how to pay less than the minimum wage II

just received this from the EPMU, for aucklanders:

Hi All,
Our members and their families and supporters will be holding a protest and picnic outside the Telecom AGM tomorrow.
It's going to be a big one as it also marks the official final change over to Visionstream and our members are still saying no to Visionstream's dependent contracts.
If you're in Auckland we'd really appreciate you attending and bringing friend and family if you can.
The protest will run from 9am to midday and be at the Ellerslie Event Centre, 80 Ascot Avenue, Ellerslie, Auckland.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Kia Kaha!
Rob EganEPMU

i hope that people who are able to will support the protest, in order to protect the wages and conditions of nz workers. details of this dispute were provided here in a previous post.

tsunami

my thoughts are with the people of american samoa this morning, as they suffer because of the tsunami. hearing the news that parts of new zealand will also be affected has been unsettling as well, and i'm hoping that all ends up with them.

delays in access to counselling

for those interested in the issue around ACC funded counselling for sensitive claims (ie victims of sexual abuse), ACC is blaming staff pressures for the increase in the number of claims still waiting for a decision on funding:

...there were 420 sexual abuse claim decisions pending in August - up from a consistent average of less than 72 a month earlier this year.

...rising claim numbers have created added pressure and ‘as staff numbers are calculated on the previous year’s claims, this has put ACC staff under stress…In today’s financially constrained environment, it isn’t possible to simply recruit more staff. Our approach is to streamline the service…

there was also an item on tvnz news tonight about the more stringent requirements to access the counselling, which i blogged about here.

it's appalling that access to crucial health services is being restricted by deliberate government policy.

transnational feminism

read this. i found it quite interesting. here's an excerpt:

The idea of a superstructure transnational feminism does not make a lot of sense to me. In fact, I find discussing global sisterhood boring and a little pointless. I attended the Feminist Theory and Activism in Global Perspective conference at SOAS today wondering what it really wanted to achieve, and left the conference still wondering. On the one – more positive – hand, there exists the idea that transnational feminism breeds solidarity. No doubt showing support as an emblem of solidarity is great, but effective activism needs a real understanding of the multiple contexts that influence it. Solidarity alone is not enough.

the whole post raises some very interesting issues. for example, feminists around the world would agree on common issues and the value of global collective action. yet such collective action can only be successful when all women around the world have equal status and input. the current global environment has one group of women as champions of progress and another group as the target of their efforts.

it's not an equal relationship. rather, it reminds me of a missionary set-up, where the devout set out to civilise the natives, not believing that they have anything to learn from said natives because they are in posession of "the truth". in such a set-up, progress towards common goals isn't possible because there is an absence of mutual respect.

i'm not sure if that's what this writer was trying to say, but that's how i reacted.

Quick hit: Polanski arrested in Switzerland, three guesses why...

From AP, via the Herald, this morning:

Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, authorities have said.

Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said US authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005.

"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," ministry spokesman Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. "That's why he was taken into custody."

Polanski, the director of such classic films as "Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby," fled the US in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl.

Polanski has asked a US appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Balmer, the Swiss spokesman, said the US would now have to make a formal extradition request. A US Justice Department spokeswoman in Washington declined to comment on the case Sunday.

Click through for the rest of the article.

So let me get this straight. Polanski rapes a 13 year old in 1977, flees the country to avoid the consequences, and has been evading arrest ever since. I heard someone from the international film community on the radio saying he couldn't understand why Polanski had been arrested as he had just made a tiny mistake 30 years ago and so many millions of people loved his films. I just cannot understand that mindset.

Good luck raising that gender-neutral child

There is an article called "Good luck raising that gender-neutral child" over at Salon that explores ideas of gender development in children.

The article starts with the following interesting anecdote:

A Swedish couple has refused to reveal the sex of their 2-year-old to anyone -- except those on diaper duty. When word got out about their decision to eschew personal pronouns and sex-appropriate clothing, the parents made international headlines. The mother explained her thinking to the press: "It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead."

The Salon article, however, is focussed on discussing physiological and psychological differences between boy and girl children based on recent studies of children.

Full article here.

sue bradford resigns

you'll have heard the news now of sue bradford's resignation. i'd also like to acknowledge the great work ms bradford has done in getting progressive legislation through parliament, and in advocating for those who are economically disadvantaged. there is absolutely no doubt that she had plenty of courage, and the ability to work with a number of parties to push through issues she felt strongly about.

parliament will definitely be a worse place without her, and it's a pity that with her leaving, the ratio of women of MPs will be reduced further. i'd like to wish her well in all future endeavours.

you can hear kathryn ryan interviewing her here (radio nz, nine to noon, 11.07am)

what about working class women?

excellent post by elsewoman in response to mr trotter's request that the labour party get "back to its male working class, er, roots". i remember listening to him last week on radio nz, raving about the "testosterone" visible at the labour party conference. i was there for almost all of the conference, and seemed to have missed it.

he talks about reconnecting with "the dream of thousands of young and idealistic working class men", but i can't see how those dreams would be any different to the dreams of women. and why only the young - do the rest of us not have the capacity to dream; to wish for and work towards better things?

in all the analysis that i've seen on labour's election wins and losses, they've done best when they've captured the women's vote, and when they lost in 2008, it was the loss of the women's vote that was crucial. i can't remember where it was, but i'm also pretty sure i've seen research to say that women are more likely to vote for parties of the left than men are. given all of that, i'd say it's just as important, if not more so, to reconnect with issues that are important to women.

but further, what i really don't get is the fact that women in leadership can't be seen to be protecting the interests of men as well. record levels of low unemployment, strong savings, paid parental leave, interest-free student loans, low government debt, working for families, pay equity, investment in early childhood education etc etc etc ie all the major policies of a party with a female leader have been just as beneficial to men as to women. most have benefitted men directly, some indirectly as men are part of families who benefit.

in the end, there was only one thing that was different at this conference which could possibly account for mr trotter's view. it was that, instead of a female leader and a male deputy leader, there was a male leader and female deputy leader who gave the main speeches at conference. if that somehow makes a difference to how he views the labour party, then it seems to me that mr trotter has taken a very shallow look.

Quick hit: Birthing choice to be restricted across ditch?

From Dita de Boni's blog on the Herald site last week:

In Australia, midwives have around two more years to attend home births before their doing so becomes a lot more difficult.

The Federal Government across the ditch had been debating new law around home births all year.

It had planned to make registration of private midwives attending Australia's 1000 plus home births difficult, as these midwives would have needed medical indemnity cover - which they currently can't get - to be able to register and practise.

A "mother of all rallies" was held with 2000 women and their home birthed babies marching on Canberra to protest the law, and opposing what they consider a restriction of choice.

The Liberal Government gave home birthers a reprieve until 2012, at which time the lack of this misadventure insurance looks set to potentially force the whole movement underground.

Click through for the rest.

Again and again we seem to deal with these issues of denying women choice about their own bodies. Frankly I can't see myself ever choosing a home birth, but it's an important option that needs to be available to those that want it.

