Let's Rein In The Women

See Tweet Here

Today on A.M. Joy, Jehmu Greene said that the man who said he wants to 'rein women in' was Sam Ronan, who is running to lead the DNC. His entire narrative is a tiresome rehashing of the fauxgressive talking points during and after the primaries. He believes the left can be reformed if it determines that Sanders' entire mantra be embraced. The poor forgotten white man is still a central point. No, he never mentions the white man, he just says the failure of the left is having forgotten the working class. This, of course, was the same talking point Sanders used to draw the same misguided correlation.

The bullshit projected there and adopted by the media on the left is painful. I remember vividly last summer when Hillary Clinton was holding rallies in Pennsylvania about her jobs plans and MSNBC broke into her speech to see if she was replying to the fact that Trump had started a fight with Khizr Khan on Twitter. When they determined that what she was talking about wasn't remotely tabloidesque, they cut away from her rally speech and went back to the punditry banter over all manner of nonsense wholly unimportant to the working class voters, and everyone else.

Hillary Clinton had an amazing platform for the working class to raise wages, lower taxes, protect our unions, strengthen small businesses, and every other damned thing you would expect from a REAL Progressive platform. Thoughtfully compare that to Sanders' platform which was focused more on outlining the issues American workers face than defining any actual plans (or means of funding them) for progress.

Clinton traveled the country giving Americans her vision for our future and how to move forward. The fact that every American didn't make it to a rally to hear that vision is not her failing, nor theirs. It is the failure of both the media who found ad buys more enticing than our democracy, and the fauxgressives who spent their time demanding both sides were rotten and only Saint Bernard could save the world. Don't fucking get me started ... there is little chance I will ever stop.

ANYWAY .... Back to my point.

The same people who project the image of the forgotten working class white man are the same people who remind us that 53% of white women voted for Trump. Pause and reflect. If a majority of white women aren't voting as Democrats, isn't it just slightly indicative of an issue speaking to women? And why might that be? I would say if a fauxgressive who is seeking to lead the party spends time thinking out loud that women need to be reined in, we have found a good place to start our reflection.

Of course real Progressives want to move women forward. Of course real Progressives believe in income equality. Of course real Progressives believe a woman should have the ONLY say in her reproductive and family planning choices. But if our party can be hijacked by a group proudly led by a man who writes rape fantasies and can dismiss them as being satirical while ignoring women during the entire campaign, maybe the party has a lot more work to do for the women who are being condemned for not hearing the message. It sounds to me like they probably have. The message they hear is the message our society projects - women need to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down. Women have all of the rights they need. And of course, women have destroyed the Democratic party. Do you think that's a stretch? Name me one Democrat who was maligned over the last two years who also has a cock. Thanks.

I will conclude my tirade by reminding you that most women on the left are what I call 'universal mothers.' You don't have to be a mother to be a universal mother. I sincerely believe it is inherent. Universal mothers are those of us who see every issue as a personal issue because they hit all of our children. We demand that the myriad concerns of true Progressives (those which the fauxgressives demand have been too distracting and alienated the white men) are all personal to us. We are fighting for LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter, immigrants, Muslims, campus rape victims, education, disability rights, gun control, mental health coverage, climate change, health care reform, criminal justice reform, etc. These are the issues that America's children face. And America's children are all our children.

If someone wants to lead the Democratic party to a place where 53% of white women aren't voting against their own interests, it would be in the interest of the Democratic leadership to remind themselves, so they can project that reminder to American women, that ALL OF THESE ISSUES are a sincere and beloved facet of our party. If our leadership can spend time denouncing them, they can hardly spend their time reminding American women why these issues are so important.

Trust me, the white man will be just fine. I'm sure having had unchecked privilege throughout our entire history is very comforting and the idea of allowing others to move into the foreground is unsettling. The objective of a REAL Progressive movement would consider it their responsibility to better explain the genuine necessity of inclusion instead of finding ways to counter it. No single aspect of our platform should be hindered to make anyone else more comfortable. And this woman is here to tell you, any motherfucker who believes women need to be reined in needs to exit stage right. Immediately.


Kiss Kiss...

Mean Progressive

Well Done! Sister Suffragette

Today I posted a link to the trailer of the movie Suffragette in a 'feminist' group on Facebook. The group calls itself "This is What a Feminist Looks Like." I was immediately attacked by 4 people who told me that this was a terrible movie because it didn't depict the movement correctly for black women. I was removed from the group (apparently this is NOT what a feminist looks like) when I asked them to even tell me why they were all saying this and was shocked at the new language I was hearing about my supposed white privilege (from here in the trailer park) and that I was a believer in 'white feminism,' a term I didn't even realize existed.

Once I was blocked from the group, I used my other account to go in and see the discussion that followed. Apparently, one young 'feminist' who wanted to condemn me as a racist posted a picture of one of the hoodies I've designed for my shop. I guess reading its message and considering the context was too much to ask of someone who can't be bothered to have mature dialogue with a human being who respectfully asked for their side of the argument and received only trash talk in response.

Are there complexities in this message that I cannot see?

The young ladies who didn't realize I had been blocked went on to educate me about all of the black people who had been left out of the movie. Of course, they were all Americans. I researched all of them before posting this and the people did not have anything to do with the suffrage movement across the pond. You see, as I was attempting to inform these young women before I was so graciously dismissed from the conversation, the movie is about the movement in London. The movement, itself, is what I wanted to celebrate and encourage us to show excitement about because OUR MOVEMENT is repeatedly accosted and given more negative connotations than positive in our society. Regardless of where the movie is located, if we dismiss the accomplishments of those who came before us because we don't like the manner in which they were achieved, we also have to dismiss the progress that they made. Frankly, I'd rather not.

