I feel like they left something out. What could it be? Thinkthinkthink…

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana University researchers say half of all urban teenage girls may get one or more sexually transmitted infections within two years of becoming sexually active.

The researchers at the IU School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute say their findings point to the need to screen sexually active teenage girls sooner for infections.

via Study: Sexually active girls at risk of infection – Yahoo! News.

It’s great that they’re studying rates of sexual infection among teens. But is it not glaringly obvious that screening only girls is addressing only half the problem? These girls are being sexually active with someone, and many of those someone’s are bound to be male – so why not address that?

I don’t know if this is a problem with the design of the study, that they excluded teen boys, or a problem with the reporter who did not investigate to see if there was a similar research program being carried out for males, and if not, why not. It seems worthy of a question or a quote or something.

I miss journalism, I really do.

Gang Rape of 15-year-old girl while her schoolmates take pictures

You know this shit is on YouTube. To kids of this age, this is just replicating what they see online, in movies, what they think girls want or deserve or are asking for. I think our culture sucks.

Authorities said people took photos,laughed and some joined in as the girl was repeatedly assaulted. The victim, a student, remained hospitalized Monday with injuries that were not life-threatening.”She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other’s presence,” said Lt. Mark Gagan, a patrol supervisor in the city’s Northern Policing District. “What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening, and failed to report it.”

via Police arrest second teen in connection with vicious assault on 15-year-old girl – San Jose Mercury News.

Rape prevention tip that works: When you see a 15 year-old girl lying comatose on a park bench – don’t rape her! Even if your friends are! Instead, you could perhaps offer her some assistance, or tell your rapist friends that they are not behaving appropriately. Something like that.

and more from CNN

Investigators said as many as 15 people, all males, stood around watching the assault, but did not call police or help the victim, a 15-year-old student at Richmond High School in suburban San Francisco.

“As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated,” Gagan said.

Authorities had interviewed the victim, and the search for other attackers and bystanders who watched and did not report the rape was in “full-court press,” according to Gagan.

“We have checked Facebook and YouTube to try to find any revealing evidence,” he said. “We’re looking in particular to see if anyone posted any video of the incident.”

Several other individuals were detained at the scene but not arrested, Simon said.

The attack occurred on school grounds as the annual homecoming dance was under way inside the school Saturday night, authorities said.

…

“This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it,” [Police Lt.] Gagan said. “It was like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I can’t believe not one person felt compelled to help her.”

Rape is a pre-existing condition?

Here’s your daily dose of gigantic incredulous WTF? (Emphasis added by me.) Apparently, according to Blue Cross, once you’ve been raped you get kind of used to it? So next time it’s really not a big deal. After that your vagina is pretty much open for anyone’s business, and the aftermath of people forcefully inserting their body parts into you requires neither medical attention nor mental health assistance.

Rape Victim’s Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?

A 38-year-old woman in Ithaca, N.Y., said she was raped last year and then penalized by insurers because in giving her medical history she mentioned an assault she suffered in college 17 years earlier. The woman, Kimberly Fallon, told a nurse about the previous attack and months later, her doctor’s office sent her a bill for treatment. She said she was informed by a nurse and, later, the hospital’s billing department that her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, not only had declined payment for the rape exam, but also would not pay for therapy or medication for trauma because she “had been raped before.”

via Rape Victim’s Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?.

Kush Support | A Natural Rest for the Breast

Kush Support | A Natural Rest for the Breast

My lord, had I only known this was an option! Thank the Lord for Kush Support. And no adhesives or garments needed, which is just plain sexy.

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!

As an antidote to the condescending and “blame the victim” mentality of most rape-prevention advice (Don’t live freely/have fun/show independence/wear attractive clothing/have a social life, lest someone rape you for it!)  This website offers some rape-prevention tips aimed at the actual people who need them.

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!

1. Don’t put drugs in people’s drinks in order to control their behavior.

2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!

3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!

4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.

5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON’T ASSAULT THEM!

read the full list at:  No, not you • Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!.

Daily FAIL

Shitty UK tabloid The Daily Mail evidently thinks that there’s some way to be “gently” gang-raped.

A New Zealand backpacker vainly begged for mercy as she was ‘violently’ gang-raped near Buckingham Palace, a court heard today.

via Backpacker ‘begged for mercy as she was gang-raped in park next to Buckingham Palace’ | Mail Online.

