Ladies, stay young regardless of the recession

And it helps to be thin, able-bodied, mentally healthy, white and rich enough to afford all the youth-making treatments recommended by Orna Mulcahy in today's Irish Times. Here are a few snippets:

If the budget doesn’t stretch to that may I recommend an old remedy: a body brush ... will remove dead cells from the skin in a jiffy, while a whipped-up egg white, if allowed to set on the face for 15 minutes, will produce a surprisingly taut result,

That terrible photograph of Carla Bruni ... she looks all pale and weirdly frozen... she looks less like Carla, the free spirit, and more like the free spirit’s witchy mother.

But one thing that an older woman cannot do is look like a far younger woman, and that is her tragedy, particularly if her man likes far younger women.

The ideal woman for any man is half his age, plus seven years... Explain it to a man and you watch his face puzzle for a moment and then clear before giving in with a graceful smile... Your 40-year-old man realises that indeed it might be nicer to be with a 27-year-old rather than with someone his own age, who might be losing definition in all kinds of places.

[Sam Mendes]’s trading Kate [Winslet] in for a younger model, to be perfectly blunt and horrible about it.

Scientists have established that men seek out women with clear skin and shiny hair, two attributes of a healthy body, ie one that can still bear a child.

Ok, Ok I quoted more than snippets. But I almost got a bingo on the evo psych card by Aerik.

I will resist the temptation to fisk the entire article. And just say that women are people. You cannot reduce a person to a shell. Staying young is impossible. Grasping at straws and using 'miracle' treatments to stave off age ultimately ends in failure. Women are always judged by their looks: whether fat or thin, tall or short, TAB or disabled, conventionally attractive, with or without body hair, piercing, tattoos etc.

I think that Mulcahy's article was meant to be tongue in cheek or "all us girls together" but fails. Being a humourless feminist I wouldn't laugh anyway, on principle! Women are not a monolith. Amazingly, some women are attracted to other women; some women are not attracted to anyone; some women are attracted to younger men; some women opt out of participating in the patriarchal Olympics etc

Anyway, you can diet, botox, wax etc., but it is never enough. Is your vagina tight enough? Is your mons sparkly enough? Vajazzling takes care of the latter but the former requires surgery. Are your breasts big enough, small enough, perky enough...? Do you earn enough but not too much? Are you a free-spirit but not too opinionated? Do you wear revealing clothing but not look like a slut? It is never enough. It is never enough. The patriarchy will judge you and still find you wanting. Just look at the judgment leveled against Carla Bruni, considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Doomsday

It's done. No job creation. No stimulus. Just more pain. Reduction in child benefit, disability allowance. More taxes - fuel and carbon. Lenihan has essentially invited those who can, to kindly depart the country.

Hopeless, jobless and emigrating - wonderful combo there Lenihan, you ignorant asshole.

No provision for transport, broadband, electricity development. No mention of the glut sucker Anglo.

This is so frustrating. So many vested interests and corruption and Lenihan caters to every single no.

Will type more when not so angry

Gormley's green expenses

Gormless defends his limo bill on the grounds that Hay-on-Wye is in the middle of nowhere. I suppose that it never occurred to him to take the train. Both European and American government members transport themselves by train. Is Gormless too good for it? Is he better than Joe Biden?

I think someone should lend him a dictionary because he doesn't seem to understand the meaning of expenses, excess or green.

"Mothers are selfish bitches" according to Jane Kirby of the Sindo

Isn't it amazing in this modern 21st century world that mothers still bear total responsibility for raising children. Those working hussies should feel guilty for abandoning their children, according to Irish Independent reporter Jane Kirby:

Mothers who work raise unhealthier children than those who stay at home, researchers said yesterday

Mothers not parents. What about the other parent? Fathers caring for children is not taken into account. Despite the increasing number of fathers who take the primary caregiving role, and the equal caregiving by both parents, the Sindo decides to take a blast from the past and attempt to shame working mothers. It is an old tactic but pulls nicely on the Catholic guilt that most schools succeed in infusing in their charges.

Do men have no influence or responsibility for their offspring? How about children of a gay couple or a poly couple or any other non traditional family unit? Should single mothers give up work, draw social welfare, require social housing and basically become the stimatised straw dole-queen that middle class conservatives have railed against for decades?

Won't somebody please think of the children?



And the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health considers this a mother's responsibility, not a parent's responsibility. As usual, total heteronormative bullshit.

Mothers who worked full-time had the unhealthiest children, followed by those who worked part-time. They typically worked 21 hours per week (with a range of 16 to 30 hours) and for 45 months (with a range of 25 to 55 months). Overall, many children had habits that could lead to them becoming overweight. For example, 37pc of children mostly ate crisps or sweets between meals and 41pc mostly drank sweetened drinks.A total of 61pc watched television or used the computer for at least two hours a day.

Ah everything becomes clearer, some children have habits that could led to the dreaded obesity. Apart from the conditionals, the invocation of the sin of fat, and the lack of any sort of empirical research, correlation is not causation.

I have a couple of questions for the Sindo, as they dive into the goldmine that is the "obesity crisis". It sure does sell papers but is devoid of fact.

• Do you know that children need fat and sugar to grow?
• Do you know that the person who invented BMI (standard medical measurement) totally rejected its use to determine health of adults and never for children?
• Do you know that medical insurance companies arbitrarily changed BMI in the 80s and millions became overweight overnight?
• Do you know that BMI has been proved to be bullshit?
  