The media and social media are the resources most used in order to get the messages out about anything in our national discourse. The media, itself, can hardly be expected to direct the narrative to the conscience of the country, they don't have a conscience themselves. And what does the left do when they are given an opportunity to celebrate or educate about some facet of its movement? Well, we take a shit on it. Every single time.

Its funny (in the way that its not remotely funny), but I actually researched the beginnings of a recent Battle Royale held between ourselves earlier this summer to see if my suspicions were accurate and that they were started by someone on the right. The attack was against the Black Widow character in the latest Avengers movie. The attack was specifically against the writer/director Joss Whedon by saying he hated women and the character wasn't quite feminist enough for them and she offered a negative stereotype against women. All of these people determined that he hated women. I literally shut down that conversation on Twitter by passing this meme around. I had it saved in my personal happy place file because I have been a huge fan of his since back in the Buffy days.

I was convinced that this entire controversy came out of some place on the right and I determined I would trace it. Wanna know where I traced the beginnings of this nonsensical frenzy to? A guy who lives in London and is an editor for Breitbart. Yep. He decided it was something radical feminists would jump all over and talk about without having actually seen the movie or having had a single idea what they were talking about. And, sadly, he was right. Nice work, ladies.

Because I had missed previous discussions surrounding the new movie, I researched our latest feminist attack on feminism (Goddamn ... any wonder why we can't get anything done in 100 years?). Apparently it all started when the female leads of the movie were all wearing this shirt for a photo shoot and people found it offensive. I will not research it, but I would not be surprised if someone else wants to, they will find that the right injected just one little well-placed nugget into the Twittersphere and allowed us to take it from there. Let me be quite clear: If we ask the RWNJs to direct our narrative, they will be happy to oblige. If we give them an opportunity to perpetuate divisions within our varied movements, they will gladly take it upon themselves to do that, too.

Please breathe here for a moment and then hear all of the things that no one could have said in 140 characters:

The movie is set in London. The quote on the t-shirts was from Emmaline Pankhurst, played by Meryl Streep in the movie. That quote was her response to how she felt at that time. This isn't about Americas history with slavery. By acknowledging that white women have been oppressed, no one is discounting the fact women of color have been, as well. And by celebrating the accomplishments of those women, we are not dismissing those who were not included in that struggle.

Having been enslaved means more than being black. That is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, especially in America, and for good reason. But slavery did, like it or not, offer the same legal freedoms to all blacks as it did to all women. We were not allowed to vote or allowed to own property and we, too, were property. (I am only speaking in legalities, again, obviously the treatment of these human beings was quite different). We were not mentioned in the Constitution until we were given the vote (1920). Because we were not able to pass the rest of the Equal Rights Amendment, that is still the only right that women have, per the Constitution.

For various reasons, throughout the last century the ERA has had its ass kicked by feminists. There were always divisions among those who argued about which rights they wanted and how they wanted to have them enacted. Historically, we have fucked ourselves out of meeting our own goals. Fabulous, huh?

Maybe we could all unite, not fall for dog whistles and look for reasons to disagree with one another? Maybe when opportunities come up for us to celebrate womanhood and those who preceeded us in this fight we could do that instead of looking for reasons to dismiss their accomplishments?

God Damn. The right has it so easy, don't they? They can just all agree to rewrite history or ignore it altogether because they don't really have anything to be proud of. Instead of throwing that in their faces and cheering ourselves on to victory, we are demanding more of our history. Reflect quietly on that sentence, please. We cannot rewrite our history, either. But by denouncing it as if every element of it had to meet today's standards, we condemn ourselves to having had no accomplishments.

If this movement is to get anywhere, it really is time to be more thoughtful about where you project your angst. Pissing off and alienating those who are literally fighting along side you on our journey to move (or drag, if need be) Americans forward is only going to do two things: #1 Give the Regressive Party just the tools they need to ensure NOTHING is accomplished (and did you notice how many of them were anxious to jump into your fight and confuse the argument even further on social media?) #2 Scare more people from joining our movements in the first place.

I leave you with a quote from Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand. This regarded Princess Sophia, of India, who battled prominently in the London movement and was celebrated, regardless of her skin color:

“The empire took everything from her father but she spent her life fighting for women’s rights in this country. She believed there was something stronger than racial hatred and it was the sisterhood.

Please, my feminist sisters, pause and reflect. We want to move forward WITH you, not IN SPITE of you.

My most sincere Love,
Mean Progressive

There Is A War On Women! And We Are Losing!

The right goes out of its way to make a mockery of the phrase 'War on Women.' They are desperate to spread the word that the real war is being waged by the left because by claiming there is a movement against us we are creating victims out of women, instead of heroes. In their conflated logic, either we can promote all women to equality or just celebrate those who have already made it there. This makes as much sense as the rest of their rhetoric so I will just leave it right there. In their desperate attempt to protect American women in this war, the Regressive Party is presently attempting to pass a law that is literally unconstitutional. Although the Supreme Court held in its Roe V Wade decision that abortions were legal and the states could not decide until the time that the fetus could be deemed 'viable,' it offered no specificity on the term. Six years later, in Colautti V Franklin the court told the states (and has not since changed its opinion):  

“[N]either the legislature nor the courts may proclaim one of the elements entering into the ascertainment of viability—be it weeks of gestation or fetal weight or any other single factor—as the determinant of when the State has a compelling interest in the life or health of the fetus.

