Funding for FEMALE ERASURE ANTHOLOGY!

I am very excited to announce my contribution to the upcoming anthology FEMALE ERASURE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GENDER POLITICS' WAR ON WOMEN, THE FEMALE SEX AND HUMAN RIGHTS! I just donated to the IndieGoGo campaign and I hope you will, too!

QUESTIONS: WILL GERMAINE GREER’S LECTURE AT CARDIFF UNIVERSITY ON NOVEMBER 18, 2015 TAKE PLACE, AND IF SO, WILL IT BE WITHOUT DISRUPTION?

WILL MEMBERS OF THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY, THROUGH LIES AND DISTORTIONS, BE ABLE TO DESTROY GERMAINE GREER’S REPUTATION, NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS? 

Dear Readers:

My assistant, Madison, and I spent several days on the following entry. I realize that it is date and fact-filled, not a casual read.  However, whether we like it or not, a new era is upon us, in which not only are feminists having strong disagreements within ourselves on the issue of whether trans women are women, these disagreements are rancorous. They are tearing us apart.

I believe it is worthwhile to read through this blog entry, and I also believe that opening up each hyperlinks and reading full article is highly educational. 

I am hyperlinking you to Payton Quinn’s article on huffingtonpost.co.uk because she does really get past the name-calling, and states her reason for thinking that “the safety of trans people outweighs the rights of cis women to question the validity of their gender expression.”

Let me hear what you think.

In Sisterhood, Carol Downer

P.S.  Of course, I believe that I do recognize the validity of trans women’s gender expression, I only question that they can appropriate the term “women”.  (I believe that “trans women” is the correct term).

       

         Germaine Greer doesn’t consider post-operative M-to-F transgender people to be women.  She states this opinion forthrightly.  She also makes it clear that in no way does she oppose anyone’s decision to go through the procedure to appear and behave like the gender they identify with, and she will use the gender pronouns each person requests as a courtesy.  Nevertheless, transgender activists call her misogynistic claiming she continually misgenders trans women and denies the existence of transphobia altogether—and many feminists agree with them.  They do not address the key issue: does considering transgender women not to be women constitute bigotry in and of itself?  By the continued misquoting and distortions of Greer’s statements, they destroy her reputation for opinions and statements she’s not made, rather than ever discussing the statements she has made.

            An online controversy erupted after an online petition asked that the speech Greer is scheduled to give at Cardiff University be cancelled.   BBC2’s Newsnight interviewed Greer on October 23^rd, to respond to the petitioner’s charges.    

            My reading of a transcript of the interview shows Germaine Greer does not misgender trans women or express transmisogynistic views.  Despite this, she’s been misquoted and various statements have been incorrectly attributed to her to further attack her. 

Kirsty Wark’s questions create a veritable minefield for Greer to negotiate. Wark clumsily misgenders trans women throughout.  For example, she asks “if a man who is gender reassigned, and outwardly—and he feels, inwardly, he’s a woman--in your view can he be a woman or not?"

            Several online newspapers covered the story, and kept to the facts, ignoring Wark’s inept questions and accurately quoted Greer’s answers.   However, several commentaries in online media and blogs misquote her, others attribute statements to her that she never made.  In none of the attacks, did they address her controversial opinion that men cannot become women through drugs and surgery.  Instead, they put insulting or sarcastic terms and language in Greer’s mouth to characterize her as transmisogynistic.

            Richard Dawkins, an ethologist and an evolutionary biologist, decried the petition in a series of tweets.  He defended open debate at the university.  He was then accused of insulting the transgender community, although my reading of the language of the tweets clearly showed otherwise.

           

The amazing part is that it is possible for anyone to see these misquotes and distortions for themselves, because the disputed language is still online, yet the character assassination continues. So, it has to be asked, are the detractors so angry that their rational faculties have deserted them?  Or, do they assume that no one will go back and check for the accuracy of their statements?  Or, have the lines in the sand been drawn so deeply on this issue that the author assumes their audience will just read the headline and skip through to the “juicy parts” not caring if the statement is accurate?

            RICHARD DAWKINS DID NOT SAY THAT THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH GERMAINE GREER SHOULD NOT BE AT UNIVERSITY

            Amy Walker, on October 26, 2015, starts her article, “Richard Dawkins Insults Transgender Community” by copying a series of Richard Dawkins’ tweets.  One tweet:  “Students who suppress a distinguished scholar’s lecture because they disagree with her have no place in a university.” (online article on Planettransgender.com)  She then comments, “Yes, a university may not be a ‘safe space’, but to claim that people who disagree with a ‘distinguished scholar’ should not be at university is farcical….” 

