Why hasn’t the US press covered the voices of 6 female Nobel prize winners… on a matter that affects women in a particular place, but that to a greater or lesser degree impacts all women throughout the world including in the US, where women are the object of domestic violence and rape perpetrated often with impunity?

This is a very sad story, but the story becomes larger when you realize that the press in the US does not consider important what 6 female Nobel prize winners do on behalf of other women.

This is the story:

“Rigoberta Menchu, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Wangari Maatahi, joined womens groups from throughout the world in Ottawa, Canada, to condemn the murders of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz and her daughter, Rubí Marisol Frayre, and to demand to the Mexican government presided by Felipe Calderón a swift and expedite resolution of this case” (Source link)

Marisela was murdered in the main plaza of Chihuahua, in front of the State government palace, and under the view and vigilance of authorities. The cameras from the government buildings caught the entire event.

The following video shows when three judges unanimously let the perpetrator free, and the mother screams in anguish. Then the scene in the plaza shows how the mother is protesting, setting banners in front of the state capitol; she can be seen trying to flee the assassin, crossing the street, but he kills her.

Video source (Warning: The following video depicts an actual murder.  Viewer discretion is advised.):

The sequence of events:

Under the existing violence in Mexico, particularly in the state of Chihuahua, where I am from, a male took advantage of the climate of violence to murder his wife, Rubi Marisol Frayre, thinking it would be easy to get away with it. Well, it was. Since he has political influence, he was able to get his case dismissed. The mother of the young woman murdered, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz went to protest in front of the State Government palace, after she herself had for two years to investigate the murder of her daughter because the authorities would not do it. They dismissed the case because of lack of evidence.  Sounds familiar?

Once she got enough proof , the murderer was convicted because he confessed that he killed her and set fire to her body. Nonetheless, the murderer has been able to flee, even when the woman had told in advance several times the authorities where they could apprehend him. Under this circumstance, she decided to protest in front of the State Government Building. A video shows how a gang member comes and murders her ( the mother, Marisela), and everyone in Chihuahua thinks it was his son in Law who ordered the murder. To this day, he is still at large.

The climate of gendercide in Chihuahua is well known worldwide with the unsolved killings of hundreds of young female factory workers. Women’s groups associate this with the climate of discrimination and mistreatment of women in the state.

“The six Nobel Prize winners reminded in their declaration that the

Interamerican Court of Human rights,in its sentence against the Mexican

state because of the murder of the hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez,

declared that the State has maintained a policy and culture of

discrimination against women, which causes gendercide and its subsequent impunity”

If you want to follow up on this story you will have to do it in Spanish, as our press has not covered it in the US.

Other links:

Nobel Womens Initiative

The Cutting Edge News

Women’s Rights in the News

We at TNA would like to honor the five women at Husson University who put their own lives on the line to subdue a male who was stabbing another woman in a parking lot on campus.

One of the women had just taken a self-defense class and was able to formulate a quick plan to disarm the attacker.  In this day and age where people don’t wish to get involved it is even more heartening to know that these young women joined together, saved a life, and got a violent offender off of the streets.

So hats off to these glorious women of Husson University we are so greatful for your bravery!

People that support Polanski’s charges being dropped have been arguing that it is a crime that took place so long ago that it should be forgotten.  They argue that the ‘70s was a time of promiscuity and lots of illicit drug use.

Should that really matter?

I don’t think that it should. A crime, is a crime, is a crime.  The man may have a tragic history, but that doesn’t erase the fact that what he did was wrong.

Just because things took place in the past doesn’t mean that they’re suddenly all right.  Another example of this is a picture that has been closed off to the public in the Tate Gallery in Britain (see an article about it here).  The picture, taken in 1983 shows a ten-year old Brook Shields in a bath tub wearing heavy make-up and nothing else.

This is art?

Just because the actress is an adult now does not mean that this image can be categorized as art.  Just because time has passed doesn’t make this image suddenly acceptable.

Saying that what Polanski did should be forgiven or that we can now display images of sexualized, nude children and call it art leaves young girls in today’s society vulnerable.  Perhaps someone somewhere thinks that they can get away with rape just like Polanski, or they can take pictures exploiting young girls and call it art.

Just because these things took place in the past and involve famous people shouldn’t make a difference.  What if it was your niece, daughter, or granddaughter?  Wouldn’t you want action taken then?