Abortions after 20 weeks make up 1% of those performed annually. They are done out of necessity, not on a whim. Women have these procedures because they have been determined necessary by the doctor and the patient after having discussed health concerns. Many birth defects cannot even be detected until 20 weeks with an ultrasound. And most insurance companies will not even pay for ultrasounds until 20 weeks so the line is drawn right there, isn't it? What if you can't have a doctors appointment until the very day of your 20 weeks? What if you cannot get in until the following week? What if the doctor tells you on the day of your 20th week that your child has a birth defect and you have to decide immediately? Do you have time to go home and discuss options with your family? Will the doctor perform the surgery that very day? The obvious answer is: NO. Of course, no intelligent person is having this discussion and only irrational people are screaming about nonsense meant to distract anyone from having  meaningful reflection on the human beings (those which are already actually alive) who are left in these situations and what we would be allowing them to go through if this bullshit passes Congress.

These are the women who have 20+ week abortions

All rational discussions can only begin right here: Abortions are a legal medical procedure. Once you begin in the correct frame of mind, a thoughtful human being has a lot of questions to ask themselves and, more importantly, their society:

Why is it that in America we have had legal and safe abortions for over 40 years and have had to fight so hard to maintain that right? Why are our 'representatives' allowed to create laws to limit and restrict our rights? Why are they allowed to go on a witch hunt and determine Planned Parenthood is the purveyor of all evil in the country and attack them so blatantly? None of the funding for abortions is paid for by federal funds. That reminder comes up every time that we have the Planned Parenthood argument. Although it is an important aside to this specific argument, it also begs the question: Why? It is a legal right. Why are they allowed to deny funding of a legally legitimate health care procedure?

Why are states allowed to pass laws to create a waiting period? and consent? and limit where a procedure can be performed? and dictate the policies of the hospitals/clinics performing the surgeries? and force women to listen to an ultrasound or read specific literature? 

The answers are simple. And tragic. 

Roe V Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973. The objective of the anti-choice activists and politicians has been very singular ever since: Have it overturned. They take every opportunity they can find to challenge any aspect of the ruling they think there is a precedent for (or they can have a state create for them) and their steadfast objective has been successful. The Supreme Court has repeatedly allowed the cases to come before it and each time they have the verbiage and the meanings behind those rulings have made the statues more hazy. The Regressives, if nothing else, are masters of word play and repeatedly concoct ways to dismantle the ruling one piece at a time.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled on Planned Parenthood of SE Pennsylvania V Casey, where three centrist judges (Kennedy, O'Connor and Souter) wrote a joint opinion which remind us of something that will be true for as long as radicals try to limit women's rights:

"The Constitution serves human values and while the effect of reliance on Roe cannot be exactly measured, neither can the certain costs of overruling Roe for people who have ordered their thinking and living around that case be dismissed.

Although reflection of the opinion quote above can give us all pause and remind us of the truths about objectives, ultimately the Supreme Court decision in Casey created so many holes in the language of Roe V Wade that the entire 23 years since have offered voice to every radical who wanted to find a way to let semantics dictate our rights.

Those presently running for President are falling all over themselves trying to prove that they are the most ardent supporter of the anti-choice movement. This hearing on Congress, no doubt, is a great opportunity for three of them in the Senate to take the spotlight off of Trump for a minute. And the governors can use this time to boast about their own records.

Jeb Bush was able pass a law in Florida where women seeking abortions needed to get consent. Described here, he even went out of his way to stop abortions by women who had been raped (yes, she needed consent from her rapist):

"... involving a 22-year-old rape victim who was both pregnant and developmentally disabled, Bush asked a court to appoint a guardian to represent the woman's fetus. The woman had been raped while living in state-supervised facilities, but did not have the mental capacity to identify her attacker.

And for a child whose parental consent would come from the State ... In 2005, Bush fought to prevent a pregnant 13-year-old girl, who was a ward of the state, from having an abortion. He was overruled by a judge, and CNN later reported that Bush's "abortion activism shocked some state officials who believed he was reaching beyond the powers of his office." 

Jeb Bush, I feel it is important to point out, is a perfect example of why this rhetoric around abortion rights is, indeed, a part of a War on Women. In 1995 he wrote, Profiles in Character, a book meant to explain that society's ills are due to our neglecting our own responsibilities by giving them to the government (its quite contrived but this begins their discussion about why we should have small government so the rich can pay fewer taxes - the latter part, of course, is always omitted from the argument). Society was failing because of the number of unwed pregnancies and the offense here was, quite clearly, society's tolerance of female promiscuity. There is a place for women and in his dark world, it is clear that he thinks its his job to get us back there:

"One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out of wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful.

Yep. This prefaced his signing a law requiring women to put an ad in the local newspaper listing all of the men she had slept with before being allowed to put her child up for adoption. The notice had to contain a physical description, including, but not limited to age, race, hair and eye color, and approximate height and weight of the mother and of any person the mother reasonably believes may be the father; the child's date of birth; and any date and city, including county and state in which the city is located, in which the conception may have occurred. This had to run every week for a month. No War on Women here. Not from a man who wants to deny funding for your abortions and embarrass you out of even having an adoption. Nothing here but good old fashioned care for unborn 'children.'