            Dawkins not only did not claim that people who disagree should not be at university, he said the opposite.  His other tweet said, “Those who think it’s nonsense are entitled to stay away.  Or come and argue.  They should not censor views they think are nonsense.”

           

            Amy Walker either cannot read accurately, or her strong feelings are blinding her; otherwise, why would she display her own bias by running his actual statements right next to her distorted version of his statement for all to read?

            And what about Planettransgender.com?  Are articles reviewed to check for blatant errors?

GERMAINE GREER DID NOT REFER TO CAITLYN JENNER AS “HE/SHE” 

           

          In my experience, the use of the term, “he/she”, is derogatory.  In the U.S., if Greer used this term in her interview with Kirsty Wark on BBC’s Newsnight, she would definitely be called out by feminists. But, did she do so?  My reading of Wark’s question that preceded her statement, and her full reply casts doubt on the charge that she used the term “he/she”.

          In the “Amateur” transcript by commenter eigensprocket:UK that I read, Greer utters these syllables in response to the following question from Kirsty Wark: “But are people, you would say necessarily, born a woman, or born feeling female.  And if he feels more female..? (OPENS HANDS QUESTION GESTURE)…"

Wark’s question is unintelligible to me.  Is she referring to “people” or to “he”?

          Greer answers Wark’s earlier question about what Greer thinks about Jenner being considered for an award for being Glamour magazine's woman of the year.  She continues Wark’s use of “he” and then shifts over to “she” and refers to “other female members of the family”.   “It seems to me that he…that, ah, what was going on there is that he…he/she…ah, wanted the limelight that the other female members of the family were enjoying….”

          Omitting punctuation marks, Greer said three pronouns in a row; “he”, then “he” again and then “she”.  The transcriber uses “…” several times to indicate that Greer momentarily paused between these pronouns, and then paused between them and the rest of the sentence.  The transcriber’s slash creates the term he/she, even though the rest of the sentence shows she accepted Jenner’s self-definition as one of the female members of the family.

          Greer stated earlier in the interview that she would use the pronouns that a transgendered person wants as a courtesy.  Reviewing the context shows that Greer rebounded from a poorly-framed question to refer to Jenner using female pronouns and included her among her female relatives.

            On October 27^th, Kate Lyons’ commentary on Theguardian.com repeated the charge that Germaine Greer misgendered Jenner by “referring to her as he/she.  Lyons presumably was relying on a excerpt from the Guardian’s transcript of the BBC2’s Newsnight interview in Damien Gayle’s October 24th Guardian Article which didn’t include Kirsty Wark’s question, nor Greer’s twice-uttered “he”.  (Note: this transcript was not available online)

GERMAINE GREER DID NOT SAY THAT CAITLYN JENNER, TRANSGENDER WOMEN ARE NOT ‘REAL WOMEN’

            October 25^th, online magazine, jezebel.com ran Stassa Edwards commentary on Greer’s BBC2’s Newsnight.  The headline “Germaine Greer Says Caitlyn Jenner, Transgender Women Are Not ‘Real Women’. 

            According to the transcript I viewed, Greer did not make that statement on BBC2’s Newsnight, nor was there any discussion of any prior statement that transwomen were not “real women.” And, if she ever made such a statement, Damien Gayle didn’t mention it in his Guardian article, October 24, which Edwards’ cited as her source, “Caitlyn Jenner ‘wanted limelight of female Kardashians’- Germaine Greer, htttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/Oct/24/caitlyn-jenner-wanted-limelight-of-female-kardashians-germaine-greer.

DOES GREER THINK THAT TRANSGENDER WOMEN ARE NOT PROPER WOMEN

            Edwards’ disinformation about Greer’s comment that transgender women are not ‘real’ women is adopted by Kaite Welsh in her commentary in the online Telegraph newspaper to jazz up her characterization of Greer’s opinion.  Actually, Greer simply said they are not women.

            Cardiff University is not withdrawing its invitation.  Germaine Greer has agreed to speak.  Considering the intemperate and inaccurate statements made by Greer’s critics so far, I wonder if the event will come off.  Also, if she does appear on November 18, which is 2 days before Transgender Day of Remembrance and within Trans Awareness Week, I wonder if she will encounter protest similar to the “glitter bombing” of March 14, 2012.

  

FEMINIST ABORTION COUNSELING AND ABORTION DOULAS

By Carol Downer

The current radical doula movement is a breath of fresh air!  It’s bringing the skills of the birth doula to the abortion situation.  Forty years later and millions of abortions later, we still have not broken the shame barrier that keeps us from sharing our abortion experience with our family, or friends or our associates.  The information sharing of an abortion doula and her presence at the woman’s side may be the most powerful way we have to banish that feeling that many women experience even when they get their abortion in a well-equipped, competent clinic that either provides little if any informational and emotional support or goes overboard and “psychologizes” each woman who comes in.