• Do you know what "overweight" looks like?
• Do you know that being "overweight" makes you more likely to survive a heart attack?
  

You cannot tell the health of a person by looking at them or what they eat. The current obsession with fat as unhealthy is dangerous.

Children know when they are being discussed and the shame gets a hold. I am fat now but I wasn't when I was a kid. Adults told me I was fat and I saw my body as hideous. That is a learned behaviour. I grew up to be fat and healthy. The emotional damage took a lot longer. I visited anorexia and bulimia until I accepted myself as I am through plenty of fat acceptance reading. Publicly worrying about children's weight is dangerous. I was not the only child that was deeply affected by adults' comments to me or about me.

In the second last paragraph of this sexist, heteronormative, homophobic piece of tripe, there is the standard classism. The Sindo says:

But when the researchers took away factors that might influence the results, such as socio-economic background, they found a definite link between a mother working and the child's health.

Yes, those mothers are so selfish as to work when we live in the Irish socialist paradise. Mothers who are the sole earners who consider the "health" of their children and give up their aul jobs.

Forget about the mortgage or rent, food on the table and luxuries like school uniforms or heat. Forget the notion of an equal partnership. Forget about equal responsibility. Forget that the definition of what constitutes a family has changed. Forget the undervaluation of mothers' work. Forget all the progress that women have made to achieve equal rights.

Because the article basically boils down to nuclear two hetero parents, in which Daddy earns and Mummy gets belittled for doing likewise. Stupid bitch, get back in the kitchen and think of the children because you cannot have a life or work outside the home without being accused of selfishness and neglect. It's all your fault for not slaving over a hot stove and feeding your children three home-cooked meals a day.

Jane Kirby is sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, heteronormative, conservative and has written a piece full of hyperbolic sensationalist lies. It's hard to believe that this piece was cleared by three Sindo editors. But then again, what can be expected from a paper that pays and gives an platform to a racist, misogynistic asshole.

Batt O'Keeffe proves his cruelty

You know if Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education, thinks that hard manual labour without pay or chance to leave is employment, I suggest he be encouraged to consider his position. From the Irish Times

He referred to the women as “former employees of the Magdalen laundries”.

Just when I think that this government cannot fall any lower, the Minister comes out and trivialises the suffering and exclusion of women in the Magdalen laundries. The Minister has no compassion or understanding of the responsibility of the government.

Minister O'Keeffe adds

the Magdalen laundries were privately-owned and operated establishments which did not come within the responsibility of the State. The State did not refer individuals to the Magdalen laundries nor was it complicit in referring individuals to them.

Right, so if a child was kidnapped, the gardaí won't attempt to rescue that child because ze is held in a private building. That makes sense.

Does not the State have a responsibility to protect the freedom of its citizens?
Does not the State have a responsibility to treat its citizens equally?
Does not the State have a responsibility to the women and girls, who had committed no crime, who were illegally imprisoned for years?
Does not the State have a responsibility to assure that pay and working conditions are equitable?

The State failed in its duty. An acknowledgment of this failure might have begun to heal wounds but instead they issue denials and disavow any responsibility. This is exactly what happened to the children in the industrial schools when they tried to bring their abuse and torture to government notice.

The Minister should consider his position.

Objectification

Top Irish chef, Neven Maguire, of MacNean's eaterie, stepped up to the plate yesterday to launch the 2009 Food and Wine Magazine Edward Dillion Restaurant of the Year Awards but the tasty treat that really got mouth's watering at the event was dishy model Georgia Salpa

Quoted in Liveline regarding the discussion of the PR decision to photo Neven Maguire with Georgia Salpa in a bikini. Apologies but I can't find the actual photo online.

Joe mentioned the normality of half-naked women used to promote events and I fired off an email,

It's not normal to have half naked women on the front of the paper.

Women are commodified in the media as sex objects and this is linked to anorexia, self harm, sexism, rape and rape apologists.

It's not ironic. It's despicable.

and ended up on the radio. I took umbrage at the blatant objectification of the model and tried to link it to the society at large. She is there as an object, without agency, to look pretty in a bikini. Why a bikini? Is it the sunny summer that we are not having?

I spoke about the male gaze, objectification and the patriarchy without using either of those terms as explanation time was limited. Not sure how I came across but a couple of callers dismissed the whole discussion as petty or said that the people who objected were just jealous of the model. I hate the "you're just jealous" meme. It's a straw argument used to derail and silence. It's classic derailing for dummies!

There were suggestions that one of the unreleased pictures was of one of the chef's eating food off the model's body. If so, they literally treated her as an object - a table. How utterly demeaning and sexist. It put me in mind of this post from Sociological Images.

It was a big pile of sexist privileged fail and it was jarring to go from feminist blogdonia to Irish radio. The podcast does not contain the whole discussion but it gives a good enough idea.

Then I saw Maman Poulet has a post on a similar theme - h/t.

Positive Options is a brand created to promote State-funded crisis pregnancy counselling services and to provide information. But in Ireland, this apparently means positing women as objects rather than adult humans with full agency.

To me, it says "shame on you, you mindless puppet, for not knowing that there are partisan anti-abortion agencies trying to counsel you". How is a poster like that of any use with the woman-as-object, woman-without-agency, woman-as-child imagery? I'm going to write to them to ask why they are using such ads to promote their service?