In last weeks debate Chris Christie beamed over his own record of having defunded Planned Parenthood and voting against it each of the 8 years since. Glorious! Although this account is actually misleading (I know, you are shocked), it is telling of his role in the War on Women. He eliminated $7.5 million for women's health care funding, none of which went to abortions. 

I live in Ohio. 74% of Ohioans are opposed to shutting down Planned Parenthood. That won't stop our governor and current Presidential candidate, John Kasich, from sticking anti-choice legislation in bills that have nothing to do with health care so no one notices. He has already cut half of the states clinics. This fall he is expected to sign a new bill which will ban women from choosing to terminate because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down's Syndrome. PAUSE. This bill is actually trying to tell women what their reasoning can be for an abortion. If that is not offensive enough for you, consider what precedent that sets. Remember, that is what all of the states have been trying all along: set a precedent to take to the Supreme Court.

Kasich obviously doesn't care about representing 74% of his constituents. This is pervasive with candidates on the right. Even though only the radicals on the right support anti-choice legislation, the candidates will continue to fight. If it is something their electorate does not support then why do they overwhelmingly vote against women's issues? 

BECAUSE THERE IS A FUCKING WAR ON WOMEN. God. Damn. 

Don't allow people to confuse the discussion by throwing a word like 'feminazi' in a sentence or pretending to give a shit about 'life.' We live in a society where the women's movement hasn't moved much at all. We live in a society that accepts condemnation for those who fight for our rights. We live in a society that tells itself the rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment aren't necessarily attributable to women. Does that sound like bullshit? Is this Mean Progressive being dramatic?Then why have we still not passed the Equal Rights Amendment in nearly 100 years?

Every opportunity that we have had to make a stand and ignored it while hoping others will step up and do their part brought us to this moment. And do not be mistaken, THIS MOMENT is crucial. The House has managed to get enough votes to defund Planned Parenthood. This is a lot more than their usual antics. It is an imperative that this be stopped. Please go to this site and fill in the blanks. It takes only a moment.

Click Here

Go to this site and sign up. I get emails whenever anything big is going on and that is how I know to inform you all. If you ever miss one of my posts (why would anyone ever do that? wink) you will still be able to get information on what is going on.

Click Here

Please donate to them if you can. They have been fighting too hard for too long just for the fucking right to care for our nation's women. They deserve all of the support they can get. 

Donate Here

There are a number of things we can all do to protect this sacred women's health institution which take no time at all. They are outlined here. The most important, however, is to make more women (and men) aware of the movement and the truths behind the stories the media has managed to either mangle or ignore altogether. We Are Losing This War. And that is unacceptable. 

Finally, make it your mission to find 5 (or more) women and make sure they understand how important this is. Make them understand this is not just another rhetorical gesture. Their rights are seriously on the line. And, if you can keep their attention long enough, explain to them the rights they think they have that they really don't. We have to begin moving this conversation along. I can bitch about it to you all every day, but you already know. Ranting isn't going to be enough. We need to make all women as angry as we are. Let's go!


Did you make it all the way to the bottom? I love you :)

Kiss Kiss.
Mean Progressive

It Is Our Time

As mothers, we fight for the Black Lives Matter movement because they are all our babies and it is nonsense that anyone could think otherwise. As mothers, we fight for the LGBT community because they are all our babies and no one should dismiss them. We fight for everyone. We forget to fight for ourselves.

Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood. This is a VERY BIG deal. This is the womens movement. This is their attempt to get abortion on the agenda and to take away healthcare for American women. Last week Mike Huckabee suggested he would do anything he could to stop abortions and when asked if that meant using the FBI or federal troops to stop abortions, he said the use of troops to enforce was not out of the question. Abortion is legal. It has been legal for 40 years now. It is a right for women.

Is that what it would look like if a woman wanted to get an abortion in Mike Huckabee's world? Is this an acceptable idea? We have to speak out. We must demand that our rights are not disposable. I would never have an abortion. I had a choice when I had my daughter. Having been adopted and knowing how hard it is to grow up adopted, I knew I couldnt make that choice. Because of the way my brain works I knew I couldnt have and abortion. I knew that I would beat myself up for the rest of my life and focus on the "what ifs" until I made myself crazy. I chose to have a child. I CHOSE to allow the fetus inside of me to grow into a human being that I gave life to. THAT WAS MY CHOICE. No one can take any of the choices away from women. I will fight for the rest of my life to make sure that all women have the right to decide what is best for them and what to do with their own bodies.

Tomorrow the Senate is going to vote to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood, their biggest target for their War on Women. They have threatened to shut down the government. They use Planned Parenthood as a boogey man. The monies that Planned Parenthood uses from the government goes toward cancer screenings, sex education, protection, and health care for women.   All of the things they provide enable women to make healthy choices about their bodies and their families. This is what the Regressive party wants to take away from us.

We are treated as children. We are the mothers of this country. We are the mothers of the politicians who demand we should not have a right to make our own choices with family planning. Today we have a right to our own bodies, it has been in question since we decided it was so and it became legal, but it is legal. And it is our right regardless of how other people see it. They simply must not be allowed to take our rights away.