I guess this explains why I keep licking my lady friends

Female rats, like women, need each other to relieve stress

Through the course of evolution, female animals seem to have developed a strategy to cope with this: social support. Women mammals lick each other or lie against each other in times of stress. Ter Horst and his team discovered that female rats recover from stress better when they are surrounded by those of the same sex. This form of social support did not seem to have much of an effect on the brain of male rats. A mixed group added to the stress level.

The researchers worked with single sex groups only and the impact on females was striking. The social support stimulated the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. That substance mutes the effects of stress the same way anti-depressants do. When the female rats are isolated, their serotonin system is not activated. “When you expose a rat to stress and then bring it back to its group, the others in the cage start taking care of the suffering animal. They will lick each other or lie against each other in times of stress, the males as well,” says Ter Horst.

Ter Horst doesn’t like translating his results to human situations, but here he makes an exception. “When women go through something stressful, they want to talk about it, again and again. That relieves their stress. Men don’t have that desire so much.”

via nrc.nl – International – Features – Female rats, like women, need each other to relieve stress.

You Get Grants for That Shit?

Weirdest line from this whole article:

Last year scientists dispelled the old myth that horizontal lines make women appear fatter. And Kelly’s outfit, featuring black and white stripes, seemed to hold true with the new theory.

via Kelly Osbourne gets it right in flattering stripes at a celebration of hot Hollywood style | Mail Online.

Seriously? Scientists dispelled a myth about horizontal lines and women’s fatness? I don’t know if I believe that, or if I want to.

Women Don’t Need College!

College isn’t Necessary

Read along as Lynzee Stauss (whose mother apparently wasn’t much of a speller either) elucidates why college just isn’t necessary for women. Hint: it has a lot to do with getting your nails done.

Click the pic to see full size (editing on photo was as I found it at link above, not mine.)

Is it just me, or…

does this Rolling Stone cover seem way less about Britney than it does her body?

It’s very “Look at me! I once more conform to your standard of what a super-star desirable female should be! Here is my lean stomach to prove it!”

Between the skirt pulled down and the shirt pulled up, it’s like her flat stomach is the membership card to some club she wants back into.

Which, I guess it actually is. That fucking sucks.

Also, some magazine i was reading referred to her “weight problem” the other day. Now seriously, what do we think is the most a non-pregnant Britney ever weighed? 135? Tops?

I hate media.

And Bush Wants to Give Women One More Kick in the C**t on His Way Out the Door

Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers – NYTimes.com
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

…

But the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, 28 senators, more than 110 representatives and the attorneys general of 13 states have urged the Bush administration to withdraw the proposed rule.

Pharmacies said the rule would allow their employees to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and could “lead to Medicaid patients being turned away.” State officials said the rule could void state laws that require insurance plans to cover contraceptives and require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.

The Ohio Health Department said the rule “could force family planning providers to hire employees who may refuse to do their jobs” — a concern echoed by Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Dressed in Me-Drag

I was leaving the house for work this morning, and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I thought that I looked like I was dressed in office worker drag. Makeup, hair done, crisp white shirt, sassy jacket, lots of jewelry. It’s a uniform, to make me feel like I fit in that world, when the world I really fit in has more to do with zip-up hoodie jackets with bleach stains down the front.

And for the millionth time I wondered at our fixation with taking what we are, as female humans, and making it look like the opposite. If it’s naturally shiny, de-shine it! If it’s naturally matte, make it shiny! If it’s naturally ruddy, make it paler! If it’s naturally pale, make it more colorful! If it’s curly, straighten it! If it’s straight, curl it!

Blah blah, evolutionary imperative and attracting a mate via healthy biological signals be damned, shouldn’t we (esp. those not wanting to spawn) have evolved past that? All this complicated social signalling. Taking everything that is and making it other – no wonder I love most those days when I don’t have to leave my house and have people judging what kind of job I did in pretending to be some matte-finished someone else.

Umm yeah. She’s so full-figured.

I’ll never be a Hollywood stick insect, vows Anna Friel as she dolls up in 1930s glamour | Mail Online

By Daily Mail Reporter
20th October 2008

Anna Friel may have landed a plum role on a hit US television drama, but she has no intention of losing weight to conform to Hollywood’s super-slim ideal.