Gender stereotypes alive and well in the Irish Times

This piece of trash is a cheap shot at gender stereotypes and those who are unemployed.

Women have been insulated from the worst of the carnage since they had already retreated to the home full-time or took the three-day week, convenient safer jobs in the public sector, college, or set up their own low-risk small business: home-catering for one friend, counselling for another, or column-writing in my case.

Oh really? Women have been insulated from the worst part of the recession? Are you referring to women like you Carey? Upper middle class, married, het, cis women presumably. That is not the majority. Way to devalue the work that women do.

Projecting your personal experience on to the backs of other women, is a fucking disgrace, Carey. It's insulting and in error.

I think it is telling that someone with the economic privilege to work part time at column-writing during the recession is generalising her experiences. She has no idea how the rest of us live. I doubt she was one of the 200 people to line up on Grafton Street to interview for a cashier's position in Londis. I doubt she understands that money worries pervade every aspect of your life, when you don't have any. There is no "joy of autonomy" in unemployment during a recession.

Anyway, here’s our dirty little secret – whether down-shifting or opting out – life is great. We are masters of our universe. Whether working from home or in the home, women have discovered the joys of autonomy. Not completely of course – bills still have to be paid, deadlines obeyed and the insatiable needs of children to be met. But there are no tortuous Monday morning management meetings, no hellish commutes, no power point presentations and no angry clients.

Now it’s all been ruined with these husbands hanging around at home. Leaving aside the financial strain, an alien creature has invaded the house. It reminds one of the soaring divorce rate among older couples in Japan where a retired husband shows up and a 30-year marriage ends. Ireland’s unemployed husbands may not be facing abandonment but are finding their wives aren’t exactly thrilled about unlimited quality time.

I hate the chatty "between us girls" tone of this article. Carey assumes that all of us girls agree with this point of view and that all readers are the straightest straight people in the world. Another bloody hetero-nomative assumption.

Since when do the "joys of autonomy" include taking care of children and cleaning the house. It remains me of those fundie freaks that believe that housework is empowering. A big, fuck you to that.

Welcome to the 21st century, Carey. There are different family groups, sexual orientations and negotiations between partners. This article plays on the "men do not contribute to the housework" trope. It's tired and frankly pathetic.

Church of evil

Everybody knows that the Catholic Church ruled the roost in Ireland. Everybody knows that children in school were beaten. Everybody knows that there was child sexual abuse. But until a few days ago the vast majority of the people of Ireland did not know how widespread the sexual abuse and violence were and that children were enslaved, raped, tortured and abused systematically in both residential and day schools and institutions.

Witness reports (trigger-warning)

Female

The forms of physical abuse reported by witnesses ranged from being smacked on the hand to being beaten naked in front of others. They described being hit, slapped, beaten, kicked, pushed, pinched, burned, bitten, shaken violently, physically restrained, and force fed. The Committee also heard reports of witnesses having their heads knocked against walls, desks and window ledges, being beaten on the soles of their feet, the backs of their hands, around their heads and ears, having their hair pulled, being swung off the ground by their hair, and made to perform tasks that they stated put them at risk of harm and danger. The locations where physical abuse was most frequently reported to have occurred included dormitories, refectories, landings, corridors, classrooms, churches, offices, kitchens, work areas and recreation halls.

(We were)... beaten everywhere, bang your head off the wall, pinch your cheeks, beat you with a cane.... She ...(Sr X)... would grab you and hit you.

I remember once I got a big yellow blister on my hand, it was really painful.... Normally when you got a beating from someone you had to hold your hand out for a slap like that ... (demonstrated outstretched palm)... not always of course, some of them would hit you anywhere on the legs or anywhere. ... She ... (Sr X)... said “Why are you holding your hand out like that? Give me the other hand”....You have to have 10 on that hand and 10 on the other. I couldn’t part with this hand, it was yellow and throbbing it was, and she forced it open and slapped it. The blister burst, I’ll never forget the pain.

Further forms of physical abuse described by witnesses involved being made to kneel for hours on hard surfaces, both indoors and in outside yards, being locked in confined and dark areas such as coal houses, furnace rooms, animal sheds, broom cupboards and fridges, made to stand for lengthy periods and being doused and immersed in cold water.

Having objects such as a wooden statue, metal tray and knives thrown at them was reported as a physical abuse by a small number of witnesses.

In addition to being hit, witnesses reported that, at times they were burned, had water thrown over them or were held under water, as described:

• Nineteen (19) witnesses reported being put into cold or scalding baths or showers.
• Twelve (12) witnesses reported having water thrown over them, five of whom were scalded with hot tea or water.
• Eight (8) witnesses reported having their heads held under water, including two whose heads were held under a cold running tap.
• Five (5) witnesses reported being burned with hot pokers or by having their hands held to a fire or on a hot stove.
• Two (2) witnesses reported having their fingers held to electric sockets.

One of the girls she was very sick. I let her come into my bed one morning, she was very, very ill. They brought me down to the shoe room, they stripped me off, they threw cold water over me ... (prior to severe beating).... It was the shoe room you know where all the shoes were, even now if I get the smell of shoe polish, the feeling of enclosement, it was awful.

