you’re interested, I can make Eleanor Smeal, executive director of Feminist Majority, available for a phone interview.
Thanks again for your great work!
Sincerely,
Heather Young
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Eleanor Smeal
Telephone: (703) 522-2214
Email: elliesmeal@feministmajority.org
bethsoderberg@feministmajority.org
FEMINISTS FOR OBAMA
Feminist Majority Launches Online PSAs Targeting McCain
If McCain and Palin win, Women Lose.
Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority, says, “Obama/Biden are running on the strongest platform for women’s rights of any major party in U.S. history”.
That’s why Feminist Majority launched http://www.FeministsForObama.org, a side-by-side comparison of the Democratic and Republican nominees on four major women’s issues: Violence Against Women, Abortion and Contraception, Women and Work, and Breast Cancer and Health Care.
To reach as many people as possible, Feminist Majority created three striking PSAs that illuminate some of the grave truths about the McCain/Palin record on women’s issues.
One in Six
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fChyeoMJc3U
“Under Sarah Palin, rape survivors were forced to pay up to $1200 for rape evidence collection kits.”
Unholy Trinity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFrEzQAOvM
“John McCain voted against funding to fight and prevent domestic violence”
Violation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w7ZZ5huKMk
“John McCain and Sarah Palin are running on a platform that seeks to outlaw a woman’s right to an abortion even in cases of rape and incest.”
McCain on Violence Against Women
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. You deserve to know where the candidates stand: http://www.feministsforobama.org/Issues_domesticviolence.htm
Senators Obama and Biden have sponsored and supported legislation, including funding, to reduce violence against women and to assist women survivors of domestic abuse. Biden authored the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Obama cosponsored the reauthorization of VAWA and authored legislation on violence against women as an Illinois State Senator.
Not only did McCain vote NO on VAWA, but he also failed to co-sponsor VAWA reauthorization although many Republican and Conservative Senators did.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFrEzQAOvM
Quick Facts
Did you know Senator McCain voted against establishing the Army’s Breast Cancer Research Program? This program, which started modestly, appropriated hundreds of millions to Breast Cancer research.
Did you know Senator McCain opposes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would restore a woman’s right to fight pay discrimination in court.
Did you know Senator McCain has ducked questions on contraceptive insurance discrimination as recently as July 2008?
Visit http://www.FeministsForObama.org to read more.
* * *
If you would like more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority: (703) 522-2214
pizzadiavola said,
2008 October 22 at 12:19 PM
Heather, I’m aware of where the Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin tickets stand on domestic violence and womens’ rights in general. If you really had read this blog, you would have known that I do not support either ticket and that my opinion of Obama is somewhere in the trash bin. Thanks for the links, but in the future, please do not post entire press releases as comments.