No relief

I don't think I need to tell you about the horrors of Haiti, especially now as the media move on to the next shiny object.

Here's colleague Jennifer Wells, there now. I added the boldface.

A man opens his shirt to display a pussing, oozing chest. A young woman holds out her grotesquely swollen foot and says the slight treatment has had no effect.

Pastor Franck Jean holds out the box of supplies he has been given as medical aid: surgical gloves, Hannah Montana tattoo bandages, syringes.

Esther Nelson gave birth nine days ago. She has seen no doctor, no nurse, and when it rains the water comes through her sheet-for-a-roof.

There have been many stories of how the women of Haiti are bearing the brunt of this earthquake disaster. Just last week, the Star's Catherine Porter filed this dispatch.

It's the women who care for the children. And in Haiti, around 66 per cent of them are single mothers, says Carole Pierre-Paul Jacob, one of the country's leading feminists. She has lobbied for years for the country's first paternity law, which would have required fathers to financially support their children, as well as a law recognizing common-law relationships. Both died with the government buildings on Jan. 12.

"We have a saying here: the family rests on the back of the woman," says Jacob, the coordinator to a leading Haitian women's group SOFA, Solidarité Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women.)

"This will increase the poverty of women."

By other measures, Haitian women are poor, too. Their life expectancy is only 50 years. They claim the title for highest mortality rate during childbirth in the Americas. Medical personnel were present at only one in four births in Haiti before the quake. That number is likely to drop even further, as the hospitals are still jammed with trauma cases.

And they are regularly raped.

Like I said: horrible.

There's so much written about water, food, shelter, and how the relief efforts are going. Or not.

But here's something even I have never thought of, until I read this tonight. It's by internist physician Doc Gurley, on the ground in the middle of it all.

I read a Medscape article pointing out the extreme risk to Haitian women of reproductive neglect and violence, and the shocking lack of aid to women in these areas despite all our massive relief efforts. What kind of "special care" are we talking out for women? The Medscape article recommended, for example, that all visibly pregnant women should be given a "birthing kit." I didn't know what a "birthing kit" was, and when I looked it up, and found more references online, I discovered that a birthing kit is a heartbreaking collection of items: a ziplock bag containing two clean strings and a straight razor (for cutting the umbilical cord), a sanitary pad, and some cotton/cloth/plastic sheets for dealing with bodily fluids. Could the situation for women in Haiti be this bad, and this badly neglected? Especially after all those hundreds of millions of dollars?

<SNIP>

So I decided to ask my journalist friend who just left Haiti a couple of day ago what the current situation there is, keeping in mind that Haiti is a predominantly Catholic country, and wanting her advice on whether it would be insensitive to intrude or make assumptions about issues of sexual protection, birthing, and birth control.

My friend's response by email:

A number of women's groups have expressed concern about the general neglect of gender-specific needs and problems in the relief efforts. Women I spoke to in Haiti were concerned both about sexual violence and the omission of items like sanitary napkins, tampons, condoms etc among the relief supplies.

Women's -- and, by extension, their children's -- specific needs are almost never considered. (And here I am, always complaining about the GST on sanitary products here, as if they weren't a necessity.)

Maybe it's a function of how relief efforts tend to be designed and run by men. Or maybe it's because so many of the charities that get in there are associated with various churches. 

According to Gurley's blog post, at least one charity in neighbouring Dominican Republic is accepting donations for female-specific supplies.

Please send all supplies addressed as follows:

URGENT HUMANITARIAN RELIEF FOR HAITI

Ms. Sergia Galvan and Mayra Tavarez

Colectiva Mujeres Y Salud/CAFRA Calle Socomo Sanchez, No 64

Gazcue, Santo Domingo, DR

As Gurley concludes ...

... consider buying and sending a pack of condoms, a Plan B pack, some tampons, or pads to the address above. Sending a Care Package is something that can be done on an on-going basis (hey! maybe every month - a lunar schedule to share your sanitary support!). Besides the heart-breaking issues of human dignity around hygiene products, the last thing Haiti needs is an explosion of unwanted pregnancies, and/or new HIV infections, all for lack of supplies.

Only women bleed.

H/T: Help a Mother Out

Blood simple

Today's treeware, about how the period is having a period. With bonus links and videos!

Bloody hell! So now we have "menstrual activism."

Two weeks ago, Britain's The Guardian kicked off the inevitable series of trend pieces with a story illustrated by a photograph of a woman with bloodstained – literally – lips.

We've come a long way, baby, since those olden days when sanitary napkin ads never even showed the product nor discussed its purpose.

