1. 9 Jan


    “She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop … This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don’t think so.” Self-described Indian “spiritual guru” Asaram Bapu told his followers that “guilt is not one-sided” in the case of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey who was brutally gang raped on a bus last month. She later died from her injuries.  Unfortunately, Bapu is not alone in his mindset. Here, 6 examples of politicians blaming the victim.  Photo: AP/Saurabh Das

    “She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop … This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don’t think so.”

    Self-described Indian “spiritual guru” Asaram Bapu told his followers that “guilt is not one-sided” in the case of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey who was brutally gang raped on a bus last month. She later died from her injuries. 

    Unfortunately, Bapu is not alone in his mindset. Here, 6 examples of politicians blaming the victim. 

    Photo: AP/Saurabh Das

     

  2. 29 Aug


    “I feel I must complain in the strongest terms about the sexism of this item. Where are the ‘For Him’ pens? How can I embrace my masculinity, when there is no pen for me? Am I destined to just watch all of the women around me falling into a sparkly dream of ponies, crochet and butterflies, while I pace angrily here, unable to access the manly world of construction vehicles, barbeques, motor racing, and science? I can barely adjust my crotch, I am so angry. Make pens For Him. Strong pens. Manly pens. Pens that dress on the right. Pens with good grips for masculine hands. MANPENS!” In case you missed it: Some marketing genius at BIC decided that women, too delicate to grip standard BIC pens, needed a writing utensil designed specifically for their tiny, fragile hands.  Here, a roundup of the best joke-laden product reviews

    “I feel I must complain in the strongest terms about the sexism of this item. Where are the ‘For Him’ pens? How can I embrace my masculinity, when there is no pen for me? Am I destined to just watch all of the women around me falling into a sparkly dream of ponies, crochet and butterflies, while I pace angrily here, unable to access the manly world of construction vehicles, barbeques, motor racing, and science? I can barely adjust my crotch, I am so angry. Make pens For Him. Strong pens. Manly pens. Pens that dress on the right. Pens with good grips for masculine hands. MANPENS!”

    In case you missed it: Some marketing genius at BIC decided that women, too delicate to grip standard BIC pens, needed a writing utensil designed specifically for their tiny, fragile hands. 

    Here, a roundup of the best joke-laden product reviews

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  3. 23 Aug



    If undecided voters tune into the Democratic convention and hear all about abortion, and tune into the Republican convention and hear all about the economy, Romney will win in a landslide.
    — 

    John Hinderaker at Power Line. 

    Will Democrats regret making their convention an ‘anti-Akin affair’? 

     

  4. 22 Aug


    Cartoon of the week — Shutting Akin downWALT HANDELSMAN © 2012 Tribune Media Services More cartoons

    Cartoon of the week — Shutting Akin down
    WALT HANDELSMAN © 2012 Tribune Media Services

    More cartoons

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  5. 21 Aug


    Cartoon of the day — Catcalling on the greenNATE BEELER © 2012 Cagle Cartoons More cartoons

    Cartoon of the day — Catcalling on the green
    NATE BEELER © 2012 Cagle Cartoons

    More cartoons

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  6. 15 Aug


    The problem: Saudi Arabia has an increasingly educated female population. About 60 percent of college graduates in the country are women, and 78 percent of them are unemployed, according to recent surveys. But the country’s ultra-conservative laws and customs forbid women from mingling, much less working, with men. The solution: Build an industrial city that will only allow women. The female-only zone is scheduled to open inside the Eastern Province city of Hofuf next year, with more ladies-only areas to come in Riyadh, the capital.  If the goal is unleashing the female workforce, “a segregated city will never be as productive or creative as one where the free exchange of ideas among diverse converging people is allowed,” says Sarah Goodyear at The Atlantic. A guide to Saudi Arabia’s women-only city

    The problem: Saudi Arabia has an increasingly educated female population. About 60 percent of college graduates in the country are women, and 78 percent of them are unemployed, according to recent surveys. But the country’s ultra-conservative laws and customs forbid women from mingling, much less working, with men.

    The solution: Build an industrial city that will only allow women. The female-only zone is scheduled to open inside the Eastern Province city of Hofuf next year, with more ladies-only areas to come in Riyadh, the capital. 

    If the goal is unleashing the female workforce, “a segregated city will never be as productive or creative as one where the free exchange of ideas among diverse converging people is allowed,” says Sarah Goodyear at The Atlantic.

    A guide to Saudi Arabia’s women-only city

     

  7. 31 Jul



    The most extreme abortion ban in America: A guide

    Arizona’s severe new abortion law is set to go into effect this week, thanks to a federal judge who ruled it constitutional. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this year, forbids doctors from aborting fetuses with a gestational age of 20 weeks or older, which is before the 23- to 24-week milestone when a doctor can confirm that a pregnancy will likely not result in a miscarriage, a stillborn, or an infant who will die soon after being born. That means some women could have to give birth to stillborn babies.