Six (6) witnesses gave accounts of nettles being used by nuns when punishing residents. They described being pushed into patches of nettles, hit on the legs with them, and, in one instance, their bed being full of nettles. ‘Sr ...X... put nettles in the bed of the girls who wet the bed.’ Other witnesses described being pinched with pliers, jabbed with a knitting needle, hit with shoes, a shovel, wet dishcloths, bunches of keys, serving spoons, scissors, electric cord and the treadle belt from a sewing machine.

Male

Witnesses described a daily existence that involved the possibility of being hit by a staff member at any time, for any reason or for no reason. Witnesses also reported being physically abused by co-residents. It is notable that witnesses at times described daily, casual and random physical abuse as normal and wished to report only the times when the frequency and severity of the abuse was such that they were injured or in fear for their lives. Three hundred and forty six (346) of the 403 witnesses reported that they were subjected to frequent physical violence; they described a climate of pervasive fear in the Schools and provided consistent reports of generally not knowing why they were being beaten.

The forms of physical abuse reported by witnesses to the Committee included punching, flogging, assault and bodily attacks, hitting with the hand, kicking, ear pulling, hair pulling, head shaving, beating on the soles of the feet, burning, scalding, stabbing, severe beatings with or without clothes, being made to kneel and stand in fixed positions for lengthy periods, made to sleep outside overnight, being forced into cold or excessively hot baths and showers, hosed down with cold water before being beaten, beaten while hanging from hooks on the wall, being set upon by dogs, being restrained in order to be beaten, physical assaults by more than one person, and having objects thrown at them.

The locations where physical abuse was reported to have taken place included: classrooms, offices, cloakrooms, dormitories, showers, infirmaries, refectories, the bedrooms of staff members, churches, work areas and trade shops, fields, farmyards, play/sports areas and outdoor sheds.

I had a hiding in the boot room, you had to take your shirt off, you were completely naked and he ...(Br X)... beat me with a strap and a hurley stick on the behind and the legs and that.

I was beaten up quite a few times for not making the bed right, I had to go to the boot room. We used have long night shirts then you know, he ...(Br X)... dragged it off me, naked and whop, he knocked hell out of me, he knocked the shit out of me ... he hit with a leather strap with coins in it. One Brother ... he used a tyre he did, a bicycle tyre, it used to wrap around your arm. That was for wiping my nose in my sleeve, he didn’t like that, it “wasn’t a nice thing” he said.

A small number of witnesses stated that Brothers were trained to beat residents and reports were heard of religious Brothers demonstrating the exercise of discipline to trainee Brothers.

One day it was ...visitor’s day... they used to pick about half a dozen lads. You would be called to the hall. I was picked once and they would actually show the ...visiting student Brothers... how to do the hiding. The Brother who was in charge of the playground, mostly Br ...X... or Br ...Y... would show them how it’s done, they would give you a hiding to show them and then they would have a go, with the black jack ...(leather)... with loops of lead in it or steel.

Witnesses reported being introduced to a strict regime from the moment of their arrival in the School.

We were met by Br ...X... he ruled the roost, he told us about the rules, said if we ran away there was severe punishment, the second time our head would be shaved and the third time we would be sent to ...named School.... He then stripped us off, told us to bend over the desk; he hit the desk with a leather strap and said, “Say the Our Father”. I could not say it. He hit me across the legs and warned me not to step out of line. He told us to get in the shower, cold water, “to scrub away your sins”, with carbolic soap. He then left and came back with clothes, comb ... he hit me with the strap when I had the clothes on because I should be in pyjamas. We went to the dormitory, the boys were asleep, he said, “This will always be your bed unless you wet the bed, then you will end up with the smellies with Mr ...Y...”. It was dark, there was no food. I was very upset and frightened. Then that night Mr ...Y... came walking down with his walking stick, he touched my penis with the stick and said, “Don’t ever let me catch you”. Later I could hear kids crying as he lashed kids with a stick, getting them up for the toilet. That was my first night in ...named School....

The day I arrived there, I was in the yard and there was all these boys, they all seemed like giants. I remember running up to this man and saying “hello Father” he laid into me, he was a very cruel man, I thought he was a priest, he said “don’t call me Father”. He laid me on the ground, he gave me a few terrible clatters and I was terrified from that moment. He was Br ...X... I was terrified of him, oh Lord! ...distressed... he was just cruel.

These accounts cover just one of the four aspects of abuse. See the reports for more detail.


The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has published its five volume report on 20 May and this report has examined in detail the accusations and evidence presented to it.

The Commission was established on 23 May, 2000, pursuant to the “Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000” and given three primary functions:

• to hear evidence of abuse from persons who allege they suffered abuse in childhood, in institutions, during the period from 1940 or earlier, to the present day;
• to conduct an inquiry into abuse of children in institutions during that period and, where satisfied that abuse occurred, to determine the causes, nature, circumstances and extent of such abuse; and
• to prepare and publish reports on the results of the inquiry and on its recommendations in relation to dealing with the effects of such abuse.

The reports are damning, and the acts uncovered are criminal.

The reports make for horrific reading. The vast majority of children were committed to industrial or reformatory schools from 1936 to 1970 because they were ‘needy’. Other reasons of commitment were involvement in a criminal offense or school nonattendance. Involvement in a criminal offense included girls who had been ‘morally corrupted’. In fact, girls as young as eight who had been raped or abused, or even those children in contact with such girls, were considered unsuitable for an ordinary industrial school and were sent to reformatories instead.