Wong focuses on violence against women in Suffrage Day release

Found on Scoop:

Suffrage movement transcends boundaries

The Suffrage movement, led by Kate Sheppard, was a win for all women in New Zealand some 116 years ago, with their good work ensuring women are able to break down barriers and fulfil their potential.

The 116th anniversary of women first gaining the right to vote marks an event that revolutionised the world and catapulted New Zealand onto the world stage as a “fair nation”.

Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong delivered the keynote speech at the Christchurch City Council’s Annual Women’s Suffrage Day Luncheon, where Maori women’s historical involvement in gaining the right to vote was honoured with women from many ethnic communities being invited.

“New Zealand’s daughters can’t walk in the path of pioneers like Kate Sheppard to fulfil their potential if they do not even live in a safe environment. Domestic and sexual violence are black marks in our country’s proud history and we have to erase them,” Mrs Wong says.

“The Ministry of Women’s Affairs’ significant research study, Strong and Safe Communities will soon provide added insight to assist in the elimination of violence against women. It will help Police, Courts and other services better understand and tackle issues faced by victims of sexual violence.

“The Ministry is also teaming up with the Office of Ethnic Affairs to undertake the Ethnic Women and Intimate Partner Violence study, which will unravel drivers of violence, identify practical ideas and examine good practices to meet the needs of women in ethnic communities.”

Elimination of violence against women, tackling the pay gap - which has been stalled at 12 percent since 2001 - and the promotion of women in leadership are three priorities of the Ministry that will honour the spirit of the Suffrage movement for the benefit of all New Zealand women.

Interesting that Wong responded to questions in Parliament about what the Govt was doing to address the gender pay gap flippantly earlier the same week she must have written a media statement highlighting it as one of her Ministry's three priorities...

Good comments around violence against women though, which is nice to see.

hearsay

listening to this radio nz interview (nine to noon, 9.09am) with members of robin bain's family, i have to say that i agree with the proposition that people should have some protection from defamation during the course of a criminal trial. particularly people who are dead and are therefore no longer able to defend themselves.

in the last version of this trial, it seems to me (and as i always say, i'm no lawyer) that there were more relaxed rules of evidence around blaming a dead person for the crime. would that same evidence have been allowed if robin bain had been alive? and if not, why should it be allowed once he's dead? makes no sense to me.

Quick hit: Sensible shoes a safety issue?

Greg Cain writes about the health and safety implications of high heels at work in the Herald:

There is a heated debate going on in the UK about, of all things, whether women should have the right to wear comfortable shoes in the workplace.

According to this report by Reuters, the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists passed a motion asking employers to work in partnership with trade unions, staff, and local Health and Safety representatives to ensure that proper risk assessments are carried out, and where high heels are deemed a health risk, replaced with comfortable shoes.

... The issue was purely about giving women in certain industries the right to say no to high heels in jobs where they are on their feet for a long time. Feet bear the brunt of daily life, and for many workers, prolonged standing, badly fitted footwear and high heels can be a hazard in the workplace, the Society said. It pointed out that wearing high heels can cause long term foot problems, such as serious foot, knee and back pain, and damaged joints.

The Times reported that Conservative Member of Parliament Nadine Dorries tore into the motion, saying it was intended to cut women like her down to size.

"My job is male-dominated, and the men I work with have killer instincts," the newspaper reported her as saying. "I am 5ft 3in and need to wear high heels," she said...

Click through for the whole thing, and a link to the report mentioned.

Quite interesting how the UK media, and the politician quoted above, have leapt to the conclusion that suggestions that women be given choices about whether or not they have to wear high heels in the workplace is somehow actually restricting their choices...

Submit submit submit!

...to the next Down Under Feminist Carnival, to be hosted soon at Ideologically Impure by the marvellous Queen of Thorns!

You can submit at this link, or go to QoT's post on the matter for more info.

Because what you wear is all about him

Found at Spare Room.

When I was pregnant I was quite wistful about Hot Milk, which I couldn't afford, but now I'm feeling like it was a lucky escape if it can make you so baby-brained and clumsy and fixated on turning on a man that you break valued possessions.

PS I'll be away all this week for work so might not get much posting done, apologies in advance!

Happy Suffrage Day!

And here's some Suffrage Linky Love:
Friday Feminist - Women's Christian Temperance Union
It's not about the balls, Chris
Women's Suffrage Day


Feel free to add links to more posts in comments, I'll add them in if I get a chance :-)

Pay Equi-Tea today

Sorry this is going to be a very basic post, as I'm on my home computer and it is painfully slow.

The Pay Equi-Tea protest was on at Parliament today, to highlight the continuing issue of the gap between average hourly pay rates for men and women. Here's a few linkies:

Launch release for the Pay Equity Coalition on Scoop.
TV3 coverage on their midday news (thanks to Liz for emailing me with this)
NZEI Te Riu Roa photos from the protest
Sue Moroney's media statement on Pansy Wong's response to questioning about what the Government is doing to assist the 15,000+ women who lost their jobs in the last three months. (thanks to TEU)

Feel free to add more links in comments as you find them :-)

Quick hit: Doesn't just sound sexist, Viva

From the Viva section in Wednesday's Herald:

Do you secretly long to appear in the social pages? [ah, no] Do you dream of having your photograph and name included with all the usual A-list types in the Sunday papers? [hmmm, if you put it that way... still no] Well, by following these six simple steps we reckon you can improve your chances of being successfully snapped tenfold. [oh goodie! Not]

1. Presentation
It goes without saying that smart clothes, glossy hair, some makeup and a bit of bling are pretty much party essentials. But a few cunning tricks will help keep you ahead of the pack. Plenty of bare skin is always a winner, so try to have a decent amount on show. Now, we're not specifically talking cleavage although that clearly never goes amiss [not even in a society which devoted column inches to the PM wearing trousers to meet the Queen]. Bare shoulders, bare arms, bare anything, in fact, are more visually interesting than bodies shrouded in light-absorbing black jackets...

...4. Partner
Leave the husband at home [gosh I'm glad you added that or I never would have thought that the intended audience of this article was hetero-females-only! /sarcasm] and take a girlfriend instead. It may sound sexist but two (or more) women wearing colour and showing skin will always look more attractive on the society pages than a dime-a-dozen conventional couple - one of whom will be in a predictable corporate suit.

Click through for the whole thing, if you can be bothered.

Pay Equity Schmequity

Thought this might be relevant in light of today's Pay Equi-Tea at Parliament to present the 15,000+ petition collected by Sue Moroney which we were pushing a couple of months back.

Sweeping brimmed purple felt hat, with a green feather, tipped to Elsewoman, who found it in Craccum and shared it with us all.

And there's more info on the Pay Equity Challenge, and of course the issue at hand, at the Council of Trade Unions site.

