Female Exploitation: A Way of Life

In my journey as a feminist, I try to pay attention to the various ways in which my culture, here in the US, exploit all females. Female humans are sold in human trafficking for men's sexual pleasure. Images of female body parts are used in advertisement to sell products and services. Even female pronouns are used to describe inanimate objects such as cars, motorcycles, and boats!

The above ad is an example of how female bodies are used to sell products.  The next ad puts the female in a service and sexual position, while the ad below suggests that the only thing between you and this woman is a beer!

So, in these ads, certainly it is sex that is doing the selling, at the cost of objectifying females.  However, female reproductive organs are exploited in other ways. For example, in animal agriculture the manipulation of the female reproductive system of various nonhuman animals is at the heart of the business. The meat, diary and egg industries' survival depends on the continued impregnation of female animals.

Female cows are impregnated in what the industry calls a "rape rack" in order to keep them continuously lactating.  And immediately after birthing their babies, they are separated so that the milk can be harvested for human consumption. The babies, if female, are subjected to the same servitude as their mother.  Males are caged or tied onto a short leash so that they can't move and killed at four months old and served as veal.

Chickens in the egg industry have it no better. They are forced to survive in cramped cages, about the size of a filing cabinet, with other chickens. With intentional stressful conditions, they are forced to increase their menstrual cycle, thus producing more eggs, until their short lives of servitude are spent.

It may seem overwhelming to do anything about the rampant misuse and abuse of females, human and nonhuman alike.  However, as a feminist, I am excited about the many ways in which I can intervene, interrupt, and then inspire change with such a pervasive problem. I find ways to make it known to friends that I am a feminist and that they might be one too. I choose to allow the truth to emerge in my conversations with people. I choose to love and respect female persons as much, and sometimes even more than some male persons I know. And finally, I choose compassion over flavor as a way to increase my conscious choices of the food I am willing to purchase, cook, and consume.


Please check out one of my most favorite person who speaks so openly and lovingly on these issues: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Follow this link to the video on her speaking ever so eloquently about female exploitation.

And as always, please post any thoughts below.

May you continue on your path to truth and encourage others to do the same.

SAEDA Offers Leadership Training Program for Teens

Applications for summer session due by June 15th.

By James Young  - May 25, 2012

Rockland Family Shelter is inviting young leaders from all over Rockland to explore important issues, develop activist skills and find out how to create positive change in school and the community through a special summer training program.

Rockland Family Shelter's Student Activists Ending Dating Abuse (SAEDA) Summer 2012 Training is open for enrollment to all Rockland high school students. The SAEDA training provides an interactive atmosphere in which participants explore topics such as qualities of healthy relationships, teen dating abuse, equality between all people and other social justice issues.

The deadline for applications is Friday, June 15th. 

The SAEDA Program takes place in the community rooms at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack Monday, Aug. 20th through Thursday Aug. 23th. The group meets from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with breakfast, lunch and snacks provided.

The co-ed team of facilitators is led by Laura Plotkin, Director of Education at the Rockland Family Shelter in New City.

Students who complete the training will be eligible for a stipend and will earn credit for 28 community service hours. To apply for the program or receive more information, contact Laura Plotkin at (845) 634-3344 or at lplotkin@rocklandfamilyshelter.org.

Click on this link to download and print the application.

Avengers Fail the Bechdel Test

I saw the Avengers yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I was pleased to see a black man as the leader as well as three strong female characters.  However, when I left the theater, I realized that the movie did not pass the Bechdel test. 

“How does a movie pass the Bechdel Test?” you ask.  Well, it is really quite simple actually.  You just have to watch a movie and then answer “yes” to three questions.  The questions are listed here at www.bechdeltest.com as well as below.

1.      Are there at least two women in it and do they have names?
2.      Do they talk?  To each other?
3.      When they to talk, is it about something besides a man?

Unfortunately, the movie did not pass the second question.  I wonder what makes it so difficult for movies to answer “yes” to these three questions.  Perhaps much has changed, but more work needs to be done.

Speaking of needing work, I stumbled upon an interesting picture of the movie poster on www.feministing.com and thought it wise to post it with this entry.  The poster highlights the menacing masculinity of the male heroes, while exposing the female ass-ets.  What if the guys were ex-posed in the same way?  Take a look below.


What do you think?  Please comment below.

Redesign by Kevin Bolk

The Girl Project

It seems the IT thing to do in mainstream media is to have strong and beautiful (thin and white) women pretend to be girls.  Some of these shows highlight gender stereotypes while others break out of the tight gender lines.  Either way, I am confused as to why many of these show titles include the word "Girl" instead of "Women."  For example, here is a list of a few shows about women with "girl" in the title:


Gossip Girls
Girls
The New Girl
Golden Girls
Gilmore Girls
2 Broke Girls

Now, don't get me wrong, I love girls!  Girls definitely rock!  But I am confused.

What is the fascination with the word girl?  Sometimes I wonder if mainstream pop culture is allergic to the word "woman" (achoooo!) as it is hardly used in media.  Here are a few more examples:


Bat Girl
Super Girl
Working Girl
Girls Gone Wild

In the last list, none of these characters, movies or shows are about girls, aka young females.  They are all about grown females, aka women.  So why not rename the characters or retitle the shows as such?  What is it about the word "girl" that is so important?  I started thinking that perhaps the fear is that if we address women with respect and value as women, perhaps the fear is that the public will resist and the show will not get the ratings it needs. 





Well, the word woman is not entirely missing from mainstream media as I had originally thought.  The following list proves this:

1. Pretty Woman
2. Wonder Woman
3. The Bionic Woman

So, it is certainly possible to use the word woman and still gain popularity.  This makes me wonder: why does mainstream media continue to refer to woman as girls?

What do you think?