Now Tampax has pulled out all the stops with its bitchy Mother Nature imposing her little red-wrapped "gift" on white-outfitted women stepping off planes in vacation spots.

We interrupt this post for a commercial message:

Guardian writer Kira Cochrane detailed many of the current efforts by women to bring their cycles out from deep, dark, taboo territory into the open, so there will no longer be shame in discussing everything and anything from PMS to the environmental implications of all those menstrual products in landfill sites.

These efforts include 18-year-old Rachel Kauder Nalebuff's bestselling My Little Red Book, an anthology of first period stories by women such as Gloria Steinem. There's also Chella Quint's 'zine Adventures in Menstruating – plus her touring menstrual comedy show. In addition, British-based artist Ingrid Berthon-Moine's video of her strumming her tampon string to "Slave to the Rhythm" is making the rounds. That's in addition to her photograph series of women with blood-smeared lips.

Not that this is totally new, mind you.

With the second wave of feminism came the period of period activism, including Germaine Greer's admonishments to women who don't care for the taste of their own menstrual blood to poet Judy Grahn's 1993 book Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World.

But now, it seems we have hit a gusher.

"It seems that menstrual activism (otherwise known as radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, or menarchy) is having a moment," Cochrane wrote. " The term is used to describe a whole range of actions, not all considered political by the person involved: simple efforts to speak openly about periods, radical affronts to negative attitudes and campaigns for more environmentally friendly sanitary products. (It is estimated that a woman will dispose of 11,400 tampons in her lifetime – an ecological disaster.)"

Oh yeah, the impending ecological disaster is our fault – although I would sooner blame non-biodegradable pantyhose myself.

(And one more time, why is there GST – still – on tampons?) Talk about your mental cramps.

That said, there are environmental alternatives such as the reusable cup.

Which brings us to yet another menstrual artist-activist: Vanessa Tiegs, whose recent online exhibit of paintings titled "Menstrala" feature large Masonite boards smeared with dramatic swishes of her menstrual blood mixed with acrylic paint.

They're quite beautiful – despite the initial "ick factor."

As she explained online at spiralingmoon.livejournal.com, "My paintings are monthly menstrual journals. They are a presentation of the only kind of blood that is hidden in our culture, that which is natural, non- traumatic and cyclical."

And therein, she has a point.

Clearly, patriarchal religion has much to do with it. In the church in which I was baptized, there are still all sorts of restrictions on menstruating women.

But we live in mostly secular times.

So why is it that, in our culture, which celebrates blood and gore on screens big and small, we continue to pretend that which half the planet experiences every month for more than half of their lives doesn't happen?

Mind you, when it comes to blood, we don't like any real depictions of it – as those of us who watch the media coverage of war know.

The good news is, menstruation is coming out of the bathroom closet.

The bad news is, we still can't face the implications of the blood we spill overseas.

Talk about being cursed.

A couple of things to add here.

I disagree with Amanda Fortini of Salon's Broadsheet that talking about menstruation is no longer taboo. We're not there yet. My column had to be vetted by a senior editor, just in case, you know, I stepped over the line while talking about a perfectly natural function.

What's more, as one commenter on the main Star site says,

I've always been frustrated with the way menstruation is treated in popular culture. To me the problem is not that it's an unspoken experience- there's a lot of talk, but unfortunately most of it's negative & shaming. Calling it 'the curse,' ads that show women happy, beautiful & active until they have their period, when all of a sudden they become dumpy, 'w'itchy, smelly, dirty & gross... why do we accept these labels? Look around you any day & you'll see dozens of women who are happy, beautiful & vibrant and yes, they are menstruating. Let's grow up a bit, shall we? Menstruation used to be revered as proof of fertility. You don't have to follow that line, but teaching girls that they're dirty & bad for their natural cycle? Enough.

However I am in total accord with Fortini's assertion that

Menstrual activism thus seems like an overreaction to a taboo that has mostly dissipated. People don't need to see menstrual bloods on lips -- a PETA-ish gimmick -- to shock them into recognizing a hostility they don't feel. At a time when Tampax is employing menstrual humor, guerrilla tactics like this seem sour and antiquated and out of place. And while some activists must surely be fighting important menstrual-related battles (advocating against dioxins in tampons, say, or for the environmental benefits of multiple-use products) might not the energies of those playing their tampon strings like a guitar be more effectively utilized if applied to any number of feminist causes such as, I don't know, equal pay or domestic violence or human rights abuses committed against women?

Chewing the rag

You knew this would happen didn't you?