It took little to be committed. Orphans, poor children, abused children and children who skipped school were committed.

Once the child's time was served, their parents could get them out but parents' weren't informed nor educted and the procedure was complicated.

The children were tortured and enslaved by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The state failed to supervise.

The state indemnified the Church.

The state is still fighting survivors in the courts.

The violence, torture, rape, abuse and slavery that happened is obscene. Those who directly enslaved, raped, tortured, abused and violated children have been indemnified against civil prosecution. Those who stood by and let it happen are just as guilty.

The words of President McAleese "it was an atrocious betrayal of love" are mealy-mouthed and underplay the obscene treatment of children.

The state and the various congregations have gone along with the "few bad apples" argument which as been disproved time after time. (Philip Zimbardo The Lucifer Effect: understanding how good people turn evil)

The Irish Times reported on 22 May

None of the 18 religious congregations that were party to the redress agreement with the Government seven years ago has any plans to look again at its terms, the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) said last night.

The 18 congregations involved were those which managed residential institutions where children were physically, emotionally and sexually abused, as well as neglected, according to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report, published on Wednesday.

In a statement to The Irish Times , following a query on the matter, Cori said: “In 2002 the Conference of Religious in Ireland facilitated 18 of its members in entering into an agreement with the Government on a Redress Scheme for victims of institutional abuse. This agreement included an indemnity clause that lapsed after three years.

“An agreement was made between the congregations concerned and the Government that a contribution of € 128 million (cash and property) be made to the Redress Scheme, which was established by Government. As far as we are aware none of the congregations concerned plan to revisit the terms of the agreement made in good faith.”

It makes me sick to my stomach to know that such crimes were widespread. The mealy-mouthed "apologies" and shocked expressions is not enough. Firstly we have to name what happened. These acts by religious congregations were crimes against children and crimes against humanity.

The Catholic church has to own up to its criminal responsibilities and convictions must be sought. Then all assets should be frozen and confiscated. Then we remove any mention of the church from our constitution and public life. Once they have repaid financially and served time for their crimes, the named congregations forced to leave the country.

Blogging Against Disablism Day

Ableism is rife in our society and it's not hard to recognise. How many times have you heard someone use words like lame, mental, cripple and insane? You've probably used them yourself.

It's privilege in action. Unpacking and examining that privilege requires learning and behavioral change. You can start by reading this, this and this. Seriously, go and read.

I am disabled. I have severe clinical depression and PTSD as a result of rape, stalking, assault and other factors. I cannot cheer up or snap out of it. My brain chemistry has been altered. Telling me that you're sure I'll be better soon does not help either of us.

"Why don't you just stop taking the meds" is guaranteed a bitter laugh and possibly violent thoughts but no follow through. Taking anti depressants is the only reason I can get up in the afternoon or garden or blog or feed myself etc. The side effects or shitty but at least they allow me to function. I am lucky enough to have a medical card and a doctor that does not automatically think I'm imagining it. I am not going to give up the meds and please stop giving me advice on what you think I should do. That's between my doctors and myself.

Don't tell me to cheer up or that it will all be all right or any other well intentioned platitudes that serve no purpose apart from making me feel shitty and give you the vague sensation of having made a difference in the situation.

Finally before you tell a person to come off their medication or mention that people in Country A have a far worse time than in Country B and so your interlocutor has nothing to be depressed about, just think and then don't say it.

I don't choose to be depressed so don't insinuate that a have a choice.

Think about what you are about to say and feel free not to offer "helpful" advice or cures. Seriously. Just don't.

The hypocrisy of a dying church

The Catholic Church continues to show its contempt and misogyny last week when two people in Brazil were excommunicated. The Vatican has endorsed the recent decision.

A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication in Brazil of the mother and doctors of a young girl who had an abortion with their help.

The nine-year-old had conceived twins after alleged abuse by her stepfather.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told Italian paper La Stampa that the twins "had the right to live" and attacks on Brazil's Catholic Church were unfair.

Because that's what's unfair in this scenario! Poor RCC is being attacked!

The callousness of the Church's treatment of a 9 year old rape survivor is almost beyond belief. It would be beyond belief if it wasn't for the revelations of the past twenty years showing that there was a clear policy of non disclosure of abusive and pedophile priests. Instead rape and sexual abuse survivors are ostracized.

This is that same organisation that would shame pregnant and unmarried women and girls from the pulpit, announcing their sins to the congregation. This was nicely followed by locking them up, physically abusing them and separating mother and child after delivery.

This is the same organisation that reputedly colluded with Nazi Germany and blessed Mussolini on his way to commit genocide.

This is the organisation that reassigned pedophile and abusive priests.

This is the organisation that forgives murderers, rapists, torturers and mass murderers

This is the organisation that excommunicated a doctor and a mother for providing and allowing an abortion to a 9 year old child pregnant with twins through incestuous rape.

The rapist has not been excommunicated.

Natalia is absolutely right in her assertion that abortion is not the issue

Here’s a fact: abortion has always existed. It wasn’t particularly safe and it certainly wasn’t something you spoke about in mixed company, but the truth is - women have been choosing to end their pregnancies for thousands of years. For as long as it was done secretly, for as long as the sluts stood a good chance of bleeding to death - few people actually worried about the so-called moral implications of abortion.