We need to stand up against things like this and say that it’s unacceptable.

On New Year’s Day 2008, two beautiful young girls, Amina and Sarah Said were murdered by their father in so-called honor killings. Aasiya Hassan was beheaded earlier this year by her husband. As The New Agenda’s Amy Siskind has previously pointed out, many women’s groups have refused to address these acts of violence because they consider it a cultural issue rather than a woman’s issue.

Perpetuating the cycle of violence against women by placing it under a cultural lens is unacceptable.  Women’s groups should not ignore violent acts against women simply because what may have occurred due to “culturally accepted practices.”

Amina and Sarah Said

I think that the problem with this is that women see these practices as something that is happening to “them” not something that is happening to “us.”  Female circumcision, honor killings, etc. are things that are cultural issues and are not thought of as gender issues.

How can anyone that claims to be concerned about women and girls ignore the incident in which two young Dallas girls were murdered by their father?  It seems that their mother even played a role in these “honor killings.”  The blog from the Chesler Chronicle that discusses the senseless death of the two young girls talks about how the mother in the case is just as guilty for complying with her husband’s wishes and for ignoring the abuse of her daughters.  I believe that women’s groups that ignore what is occurring are just as guilty.

People everywhere have to speak out and say that these things are not okay.  Women and girls cannot be treated this way no matter what the context. If women’s groups start to speak out then I believe that a lot of women from other cultures can begin to see that there is another path that can be taken.  In the case of the two girls, if someone had spoken to their mother years ago and shown her that there was still a way to reconcile her culture with progressive ideas about women then she might have spoken up for her daughters; then this might never have happened.

I know that the culture in which I grew up can be misogynistic in many ways, but change has come about as a result of women speaking up and insisting that change has to take place.  Progressive ideas about women in cultures that almost seem to consider violence of women to be the norm usually comes about because women have educated themselves, whether formally and informally, and have passed on that knowledge to other women in their cultural groups.

There are so many wonderful things that can be attributed to cultural differences and I think that while it is important to acknowledge these differences, this doesn’t mean that we have to ignore what is fundamentally right and wrong.

The media’s sexist reporting of the Bridgeville, PA murder rampage is another example proving they won’t acknowledge hate crimes against women. A male blogger who wrote for months about his inability to relate to women then walked into an all-female dance class and shot twelve women, yet none of the articles I read mention the words hate crime, bigot, sexist and the reporters didn’t call feminist groups for a quote.

The media reports the details of hate crimes against women and girls when they are very gruesome and horrible because that will increase readership. But they avoid reporting the violence is a hate crime because the media is extremely male dominated, thus they promote male domination which is threatened when the public is informed about the enormous damage sexism causes. So they’ll write things like: “…Sodini wrote rambling messages about his hatred of women and how he was tired of being rejected by them” without actually stating he was sexist.

They’ll write, “a gunman walked into a fitness center near Pittsburgh, firing up to 52 shots only at women” without actually using the term hate crime.

Earlier this year Marilyn Ferdinand wrote an article for Feministing criticizing the media for generally ignoring the fact that the German school shooter targeted women and girls (Gender “disappeared” in Albertville school shooting).

When a man went to an Amish schoolhouse, separated the boys from the girls, bound the girls and shot them the media avoided calling it a hate crime. I read many articles about the shooting but none of them stated the man was sexist, and they apparently never contacted feminist groups for a quote and they framed the story as a revenge crime for something that allegedly happened to the shooter 20 years earlier but all the victims were age 13 or younger.

Complaining to the media will help motivate them to stop being prejudiced against half the population of the world. If the new hate crime bill gets passed that will also help to increase awareness of hate crimes against women and girls because it would protect victims of violence based on hatred of a person’s gender as well as other demographics. Currently the law only protects people who are victims of violence motivated by hatred of a race, color, national origin or religion.

A fair press is essential to democracy so citizens have the knowledge necessary to rule. If a gunman had targeted blacks then this would be reported as a racist incident and black leaders would be constantly on the news talking about racism in America. But when there’s a hate crime against women and girls the media does everything in their power to block out the feminist community from speaking out in support of our own.