First, US right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh compares President Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to the nomination of David Duke, former KKK Grand White Sheet Wearer David Duke and, I might add, an elected Republican.

Okay, in one sense, that's fair. He probably would say that of any non-white nominee, male or female, because, as you know, whitey is super oppressed right now.

Except, as one of my Twitter pals noted, it's hard to think of Limbaugh as white, "fair-complexioned,'' what with his head so far up his own butt. (Edited to add: A friend noted that some people may misinterpret the joke. I hope not.)

So, anyway ...

Via Think Progress, comes this, out of the mouth of ex-con and tax evader G. Gordon Liddy, who must love judges, on his radio show.

LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.

Give a listen:

So here's what I'm thinking. if an when Sarah Palin, whom jackasses like these seem to adore, runs for the White House in 2012, think we'll hear Liddy express concerns about PMS and going nuclear?

Tick, tick, tick ...

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: More on the oppressed white man from Salon. (reg. req'd.)

You might not think, in that world, that early opposition to the court nominee would involve accusing her of being racist and sexist, and steadily questioning her intelligence in a way that implies she's an affirmative action pick. That might seem, in fact, like a fairly self-destructive strategy, one that even the opposition party's most hardcore base would want to avoid. But welcome to 2009.

"White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw," wrote Newt Gingrich -- whom conservatives routinely fall over themselves to praise as a driving force of ideas for the Republican Party, and who is also, at least for now, making noises about running for president in 2012 -- on Tuesday on his Twitter feed. The ex-House speaker managed to make the sentiment sound even more Neolithic by compressing it to fit Twitter's 140-character limit. "Latina woman racist should also withdraw." He seemed to be grunting, not tweeting. (Gingrich was then forced to fend off questions about whether he had posted that item while touring Auschwitz -- which he denies, and which you couldn't make up.)

UPPITYER WOMEN DATE: MOMocrats has a gruesome photo of Liddy.

I want to kick his butterballs

 This is not a joke. And even if it were a joke, it wouldn't be funny.

The true definition of a butterbody is a woman who has a beautiful face but a body that’s gone to butter. It’s like the butterface, but in reverse. If you are rich and famous, there is no excuse for being a butterbody. It’s your job to look fit and hot. Celebrities are not like normal people. They have the means to pay for a full time trainer and for someone to prepare their meals.

Then this charming Nick Coles, who doesn't post a current picture of doubtlessly buff self, goes on to slag Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, Liv Tyler, Tyra Banks, America Ferrera and other gorgeous screen stars for being too fat.

To him, having a healthy body with womanly curves is aberrant because celebrities are supposed to look like death and fake boobs on a stick. You know, just because they're rich and can afford personal chefs and trainers.

Example:

Drew Barrymore’s weight fluctuates like a yo-yo. The star of 50 First Dates and Charlie’s Angels can look super hot or super plump and blubbery.  Drew blames her vegetarianism for her fluctuations in weight. She says she basically lives on carbs and eats whatever she wants. As a bonafide star, Drew cannot do this. Otherwise every hot woman in Hollywood will adopt a similar mentality and the world will be void of super thin, super hot women.

Another one:

Yes, America Ferrera plays a dowdy, awkward character on TV’s Ugly Betty. However, this is no excuse for being a butterbody. Ferrera could easily wear a body suit and actually act. Hollywood is about being extraordinary, not ordinary. It’s crazy that she has become a poster child for “curvy” women. She basically gives women an excuse to be fat.

No she doesn't because America Ferrera is NOT fat. Nor are any of these other women.

I have to conclude that Coles, who writes for macho Spike TV's website, is either sick, making a sick joke or hates women so much he'd rather they look like 12 year old boys.

It's attitudes like that which cause girls to starve themselves to death.

Hat tip to Aurelia.

View from down under

An Australian TV ad for a ladypart ''intimate care product:''



It's like a g'day in the life of a va-ja-jay.

Via Jezebel

It can't get any worse, can it?

Shine on you crazy diamond giver

I am not big on gold and diamonds. I tease my girlfriends who love the stuff that, the more you wear, the older you look since it's the kind of stuff that takes years to accumulate. Like when husbands give you a piece for every baby you birth, or for big anniversaries, or for when they're feeling guilty about something.

The other night, I was rushing to get dressed for an awards dinner, and tore through my drawers looking for a string of pearls that my sister had given me. I couldn't find them in the mess but, in the process, stumbled on a very pricey, diamond watch I had totally forgotten about.

A gift from an ex.