Of course, the minute a rape victim or anyone else can have access to a safe abortion, it becomes an issue of BUT WHAT ABOUT THE INNOCENT BABY???

Deborah at the Hand Mirror is absolutely right

This is just appalling on so many grounds: a child was raped and impregnated, in such a way that her own life is seriously at risk, and even then, some celibate man in a dress thinks that she shouldn't have an abortion.

I was born and bred and educated in the Catholic church, and I had always understood that from the church's point of view, while abortion was a great evil, that if the mother's life was in danger, then abortion was permissible, even if regrettable. I guess even that's too much for women-hating bishops. And they've moved on from hating women. Now they hate girl children too.

There is commenter, ZenTiger, at Deborah's place who is asserting among other misogynist crap, that he knows of two girls ages 8 and 9 who survived pregnancy. My answer is so what? The fact that this person had to go digging to find justification is horrible but that doesn't change the fact that a 9 year old girl's body cannot bring twins to term without significant danger. In all probability all three children would die. This is all beside the point anyway.

Why should a person be forcibly pregnant? Why should a mother be excommunicated for upholding her daughter's wishes and acting in her best interest? What should a doctor be excommunicated for saving the life of his patient? What business does the RCC have interfering in a private medical matter. Shame

This is an attempt by a rapidly declining church to regain control. This is an attempt to stand in moral judgement over a legal matter.

As Matthew 7:5 states

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

It's not funny

Newton Emerson is a heteronormative, sexist, homophobic, condescending asshole, disguised as an unfunny and embarrassing "humourist". Of all the material available to riff on about the recession, Emerson chooses to show the world his emotional maturity. Epic Fail.

The article is aimed at the straightest, married couple ever. It places the white male as the default and women as the other. It assumes that all men are hetero. It plays into a backwards notion of patriarchy and control.

Satirising gender roles is hilarious when well done but all Emerson does is play tired stereotypes and lurid prose. I'm surprised the Irish Times published this shite.

Does the woman in your life really need a job?

Emerson seriously WTF? An article devoted straight partnered men who retain the 1950s attitude towards coupling? Yeah like we don't have enough of them.

Admittedly, this is not a fashionable question. From Iceland to Australia, men are blamed for causing the credit crunch, while a more feminine approach to finance is proposed as the solution.

What the fuck is a feminine approach to finance? Does he mean a female approach or a gender based approach? I think he's just pissed off at all those uppity women who dare to leave the house - shades of a former Flynn perhaps... In all his dick swaggering he fails to realise that he is outing himself as a whiny little boy who has yet to realise that having a penis does not make you a super special snowflake, entitled to be comforted over every little booboo.

Then there is the patronising:

Of course there will always be a place in the world of business for exceptional women. Women also have an important role to play in jobs that are too demeaning for men, like teaching.

Since when is teaching demeaning for men? I think the thousands of male teachers in Ireland didn't get that memo.

But the general employment of women is another matter. Indeed, working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch by bringing a second income into the average household, pushing property prices up to unsustainable levels.

Nope. Wrong again. The property developers and speculators pushed the property price up. The people that were putting Evian in their car radiators pushed the prices up. The greed in the banking, building and industrial sectors drove the prices up. Why think logically when you can blame half the population based on whether they possess a penis or a vagina?

Whether working women actually caused the credit crunch is now a moot point. The point is that removing women from the workforce would mitigate its effects.

Too much competition for you Emerson? Are You Robbed Of Your God-Given Right To Be A Dick?

Consider the issue of unemployment. There were 221,301 men on the live register last month and just under one million women in work.

What about the menz? Does gender equality hurt you poor baby?

Surely at least half these women have a partner who is earning? Surely at least half would be happier at home? One half of one half is a quarter and one quarter of a million is roughly 221,301. I think we can all see where this argument is going.

Yeah in the toilet. Your argument is a thinly disguised rant against those mean bitches who insist on being equal. Also your logic is not our earth logic. Assuming that all women are partnered and straight makes you an ignorant jackass as well.

...In short, women were the driving force behind the greed, consumerism and materialism of the Celtic Tiger years and it was female employment that funded their oestrogen-crazed acquisitiveness.

Just when I near the end of this piece of "journalism" Emerson decides to blame the recession on oestrogen. It's the MRA special. Blame the scary female hormones.

It's incredibly offensive, not to mention ignorant, to have our behaviour attributed to hormones. I am not blaming your testosterone for you being a sexist, homophobic jackass. That's just you.

The time has come to build a more sustainable, equitable and progressive society. Why not make a start by telling your other half to quit her job? She can ask you for the housekeeping on Friday.

Oooh! Did it take you long to come up with that zinger? You forgot to mention chaining her to the kitchen sink, barefoot and pregnant.

Satire is supposed to be funny and supposed to make a person think. Emerson, this falls flat.

You sir, are no Dermot Morgan.

Kevin Myers - now available in racist and sexist!

Kevin Myers is out again in fine form adding sexism to his standard racism. Why is this guy still getting published? It's amazing that once again this piece was approved by the Sindo editors. Aren't there laws against this kinda thing? This piece is almost a year old but the fate of Pamela Izevbekhai's daughters still hangs in the balance.

