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I got this email from WVFREE, I thought it was extremely important to share....

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The bill we have been dreading has made its debut at the Capitol and we NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP IT. The ultrasound requirements legislation, SB 597, is a veiled attempt to coerce a pregnant woman and intimidate her provider. This bill is an intrusion into medical care and a blatant attempt by the right-wing to use women as pawns in their effort to make it harder to access reproductive health care. THE BILL IS ON THE MOVE NOW!

Please email members of the Senate Health and Judiciary committees with this message (Subject line: Please Reject SB 597):

Dear Senator, Please oppose SB 597, the ultrasound bill. This legislation is right-wing interference into a woman's personal decision-making and does not add anything positive to West Virginia's existing laws--except to place burdens on a pregnant woman and her provider. At a moment of profound economic crisis, we'd like you as our WV legislator to tend to the people's business, not find new ways to interfere in people's personal lives.

Copy and paste the following Senators' email addresses to send your message NOW! It's easy!
jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov, roman.prezioso@wvsenate.gov, ron.stollings@verizon.net, daniel.foster@camc.org, william.laird@wvsenate.gov, richard.browning@wvsenate.gov, evan.jenkins@wvsenate.gov, corey.palumbo@wvsenate.gov, herb.snyder@wvsenate.gov, john.unger@wvsenate.gov, jack.yost@wvsenate.gov, donnaboley@suddenlink.net, delegate200@hotmail.com, michael.oliverio@wvsenate.gov, truman.chafin@wvsenate.gov, bob.williams@wvsenate.gov, don.caruth@wvsenate.gov, frank.deem@wvsenate.gov

Thanks for standing up for women today!

ACCORDING TO ME- music that promotes sexism to the teen masses

According to you
Im stupid
Im useless
I can’t do anything right
According to you
Im difficult
hard to please
forever changing my mind

While I would commend Orianthi for producing a hit song that (in some ways) combats verbal abuse, I have plenty of problems with her break out song, “According to You”.

First of all, this song combats the verbal abuse in this hypothetical relationship by turning it around, “according to me, you’re stupid, you’re useless…” Aren’t we big girls here? The reversal of verbal abuse does not make it go away, or any better, or justifiable.

But my biggest problem with this song is the chorus, “According to HIM…” NO! No, no, no! This is a problem that has infected many middle and high school aged American girls- seeking justification or healing from abuse through another relationship. Because a woman’s identity development often revolves around her relationships, teen girls often seek resolution for their insecurities through finding and maintaining relationships with boys and/or “trading up” for boyfriends higher on the popularity, or cuteness scale.

Because of this, dating in high school is hardly liberating for girls- they are constantly pressured to be in a relationship to be reassured that they are pretty or worthy of love. This is also a reason that many teen girls succumb to the pressure to have sex, or participate in other potentially hazardous activities.

So the question is- why are songs like this so popular? Do we ignore sexism simply for catchy lyrics and rhythm? Has listening to music become such a passive activity that we ignore the message it sends?

Tell Her She's Beautiful Day

Hey Jeannie, I really love what you wrote. You are so right, the US promotes harmful standards and many people think that pushing themselves to the limit and not taking care of themselves is a good thing--that means they are hard workers. This is why the US faces such high levels of people suffering from anxiety and depression as well as other health problems. The fact that we preach to women that they should be super thin and look perfect all the time doesn't help either.

Reading your post made me think of the event I participated in on Facebook called, "Tell Her She's Beautiful Day"--a day devoted to telling women in your life you think they are beautiful in order to promote self-esteem and positive self-image. I thought this was a great, easy, way of activism, and I still do, however, it makes me sad and almost angry that we have to do things like that. Why do we have to devote days, weeks, and events to promoting self-image and positive body image?

I understand why and I know it is fueled by not only the unrealistic beauty standards America has held so long, but the capitalist and consumeristic society we live in. I still am angry and hurt by it though.

To make a different we have to start with ourselves, promoting our own self-esteem and liking the way we look. Then we move to others and encourage them to ditch the beauty standards in our culture. We need to start early, with our daughters, nieces, cousions, and just the young girls in our lives--and the boys--and teach them that they are beautiful no matter what.

Pretty's Pricetag

Last semester, I was in Buddhism class and we were talking about how society influences us to do things that are against our nature. We came up with examples like working to exhaustion, sleeping less, and forgetting to play. Then we paused. We were all thinking it. But no one said it. Dr. Ruff asked, “What else?” Even I was too uncomfortable to say it. Then he said, “We starve ourselves!”

We’ve heard it all before. We are fully aware that society places unrealistic expectations on people (not just women) to be “perfect”. But what I am really scared of is what we have become because of this.

Eve Ensler, the writer of the Vagina Monologues, has dedicated much of the money that has been made through the monologues to efforts to end female genital mutilation in Africa. To see and hear about what these poor girls are put through is horrific. After I saw a movie about FGM I was literally scarred for life… I still think about it and shudder.

These girls are literally being cut apart- AND WE ARE DOING THAT TO OURSELVES RIGHT HERE! The billion dollar plastic surgery industry in America thrives on the skewed mentality that women (and men) have to rip themselves apart and be put back together to be beautiful. Plastic surgery is rarely a painless process- whether people are having their foreheads sliced across their skull for a brow lift or having a vacuum shoved into their torsos for liposuction. But it is perfectly acceptable- OFTEN ENCOURAGED in our culture.

What does that say about our culture? This is the culture that we are perpetuating with every shampoo or lipstick purchase. This is a culture that we are raising our children in. It is time to stand up for what is natural, and right, and humane.