Hello, and welcome to the weekly women+’s issues/health thread!
Each Wednesday, someone will post a discussion with a few relevant news items from the last week, as well as a topic for further conversation. The prompt will serve as a starting point for those who may want to participate but don’t have a topic of their own they’d like to discuss – as long as it’s relevant to the discussion as a whole, anything goes.
Some guidelines to help this space be a positive experience for everyone:
☮ As always with the AVCAD, don’t feel compelled to share beyond your comfort level.
☮ Anyone who identifies as female, or who was socialized female/AFAB/otherwise has firsthand experience with the issues being discussed, is welcome to post. If you identify as cis-male, we ask that you please set your participation to “lurk” mode, unless otherwise explicitly invited to participate further (i.e. if we did an AMA kind of thread). I’m sure there’s plenty to be gleaned just by reading!
☮ Please do your best to be mindful of others’ experiences when commenting or posing questions for the group. The female identity is Legion and contains multitudes, and not everyone who has experience with being treated as female by society identifies as female. Furthermore, racial and ethnic identities, sexual orientation, and many other factors can color how one experiences their gender identity on a day-to-day basis. Simply put,
Updates from the world of womanity:
(Just FYI, we’ve got 3 different links up there)
It was a big one for women in the first election since Tr*mpocalypse 2016. A GOP member who decried the Women’s March was unseated by a woman he pissed off with his comments; a homophobic, transphobic Virginia House Delegate who wrote the state’s “bathroom bill” was deposed by a trans woman journalist (and metal band guitarist to boot!); a black woman became mayor of Charlotte, NC for the first time ever; the first trans woman of color to be elected to a major city council now represents the ~30K people in Minneapolis’s 8th Ward.
STUDY FINDS RISK OF CERVICAL CANCER LOWERED BY IUD
By as much as 1/3. Dang.
Chalk up another one in the “yelling ‘CONTRACEPTIVES AREN’T JUST ABOUT PREGNANCY YOU IDIOT LAWMAKERS’ at your Twitter feed” column.
GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES AMBASSADOR EXPECTED TO BE ANTI-WOMEN, ANTI-ISSUES, MOST LIKELY ANTI-GLOBAL
Penny Nance, Tr*mps presumptive nominee for the position, is currently the head of “Concerned Women for America”, a notoriously anti-feminist and anti-LGBT group. We’re talking “Planned Parenthood are the Mafia”, “homosexual lobby”, the whole enchilada. She’s even found stuff to dislike about the Violence Against Women act.
So, y’know, just in case you were worried that internalized misogyny wasn’t still alive and kicking…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“I don’t attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now.” – Danica Roem, Member-elect of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 13th District
DISCUSSION TOPIC OF THE WEEK:
RUNNING FOR OFFICE
Would you ever consider running for elected office? Why or why not? What concerns do you have that might hold you back? What would be on your platform? Would you run with a party or as an independent/in a non-mainstream party? What issues are of most import to you? What do you wish you knew more about running for office? What changes to the political process in your country/state/city/county would you like to happen before you consider running for office?
If you want to sign up to do this post in a future week, go right ahead! This list serves as both a sign-up sheet and as an archive for old topics. Check it out! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nBFdVjBdMVCwjw_H7R-k9qwthgV6HrzNiOtkKjxq8sk/edit?usp=sharing