Myers begins by comparing male circumcision and female genital mutilation

I will give you the background to this column in the presumption that you do not know it, and the reason you don't is that the victim at its centre did not possess a vulva.

Instead, he owned a penis, and so neither our media, nor our political classes, took any interest in his fate. Had he been a girl, you know that the mob of the usual suspects -- Amnesty International, the Council for the Status of Women, the Equality Commission, Aunt Thomasina and all -- would have been trumpeting condemnations of the affair.

Is Myers making the point that "the mob of the usual suspects" are wrong in seeking justice for victims of torture? Sounds like a classic "what about the menz" argument. Taking a single example of a horrific crime and comparing it to a systematic abuse of millions of women is abhorrent. Myers is forgetting perhaps, that one in three women is a victim of gender based violence, that rapists in this country are given light sentences and that in the case of rape the female survivor's character is assassinated.

Two-and-half-years ago, a Nigerian idiot named Osagie Igbinidion was found not guilty of the reckless endangerment of life, after a little boy he circumcised, 29-day-old Callis Osajhae, bled to death. The trial judge, Kevin Haugh, told the jury not to bring their "white, western values" to bear upon their deliberations. Describing the case as a clash between two cultures, he added: "This is a relatively recent matter that Ireland will have to deal with now that we have a significant migrant population. You are not asked whether this form of procedure is acceptable in Ireland. If you start thinking on those lines, you are doing Mr Igbinidion a great injustice."

Just one commentator in the media remarked upon this extraordinary case, in which a man walked free from a court having sexually mutilated and mortally wounded a little boy. Me. I wrote: " . . . had the dead child been female, I believe that no jury would have been told not to bring their white, western values to bear on the case -- or if they had been, we may equally be sure that the judge would not be dangling from the nearest lamp-post . . ."

I do not know what that fine fellow Osagie Igbinidion is doing today.

He has not, to my knowledge, and considerable regret, been deported -- nor has he been issued with a court order compelling him to desist from his merry trade (he is a fourth generation circumciser; ah the joys of multiculturalism). So it is as legal to chop little boys' penises off today as it was then, and if they die as a consequence, the judicial advice rings down the years, not to bring our "white western values" into the case.

But when the infant in question is a girl, then those white, western values are suddenly all we care about; hence the uproar over Pamela Izevbekhai and her two daughters. She is challenging a deportation order to Nigeria, for fear that the girls might be circumcised upon their return, and alleges that another daughter, Elizabeth, aged 18 months, died in 1994 from blood loss after being circumcised.

What happened to Callis Osajhae is tragic. That baby is an innocent victim. Osagie Igbinidion should obviously be in prison since he killed a child. Why is Myers not blaming the judge? Why is Myers not campaigning for justice for Callis? Why is Myers making a horrific comparison between a tragic fuckup and the systematic mutilation of female babies? Why has Myers not pointing out that male circumcision is part of western culture too and that the "it's Nigerian culture" excuse doesn't fly? Why doesn't Myers get his head out of his arse?

It is vital to make the distinction. Male circumcision is the removal of the foreskin that is normally not life threatening and circumcised men enjoy a fully functional sex life post operation. Many Irish male babies are circumcised. It does not impede normal bodily functions or cause lifelong pain.

Female genital mutilation is an attempt to cut a girl so severely that she can never enjoy sex. It is designed to enforce chastity. It is traumatic, painful and defined as torture. There are four types of mutilation

• Type I is the excision of the clitoral hood with or without removal of all or part of the clitoris.
• Type II is the excision of the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora
• Type III is the excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening, leaving a very small opening, about the size of a matchstick, to allow for the flow of urine and menstrual blood. The girl or woman’s legs are generally bound together from the hip to the ankle so she remains immobile for approximately 40 days to allow for the formation of scar tissue.
• Type IV includes the introduction of corrosive substances into the vagina.

All this is done without anesthesia. It is a violation of human rights and is done without consent.

Well, allegedly; a court hearing earlier this year was told that the attending doctor had diagnosed the death "as being possibly the result of the traditional female circumcision" which had been performed on the girl. Possibly, eh? And that girl was 18 months old, 14 years ago. But her two surviving daughters had not been circumcised by the time they left Nigeria in 2005, when they were aged approximately two and four years of age, respectively.

Girls are systematically cut between the ages of 4 and 8 but it can happen at any time from infancy to puberty. Calling it circumcision is disingenuous. It is not circumcision as our "white, western values" define it. For more information watch this but it does contain disturbing images.

Female circumcision is very common in Nigeria, but it is not mandatory, and is usually done at the mother's instigation -- which is unlikely to be the case here. Either way, our "white, western values" are properly affronted and appalled by the very notion of removing a girl's vulva; so these may be invoked to protect a girl from genital mutilation. They cannot, however, be invoked to protect a boy either from genital mutilation, or from the death which results when the bugling Nigerian cretin with the knife accidentally kills him.

Done at the mother's instigation? Pamela Izevbekhai is trying to prevent it from happening to her daughters, Naomi and Jemima. She has already lost one daughter to this practice.

There are many ancillary questions to this little affair. How did Pamela Izevbekhai manage to get from Nigeria to Ireland? En route, how many countries did she pass through where they don't have female circumcision? Why did she choose here as a refuge from the barbaric circumcisers of Nigeria, and not somewhere closer to home?

Irrelevant.