Please do not confuse this as anything other than a very deliberate attack on womens rights. There are many things in the news this weekend that are interesting. Please do not let any of them distract you from the one issue that you can have a voice in. Demand that your Senator know your view. Demand that this issue is not about abortions but about womens rights. Demand that as a woman you will not accept anything other than a "Nay" vote which is the only way your Senator can actually represent their constituency. Planned Parenthood offers healthcare to millions of women. We are demanding that all Senators represent all women.

The best way we have is to fight by demanding the Senators actually think about the women they are supposed to be representing. Email, tweet or go on the Facebook page of your Senators. Let them know and all of the people who follow them that you demand your rights be protected. Give other people in their tweets or on their Facebook page something to think about. I also suggest contacting the big corporate donors who support Planned Parenthood and demanding that they compel the Senators represent women properly.

That is all that this is about. This is not about anyone wanting to 'save lives.' This is just another attempt to take away the rights of women. These are the same leaders who have yet to allow the ERA to pass. Please fight. Today. Compel others to do the same. Our rights must be part of the revolution we are finally seeing in America! We can fight for our babies of color and our babies in the LGBT community while we fight for ourselves, too. This is the chance. NOW is the time.

To Save Planned Parenthood

Have a moment with the information above. Imagine how many Medicaid patients in rural areas would immediately lose health care and cancer screenings if federal funding for Planned Parenthood were banned.

This issue is about women's health. Regardless of how many distractions we are offered or attempts are made to misdirect our focus, the necessity of Planned Parenthood in our country is profound. The millions of women who would completely lose their access to family planning and cancer screenings can not become irrelevant by those who mean to create controversies for votes. We must demand that women are more important than that.

Because the issue of abortion is a wedge issue and some of our politicians are presently trying to compel their base to rally support so they can get a spot in next weeks Republican debates, Rand Paul has determined to have a Senate hearing Monday to eliminate all funds to Planned Parenthood. They have allowed for hysteria to distract themselves and their constituents from the essential work that this group is doing. As none of the federal funds go toward the issue they are debating, it is insulting to think they would be holding a hearing to get rid of monies which are directly used to care for women and families.

My hope is for every thoughtful human being who reads this to take a quiet moments reflection on what our society is telling us when our legislators, those we hire to represent us and our needs, spend so much of their time trying to create laws to remove our rights and offer so much of their energy trying to take down a single organization whose sole mission is to care for the needs of American women. This all comes down to one issue. That issue is abortion. Abortion has been legal for 40+ years now. The majority of Americans support freedom of choice. Even many Republicans support that right.


This is the list of Senators who are a member of the Republicans for Choice, a group who believe that the GOP principles should embrace freedom of choice. Please reach out to them if they represent you and remind them what it means to be representing your healthcare needs.

Susan Collins of Maine: @SenatorCollins
Mark Kirk of Illinois: @SenatorKirk
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska: @LisaMurkowski




The Man who is proposing this bill has this on his fundraising page. Make sure that he and the companies united to support women in this country understand that Americans think that the nations objectives should embrace the rights of women, as well.

Please contact these companies today and thank them for making the health of women a priority while compeling them to contact the Senate and insist our government do the same.  Thank you.

If you contact the companies through Twitter make sure to use the hashtags #SavePlannedParenthood #WarOnWomen and #NOW as they trending and will make more people aware of the companies who support women's healthcare.

Adobe: @Adobe @AdobeCare
American Cancer Society: @ASCAN @Cancer
American Express: @AmericanExpress
AT&T:  @ATT
Avon:  @AvonFoundation
Bank of America: @BofACommunity @BankofAmerica
Bath & BodyWorks: @bathandbodyworks
Ben & Jerrys: @BenandJerrys
Clorox: @Clorox
Coca-Cola: @CocaCola
Converse: @Converse
Deutsche Bank: @DBAmericas
Dockers: @Dockers
Energizer: @Energizer @EnergizerBunny
Expedia: @Expedia @ExpediaMedia
Exxon Mobil: @KenPCohen @ExxonMobil
Fannie Mae: @FannieMae
Ford: @FordFoundation @Ford
Groupon: @Groupon @GrpnGrassroots
Intuit: @Intuit @TurboTax
Johnson & Johnson: @JNJCares @JNJGlobalHealth
LaSenza: @LaSenza
Levi Strauss: @LeviStraussCo @LeviStraussFdn
Liberty Mutual: @LibertyMututal
Macy's: @Macys @MacyFoundation
March of Dimes: @MarchofDimes
Microsoft: @MSFoundation @Microsoft
Morgan Stanley: @MorganStanley
Nike: @NikeFoundation @Nike
Oracle: @Oracle
PepsiCo: @PepsiCo
Pfizer: @Pfizer
Progressive: @Progressive
Starbucks: @Starbucks
Susan G Komen: @SusanGKomen
Tostitos: @Tostitos
Unilever: @Unilever
United Way: @UnitedWay @LiveUnited
Verizon: @Verizongiving @Verizon
Wells Fargo: @WellsFargo

Regressive Women's Health

Right. Go to Rand Paul's website and you will promptly be invited to donate to his campaign. This is the message he chose to send to Americans who want him to lead us all. It never surprises me when they flaunt their arrogance and their ignorance. It pisses me off, though. I, too, believe in the rights of men. However, I'm partial to this new fangled way of thinking where everyone should have an opportunity to the same rights.

I'm sure many in the Regressive Party will condemn me for playing semantics. True, it is beneath me. But that is the only weapon they seem to have. So I will gladly point out the fact that any noun at all could have filled that space. He could've used "American's," "Humans," "Everyone's," but he didn't.