Whether this movement realizes it or not, their revolutionary vision of providing this support to women of all colors and classes has very deep roots.  The women who started over 30 abortion clinics after Roe v. Wade pioneered the non-judgmental, informational counseling.  We took these ideas to the meetings of the National Abortion Federation (NAF); we held workshops, we held symposia.  Most powerfully, we incorporated these concepts into the very warp and woof of our clinics, and although only a handful of women-controlled clinics still survive 40 years of ruthless competition and harassment from anti-choice state agencies, we still provide this every clinic-day to every woman who walks in the door.

"Speculum of Power" by Suzann Gage

First and foremost, women are given straightforward, complete information from the first phone contact by “phone counselors” through the process of filling out forms, getting blood work done, to the procedure itself and the recovery period.  We find that women can be very nervous and “forget” the information; therefore specially trained counselors are there to answer any questions and reassure them.  Additionally, the clinic “traffic flow” is arranged so that women have ample opportunity to chat with each other, and very importantly, to see women walk out to leave who are being released to go home--healthy and able to give a cheerful wave to the woman that’s still in the process.

But, the work of the health worker who’s trained to know good procedure doesn’t end with comforting the woman getting the procedure.  She monitors the doctor, who is a contract worker who gets paid per procedure.  She makes sure he or she is respectful and skilled. We don’t have to worry that the doctor will use a cannula (the tube that suctions out the embryonic material) that is unnecessarily large, because we set up the tray and we only put cannulas out that are appropriate to the length of the gestation.

Abortion clinics keep informal statistics about the rate of women who come in for a post-abortion check-up.  It’s considered that a woman who’s had a positive experience will be most likely to come back in for the check-up.  (Unless she lives far away or has some other barrier).  Our clinics have a high rate of women coming for that check-up.  They also refer to us; they volunteer as escorts; and sometimes they even go on to become health providers themselves and become allies in the community.

40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

WHWH latest email:
http://eepurl.com/tPUMX

January 22, 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade the U.S. Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.  As it stands now, women seeking abortion care must walk through crowds of protestors; abortion providers fear for their safety; states are passing laws to make women seeking abortions go through waiting periods, obtain parental or judicial permission, or view photos of aborted fetuses; politicians vote against women's reproductive rights.

For a list of Roe v Wade events in the U.S. see Women's Health in Women's Hands latest email.  Please let us know any and all plans to commemorate this anniversary - we will include your event in this blog. 

"Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Birth Story Film, and Volunteer Midwife in Senegal"

http://eepurl.com/tPUMX

Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth - Chapter 2

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth by Ginny Cassidy-Brinn, R.N., Francie Hornstein, and Carol Downer
Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers
Illustrations by Suzann Gage

 Full Book AVAILABLE online for FREE

PDF of Chapter 2: Available ONLINE for FREE

Chapter 2: First, You Have To Get Pregnant

 SIGNS OF PREGNANCY

 Subjective Signs

Many women experience

• Breast tenderness
• Nausea
• Fatigue or sleepiness

Some women experience

• Breast enlargement 
• More frequent urination
• Weight gain
• Sensitivity to certain tastes or odors
• Cravings for or ability to eat only certain foods
• Changes in the appetite

Uterine Signs

•  Missed menstrual period (for most women)
•  Softer uterus 
• Enlargement of the uterus

7 weeks of pregnancy - the size of a lemon

9 weeks of pregnancy - the size of an orange

12 weeks of pregnancy - the size of a grapefruit

Cervical Signs

• Change of color to a deeper red or bluish-purplish 
• Softer cervix
• The os is more open than usual

Cervical Examination

    Looking at the cervix provides valuable information in pregnancy detection and is usually included as part of an examination by a physician or health worker.  It is even more useful for a woman to look at her own cervix if she has done self-examination before and is familiar with the appearance of her cervix when she is not pregnant.  Many women notice changes in their cervices by comparing what they see to the way it usually looks.  A darkening in color to a deeper red or bluish-purplish color is characteristic of pregnancy.  This is caused by the increased blood supply to the cervix and uterus.  This color change can occur within days after conception or, in some women, it doesn't become apparent until she is several months pregnant.  When a woman is several weeks pregnant, the cervix is softer and the os is more open than usual. 

