feminine-genius

Any decrease is good

From the NYT:

Bulgaria has become the latest European country to reject the legalisation of prostitution. "We should be very definite that selling flesh is a crime," said interior minister Rumen Petov after the unexpected decision. The country, notorious for sex trafficking, now has to decide what exactly to do about prostitution. It could imitate Sweden where, since 1999, those who buy sex are prosecuted and are therefore publicly identified.

Finland last year made it illegal to buy sex from women brought in by traffickers and Norway is on the verge of imposing an outright ban on buying sex. The city government in Amsterdam is moving to shut down a lot of the brothels in its red light district. In the Czech Republic and three Baltic states attempts at legalisation similar to the Bulgarian one have been turned back. [Mercator]

Duh, we mean gender-blind abortions

UN notices that their abortion strategy has mis-fired.

Rise in India's Female Foeticide May Spark Crisis

The United Nations has warned that increasing female foeticide in India may
lead to a demographic crisis. The UN estimated that 2,000 unborn girls are aborted
every day in India due to the traditional preference for boys over girls, and warned
that the consequences will include skewing of the population and a rise in sexual
violence, child abuse and wife sharing.

True women's advocates would have seen this coming -- the toxic combination of access to ultrasounds with cultures that prioritise the man-child. No shock here, and no turning back.

Previously covered here, here, here, and here.

"Collective anger" as motivational tool

The Friday Fax brings us the news from Europe:

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.

     (NEW YORK — C-FAM) The United Nation's second in command announced today that the United Nations must make “sexual and reproductive health a priority in order to improve development.” Dr. Asha-Rose Magiro, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, speaking at the Women Deliver conference in London, said that to reduce maternal mortality, “We know what needs to be done. Access to sexual and reproductive health services, family planning, skilled care, emergency care, and trained midwives.”
    
     Following Magiro’s remarks, Francisco Songare, MD, Director of the UN’s Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health, said that the first priority in reducing maternal mortality “must be sexual and reproductive health – abortion – and without taboos!” Second to abortion, Songare said, was the need for skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care. The Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health is a UN initiative chaired by UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Deputy Executive Director.
    
     Funding sexual and reproductive rights is a primary focus of the conference. At the beginning of the conference, the UK announced it would give an additional 200 million pounds [$400 million] to UNFPA over the next five years to “give women real contraceptive services.” Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said later, “The UK funding commitment has been negotiated for two years, but it was because of this conference that they felt pressure to make some announcement today.” 
    
     Nafis Sadik, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for HIV/AIDS said that linking sexual and reproductive health to AIDS is critical because government support for sexual and reproductive health has fallen while enthusiasm and funding for AIDS has risen since the 1990s. Steve Sinding, Senior Fellow at the Guttmacher Institute echoed this, saying that the way to solve the reproductive health funding problem is to tie it to “the current preoccupation of development leaders” by showing that fertility decline is necessary for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to link family planning to HIV/AIDS programs and funding.
    
     Another focus of the conference is on linking maternal mortality to international human rights obligations. Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of the non-governmental organization Realizing Rights, said that, “We need passion and collective anger…we must center sexual and reproductive health now. It must be prioritized to reach the Millennium Development Goals, especially goal five [on maternal mortality].”  Robinson’s home country of Ireland has the world’s lowest maternal mortality rate according to a UN report released just this week, and Ireland has some of the most protective pro-life laws in the world.   

     Dr. Robert Walley, ObGyn, Executive Director of MaterCare International told the Friday Fax, “It is ridiculous to address abortion and contraception at a conference about maternal mortality. By definition, a maternal mortality involves a pregnant woman, not a pregnancy that has been avoided or aborted. We have known for many years how to help prevent a woman’s death by emergency obstetrics and skilled birth attendants. It is a shame that these leaders want to divert attention from the real needs of women -- giving her the best of obstetrical care based on life, hope, and the dignity of motherhood.”

For more news visit us at www.c-fam.org

...and YKW goes about like a prowling lion, seeking souls to devour.

Priceless!

Today is the feast of Saint Audrey, from whom the word "tawdry" is derived. How cool is that?

tawdry:  "cheap, showy, gaudy," 1676, adjective use of noun tawdry "silk necktie for women" (1612), shortened from tawdry lace (1548), an alteration of St. Audrey's lace, a necktie or ribbon sold at the annual fair at Ely on Oct. 17 commemorating St. Audrey (queen of Northumbria, died 679), whose name was worn down from O.E. Æðelðryð "noble might," from æðele "noble" (from P.Gmc. *athala-, from PIE *at-al- "race, family," from *at(i)- "over, beyond, super" + *al- "to nourish") + ðryð "might." Her association with cheap lace necklaces is that she supposedly died of a throat tumor, which she considered God's punishment for her youthful fondness for showy necklaces [Bede].