Lay down your weapons

Now I like a good debate as much as the next person, actually I probably like it more. Sometimes though I just don't wanna. Sometimes it's not appropriate. Sometimes there's no point. Sometimes there's a power imbalance that could mean having it out is a bad thing for one or both parties.

So lately I've been struggling a bit with picking my fights. Particularly when I don't want to have a scrap about whether Tony Veitch is innocent (I believe not), Clint Rickards et all were also innocent (ditto), or everyone on a benefit is a druggie loser criminal (ditto ditto ditto).

I've been finding this particularly tough lately, and I've taken to largely just saying "look I disagree, and I'm going to leave it at that." The trouble comes, for me, when the other person doesn't respect that, and instead starts making inflammatory statements that would in the past have probably riled me into having the fight anyway, against my better judgement. Now though I'm just too tired, so I have been saying "I still strongly disagree" and changing the subject or leaving the room. Still it rankles.

Is it just me or is it a lack of respect shown by someone who wants to have an argument when you don't persisting despite your attempts at peaceful, succint, disagreement? Especially when you are in a position where they have significantly more power than you, and neither of you are going to change your minds, so that way lies danger.

I heard a song on the radio a month or so back with lyrics along the lines of "If you have a racist* friend then it's time for that friendship to end" and it then goes on to say it doesn't matter if they are your father, your lover, your sister, your workmate, etc, you should cut ties. I don't know how practical that is. How does it change anyone's mind to isolate them from alternative viewpoints and experiences? Perhaps I'm just being overly defensive because my dear departed Dad and I disagreed about a lot in the area of race, gender, politics, and all sorts of things. But we still loved each other very much, and he was a great father.

What do you think, dear readers? Do we excise from our lives people who disagree with us on matters we care passionately about? Do we debate with them at every opportunity, possibly to our detriment?

I just don't know.


* When I was listening to the song I was thinking about the sort of grab-bag of negative -isms, like racism, sexism, homophobia (although technically not an -ism) etc.

Another Suffrage Day event - Auckland

The Working Women’s Resource Centre and the Red Flag Social Club invite you to join with us to
Celebrate Suffrage Day
And the Launch of the WWRC Valuing Older Workers project

From 5.00 pm, Friday 18th September
At Trades Hall
147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland

Speaker, Labour MP (and guest poster at our own fair blog), Jacinda Ardern

Mummy, where do cupcakes come from?

Why dear I think you'll find this picture instructive:

For the ex-expat in the hope that she gets well soonest :-)

Roundtable on Violence Against Women on the Weatherston Sentence

The Roundtable on Violence Against Women has put out a fact sheet in response to the sentencing of Clayton Weatherston, to highlight issues of violence against women to the media, in the hope of some broader reporting than some of the icky stuff we've seen around this case.

I'm reproducing the whole thing here because it is really excellent, and I hope that is ok with the RVAW people (please let me know if not!). You can access the fact sheet online here, and their website here.

Here we go:

SENTENCING OF CLAYTON WEATHERSTON

KEY ASPECTS MEDIA MAY WISH TO CONSIDER

Prepared by the Roundtable on Violence Against Women www.roundtablevaw.org.nz

THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM
On average 14 women are killed by their (ex) partner each year – one every 3.7 weeks. We can therefore estimate that more than 20 other women have been murdered by their (ex) partners/boyfriends since Sophie Elliott was murdered by Clayton Weatherston in January 2008.

Rarely does a week go by without new headlines of another domestic murder. However the reality is that we don’t know exactly how many domestic murders there are in New Zealand each year. Unofficially so far in 2009 there have been 28 domestic murders (women, children and men as victims). This equates to the usual annual domestic murder toll and we are only half way through September.

Police do not routinely collate or release information on the relationship of the victim and the murderer, or on the gender of the victim. Hence we have no way of knowing how many of these 28 murders have been women murdered by their (ex) partner.

The most recent official statistics we have are that between 2000 and 2004, 45 women were murdered by their male partner or ex-partner. During the same period three men were murdered by their female partner or ex partner (NZ Police statistics)

THE TIME OF GREATEST RISK
No one deserves to be abused. Women and children don't "ask for it".

People often ask “why doesn’t she just leave?” However, the most dangerous time for women is in fact when they leave or talk about leaving. He may have repeatedly threatened to harm her, the children or her family if she leaves.

Most murders happen:

• at the time of separation or after
• when the abuser has less control – when the woman files for a protection order, gets a new partner, or in Sophie Elliott’s case, a new job
• when events occur that mean the abuse will be exposed (e.g. when Police get involved).

Leaving does not end the violence – it often gets worse after separation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MALE ABUSERS
Serious abusers come from all walks of life, but they have in common a belief that they have the right to control, dominate and punish their partner and family.

Lundy Bancroft, a US domestic violence expert who was here in NZ recently, has researched the profile of domestic violence abusers:

• Commonly have an “attitude of ownership” – once an abuser is in a relationship, his partner (and children) belong to him
• They are controlling (makes all the decisions and rules, controls the finances)
• They are manipulative (twists arguments around, plays mind-games, able to “sweet talk” others)
• Commonly display a sense of entitlement and are demanding (thinks his needs are more important than anyone else, and blames others for any problems

Bancroft warns that these characteristics of an abuser are not often seen by those outside the relationship - abusers are able to put on a different face outside the home (“Jekyll and Hyde” characteristics).

UK Refuge Chief Executive, Sandra Horley, also talks about abusers as “Jekyll and Hyde” characters , who are able swiftly switch between “rage and charm”.

Most friends and family have no idea he is capable of these acts of violence.

RED FLAGS
There are “red flags” that Police look out for, which indicates when a victims of violence is at risk of being seriously hurt or killed:

• the abuser threatens to hurt the victim, children, family, pets, or themself (many domestic violence murders are murder/suicide)
• the abuser is possessive and extremely jealous (including stalking behaviour)
• the abuser has used physical abuse before, especially where this escalates over time
• there has been a separation or challenge to the abuser’s control (e.g. victim files for a protection order)
• the victim is afraid of the abuser
• the victim is isolated.

Many young women may be in a potentially abusive relationship and not even know it.

DATING VIOLENCE
Many young women don’t realise that they don’t have to be in a living with their boyfriend or married to be at risk of abuse or even murder.

Dating violence is common – it can be physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse.

