Amanda Hess has a great blog called The Sexist  over at the Washington City Paper website. She recently blogged about a case in Ottawa wherein a hospital worker had sexually assaulted a female patient. In convicting the man of sexual assault, the judge cited the woman's attractiveness as evidence -

"...It’s depressing that even as a judge convicts a man of sexual assault, he insists upon reinforcing the most victim-blaming sentiments about women bringing unwanted attention onto themselves based on how they look and what they’re wearing."

Unbelievable isn't it? Click here for the full post.

Activist Shelby Knox gives a great shout-out to Sara Audelo, Advocates for Youth's very own Manager of the Youth Activist Network, and the Hanger Project in her article From a Young Woman to (Some) of the 'Menopausal Militia.' It's a great article on the generational issues within the reproductive rights movement, and Shelby forcefully challenges accusations against young people for supposedly not caring about reproductive rights. Way to go Shelby, Sarah and the Hanger Project!

In a post titled "To the Anonymous gay teen who asked for help in a Boing Boing comment thread" Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing writes a moving message to a gay teen who feels trapped due to his parents' ill feelings (and subsequent actions) towards his being gay.  Xeni lists Amplify (though slightly mis-represents it as a soley LGBTQ site) on a list of resources for this teen, which was extremely exciting to see!! Click on the link above to check out the full post!

 

This is such a powerful video testifying to the realities of rape in the US Military.  Sgt Sandra Lee says something very important- that while the staggering statistic is that 1 in 3 women in the military are raped, she was not among that statistic because she did not report it.  So can you imagine how rampant the issue of rape is in the military for both men and women?  This is such a sad and serious reality that clashes with the overly glorified image of the military in American culture.  

RaceWire talks more about this issue here.

Chinese company Gigimo has created the Artificial Virginity Hymen, which costs around $30.00 and is marketed as a product to "help newly married women fool their husbands into believing they are virgins".  Male Egyptian politicians are outraged that such a product will make it easier for Egyptian women to "give in to temptation" and are fighting to ban the product to "uphold Egyptian and Arab values" that deem sexual activity acceptable only within the "confines of marriage". 

I love the use of the word "confines" and "marriage" seeing as the Egyptian and other Arab states are trying to confine a woman's sexual experience within a strictly regimented social construction that is the institution of marriage.  While binary politics does not get us very far, this story begs the question "where is the male equivalent of a so-called virginity test?"  The truth is that you can't quite test a man's virginity and yet the truth is that you can't quite test a woman's either.  These virginity tests determine a woman's sexual status based on whether or not they bleed when the hymen is penetrated by a penis during sexual intercourse.  Such tests are problematic because not all females are born with hymens and hymens can be broken through non-sexual activities (i.e. horseback riding).  Additionally, these tests don't account for/are not sympathetic to incidents of rape wherein the hymen (if it did exist) was broken during the act.  In essence these virginity tests do nothing more than commodify female bodies and reduce them to products for men- their values increasing or decreasing depending on perceived and "tested" sexual innocence. This is just another form of patriarchal oppression my friends.

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A recent phenomenon with the advent of mass access to cell phones is this thing called "sexting" - which refers to the sharing of sexually oriented material via cell hones.  I personally have never "sexted" but remember being very close to doing it.  

I didn't get a cell until my senior year of high school and at that time photo capabilities on cells weren't widely available yet. It wasn't until the latter part of college that I got a flip phone with a camera. It was at that time that I found myself trying to take some R-rated photos to send to my boyfriend. Alas I didn't have the nerve to click the button and called my boyfriend to say that I couldn't go through with it. He didn't mind and I never thought about it again until I started seeing all these cases in the media about sexting gone wrong. 

While I am all for (responsible) sexual liberation, there is an obvious need to help educate people about how to be critical consumers and producers of media generally and about sexting in particular.  Girls Rule!, an organization dedicated to empowering young women in the Chicago area, recently published a great article to help parents talk to their kids about sexting: "Girls Rule! Parent ToolKit: Talking to Youth About "Sexting." I think it's also a great read for fellow peer educators should you ever find yourself talking to a someone about sexting.