According to sportswriter Christine Brennan, ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews deserves some of the blame for having been videotaped nude – on account of her beauty.  As ABC reported, Brennan first commented on Andrews’ partial culpability on a sports radio show.  Then Brennan followed up on Facebook  and Twitter with this:

“On the Erin Andrews situation, a quick thought for those who have asked: There are hundreds of women covering sports in this country who haven’t had this happen to them. I wish it didn’t happen to Erin, but I also would suggest to her if she asked (and she hasn’t) that she rely on her talent and brains and not succumb to the lowest common denominator in sports media by playing to the frat house.”

Christine Brennan

I am really sickened to see the victim blamed in these situations. Andrews’s privacy and the sanctity of her body have been violated, and yet Christine Brennan accuses her of being responsible for the actions of the violator. Unlike some other women’s issues, this is not some controversial moral debate because both people in this crime are separate individuals in charge of their own actions. In this situation, there is a clear right and a clear wrong. Christine Brennan and the man who violated the privacy of Erin Andrews are, in my opinion, clearly in the wrong.

What bothers me even more is the prevalence of blaming the victim in our country. In 2006, a group of men in ages ranging from 13 to 40 forced an 11-year-old to perform sexual acts on them. I have saved an Associated Press article (published here by FOX)  titled “Wis. teen gets 5 years for sex assault on girl, 11″ Subheading is “The 2006 attack involved as many as 20 men and boys over several hours” It stated:

A number of women in the girl’s neighborhood said the males involved were good people who made bad decisions.
“Five years? Ten years? That’s ridiculous,” said LaToya Bell, 22, sitting on a porch with four others who nodded in agreement. “They (are) getting time for nothing. That girl, she knew what she was doing.”
Denying responsibility by saying the girl appeared willing is contemptible, said Cordelia Anderson, a child sexual abuse expert in Minneapolis.

Blaming the victim reaches beyond socioeconomic factors and across the various careers, even into the world of entertainment.  A New York Timesstory about rapper Chris Brown’s battering of Rihanna revealed the attitude of teen girls, including these quotes:

She probably made him mad for him to react like that. You know, like, bring it on?

She probably feels bad that it was her fault, so she took him back.

The prevalence is more horrifying than each individual incidence. Blaming the victim is the worst injustice that can happen in our society, and this belief system will enable more crimes and more heinous acts to thrive. When the next generation of American citizens – raised in a culture of blame the victim – reaches adulthood, we will have a new generation of police officers, lawyers, and judges who believe that women should be held accountable for the crimes of men. We need to stop this injustice, and we need to pull our culture out of its degrading blame the victim ideology.

When I was 8-years-old my life still centered on dolls and toys.   As far as I know, boys in my age group were concerned about whatever was the latest action figure tied commercially to some cartoon, sports, or trading cards.

Since this is my recollection of childhood I found it particularly disturbing to read about an 8-year-old girl in Arizona who was sexually assaulted by four boys ranging in age from 9 to 14.  By all accounts the boys played into the girl’s innocence by luring her to a shed with the promise of chewing gum.

As if this information wasn’t shocking enough, the reaction of the girl’s family has drawn further outrage.  Her parents have blamed her for bringing shame on the family and have even gone so far as to tell a case worker “Take her, I don’t want her.”.  While many of us cannot fathom such a response to the rape of one’s child, law enforcement points out that the families of the girl and the young boys are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.  Cultural differences are obviously coming into play here, but this is no excuse for what happened to this girl and the treatment at the hands of her parents; and, it is not the only instance of a young girl being sexually exploited and not being able to turn to her family for support.

This story comes at a time when other stories of sexual abuse are in the news such as the trial of Tony Alamo who is accused of sexually assaulting girls as young as 9 years of age.  Of course, Alamo is denying all the allegations.  What is also interesting in this case is that in many cases the young girls were actually turned over to Alamo by their parents.

Doesn’t it make you ask yourself:  What in the world is going on!?

Childhood should be a time of innocence, not one of fear, and yet the young girl in the Arizona case has not only lost her innocence, but most likely her family as well.  All the women who have testified against Alamo have also talked about having their innocence taken away.

Who do we blame?  Do we blame the media for bombarding us with sexualized images of younger and younger looking girls (see Amy Siskind’s blog on the subject here)?  Do we blame those who refuse to teach young adults about sex and sexuality because of fear of corruption and giving them the wrong impression when it might actually prevent unsafe or violent sexual behavior?  Do we blame ourselves for not speaking up about these things?