Rand Paul uses only semantics here to explain his new position against choice. For any who are not sure what he is talking about, don't feel bad, he isn't either. You see, no woman will walk into a hospital the day before she is due to give birth and get an abortion. The Regressive Party has been using this nonsense to promote the miseducation of people who can't (won't) think for themselves. Again, critical thinking is a gift some of us are not born with. This talking point is meant to diminish a woman's right to choose an abortion after 20 weeks. They never allow the conversation to go beyond rhetoric, of course, because 20 weeks is about the time that technology can detect birth defects. And their argument also completely belies the fact that when a doctor determines a late-term abortion is necessary, it is to spare the woman's life or health. As much as we all enjoy our second class citizen status, maybe we could let up just a bit when it is actually talking about life and death?

Because their use of semantics is so pervasive in all of their talking points, it makes it too hard to point them out every day so I usually give them a pass. Today, however, Paul gets none. He is, at present, passionately compelling those in the Senate to vote for a bill he proposed to cut all funding for Planned Parenthood next month.

The videos which have been leaked lately are meant to be fantastical. They are only shocking to people who lack the capacity for reason and who are anti-choice. Those are the people who were already going to vote for Rand Paul. This will end up being another waste of his rhetoric and time in the Senate because it will not garner a single new vote. He may, however, be able to lose some. Every woman on the right who believes in choice will be given a chance to hear about these attempts every time we take the time to explain them. There are many on the right who believe in choice. The Regressives call them "RINOs" (Republican in Name Only) and don't really even consider them a part of their party.

Unfortunately, many of the RINOs don't pay enough attention to realize what has become of their party. They are traditional Republicans who have always walked into the voting booth, checked the Rs and gone home. They feel content having done their civic duty and will show up again in 4 years to do the same. Because they don't pay much attention, however, they don't realize that their party has been hijacked by the Regressives and they don't realize that the ideals which were once held as sincerely radical in their party are now those which define its platform.

If these RINOs only hear bits and pieces of what is going on in the country from people at work or at family functions, they might be horrified to hear the rumors about Planned Parenthood. Its pretty easy to set them straight and let them know that the tapes were profoundly altered and then ask them to think about what the actual takeaway from the hysteria is without any outside influence. Then remind these RINOs that Planned Parenthood is an essential need for many women throughout the nation who don't have access to family planning and gynecological care in rural areas. Remind them of the many resources they offer to millions of Americans. Finally, remind them that the Senate is voting to cut all of their federal funding because they oppose abortion. Don't forget to add in this discussion that #1 abortion is legal and #2 Planned Parenthood receives no federal funding for abortions #3 tissue donation should be a revolutionary way to create live-saving medical advancements, not create controversy. The RINOs are the ones on the right who aren't sheep. Thoughtful discourse is possible with them.

We have time to make sure they are aware. Each of us. One at a time. And we also have time to call our Senators and tell them what we plan to do. And tell them we will be making sure to keep track of how they vote on Planned Parenthood next month.

Don't be confused by their wordplay. There really is a genuine War on Women presently being waged by the Regressives. And it really is time that we fight back.

Dear Media: ABC I Have Snap Judgment for You and Whoopi Goldberg

Yeah? You know what Whoopi (and all producers of The View)? Your show is supposed to be a place for women to come together and hear perspectives of other women. Regardless of whether or not one identifies as a feminist, a community for women should certainly not be perpetuating patriarchy. Whoopi's comments and blind support of Cosby are so extreme and unsettling that its comparable to those in society who demand that President Obama is a Muslim terrorist because they haven't yet been given enough evidence to support the idea that he isn't. What evidence do you think you are going to get these many years later, Whoop? Do you think we might be able to find some DNA from a hotel room in 1967? Do you think the rapist has a video library someone might be able to dig up? Will you need 100 more women to come forward and give similar testimonies? I am disgusted by this blatant disregard for the rights of women and compel those who run The View to sincerely consider the voice you are sending to American women and the voices her big mouth has managed to already force off of the show because she is such a bully (ehem...Ive been paying attention and I am not the only one).

Whenever I have an opportunity to put someone in their place about 'supposed' domestic violence allegations, I gladly take it. I will always do the same for rape, too, Whoopi Goldberg. It is curious that these are the laws, both overwhelmingly perpetrated against women, which are acceptable to question the validity of. Just by questioning allegations, one not only negates the victim, her trauma and her safety, but also perpetuates the societal norm which implies that women aren't trustworthy and any violations against them will require extensive scrutiny whenever reported.

It pisses me off  whenever I have to deal with anyone who contends that we do not live in a patriarchal society. One literally has to forego reality to sincerely believe that. For nearly 100 years we have been unable to find 2/3 of states to ratify the ERA and one of our two major political parties is still working tirelessly to take our rights away as if our capacity to decide what to do with our bodies and how to manage our own families is just too much for us to be entrusted with.

In America it has always been acceptable, and even encouraged, to promote women as sexual objects, but at the same time it has always been absolutely unseemly and disgraceful for a woman to explore and express her own sexuality. Such was the case when Lisa Bonet, the actress who portrayed Bill Cosby character, Dr. Huxtable's daughter, Denise on The Cosby Show in the late 80s. I remember when he came out and publicly condemned her for having been in a movie called Angel Heart and doing a sex scene, but I wasn't old enough to see it in the theater at the time. I remember thinking it sounded like she made a porno by the way Cosby made it sound and was disappointed because she was my favorite of all of the Cosby kids as I identified with her free-spirit. I was too young to understand that I was in a patriarchal society, but Cosby wasn't, and neither was Whoopi Goldberg. That should've given her a clue about his ideas about women.