    The law has been assailed by abortion-rights advocates and civil-rights groups, who say it violates Supreme Court precedent and will cause wanton emotional damage to mothers.

    Here, a guide to what has been described as the “most extreme” abortion ban in America

     

  8. 26 Jul


    With her recent appointment as Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer joins a still-rather-short line of women who have proven that gender needn’t limit ambition.

    From America’s first female astronaut to the baseball pitcher who conquered America’s favorite pastime, here’s a look back at seven women who fought their way into the Boys Club and helped pave the way for today’s female groundbreakers.

     

  9. 26 Jun


    Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, looks back on her 18 months at the State Department in the current issue of The Atlantic, and comes to a contentious conclusion: Women still can’t have it all.  Slaughter lays the blame for her conundrum squarely at the door of feminism, saying the movement misled women into believing that they could have a high-powered career and a family. Slaughter’s manifesto quickly became the most-read article in the history of The Atlantic’s website, and has sparked lengthy responses across the internet. Here are some of the most notable: 1. Feminists don’t claim that “women can have it all” Slaughter’s entire premise is a straw man, says Maha Atal at Forbes. The feminist movement never promised women “the ability to have a completely unencumbered, full-time career and a completely involved, cook-dinner-every-day experience of motherhood without making any compromises.” The “have it all” concept “was the brainchild of advertising executives, not feminist activists,” says Stephanie Coontz at CNN. 2. Besides, “having it all” is an impossible standard “We should immediately strike the phrase ‘have it all’ from the feminist lexicon and never, ever use it again,” says Rebecca Traister at Salon. “It is a trap, a setup for inevitable feminist shortfall.” The “have it all” mindset “sets an impossible bar for female success, and then ensures that when women fail to clear it, it’s feminism — as opposed to persistent gender inequity — that’s to blame.” 3. Men would also struggle in Slaughter’s position Slaughter’s job at the State Department was so demanding that she suddenly has an easier go of it by falling back to being a full-time Princeton professor who writes books and gives 40 to 50 speeches a year,says Coontz. Really, her grueling government career would be “incompatible with family obligations and pleasures for men as well as for women.” More responses

    Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, looks back on her 18 months at the State Department in the current issue of The Atlantic, and comes to a contentious conclusion: Women still can’t have it all. 

    Slaughter lays the blame for her conundrum squarely at the door of feminism, saying the movement misled women into believing that they could have a high-powered career and a family. Slaughter’s manifesto quickly became the most-read article in the history of The Atlantic’s website, and has sparked lengthy responses across the internet. Here are some of the most notable:

    1. Feminists don’t claim that “women can have it all” 
    Slaughter’s entire premise is a straw man, says Maha Atal at Forbes. The feminist movement never promised women “the ability to have a completely unencumbered, full-time career and a completely involved, cook-dinner-every-day experience of motherhood without making any compromises.” The “have it all” concept “was the brainchild of advertising executives, not feminist activists,” says Stephanie Coontz at CNN.

    2. Besides, “having it all” is an impossible standard 
    “We should immediately strike the phrase ‘have it all’ from the feminist lexicon and never, ever use it again,” says Rebecca Traister at Salon. “It is a trap, a setup for inevitable feminist shortfall.” The “have it all” mindset “sets an impossible bar for female success, and then ensures that when women fail to clear it, it’s feminism — as opposed to persistent gender inequity — that’s to blame.”

    3. Men would also struggle in Slaughter’s position 
    Slaughter’s job at the State Department was so demanding that she suddenly has an easier go of it by falling back to being a full-time Princeton professor who writes books and gives 40 to 50 speeches a year,says Coontz. Really, her grueling government career would be “incompatible with family obligations and pleasures for men as well as for women.”