 Check out this nifty packaging featured on Lovely Package:

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I walked into a local CVS on my way home from work recently. Browsing through the store I came across the condom section. At first glance nothing looked amiss, but as I walked closer I noticed that, even though they weren't behind glass doors, they were in fact locked!

These locks are a little trickier because they're slightly hidden behind the price label and can't be seen unless you look closely. I didn't need to purchase condoms at the time, but I remember thinking to myself that I would feel uncomfortable having to go to an employee and ask him/her to unlock a box of condoms for me. 

With all the horrific statistics about the spread of HIV and other STIs, and studies showing that locked condoms are disproportionately affecting low income and minority communities, it's really upsetting to see condoms locked up like this. The fact that they're locked up may very well deter people from purchasing and ultimately using them to have safer sex.  If you haven't already, go here to join others in signing a petition to CVS Corporation encouraging it to stop locking up condoms.

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When I read this blog post today I immiediately had images from The Matrix running through my head- remember the scenes of all the humans in pods being "harvested" by machines? Sad thing is, something similiar to this is happening in real life. Amanda Kloer's post "Nigerian Baby Farms Breed Slaves from Slaves" addresses the baby farm phenomenon wherein Nigerian girls are being trafficked to literally breed children; children who are then sold to unsuspecting parents who want to adopt a child or into slavery. Girls are paid $170 for their efforts. Read more by clicking the link above.

A very good friend of mine just posted a great article on Wiretap that illustrates how important it is for all people to be well-informed about sexual health issues, and the dangers of blindly trusting healthcare providers to know and do what's best for you: "Bad Doctor: Tips on Sexual Health for Women"

She shares her experience with a horrible gynecologist who acted unprofessionally and made her feel uncomfortable, confused, and ultimately disenfranchised. Every woman (and man) has a right to accurate sexual health information and services. No one should ever be questioned as to why they want to be tested for HIV or any STI.  In fact, people like Diana should be commended for being proactive about their sexual health.  I applaud Diana for sharing her story and hope that it will help prevent other women from going through the same experience.

Bristol Palin is interviewed on "Good Morning" about teen pregnancy. Photo from here.

Last February, Bristol Palin (daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) stated in a Fox News interview that abstinence is "not realistic at all". But this morning she appeared on Good Morning America and said that abstinence is "realistic"- completely backtracking from what she originally claimed. In her interview this morning she explains that her quote from the Fox interview was taken out of context: "[Not having sex] is the safest choice."

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Hello from the 2009 Sex::Tech conference in beautiful San Francisco, California!! Terica and I are here representing MySistahs and we just finished up our first full day of workshops and presentations. The day began with an AMAZING performance by Buckworld One, a hip hop theater troupe from Southern California (check them out on YouTube!). They're opening piece was particularly moving and a fitting start to the conference. It featured a young woman and a young man expressing the pain and the beauty of a healthy, love relationship- with all the challenges as well as rewards- through an extremely heartfelt and powerful buck dance routine. The whole performance really set the tone for the conference- that of passion, energy and commitment. We later attended a full day of workshops and presentations on the intersections of technology and sexual health education. Overall the conference has been very informative, with the speakers all being very interactive and engaging.

We're both so excited to be here and are so grateful to have this opportunity to learn and to meet fellow activists!

I came into work this morning to see this article on MSNBC's homepage: "Pope: Condoms not answer in AIDS fight." Being Catholic, but one that is turned off by strict Catholic codes of conduct as it pertains to sex and contraception, I quickly clicked on the link.

Earlier today Pope Benedict XVI made his first direct statement on the growing AIDS epidemic by saying that "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms...On the contrary, it increases the problem," and claims that the current AIDS crisis in Africa is simply due to "a deficit of ethics in economic structures."

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