It is unbelievable to me that ABC is giving us a woman's voice that is willfully diminishing the place of women in our society instead of promoting us. ABC has had plenty of allegations of promoting contempt toward women in the past with lawsuits filed for discrimination in hiring and creating shows to display women as they 'truly' are: fighting over men and looking ridiculous on The Bachelor, back in the days of their understood and accepted subjugation on The Astronaut Wives Club and being backstabbing little minxes on Mistresses. Well done, ABC. Maybe you should just come out now and endorse every Regressive Party candidate running for any office anywhere. Its quite obvious your opinions of women coincide.

Yes, Virginia, There Is A War On Women

Please take a moment to watch the above. It is only one minute long. It is true. It is a fact. I wrote about this a couple of months ago and was shocked by how many people (many women) wanted to argue with me about their belief that it was a lie.

This is why the laws we have aren't enough. Again, it is just one minute. And it is SO Important.

Okay. So we are now all starting from the same place. I admit that I am a Mean Progressive, but I am lovely to all people with open minds and I sincerely hope that this message gets out to all women, regardless of party affiliation. It is time for us to put an end to this ridiculous patriarchy we have been dealing with since we got here. 

Last weekend, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a Regressive group, held a conference in Washington DC and, curiously, the only thing you can find about it in the news is a "reported" bomb threat. You know, because the Christians in this fine nation of ours are under constant threat by all who mean to persecute them. I promise the threat was one they created themselves so they could have a means of documenting their persecution just two days after they tried to tell America that a massacre in an historical southern black church was because of their faith.

All of the Regressive hopefuls for the presidency were there and pandered to their base. The jaw-dropping revelation was that one of their noted speakers was Phyllis Schlafly. She is like 90 something. Not kidding. Apparently it has not yet occurred to those in the GOP that when your esteemed speaker on women's issues has to be helped on the stage and needs to use a walker to get to the podium, it may be time to consider condemnations about your attempts to take women back to the 50's. Not only is she the physical embodiment of that truth, as she dons a dress which was certainly fashionable then, but she narrates it quite gloriously, too.

Schlafly literally opened her speech by bragging that the very room they were standing in was the one she was in when they were able to bury the ERA in 1982. When I watched it I caught myself before I let "Bitch!" come out as I recognized she is elderly. But then I realized she is also a bitch. And I let it go! She went on to tout the glories of conservatism and the needs to maintain their views. She sincerely believes that it is a bad idea for women to make as much money as men because they will find themselves unable to land a man as their egos will be bruised. The entire purpose of being a woman, according to Schlafly, is to be a wife and a mother. She publicly denounces income equality often. She even said, "The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap." And do not misunderstand me, she said this last year.

(Here is a link if you want to see her speech, she comes on at 1:08:00. The entire thing is 4 hours)

It is telling that this was the conservative leader who was invited to speak last weekend. This was the voice the Regressive Party wanted to offer to the women of their party. These were the reminders the leaders of their party believed they needed to hear. In 2015.

At this convention all of the Regressive wannabes took the stage, one after another, demanding the right for women to control their own bodies be taken away. We were reminded of proud cuts to Planned Parenthood, successful attempts to shut down various abortion clinics, passing partial birth abortion bans, etc. And the crowd cheered for them all. This was the message they wanted to hear. In 2015.

Of course this is a group who apparently only have two things on their agenda: #1 Demand our nation allow absolutely anyone to build an arsenal without a 3 day cooling off period. #2 Demand a woman have very little opportunity to choose what to do with her own body but if she can find her way to the resources needed, she needs a 3 day cooling off period.

How has it been nearly 100 years and the ERA has been unable to be ratified in 2/3 of these United States? I don't know? We are mothers. Maybe it is in our nature to worry about taking care of everyone else's needs and that has allowed the movement to go unheard. But, as mothers, it is time to recognize what society we are building for our daughters. It is not selfish to demand equality for ourselves. And it certainly isn't selfish to fight for the generations of women who will follow us. We are sharing this country and not sharing the same rights to it. And that's bullshit.

Presently the Regressive Party War on Women is moving along quite well. Of course, they have Mike Huckabee trying to explain that it is a War for Women. But, Mike, you see, a war for women doesn't assume that we don't have the capacity for reasoned judgment to determine what we can do with our own bodies or families. A war for women doesn't tell my employer that they are entitled to religious objections to my family planning choices. A war for women does not allow for funds directed to DNA testing of rape kits to be misappropriated and ensure the rapists freedom while endangering more women and perpetuating my fear. A war for women doesn't give us statistical proof of our earning a fraction of what men earn and tell us we are overreacting to demand better. And a war for women certainly doesn't champion the work of the woman who battled tirelessly to kill the Equal Rights Amendment.

So, Thanks Mike, but we will take it from here. We will carry the mantle you have managed to drop, kick and set ablaze. It is our work. It is our responsibility to inform all women that they are not remotely entitled to the freedoms they think they are. And it is important to do that while pointing out the myriad rights which are presently being taken away.

Let us not wait for the 100th anniversary of the first attempt to raise our voices.