But I didn't wear it because the battery was as dead as he is to me.

I ended up putting on my every day Swiss Army watch and a vintage Bakelite cuff because they were the easiest to grab, even though they looked kind of weird with my cocktail dress.

This time of year, we are inundated with jewelry ads because it's the little gifts that count, right?

Heh.

Here's the wonderful Sarah Haskins of Current TV:

Period Periods

For all you ladies still experiencing ''the monthlies'' -- and those who have them, blessedly, in your past -- and for all the gentlemen who regard that time as a deep dark mystery (or worse), here's a gURL guide to menstrual products through the ages.

Flip through it. It's fun.

Ever since the first cave-woman got her period, she had to find some way to handle it. After all, you can't have blood on the floors of your cave! What would the neighbors think?

Nowadays we have an entire aisle of menstrual products to choose from, but in the past, menstruating women relied on some pretty strange and intriguing products.

You know, as bad and as bloated as you sometimes feel, just think: It could be worse, much worse. Believe me. I know. I date back to the time of belts, even before stick-on pads.

What's more, when I wanted to switch to Tampax, our family doctor lectured me on how that would be inappropriate for a young unmarried woman, if you know what I mean.

Ewww.

Now the issue for me and my friend Sheena is, stop charging women GST for these products. It's not like we have a choice, ya know?

What's more, if the Harper government were as pro-family as it claims to be, it would have an interest in making women happy 28 out of 28 days. You know, it's all very easy to skip menstruating all together with contraception.

Do the math. No periods = No babies.

Just saying.

Actually, maybe I shouldn't say it at all, considering how some people want to ban the Pill.

Banned aid

If I were an American woman, I would be afraid, very afraid right now.

That's because the Bushies and their fundie followers are closing in ever tighter on woman's freedoms. Look, for example, what's happening right now, in two states.

In South Dakota:

On South Dakota's Nov. 4 ballot is a proposal that would outlaw most abortions in the state.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that voters are being asked for the second time since 2006 to restrict access to abortions.

Initiated Measure 11 would ban the procedure except in cases of rape, incest and in some cases where the health and life of the woman is in danger.

A more restrictive measure failed in 2006. Supporters of Initiated Measure 11 say they hope to prevent more than 700 abortions a year. Proponents say they also hope such a law would produce a case to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Supporter Leslee Unruh called Measure 11 "urgent for the babies who are aborted," while Dr. Marvin Buehner, a physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, said the law "would amount to a total ban" on abortion.

Meanwhile, in Colorado:

A proposal to define a fertilized human egg as a person will land on Colorado's ballot this November, marking the first time that the question of when life begins will go before voters anywhere in the nation.

The Human Life Amendment, also known as the personhood amendment, says the words "person" or "persons" in the state constitution should "include any human being from the moment of fertilization." If voters agreed, legal experts say, it would give fertilized eggs the same legal rights and protections to which people are entitled.

So, not only would that mean that a zygote could trump its female human incubator's rights in Colorado, it would also open the door to the end of Roe-v-Wade, the decision that gave woman access to legal abortion.

Which is what the whack jobs who are pushing for this want.

Lots more here.

Now comes news is that the Bush administration is cutting off contraception to some of the world's poorest women.

The latest bout of reproductive-health madness came in the last couple of weeks when the U.S. Agency for International Development ordered six African countries to ensure that no U.S.-financed condoms, birth control pills, I.U.D.’s or other contraceptives are furnished to Marie Stopes International, a British-based aid group that operates clinics in poor countries.

The Bush administration says it took this action because Marie Stopes International works with the U.N. Population Fund in China. President Bush has cut all financing for the population fund on the — false — basis that it supports China’s family-planning program.

<SNIP>

Mr. Bush’s defunding of the U.N. Population Fund — backed by Senator McCain — has persisted since 2002. What is new is the extension of that policy to a leading private family-planning organization like Marie Stopes International.

“The irony and hypocrisy of it is that this is a bone to the self-described ‘pro-life’ movement, but it will result in deaths to women who just want to space their births,” said Dana Hovig, the chief executive of Marie Stopes International.

And never you mind that their children, often born to young girls, might end up sick, malnourished or worse.

Of course, there's no need to dwell on how the McCain-Palin ticket is completely contra-contraception. Fears are, if it wins, they'll appoint Supreme Court judges which will rob women of their freedoms. That while they cut funding to teen pregnancy programs.

Can you say hypocrites?

So why should we worry in Canada? Because Bill C-484, the so-called Unborn Victims Act, which, in many legal opinions, would have conferred legal personhood on zygotes, embryos, fetuses.

