Welp, as usual caretaking duties for the elderly are a lot more strenuous than many (men!) like to admit, so I am running way late. Please use this space to chat, and I will add items to the diary proper as time allows. Sorry about the delay! Please hit your reload button regularly. Thanks all!
In The News
Sexual Harassment
Spanish soccer chief Luis Rubiales gave a weaselly nonpology for giving player Jennifer Hermoso an unwanted kiss.
Spain women’s football team refuse to play until Luis Rubiales resigns:
World Cup-winning side issue statement after Spanish FA chief refuses to resign for kissing Jennifer Hermoso
https://www.theguardian.com/…
And the inevitable backlash to protect the man:
Spanish football federation threatens to sue Jenni Hermoso over kiss ‘lies’
Governing body says it will take ‘necessary legal action’ against female players protesting over Luis Rubiales kiss scandal
The Spanish football federation has threatened to sue Jenni Hermoso, the player at the centre of a row over its president’s conduct, for lying and defamation.
https://www.theguardian.com/...
Violence
Is anyone surprised?
Retired police sergeant who killed 3 at California bar shot his estranged wife first, officials say:
The retired police sergeant who opened fire in a popular Southern California biker bar during a lively evening had traveled from Ohio to confront his estranged wife, whom he shot in the face before turning his gun on the crowd, authorities said.
John Snowling killed three people, including his wife’s dining companion and a man who approached him as Snowling retrieved additional guns from his truck, and wounded six others, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Thursday. He was fatally shot by deputies within minutes of the rampage.
His wife survived the attack. According to this report, she was shot in the jaw. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything more recent to see how she is doing now.
Abortion
Better than nothing: From NPR To expand abortion access in Texas, a lawmaker gets creative How Houston Democrat Ann Johnson worked cross-aisle to get a bill clear to Gov. Abbot's desk and signed into law giving doctors leeway to provide abortions in Texas when a patient's water breaks too early and for ectopic pregnancies.
Private action can’t fix government bad action: From PrismReports Giving last year put donations to abortion access and travel organizations at an all-time high but they quickly discovered they can't they can't keep up -- by this summer donations had dropped steeply even as need and costs kept climbing.
...Donations for The Brigid Alliance, for instance, were down by 37% this May compared to May 2022 [while] referrals for services and costs of travel are only increasing. Chelsea Williams-Diggs, the interim executive director at NYAAF -- [The New York Abortion Access Fund--], said her organization is experiencing similar financial troubles. [It's only due to a recent major donation that] NYAAF is projected to stay afloat for eight months as of August 2023 [instead of having to close its doors in October].
[Some cities are supporting their local abortion funds: in September 2022 NYC made $1million available but Philadelphia set the standard by simply giving $500,000 straight to the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA [rather than through a reimbursement model, because] abortion funds help people who do not have time to wait.…
A better GOP?: From The19thNews GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on abortion:
Republicans “need to stop demonizing this issue.”
Dem women need to read the full article: * Nikki Haley goes on the attack in first Republican debate* The only woman on the stage took on Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump — who wasn’t even there.
Although in most of the countries that've had female heads of government --most have only had one so far--- that woman has been pretty much the equivalent of centrist or right-wing GOP, I am pretty sure Haley will not be ours. That she came across well in the first debate makes it more likely that she will be attacked in future debates. I don’t think the GOP is ready for a female standard-bearer, especially in preference over $Rump, at least not so far! [If $Rump starts to look like so much of a loser that his base falls away, all bets are off; but I don’t see that as very likely.]
Other Medical
From medscape [Oral NSAID] Piroxicam Boosts Success of Oral Levonorgestrel for Emergency Contraception
...In a study published in The Lancet, the Hong Kong researchers randomized 430 women [each] to receive a single oral dose of 1.5 mg levonorgestrel plus 40 mg of the COX-2 inhibitor piroxicam [ a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug of the oxicam class used to relieve the symptoms of painful inflammatory conditions like arthritis] or 1.5 mg levonorgestrel plus a placebo. The study participants were women aged 18 years and older who requested EC within 72 hours of unprotected sex and who had regular menstrual cycles between 24 and 42 days long. The median age of the participants was 30 years; 97% were Chinese. The median time from intercourse to treatment was 18 hours for both groups.
-snip-
One pregnancy occurred in the EC+piroxicam group, compared with seven pregnancies in the EC+placebo group ...
