Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Ireland chooses marriage equality

Posted: 26 May 2015 04:01 AM PDT

Ireland, referendum, eqaul marriage, YesOne of the most significant moments in the country's history.

Ireland has become the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality by a popular vote.

After a hard fought campaign that became increasingly tense in the final weeks, Ireland voted in favour of marriage equality, with 62 per cent in favour of a change to the country’s constitution.

The days leading up to the vote even saw thousands of Irish people returning home from abroad in order to take part in one of the most significant moments in the country's history.

As with many other moral issues in Ireland, the dominant discourse on gay marriage had historically been set by the Catholic church. However, this referendum energised a generation of young people hungry for change – although it wasn't just young people voting yes.

Kitty Cotter, who is 101 years old and lives in Cork, became a social media sensation when she went out to vote Yes wearing her rainbow cardigan.

The result led to enormous street parties in Dublin and elsewhere, as Ireland’s head of state, the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny proclaimed: "In the privacy of the ballot box, the people made a public statement. With today's vote we have disclosed who we are.

"We are a generous, compassionate, bold and joyful people who say yes to inclusion, yes to generosity, yes to love, yes to gay marriage."

Responding to the result, archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin told broadcaster RTE that the church now needed to "stop and have a reality check", and added: "I ask myself, most of these young people who voted yes are products of our Catholic school system for 12 years. I’m saying there’s a big challenge there to see how we get across the message of the Church."

This result also means that Northern Ireland is the only country in western Europe where LGBT couples are barred from getting married.

So far, attempts to legislate to allow gay marriage have been vetoed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and a majority of Ulster Unionists in the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

In April this year a motion on marriage equality put forward by the Sinn Féin party failed when 47 members of the Stormont Assembly voted in favour of the motion but 49 Unionists voted against.

And according to the Guardian, even if there had been a small majority in favour, the DUP would have exercised a special veto.

The 'Petition of Concern' allows any party to veto legislation if they can argue the law would not have sufficient cross-community ie Protestant and Catholic support.

But nonetheless, with such a large proportion of the Republic of Ireland’s population willing to ignore the Catholic church's official – No – position and vote in favour of equality, there could now be renewed hope for progress on other issues.

Women in both the Republic and Northern Ireland are, for example, still fighting for their right to a safe, legal abortion.

The UK-based and volunteer-run Abortion Support Network is one of the groups that financially assists women who have to travel to the UK for an abortion; last year they heard from 552 women desperate for help.

Let's hope that a newly galvanised and politically active generation will be bold and brave enough to secure the next change that women in Ireland so desperately need.

Objecting to little bits of women for sale

Posted: 26 May 2015 01:09 AM PDT

Object, advertising code, portrayal of women We believe these are a breach of the Advertisers' Code on the portrayal of women.

Object, a human rights group that campaigns against sexual objectification and media sexism, has complained formally to the Advertising Standards Authority about advertisements for a website that targets the ‘escort' industry and which are appearing on bus shelters and taxis.

The advertisements show three young women with the slogan "a little bit of…" listing female names, and ending with ‘you can have a little bit’ of (female name) too, in an apparent parody of the Damaso Perez Prado Lou Bega song Mambo Number 5.

Object's chief executive officer, Roz Hardie, said: "We believe these are a breach of the Advertisers' Code on the portrayal of women.

"We are also concerned that the Bailey Review recommendations on the sexualisation of children are also being breached by the adverts and it is unacceptable for a public display of adverts which essentially are condoning the sale of women.

"Object has been contacted by many people over the past 24 hours and believe that many similar complaints are being raised.

"The Twitter feed of the company is clear which market they are targeting, encouraging escort services to sign up, containing links to their blog about being ‘hooked on punting' and complaining about Twitter's reported plans to restrict pornography on its feeds."

Object is also contacting Members of Parliament and the local authorities in the areas where these advertisements have been spotted.

There are two main main here.

One, that this ad is offensive on several counts: anyone not in the target group can see it, children can see it, it has women as sexual objects. Please contact the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and voice your disgust.

Then there is the issue of profit from the sale of humans.

Object supports the ‘Nordic Model' of addressing prostitution, which includes the decriminalisation of any individual selling sex but that it should be unlawful to buy sex or profit from the sale of somebody else and also argues there should be significant investment in services for women who wish to exit prostitution.