Progressive Wednesday

This Wednesday: Feminists, We’re Calling You

Problem:

I'm a fan of women. I gestated in a pretty damned nice one. I've got a kick-butt-and-take-names one for a sibling. I'm attracted to some of them. Some of them are attracted, understandably of course, to me.

But none of that’s a problem. Here's the problem: women are still treated as lesser citizens in our country. Need proof? Then, as always, it’s some simple proof you get. We think three facts should do the trick.

1. According to statistics compiled by RAINN, “one in six American women are victims of sexual assault.”
2. Of the 535 members in the 109th Congress, only 82 of them are women. What makes this all the worse? As of November 1, 2006, there are 152 million women in American; there are 148 million men.
   
3. This one comes to us courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau: in 2004, “the ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time, year-round workers was 77 cents on the dollar.”

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Make Progress:

If it’s not crystal clear, we can’t tackle this issue on just one Wednesday. What you’ll find below, well, let’s call it “a good start,” let’s call it “the least we can do,” let’s call it “what’s just, and right, and fair, damn it.”

• Tell
• Enjoy
• Give

Feminists, We’re Calling You: Tell

Tell:

We do our damnedest to use Progressive Wednesday as a platform to share information that might fly under the radar or be misunderstood by the “regressives” in our culture (and you know who they are). So allow us to arm your brain with some more info to help fight against the powers that be.

We think it's impossible to write about women's rights without addressing Planned Parenthood. This organization is misrepresented in the media as a medical provider dealing exclusively with abortions. That is one incredibly small part of their services.

All of the following are offered through Planned Parenthood:

• Birth control
• Prenatal care
• Assistance with adoption
• STD testing
• Teaching materials
• Sexual health services for women, men, and teens

And in their own words:

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider. With more than 860 health centers nationwide, nearly five million women, men, and teens turn to us each year for essential services — services we provide regardless of income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence.

And if you dig on numbers, check these out:

1. Number of women, men, and adolescents worldwide provided with sexual and reproductive health care and education by Planned Parenthood each year: 5,000,000
2. Percentage of Planned Parenthood health care clients over the age of 19: 75
3. Percentage of Planned Parenthood health care clients with incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level: 72
4. Estimated number of abortions averted by Planned Parenthood contraceptive services each year: 300,000
5. Percentage of all Planned Parenthood health services that are abortion services: 3
6. Number of people served by Planned Parenthood affiliate educational programs: 1,300,000

All we're asking you to do is this: try to remember some this information, and be prepared to share it when the time is right with folks who spread the wrong message about this vital organization.

Feminists, We’re Calling You: Enjoy

Enjoy:

I adore musicians who are women, and I find it far too difficult to find ones I dig. Why? Because, as best as I can tell, the music industry is fairly misogynistic. So, below you'll find music by five female musicians we think you might enjoy. And hopefully you’ll support them by forking over some cash and buying their tunes.

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As we mentioned before, Ani DiFranco is Buffalo, New York, born-and-bred, and she still keeps a home here. Her lyrics are progressive, her privately owned record label, Righteous Babe Records, is progressive, and she's a progressive investor. She recently purchased and renovated a church in downtown Buffalo scheduled for demolition. Read more about her here, and her label here, and her church-turned-music-venue-and-recording-studio here. You can also read a piece DiFranco wrote for The Nation. Below you'll find a live video for one of her best tunes, “Shameless.–

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One of my favorite alt-country bands is Crooked Still, which is fronted by Aoife O'Donovan and her part sultry, part angelic voice. If you're at all interested in listening to bluegrass that breaks boundaries while remaining completely authentic and sincere, then this is the outfit for you. So, here’s video of them performing Hank Williams’ classic “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

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Kat Jones is a fantastic songstress, equal parts haunting, heartbreaking, and lush. She can be mellow as Mazzy Star, and she can rock like P.J. Harvey. Thankfully, she's neither completely, but rather the best of both. She's far too under the radar for our liking, so please give her a listen (she's got two MP3s for download), and support her music by buying an album or twelve. You can also stream a few songs over at her MySpace page.