-snip-
[The researchers wrote that their] choice of piroxicam as the COX inhibitor in conjunction with levonorgestrel [offered] several potential advantages [including] the widespread availability and long-acting characteristics of piroxicam, which is also true of levonorgestrel,...
Piroxicam appears to be by Rx only, at least in the US, but EC is becoming OTC, so a combination pill or packet would require a scrip, also at least in the US... which puts control back into doctors' hands and the hands of people who control the doctors, so there's that.
From TheConversation Risk of death related to pregnancy and childbirth more than doubled between 1999 and 2019 in the US: new study: Black women died during or soon after pregnancy at higher rates than any other racial group in every year from 1999 to 2019. American Indian and Alaska Native women had the greatest increase in risk during this period. Still, with the GOP in charge, everybody is at much higher risk.
Education
From The19th Research e.g., as reported by Guttmacher shows that kids who get comprehensive sex ed delay onset of sexual activity. But only] three states — California, Oregon and Washington — require it. Rep. Barbara Lee persists in seeking to change that..
The Real Education and Access for Healthy Youth Act would make required nationwide that students be provided with evidence-based instruction and sexual health services that are ---among other criteria--- comprehensive, equitable, medically accurate, culturally responsive, trauma-informed and resilience-oriented,
“Education is power, and young people have the right to make decisions over their own bodies,” Lee, a California Democrat, told The 19th via email. “Abstinence-only sexual education programs and the lack of evidence-based sexual education for America’s youth leaves them vulnerable to health risks and disparities. The REAHYA Act would close these disparities ....”
Many of the states that limit what students learn about gender and sexuality also restrict access to reproductive rights, making comprehensive sex ed “exponentially more important,” Lee said. ...The legislation has been referred to the Subcommittee on Health and includes 38 cosponsors, including Reps. Alma Adams and Pramila Jayapal as well as Sens. Mazie Hirono and Cory Booker, all Democrats. {It] would provide $100 million in funding from 2024 to 2029 for both K-12 schools and higher education institutions to teach comprehensive sex ed, with a particular focus on serving marginalized young people.
[But Lee was unsuccessful with REAHYA legislation two years ago. W]hat gives her hope about the bill’s prospects in Congress this time around? “Republicans may have the [legislative] majority, but we have the momentum and the people on our side...”
My own experience was that parents are reluctant to talk sex with their kids, it feels icky. So a good professional sex education program is welcome for most.
Literature
(We are cultured today!)
A terrific books&lit item from THE CONVERSATION "Why have you read ‘The Great Gatsby’ but not Ursula Parrott’s ‘Ex-Wife’? And, lookup Ursula Parrott in wikipedia and you'll find a link at the end of the first paragraph in section PERSONAL LIFE for her half-sister, Madge Tyrone, "an American actress, film editor, and screenwriter active during Hollywood's silent era." This article author argues for Parrott as possibly a far better writer than F.Scott Fitzgerald for The Jazz Age because her novels are written just as well, but far more inclusive not only of women as full-fledged characters but also of female experience of the time with extremely direct bearing on American female experience a key later points in the 20th century and today.
climate/environment
I meant to have a big climate section, but best laid plans… Still, forests are one of our biggest protectors:
In the battle to save the world’s forests, women are leading the resistance:
From the Akbelen forest in Turkey to northern India to Brazil, rural women are standing up against the power of the corporate chainsaw
https://www.theguardian.com/...
Food
Near and dear to my heart on so many levels!
TribalBusinessNews Q+A with Linda Black Elk on food sovereignty, ethnobotany and reclaiming Native foods.
...As a longtime food sovereignty coordinator at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D., Black Elk has been widely published on the topic. Now, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), led by Chef Sean Sherman, has announced Black Elk as its new educational programming and community engagement leader.
First up: getting the organization’s Indigenous Food Lab — a combination classroom, studio kitchen, and training center -— up and running. Black Elk spoke with Tribal Business News about NATIFS, ethnobotany and repairing Indigenous communities' relationship with their food. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.…
Also Farming:
From *The19thNews ‘Farming and kids — how do I make it work?’ Child care has been silently crushing women farmers for generations. That may change soon. Reporters Chabeli Carrazana and Jessica Kutz look at how the upcoming farm bill is poised to prioritize child care for the first time. It could mean welcome relief for families in an industry that has historically brushed the issue aside.
International
Japan: From TheConversation: How gender inequality is hindering Japan’s economic growth" and where gender inequality there comes from.
As always, War on Women is a group effort! Many thanks to Tara, mettle, and Angmar for items and discussion!