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Released in 1999, I had never seen The Cider House Rules until a few weeks ago.  I’m not usually into period pieces or Tobey Maguire, so I didn’t expect much.  However, there were some powerful lines about the importance of a woman’s right to choose and to have safe medical treatments available to her once she’s made her choice.  Furthermore, there were some powerful examples of times that removing that choice is truly cruel, regardless of your political beliefs on the matter.

The Cider House Rules is the story of Homer, an orphan boy who never made it out of the orphanage, and has been trained as a doctor by his mentor and father figure, Dr. Larch, who runs the orphanage.  In addition to delivering the babies of women giving their children up for adoption, Dr. Larch offers safe medical abortions to any woman who asks for it.  He doesn’t advertise this service (as it is illegal), and he doesn’t suggest it to women no matter how many times he’s delivered their unwanted babies, but he won’t turn away a woman in need.  When Homer accuses him of playing God in this way, Dr. Larch responds:

Dr. Larch: I have been given the opportunity of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. Men and women of conscience should seize those moments when it’s possible to play God. There won’t be many. Do I interfere when absolutely helpless women tell me they simply can’t have an abortion – that they simply must go through with having another and yet another orphan? I do not. I do not even recommend. I just give them what they want.

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CBS doesn’t want America to think about Choice, so we have to do it virally.  Here are some awesome counterpoints to the anti-choice rhetoric that is being crammed down our throats with Doritos and beer this SuperBowl Sunday, starting with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards explanation of the meaning of Choice:

For a multitude of reasons I will not be watching the SuperBowl today, but welcome any tips on who the winners and losers in advertising are this year.

Obvious Child starring SNL newbie Jenny Slate is kinda like the alternate ending to Juno.  If Juno were a young adult in NY instead of a high schooler in MN.  And her boyfriend was kinda cool instead of Paulie Bleaker.  And she got the abortion.

At only 20 minutes, the short leaves you wishing for more, but it does a lot in that 20 minutes.  Most importantly, it presents abortion as a non-terrifying, non-shameful, individual choice.  Which, you know, legally speaking it is, despite the stigma surrounding it.  The condom broke, and Donna had a choice.  She made it.  And (shock of shocks!!!) her friend supported her, her mom supported her (and shared with her daughter the story of her own abortion), and her partner supported her.

What if instead of shaming issues surrounding sexuality and sexual decision making, from female masturbation and orgasm to the spectrum of sexual attraction to the reality of reproductive health options, we saw them presented non-judgmentally like this on a semi-regular basis?

For other reactions on the short, check out all my faves: Bust, Bitch, Jezebel, and Feministing.

Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre on Vimeo.

I hope that you were able to take a moment today to think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the other civil rights and peace activists who have made our world so much better at the cost of their own pain, suffering, and sadly untimely deaths.  Feministing has a great list of links to posts about MLK and the importance of his memory, and F-Bomb has a great short bio posted as well.  In case you’d like a refresher, his “I have a dream” speech is below, in it’s entirety.

“There’s a direct connection between a woman’s ability to plan her family, space her pregnancies, and give birth safely, and her ability to get an education, work outside the home, support her family, and participate fully in the life of her community.

When a girl becomes a mother before she becomes literate, when a woman gives birth alone and is left with a permanent disability, when a mother toils daily to feed her large family but cannot convince her husband to agree to contraception, these struggles represent suffering that can and should be avoided. They represent potential that goes unfulfilled. And they also represent an opportunity to extend critical help to women worldwide and the children who depend on them.

Investing in the health of women, adolescents, and girls is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do.”

- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
Remarks on the 15th Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development

Full transcript here via Jezebel.

“When people think offensive remarks about homosexuals, it offends me. Many are offended …
it may offend their religions … some stick to their religions. What’s behind it is homophobia-
the worry, the fear, the life. It’s a perfectly normal, minority group of people in the world who
should not be discriminated against whatsoever. People don’t get it who have never met a
homosexual person, or read or watch anti-gay people in the media, but when they discover
that maybe their child is gay, there can be the most amazing turnaround. It means that
people have to discuss the situation, and the situation is that there’s no need to make life
miserable for those who contribute to the community and the nation. They should be embraced.”

- Sir Ian McKellan

Sir Ian McKellan is best known by my generation as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings or Magneto in X-men.  As an out gay male, he is an active spokesperson for the rights of sexual minorities.

From BlackBook via Jezebel.

The following stats from the Center for Disease Control’s latest report are pretty sick (emphasis mine):

• 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.  Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.
• Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.
• Blacks (12% of the U.S. pop.) accounted for about 71% of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.  Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.
• 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18% increase from 2007.  63% of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men. Syphilis rates among women increased 36% from 2007 to 2008.
• 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, almost half among 15- to 24-year-olds.

And this includes nothing about rates of other diseases or unplanned pregnancy rates.  What is going on with sexual and reproductive health in the US?  We’re so busy getting riled up about the Stupid Stupak amendment (as well we should) that we continue to ignore the issues of comprehensive sex ed and funding for reproductive health service provides, such as Planned Parenthood, which in my humble opinion are preventative solutions to these increasing numbers.

Particularly if you are in the academic world (grad students and junior faculty, I’m looking at you) I highly recommend you check out the Gender Bias Learning Project website.

Joan Williams and her colleagues at the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of the Law has put together a fantastic interactive, educational website that illustrates the many ways that gender biases and double standards can create hurdles for women in the workplace.  The site is filled with fun videos that illustrate different biases, suggestions for overcoming them, and conversation starters that can be used with friends and coworkers.

I’m still exploring the site and really enjoying it, but I’m more of a reader than a viewer, so I kind of wish there were more written resources available on the site.  It would also be great if there were some sort of student version of this project.  Clearly, working women face these problems every day, and I think that  a great way to start preempting these issues is to educate our young people (high school and university students), not only to make them aware of the issues, but to help nip them in the bud.

In my own experience as a TA and lab instructor I always try to find ways to incorporate diversity issues, including the implications and influences of gender, race, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.  Reactions are always (predictably) mixed with some students thinking in new ways and others wondering why we’re wasting our time talking about dumb issues.

To those of you who teach, how do you approach these issues?  To those of you who are and have been students, did you ever have any instructors that did an exceptional job of incorporating these issues?  What are your recommendations?

Shoutouts to Alethea Joy for bringing this project to my attention!

1. She values health for health’s sake, not for beauty’s sake.

“Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”

2. She believes in the importance of identity.

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”

3. She understands the difficulty inherent in being a working mother…

“The work-life balance is a harsh reality for so many women, who are forced every day to make impossible choices. Do they take their kids to the doctor…and risk getting fired? Do they work weekends so they can afford to send their kids to better childcare…even though it means even less time with their families? Do they take another shift at work, so they can pay for piano lessons for their kids…even though it means they have to stop volunteering for the PTA? It just shouldn’t be this difficult to raise healthy families.”

4. …and what that “personal is political” phrase is all about.

“Policies that support families aren’t political issues.  They’re personal.  They’re the causes I carry with me every single day.”

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It’s going to be a busy week folks, so I present to you a quick video from the Feminist Majority that clears up a few things about the f-word.  The clip features some familiar faces, such as Lisa Loeb, America Ferrara, Allison Janney (the awesome step-mom in Juno), Kate Walsh, Cameryn Manheim, Michael Moore, and Amy Brenneman, and features the sweet tunes of Ani DiFranco in the background.

Who are some of your favorite feminists, either that I missed in this clip or that you’d like to give props to?

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