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

Discovered on the ever-brilliant site, Holy Whapping (which, thankfully, provides the etymology for its own name), where a snippet is offered on the topic from the Irish Times [subscription required]:

The best-known Audrey of modern times, ironically, had one of the most decorated necks in cinema history. As Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn cut an iconic image with her little black dress, long black gloves, and multiple-string pearl necklace. The look might have been showy, but it certainly wasn't cheap. When a version of her dress (there were three made for the film) was auctioned by Christies in London last year, it raised £467,000 sterling. Mind you, all the proceeds went to charity, so St. Audrey could hardly have complained.

I finally saw that film this summer. She carries each frame, but the story is achingly dark. Such is the foundation of our culture of death. I'm glad the original Audrey found her way in the end. (Don't know about the famous namesake, though.)

She's killing me!

One last post on Charlotte Bronte, since I've finished the book and will move on to a more substantial article on her. For now, I offer you a quote from her letters and then the words of the biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell. Charlotte, the last remaining child (of six) has selflessly, heroically tended her aging father (a dedicated clergyman) at the expense of her own freedoms, without complaint for most of her adult life and has received various requests for her hand in marriage, which she has brushed aside. Now she has accepted a proposal from a curate who will not only cherish the daughter but serve the father in his work at the parish church.

Letter of CB to friend: ... I must tell you then, that since I wrote last, papa's mind has gradually come round to a view very different to that which he once took; and that after some correspondence, and as the result of a visit Mr Nicholls paid here about a week ago, it was agreed that he was to resume the curacy of Haworth [her father's parish], as soon as papa's present assistant is provided with a situation...It gives me unspeakable content to see that now my father has once admitted this new view of the case, he dwells on it very complacently. In all arrangements, his convenience and seclusion will be scrupulously respected. Mr Nicholls seems deeply to feel the wish to comfort and sustain his declining years...

The nuptials are about to take place, though, not as one would presume the observance of a public sacrament over which the couple -- and the community at large -- should celebrate.

Next letter of CB to same friend: Mr Nicholls is a kind, considerate fellow. With all his masculine faults, he enters into my wishes about having the thing done quietly, in a way that makes me grateful; and if nobody interferes and spoils his arrangements, he will manage it so that not a soul in Haworth shall be aware of the day.

Imagine. The daughter of the resident parson, who has lived her entire life (except for occasional tasks that took her away) in this same place -- hiding her marriage from those who love her and consider her their very own.

EG relates the event: It was fixed that the marriage was to take place on the 29th of June. Her two friends arrived at Haworth Parsonage the day before; and the long summer afternoon and evening were spent by Charlotte in thoughtful arrangements for the morrow, and for her father's comfort during her absence from home. When all was finished -- the trunk packed, the morning's breakfast arranged, the wedding-dress laid out, -- just at bedtime, Mr Bronte announced his intention of stopping at home while the others went to church. What was to be done? Who was to give the bride away? There were only to be the officiating clergymen, the bride and bridegroom, the bridesmaid, and Miss Wooler to be present. The Prayer-book was referred to; and there it was seen that the Rubric enjoins that the Minister shall receive 'the woman from her father's or friend's hands,' and that nothing is specified as to the sex of the 'friend.' So Miss Wooler, ever kind in emergency, volunteered to give her old pupil away.

One has to read between the lines of the biography to realise how the dear father of CB -- who commissioned the work by EG to give testament to his daughter -- was a subtle tyrant. Kudos to her feminine-genius which never betrayed CB's honour for her own father, nor openly undermined him with the work he asked of her. Thankfully, word leaked out and "many old and humble friends" waited outside the church afterwards to greet the wedded pair on that beautiful day. But what sort of faith could scorn such a sacrament (when the church had jettisoned most of the other sacraments already) and what sort of icon of fatherly love did he offer to his family and parish? So very, very odd.

[Btw, have begun EG's Wives and Daughters, which is lovely so far.]

Impacting society -- the UN way

One United Nations agency posts a story that looks quite good at the surface, and yet has me wondering what is left unsaid.

GALKAYO, Somalia, October 15 (UNHCR) – A dozen female students wearing brightly coloured head scarves listen attentively to their teacher in a whitewashed classroom daubed with slogans such as: "Learn today, teach tomorrow" and "War is the father of evil."

The women, who have come to this town from all corners of northern Somalia's Puntland region, are taking part in a three-month course aimed at giving them the skills to effectively and efficiently run a non-governmental organization (NGO). It also has another purpose.

"This workshop empowers women so that they can have an impact on their own lives as well as on society," explained 45-year-old course participant Asha, who runs a small NGO dedicated to peace-building. "Men have had the power forever and all we got is a country devastated by conflict and poverty. Women would provide much better governance than men because our society is based on family, in which women have the main experience," she added to approval from her classmates.