No?

Then why did Stephen Harper cynically abort it in its third trimester, on the eve of the election, knowing for sure that opening up the abortion debate would cost him hundreds of thousands of votes?

Here's an interesting theory:

Recently, an infant died in Manitoba, as a result of her mother’s exposure to listeria-contaminated processed meat during her pregnancy. Birth Pangs wonders, had Bill C-484 been passed into law, could its provisions been used by Alexiss Matilda Carlada McDonald-Moose’s family to press for an investigation into this instance of criminal negligence? Would Gerry Ritz have been charged with homicide?

I'm sure that the Harper communications team will get back to us on that.

While we're waiting, here's a blast from the not-so-distant past.

 

Snow way to treat a lady

The good news: I am down 11 pounds since Jan. 7. Yay me. I have been sticking fairly religiously to a 1700-1800 calorie diet of four-five meals a day, including a nightly guacamole and corn cracker binge.

KEITH BEATY/TORONTO STAR

The bad news: Most of my exercise has come from dealing with the insane amount of snow that is heaped all over Toronto.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the fresh air, the sunshine, the banter with the neighbours. I am in great shape so I can handle a fairly large shovel with heavy loads. I don't even get sore after two hours of literally moving mountains of the stuff.

I can also clamber over the metre-high snowbanks that line every street, including nearby Danforth, a major commercial artery. And, with the waterproof, deep tread boots I have been wearing (so much for fashion, let me tell ya), I can stomp through the slush and keep my tootsies dry.

What's more, I am a five-minute walk from the subway and a 10-minute stroll from four major streetcar lines -- although it's hard slogging through the unplowed sidewalks. But years of leg work, strong calf muscles and a solid core keep me steady on my feet.

Lucky me.

So what's the problem?

I see so many people suffering because this city can't deal with the accumulation of snow.

Little old ladies with their bundle buggies who are isolated and housebound because one slip and there goes a hip. The old guy with the motorized scooter who walks a giant bull mastiff he keeps for protection because he lives in a dicey project not far from me. Mothers who can't push strollers. Retailers losing business because the sidewalks are inaccessible.

Yesterday, I watched a giant delivery truck spin its wheels in front of my house for more than two hours. What if there had been a fire up the street?

Meanwhile, my friend Sandro Contenta was stuck on a streetcar for more than 20 minutes on a busy crosstown street, traffic tied up for who knows how far behind?

Two Saturdays ago, I scaled the snowbanks three times trying to find a working parking meter -- they seem to freeze up in the cold -- so I could buy and haul home a pet kennel. None worked. I gave up -- and got a $30 ticket along with my soaked pants.

Amazing how efficient this city is at ticketing cars but not at cleaning the snow.

But that's not all. As I was attempting to pay my lousy $2.50 for an hour's worth of parking, I spotted a small crowd around an elderly man, out cold, his head smashed against the sidewalk. He had fallen as he had tried to get over one of the snowbanks. It did not look good at all.

How much is this costing citizens, in broken bones, lost productivity, lost revenues?

Sandro and I just don't get it. As ex-Montrealers, we know what efficient snow removal means to a city. Both of us talked about how, just before Christmas, Montreal got a 50 cm. dump -- and it was cleared within a couple of days.

When I last lived in Montreal, the rumble of the snow removal ballet would wake me up. I'd sit in the dark and watch from my living room window. First the little sidewalk plows would come. Then the big graders for the street. Then the snow blowers, trailed by convoys of dump trucks that would cart their loads away. Within 20 minutes, all the snow would be gone.

Here in Toronto, in the month of February, we have seen snowfalls of 10-20 cms. But no clean-ups -- and no melting -- in between. The accumulation now is something approaching 100 cm.

There's no excuse for no clean-up. It's not like it fell overnight.

Now there's no place left to put the snow.

If I want to shovel my walk, I will have to throw the snow up over six feet to reach the top of the mountain in front of my house. I can't do that. Who can? And anyway, at this point, it threatens to avalanche on to the sidewalk.

This morning I was on the elliptical trainer at the gym, in front of a bank of TVs. All of us were watching the weather forecasts with dread. More snow on the way. But not a plow in sight.

Canadians in other cities seem to get tremendous kicks out of how Torontonians complain about the snow. I am not complaining about the snow. I quite love it.

I am complaining about a city that is buried by incompetence.

If you feel the same way, please, let your city councilor and Mayor David Miller know. Click here for their email addresses.

Because, believe me, there's more than snow being shoveled in this town.