Uterine Size Check

    Feeling an increase in the size of the uterus can be another indicator of pregnancy.  Since it is very difficult for a woman to feel her own uterus, this examination is usually done by a friend in a Self-Help group, a health worker or a physician.  A uterine size check or pelvic examination provides more specific information about the length of a pregnancy than looking at the cervix or a chemical pregnancy test does.  And experienced examiner will be able to tell with reasonable accuracy (within one to two weeks), how many weeks pregnant a woman is by the size of her uterus.  For example, the uterus is about the size of a large, unshelled walnut or a plum if a woman is not pregnant.  The uterus of a woman who is about seven weeks pregnant is about the size of a lemon; nine weeks, the size of an orange; and 12 weeks about the size of a grapefruit. Making the comparison of uterine size to fruit sizes is helpful for training women in Self-Help Clinics, health workers and physicians.  It is also valuable for graphically explaining to women about the increase in uterine size in early pregnancy. 

    If a woman has participated in a Self-Help group together to feel the size of her uterus and report if it feels softer or larger than it previously did.

    The length of time since the union of sperm and egg is usually measured from the first day of a woman's last menstrual period.  This is done for uniformity since many women do not know exactly when they became pregnant.  In fact, even when women know the exact date that they became pregnant, physicians still measure Gestation from the first day of the last normal menstrual period (LNPM).  The actual size of a woman's uterus is used less often by physicians.

    Any one subjective sign or observable characteristic of a woman's cervix and uterus is usually not enough for her to conclude that she is pregnant.  More often, it is a combination of these factors together with the knowledge that she was exposed to sperm at a time in her cycle when it was likely that she had ovulated.  However, some women have such regular menstrual periods that a matter of a few days of delay of their periods signals a sure sign of pregnancy to them.

    There are situations in which women find it difficult to determine whether or not they are pregnant.  Women who have irregular periods, who are under great stress, women who are nearing menopause, women who have recently stopped taking the Pill, or women who have signs of pregnancy often have difficulty in determining pregnancy without the help of a chemical test.  Occasionally, a woman has some bleeding around the time of her expected period when she is actually in the early part of her pregnancy.  Many a woman mistakes this for her regular period, especially if she has no other indication that she is pregnant.  Usually, this bleeding is different from a normal period; sometimes there is a lighter flow or the flow does not last as long as a regular period.  Also, having these episodes of bleeding can cause women or their physicians to think they have not been pregnant as long as they have been.  In these instances, having a uterine size check is particularly important. 

ABORTION DINNER by Shodhini Institute - DONATE!

Shodhini Institute is honored to HOST
THE 1st ANNUAL
ABORTION DINNER
Friday, December 7, 2012

Will you SPONSOR a seat for this HISTORIC ABORTION DINNER?

THIS ABORTION DINNER will HONOR 30 plus WOMYN who have experienced ABORTION.  It will be a space for WOMYN to share their stories and FREE OURSELVES from the encounter of shame and stigma; and allowing each other and ourselves to FULLY EXPRESS our own complex and unique experiences in order to facilitate healing.

As it stands now, women seeking abortion care must walk through crowds of protestors; abortion providers fear for their safety; states are passing laws to make women seeking abortions go through waiting periods, obtain parental or judicial permission, or view photos of aborted fetuses; politicians vote against women's reproductive rights.

We can turn this situation around if we talk to each other, privately and publicly about our experience with abortion.

At THIS ABORTION DINNER we are gathering to share OUR ABORTION STORIES over a lovely meal.  It's about time we get together, speak our truths and support each other.  We are reclaiming our bodies and our right to be free of shame and guilt!...And replacing it with sisterhood and collective action.  Shodhini Institute wants this ABORTION DINNER to be the beginning of a national campaign.

WILL YOU SPONSOR A SEAT FOR THIS HISTORIC ABORTION DINNER?

Our estimates are $30* per attendee.  But, whatever amount you contribute will make YOU a part of this HISTORIC ABORTION DINNER.

Donate* HERE or HERE

* THANK YOU gifts for $30 donation: A HEATHER AULT (print) greeting card and an "Abortion Speak Out Kit"

If you are unable to contribute, here are some quick actions to take online

• Post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and any other social-networking site(s).
• Post on your BLOG: Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Weebly, etc.
• Post on your Website 

"When hundreds of thousands of us start sharing our stories with friends and relatives, the cumulative effect of our honesty will be like the sun coming out from the clouds."

-Carol Downer

www.womenshealthinwomenshands.org

We are The Shodhini Institute that empowers and educates feminist women, Masculine of Center womyn, transmen, and gender non-conforming individuals about radical health and sex education with a holistic self-help foundation. shodhiniinstitute.tumblr.com