You might not think that a social media platform would be the place where women go to reclaim their bodies. But that’s just what the following women did.

Mashable recently published a great article detailing the stories of three women who harnessed the power of social media activism to claim their identity by discussing their bodies. Each woman’s story is incredibly moving but totally different:

Burlesque used to be illegal in Singapore. That fact just wasn’t acceptable to Sukki Singapora. Singapora started researching the art of strip tease and burlesque in 2011, before burlesque was legal in Singapore. She taught herself the art by researching other burlesque performers’ social media accounts, and garnered support by starting a private Facebook group. Through the years, she connected with other women who were interested in burlesque and began to teach burlesque classes. (At the time, she claimed the classes were for yoga to protect her and her students from the government.) After a lot of work and real life and social media activism, she (with the help of others) was able to persuade the country’s government to make burlesque legal. She performed her first legit show in January of this year.

Masih Alinejad also used social media to connect with women similar to her, reports Mashable:

“Upset by how her Facebook newsfeed was “full of news and pictures of suffering” in Iran, Alinejad uploaded a photo of herself — without a traditional headscarf, or hijab — dancing beneath blossoming trees in London. Appearing in public without a hijab in Iran is a punishable offense.”

She first received a ton of positive feedback from women who posted “wishful comments” saying that one day they hoped to be able to remove their scarves in public, too. As a response, she posted a second photo of herself without her hijab. Again, she received more positive comments. So, to create a space where women could share photos of going scarf-free, she created the Facebook page My Stealthy Freedom. The page “serves as a visual catalogue of women defying their country’s law and custom,” Mashable reports.

The third woman Mashable reported on was Sara Bartosiewicz-Hamilton. Years ago, she had a preventative double mastectomy to prevent cancer (she has the BRCA gene mutation, which can increase a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer). While she did get reconstructive surgery, she didn’t like the results. So, she decided to get her implants removed. After her surgery, she sought advice from women who had been through a similar experience — she wanted to know how to wear clothing without breasts. But that conversation was harder to have than she thought, as most conversations discussed reconstruction. So, she decided to start the conversation by beginning the private Facebook page Flat & Fabulous. The page’s goal is to spread the word that “beauty does not live and die by the breast,” Mashable reports.

All of the above stories are important and interesting. And I get it. Social media activism is real. Personal Internet accounts allow everyone a platform (for good or bad — we know it’s complicated) to connect with people who have similar mindsets. I know that I love Instagram and Twitter. Those accounts allow me to connect with people who adore feminism and horror films.

What do you think about the above women’s stories? Do you use social media to connect with like-minded women? Have you ever engaged in social media activism?

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Jezebel reports that Rick Brattin, Missouri state representative, recently “filed a bill proposing that a woman seeking an abortion be forced to get ‘written, notarized consent’ from the father. Except, he says, in the case of ‘legitimate rape.’”

I don’t know if I am going to cry, or puke. Probably both.

Mother Jones reports that the bill was first filed on December 3. Brattin – let’s call him “the Brat” from now on – explained his stance on “legitimate rape” to Molly Redden, Mother Jones reporter, by saying that a woman would have to prove she was raped in order to get an abortion sans consent. For example, the woman “couldn’t just go and say, ‘Oh yeah, I was raped,’ and get an abortion. It has to be a legitimate rape.”

Toooootally understandable, bro.

Luckily, as Jezebel points out, the Brat’s bill won’t ever see the light of day (praise be). In 1976, the case Planned Parenthood v. Danforth made it unconstitutional for a female to have to obtain spousal consent before being allowed to get an abortion.

While I know that the bill is going nowhere, I’m still pretty darn grossed out that it was even filed. First off, I live in Missouri and it’s quite difficult to wrap my head around just how many men in the Midwest want to control women’s bodies. It’s, like, geeze, boys – chill with your uterus envy already. Also it’s just plain gross that women’s bodies are still politicized and that more than a handful of people think these types of bills are acceptable. Abortion is a woman’s decision – case closed.

And can we also say that for the record there is no such thing as legitimate rape. There are legitimate idiots, though, and the Brat is totally proof of that fact.

