lawsome

From the Women's Press

After a Philadelphia prostitute was gang-raped at gunpoint by four men, she sought justice in court. The 20-year-old single mother, who worked for a service advertised on craigslist, agreed to have sex with two men for money. Instead, one of the men pulled a gun, robbed the woman, and forced her to have sex with himself and three friends at gunpoint, stating that if she did not cooperate he would kill her. In court, Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni dismissed the rape and sexual assault charges. stating "she consented and didn't get paid. I thought it was a robbery."

Can you believe this?

women for religion?

I have often heard that our morals come from religion. take one example where it does not: Women and Men are created equals. There is no religious orthodoxy in history that has not attempted in the name of religion and/or religious scripture to oppress women. examples abound: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and they all regulated women's bodies, thoughts, behavior, and actions.

when women have secured their equality by struggling against religious orthodoxies, why do they still flock to religion?

equality indeed (joke alarm)

Kurt quipped on the CT forum: "We have been a horrible animal. after the Spanish inquisitions, the two world wars, Hiroshima, Roman games. Its clear the earth is trying to get rid of us." Joyce Carol chimed in the middle with the question "But which sex is doing this stuff?" without a second thought Kurt Vonnegut made the snarky comment "Women are no good at doing science, you know? We discovered that at Harvard." (see the video)

I thought this was a nice short exchange for more reasons than one. Kurt may have meant that - In Cat's cradle Kurt talks about the detachment of scientists from the impact their discoveries have on the world, however disastrous they may be. Especially that this is independent of gender. But if you twist his statement it could also mean "If Women claim they can do the most wonderful discoveries just as well as men have in the past, they should accept with calm deference that they are capable of committing the very same horrors as well."

History has shown only few contributions of significance from women. Naturally so. So why would anyone search history to point to the potential of women or the capacity of women to be creative as evidence? Rather, why not believe in the inherent equality of men and women as the basic hypothesis of natural law? Desmund Tutu described of man (and women) "he(she) is capable of most evil acts as he(she) is of the most elevated."

Harassment. Will it stop with us?

Annie's post, Streets, stories, strategies, for a woman on the streets of bombay: filled with anecdotes, tips for survival, what to expect, things that will make you cringe. Another post that is worth reading more than once. A post that appeared much earlier on the same issue : On being a female body by Charukesi. Reading all this also reminded me of an op-ed: Rape is Murder by Vir Sanghvi on the Delhi rape incidents.

On a follow up note, there is a Blog-a-thon on the issue of street harassment, you can blog your thoughts, experiences, and comments on March 7th. You can have your intention to blog announced early by emailing to blurtblanknoise [AT] gmail.com before the coming Monday (6th March).