As for my own opinions on the matter, well, on the one hand the family has settled in Sligo, so a large part of me thinks they should be allowed to stay. But what if we are being duped? What if a baseless threat of circumcision is being falsely used to enable the Izevbekhais to stay?

And even if it's not, are we to be the refuge for every single Nigerian or Somalia or Chadean or Kuwaiti woman who wants to avoid genital mutilation? So all they have to do is get here, allege that if they go home they'll be circumcised, and then we must give them asylum: is that it? And if we don't, are we then to get the self-appointed cranks from Residents Against Racism accusing us of being racist, and then RAR will be rewarded with their usual quota of headlines?

Is Myers trying to float the idea that torturing girls is a baseless threat? That we should not be doing everything we can for people who are under threat of mutilation? That is truly disgusting.

As someone who has repeatedly suffered from gender based violence I say fuck you Myers.

Meanwhile, the asylum-seekers' little sons can still lawfully be genitally mutilated, right here in Ireland-of-the-Sisters, and maybe even die, because apparently that's part of Nigerian culture. And naturally, not one of our feminist-dominated quangos will utter a word of condemnation.

Marvellous, bloody marvellous.

Myers compares a judge's decision to a feminist takeover perhaps because it's the only way for him to stand up for the son of one asylum seeker and condemn the daughters of another. Truly classless Myers.

The genesis of it all

I was rereading this article about how wearing trousers is immoral because doing so turns girls into slutty lesbians. Why is it that women-related articles are in the "Oddly Enough" section of Reuters? Why aren't the boys being slut-shamed for wearing trousers? Why the double standard? Why are the leaders of churches so scared of women?

We are human too. We walk. We talk. We think. We feel. We love. We hate. We are your mothers, sisters, daughters? Why are you so scared of us? Is it our vaginas or our opinions you fear? Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to control. Telling girls they are immoral to wear trousers makes a religious leader feel in control. Well that's what it seems like.

The cult of virginity is just another method of control. By embracing the idea of the sexual woman as impure, churches have maintained their power structures. With women unable to attain or be elected to high offices in a religious power structure, the only roles they play are madonna, whore or servant. No. I am no servant. I am no madonna. I am no whore.

There is a disconnect in the Bible. It is perhaps something that the editors missed. Woman was created twice. Once from the same clay as Adam on the fifth day in Genesis 1:27

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And then again here, in Genesis 2:22

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

And there is the basis for religious misogyny. Subvert the woman-gives-birth paradigm with man is responsible for the birth of woman. It sound like appropriation to me.

The bible has been used to justify slavery, death and genocide. The rape of women, incest and murder are part of its pages. Why are some following archaic laws and slut-shaming over 2000 years later? Why do people think that half the world's population is inferior? Seriously, we need to move past this already.

Wearing trousers turns girls into slutty lesbians

Clerics in Malaysia have found a new cause of sluttishness in women - trousers. Apparently not only are women sluts because they wear trousers but they are lesbian sluts. Won't somebody please think of the men!

According to some, trousers many cause girls to become sexually active and turn them into tomboys. There is no recorded correlation between sexual activity and trousers, that I am aware of. From Reuters

Malaysia's police, who have recently cracked down on dissident bloggers and broken up anti-government demonstrations, say that protests over an edict against Muslim women wearing trousers are a security threat.

A security threat? How? In what possible scenario do women in trousers become a security threat?

Mainly Muslim Malaysia's National Fatwa Council recently issued a religious ruling that wearing trousers was un-Islamic.

It said that, by wearing trousers, young girls risked becoming "tomboys" who became sexually active.

...

"I'm warning them and will take stern action as it involves national security," Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan told reporters Thursday, according to the state-run Bernama news agency.

Malaysia frowns on oral and gay sex, describing them as against the order of nature. Under civil law, offenders -- male and female -- can be jailed for up to 20 years, caned or fined.

As well as women in trousers, the Fatwa Council is considering barring Muslims from practicing yoga.

Although it is not explicit in this article, here, it is explicit that tomboy means lesbian.

Last week the Fatwa Council decreed that tomboyish behaviour by girls, including wearing trousers, was immoral as it may lead to the practise of lesbian sex.

Gay sex is prohibited in this country of 27 million people where over half of the population is Muslim.

To drift slightly from the point... Is that a common interpretation? Tomboy for me means playing sports and wearing trousers. There is no sexual orientation implication inherent in the word. I was a proud tomboy as a kid.

Anyway back to the brain-shattering logic of wearing trousers makes one a tomboy and a slut. I've been in Malaysia and young people there dress conservatively compared to other countries in South East Asia. I find the article strange because Kuala Lumpur in a very cosmopolitan and diverse city.

Nevertheless, the tomboy as slut is classic woman-blaming and incitement to fear. The lesbian slut angle is interesting. While homophobia is great to manipulate fear, there is more "pity the boys" than "scary lesbians".

The interesting thing is that there is neither correlation or causation in this piece. It is barely journalism. Is this how a church thinks? I think I know the recipe...

1. Take two unrelated facts
2. Describe how they are destroying the purity of girls
3. Add a dash of fear (racism and homophobia are best for this)
4. Call Reuters
   

The article is full of double standards, heterosexist rhetoric, faulty logic and women bashing.

I think the obvious question here is whether trousers make boys slutty? Are trousers turning the boys into tomgirls? What about the boyz?