    More responses

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  10. 24 May


    Gallup has released its annual poll of Americans’ views on abortion rights, and the headline number made quite a stir: Half of respondents called themselves “pro-life,” just shy of the record 51 percent from May 2009, while a “record-low 41 percent” identified themselves as “pro-choice.” When Gallup first asked people to choose between those two labels in 1995, “pro-choice” was at its high-water mark of 56 percent and “pro-life” was at 33 percent. This isn’t the only new poll raising eyebrows, and the others don’t exactly paint the U.S. as increasingly socially conservative: In a Washington Post/ABC News poll, a record-high 53 percent of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal, versus a record-low 39 percent who want it illegal; Gallup has also found that 89 percent of people think birth control is “morally acceptable” (including 82 percent of Catholics); and Rasmussen even found a new high of 56 percent of likely voters supporting legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana. So, what’s going on with America and abortion? 1. Support for abortion rights is droppingWhy not take the poll at face value? asks Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. ”We are seeing a societal shift in attitudes on abortion.” More and more Americans, especially independents and Democrats, are coming to see abortion as “barbaric.” That’s largely due to “sonograms, science, and real-life experience with abortion,” says W. James Antle III at The American Spectator, all of which make it “harder to reconcile choice with the reality of the act being chosen.” Yup, “we pro-lifers are clearly winning the battle,” says Donald McClarey at The American Catholic. With the media, Hollywood, and academia “stacked against us,” that’s a miracle, “but we are a cause that believes in miracles.” 2. This poll is probably just a flukeHere’s what this poll means: “Probably nothing at all,” says Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly. The last time Gallup’s abortion findings got so much attention was in 2009, when “pro-life” hit 51 percent and “pro-choice” 42 percent. Other than that “strange finding in 2009,” and this “inexplicable” blip, the polling has been unusually stable for the past decade and a half, closer to the 2011 results: 49 percent “pro-choice,” 45 percent “pro-life.” That means this poll, like the 2009 numbers, “is likely an outlier.”  3. Conservatives are winning the branding warThe buzzwords matter, says Melissa McEwan at Shakesville. With their amazing knack for “demonizing language,” conservative strategists have “turned ‘pro-choice’ toxic in much the same way they did ‘liberal.’” Abortion-rights supporters have a lot of work to do. Actually, this shift is mostly about semantics, says Steve Benen at The Maddow Blog. When you look past the headline numbers, our views on the legality of abortion are pretty much unchanged: 25 percent say it should always be legal, 20 percent say it should never be legal, and 52 percent say it should be legal sometimes. Those “fundamental views matter more than vague buzzwords.” 4. Americans don’t think abortion rights are imperiledIn May 2009, the “pro-life” high point, “pro-choice Barack Obama” had just taken office, says Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog; in May 2011, when “pro-choice” was back on top, “the overwhelmingly anti-abortion GOP class of 2010” had started rolling back reproductive rights at the state level. The majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion, and their self-labeling shifts with the political tides. Lesson: People support abortion rights when those rights are threatened. So “what’s going on now?” According to polls, “Americans think Obama will be president for four more years, therefore abortion rights aren’t threatened.”  5. It’s a generational thingThere has been a slight shift “toward a more pro-life position in the last decade or so,” including in “the younger generation,” says Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast. People are becoming more attuned to the moral questions involved in abortion, while staying firm on the legal issues. For example, “I don’t want to criminalize abortion in the first trimester, but if I had to describe myself, I’d probably say ‘pro-life.’” Yes, there’s “an increasingly expansive view of what pro-life means,” especially among younger members of the pro-abortion-rights side, says Sarah Kliff at The Washington Post. “Pro-choice” dates back to the 1970s, and “a label developed 40 years ago might not speak to abortion-rights supporters in a way it did for previous generations.”

    Gallup has released its annual poll of Americans’ views on abortion rights, and the headline number made quite a stir: Half of respondents called themselves “pro-life,” just shy of the record 51 percent from May 2009, while a “record-low 41 percent” identified themselves as “pro-choice.” When Gallup first asked people to choose between those two labels in 1995, “pro-choice” was at its high-water mark of 56 percent and “pro-life” was at 33 percent. This isn’t the only new poll raising eyebrows, and the others don’t exactly paint the U.S. as increasingly socially conservative: In a Washington Post/ABC News poll, a record-high 53 percent of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal, versus a record-low 39 percent who want it illegal; Gallup has also found that 89 percent of people think birth control is “morally acceptable” (including 82 percent of Catholics); and Rasmussen even found a new high of 56 percent of likely voters supporting legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana.

    So, what’s going on with America and abortion?

    1. Support for abortion rights is dropping
    Why not take the poll at face value? asks Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. ”We are seeing a societal shift in attitudes on abortion.” More and more Americans, especially independents and Democrats, are coming to see abortion as “barbaric.” That’s largely due to “sonograms, science, and real-life experience with abortion,” says W. James Antle III at The American Spectator, all of which make it “harder to reconcile choice with the reality of the act being chosen.” Yup, “we pro-lifers are clearly winning the battle,” says Donald McClarey at The American Catholic. With the media, Hollywood, and academia “stacked against us,” that’s a miracle, “but we are a cause that believes in miracles.”

    2. This poll is probably just a fluke
    Here’s what this poll means: “Probably nothing at all,” says Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly. The last time Gallup’s abortion findings got so much attention was in 2009, when “pro-life” hit 51 percent and “pro-choice” 42 percent. Other than that “strange finding in 2009,” and this “inexplicable” blip, the polling has been unusually stable for the past decade and a half, closer to the 2011 results: 49 percent “pro-choice,” 45 percent “pro-life.” That means this poll, like the 2009 numbers, “is likely an outlier.” 

