Women's Views on News |
- UK women have greater sense of well-being than men
- Canadian Missing Women Inquiry plagued by scandals
- How much does it cost to ‘own’ a vagina?
- Romney’s clumsy attempts to woo women voters
- Censoring porn pop – a good idea or another reason to blame women for patriarchy?
UK women have greater sense of well-being than men Posted: 13 Apr 2012 09:30 AM PDT Women in the UK are happier and more satisfied with their lives than men, but, according to recent government statistics, they worry more. Between April and September 2011, respondents to the Annual Population Survey were asked questions about their well-being for the first time. They were asked to rate satisfaction with their lives, whether they found them worthwhile, their happiness and anxiety levels on a scale of one to ten. Women scored an average 7.44 overall, against 7.34 for men. Younger women and older women tended to be happier, found life more worthwhile and were more satisfied than the middle-aged, but levels of well-being started to decline for women over 80. Women also reported higher levels of anxiety than men. Female respondents said they had an anxiety level of 3.29, whereas men put theirs at 3.09. Women aged 50-54 were most anxious, while 16-19-year-olds rated themselves as the most carefree. What We Do, a recent study of work and leisure activities produced by the Office of National Statistics as part of its National Measuring Well-Being Programme suggested one reason may be because fewer women work long hours. But women fared less well when it came to participating in sport and fitness activities, widely believed to improve health and well-being. Only 47 per cent of women had participated in sport and physical activity in the last four months, compared with 61 per cent of men. |
Canadian Missing Women Inquiry plagued by scandals Posted: 13 Apr 2012 07:30 AM PDT Dozens of Canadian women, mostly sex workers and aboriginals, started going missing in the early 70s. Then in the 90s, a new cluster of missing cases provoked friends and families to start asking questions about the lack of arrests. After many marches, vigils and protests, the Canadian government finally decided to open a public inquiry last October, called the Missing Women Inquiry. But earlier this month, 15 groups, announced their decision to boycott the policy forums next month of the flawed inquiry in an open letter to Commissioner Wally Oppal. Since it was set up, the commission has been beset with a series of problems – from shady police work to sexual harassment allegations that caused the executive director of the commission to be investigated. In addition, an increasing number of individuals and groups have criticised it for failing to address issues such as racism, sexism and discrimination. The letter states that "The commission has lost all credibility among aboriginal, sex work, human rights and women’s organizations that work with and are comprised of the very women most affected by the issues this inquiry is charged with investigating." Aboriginal Front Door Society executive director Mona Woodward told The Tyee that the inquiry has inadequately represented the views of aboriginal and community organizations because they could not afford lawyers. Woodward said many of the groups are planning to bring these issues before the United Nations in the hope of starting a “shadow inquiry” into the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. |
How much does it cost to ‘own’ a vagina? Posted: 13 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT The world seems to be going crazy about vaginas. Apparently it's okay to have one, but not to be in control of it. In the US, there is a national debate regarding birth control, with presidential candidates taking sides on what they call 'the issue of abortion' – as if it is just another thing that needs solving. In the UK, abortion rights are also coming under fire. In the last couple of weeks, both pro-choice and pro-life supporters have gathered to stage protests, and the Telegraph (a British newspaper) undertook an undercover investigation into how abortion clinics operate. While reproductive rights have been on the public agenda for a long time, the online women’s site, Jezebel, has done some rough calculations on the annual cost of ‘owning’a vagina in the US: Birth control: $1689.87 Tampons and sanitary pads: $59.43 PMS relief (If anyone has found anything that actually works apart from chocolate – do let me know!): $20.97 Pelvic exam & pap smear: $175 at Planned Parenthood Condoms: $35.98 Vagisil: $6.29 per tube Pubic hair removal – up to $191.40 ( if you shave) Toilet paper – $143.88 (women use twice as much as men) And of course, the cost goes up when you buy emergency contraception, pregnancy tests and if you have an abortion. So for your average, heterosexual woman, it costs anything between $465-$1565 a year to own a vagina. In reality, of course, it depends on the individual woman – I wouldn't go as far as Jezebel in comparing it to owning a car. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the costs are high. And the consequences – if you cannot afford sanitary products – can be fatal. Be it women who are unable to access safe abortions, women who have been raped as a weapon of war, women trafficked as sexual slaves and female genital mutilation (FGM). Every day, women are dying because they are women. So next time someone says: ‘It's a girl’, instead of giving her a pink frilly dress, perhaps donate some money to help with her future expenditure, or sign a petition to stop rape, FGM and all forms of violence that occur simply because that person is the owner of a vagina. |