The course is being organized by the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) with the support of the UN refugee agency. It aims, specifically, to teach the women how to define an NGO's mandate, request funding and ensure accountability.

The participants approach the course with enthusiasm. Most of them already serve their communities by working for NGOs. They clearly want to make a difference and improve life for women in a deprived and volatile area of the world.

"Listen to them, these women are the real voice of Somalia, they know the needs of their communities perfectly and they have a real commitment to bring change," Hawa Aden, chairwoman of GECPD, said with pride in her voice.

As Aden visited the classroom with a UNHCR guest, the students took turns repeating the lesson of the day – an exercise aimed at developing public-speaking skills. This will help them in their particular areas of NGO work, including peace-building, women's rights, female genital mutilation and education for girls. Asha told the class how she had helped bring together rival sub-clans for peace talks.

"Women are the foundation of Somalia, the ones who make the building stand, but they need to be taught how to lead. What we learn today will benefit Somali women and their country tomorrow," said 19-year-old Ayan, who recently completed her secondary education and joined a women's NGO. She now works as a counsellor for female victims of sexual abuse.

Having studied the UN and its policies for a long time, I see tell-tale signs that there is more to the agenda than simple education. The harms are noted as:

• HIV/AIDS
• Genital mutilation
• Rape
• Abandonment
• Lack of access to development $$
• No voice/rights for women

What the UN standard response has been:

• Condoms and birth control devices
• Change in legislation to give women leverage over men
• Education in bureacracies so that the UN can manage things
• Restructuring of cultural settings to empower women
• Business opportunities for women only, upsetting the men
• Accountability defined as targeting birth rates for reduction
• Abortion on demand as basic service, foundation for "equality"

The fundamental inequalities that have harmed women in the past are indefensible, but the UN response in the last 40 years has been to undermine marriage and the family -- calling them the problem. Note the "lesson" that links fatherhood with war. Unnecessary. Note the emphasis of women being the strength of Somalia--and better leaders. Unnecessary. Society works best when men and women work together for the good of each other and their children. It's called collaboration. This is glossy spin that masks a feminist agenda. Guaranteed. Just make a call and find out what the NGO's "goods and services" consist of and ask yourself why they're better managed by women...

Medicine of a different sort

Allah, as seen by Muslims, is defined  quite differently than our God, Who is Three Persons, but Allah is being asked to help the Missionaries of Charity, who are mystically espoused to Second Person of the Trinity. No matter. Their nuptial love has taken them to a country where all but 250 citizens follow Islam.

Sister Rosarius, an Indian, is trying to find a wheelchair for [Alia] Ibragimova. Rustam, Ibragimova's husband, told UCA News: "I will pray to Allah for the sisters all the time if they find a wheelchair for my wife. It will be the only way for her to move."

Taisia Lagunina, another resident, awaits cataract surgery. The 77-year-old widow was left alone in Tajikistan when her son went to Russia. "The sisters save my life," she told UCA News. "With my 43-somoni pension, I can't buy all the medicine I need. God bless them and their work."

Besides helping patients deal with medicinal and other needs, the nuns offer something less easily measurable as well. Brauer Elena, another patient, stressed this when she said, "The sisters help us a lot not only by buying the medicines we need but also by showing somebody cares about our lives."

Tangible love. Practical affection. Life-giving charity. The truths of our faith given flesh in Tajikstan. Mother Teresa, shower graces on this corner of the world and show them the true face of "Allah."

New and improved mythology

Whenever one doesn't use the right framework for an argument, he is bound to get into trouble. The use of stereotypes and statistics are both incomplete. There's a new book which debunks the foundation of the men Mars/women Venus juggernaut (which has sold  27m books in 37 languages, by the way!) The new book is The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages? by Deborah Cameron, and a review in the TImes notes:

The literature of Mars and Venus is remarkably patronising towards men, who feature as bullies, toddlers or Neanderthals sulking in their caves. One (male) author even calls his book If Men Could Talk. A book called If Women Could Think would be instantly denounced: why do men put up with books that set them on a par with Lassie or Skippy the Bush Kangeroo.

Of course the knee-jerk response to a book that relies on inadequate anecdotes to make the case for sex differences would deny (heavens, not the paradigm!) but the differences themselves. The author relies on the evidence provided by psychologist Janet Hyde:

Hyde’s number-crunching suggests that the difference in language use between men and women is statistically negligible. Women don’t interrupt more than men, nor are they more talkative or empathetic in conversation, less prone to assertive conversation, or any better or worse at verbal reasoning. The headline for Hyde’s discovery could read “Men and Women pretty similar, research finds”.

Well, folks -- back to the drawing board. Unless you want to break down and consider the theology of the body. Safe premise, accurate paradigm, positive outcome: i. e. not necessarily a better breakdown of household chores, but real complementarity.