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Global Gender Gap report - ranking Economic participation and opportunity; Educational attainment; Political empowerment; Health and survival.
Rankings for 2007 - Sweden wins, which surprises me not one whit; the UK comes in eleventh, and the USA ranks 31 (well ahead of France and Italy, but outranked by Columbia, Namibia, and South Africa). Since arriving in the US five years ago, I've been continually shocked by the lack of gender equality, and depressed to see how little the inhabitants realise it (obviously; they've grown up with it. They think it's normal). It was sort of nice to see that that's not entirely anecdotal.
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NY Times article During Pregnancy, Starving for Two - interesting window on micro-managing women's bodies during pregnancy. You must gain weight. But not too much weight. This apparently based on correlation between obesity and complications during pregnancy; one might be excused for thinking there's more to it than that. Officials complain that 70% of women Don't Comply With Guidelines; could there be a reason other than "women are contrary and stupid"? I wonder.
Comment section mildly interesting - loads of MY PREGNANCY STORY gubbins divided into I DID THIS AND IT WAS GREAT and I DIDN'T DO THIS AND IT WAS FINE, some "ugh fatties are gross AND kill babies," a few "interesting that you lecture women about being healthy and still host ads for flat stomachs," and a sprinkling of "women are so irresponsible no wonder everyone's fat and gross EXCEPT ME."
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Interested to see The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs - Worldwide, there are 19 million unsafe abortions a year, and they kill 70,000 women...mostly in poor countries like Tanzania where abortion is illegal, according to the World Health Organization...According to Unicef, unsafe abortions cause 4 percent of deaths among pregnant women in Africa, 6 percent in Asia and 12 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
[A quoted medic] went on, “We as medical personnel think abortion should be legal so a qualified person can do it and you can have safe abortion.” - yes, NY Times! Well done.
Incidentally, not enough people are calling the Tiller thing terrorism.
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And then My Brief Life as a Woman - chap has to take hormone therapy for prostate cancer.
On hot flashes: he thinks it's an under-reported condition. And it’s certainly under-represented in the arts. Where are the great hot flash novels or movies? How come there’s not a Web site or magazine called “Hot Flash Monthly”?
Because it's NOT A MEN THING, dear. Who was it said that if men got periods, tampons would be cool, and flow jokes would go alongside fart jokes as bar talk? IT'S TRUE. Menopause is a Wimmin Thing, so we don't talk about it, because real people don't get menopause.
I had never had to worry about my weight, and I began to understand why media aimed at women and girls obsess over weight so much. It was strange and unsettling not to be able to tell my body, "No..."
Ah, empathy.
But he finishes up with shrugging off being female as hormonal and mysterious...we men don’t have the semblance of a clue, and some tired cliches about how women are so unpredictable, but they're not making it up, chaps! I've been there! which left me with the distinct feeling that this article could have been so much more.
Rankings for 2007 - Sweden wins, which surprises me not one whit; the UK comes in eleventh, and the USA ranks 31 (well ahead of France and Italy, but outranked by Columbia, Namibia, and South Africa). Since arriving in the US five years ago, I've been continually shocked by the lack of gender equality, and depressed to see how little the inhabitants realise it (obviously; they've grown up with it. They think it's normal). It was sort of nice to see that that's not entirely anecdotal.
----------------------------------------------------
NY Times article During Pregnancy, Starving for Two - interesting window on micro-managing women's bodies during pregnancy. You must gain weight. But not too much weight. This apparently based on correlation between obesity and complications during pregnancy; one might be excused for thinking there's more to it than that. Officials complain that 70% of women Don't Comply With Guidelines; could there be a reason other than "women are contrary and stupid"? I wonder.
Comment section mildly interesting - loads of MY PREGNANCY STORY gubbins divided into I DID THIS AND IT WAS GREAT and I DIDN'T DO THIS AND IT WAS FINE, some "ugh fatties are gross AND kill babies," a few "interesting that you lecture women about being healthy and still host ads for flat stomachs," and a sprinkling of "women are so irresponsible no wonder everyone's fat and gross EXCEPT ME."
----------------------------------------------------
Interested to see The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs - Worldwide, there are 19 million unsafe abortions a year, and they kill 70,000 women...mostly in poor countries like Tanzania where abortion is illegal, according to the World Health Organization...According to Unicef, unsafe abortions cause 4 percent of deaths among pregnant women in Africa, 6 percent in Asia and 12 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
[A quoted medic] went on, “We as medical personnel think abortion should be legal so a qualified person can do it and you can have safe abortion.” - yes, NY Times! Well done.
Incidentally, not enough people are calling the Tiller thing terrorism.
----------------------------------------------------
And then My Brief Life as a Woman - chap has to take hormone therapy for prostate cancer.
On hot flashes: he thinks it's an under-reported condition. And it’s certainly under-represented in the arts. Where are the great hot flash novels or movies? How come there’s not a Web site or magazine called “Hot Flash Monthly”?
Because it's NOT A MEN THING, dear. Who was it said that if men got periods, tampons would be cool, and flow jokes would go alongside fart jokes as bar talk? IT'S TRUE. Menopause is a Wimmin Thing, so we don't talk about it, because real people don't get menopause.
I had never had to worry about my weight, and I began to understand why media aimed at women and girls obsess over weight so much. It was strange and unsettling not to be able to tell my body, "No..."
Ah, empathy.
But he finishes up with shrugging off being female as hormonal and mysterious...we men don’t have the semblance of a clue, and some tired cliches about how women are so unpredictable, but they're not making it up, chaps! I've been there! which left me with the distinct feeling that this article could have been so much more.
From: (Anonymous)
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