Warning signs include:

• Extreme jealousy and possessiveness
• Controlling behaviour (controlling what you do, say, wear, who you talk to)
• Threats
• Stalking
• Monitoring (txting or calling many times a day, checking up on you)
• Isolation (ignoring or criticising your friends, making it hard for you to see your friends and family)
• Sexual coercion
• Humiliating or criticising or putting you down
• Using force, or any physical violence

FOR PARENTS- Warning Signs of a Controlling Relationship.
Abusers often isolate their victims so that they become emotionally dependent

• Does your daughter have fewer friends, have friends who say they don’t like her boyfriend, or seem to be withdrawing from the family?
• Abusers often seem romantic and caring, but the constant contact and attention is actually a tactic of control
• Does your daughter's boyfriend call or text her constantly, get upset if she doesn’t reply immediately, or always question her about what she has been doing?
• Abusers are often jealous and possessive, believing they own their partner
• Does her boyfriend declare his love very early in the relationship, excuse his jealousy as a sign of ‘love’, or get upset if she speaks to another boy?
• Abusers commonly have controlling behaviours and feel entitled
• Does he tell or ‘advise’ your daughter about her friends, clothes, hairstyle, and activities? Is he always the one to make decisions about what they do? Does he force
• Abusers often play mind games, blame others and refuse to take responsibility for their actions
• Does he blame his unreasonable behaviour on bad childhood, stress, or make it seem like it’s your daughter’s fault so she makes excuses for him, and blames herself? Does he do scary or mean things then apologise only to do it again?

Any threats, physical violence or sexual coercion or assault should be taken seriously.

WHAT CAN WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS DO?
It is essential that everything possible is done to keep women and children safe before, during and after separation.

Women who are in immediate danger should always Call 111 for the Police - or ask neighbours or friends to ring

Domestic Violence Helpline 0508 DVHELP (0508 384 357) is a free call helpline operating 7:30am –11pm, seven days a week across the entire country.

Advocacy and support services are provided by Women’s Refuges and other domestic violence agencies. Refuge has emergency accommodation and also helps women who stay in their own houses.

Women’s education and support programmes are run by Women’s Refuges, domestic violence services, or Stopping Violence Services

To find out about local services call the free family violence information line 0800 456 450

Some of the things you can do if you suspect a family member, friend or workmate are being abused by their boyfriend or partner:

• Don't ignore it. Break the silence and you'll also break the isolation and shame that victims often feel.
• Educate yourself
• Be supportive - don’t blame the victim
• Take violence seriously
• Encourage them to seek advice and assistance from a local women’s refuge or stopping violence agency
• If at anytime, you believe there is a threat to their safety, call the Police

More Suffrage Day events

Big thanks to Anne Else for sending these Wellington events through and my apologies for not getting them up sooner:

The Equitea - Parliament Steps, 10.30, Friday 18 September - a group of women are gathering in period suffrage costume to have morning tea and present a cake with 12% missing to, they hope, Pansy Wong, Minister of Women's Affairs.

And

Judith Dennis of the Women's Studies Association has organised a Women's Suffrage Day Lunchtime Run on Friday 18 September. Details of the run are as
follows:
- 12:05: Start from Ministy of Health office, Konica Minolta House, 79 Taranaki Street and head down to the waterfront
- 12:20 Join us at the MoH office at 1 The Terrace - then across in front of Parliament to Molesworth
- 12:30 Join us at the MoH office at 133 Molesworth Street.
Times are approximate - suggest you be at the meeting point a few minutes early just in case....
The run will then head down to the Railway Station via Pipitea Street, across to the waterfront again, heading south to Te Papa, and back past Taranaki Street, then repeating the circuit dropping people off as we go.
Purple clothing preferable. Friends, sisters, mothers and daughters working along the route are also welcome to join. For more information contact:
Judith, judith (underscore) dennis@moh dot govt.nz

Newsweek profile of LeRoy Carhart

We are used to talking about abortion with regard to moral and legal issues to do with access. I found this recent Newsweek article interesting because it reminded me that for some people being a doctor who performs abortions is their job.

LeRoy Carhart is a doctor in Nebraska who worked with George Tiller, the doctor recently murdered in Kansas. Carhart has faced direct attacks, violence and threats of violence but continues to do this work. LeRoy Carhart is 67 and it was difficult not to be impressed by his courage and commitment not only to his work but also to training new doctors.

In the wake of Tiller's assassination, Carhart began offering late-term abortions in his own practice—before, he'd done so only at Tiller's Wichita clinic—and started planning a new late-term clinic to replace Tiller's, where he could see women in the late second and early third trimesters. He's fielded calls from three physicians who want to learn how to do abortions. Two have already begun training. "I think the only thing I can do…is just train as many doctors as I can to go out on their own and provide abortions and get enough people providing them," says Carhart. "That makes [the anti-abortion activist's] job 10 times harder because there are now 10 times more of us."

He won't take long vacations because "you can't leave the women waiting, or at least don't want to." He maintains medical licenses in seven states so that if another provider is "hurt, retired, or killed," he can step in. If women need this service, Carhart reasons, who is he to say no? If he won't provide these complex and challenging abortions, who will?

Good on Newsweek for running this story. It certainly got me thinking about New Zealand and our shortage of obstetricians and gynacologists.

expendable

you'll remember that i posted a little while back about a department of labour report on caring for the elderly. the authors of this report identified a looming shortage in the caregiver workforce as a result of our aging population, and their main recommendation was to import women from melanesia and "non-traditional" parts of asia.

and how do you think these women are going to be treated once they get here? as if they're expendable:

A Fijian caregiver has been refused a work permit and must leave New Zealand in one week despite a plea from her employer to allow her to stay because she is impossible to replace.

Sunita Khan, her husband Hamin and children Shahil, 17, and Pretisha, 15, must be out of New Zealand by September 21, but have vowed to fight Immigration New Zealand.

Her permit allowed both parents to work in New Zealand and to enrol their children at Wellington's Onslow College, which is also supporting their bid to stay in the country.

But late last month she had her application to extend the permit turned down because Immigration says there are plenty of Kiwis who could do her job....

"I give my heart to my job," Mrs Khan said. "It's not fair. I'm very sad."

this makes me so angry, i'm having trouble saying anything coherent. i could understand a denial of work visa if she had been made redundant and was unable to find work. but to kick here out, when she and her family are well-settled and when she is contributing to our economy and a valued worker, simply because of a downturn in the economy is unconscionable.

Carnivalling

The Fourth Carnival of Feminist Parenting is up now at Mothers for Women's Lib.

Great reading therein, and big thanks to whoever nominated one of my posts :-)

clayton weatherston's sentence

so clayton weatherston's been sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

i'm not entirely sure how i feel about this. on the one hand, i'm really glad that the judge has recognised the callous, pre-meditated nature of this crime, and has not mitigated for the provocation defence used at trial. that's good.

on the other hand, in a more global sense, i'm not that into justice policy that locks people away for long periods of time with them doing nothing much productive. i hope that mr weatherston does get some serious help in prison that will enable him to take full responsibility for what he has done. i hope that he can figure out ways to contribute to society, because i don't believe that there is anyone in this world that has nothing to give. in 18 (or however many) years time, when he gets out, i'm hoping he has a life to come back to, which will reduce his chances of reoffending.

but somehow, in our current system and culture, i don't think much of that is going to happen.

Pay equity on Insight yesterday

Great radio doco yesterday on Radio NZ National about pay equity which has a really good summary of what has happened about this issue since the change of Government. The Minister declined an invitation to be interviewed on the subject, which is very disappointing.