Romney’s clumsy attempts to woo women voters Posted: 13 Apr 2012 03:08 AM PDT Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is desperate to win back female voters, after moves by Republicans to curb abortion rights in some states and limit insurance cover for contraception have led to a surge in support for Obama. Romney is going on the offensive over jobs, claiming that 92 per cent of jobs lost over the past three years have been lost by women. But a fact check by the Washington Post, reveals that more men than women lost their jobs in the early years of the recession, when George W Bush was in charge. Jobs were lost in construction and finance, while female-heavy industries such as public services were hit later. This pattern is normal in a recession. The Washington Post quotes US government figures which suggest 3.4 million men have lost their jobs since the start of the recession, compared to 1.8 million women. Romney's new-found appetite for women's rights are dubious. Lanhee Chen, his policy director, could not confirm that he would support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, legislation introduced by Obama, to make it easier for women to file lawsuits for equal pay. He has also been accused of deferring to his wife, when faced with questions about women. "My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me," Romney told newspaper editors, "and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy," he told reporters. |
Censoring porn pop – a good idea or another reason to blame women for patriarchy? Posted: 13 Apr 2012 01:00 AM PDT Some of you may be familiar with a weekday lunch time debate programme on BBC Radio 2, hosted by Jeremy Vine, which discusses local and national politics with contributions from both experts and the public. Recently there's been discussion both in the news and on his debate show about the sexualisation of children, particularly in the context of music videos and whether or not they should be censored. Now, it doesn't take a genius to work out that music videos have become overtly sexual and sexist, but apparently it takes rocket science to work out that, rather than blaming the women in the videos, we should be questioning the culture which promotes sexism. Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have been held up as the epitome of raunch culture porn pop. Their videos, in which they often appear almost naked, are presented as prime examples of everything that is wrong with the music business, and, of course, women. These women, we are told, are bad role models. Why, many ask, do they act in a way they know young children will copy, and what are they teaching our young girls? I'll tell you what they're teaching us – how male centred and sexist the music industry is, that women taking their clothes off and gyrating is the only way for them to get noticed. Take British singer Adele as a good example. What does it say when one of the world's most successful artists is marketed as unique because it is her talent that comes first, not her appearance? Isn't it ironic that she is heralded as special because of that talent? Or take a look at the Guardian's coverage of female musicians, in particular a review of Ashley Huizenga, aka Actually: 'Today’s featured act was going to be a new singer-songwriter from Sweden called Nina Nesbitt, hailed as the female Ed Sheeran, but she’ll have to wait. “Because over the weekend we got a bit excited about this other young lady, Ashley Huizenga, who operates as Actually and is a performance artist-cum-purveyor of what she calls “porn-pop”. Actually, Actually doesn’t just do porn-pop. She does porn.' Whether we like it or not, it's not the women with raw talent that are making the news; it's the women who are playing the game. There is a lot of media hype about how dreadful these women are for setting such bad examples which have such a negative effect on young women, but is that really the issue? What about the fact that the education systme is male focused, often ignoring women's history; the fact that women are often told that if they are raped it is their fault; the fact that there is an entire industry dedicated to making women feel bad in order to increase their spending power (think beauty, fashion and dieting). And what about the videos made by male artists which are horrifically violent towards women? How many times have you heard Kanye West's video 'Monster' discussed in terms of its impact on women? (think dead women, women hanging from meat hooks and so on). How about the thousands of music videos which feature (often large) men in baggy t-shirts surrounded by women in bikinis? Does anyone ever address this double standard? Does anyone ever consider the idea that the women who appear as dancers in music videos are often exploited, sexually and financially – many never seeing a pay cheque and treated like meat. Until the mainstream media can see the bigger picture, we need to stop blaming women and instead look at why so many feel this is their only route to success. We need to challenge what it means to be successful as women, not just in the music industry, but in every aspect of society, because until our talents are taken seriously, and until we are viewed as individuals, and not sex objects, nothing is going to change. |
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