These are my ideas to start:

You can start by going here to sign a new change.org petition.

You can go to the ERA website to find answers to whatever questions you have running through your head.

You can go here to find your Senator and here to find your Congressperson  and send them an email or a fax NOW. Save their phone number in your phone. Set your phone to remind you to call them during their office hours and DO IT. The reason the right has such an amazing field game is they have organized their crazies to do this daily. And that is why their base is so strong.

Make a list of 5 (or more) women you know who will be pissed to realize that the ERA has never passed. And insist they do the same.

Sit Down. We've Got This!

We live in a misogynistic society. You have to literally be developmentally challenged to not realize that. It was a common question to ask, "I wonder what she did to deserve that?" when Ray Rice was seen knocking out his girlfriend. Because, you know, sometimes a woman needs to know her place. We are still fighting to get equal pay in America and then being told we are whining to discuss it. We have a woman running for President and it is considered an appropriate question on every news channel to ask about whether or not she should run because she is a grandmother and might just prefer playing with the baby instead. If America is to progress in a meaningful way where it is respectful to, and accepting the equality of, women, it has a long way to go when women are still finding obstacles in defining their own place in society.

Corporations are presently being offered a voice in what is deemed acceptable for women. The infamous Hobby Lobby debacle is a wonderful example of that. Hobby Lobby cited that they shouldn't have to allow a worker to receive birth control with the insurance they provide because it was against their religious rights. A company, apparently, can have a religion. Who knew?

Wal-Mart, a well-known bastion of ethical superiority in American culture has recently decided that they would not sell a soon to be released book by UFC fighter, Ronda Rousey, titled My Fight, Your Fight. Wal-Mart cited that the book was too violent. The cover art is a close up picture of the author with only her eyes showing above her wrapped fists. The picture is certainly not violent. It's actually pretty bad-ass. The story inside is an autobiographical reflection of her upbringing and overcoming odds to make it to winning in the Olympics and then having a successful career in the UFC. I guess the fights in the book may be violent. You can, of course, buy video games of UFC fighting, or movies showcasing the ultimate battles of the UFC. Wal-Mart even sells a book about the rise of the UFC. And, we need not forget, this is a great place to stock up on your weapons and ammunition. But, somehow, an autobiographical piece about a woman showing a lifetime of struggles and triumphs with an eventual ascendancy in a male dominated career field was deemed too violent for their sensitive customers. After a lot of controversy surrounding this choice, Wal-Mart decided that they would sell her book, but only on line where no one could see it on the shelves in the store. But as a thoughtful consumer, you could also go absolutely anywhere else that sells books. It is not available until May 12, but you can pre-order her book here.

American women are still trying to have the final say in our own health care. In February of 2012, Congress held a hearing over birth control access and the entire board was made up of men. There are plenty of women in Congress who could've been invited to sit on the board, but they were not. These males meant to be representing the women of America in Congress decided they would only invite clergy to testify. Male clergy. They were not determining the best means of ensuring this health care option for women, they were determining if those women might be infringing on someone else's freedom of religion by using birth control. Glorious!

Recently, Mike Huckabee countered the idea of the GOP waging a 'War on Women' by telling us that it is really a 'War for Women.' Well that's certainly generous, Mike! How so? ... He explained that they are fighting to redefine women as they had been. You know? Back when he was comfortable with their place in the world. It is very hard for him to handle this era where women are allowed to wear what they want, say what they want, work where they want, be in leadership positions, procreate when and if they want, and from his many tirades of the past, I would assume he has had this problem since 1973, at least. When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee went out of his way to personally deny the states payment of a Medicaid claim to an abortion clinic where a 15 year old had gone after having been raped by her stepfather. He really is just a vile creature. When most deemed it a bridge too far, he was one of a handful of Republicans who proudly jumped on the 'legitimate rape' bandwagon when it rolled out. I cannot write about it without losing my shit. If you don't know, look it up. He has made the most awkwardly inapproriate dismissals of women publicly, with no provocation. In 2012, he posted on his Facebook page a comment telling his followers that men are better than women at multi-tasking and women are even worse while on their period. It is beyond my comprehension why any human being would find the need to post that idea. He condemned Natalie Portman for getting pregnant out of wedlock. He picked a fight with Beyoncé saying that she was a bad example for young girls. He clearly gets out of sort when women rise in the ranks of their careers to find the kind of respect he will never achieve.

I had to laugh when he recently told America that only trashy women use bad words. Maybe he really thinks he is in the 50s. Maybe he needs an analyst? He is quite obviously intimidated by women or he wouldn't spend so much of his time trying to define them so negatively and compel them back to an era of accepted subjugation. Thanks, Mike. We've go this. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Maybe no one has ever told you but, you are completely irrelevant. You will never make it through primaries, let alone a general election. That is because of your irrelevance. (And the fact that women are allowed to vote). I know that makes you crazy. Get over it. And go Fuck Yourself. (sorry, was that not lady-like?)

The fact that we have so many insecure men in power is unfortunate. They are an embarrassment to their party and themselves. Although they like to say that the right is not promoting hate of women, nobody from the left has been identified as having such vulgar and debasing ideas. As much as Huckabee is an absolute joke and would never make it through to the general, I kind of hope he gets through the primaries. I sure hope he announces soon, too. Its high time we have him all over every news channel and tell all of Americas women just what he thinks about them. It is very important that they realize what has become of the GOP. I don't think a lot of them know.