The headstrong British actress is now based in Los Angeles where she has filmed quirky TV drama Pushing Daisies since 2006.

The former Brookside star credits the healthy diet of her formative years with her determination to maintain her natural body weight.

Yeah. She’s the fucking poster child for full-figured women. Look at her there, all… non-skeletal.

In the meantime we’ve got Eva Longoria crucified for gaining SEVEN WHOLE POUNDS, with one of her co-stars calling her “fat” at a size zero. We’ve got Madonna, who weighs about 32 ropey pounds, being called “a piece of gristle” in the bedroom, because she’s too skinny. We’ve got Faith Hill photoshopped into oblivion on the cover of Shape magazine, with a headline trumpeting how she’s in a bikini at 41! Practically in the nursing home and still in a bikini! After three kids! And a few hours with Photoshop!

Too fat! Too skinny! Too ropey! Gained too much! Lost too much! Works out too much! Had *gasp!* plastic surgery (cheater!) Spends too much time in the gym! Doesn’t spend enough time in the gym!

Don’t you understand, females? Your bodies BELONG TO THE PUBLIC! Stop assuming you have the right to live your life. You’re on stage, you’re on show, you’re on notice. Conform to the ever-changing ideal of perfection or be ruthlessly critiqued! (But honestly, it doesn’t matter, we’ll rip you to shreds no matter what you do. Especially if you leave the house w/o makeup.)

I hate the whole world, for serious.

Palin Misquotes Albright: “Place In Hell Reserved For Women Who Don’t Support Other Women”

Palin Misquotes Albright: “Place In Hell Reserved For Women Who Don’t Support Other Women”

At a rally on Saturday in California, Sarah Palin offered up a rather jarring argument for supporting the Republican ticket. “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women,” the Alaska Governor said, claiming she was quoting former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The statement came after Palin had recounted a “providential” moment she experienced on Saturday: “I’m reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, okay? The quote of the day… It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State [crowd boos] and UN ambassador. … Now she said it, I didn’t. She said, ‘There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.’”

Actually, Albright didn’t say that. The accurate quote is, “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”

I am confused by the crowd’s reaction to Ms. Albright’s name. She was highly respected Secretary of State. She’s also the first woman to hold that position. So they’re cheering Palin’s saying all women should “support” other women (meaning that even we liberal women should all support her quest to attain a powerful government position because of her gender) and booing the mention of a woman who attained a very powerful position in government?

Conservatives confuse the logical part of my brain. No wonder they refuse to think, they’d give themselves headaches trying to sort out their own reasoning.

The Ways I am Supposed to Feel

So here’s Friday night’s going-out story. (Do I need to preface this with all my situational going-out anxiety and confused/conflicting feelings about being out in the public sphere? I didn’t think so.)

Went out to dinner for Jessica’s b-day at Michael’s. Had a minor melt-down in the early evening due to something really stupid I did on accident, and my inability to accept that I sometimes make mistakes. Yes, even me. Yes, mistakes. Things done wrong for which I am responsible. Unacceptable. Will assess and address this issue later. Maybe. Anyway.

Went out to dinner and it ended up being the four of us. We all left at the same time, ostensibly to go to the bar, but Friend 1 had to take leftovers to her house and Friend 2 had to go home to put her jewelry on. So MyTodd™ and I (in separate cars) made our way to the bar. Midway there he calls to tell me that he sees a bunch of his colleagues’ cars in another bar’s parking lot, so he’s stopping there for a drink. No problem, I go on to the original destination bar without him. (See? See how brave I am become?) I get there and (male) Friend 3 is there, along with Friendly Barkeep. So I am comfortable and feel safe with these people I know, and sit down and start chatting. Unfortunately I am really, really tired. Two days of physically intense photo shoots at work plus the stress of a no-show photographic subject on Friday, plus aforementioned meltdown = me being almost totally (albeit pleasantly) brain-dead and non-talky. I was leaning my head in my hand on the bar, actually. Which caused the Friendly Barkeep to wave his hand in front of my face to see if I was awake at one point.

OK, here it’s going to get all complicated and over-explained and stuff, so if you don’t like that kind of thing… stop reading. Continue reading »