It examines not only what is happening in terms of the pay gap but also talks to many people about why that might be - and it's not just about the laydeez taking time off to have kids or working part time. Occupational segregation and starting on lower wages, partly because of a perceived lack of experience in women staff, are particularly discussed.

Click through here to start it playing, otherwise you will find the downloads for it on this page for the next few days.

Anti-abortion protester shot dead in Michigan

Harlan Drake shot dead two people and was arrested before he could shoot a third intended target, according to Associated Press reports. One of the dead was James Pouillon, an anti-abortion protester known in town as "the sign guy" for his practice of holding up a sign with a picture of a foetus on it. Drake shot Pouillon when he was standing outside a school holding his sign.

Drake later attempted suicide in prison, and it appears that the three men he targeted were people he held grudges against for reasons as yet unknown from media reports I've seen. There have been suggestions, by columnists and bloggers, that his motive for shooting Pouillon was because he didn't like the anti-abortionist's protesting activities, but that's yet to be confirmed [warning that link contains some pretty full-on pro-life language].

The ex-expat has written eloquently of the time and place for activities such as Pouillon's. And I sure find it distasteful that Pouillon was holding his sign up opposite a school. Disagreeing is fine, yelling is fine, shooting is not.

Pushing a barrow full of 'I told you so'

Ever had a look at CYFSwatchNZ? Don't bother. It's a site dedicated to naming and shaming CYFS workers, and its host is alleged to have made a death threat against Sue Bradford). CYFSwatchNZ describes their mission thus:

In a democracy, it is the duty of all true patriots to defend their democracy by speaking out about the things that are wrong, those that try to prevent that voice from speaking out, or those that attack that voice, can and should be considered enemies of the state.

Advice I'll take to heart as I build up my private militia. Not.

Anyway, CYFSwatchNZ is very concerned to reduce the incidence of child abuse, and is doing so by, amongst other things, supporting smacking, and applauding Michael Laws for writing angry letters to children. It's a site with more than a whiff of ranty mega-conservative Christianity about it.

But this effort takes the cake. CYFSwatchNZ exploits the recent, terrible tragedy in Christchurch - the discovery of the bodies of Tisha Lowry and Rebecca Somerville - by arguing the women's murders were prompted by CYFS' removal of the Somervilles' children from their family home. Had the children been left in their 'traditional' family, everything would have been dandy, apparently. This is so dumb and so insensitive to the families of the victims that I'm not going to comment further on it - except to note that the same CYFSwatchNZ author/s who have such strong views about the sanctity of family life have just offered a particularly weak and ludicrous justification for horrific acts of male violence ("CYFS drove me to it"). And I don't think they're even aware of it.

I find this implicit attitude towards family violence from CYFSwatchNZ deeply disturbing, and it makes me fearful for what kind of family arrangements they are willing to endorse. Frankly, I'm just not convinced that a wrathful Old Testament God is the best source of modern parenting advice.

The very public humiliation of Caster Semenya

It's been hard not to cringe watching the fallout from Caster Semenya's extraordinary 800m win in Berlin. Everything about the way she's been treated and reported on has been wrong, wrong, wrong.

It started with the assumption that an athlete so talented couldn't possibly be a woman. Now that testing has confirmed Semenya is intersex, cringeworthy headlines and comments are popping up all over the place: 'Caster Semenya's sex stripped bare' on Stuff; a comment by Peirre Weiss, the International Association of Athletics Federation secretary general, that "It is clear that she is a woman, but maybe not 100 per cent"; and this Daily Telegraph article, which is so disgraceful that I'm not going to quote it.

What's surprising about Semenya's story is not that an intersex woman is competing at the highest level in athletics, but - as a representative of Intersex Awareness New Zealand pointed out - that the sporting fraternity seems so unprepared to handle the jandal. Semenya surely isn't the first intersex person to complete, and certainly won't be the last. But the world of sport is like the wider world in that regard - neatly divided into a binary, and hostile to those who don't fit exactly on either side of the dividing line. Semenya's story is a reminder of the callousness and lack of understanding with which those who don't meet gender expectations are sometimes treated.

I'm not sure how best intersex can be included in sport, but the answer is surely not to require them to go through public testing regimes, like Caster Semanya, while a sneering media looks on. In all the excited attention to the intimate details of Semanya's biology, the fact that she's an extraordinary sportswoman - and, more importantly, a human being with feelings - has been sadly overlooked.

why measure inequality

i also received by email this paper on inequality, written by sophie elliot. the paper has received much positive feedback. it's quite academic in focus, but well worth a read. some excerpts:

The concept of equality is multifaceted; the literature on theories of equality is immense and the application of these theories is complex. Nevertheless, the great philosophical and legal minds of our time recognize that a comprehensive investigation of equality, and its measurement, is vital in the quest for justice. In this essay, I consider some of the major theories of equality as defined by various players in the literature, each of whom attempts to answer the question, 'What type of equality will promote equity in society?'

[...]

The equality of relative success requires that people are equal in the degree to which they fulfil their goals. However this is a problematic formulation. Imagine two people with identical qualifications, jobs, incomes, assets and families, but differing in that the standards of the first are as low as the standards of the second are high. The first believes he has achieved the perfect life: he wants for nothing and is happy. The second believes herself to be a failure, feeling that she has added little value to the world. The disparity between these two individuals is a difference in their beliefs, not a difference in their lives. Does anyone really believe the 'failure' deserves more resources than the 'success'?

[...]

But how should a social decision maker decide who is disadvantaged? Perhaps a `normal life' is not something that can be pinpointed, but instead a distribution of capabilities, where a disadvantaged person is below some sub-average threshold of this distribution. Dworkin notes that no transfer would be capable of compensating completely for certain disabilities. Consider, for example, how much you would be willing to pay to avoid full body paralysis. For many of us, the answer is, 'everything I have'. This suggests there may be no upper bound on compensation, and thus no way to ensure that handicapped people, through resource redistribution, have the same opportunities as able people.

[...]

Sugden argues that the pure equality of opportunity theory does not protect people against advantages or disadvantages arising from luck in the form of unanticipated market outcomes. Surprise outcomes spring from various sources: risk-taking entrepreneurs who introduce new products to markets, not knowing ex ante how successful the available technology will be in production or what people will be willing to pay; industry- and firm-specific risk that is born by workers who make the gamble of changing jobs; the choice faced by a high-school graduate of whether to obtain specific training in a field that suits his talents, sacrificing time and money with no guarantee of employment at the conclusion of years of effort.

i also liked this bit in the "afterword":

Economics is a moral science, and economists need to understand the consequences of different concepts of equality. Many of the ambiguities and disagreements about economic policy stem, not from differing views about how the economy works, but from differences about the underlying values.

Waste not, want not

The Guardian, in an article about food wastage, writes:

There are nearly a billion malnourished people in the world, but all of them could be lifted out of hunger with less than a quarter of the food wasted in Europe and North America. In a globalised food system, where ...we are all buying food in the same international market place, that means we're taking food out of the mouths of the poor.