    3. Conservatives are winning the branding war
    The buzzwords matter, says Melissa McEwan at Shakesville. With their amazing knack for “demonizing language,” conservative strategists have “turned ‘pro-choice’ toxic in much the same way they did ‘liberal.’” Abortion-rights supporters have a lot of work to do. Actually, this shift is mostly about semantics, says Steve Benen at The Maddow Blog. When you look past the headline numbers, our views on the legality of abortion are pretty much unchanged: 25 percent say it should always be legal, 20 percent say it should never be legal, and 52 percent say it should be legal sometimes. Those “fundamental views matter more than vague buzzwords.”

    4. Americans don’t think abortion rights are imperiled
    In May 2009, the “pro-life” high point, “pro-choice Barack Obama” had just taken office, says Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog; in May 2011, when “pro-choice” was back on top, “the overwhelmingly anti-abortion GOP class of 2010” had started rolling back reproductive rights at the state level. The majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion, and their self-labeling shifts with the political tides. Lesson: People support abortion rights when those rights are threatened. So “what’s going on now?” According to polls, “Americans think Obama will be president for four more years, therefore abortion rights aren’t threatened.” 

    5. It’s a generational thing
    There has been a slight shift “toward a more pro-life position in the last decade or so,” including in “the younger generation,” says Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast. People are becoming more attuned to the moral questions involved in abortion, while staying firm on the legal issues. For example, “I don’t want to criminalize abortion in the first trimester, but if I had to describe myself, I’d probably say ‘pro-life.’” Yes, there’s “an increasingly expansive view of what pro-life means,” especially among younger members of the pro-abortion-rights side, says Sarah Kliff at The Washington Post. “Pro-choice” dates back to the 1970s, and “a label developed 40 years ago might not speak to abortion-rights supporters in a way it did for previous generations.”

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  11. 24 Apr


    How TV shows deal with abortion: A timeline It’s been 40 years since Bea Arthur’s outspoken liberal Maude Findlay was the first television character to have an abortion in a 1972 episode of Maude, but televising the divisive issue still courts controversy. On Sunday night’s episode of Girls, Jemima Kirke’s free-spirited global nomad made an abortion appointment, but conflicted feelings kept her from showing up for it. Indeed, while the hot-button issue surfaces frequently on TV these days, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, characters rarely go through with abortions. “Four decades after Roe v. Wade, are we ever going to able to talk about abortion on television and have more to say than, ‘Maude had one?’” Here, a history of how TV series have dealt with the issue, from Maude to Girls

    How TV shows deal with abortion: A timeline

    It’s been 40 years since Bea Arthur’s outspoken liberal Maude Findlay was the first television character to have an abortion in a 1972 episode of Maude, but televising the divisive issue still courts controversy. On Sunday night’s episode of Girls, Jemima Kirke’s free-spirited global nomad made an abortion appointment, but conflicted feelings kept her from showing up for it. Indeed, while the hot-button issue surfaces frequently on TV these days, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, characters rarely go through with abortions.

    “Four decades after Roe v. Wade, are we ever going to able to talk about abortion on television and have more to say than, ‘Maude had one?’”

    Here, a history of how TV series have dealt with the issue, from Maude to Girls

     

  12. 8 Mar


    In honor of International Women’s Day, we look back at income disparity between genders. Here, by the numbers: $713,000How much less a woman earns compared to a man over a 40-year career, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. 15.7 Percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies held by women in 2010.  Nearly 2/3The share of workers in the 10 lowest-paid occupations who are women. $0.77Amount full-time female employees are paid for every dollar their male counterparts make, according to census data. More numbers here

    In honor of International Women’s Day, we look back at income disparity between genders. Here, by the numbers:

    • $713,000
      How much less a woman earns compared to a man over a 40-year career, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
    • 15.7 
      Percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies held by women in 2010. 
    • Nearly 2/3
      The share of workers in the 10 lowest-paid occupations who are women.
    • $0.77
      Amount full-time female employees are paid for every dollar their male counterparts make, according to census data.

    More numbers here

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  13. 8 Mar


    To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’d like to hear your stories about strong, inspirational women. We’ll pull your stories together and share them with our readers. Answer here, or tweet your response to @TheWeek using #StrongWomen. So, who is the most inspiring woman you know, and why? What has she done that makes you look up to her? What kind of difficulties has she overcome? And what more can we do to bring equal rights to women around the world?

    To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’d like to hear your stories about strong, inspirational women. We’ll pull your stories together and share them with our readers. Answer here, or tweet your response to @TheWeek using #StrongWomen.

    So, who is the most inspiring woman you know, and why? What has she done that makes you look up to her? What kind of difficulties has she overcome? And what more can we do to bring equal rights to women around the world?