We Are Women Recap

By: Liberate Zealot

So after some issues (damn metro!) the roommate and I made it to the We Are Woman Rally right around noon.

Check out our Facebook Album for more imagines!

We missed several speakers and one performer. Mara Keisling, who spoke at the Unite Against the War on Women Rally, was back, but sadly I didn't see her speech.  However, all the speeches are up on-line if you care to check them out yourself.  And the bands, sounds system, and over all organization of the Rally was the best I've seen yet.

My favorite speakers were Rev. Charles McKenzie of the Rainbow Push Coalition in Florida and Soraya Chemaly of the Huffington Post, fem2pt0, Btchflcks, and more.  They were both eloquent and impassioned speakers who, in my opinion, out shone the other speakers, in their ability and skill and the resonance of what they were saying.  Both spoke about current political and social issues, discussed individual acts, and connected them to the larger mentality and methods of the Kyriarchy.  Soraya Chemaly spoke about internalized misogyny and how the social and political issues are related to that and society's failure to see women as fully human.  This tied very nicely into discussion about the ERA which was the focus of most of the speakers. (along with plenty of disparaging comments about Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan).

As a reminder the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) which would result in Constitutional recognition of women's humanity and personhood, has never passed.

However, I have to admit to a sense of disappointment with the We Are Woman Rally. Maybe it was the heat, or the length of the rally (10:30-4:00), but it just wasn't as good as other ones.  The speakers became repetitive after a while, and while they were all knowledgeable and "accredited feminists" many of them just weren't stirring speakers.  Most disappointing was the diversity of the speakers.  The vast majority were late middle aged white women. Few of them self disclosed as queer or from the "lower" class.  It was too homogeneous to feel representative of all US women.  And if I noticed this I can only imagine how alienating it might have felt to women of color, or those who've grown up without class privilege.

I can't help but compare it to last week's #sheparty which was led by Flyover Feminism and about the diversity within the feminist movement. To go from a discussion about needing better representation and the feminists in power, the privileged feminists, needing to be the ones to open their conferences, to reach out and gain the trust of our less privileged sisters, to a rally full of "official" feminists, dominated by white women.  Well, it was upsetting, and it made me angry.  We're supposed to be getting better in truth, not just paying lip service to diversity and intersectionality.

We Are Women Rally

By: Liberate Zealot

Tomorrow one of the roommates and I will be down in DC to attend the We Are Women Rally whose

mission is to bring national attention to the ongoing war on women's rights being fought by conservative representatives in federal and state legislatures throughout the country. We believe that women have the right to control their own bodies, make their own decisions about healthcare, receive equal pay for equal work, and be treated with respect by the men and women who represent them in their own state houses and in Washington.  Women are not a special interest group seeking special privileges; we comprise 50% of the population, and we are citizens deserving of the same freedoms and protections awarded to our male counterparts.  We Are Woman supports the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and the restoration of all the rights that have been limited or destroyed by governors and other legislators across the nation.  It is our goal to bring thousands of men and women together at the Capitol on August 18th, 2012, to tell our politicians, "No more!"  We are strong, powerful, loving and brave. We are America. We Are Woman.

Now, I also attended the Unite Against the War on Women's DC Rally in April which I planned to live tweet as @femarmregime but I forgot my phone.  Hopefully that doesn't happen again.  So if all goes according to plan I'll live tweet the We Are Women Rally, and then post pictures and do a write up. 

But before the Rally happens I thought it a good idea to go over exactly what's going on in the US that we need to Rally about. 

Here's a write up on the various acts that make up the War on Women as of April.  But more has happened since then, and there's also the specifics of who is running for election in November. 

Updates on the Bills and Laws of the War on Women

• Since January 2011, there has been a federal attack on the rights of Women every single week that Congress has sat. 
• Michigan introduced Bills limiting the time people have to get abortions to 20 weeks, virtually eliminating medication abortions, and that would force closed almost all the abortion clinics in the state. 
• The International Business Times offers a break down of what State law makers are doing to restrict abortion. 
• The GOP is working in various ways against Equal Pay for Women. At the Federal level they blocked a bill in the Senate that would help close some of the wage gaps that still exist.  As Forbes explains, this is problematic as the pay-gap has actually slightly increased in recent years, and less women are filing discrimination suits as legal support has declined. At the state level Wisconsin repealed their Equal Pay Rights. 
• The Violence Against Women renewal continued to be fought over.  Republicans don't want to include protections of Immigrants and Queer couples. In May the House passed a VAWA option that didn't include protection of lgbt people, Native Americans and illegal immigrants. As of the end of July the Senate has refused to pass the House's version of VAWA and continues to encourage the House to pass the version that includes protection of Queer people, Native Americans, and illegal immigrants.
• Luckily the Affordable Care Act was ruled Constitutional by the Supreme Court and more of it's provisions, such as the completely covered contraception in new plans, has gone into effect.  

The Social War on Women

• Conservatives have been using a lot of language that compares women to animals. Immigrant women come to the US during their "breeding season", women on welfare are "stray animals."  It's primarily racist, and intentionally dehumanizing. 
• And who can forget the sex-shaming and "Slut" smeer campaigns against women speaking out about their need for affordable birth control?

Mitt Romney

• As Governor of Massachusetts Romney was much more liberal than the average conservative, but his time before and after shows otherwise.  Unfortunately, as Romney hasn't been in any officer for several years his anti-woman record isn't as easy to break down as Paul Ryan's. 
• He's very into the sexist/racist dog whistles of "Traditional America".
• Before becoming Governor of MA Romney was extremely anti-choice.  He protested outside of family planning and abortion clinics and even went so far as to physically restrain a woman who was attempting to enter one.  
• Romney is anti-choice (abortion) and anti emergency contraception. 
• He would repeal the ACA (Obamacare). 
• He has political relationships with various anti-women advocates. 
• He picked Paul Ryan as his running mate. 

Paul Ryan

• So Paul Ryan is basically all around horrible for women.
• He's co-sponsored a Fetal Personhood Bill which would outlaw abortion and many forms of contraception.
• He supported the "Let Women Die Act," 
• He voted to cute off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood
• He voted against allowing US service women over seas from using military hospitals to access abortions
• He's voted in favor of forcing women to hear about their fetus's "pain" should they get an abortion
• His budget plans includes defunding or eliminating programs that support poor women and children such as VIC, Head Start, and Title X Family Planning Act, the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, and Medicaid.
• Paul Ryan has a 0% rating from the HRC.  I'm sure they'd give him a negative percent if it were possible. 
• He has a 13% rating by the ACLU, meaning he has an anti-civil rights voting record. 
• Check out Ryan's full voting record.
• Along with being on the GOP ticket as the potential VP, Paul Ryan is also running for re-election as a Representative in his home state of Wisconsin.