I'm a food-wasting culprit - or at least I have been in the past. When we were a two income family, the culinary week would run the same way every time...

Weekend: go grocery shopping, full of wholesome cooking ideas for the week.
Monday: cook something semi-decent.
Tuesday-Thursday: come home from work exhausted, and veer between half-arsed cooking and possibly takeaways.
Friday: abandon our family shamelessly to takeaways, as a reward for cooking (?) during the week.

The waste was staggering. Rotting veges that I couldn't find time or energy to cook would reproach me from the smelly interior of my fridge. I'm one of those who likes sharing mealtimes with the family - and collapsing exhausted with takeaways just isn't the same as sitting down for a home-cooked dinner together. My dad was, I think, rather disturbed by my wasteful ways. It's a generational thing: growing up in postwar Scotland, he is programmed to use up every last speck of leftovers, switch off every unusued light, and generally use resources to their utmost.

I'm sure that busy lifestyles aren't the only cause of waste. A university study found that school kids throw out huge quantities of untouched food from their lunches everyday, starting with fruit, yoghurt and other health foods. It's hard to say why - maybe kids have such a wide range of food choices to them that healthy food just isn't attractive.

We dealt with the food-wastage problem when we dropped down to one income. Less money and more time lead to better domestic economy, plus health and welfare benefits for our family. How do other THMers prevent themselves and their kids from wasting food?

cotton on have backed off

well it turns out that "neuroses" can be very effective sometimes. remember the "cotton on" kids clothing range that put sexually inappropriate messages on t-shirts for babies? well, apparently they have decided to withdraw the range as a result of public pressure:

Last week Cotton On apologised to Australian consumers and stated that the company "recognised that certain references are not appropriate, and will sincerely endeavour to not cross these lines again."

The promise by Cotton On to stop the sale and production of the t-shirts in Australia was also accompanied by a commitment to "review the ongoing slogans range to ensure no reference is made to categories pertaining to sexually explicit behaviour, child abuse, drugs and profanity''.

the campaign against "cotton on" includes the national council of women, zonta wellington, the association of presbytarian women, the nz federation of women's institutes, the nz federation of business and professional women, the national executive of the federation of graduate women, the north shore women's centre, the working women's resource centre, the eating difficulties education network, visionnetwork, the women's studies association of nz, and i'm sure there are plenty more.

it's good to know that this campaign will be continuing another another name. from the NCW press release:

“We will be rebranding the campaign to ‘Boycott the Sexualisation of Childhood’ and will continue to shed light on this issue; an issue which is of significant concern to the Council,” concludes Elizabeth Bang.

ACE protests this saturday

this coming saturday is a day of protest against night class cuts:

In Auckland, the noon “Challenge the Change” March down Queen Street will start from Meyers Park and end at Queen Elizabeth Square with messages of support from Green Party Co-leader Russell Norman, MP Catherine Delahunty and Labour MP and Opposition Spokesperson for Education – Maryan Street.

Wellington will hold a noon Balloon Release ceremony at the Civic Square and Christchurch communities will assemble at the Speakers Corner at Cathedral Square at noon. The Nelson community will present a mural created by the local art night class to local National MP Nick Smith at the Nelson Markets around 11.45 am along with giving away 100 balloons marking a century of night classes.

Other planned events include a Balloon release at 1.30pm in Ashburton on Friday the 11th of September at the Domain Pavilion at Walnut Ave, Petition signing on 12th September at Napier and Hasting markets and a Public Protest meeting in Dunedin at Logan Park School from 6pm on Friday the 18th September.

hope you can get along to one of these events, where ever you are.

The reluctant tweenie

In a few days' time, my daughter turns eight. Unbeknown to her, she's about to enter a new consumer group: the tweenies. And buying presents for tweenies is a difficult business, particularly when your tweenie is actually, and quite happily, still a little girl.

M's dad and I agreed that new swimming togs would be good, and dad was duly despatched to the Warehouse. He came back complaining that only two styles were available in M's size - and one style had padded boobs! I was horrified by this. It's not that I can't cope with the idea my daughter will one day grow up and have sex. Rather, it's that there seems to be a dwindling social space in which little girls can be just that. There isn't much you can buy for a girl my daughter's age that is appropriate to her general developmental level, but isn't tweenie-orientated.

More than two decades ago, when I was a similar age to my daughter, I seem to remember girls doing traditional little-girl things until the age of, say, ten or eleven. My schoolfriends and I played with dolls, or pretended to keep house in a tree hut at school. We liked the idea of becoming grown ups, but that transition began later. As the teenage years crept closer, 'adult' activities like going to the movies became more appealing. (These were the days before the internet and mass-produced cheap toys ... it seems like a lifetime ago. And given how strongly traditional gender roles came through in the way my friends and I played, I can't be uncritically nostalgic about the 'good old days'.)

Then, some entrepreneurial individual noticed that girls aged around 8 to 12 were a potential consumer group. Plenty of M's peers are into cellphones, fashion or Bratz dolls, and adore Hannah Montana (even as the conservative portion of the US population tries desperately to prevent Miley Cyrus from becoming an adult, sexual woman). I honestly can't tell whether this tweenie stuff responds to a particular developmental phase, or it's just another example of manufactured need in a commodified society.

Whatever the case, lots of little girls love tweenie paraphernalia. Wanting to play at being grown up is a pretty normal impulse for kids, and so too is a growing interest in sexuality. But it's sad to see girls' curiosity in this area turned into a bunch of commercial enterprises, selling little girls clothing that cultivates the body-image anxiety often felt by teenage girls and older women. And the flood of tweenie commodities sends the message to little girls, like my own, that being grown up is all important - and that there's something wrong with the little girl who still likes ponies and fairies and hanging out with her family.

NZ's next top model axed

Oh dear, what will I do with my Friday nights now?

celebrity reviews will solve the problem!

i'm not exactly sure what we've done to deserve this:

Press Release: Nigel Latta

I have been approached by the Prime Minister and asked if I would consider participating in a review of the Police and CYF processes around S 59 to see if the law is working as intended....

I see my role as first and foremost to look at the evidence and to ensure that the law does not result in good parents either being criminalised, or being needlessly subjected to investigations that are intrusive and/or traumatic. This is a responsibility I hold directly to the everyday mums and dads of New Zealand, and one that I take very seriously.

why couldn't we have that nice lady from that nanny programme on tv - no, i don't mean fran drescher, i mean the other one who comes into your house, gives you a few techniques on child discipline (none of which involve violence, incidentally), and within weeks, your little ones become very well-behaved. i reckon she could tell us if good parents were being needlessly victimised!

or if we couldn't get her, what about fran drescher? i'm sure she could do the job just as well.

Quick hit: Should provocation be modified rather than abolished?

Very interesting opinion piece by UOA Law lecturer Julia Tolmie in this morning's Herald:

Provocation is available as a concession to human frailty - a recognition that everyone, if the circumstances were extreme enough, could potentially snap and kill. Therefore it needs to be established if the defence is to be successful both that the accused lost emotional control and killed in response to the victim's provocative acts, and that an ordinary person in their circumstances with their characteristics (but with ordinary levels of emotional self-control) would have similarly lost control.