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Have you bought into the ridiculous myth that women can't rock? Well, just check out Sleater-Kinney, for crying out loud. While the band appears to have become defunct (please, please, someone correct us if we’ve got this wrong), their music lives on, and we highly recommend this indie band that boasts a powerful punch and politic. Here they are, live on Letterman:

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Last, and certainly not least, is Alyson Greenfield, a staff member at Progressive Wednesday. And her role with us aside, she’s a singer/songwriter we completely, completely dig. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Alyson now calls Alabama home. She's currently completing work on her first full-length album, but her fantastic EP, Six Songs, is available for purchase through CD Baby, and the tunes are available as singles through her website. If I had to describe Alyson through comparison I'd describe her this way: Tori Amos meets an edgy version of Dar Williams. Below you can give a listen to her track “My Honey.”

“My Honey.”

Feminists, We’re Calling You: Give

Give:

Rape, while having decreased by 69% since 1993, is a remarkably common in the United States. Here are the facts:

• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men.
• In 2004-2005, there were an average annual 200,780 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
• About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30.
• Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, with more than half still being left unreported.

But here's the important part to remember: rape survivors are not bullet points and numbers, they are, of course, people, more real than we can imagine. And we care especially deeply about the the victims of sexual assault, because five of our friends have been victims. One of them was victimized twice in her life.

So here's what we're asking: donate, even if it's just five bucks, to Take Back the Night. If you're not familiar with TBTN, allow us to catch you up to speed:

Common components of Take Back the Night rallies include candlelight vigils, empowerment marches, and survivor testimonials. The goals and specific features of a TBTN rally are just as varied as its vast array of supporters. Throughout its history, Take Back the Night has inspired both women and men to confront a myriad of social ills, including rape, sexual violence, domestic violence, violence against children, and violence against women. The unifying theme throughout these diverse topics is the assertion that all human beings have the right to be free from violence, the right to be heard, and the right to reclaim those rights if they are violated.

Progressivism begins and ends with public speech. Here's a chance to help out an organization using our First Amendment in a way that would make our founders more than proud, and would, more importantly, make the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Addams raise a fist in the air in solidarity, in support.

Healing Health Care

Problem:

We all get sick. We go to doctors. We go to hospitals. Hopefully we get better, and soon. But sometimes we don’t get decent answers. Sometimes we get answers we can barely stand. Sometimes we get answers we can’t afford.

Well, we’ve got some answers of our own.

Make Progress:

My old man was a probation officer. My mom a phys. ed. teacher. Both were unionized, and in part because of this, they both had almost ridiculously excellent family health care. Growing up, I had regular check-ups, vaccinations, trips to the dentist and ophthalmologist, and both my sister and I had braces, all covered.

For my money, it’s hard to pursue happiness if you’re sick all the time (even more so if you’re, say, five years old), or if you’re worried about doctor’s bills racking up, or if your teeth are rotting despite your best flossing and fluoridating efforts. And kids should always be able to receive more than adequate health care.

While most of us aren't doctors, we can help the health of those around us (and even ourselves). So let's, not eat, but pick four apples today.

• Click
• Mail
• Watch
• Bleed

Healing Health Care: Click

Click:

Okay, it doesn't get much easier than this action, but first the sobering facts:

• In 2005, approximately 270,000 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in women. Imagine, for a moment, if nearly every person in Buffalo, New York had breast cancer.
• Approximately 40,000 of those women died. Of cancers, only lung cancer kills more American women.

So, what's a progressive to do? Click your mouse. Twice.

Head on over to the Breast Cancer Site, then just click your mouse on the button that reads “FUND FREE MAMMOGRAMS.– There, you've just helped fund mammograms. (We’ve vetted this. It’s legit.)

Anything else? you ask. Nope. That's it. No, wait. If you can, and we know you can, do that every day. It'll take you, what? About 17 seconds. Time, we think, well spent.

Rockin’ women, well, they rock.

Rock and roll ain’t noise pollution, and unfortunately, in our subtly and not-so-subtly misogynistic culture, women who rock are few and far between. But women who rock, rock. And since pleasure can be progressive, here are a trio of music videos for tunes belted out by the just-as-strong sex.

First up is “Fast as You Can” by Fiona Apple, a video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, whose other creds include two modern classics: the films Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

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And here’s a cover of the pop-rocker “Your Daddy Don’t Know” by The New Pornographers, a mainly-Canadian outfit sometimes fronted by Neko Case. Case, for my cabbage, has some of the best pipes on the planet.

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Rounding our our triumvirate, give a click and check out the purest from of rock: punk. Below you’ll find the Breeders (fronted by sisters Kim and Kelly Deal) kicking the &$?! out of “Gigantic,” a song orginally recorded by Kim’s other band, the Pixies. Punk is only punk when it’s live, so enjoy.