Saturday, September 8, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Judge tells woman to “adjust” to her husband’s domestic abuse

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Sarah Graham
WVoN co-editor

An Indian High Court judge has been heavily criticised after telling a woman she should "adjust" to the domestic violence committed by her husband, rather than divorce him.

Justice K Bhakthavatsala, a judge at the Karnataka High Court in Bangalore, suggested that the abuse was justified by the husband's ability to take care of his wife financially.

Addressing her in court, Justice Bhakthavatsala said, "Women suffer in all marriages. You are married with two children, and know what it means to suffer as a woman…Your husband is doing good business, he will take care of you. Why are you still talking about his beatings?"

The 28-year-old woman, who was no longer living with her husband, was seeking a divorce on the grounds that he subjected her to cruelty and abuse.

Both parties were asked to be present in court on 31 August after her 37-year-old husband complained that she had left him and taken their sons.

During the case the woman's lawyer showed photographs of the injuries inflicted by her husband, to which Justice Bhakthavatsala responded, "You have to adjust."

He later added, "Ask your father if he has never beaten your mother" and suggested that she was to blame for "bringing [the beatings] out in the open."

Described as "radically pro-family”, Justice Bhaktavatsala is known for his efforts to reconcile warring couples.

He is believed to have made other sexist remarks, including reports that he recently told an unmarried female lawyer her single status made her unqualified to argue in divorce cases.

The shocking comments have sparked outcry amongst women's groups and activists in India, where violence against women is widespread.

An online petition demanding the removal of Bhakthavatsala from his position as Justice has already been signed by more than 700 people.

The petition states, "The comments made by Justice Bhaktavatsala in various domestic violence and divorce court proceedings recently are perpetuating the myth of patriarchy and his opinions going beyond the legal scope."

"The judges are supposed to protect and enforce human rights of the citizens, but here we have a judge who is against women's rights and even encouraging them to continue to stay in a violent relationship."

You can sign the petition for Justice Bhaktavatsala's removal here.

Report raises concerns about strip searches of female prisoners

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Emma Davis
WVoN co-editor

A new report has raised concerns about strip searches in a British women’s prison, with some inmates having their clothes cut off while being forcibly searched.

Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick found that there had been a "small number of supposedly spontaneous incidents" at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, where inappropriate force had been used and "too many" women had had their clothing cut off.

Hardwick highlighted how one woman, who was held down forcibly while the clothes she was wearing were cut from her, was not offered another way to resolve the issue.

He described the practices at the prison, which also holds Young Offenders and Juveniles, as unnecessary and unacceptable.

A prison service spokesperson said that cutting off clothes was sometimes necessary "using officially approved control and restrain techniques."

The searches in question took place in the prison's special cell in the segregation unit, where some of the "most damaged women" were placed for "good order and discipline".

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) commented that strip searches were rare and only carried out to find dangerous items such as weapons.

"If women resist violently during the search then clothing has to be removed by force. At times the only practical and safe way of doing this is to cut the clothing with special safety scissors.

"As far as possible, the decency of the individual is upheld throughout."

More than a fifth of the women in the prison had worked in the sex trade in the past, 38%  had experienced sexual abuse or rape and 46% had suffered from physical abuse at some point in their lifetime. Despite this, the report found that the prison had "adequate" resources to meet issues arising from past abuse.

However, there was room for improvement in arranging visits and family contact as women often had to undergo the "unnecessary humiliation" of wearing a reflective sash when visited by their children.

In addition, separation visits, where women had their last chance to say goodbye to children who were being adopted, sometimes "unacceptably" took place in the public hall during main visiting periods.

The report’s overall conclusion was that there had been "considerable improvement" since the last inspection in 2008 and that, for the majority of women, the prison provided a safe environment and "good or reasonably good outcomes" for its inmates.

Book review: ‘The Secret Letters of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy’ by Wendy Leigh

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 03:30 AM PDT

Alexandra Szydlowska
WVoN Co-Editor

Marilyn Monroe, the US actress who was famous for her sizzling sex appeal, tempestuous relationships and ‘dumb blonde’ stage persona, may not make for the most obvious feminist icon.

