Aching to Pupate

Femme, feisty, feminist, finding it harder to alliterate than I expected. Twenty-something, vegan, queer, sex- and body-positive, book-loving, Jewish, kinky almost-college graduate. My feminism is intersectional or it isn't worth shit. Directing my life marginally better than a butterfly in a hurricane.

I'm kinda in love with my best friend.

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"Studies have found that black men tend to contract Aids through intravenous drug use and black women tend to contract aids primarily through unprotected sexual contact. When the ratio of men to women in a community becomes skewed, it leaves those women with limited options in their choice of partner and gives men undue power, which the latter sometimes exploit (refusing to use condoms because of decreased sexual satisfaction and so on). Fields said there is a direct link between women in dependent (or violent) relationships and HIV, for the very simple reason that these women cannot get their partners to wear a condom."  - Incarceration: when HIV infection does discriminate | Sadhbh Walshe (via sociolab)

"A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network."  -

£13trillion: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite | Business | The Observer

From the article:

The detailed analysis in the report, compiled using data from a range of sources, including the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world.

(via redlightpolitics)

it’s not a “lady part” or a “lady bit.” it’s a vagina. 

femetits:

to call it a lady anything is incredibly fucked up.

some ladies have penises. their penis is their lady part. you don’t have to have a vagina to be a lady.

some dudes have vaginas. you want to tell them they have a lady part? fuck you.

i am in no way ashamed to call myself a feminist but sometimes i am ashamed to be part of the feminist movement because y’all can be the worst. include non-ciswomen in your movement or you’re not actually fighting for equality.

buypositively:

Income inequality, as seen from space

May 24, 2012 by Tim De Chant

Last week, I wrote about how urban trees—or the lack thereof—can reveal income inequality. After writing that article, I was curious, could I actually see income inequality from space? It turned out to be easier than I expected.

Below are satellite images from Google Earth that show two neighborhoods from a selection of cities around the world. In case it isn’t obvious, the first image is the less well-off neighborhood, the second the wealthier one.

Click here for full story + more cities from Google Earth

Mandated paid maternity leave in countries around the world 

stfuconservatives:

other-stuff:

Afghanistan 90 days
Algeria 14 weeks
Angola 90 days
Argentina 90 days
Australia None ETA: No longer true - as of 1/1/2011, you get 18 weeks government-funded paid leave. -added by STFUConservatives
Austria 16 weeks
Bahamas, The 8 weeks
Bahrain 45 days
Bangladesh 12 weeks
Barbados 12 weeks
Belarus 126 days
Belgium 15 weeks
Belize 12 weeks
Benin 14 weeks
Bolivia 60 days
Botswana 12 weeks
Brazil 120 days
Bulgaria 120-180 days
Burkina Faso 14 weeks
Burma 12 weeks
Burundi 12 weeks
Cambodia 90 days
Cameroon 14 weeks
Canada 55% up to $413/week for 50 weeks (15 weeks maternity + 35 weeks parental leave shared with father)
Central African Republic 14 weeks
Chad 14 weeks
Chile 18 weeks
China 90 days
Colombia 12 weeks
Comoros 14 weeks
Congo, Democratic Republic of the 14 weeks
Costa Rica 4 months
Cuba 18 weeks
Cyprus 16 weeks
Côte d’Ivoire 14 weeks
Denmark 18 weeks
Djibouti 14 weeks
Dominica 12 weeks
Dominican Republic 12 weeks
Ecuador 12 weeks
Egypt 50 days
El Salvador 12 weeks
Equatorial Guinea 12 weeks
Estonia 455 calendar days (100%)
Ethiopia 90 days
Fiji 84 days
Finland 105 days
France 16 weeks (100%) rising to 26 weeks (100%) for third child
Gabon 14 weeks
Gambia, The 12 weeks
Germany 14 weeks (100%) 6 before birth
Ghana 12 weeks
Greece 16 weeks
Grenada 3 months
Guatemala 12 weeks
Guinea 14 weeks
Guinea-Bissau 60 days
Guyana 13 weeks
Haiti 12 weeks
Honduras 10 weeks
Hungary 24 weeks
Iceland 90 days 80% up to a ceiling of Íkr480,000 (€5,300, $6,700) monthly (minimum monthly payment Íkr 91,200 (€1000, $1,275) + 90 days to be shared between the parents
India 135 days (Central Government) 90 days or 12 weeks in State Governments
Indonesia 3 months
Iran 90 days
Iraq 62 days
Ireland 22 weeks (26 weeks from March 2007)
Israel 12 weeks
Italy 22 weeks (5 months) (80%) 2 before birth
Jamaica 12 weeks
Japan 14 weeks
Jordan 10 weeks
Kenya 2 months
Korea, South 60 days
Kuwait 70 days
Laos 90 days
Lebanon 40 days
Libya 50 days
Liechtenstein 8 weeks
Luxembourg 16 weeks
Madagascar 14 weeks
Malaysia 60 days
Mali 14 weeks
Malta 13 weeks
Mauritania 14 weeks
Mauritius 12 weeks
Mexico 12 weeks
Mongolia 101 days
Morocco 12 weeks
Mozambique 60 days
Namibia 12 weeks
Nepal 52 days
Netherlands 16 weeks
New Zealand 14 weeks
Nicaragua 12 weeks
Niger 14 weeks
Nigeria 12 weeks
Norway 54 weeks (12.5 months) (80%) or 44 weeks (10 months) (100%) - mother must take at least 3 weeks immediately before birth and 6 weeks immediately after birth, father must take at least 6 weeks - the rest can be shared between mother and father.
Pakistan 12 weeks
Panama 14 weeks
Paraguay 12 weeks
Peru 90 days
Philippines 60 days
Poland 16-18 weeks
Portugal 120 days
Qatar 40-60 days
Romania 112 days
Russia 140 days
Rwanda 12 weeks
Saint Lucia 13 weeks
Saudi Arabia 10 weeks
Senegal 14 weeks
Seychelles 14 weeks
Singapore 12 weeks
Solomon Islands 12 weeks
Somalia 14 weeks
South Africa 12 weeks
Spain 16 weeks
Sri Lanka 12 weeks
Sudan 8 weeks
Sweden 480 days (16 months) (80% up to a ceiling the first 390 days, 90 days at flat rate) - shared with father (minimum 60 days)
Switzerland 16 weeks (100%), 8 weeks mandatory
Syria 75 days
Tanzania 12 weeks
Thailand 90 days
Togo 14 weeks
Tunisia 30 days
Turkey 12 weeks
Uganda 4 weeks
Ukraine 126 days
United Arab Emirates 45 days
United Kingdom 6 weeks (90%) 20 weeks at a fixed amount (as of March 2006 = £108.85)
United States None 
Uruguay 12 weeks
Venezuela 18 weeks
Vietnam 4-6 months
Yemen 60 days
Zambia 12 weeks
Zimbabwe 90 days

The US and Australia with the outstanding 0 days or weeks of mandated paid maternity leave.

America and Australia are the only countries on the list without mandated paid maternity leave.* (I notice North Korea isn’t on there — we probably don’t have access to that information given that it’s North Korea and everything. Anyone know?)

In America, we have the PDL and the FMLA.

PDL. Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) which entitles you up to four months of unpaid, job-protected leave when disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.

FMLA.  Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) if you have been employed with the Company for at least one year, provides up to 12 weeks job protected leave.

So you get a few unpaid months off if you gave birth, and they can’t legally hire someone to replace you. But that’s about it. Shameful, America.

-Jess

ETA: Australia has a new legal policy where you get 18 paid weeks’ leave. So America is alone on this one.

"I absolutely reject the premise there is anything wrong with Black people “talking white”. It is as if to vast swathes of the privileged white left and impoverished Black community diction, education and a mastery of though is somehow “white”… comrade, how wrong you are to say that after decades in academia I’m acting white. I’m being black. I’m being black everyday a cop pulls my car over for a “routine stop”, I’m being black each time I look in the mirror, and I’m damn well being black when I school young fools out of the myth our race is too ill-evolved to be both black and accomplished."  - Elaine Brown, Secretary of the Black Panther Party, professor of sociology.  (via ifury)

Teacher Fired over Trayvon Martin Fundraiser 

What do you do with a teacher who provides students with authentic learning opportunities? A teacher who invests her own resources to support students? A teacher who was voted Teacher of the Year two of the last three years?

If you’re Superintendent Jacqueline Cassell at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence Middle School in Pontiac, Mich., you fire her.

When Brooke Harris contacted us last week, her first concern was not her career—it was her students. She worried that she had let them down by not fighting harder for her job. She worried that their essays on Trayvon Martin would no longer be included in the school newspaper. She worried that the superintendent in charge of their education would continue to underestimate them.

"So let’s have a little less talk about how the poor should learn to manage their money, and a little more attention to all the ways that money is being systematically siphoned off. Yes, certain kinds of advice would be helpful: skip the pay-day loans and rent-to-pay furniture, for example. But we need laws in more states to stop predatory practices like $50 charges for check cashing. Also, think what some microcredit could do to move families from motels and shelters to apartments. And did I mention a living wage? If you’re rich, you might want to stay that way. It’s a whole lot cheaper than being poor."  - Barbara Ehrenreich (via fragiilebones)

"At the same time that family income has become more predictive of children’s academic achievement, so have educational attainment and cognitive skills become more predictive of adults’ earnings. The combination of these trends creates a feedback mechanism that may decrease intergenerational mobility. As the children of the rich do better in school, and those who do better in school are more likely to become rich, we risk producing an even more unequal and economically polarized society."  - The Reproduction of Privilege - NYTimes.com (via sociolab)

"Although benevolent sexism may sound oxymoronic, this term recognizes that some forms of sexism are, for the perpetrator, subjectively benevolent, characterizing women as pure creatures who ought to be protected, supported, and adored and whose love is necessary to make a man complete. This idealization of women simultaneously implies that they are weak and best suited for conventional gender roles; being put on a pedestal is confining, yet the man who places a woman there is likely to interpret this as cherishing, rather than restricting, her (and many women may agree). Despite the greater social acceptability of benevolent sexism, our research suggests that it serves as a crucial complement to hostile sexism that helps to pacify women’s resistance to societal gender inequality."  -

- Peter Glick and Susan Fiske (via seaofbadstories)

I believe there have been several relatively recent studies related to the idea of benevolent sexism (also often referred to as “chivalry”). Even after a simple act, like witnessing a male researcher holding a door open for a female researcher, men participating in a study were more likely to display sexist views. Here’s a short article with a few sources relating these studies.

"

Americans are often surprised to learn that in the land of opportunity, your life outcomes are largely determined by your parents.

It’s striking just how closely related inequality and mobility are. And it’s political dynamite. Why? If income inequality in one generation can be linked to unequal opportunity in the next, then income inequality can’t just be dismissed as the politics of envy. My bet is that this chart that will launch a thousand papers, as economists try to sort out just what these linkages are. Whatever the answer, it will transform our thinking about inequality.

"  - Freakonomics » Is Higher Income Inequality Associated with Lower Intergenerational Mobility? (via teneasysteps)

"

But differences in financial status are not all that drives the maid trade. Bridget Anderson of Oxford University’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society has interviewed employers of domestic staff in a number of rich countries, and found that many prefer immigrants to locals because “it lets them talk about the wonderful things [the maid] is doing with her money back home”, thus portraying a dead-end job as a golden opportunity.

Inequality is part of what employers are buying. Simel Esim and Monica Smith of the International Labour Organisation studied domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates, and concluded that servants were there in part to raise their mistresses’ status by slotting into the household below them. Some Brazilians employ only black maids, says dark-skinned Alzira—“because that’s who is a maid, that’s why. Some women don’t want a maid they think could be as nice looking and well turned out as themselves, who could compete with them.”

"  - The Economist, “The Psychology of Service” (via crackedouttheories)