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Image: Debra Sweet

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No War on Women? Here are 13 bills and laws that say otherwise, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

In 1912, women all over the United States marched for their right to vote. In 2012, we’re marching against state and federal laws that restrict our freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, make it easy for abusers to get away with physically assaulting us and fail to grant us the equal pay that we deserve.

Why are we still fighting this hard 100 years later? Because efforts to keep us “in our place” haven’t stopped. The official Republican party line on the War on Women is that it isn’t happening. It’s all in our heads. But there are bills popping up all over the nation like the heads of a hydra that prove otherwise. Sometimes, the bills don’t pass. But when they don’t, those same legislators – or successors with the same ideals – are ready to try to ram them through again… and again… and again. Here are 13 of the most egregious examples.

1. GOP Attempts to Redefine Rape for the Purposes of Abortion Law

Was it “rape rape” or just “kinda rape” because House Republicans draw a distinction, claiming that “real rape” involves the use of force. All those other kinds of rape – as in date rape, statutory rape, rapes of women with limited mental capacity or any sexual assault in which a woman is not fully conscious – don’t count as reasons to get an abortion using federal funds in the GOP’s “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” The House Republican Majority really, seriously tried to redefine rape to rule out federal assistance for abortions in many cases. Mother Jones provides an example of how this could play out: say a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old man. It wasn’t forcible, but at 13, she can’t legally consent to sex – it’s rape, plain and simple. She wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid to pay for an abortion. The bill would also forbid using tax benefits to pay for abortions, so that girl’s parents wouldn’t be able to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure, either.

The House GOP ultimately stripped this controversial language from the bill, but then used a committee report to claim that the bill would not allow funding for abortions in cases of statutory rape. The bill passed the House in May 2011, but is not expected to pass in the Senate, if it even comes up for a vote.

2. United States Violence Against Women Act Fails LGBT, Native Women

Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress have at least been able to agree that women should be protected from abuse. But which women? That’s the question that has held up the Violence Against Women Act for months. In April, the Senate passed the Democrat version of the bill, which extends protection to LGBT, Native American and illegal immigrant women, all of whose complaints about violence often get overlooked. But House Republicans stripped these protections from their own version of the bill, and now the two branches of government are at an impasse. Republicans are actually claiming that protecting all women from violence is an election year stunt, singling out specific groups for special treatment.

3. United States House of Representatives Votes to Let Women Die

They called it the Protect Life Act, but the bill that was passed in November 2011 bans the use of federal funds to cover the costs of any health plan that covers abortion – even in life-threatening situations. This simple fact led opponents of the bill to give it the far more appropriate nickname of the “Let Women Die” bill. The bilk obtains a provision that would allow hospitals receiving federal subsidies to refuse to treat women seeking abortions, no matter the circumstances. During the House of Representatives floor debate, Rep. Jackie Speier of California described in detail her own painful experience, demonstrating why abortions should be covered. “I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding… if I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today.”

What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act already keeps public federal funds separate from the private funds that cover abortion. What this bill is attempting to do is prevent women from buying private health insurance that includes abortion coverage through a state health care exchange. The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate however, and President Obama has said that he’ll veto it if it ever reaches his desk.

4. Arizona Outlaws Abortion After 20 Weeks

Well, if the United States Government doesn’t succeed in letting women die, then by golly, Arizona will do it for them, at least on a state-wide scale. Arizona’s federal court upheld the most extreme abortion ban in the country in July 2012, criminalizing virtually all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, forcing physicians to wait until women are actually dying before they can offer life-saving care. It even bans abortions in cases where the fetus will not survive after birth, prolonging agony by forcing parents to carry pregnancies to full term and then literally watch their babies die.

The law flouts a Supreme Court ruling that states can’t ban abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, which is about 24 weeks gestation. And another problem is the fact that many severe fetal abnormalities and risks to a woman’s life don’t occur until beyond that point. Judge James Teilborg gave in to the totally non-scientific assertion that 20-week fetuses can feel pain, ignoring the obvious fact that women can feel pain, and plenty of it.

And here’s the bitter icing on the cake: the bill considers the starting point of pregnancy to begin on the first day of the mother’s last menstrual period, before life is even scientifically possible. That means women hitting the 20-week mark are actually only 18 weeks pregnant.

5. GOP Cuts Crucial Services for Low-Income Women and Children

House Republicans voted for a new budget that would drastically cut food, shelter and health care services for millions of struggling families, singling out low-income women in particular. $3.3 million would be cut from low-income programs over 10 years, which would lead to states dumping an estimated 14 million to 28 million people from Medicaid rosters. The bill, which Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney called “a bold and exciting effort,” would also either disqualify 8 million of the 47 million people in the food stamp program or cut the benefits for all of them, leading to a loss of about $90 worth of food per month for a family of four. Small victory for common sense: the bill was rejected by the Senate in May.

6. Repeated Attempts to Ban Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood

Whew. That didn’t pass, so everything is okay, right? Of course not. Congress is still battling against a women’s right to make decisions about her own health – including use of contraception, something that should be a complete non-issue in 21st century America. Republicans in Congress repeatedly attempt to defund or eliminate Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide low-cost health care to millions of low-income women around the world. Paternalistic religious imperatives to restrict abortion and birth control are having a very direct, real-life effect: women are being deprived of cancer screenings, AIDS/HIV testing, family planning information and other education services that could reduce health care problems and prevent unplanned pregnancies from occurring in the first place. 76% of Planned Parenthood’s clients have incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. And when Congress doesn’t succeed, states are ready to take up the cause in their stead.

7. South Dakota Forces Doctors to Claim that Abortion Increases Suicide Rates

In July, an appeals court upheld a South Dakota law that requires doctors to recite anti-abortion propaganda to patients seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Doctors are forced to tell women that abortions are linked to higher suicide rates – information that’s not based on reliable research. A 2008 John Hopkins review of the studies that claim the link between abortion and suicide concluded that even the highest quality studies on the subject showed no discernible differences in the mental health of women who’d had abortions and those who had not.

Women who want an abortion in South Dakota also face the longest waiting period in the nation (3 days), and are forced to undergo counseling at pregnancy centers that discourage abortions. But wait – it gets worse. South Dakota nearly made it legal to kill abortion doctors. State legislators sought to modify a “justifiable homicide” law to include killings that aimed to prevent harm to an unborn child, a provision that would have basically enabled people to murder abortion providers and get away with it. That bill was, thankfully, struck down.

8. Colorado Permits Private Businesses to Withhold Contraception

In Colorado, a small manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment decided that providing its employees with health insurance plans that cover contraception – as required by the Obama administration’s new healthcare laws – violated its religious liberty. As in, its “right” to discriminate against women in the name of the owners’ religion. Sounds like an outrageous request that goes against the United States Constitution, does it not? But a federal court in Colorado disagrees. An exception was made for this business, Hercules Industries, that could pave the way for employers all over the country to impose their religious views on their employees.

Hercules Industries, owned by Catholics, was granted a three-month temporary injunction allowing for further legal review of the case. Two similar lawsuits have been filed in Michigan and Missouri. The companies all claim that the law forces the owners to go against their religious beliefs forbidding the use of contraceptives. But as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) points out, this could pave the way for employers making decisions about health procedures like vaccinations and blood transfusions based on their own personal religious beliefs.

Mitt Romney, by the way, cheered for this ruling as well, in typically chilling privileged-conservative-male fashion. “Today’s injunction preventing the federal government from forcing one family business from having to choose between keeping its doors open and violating its faith is a step in the right direction. But it is only a step, not the end of the struggle. We must ensure that the same freedom to live according to one’s faith is available to all Americans.”

9. Wisconsin Equal Pay Enforcement Act Repealed

Think women don’t deserve to be paid less than men simply by virtue of being born female? Oh, you silly little lady (or radically feminized man, i.e. traitor). How wrong you are – according to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who quietly repealed his state’s equal pay law in April 2012. The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act gave women more avenues through which to press charges against employers for gender-based pay discrimination. In Wisconsin, women earn 75 cents for every dollar that men make (compared to the national average of 77 cents, which obviously isn’t much better.) A bill to roll back the provision passed Republican-controlled chambers of the state government before Walker put his signature on it, without informing the public of his actions.

10. Senate Republicans Block Paycheck Fairness Act

On the federal level, an effort by Senate Democrats to strengthen the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act failed in June 2012. The Paycheck Fairness Act would have required employers to show that wage differences between the sexes are job-related, not gender-based. It would also protect women from retaliation from their employers when seeking equal pay. The bill was previously defeated in 2010 by solid Republican opposition.

11. Virginia Requires Invasive Vaginal Ultrasounds Before Abortion

So you want an abortion, citizen of Virginia? Well, we’re going to have to violate you with an unwanted, medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasound just to make sure. That’s the message that Virginia Republicans sent to women when they attempted to pass a law requiring transvaginal ultrasounds prior to obtaining an abortion, an amazing invasion of women’s bodies (literally) that aimed to shame them out of their decision. The state’s Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell, originally supported the measure, an ironic position given his squeamishness over TSA pat-downs in airports. Ultimately, he backed down – sort of. While women are still required to have an ultrasound procedure before an abortion, they can choose an abdominal ultrasound over the dildo-like transvaginal apparatus.

12. House GOP Tries to Block Abortions ‘Motivated by Racism or Sexism’

But wait, there’s more! Alabama and Pennsylvania are both considering similar ultrasound requirements, and the U.S. House GOP tried to pass a bill that would have allowed a woman’s spouse to obtain a court-ordered block against having an abortion by accusing her of wanting to end her pregnancy due to racism or sexism. Because all of those smug white guys in Congress are so concerned about sexism.

13. Alabama Personhood Bill Declares Fertilized Eggs to be People

So let’s get this straight: fertilized eggs, according to Alabama legislators, are people with rights. But women – over half the population of actual people in the world – are being stripped of their own rights in favor of bits of biological matter that are not, scientifically people. Alabama is actually just one of many states including Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Mississippi that have introduced bills attempting to define the start of human life. The Alabama bill defines life as beginning at the moment of conception, a concept that would not only make all abortion illegal even when the pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, but would also outlaw contraceptives like birth control pills and IUDs. This bill, along with another that would allow the state to opt out of providing health insurance for abortions under the new federal health care law, is currently stalled in committee. The personhood initiatives in most of the other states have failed, but classifying a fertilized egg as a person will be up for vote in Colorado in the November election.

Photo: ProgressOhio

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Curvy, voluminous structures of super-human dimensions.

Last week’s the Krulwich Wonders blog on NPR, titled Buildings That Wheeze, Squeeze and Dance, presented a compelling treatise on the fleshing up of architecture. While the ancient Greeks, no doubt, would have loved to have engaged in the Aphrodite-like curvatures of the buildings that follow, B.C.E. technology limited them to ionic contours. In a modern architectural context, that’s akin to an a-cup or b-cup, at best.

Note, an ionic shaft:

Tantalizingly phallic for its time, but PG-13 in comparison to the Marilyn Monroe of skyscrapers.

Robert Krulwich writes that the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada is a “she” building “whose sensuous curves remind me of a beautiful woman, the kind that strides off, unaware she’s being oggled.”

I beg to differ: she knows she’s a head-turner.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, meanwhile…

…reminds me of a ticking biological clock.

Krulwhich also includes the Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić collaboration Dancing House, also called the “Fred and Ginger” building after the dancing duo. He observes, “it looks like a guy giving his girlfriend a squeeze.”

And here’s that same guy, his head done in after a nasty breakup.

Le sigh, La Tete-au-Carre  by French artist and sculptor Sacha Sosno, which also serves as the Central Library in Nice, France.

The crux of Krulwich’s argument is that the line between architect and artist, sculptor and builder, static columns and fluid geometry is as straight and narrow as the ripply side of New York By Gehry, how most of us wished we looked in a Grecian dress.

Krulwich says:

Not too long ago, bodies were sculptors’ territory. The best way to capture those sly contours, the twists and turns of muscle or fabric, was to stay small, make a statue, a museum piece. Buildings were too big. They needed strength, height, the protection of solid geometry — rectangles, squares and triangles. But all that’s changed. With a new palette of supple building materials, builders have become sculptors.

And humanity, the muse.

Images: Choi + Shine Architects/The Land of Giants; jaremfan; NPR

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