The problem here is that emotional and sexual rejection, as well as sexual advances, even indecent assaults, are not extreme circumstances. They are common human experiences and, although emotionally painful, ordinary people do not respond to them with murder.

So does this mean that we should we get rid of the provocation defence? I would argue, to the contrary, that we should first simplify it so it is easier to apply and automatically exclude it from being left to the jury in these kinds of cases. Only if such reform proves impossible should we get rid of it.

Click through for the whole article, this is a snip from part way through the first half.

Tolmie was my lecturer for part of Criminal Law at Auckland (a compulsory Stage II law paper) some years ago, and I recall that she was considered something of an expert in the area of domestic violence leading to murders (what used to be called "battered wives syndrome". I found it particularly thought-provoking to consider Tolmie's question in relation to Sophie's mother - if Mrs Elliott had killed Weatherston after coming in to the room, would that be ok provocation?

Personally I'm not sure where provocation of the nature Tolmie argues and temporary loss of insanity begins.

Choice, that don't feel like no stinkin' choice

After finally making the decision to go through with plan 'b,' all of sudden a whole lot of decisions had to make quite quickly about where I'd have a baby and who I would like to deliver it.

Over the last decade or so the word 'choice' has been bandied about a lot in relation to maternity care, but actually I didn't feel like I got much of it so far in relationship to my care. The where was easy. I'm all for better living through pharmacology, so I would definitely be heading to hospital where there are lots of drugs on hand and people very happy to administer them. The who part was more problematic, I needed to find a Lead Maternity Carer.

The person I would have liked to deliver my baby was my GP as I have a great relationship with her. There are not many places in Auckland where they'll ring you up the next day to make sure you are fine after presenting with a routine albeit rather severe UTI. But apparently you've got a better chance of striking big Wednesday than finding a GP who still does deliveries and is willing to take a new patient on. So I was cast off into the world of maternity care by my lovely GP with a few names and numbers to call.

The Suit would have liked to go the private obstetrician route but with all the outgoings in our household it didn't make sense to add another $4k to our bills with a baby on the way. Which left us with one option really, a midwife. And again I didn't feel like I got much choice in the matter. I tried to contact several that simply didn't bother returning calls and the others that I did manage to get a hold of were unimpressed that I dared call them at the late stage of 9 weeks pregnant. Apparently in Auckland you should be booking your midwife the minute those two lines on your piss stick turn up.

At this point I was getting a bit desperate. I needed someone, anyone really, to deliver my baby and do their darnedest effort to make sure the both of us make it through the process in as good as shape as possible. Then I suddenly remembered that one of my friends was pregnant and dropped her name into the conversation with her midwife before we got along to the dreaded due date question. Thus my lead maternity carer was chosen on the basis that said midwife is 'not a hippy' and I was officially signed on at almost 11 weeks knocked up.

The midwife in question turned out to be a highly practical no-nonsense sort and shares my general philosophy on birth: that there is no point in setting yourself up for failure by trying to have the 'prefect birth' when a good birth would do myself and my baby just fine.

Although my pregnancy had a unhappy ending, my midwife made the ordeal a whole lot better than it could of been. Within minutes of my unhappy text she had made the arrangements for me to have my D&C done a few days after I arrived back home and also kept in contact with me throughout the day as I waited for my flight. There was something deeply reassuring about having a healthcare professional so concerned about you, that she insists on the midnight phone call to make sure you arrived in the country ok. Something I don't think the expensive obstetrician or in fact my own GP would have done.

But looking back on my initial journey through pregnancy, I couldn't help but wonder if I wouldn't have felt so at sea if my local GP practice had midwifes as part of their clinical staff. Judging by the number of pregnancy packs being left at the front desk, there would clearly be some demand. I hated that my relationship with my GP has effectively been severed even though she was effectively my LMC for almost the entirety of my first trimester. Perhaps the midwives themselves might benefit from having some administrative support which a practice would have. Of course I'm sure people will come up with plenty of reasons why this is a bad idea, cost is likely to be a big factor and maybe most midwives would hate the idea of joining a practice.

Nevertheless new thinking is needed in the much-reported doctor versus midwife debate. Maybe it isn't the end of the world if GPs are no longer involved in routine childbirth, as for me at least I really appreciated having someone there even in the middle of the night to make sure I was doing ok. However it does seem odd that maternity care is so far removed from most women's main port of call for health matters. I know I would feel a lot more confident about my care arrangements if there was a good chance that the GP and midwife might actually talk to each other as the pregnancy progresses. It might have been good for my GP to know that a) I had miscarried and b) had a D&C when I presented with complications a week after the event.

on changing consent laws

there's an excellent piece in this month's werewolf magazine by catriona maclennan, about the need to change consent laws:

Judge Wade concluded by saying that one of the most disturbing features of the case was the fact that it had gone totally unreported, as did nearly all of the cases at the Manukau District Court. He said that the court was wasting its time in imposing deterrent sentences if the public was left in total ignorance of what went on at the courthouse.

[...]

“It is anachronistic to prevent the prosecution commenting on the fact the accused did not give evidence in the context of what is still an adversarial process. Either the accused’s silence should be open to comment or it should not.” He described it as “nothing short of a gross injustice” to complainants when the accused did not give evidence and no adverse inference could be drawn from that silence.

Justice Thomas said that there was a growing consensus that, without overriding basic adversarial structures, proceedings for sexual offences should be more concerned to arrive at the truth. He said that it was essentially unfair for the accused to be able to cross-examine the victim and seek to cast doubt on her credibility and integrity, but for the accused to be able to remain silent without any inference being drawn. Justice Thomas suggested that, in sexual cases, it should be open to the jury to draw adverse inferences from an accused failing to give evidence.

please read the whole thing. it gives a very good summary of the issues and of the work done to date in this area. it's great to see the minister of justice, hon simon power taking these issues seriously. let's hope we see some changes happening soon.

i hate on-line polls

a judge decides that he won't allow a woman into the public gallery of a hastings courtroom, for the terrible crime of wearing a headscarf. the basis apparently being that hats are not allowed in a courtroom. i don't need to say much about that, given that the race relations commissioner has stepped in, the opposition spokesperson on ethnic affairs has a press release out (but interestingly, silence from the ministers of ethnic affairs and women's affairs ie hon pansy wong), and the judge has admitted he made a mistake:

Judicial Communications advisor Neil Billington was reported in the Dominion Post today stating the incident was the result of Judge Rea's "mistaken assumption of what was occurring in the courtroom''.

He had required the removal of Ms Ali because of her association with her brother, who had just been removed, and assumed her headgear was a demonstration of protest.