One thing I know is that we CANNOT blame the victim!

We need to speak out and say it’s not okay to turn young girls into sex objects.  It is not okay for anyone, anywhere to treat women like second-class citizens.  While we do concentrate on women’s issues in the U.S., it is also important to realize that the world is becoming a smaller and smaller place due to immigration patterns and advanced modes of transportation and communication.  How many of us thought the that plight of women in Liberia would end up being something we had to address right here in the U.S.?

ESPN's Erin Andrews

Erin Andrews of ESPN is the latest victim. Reports are circulating that Erin was the victim of video voyeurism after someone shot video of her in a private moment through her hotel room peephole.

Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo writes:

Sexual assault — and, make no mistake, Andrews was assaulted — will. Voyeurism isn’t “boys will be boys,” or realizing that men are ogling your (clothed) picture. Voyeurism is about taking safety and security from a victim in a place they should feel comfortable.

I agree with Maggie that this is a sexual assault of sorts. Here’s a brilliant and knowledgeable spokesperson in her field who has been degraded into a sexual object.  And this type of sexualization and objectification of women has major impact that reaches far and wide. It’s not only our media personalities, it’s our women in politics (Sarah Palin for example), business and every other realm.

I experienced this type of sexual put down time and time again on Wall Street. While I was co-head of a department at Morgan Stanley 8 years ago, I recall interviewing a young man for a sales position. After I met with the interviewee, my co-head Mike went in to interview him next. Mike came out of the interview red in the face and looking ready for a fight. Apparently, the first comment this young man had made in the interview with Mike was a sexual comment about me. Needless to say he didn’t get the job; but it’s a terrible feeling as a woman to be objectified this way.

And we need more Mike’s that will stand up for women against this onslaught. It is such an easy thing to diminish women by making them into sexual objects. It’s one of the oldest tools in the woodshed in the degradation of female power.

This is part of the Next Wave.  We need women and like-minded men to speak out against this type of stuff.  We need mothers and fathers to say – hey – Erin could be my daughter and I don’t like it! We need, collectively, to make this type of behavior unacceptable.

And this is a teachable moment for those of us who are parents on this blog.  And not only to protect and fortify our daughters, but to explain to our sons what are acceptable parameters for judging our women in positions of power and in everyday life.

Here’s the apology:

What do you think? Is the apology genuine? Does Chris Brown deserve forgiveness?

VP Biden

My father was the one who taught me that the single most serious sin a man or woman can commit is to abuse power.  And the ultimate abuse of power is violence against women.  It has such incredible, incredible negative ramifications for generations that follow…

The vast majority of men that are in prison, behind bars for having committed a violent crime, they only have two things in common, basically:  one, they can’t read and two, they witnessed their mother being abused or they were abused themselves.  It’s totally counter-intuitive to people not in the field.  They think, “God Almighty if you saw you mother being abused, [that's] the last thing you would do.”  But it’s a learned behavior…

If you could wave a wand, If God came down and said, “Joe, you get one wish,” I’d say, “end violence against women,”  not just because I find it so repugnant, but because it has the single most significant impact on violence in America, against all people — against men, against women, against children…

There can be no — NO — excuses, NONE, for domestic violence, NONE.

Lynn Rosenthal (center) between Valerie Jarrett and Biden

…This isn’t a negotiable thing.  There isn’t some violence that’s permissible.  There isn’t some pushing or shoving or intimidation.  It’s just simply, simply, simply never justified…

One in four women are affected by violence in their home.  And our goal is to bring that literally to zero in four.  We know we can’t get it perfect, but that has to be the goal.  That has to be the measure by which we measure ourselves…

[Government] departments… in fact can do so much just by refocusing  (like they did in the Clinton administration)  to make sure that domestic violence and sexual assault are on the top of the agenda… I think the first thing that we’ve got to do is just put this back in play… Just get it up on the agenda.  Get every secretary in the cabinet thinking about it….

Each year America reports 48 million incidents of violence coming from an intimate partner, and, you know, 48 million.  Think about that.  [This is] the scary part: we don’t even know how many more million are never reported… Now, the one good thing about bringing this out of the shadows, this dirty little secret, is  more and more and more and more women are coming forward…

The worst imprisonment in the world is being imprisoned in your own home.  The most vicious of all crimes are “quote” domestic crimes…

Watch the entire speech here: