Rose's Place

Here's what's likely a new term for you: ''Linkbait.'' That's when websites use gimmicks to draw the hits to their content and, hence, their ads. This video, created for Bitch Magazine, explains it very well. It also makes the point that women's bodies are commodified even by progressives to sell stuff. It never changes. Via Feminist Frequency. … [Read more...]

Wow. Just wow. Wow. Wow. A light show marking the anniversary of Ukraine's independence last week. Via Open Culture … [Read more...]

Bill C-391, the ''private member's bill'' to scrap the gun registry, has been in the news these past few weeks. That's because the head of the RCMP firearms program Marty Cheliak was inexplicably dumped, the nation's police chiefs had a convention where they unanimously endorsed the registry, emergency room doctors have spoken out and political types finally noticed that the pro-gun government has been suppressing yet another positive report on the registry. Meanwhile, pressure's on... … [Read more...]

Found this on Daily Kos. Feel free to mosey on over there for blogger dhonnig's take and the reader comments, some of which are gut busters. For my part, all I can say is, that this ad in Woman's Day magazine, is for one of those products women can live without but for giant corporations creating needs and then selling crap to satisfy them. I mean, every woman considers her genitals before she weighs her... … [Read more...]

I love doggies. All kinds, even ''pit bulls.'' Which is why I just can't resist blogging this. I think it's brilliant but, I caution you, it's not for everybody. It's definitely not for the kids. It's called 12 Years, and it's four minute, 3D computer animation written and directed by Daniel Nocke and designed and produced by Thomas Meyer-Hermann, Studio Film Bilder. Speaking of pit bulls, about 1,000 people are expected to turn out this... … [Read more...]

Too often, sports pages and programming are dominated by men -- men reporters and columnists, men colour commentators, men team owners, men coaches, men players. In fact, if you think about it, you rarely hear the term ''male athlete.'' It's a given. Meanwhile, when it's a woman at play, it's often qualified with ''female'' or ''women's'' or something similar. It's never ''men's hockey,'' except maybe at the Olympics. It's always ''women's hockey.'' But, hey, I... … [Read more...]

From Pale over at A Creative Revolution, with a little help from her friends, Rev. PaperBoy and Alison at Creekside: We need an independent G20 inquiry. Now. … [Read more...]

Found via Tweep Nullafide, who critiques the Bible from a feminist point of view, is this cynical breakdown of certain verses. It explains how and why women have suffered through ages of ages -- and says something about so-called ''honour crimes'' which, by the way, happen in most religions. Some excerpts: Genesis "She was barren." In the Bible it's always the woman that are "barren", never the men. And when God "opens their womb," the... … [Read more...]

I thought it was just me but, judging from comments on my Facebook page, it's not. There is indeed a lot of victim-shaming going on in the alleged domestic assault case involving Belleville, On. Police Chief Cory McMullan. To recap quickly, two weeks ago, Chief McMullan, whose arm is still in a cast, admitted that she was the victim of domestic violence. The small town was rife with rumours of the incident and, basically, she... … [Read more...]

Journalist Sheryl WuDunn, co-author with her husband New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof of Half the Sky, says it all at a recent TEDtalk. H/T to my longtime -- from high school! -- friend Mark Takefman, who walks the talk in India. UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Almost forgot. Under PM Stephen Harper's ''maternal health'' plan, women in these countries are not entitled to the reproductive freedom, including contraception, they would need to achieve equality. … [Read more...]

Via Dammit Janet: Crazy right wing lady conbot Phyllis Schlafly, self-styled as America's ''leader of the pro-family movement since 1972,'' exhausted from her travails against gays and lesbians, uppity women, healthcare advocates, liberals, anti-gun activists, etc. etc. etc., has now set her sights on that scourge of western society ... the single welfare mother! Unmarried women, 70 percent of unmarried women, voted for Obama, and this is because when you kick your husband out, you've... … [Read more...]

Longtime readers -- and I do appreciate your loyalty and patience during my absence from the blogosphere -- know that I have bitched loud and often about how US/Canada/NATO have used and abused women and their (human) rights as an excuse to continue the war in Afghanistan. Oh, it's never about the oil, the pipelines, the mineral rights, the regional hegemony, or anything like that. No no. It's always about the women. Save the women.... … [Read more...]

Seriously? The latest statistics show that 29 per cent of men admitted being distracted by short skirts and low-cut tops in the Summer weather, leading to record numbers of accidents on the roads. And according to car insurance company Sheilas' Wheels, the summer smash phenomenon is getting worse each year - in 2009 men made 16.4 per cent more claims during the Summer than in any other month. Behavioural psychologist Donna Dawson explained: "Research shows... … [Read more...]

So now there's a fifth Mel Gibson tape. For those who have not kept up with this sordid story, the former megastar (Braveheart) -- who already has been in trouble several times for using his mouth as a Lethal Weapon -- has been apparently caught berating his former girlfriend Russian musician Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of their baby daughter, in the most abusive and profane language imaginable. In the course of the nearly four minute... … [Read more...]

Yeah, I know. Long time. Long story. Meanwhile, via The Sexist, 30 seconds of awesomeness from Scotland. Although many people genuinely believe they wouldn't judge a rape victim by what they wear, how drunk they were, or if they had been flirting all night, they often actually do; particularly when sitting as a juror in court. Not Ever wants to prompt people to keep their judgments in check and to remember that there's only one... … [Read more...]

Just over a year ago, I wrote of the passing of Estelle Bennett, one of the great Ronettes, and how much I love the Girl Group sound of the 50s and 60s -- and I'm not talking just Motown. As I noted, most of those ladies never really did get the rock'n'roll respect they deserved. Today, via Buzzfeed, I stumbled on this video: Now I understand why it all seemed so familiar. … [Read more...]

76 and still going strong. Apologies for the shaky quality of this video, shot during a speech Gloria Steinem gave last year at the 2009 William K. Rashbaum, MD, Abortion Provider Award Ceremony. No apologies for her words. How I wish that this warrior woman might have laid down her arms by now because the struggle for women's equality had been won. But we are going backwards, as we have seen both in the U.S.... … [Read more...]

Ah yes. The hate mail continues to pour in over today's treeware take on the Harper government's It-Makes-Me-Gag-Rule, its refusal to connect the dots between contraception and maternal healthcare. For two months now, the Conservative mouthpiece on all this, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda, has steadfastly refused to acknowledge the need for women to have choices, let alone suggest that the HarperCons will back family planning support in its oh-look-we-discovered-women maternal healthcare initiative. When asked... … [Read more...]

Stumbled across this stunning -- in so many ways -- National Film Board documentary the other day. It is totally worth 94 minutes of your time to get to know New Zealand political economist Marilyn Waring. Her ideas, boiled down to their most basic, relate to how what women do and contribute count for nothing in a world measured by leading, lagging and other economic indicators. For example, activities which involve monetary transactions count as... … [Read more...]

This first-person account by Bridget Potter, who found herself pregnant at 19 in the pre-Pill days of 1962, speaks for itself. Here are some excerpts. But please read the whole chilling thing. Sociologist Rickie Solinger in her book Wake Up Little Susie, describes what it was like to have an unwanted pregnancy in 1962. The woman might be “futilely appealing to a hospital abortion committee; being diagnosed as neurotic, even psychotic by a mental health... … [Read more...]