He did not have any objection to the wearing of Muslim headgear in court.

so do we need a poll on stuff about the issue? nope, not going to link to it nor tell you what the options are. but i just don't see what exactly a poll like this is supposed to achieve. do we really need to prove yet again that some people don't like muslims? and don't think muslim women should have the choice to cover their hair in particular situations? yeah, i think we know that already.

quick update re cartwright inquiry

for those who are interested, the report of the cervical cancer inquiry 1988 (the cartwright inquiry) can be found here. and the original metro article can be found here (pdf). great that our history is being preserved to protect against some rather strange rewrites.

Of cupcakes and puppies

Awww.

It's be cute if it wasn't so UG - LEEEEEE!

3rd Carnival of the Feminists is up!

And to be found at Female Impersonator. Make with the clicky for some damn fine reading, and congrats to our own Stef and Maia for featuring in it :-)

Next Carnival of the Feminists is on 16th Sept, and you can submit posts for consideration here.

New to the blogroll

• agitated cogitations featuring a number of writers several of whom appear to be kiwi women
• Ms Maori by Claudette Hauiti (thanks for emailing me CH!)

Great to see some more Maori voices in the blogosphere, as well as more women.

Do feel free to add any Aotearoa NZ Women-type blogs we haven't already got in comments, sorry I have fallen behind on this lately!

Smart & sexy up a tree

From Stuff today, big thanks to Tessa for this one:

Nerds take heart. Scientists have shown for the first time that being smart is sexy, and the smartist males get the most partners.

Although the find was made by studying Australian birds, it supports the idea that our big human brain evolved because it is a sexually attractive organ, not just a useful one.

Signs of intelligence - such as creating art, music, and humour - could have made the brainiest people luckiest in love, according to this theory, championed in the book The Mating Mind by an evolutionary psychologist, Geoffrey Miller, almost a decade ago.

Testing the idea in humans is very difficult, said Jason Keagy, of the University of Maryland in the US, which is why he chose to observe satin bowerbirds at Wallaby Creek in NSW instead.

Bowerbirds are intelligent, he said. ''But they're not as complex as humans.''

Click through for the rest.

Although if you do that, as I did from the link Tessa emailed me, you will miss the two pictures on Stuff's front page which they have used to encourage you to click through. Luckily T pointed them out to me. I've put them after the jump, see if you can guess what the subject matter might be before you make the leap...
But wait there's more, what smart man with sexy woman could we use as a real life example to prove our thesis? Hmmmmm:
I roll my eyes in Stuff's general direction.

Reclaiming our front bottoms

The "c" word, like "queer" and the "n" word, has been reclaimed - not once, but twice. And no one told me.

My intermittent use of this word is a source of secret shame, since I've often felt it makes me a bad feminist. I don't pull it out in polite company, use it to describe women, or even use it to name a body part, for that matter. I do, however, use it to describe objectionable men, and even shout it at the telly from time to time (although less so since George W relinquished the presidency.*).

Having said all that, the way the word is used in the US - exclusively to denigrate women and women's sexuality, as far as I can see - makes me cringe. My Irish sister-in-law was horrified to hear the "c" word so frequently when she first came to NZ, so vile is it in her homeland. Since then, though, she's told me that she's actually grown to rather like it. Nothing expresses her admiration for someone these days like calling them a 'f*@!ing good c#nt, eh".

The Salon article I linked to above asks that age-old question, why is it so much worse to call someone a c#nt than a dick? (In my vocab, a dick is a slightly comical loser, and a c#nt is someone unpleasant - a bit of a hierarchy, I guess).

Salon answers its own question:

In a larger sense, "c#nt" does not equal "dick" in our culture because "woman" still does not equal "man." This is also why "nigger" remains more offensive than "cracker." And as long as women are the second sex and African-Americans are the second race, slurs that target these groups will have greater power.

What do you think, THMers? Should the "c" word be reclaimed and celebrated as an anatomical term, tolerated as an insult, or consigned to the linguistic dustbin?


* Which reminds me of a pink placard I once saw on an anti-war protest: 'The only Bush I trust is my own'.

Quick hit: Girls who like boys who like girls to be boys

From the Beeb:

Girls who attend single-sex schools are more attracted to feminine looking boys, researchers have claimed.

The St Andrews University-led study suggested a girls-only education could have a "significant impact" on what the youngsters found attractive.

Boys at all-male schools proved less susceptible to the effect, although the study found they did prefer the company of boys with more masculine faces.

The effect was weakened if children had siblings of the opposite sex at home.

The research team said the results suggested a person's "visual diet" influenced what they thought was attractive.

Click through for the rest.

What happens to freaks like me who went to both co-ed and single sex schools? Argh!

A good news story

On Sunday I missed the bus so I walked from Richardson Rd in Hillsborough to Onehunga. It was a pleasant enough walk, although my shoes weren't quite sensible enough. Rain threatened the whole time, and did sprinkle me on the odd occasion but it was more refreshing than wettening. And then a complete stranger in a bright yellow car offered me a lift. What a nice woman!

I turned her down because I needed the exercise, but I just thought I might share it because so often I feel like I get a bit bogged down in the bad stuff we humans do to each other, and it's nice to let other people know when it's the reverse instead :-)

zeal dispute settled

earlier in the year, julie covered the employment dispute involving zeal 320, a company owned 80% by air nz:

Zeal 320's workforce of cabin crew is mainly composed of women, and they're paid significantly less than their colleagues doing the same work at Air NZ. Plus Air NZ is being pretty blatant about using strike breakers to undermine the union members.

the good news is that this year-long dispute has now been settled:

The 15 month deal achieves a number of substantial improvements including a 3.95% pay increase, a 6.7% increase in a tour of duty allowance after 12 months, introduction of a new guaranteed allowance of either $149 or $186 a fortnight based on last year's value of an at-risk bonus scheme, a $1000 up-front payment and the addition of a number of non-financial clauses.

[...]

"One of the key aspects of this deal is that we have ongoing worker/management groups to address several issues and we are looking to these groups to help build a cooperative relationship with Zeal and its parent airline over the next fifteen months....

nice to see a win for these workers, resulting from some great work by the EPMU.

restart not working?

remember the government's "re-start" package, which was supposed to:

provide short-term support to low to moderate income families with children, and to people with high housing costs, who have been made redundant. It is there to help people get back on their feet.

well, i was talking to an employment lawyer last week who said that it is extremely difficult to actually get this money. clients have been telling her that the criteria are so tight that they are not qualifying. $50 million was set aside for this package, to be spent over two years. apparently only about $3 million of this has actually been spent.

i can't find any verification of this figure on-line, but on 6 august, we have questioning in the house which states that:

... the number of people accessing the much-trumpeted ReStart package has gone down each week this month at the same time as unemployment is rapidly rising ...

if this is true, then it looks like WINZ is moving back to that 90's ideology of trying to prevent people from accessing the help they are legitimately entitled to and genuinely need. and what is the point of announcing a major package and taking the favourable publicity, when in practice few people are getting the promised help.

i'd certainly be interested to hear if anyone else has similar experiences in them or their clients accessing this package.