But The Secret Letters of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, by celebrity biographer Wendy Leigh, suggests that there was more to the screen siren than her sex kitten image.

The book, originally published in 2003, has now been released as an eBook to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death on August 5th 1962.

Rich in biographical detail, tantalising in its suppositions and compulsively readable, The Secret Letters follows a fictional correspondence between two of the 20th century’s most compelling female figures.

Although a seemingly unlikely premise, given there is little evidence of a friendship between the real-life Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, Leigh convincingly captures the voice of these two influential women and their status in 1950s-1960s society.

Monroe, as you would expect, plays up to her screen siren image – sexy, daring and flirtatious, while Kennedy is serene, demure, and mindful of her duties as the wife of the up-and-coming president John F. Kennedy (whose affair with Monroe is more prolonged in the novel than common knowledge suggests).

Yet there is more to these two characters than their public personas, and as Monroe and Kennedy grow closer, the veil occasionally falls to reveal a mutual uncertainty about love, loyalty and the temporary sheen of their glossy world.

Beyond the racy bits of Hollywood gossip, exchanged fashion tips and cat-and-mouse games, Leigh unveils similarities between the women that stretch far beyond their taste in men; namely, their drive, ambition and underlying fragility.

As Monroe swings from one abusive relationship to another and Kennedy attempts to hide her fury at her husband’s indiscreet affairs, it becomes apparent that both women play out a public role, fully aware that if their mask slips it could cost them not only their relationships, but their career and position in society.

As Kennedy writes to Monroe: ‘We two are the most famous women of our time, able to trust no one but eachother with our confidences because we each have so much to lose.’

Whether fact or fiction, and indeed at times it seems as though the lines are blurred, my enduring impression of this book was of a bond of female solidarity forged in an era before feminism had become a household name.

This, the twists and turns in the women’s friendship, as well as Leigh’s skillfully-constructed characterisation, had me fixed right up to the last page.

Click here to buy it.

 

Sandra Fluke, birth-control rights activist and “slut”, speaks at DNC

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Ed Knight
WVoN co-editor

In a Democrat move to strengthen their claim to being the party supportive of women's rights in the US, Sandra Fluke was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday.

In January of this year, the Obama administration instigated a rule demanding that all employers, including powerful US religious organisations, must include contraception as part of their health insurance schemes.

Fluke, then in her third year of law school, spoke before a February congressional committee in favour of this rule. She then gained notoriety in the US when conservative polemicist Rush Limbaugh labelled her a ‘slut’ during a verbal tirade against her on his radio show.

Limbaugh – one of the highest-earning syndicated radio hosts in America - claimed Fluke said 'she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.'

He went on to offer an ultimatum: 'So, Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.'

Republican nominee Mitt Romney, also commented on Limbaugh's remarks, 'I'll just say this, it's not language I would have used'. This response is common to some in the Republican party, who, though quick to criticise Limbaugh's language, were rare in criticising his sentiment.

Fluke’s subsequent public support for Obama's re-election campaign raised her profile and notoriety further, and her speech at the DNC bolstered the Democrat's strength in women's votes.

Referencing the "slut controversy", Fluke, now a 31-year-old Law graduate, called for 'An America in which our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters, not his delegates or donors, and stands with all women'.

Conservative commentator Sarah Elizabeth Cupp tweeted of Fluke's speech, 'Feminism weeps as Fluke and the other DNC women get on their metaphorical knees to beg for government to take care of them'.

With this comment as with others, the use of sexualised imagery is rarely far from the point being made: 'Bill Clinton just impregnated Sandra Fluke backstage…' reads a tweet from Ann Coulter, another conservative commentator.

Limbaugh's original abuse was called an act of "slut-shaming" by the Washington Post's Jamilla Bey. 'Any woman who dares admit that she is anything other than a virginal "Madonna" is rebuked and intimidated into silence and shame. And this tactic is profoundly dangerous in this context of helping to ensure women's health.'

It appears that slut-shaming, both when literally using the word "slut" or using subtler terms, is arguably alive and well.

As to whether movements such as SlutWalk have the power to reclaim such words and recast the sexualities inferred, and whether such reclamations are even a fruitful way of proceeding, remains to be seen.